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Did It: Zero to $12k a Month While Traveling the World

GoodluckChuck

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The most inspirational thing I read in 2019 so far. Thank you for sharing this epic story.

Your mindset is very similar to me, and I am also o huge fan of Tony Robbins. Awaken the giant within is the first self-help book I read and it literally has blown my mind.

I had a question about sales. How do you know if you actually can't help a client or you think in that way because you are afraid of something or avoiding pushing your comfort zone?

How you can be sure you will get real results to your client, and you are a great fit for the job?

I base decisions off too main things.

1. Past results

Have I done this before? Based on past results can I expect to get the desired results?

A lot of marketing and sales is numbers and probabilities. With a big enough pool of prospective customers I can be reasonably certain to make some sales.

2. My time constraints.

Like it or not, time is always a factor in this type of service, whether it's mine or someone else's that I'm paying for.

When I sell a project the main thing I'm selling is my commitment to produce the results. This is where the confidence comes from. I am certain that I can do it, it's just a matter of how long it will take.

I weigh time with other more subjective factors like:

Do I like this client?
Do I like this project?
Do I like this market?
Is this a bite I can chew?

In the beginning I asked questions just like this. "How do you know if you can get results?"

You can know with your conscious brain by learning how others do it.

You can learn with your sub conscious brain and nervous system by doing it.

In the end, you never know for sure. You just get more confident in your ability.

If you can manage to commit 100% to it, then you know you'll either make it happen or die. Of you die, then who cares? :)
 
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GoodluckChuck

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As a newbie getting started/ getting used to how this forums interface/search works. Thank you for doing the legwork!

These are great resources...

My suggestion is to split your time in half between doing and studying.

My approach to trying new things had changed a lot.

I start by writing down what I know now. I make a list of questions as thorough as I can and I answer them with my present knowledge.

Let's use surfing as an example since I'll be trying that soon.

I have never surfed or taken a lesson. I've spent a lot of time thinking about it though and applying my knowledge of snowboarding to what I expect surfing to be like.

Next, I'll rent a board and go give it a try. I'll probably struggle at some parts and be pretty good at others.

Then I'll go get a lesson. By this time I'll already have some working knowledge and experience to use as a foundation for learning the details. I'll likely have some questions and be able to get more out of the lesson than I would have with zero foundation.

This is what I recommend for people starting something like web design.

First, write down the steps you'll take the best you can with your current knowledge. Then, go find a YouTube video and follow along in buying a domain, setting up hosting, and start in on building the site.

See how far you can get. It will be a struggle and that's GOOD.

If you reach points you can't progress past, use Google to help. You can literally Google your way to building anything online...

Once you have a website live and you have produced something, then go find a course.

You will have a solid foundation of experience to build your knowledge on.

Without the foundation the knowledge will have no leg to stand on.

Ive learned to use courses as a boost rather than a foundation.

I'm sure will disagree, but one thing we can all agree on is that it's really easy to get into the trap of taking tons of course and feeling like you're taking action even though you aren't actually producing anything.

Producing vs Consuming 101.
 

JohnD Realestate

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While I build websites for clients I also build them for myself. Most of them are simply a hand full of articles about a certain topic that I have expertise in.

I use a tool called Ahrefs to research what websites are out there, what keywords they rank for, and roughly how much traffic those keywords generate. This way, if there's a topic I want to write about, I can do research and know how to make my content get found by more people.

The techniques I use branch into many different disciplines such as SEO, content marketing, email marketing, as well as web design.

Once the content is written, I promote it through various channels like Facebook, Medium, etc.


A good way to start is to write things about your local area. Local topics are typically easier to rank for because they are more niched.


I understand where you are coming from when you say "but I don't want it to get lost" but you have to get rid of that mindset. This tiny sentence turned an actionable idea into a non-actionable idea.

If you want to start making content, do it. Focus on helping people and you seriously can't go wrong. Once you have 20 pieces of valuable content I can almost guarantee it will be found by someone. Even if it doesn't, you've already taken care of the hard part. Attracting eyeballs is easy when you have something of value.



