It was unexpected, but we just closed a week ago.

I won’t share sales figures out of respect for the buyer.

I’m not retiring forever, but I’m definitely happy with the outcome and will be choosy about my next projects.

I’ll share my takeaways and what I learned in this post.

First, our brand was more than just an email newsletter.

It was a full-on media brand, and if you plan to sell your brand in the future, I’d push you to think in terms of being a media brand as well.

We made 80,000 touches per week across our website, newsletter, and social channels.

Over the last few years, I had adjusted my brand into being fully digital.

While we sold ads to incoming inquiries, we weren’t doing local networking and selling.[which is the #1 revenue source if you’re willing to go this route].

But I was full on digital mode.

I had Mediavine ads, Facebook monetization, periodic Beehiiv ads, sponsorship, and ads from incoming requests.

My theory was that if I wanted to sell one day, it would be more marketable.

I’d be able to sell it via any online marketplace to any buyer around the world, rather than just a local.

But then…

I got a random email from another media brand owner in my state who asked if I’d be open to selling.

I told them I was always up for a conversation.

I made an asset list and gave them a price range.

It was higher than they expected.

They came to me with an offer, and I politely declined.

But we kept the conversation going over the next weeks and months.

I explained how the brand was valuable for me in addition to the ad revenue generated.

I was also able to advertise any local business that I was a part of — real estate, silent discos, my son’s pressure washing business, and any future endeavors.

Having a local platform you own to put out messaging is extremely valuable.

They came back with a creative offer of a cash payment plus future advertising.

I agreed to it [I love creative financing!]

Then the hard work began.  

I was comfortable enough not to use an attorney since we were going to meet in person to transfer payment and assets.

Fun Fact: I used Claude to help me draft the entire agreement that we used and signed.  

We also felt comfortable enough not to need an Escrow service (although I would have been fine for us to use one and split the costs).

From my real estate experience and seeing plenty of deals fall apart, I never get excited about a deal.

I just try not to get too emotional, because a deal isn’t closed until it’s closed.

In fact, one of their concerns was that I continue to operate the brand as normal.

In response, I tracked growth and politely let them know that I assumed the deal was NOT happening until it DID happen — I think that made them comfortable.

I also made a list over weeks of all the assets and transfer notes (think hosting, domains, social channels, etc. — each have their own steps on how we wanted to do them).

Then, they showed up to close!

We signed an agreement, they brought a check, and we sat for 3.5 hours and worked through transferring everything over.

I instantly lost access to the assets.

Feel free to ask me anything, in the event you ever have an interest in selling your brand.

By the way, I’m staying in the game and am in the process of growing a new brand covering our Gulf Coast Beaches — https://www.gulfcoastbeachvibes.com/

I’m putting out a new playlist in a different style of video than I normally do.

Just sharing my views on what’s happening in AI in a relaxed manner.

Check it out here (or the first vid in the series is below).

The program I’m helping build for our state is going really well.

We’ve got 100+ builders signed up, and we launch in a few weeks.

We’re using AI all over the place.

Our entire sponsorship package was created using AI.

We’re using AimFox to help us automate LinkedIn connections.

I used Manus [here are some free credits if you want to test] as a personal assistant to help me research strategic lists for us to outreach to, make some of our media, etc.

My worklife is augmented and is a solid mix of AI and analog actions.

I sold 2 domain names in early 2026.

Because of that, I’ve got multiple tools in the works.

One is an outreach assistant to help me with outbound and sell some of my real estate names.

Another tool is to help me organize my entire portfolio and track the overall ROI on the domains (hard to do without a system!)

I also just bought 100 more domain names, bringing my portfolio to about 250!

This will be my final update to these figures.

I stopped making videos a long time ago.

I made more than $3,000 in 2025.

I haven’t thought about it in 2026, but have made about $500.

It’s truly passive at this time and I’ll just let it roll.

My time is more valuable building online tools with AI.

I have 141 147 videos.

(plus 90 videos from other creators..)

My total earnings equal $5,341.35 $7,188.00

After expenses, I’m making $107.51 $141.98 per hour.

It’s pretty dang cool to think that the original work put in now pays me at a rate of a $250k per year job.

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If you want to learn more about Amazon Influencer, an overview of the program is here, and my first update is here.

(If you want, you can check each weekly update. I’ve come a long way from $2.81 per hour!)

Other projects I’ll update over time (or provide future updates) include…

Until next time!

Don’t just think outside the box — keep destroying that box 😉