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NEW HERE | Scaled my business and quit the 9-5

jbfuller

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Mar 23, 2023
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Hey Fastlaners,

I'm brand new to the forum and wanted to introduce myself. I'm Jordan and I own a digital marketing agency. About a year ago I was completely crippled by the 9-5 life; my marriage was garbage, I wasn't able to hang out with my kids, you know the drill. Throw in the fact that I worked as a creative pastor at a mega church and the stresses were just too much to handle. I was looking for a way out when I came across MJ's Millionaire Fastlane book. The principles and concepts were something I had known in the back of my mind but never put into action. That was about to change.

Fast-forward a year later and I have launched and scaled a digital marketing agency to over six-figures a year. I'm no millionaire yet, but well on my way to financial freedom. I've quit my 9-5 and fully self-sufficient on my own. I can't wait to connect with other like-minded individuals and/or offer to share any of my successes and failures with anyone looking to make that change!

Talk soon,
Jordan
 
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NielsA

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Feb 26, 2023
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Very Impressive! Congratz, do you have any tips for getting customers?
 

jbfuller

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Mar 23, 2023
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Very Impressive! Congratz, do you have any tips for getting customers?
I've been heavily focusing on brand awareness. First, I focused on having a strong online presence from my website, google my business listing, and social media accounts. I also produce weekly content including podcasts and instructional videos that position me as an expert in my field. Content and brand awareness has been key.
 

jbfuller

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Mar 23, 2023
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That’s amazing!

At what point in building your agency did you leave your pastor role?
I had read awhile back the the best way to exit your 9-5 is when you've scaled your salary to a point that you can comfortably exit. MY route to doing that was through retainer models, so I set out to do just that.

After I replaced my monthly salary with retainer clients (it doesn't take that many), I stepped out on my own, reclaimed 40 hours a week that I was giving to my employer, and used that time to find more clients. I've now doubled my old salary. Any additional clients, I intend on using that money to contract out my workload and work less. We'll see how that goes!
 

NielsA

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Feb 26, 2023
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I've been heavily focusing on brand awareness. First, I focused on having a strong online presence from my website, google my business listing, and social media accounts. I also produce weekly content including podcasts and instructional videos that position me as an expert in my field. Content and brand awareness has been key.
Thank you so much! Can you provide me yourYoutube channel or the platform where you provide content on? I started my own business a few months ago and I am having a hard time finding clients
 

jbfuller

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Mar 23, 2023
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Thank you so much! Can you provide me yourYoutube channel or the platform where you provide content on? I started my own business a few months ago and I am having a hard time finding clients
Absolutely! My website is keoweecreative.co - I've recently reorganized my content strategy, so I've removed old content and am scheduling out new content weekly.
 
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cornishpasty

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Mar 14, 2023
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Congrats on the success! Out of curiosity, what steps did you take and what experience did you have prior to the business that meant you could position yourself as an expert?
 

jbfuller

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Mar 23, 2023
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Congrats on the success! Out of curiosity, what steps did you take and what experience did you have prior to the business that meant you could position yourself as an expert?
I had spent my 'corporate' career in digital marketing, so it was an easy move stepping out on my own. Positioning yourself as an expert isn't that hard if you can get over your own self doubt and insecurity. There's a book titled "Influence, The Psychology of Persuasion" and it speaks to the fact that people default to trusting someone in authority. In fact, in most situations, they look for the authority in the group.

Act as if you're the authority and people will follow. I'm not saying to pretend to have the knowledge (as that can get you in trouble), though speak with authority and boldness.
 

KiwiEC

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Hey Jordan, thank you for sharing your story that's inspiring!

Do not hesitate to make another thread about your process and the different steps and difficulties you went through.

May I ask you which tools you use for your services?

In terms of webdesign for example, do you code from scratch or do you use a website builder for WordPress?
Are you a fan of social media management & analytics tools like Buffer for example?
For your graphic productions, do you keep it simple with Canva or do your use something else?

I'm struggling with the time needed to produce your first portfolio elements. I see this kind of small tools as a way to automatize or simplify the process.

Contrats again, being able to charge 1500$/month is incredible.
 