Wowza. That’s good stuff. Thanks for dropping this valuable info.
 

GoodluckChuck

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Since I started this thread I've been trying to think of more valuable experiences I could share that would be helpful to you guys and gals.

One thing I think we all struggle with, especially in the beginning is getting overwhelmed.

In the beginning of 2018 I was constantly feeling like I was barely keeping my head above water. My mind was plagued with doubts of whether or not I was making the progress I desired.

The solution I found helped a lot. It's possible that the method I'm about to share is one of the main reasons I've had the success I've had.

It's called the Power List method. The power list is a concept made popular by a man named Andy Frisella. Hid podcast The MFCEO Podcast was a great source of inspiration and motivation for me during this time.

The power list concept is simple. You start every day by writing down the 5 more important things you have to do that day. No matter what happens, you make sure those 5 things get done. Even if you don't do everything on your agenda, if you do this 5 things, you win the day.

What isn't immediately apparrent about this productivity method is how effective it is at negating feelings of being overwhelmed.

The way I see it, even if I can't get to everything I want to do, or even remember everything, as long as I do those 5 things every day, I am headed in the right direction.

Frisella did a podcast about this. I think it was called "trust your instruments."

He likened being an entrepreneur to being an airplane pilot flying through fog. You can't see where you're going, but you have instruments that guide you one mile at a time and you have to trust they will take you in the right direction.

The power list is my instrument and I know that as long as I keep doing those 5 things each day, I will get to where I want to go. It's inevitable.

This takes a lot of the pressure off and let's me relax and enjoy the process.

A tool I use for my power list is called Trello. I create a card for each day and have 30+ days of cards made ahead of time.

I use these cards as my schedule. If I have an appointment or a sales call coming up, it goes on my power list.

If I'm working on a project, I break it into pieces and put those pieces on various power lists.

I start each day by opening up Trello and looking to see what I have on the list. I complete everything on there and I move the card to the 2019 folder.

I don't worry about what's on the list tomorrow or next week. I don't dwell on the mountain ahead of me. I just focus on what is on my plate today.

This breaks the gigantic process of building a multi-million dollar lifestyle into tiny bite sized chunks that are easy to swallow.

This keeps me from getting overwhelmed and even allows me to enjoy the process.

I can look in the 2018 Trello board and see 365 cards with completed power lists. The life I'm enjoying today is a result of the work that is displayed on those cards.

With this method literally anyone can do anything one power list at a time.

Thank you Andy Frisella for this awesome podcast. If you want to learn more about this concept you can listen to the episode here: Trust Your Instruments, with Andy Frisella - MFCEO183A

If you are feeling overwhelmed about the mountain of work you see in front of you, try the power list method. I promise it will change your life.
 

ChristopherK

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Since I started this thread I've been trying to think of more valuable experiences I could share that would be helpful to you guys and gals.

One thing I think we all struggle with, especially in the beginning is getting overwhelmed.

In the beginning of 2018 I was constantly feeling like I was barely keeping my head above water. My mind was plagued with doubts of whether or not I was making the progress I desired.

The solution I found helped a lot. It's possible that the method I'm about to share is one of the main reasons I've had the success I've had.

It's called the Power List method. The power list is a concept made popular by a man named Andy Frisella. Hid podcast The MFCEO Podcast was a great source of inspiration and motivation for me during this time.

The power list concept is simple. You start every day by writing down the 5 more important things you have to do that day. No matter what happens, you make sure those 5 things get done. Even if you don't do everything on your agenda, if you do this 5 things, you win the day.

What isn't immediately apparrent about this productivity method is how effective it is at negating feelings of being overwhelmed.

The way I see it, even if I can't get to everything I want to do, or even remember everything, as long as I do those 5 things every day, I am headed in the right direction.

Frisella did a podcast about this. I think it was called "trust your instruments."

He likened being an entrepreneur to being an airplane pilot flying through fog. You can't see where you're going, but you have instruments that guide you one mile at a time and you have to trust they will take you in the right direction.

