I’ve started over a dozen online businesses since 2009 and 100% of them have failed for one excuse or another, but the real reason is this:

I gave up on them.

However, all of them have been wildly valuable experiences from getting ad revenue to selling info products, to physical products, to services that I can take with me moving forward.

There is one big reason that prompted me to stop them all (except one), which I refuse to do moving forward…

The Underlying Reason I Kept Shutting Down Online Businesses

I’ve always had a difficult time staying in a box, so to speak, and if I don’t like the box I’ll leave.

This has been an issue with the many jobs I’ve had over the last 17 years, which is how I wound up 36 years old still wondering exactly what to do for a career…

But it’s also affected my online businesses, even the ones that had a bit of momentum and big potential.

For example, I had an online business teaching people and businesses how to do email marketing in a non-boring way, sold over 113 ebooks, a couple dozen courses, memberships, and even got clients from it…

Then seemingly out of nowhere, I didn’t want to be the “email marketing guy” anymore.

And after being a fitness coach, a blogging mentor, a tech reviewer, a freelance writer, a “team building affiliate marketer” and a few other things…

I started to think I would never figure out my thing…

But recently I remembered something I learned back in 2015…

The Solution To My Niche Problem

There was a book I read in 2015 which was essentially a self-help book, which definitely helped me in multiple aspects of life.

But there was one chapter in particular that came to the forefront of my mind within the last week or so, which was all about building the business of you.

That book is Gorilla Mindset by Mike Cernovich, and he essentially talks about how people are dynamic creatures and you can build a business around more than just one thing.

This was contradictory to everything I learned about online business from verified millionaires who are still in business today 10 years later, so I pretty much immediately dismissed it.

Looking back with my current perspective…

The book was a case study of itself, because it covered various, seemingly unrelated topics yet sold over 100k copies.

And the audience he built to sell that many copies?

It was mostly grown from a blog and social media covering the same variety of topics and more.

To further prove this point to myself, there’s a man by the name of Colin Yurcisin who has built multiple 7 figure businesses in multiple niches from the same Instagram account talking about various topics as well.

My New Content Business Plan Revealed

Instead of being a “fitness content creator” or “business content creator” or any kind of niche creator…

I’m just going to be the niche myself.

Yes, fitness is a part of my life and I have proven systems I’ve helped people with so I can share stuff about that.

Yes, I’ve sold hundreds of products online and earned thousands of dollars online so I can share stuff about that.

The thing is I also have other interests I want to talk about like being a husband and father, credit, chess, dog training, guitar, and so much more.

And probably the biggest thing of all is I want to document my progress through life, which I will do through 2 main platforms:

1. My blog since I truly enjoy writing
2. My YouTube channel

Everything else will stem from those two, meaning if I feel like sharing a short text post on X or Threads, I will.

Or if I feel like sharing a short video on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, I will.

I’ll probably share a fair bit on Instagram Stories too, but I’m still figuring that part out.

My content goals are to:

• Write and publish daily if possible, and…
• Post at least 1 YouTube video per week

In an ideal world, every blog post would have an accompanying video, but that may have to wait.

How Will This Business Make Money?

As it stands right now, I have a handful of products for sale:

1. My content monetization guide
2. My content monetization coaching (offered to guide customers only)
3. My fitness guide for busy dads
4. My fitness coaching for busy dads (offered to guide customers only)

I also get paid ad revenue from YouTube videos and partner program revenue from Medium articles, which those two alone put over $1,500 in my pocket as of today.

Nothing crazy, but not nothing either.

The Future Of My Content Business

I have no idea how this will turn out, but that’s the fun of it.

The main focus for me now is finding my career, and I’m going to build this thing on the side until it can become my career.

I’ll probably create a newsletter eventually and more digital products, but only if they’re truly helpful like the ones I already have available.

There’s no stress here either.

Even though I would love to write and post videos for a living, I’m in no rush to make it happen which is quite freeing.

In any case, it’s time to get everything in alignment on the right track to a better future and my content will be a big part of that along the way and especially down the road.

Let’s run this thing for the next couple years.

Talk soon,
-Gabe

There was a point in my life back in 2012-2017 where fitness was my life.

I worked at a gym.

I worked out at that same gym.

I trained people at that gym.

I created fitness content.

I sold custom programs and coaching online.

I had no other responsibilities living at home with no car since I lived so close.

And so I would be in that gym 6-7 days per week and hitting the weights at least 4 of them.

Combined with eating a ton of food, I got myself up to a solid 200lbs while retaining the faintest hint of abs which was pretty cool.

It made sense though, because that’s pretty much all I did.

Hyper Speed Fast Forward To Today…

In 2019, I met my wife, moved out of my home state, had kids, moved to the midwest, and now here we are in 2025.

From 2019 to today, my priorities have definitely shifted towards family and finding my career (more on that another time), but fitness is still a consistent part of my life.

Admittedly, I don’t track my calories as rigidly as I used to.

But I also have zero issues with weight management having followed my own fitness system for coming up on 13 years now.

Here’s My Updated ‘Low-Effort’ Fitness Plan

All I’m going to do are 3 simple things:

1. Eat around 2,400 calories, at least 120g protein, at least 40g fat, and whatever remaining calories are carbs
2. Lift weights 4 times per week: Upper Body, Lower Body, Upper Body, Arms
3. Walk an average of 5,000 steps per day

I was shooting for 2,100 calories per day to get a fair bit leaner for summer, but I realized it’s not a good time for that right now.

The reason will remain undisclosed for the time being…

As for lifting, I’ve historically trained 3 days per week for years because I don’t recover super well from workouts.

The reason I’m switching to 4 days almost doesn’t make sense, but it’s for that same reason because I haven’t had the energy to hit my arm exercises at the end of my upper body sessions, so I’m giving them their own day.

I am getting stronger bit by bit despite my lower energy lately, so that’s good at least.

Finally, the steps are just a reasonable number to hit with my desk job lifestyle, although I do have to… step it up (ha, get it?) because my 2025 average so far is 4,768 per day.

And that’s really it.

What’s Your Fitness Plan?

Mine is relatively simple, and of course there are more fine details like what I typically eat, the exact exercises and all that…

But those are always subject to change.

What won’t change is the fundamental principles I follow of calorie control and progressive overload which have worked regardless of what diet or program I follow.

That said, what is your plan?

Let me know.

Talk soon,
-Gabe