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jbfuller

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Mar 23, 2023
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Congrats buddy ! I built my first agency to mid/high 6 figures, 18 people in total, was a very nice ride in my early 20s. Now I’m building a much higher margin, less people involved agency — helping other agencies build a consistent pipeline of new business through LinkedIn.

Your post will certainly upset @Kak and @Antifragile — they must think you’re a bad example for their kids. Much better if you went to work as a project manager for some real estate company, to get your education right first :rofl:
Feel free to share any advice or wisdom you have from your journey! I'm an open book.
 

jbfuller

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Mar 23, 2023
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Hey Jordan, thank you for sharing your story that's inspiring!

Do not hesitate to make another thread about your process and the different steps and difficulties you went through.

May I ask you which tools you use for your services?

In terms of webdesign for example, do you code from scratch or do you use a website builder for WordPress?
Are you a fan of social media management & analytics tools like Buffer for example?
For your graphic productions, do you keep it simple with Canva or do your use something else?

I'm struggling with the time needed to produce your first portfolio elements. I see this kind of small tools as a way to automatize or simplify the process.

Contrats again, being able to charge 1500$/month is incredible.
I'll make another post detailing this!
 
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jbfuller

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Mar 23, 2023
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Well, what do you most need help on atm?
I have built a solid base of clients and recurring yearly revenue of 150-200k a year. A lot of those are clients paying 20-30k a year. I have one large client that pays 80k, a year. I just happened to get this account through a personal connection. I'm looking at moving away from the 20-30k a year clients to more of the larger budgeted clients. I'm just trying to figure out how to land them, as the other was again just a personal connection.
 

Black_Dragon43

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I have built a solid base of clients and recurring yearly revenue of 150-200k a year. A lot of those are clients paying 20-30k a year. I have one large client that pays 80k, a year. I just happened to get this account through a personal connection. I'm looking at moving away from the 20-30k a year clients to more of the larger budgeted clients. I'm just trying to figure out how to land them, as the other was again just a personal connection.
1) Define the characteristics of this ideal client who spends $7K+/mo with you:

-- Industry
-- Revenue range
-- Type (ie corporate, family biz, etc.)

2) What characteristic problems do they have?

Each industry, and each different revenue range has its own specific problems. For example:

Struggling new entrepreneurs may be wondering how to put alt tags on their website photos to increase SEO. Experience, successful entrepreneurs can care less.

Porsche is looking to expand its marketshare for electric vehicles. Your small carmaker may just be trying to maximise revenue.

It's very important that you identify this as clearly as you can.

3) Where can you find them?

I'm an expert at using LinkedIn & cold email to connect with clients. If those channels are of interest, check my website in the link below in my signature.

But the idea is you want to identify where you can connect with them. Maybe it's a FB group. Maybe it's a specific forum. You know this best.

4) Go there & chat + post relevant content

You should be focused on creating content & chatting with them about the PROBLEMS you identified in (2). The problems that are relevant to their industry and revenue range. Don't create meaningless content about what the brokies who can't afford to pay $7K+/mo care about because it would be useless.

And don't create content about your services or promises. Nobody cares. You need to become an expert they trust first in their eyes, and the way you do that is by showing them that you understand their industry, their problems, and how to sidestep them.

5) Offer them a 15-min session to solve a specific problem

For example, gain clarity about how to expand their market share if that's the relevant problem they care about. Call it 15-min Marketshare Expansion Audit. Don't sell them anything, simply qualify them -- do they have the WANT, NEED and MONEY for what you solve?

This way it's much easier to get a meeting, when they KNOW you're not going to sell them. Respect the time during the meeting, and deliver the result: clarity and maybe a 3-step action plan to help them achieve the result + invite them, at the end of that call, to come on the next stage, the strategy session with you if they're qualified. Now, you want to book them right then and there yourself. Just open up your calendar, and do it.

And ideally over time you should create a full funnel, farmer style that brings you these type of customers on autopilot. I have a 20min video about it, this is how I acquired 17 new clients in March basically, around $13K/mo added in MRR. I'd post about this here, but it's a link and you need to sign up to my email list to get it, so I can't advertise it. If you care enough about it, send me a DM, and I'll shoot you the link.

Because so much of my content goes to my email list, I have to repeat myself a thousand times LOL!
 
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