The power list is my instrument and I know that as long as I keep doing those 5 things each day, I will get to where I want to go. It's inevitable.

This takes a lot of the pressure off and let's me relax and enjoy the process.

A tool I use for my power list is called Trello. I create a card for each day and have 30+ days of cards made ahead of time.

I use these cards as my schedule. If I have an appointment or a sales call coming up, it goes on my power list.

If I'm working on a project, I break it into pieces and put those pieces on various power lists.

I start each day by opening up Trello and looking to see what I have on the list. I complete everything on there and I move the card to the 2019 folder.

I don't worry about what's on the list tomorrow or next week. I don't dwell on the mountain ahead of me. I just focus on what is on my plate today.

This breaks the gigantic process of building a multi-million dollar lifestyle into tiny bite sized chunks that are easy to swallow.

This keeps me from getting overwhelmed and even allows me to enjoy the process.

I can look in the 2018 Trello board and see 365 cards with completed power lists. The life I'm enjoying today is a result of the work that is displayed on those cards.

With this method literally anyone can do anything one power list at a time.

Thank you Andy Frisella for this awesome podcast. If you want to learn more about this concept you can listen to the episode here: Trust Your Instruments, with Andy Frisella - MFCEO183A

If you are feeling overwhelmed about the mountain of work you see in front of you, try the power list method. I promise it will change your life.

This year after every quarter i take a few days off and review what has happened so far. I set new goals, plan the next 3 months and ask myself what can i optimize about my business. I see it like a software version, so after this quarter, my business is V1.1

Today was the day where i tried to find a way to keep track of the most important stuff that needs to get done every day. Just now, i see this wonderful post from you with this neat technique.

I'm by no means a religious person, but i think that at some point, the universe is trying to tell you something... :D

Nice post Chuck, please please please share more of those valueable experiences you had so far in your journey!
 
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What is your sales process and sales turn around look like? Do you do the majority of your sales accessing your network or is it cold email/phone call? What is your success rate if you were to approach 100 businesses? I find most people that get into digital marketing are very secretive (no idea why) about their success or failures.
 

GoodluckChuck

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What is your sales process and sales turn around look like? Do you do the majority of your sales accessing your network or is it cold email/phone call? What is your success rate if you were to approach 100 businesses? I find most people that get into digital marketing are very secretive (no idea why) about their success or failures.

Sales is a numbers game.

In the beginning I did a bit of networking. Networking events were not very lucrative as they were mostly made up of insurance salesmen and mortgage brokers.

The kind of networking that worked for me was reaching out to other web designers and marketers. The fact is people don't have a ton of friends so if you call them up and offer to buy them lunch, they usually say yes.

With a hand full of people referring me work about 50% of new projects come from this channel.

The other 50% comes through my website.

I don't do any cold outbound but I would if I had no clients.

Sales process is simple.

1. First touch to schedule a longer call.
2. Second touch I'll try and get as many details as I can about their challenges and goals.
3. Third touch is about reviewing their pain points and presenting a solution to their problems while informing them about what I discovered while researching their business/market. I always try and close them on the phone at this point before I send any kind of proposal.
4. When they soft close on the phone I'll send a proposal/invoice. If they don't immediately pay then I follow up weekly until they pay or ask me to stop. Sometimes I have to follow up 10+ times. People are weird and they have their own reasons for not responding right away.

Another good % of work comes from past clients and their referrals.

As for secrets, there's no need to be secretive. There are a bajillion businesses out there that need marketing and a shortage of good people to give it to them.

People who think the market is saturated are making excuses why they dont have success in the industry.
 

Kruiser

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Chuck! I just saw this. This is awesome! Congratulations! It seems like yesterday you were showing me your first couple of one page sites when we met up for coffee at the New Seasons in Orenco Station (remember that place?). Your story is a great lesson on how quickly things can change if you manage your mindset and take massive action.
 
