I, just an average guy named Scott, am an entrepreneur at heart who started blogging in 2012. I finally broke myself from the shackles of my 9 to 5 corporate job in May of 2018.

Never mind the fact that I made low six figures at my corporate job and that my websites weren’t earning enough to pay the bills yet. The problem was that it was crushing my soul and I felt like I HAD to get out. It was one hell of a big (and scary) leap of faith.

Now that I’ve been out of it for so long (without ending up dead in a ditch somewhere), there is no amount of money could ever make me want to go back.

So what’s this all about?

TraderScooter.com is my personal journal to document the progress (and mistakes) I make with my online businesses.

And if it wasn’t obvious by now, the “TraderScooter” name came from the fact that I (Scott / nickname: “Scooter”) traded a cushy corporate job for unpredictable self-employment. Clever, eh?

My situation

I own a portfolio of websites and YouTube channels. Most of them earn money. Some do not.

I became financially independent in 2019 (meaning that I earn enough on my own to pay my bills without being employed by anyone else). I’m currently earning income in three ways:

All three of these adhere to my personal entrepreneurial philosophy:

Any project or business that I build must be able to run independently of my input once I complete the work of setting it up. In other words, my goal is to work smarter – not harder.

I have no desire to become obscenely wealthy. Hardly. My goal is freedom. Freedom from being told what to do, where to go, and how to do things. Freedom from stress.

As long as I can make enough monthly income to achieve this freedom while providing a good life for myself, I’m happy. I don’t need a lot of money to do this.

My problem

Basically, I have a really short attention span. I’m not the kind of person who can work on one website (or YouTube channel, or whatever) for all eternity and feel completely satisfied.

I’ve got a lot of interests, and I won’t be happy unless I’m giving all of them some attention. I’ve struggled with this for years, and my creative process goes a little something like this (click on the image to see a larger version):

cyclical 6-step creative proces

Not being able to focus on one thing was a problem in the beginning. However, being persistent has paid off. I’ve slowly been creating content for all my brands since 2012, and I now have a healthy portfolio of online properties that generates a full time income.

I’m not rich. I’m not the most popular person on social media / YouTube. But at least I don’t have a boss. Freakin’ hell yeah.