My Actual Step-by-Step Plan If I Had To Start Over Tomorrow
Part 2 of What I Would Do If I Had to Rebuild My Income from Scratch
In the last article, I talked about what I wouldn’t do if I had to start over. The distractions and time wasters, the things that feel productive but don’t actually move you forward. If you haven’t read that one yet, start there.
Now I want to walk through what I actually WOULD do. Step by step, in order, with the reasoning behind each decision.
What Skills and Life Realities Am I Working With?
Before I picked an income path or created a single piece of content, I’d sit down and get brutally honest about my life.
How many hours a week can I realistically dedicate to this? Not in a perfect world where nothing goes wrong and I’m motivated every day. In my actual life, with all my real responsibilities. For me right now, that’s probably 10-15 hours a week of focused work. Maybe 20 if I’m pushing it. If you’re working a full-time job and have a family, you might only have 5-7 hours. That’s fine, but you need to know the number.
What skills do I already have that people would pay for? I’d make a list. Writing, teaching, research, systems building, marketing strategy, and understanding AI tools. Your list will be different, but everyone has something.
What am I willing to do for at least 90 days even if I don’t see results right away? This is actually the most important question. We live in a world of instant gratification, but building business the right way is not that. It takes time, discipline, dedication, consistency, and a willingness to play the long game. Success doesn’t happen overnight, regardless of what your favorite TikTok influencer might tell you.
Picking One Income Path
Based on my actual life realities and skills, I’d choose one path and commit to it. For me, if I were starting completely from scratch with no audience, I’d start with affiliate marketing.
With affiliate marketing, you’re leveraging other people’s products while you build your own audience. You can create content around products you actually use, build trust with your audience, and earn while you’re still figuring out what your own offer will eventually be. You don’t need thousands of followers to start generating income, and you’re not trading hours for dollars the way you would with services.
I wouldn’t start with a course or a membership. Those require an audience that already trusts you. Building the audience comes first.
A note on building an audience from scratch. I’m doing this again right now with this blog and my AI with Leah ecosystem. Anyone can do this. It doesn’t matter if you have built businesses before or not. If you show up, post consistently, engage with people when they engage with you, and don’t quit... you WILL be successful. It’s not a matter of IF, it’s a matter of WHEN.
Building A Content System
Content is how people find you. If you’re not publishing, you don’t exist online. But content without a system leads to burnout within weeks.
This is what my simple system would look like:
I’d start with one platform. For affiliate marketing, that would be Instagram for me because it’s the platform I’m most comfortable on and the algorithm actually helps you build followers when you’re consistent. That matters when you’re starting from zero.
Then I’d figure out a content rhythm I can sustain. Maybe that’s one reel and two carousel posts a week, or a daily story plus three feed posts. The specific number matters less than whether I can actually maintain it for months without burning out. I’d rather post consistently three times a week for six months than post daily for three weeks and then disappear.
I’d also pick one day for batching, where I create multiple pieces of content at once instead of trying to create something new every single day. Batching saves mental energy and keeps the quality higher.
AI would help me with captions, content ideas, and repurposing longer content into shorter posts. But I’d review everything and make sure it sounds like me before it goes out. The system saves time without replacing my voice.
One Offer, Even If It’s Imperfect
Within the first two weeks, I’d have something people can sign up for. Not a perfect sales page or a complicated funnel. Just something.
For affiliate marketing, this would be a clear recommendation page or resource list with my affiliate links, plus a freebie that gets people on my email list so I can continue the conversation.
The offer doesn’t have to be perfect, it just has to exist. You can refine it after you’ve talked to actual people and learned what they actually want.
One Metric for 90 Days
In the first 90 days, I wouldn’t try to track everything. I’d pick one number that tells me whether I’m moving forward and focus on that.
For affiliate marketing, that metric would be email subscribers. Email is where the relationship deepens and where most affiliate income actually comes from. Not followers or likes. Email subscribers.
Everything else is noise in the beginning. Follower counts feel good but don’t pay bills. I’d stay focused on the one metric that actually matters for the path I chose.
What This Looks Like Week by Week
Week 1: Get clear on constraints, pick one income path, and decide on one platform for content.
Week 2: Set up the basic infrastructure. Profile, content system, and simple offer. Nothing fancy, just functional.
Weeks 3-4: Start publishing content, talking to people, and putting the offer out there to see what happens.
Weeks 5-12: Keep publishing and refining based on feedback. Track your one metric, adjust what isn’t working, and double down on what is.
That’s my step-by-step plan. Pick one path, show up on one platform, put out one offer, and track one metric for 90 days.
In the next article, I’ll break down the decisions that actually matter in this process versus the ones that feel important but really don’t.
This is Part 2 of the “What I Would Do If I Had to Rebuild My Income from Scratch” series. Subscribe to get the next article when it drops.
Not sure which income path is right for you? The hardest part of this whole process is picking the right path for YOUR life. Not someone else’s life. Yours. The AI Monetization Map walks you through a 10-minute decision matrix that helps you figure out which of the seven income paths actually fits your skills, your schedule, and your constraints. It also includes a 30-day action plan so you’re not just staring at a list of options wondering what to do next. Download it and get clear on your path before you start building.