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What an amazing story, I've felt like that so many times: I want to do a billion things but end up not doing any. Thanks for sharing your journey and if you ever come back to Mexico City, let me know, I'll gladly invite you some rounds of beers, or I can show you around the city!
 

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Hi @GoodluckChuck ,

Thank you for sharing. Some questions if you don’t mind answering:

1. You state that you are now working “part-time hours” for your 12k/mo (revenue?). Would you say you are on the low end or high end of the “part-time range” in terms of hours worked at present (e.g. 5hrs per week vs 25).

Do you have any plans to make this 100% passive or do you see yourself as always doing part time hours here and there indefinitely?

2. What were some of the biggest and most difficult obstacles you encountered during this process? From your post you made it really sound like a walk in the park (e.g. you travelled the world whilst doing this).

Do you see yourself as relatively talented at learning new things? You seemed to have been able to distinguish yourself as a website creator in the website market after only 2 years, when many website creators probably have trained for many more years than that yet probably still make much less income than you do.
 

BigDaddyKane

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Doing something allows the rest of your brain and body to know it as well.

Immersion.

Once you have 20 pieces of valuable content I can almost guarantee it will be found by someone. Even if it doesn't, you've already taken care of the hard part. Attracting eyeballs is easy when you have something of value.

I've always pictured this in an abstract kind of way. I call it the "Hello World" model which I've written about. Basically when I approach "creating content" I start by writing or speaking (audio record) an idea. This gets archived and published in one way or another onto the internet. Someone will find it. And so I rinse and repeat - each time refining the strategies behind it. But ultimately, it's about having something valuable to say to your audience. Like you said the hard part is done.

As for secrets, there's no need to be secretive. There are a bajillion businesses out there that need marketing and a shortage of good people to give it to them.

Yup.
 
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GoodluckChuck

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Chuck! I just saw this. This is awesome! Congratulations! It seems like yesterday you were showing me your first couple of one page sites when we met up for coffee at the New Seasons in Orenco Station (remember that place?). Your story is a great lesson on how quickly things can change if you manage your mindset and take massive action.
Thanks man! Long time no see. We should catch up sometime. Would love to hear how you're getting along.
 

GoodluckChuck

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I've always pictured this in an abstract kind of way. I call it the "Hello World" model which I've written about. Basically when I approach "creating content" I start by writing or speaking (audio record) an idea. This gets archived and published in one way or another onto the internet. Someone will find it. And so I rinse and repeat - each time refining the strategies behind it. But ultimately, it's about having something valuable to say to your audience. Like you said the hard part is done.

I recently met someone who lives off an affiliate website and uses the funds to not only pay his bills but travel the world. He works only a few hours a week and has for the last few years.

His strategy?

Post and pray.

He has posted around 1000 articles with no other strategy than sheer numbers and it worked.
 

GoodluckChuck

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Hi @GoodluckChuck ,

Thank you for sharing. Some questions if you don’t mind answering:

1. You state that you are now working “part-time hours” for your 12k/mo (revenue?). Would you say you are on the low end or high end of the “part-time range” in terms of hours worked at present (e.g. 5hrs per week vs 25).

Do you have any plans to make this 100% passive or do you see yourself as always doing part time hours here and there indefinitely?

2. What were some of the biggest and most difficult obstacles you encountered during this process? From your post you made it really sound like a walk in the park (e.g. you travelled the world whilst doing this).

Do you see yourself as relatively talented at learning new things? You seemed to have been able to distinguish yourself as a website creator in the website market after only 2 years, when many website creators probably have trained for many more years than that yet probably still make much less income than you do.

Happy to answer these questions. You caught me as I just woke up with a cup of coffee in my hand so prepare for some long-winded answers. :)

1.High end or low end for part time work... It varies. I say part time but to be honest I don't really know how much time I spend working. To be clear, when I saw work part time I mean work part time on paying projects. The amount of time I've spent reading, taking courses, practicing on my own projects, etc. would account for much more than full time hours if I added them all up. It's been an obsession for me.

Did any of this feel like work to me? No, because not only do I enjoy learning but the idea of taking action now that will pay off later is extremely motivating to me.

So, when I say I work part time, I mean I work part time on acquiring and delivering client projects. The rest of my time is spent working on myself and my own projects. Without the second part, the first part wouldn't be paying so much after 2 years. To quantify it with a guess, I would say I've spent about 15 focused hours per week average on client projects over the last 2 years.

The way I work is not focused so I quantify this by thinking "If the client was standing there watching me how much time would I bill them for." It's not uncommon for me to be doing research on how to do something while I'm doing it. Learning on the fly.

1.2 Do I plan to make it 100% passive? No. This model can't be 100% passive. Even if I hire someone to manage it all for me, I have to manage them so it will take some of my time. The MRR part of this model suffers from client turnover meaning some clients drop out after a while so in order to keep the income the same I have to be making constant sales.

My plan for the marketing agency is to keep it going organically as I focus my power on things that can be either more passive or bring in exponentially more income.

If I created something that was 100% passive I might sell it for a lot of $. I'm a busy body and the idea of 100% passive doesn't seem all that sustainable to me. The world changes as do the markets in it so nothing lasts forever.

2. Most difficult obstacles... To put it in a ratio I attribute my success 3:1 mindset to skillset. In the beginning I was terrified of selling because I was unsure of what I could deliver. I learned to rely on my commitment rather than track record because I didn't have one. I told myself, "If I get this job I will not sleep until I get the results I promised."

After a few projects, I realized this was a good way to go about things because it allowed me to take on projects I was under-qualified for while being confident enough to sell them. Don't get me wrong, it was still difficult to sell because I still lacked confidence. I would find a million reasons why not to get on the phone. This resulted in me taking lots of courses... (Action faking)

As my skillset grew from the courses and practice, my confidence did as well and I was better able to take bigger bites and be more ambitious with my endeavors.

When I look back now I can see it is mostly mindset and self esteem that separates me now from me then. I have experience but I'm not doing things a whole lot different than I was then. If I could have been more courageous a year ago I could have probably been making a lot more money then. On the same token, I could probably be making 5x what I am now just by having a more advanced mindset...

This is the way it goes. We see things from the perspective of the place we're at. That's why I spend most of my free time now working on understanding mindset and how to shape that. The difference between someone with 100k in the bank and 100b in the bank is the way they view themselves and the world.

Another huge obstacle for me was comfort. When I'm comfortable I get lazzyyyyy. Traveling helped get me out of my comfort zone where I perform much better and with more vigor and endurance. Being in a new place where nobody speaks the language or gives 2 shits about me made me feel like I had to work a lot harder to survive. This made me work a lot harder. This is why Mexico City will always hold a special place in my heart. It's where I found my inner strength and courage and built the momentum that carried me to where I am today.

2.2 Am I good at picking up new skills? Yes. I've always been really good at developing new skills. It's a strength of mine. As a kid I was always better than my peers at skate boarding, baseball, subjects in school that interested me (I almost flunked out of high school). On the flip side my weakness is that I have a hard time sticking with things once I break past the initial difficulty phase. I just get bored. Maybe that's why I run a marketing agency with no niche. I like to learn new things then move on. :) Discipline is a challenge for me.

As for why I can charge more than other web developers and designers... That's just because I choose to. Pricing in this industry is incredible arbitrary. In the Fox Web School gang we focus on value pricing because it allows us to create win-win deals with every client. If I can make someone 100k with a new website then charging 20k is still a no brainer for everyone.

Do I get a knot in my stomach when I throw out a high price tag? Yeah... When they say yes immediately I wonder if I could have asked for more... I get about 50% of the projects I propose so I think that's okay.

A lot of web developers and coders don't understand why they can't make as much. A lot of them are self-proclaimed "bad at dealing with people". That's just a mindset + skillset thing. It takes practice like everything else as well as the courage to suck at it for a while.

My message to anyone in this industry that wants to make more is this: Work on your people skills and sell your own projects. You can ask for as much as you want. If you have a full time job then ask for a high amount that you feel like you probably won't get. An amount that if you did get it, you could quit your job and start freelance full time. After enough sales calls you will eventually find someone willing to pay this... It truly is a numbers game.
 
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Hi @GoodluckChuck

Read you story - pretty amazing :)

Wanted to ask - how did you manage to get clients while travelling? Did you find that not being able to meet them made it harder for you to sell it?

Thanks in advance,
 

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These are great resources...

My suggestion is to split your time in half between doing and studying.

My approach to trying new things had changed a lot.

I start by writing down what I know now. I make a list of questions as thorough as I can and I answer them with my present knowledge.

Let's use surfing as an example since I'll be trying that soon.

I have never surfed or taken a lesson. I've spent a lot of time thinking about it though and applying my knowledge of snowboarding to what I expect surfing to be like.

Next, I'll rent a board and go give it a try. I'll probably struggle at some parts and be pretty good at others.

Then I'll go get a lesson. By this time I'll already have some working knowledge and experience to use as a foundation for learning the details. I'll likely have some questions and be able to get more out of the lesson than I would have with zero foundation.

This is what I recommend for people starting something like web design.

First, write down the steps you'll take the best you can with your current knowledge. Then, go find a YouTube video and follow along in buying a domain, setting up hosting, and start in on building the site.

See how far you can get. It will be a struggle and that's GOOD.

If you reach points you can't progress past, use Google to help. You can literally Google your way to building anything online...

Once you have a website live and you have produced something, then go find a course.

You will have a solid foundation of experience to build your knowledge on.

Without the foundation the knowledge will have no leg to stand on.

Ive learned to use courses as a boost rather than a foundation.

I'm sure will disagree, but one thing we can all agree on is that it's really easy to get into the trap of taking tons of course and feeling like you're taking action even though you aren't actually producing anything.

Producing vs Consuming 101.

You would probably enjoy Peak by Anders Ericsson. He is a professor of psychology who specializes in the study of expertise.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1531864880/?tag=tff-amazonparser-20

Quotes:

“You seldom improve much without giving the task your full attention."

“What works? What doesn’t? And why?"

"But if math works the same way as chess, then we have lost a whole collection of children who might eventually have become quite accomplished in these areas if only they hadn’t been labeled as “no good at math” in the very beginning."

"The regular cycle of try, fail, get feedback, try again, and so on is how the students will build their mental representations."

"I would argue that we humans are most human when we’re improving ourselves. We, unlike any other animal, can consciously change ourselves, to improve ourselves in ways we choose. This distinguishes us from every other species alive today and, as far as we know, from every other species that has ever lived."

"You don’t build mental representations by thinking about something; you build them by trying to do something, failing, revising, and trying again, over and over. When you’re done, not only have you developed an effective mental representation for the skill you were developing, but you have also absorbed a great deal of information connected with that skill."

"I get it. People want to believe that there is magic in life, that not everything has to abide by the staid, boring rules of the real world. And what could be more magical than being born with some incredible ability that doesn’t require hard work or discipline to develop? There is an entire comic-book industry built on that premise—that sometimes something magical happens, and you suddenly acquire incredible powers. Unbeknownst to you, you were actually born on the planet Krypton and you can fly. Or you were bitten by a radioactive spider and you can cling to walls. Or you were exposed to cosmic radiation and now you can become invisible. But my decades of research in the area of expertise have convinced me that there is no magic. By examining the case of someone with exceptional abilities through the lens of those two earlier questions I posed—What is the talent? What practice led to the talent?—you can pull back the curtain and find what is really going on."

Make It Stick is also a great book on the science of learning. It goes through why most study strategies yield mediocre results and how you can learn more effectively. It was written by a novelist & 2 psychology researchers (a storyteller & 2 scientists, so ideas that have merit and are well written).

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0674729013/?tag=tff-amazonparser-20

Quotes

"Learning is stronger when it matters, when the abstract is made concrete and personal."

"In other words, the elements that shape your intellectual abilities lie to a surprising extent within your own control."

"Mastering the lecture or the text is not the same as mastering the ideas behind them."

"Trying to solve a problem before being taught the solution leads to better learning, even when errors are made in the attempt."

"The good news is that we now know of simple and practical strategies that anybody can use, at any point in life, to learn better and remember longer: various forms of retrieval practice, such as low-stakes quizzing and self-testing, spacing out practice, interleaving the practice of different but related topics or skills, trying to solve a problem before being taught the solution, distilling the underlying principles or rules that differentiate types of problems, and so on."

"Had he used the set of key concepts in the back of each chapter to test himself? Could he look at a concept like “conditioned stimulus,” define it, and use it in a paragraph? While he was reading, had he thought of converting the main points of the text into a series of questions and then later tried to answer them while he was studying? Had he at least rephrased the main ideas in his own words as he read? Had he tried to relate them to what he already knew? Had he looked for examples outside the text? The answer was no in every case."

"Many people believe that their intellectual ability is hardwired from birth, and that failure to meet a learning challenge is an indictment of their native ability. But every time you learn something new, you change the brain—the residue of your experiences is stored. It’s true that we start life with the gift of our genes, but it’s also true that we become capable through the learning and development of mental models that enable us to reason, solve, and create. In other words, the elements that shape your intellectual abilities lie to a surprising extent within your own control. Understanding that this is so enables you to see failure as a badge of effort and a source of useful information—the need to dig deeper or to try a different strategy. The need to understand that when learning is hard, you’re doing important work. To understand that striving and setbacks, as in any action video game or new BMX bike stunt, are essential if you are to surpass your current level of performance toward true expertise. Making mistakes and correcting them builds the bridges to advanced learning."
 

GoodluckChuck

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Hi @GoodluckChuck

Read you story - pretty amazing :)

Wanted to ask - how did you manage to get clients while travelling? Did you find that not being able to meet them made it harder for you to sell it?

Thanks in advance,

I've never met most of my clients face to face. Only phone calls and some video calls.

So, my clients come from all over.

While traveling I've met a lot of entrepreneurs and business people. I've got a lot of new jobs through contacts made while traveling. I have clients all over the world and tend to pick up work everywhere I go. Even if it's not immediate, it's not uncommon for someone to reach out to me 6 months later and ask if I can do something.
 
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GoodluckChuck

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"Trying to solve a problem before being taught the solution leads to better learning, even when errors are made in the attempt."

This 100%. When people ask me how to get into something I tell them to try before they take any courses. I also suggest to write down what they know about the subject already. It's surprising how much you can guess about something and be pretty accurate. The more you do this, the better you get at guessing.
 

WillHurtDontCare

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This 100%. When people ask me how to get into something I tell them to try before they take any courses. I also suggest to write down what they know about the subject already. It's surprising how much you can guess about something and be pretty accurate. The more you do this, the better you get at guessing.

And neuroscience backs you up. "You learn best by doing" isn't just a platitude, attempting to apply ideas is the only meaningful test of whether you understand them & doing so literally reshapes your brain by changing the neural pathways in it.
 

bumble_bee

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Thanks for sharing. Really inspiring stuff!

I would love some expert advice on the following:

I am thinking of starting a similar business that targets small law firms. Why?

I recently finished my law and public relations degree and my father runs a law firm. So I'm reasonably well connected.

I have built three websites on Wix. I am happy to learn advanced wordpress skills. I think I am a decent website designer. I can link the websites here, but I'm not sure if that's allowed.

I think I have a lot in common with you. Similar skills, mindset and values.

Also, my partner was asked to do some basic web design for a small law firm a few years ago. After reading your post, light bulbs went off!

Any tips and advice? Has anyone had success targeting small law firms?
 

GoodluckChuck

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Law firms is a great niche because they charge a lot of money so they can afford to spend heavy on customer acquisition.

My advice is to get going asap. Use your connections to find someone interested in generating leads with a website and use the project as a tool to learn how to do it.

Find how how much they can reasonably afford to spend and offer the service with a zero fee trial period that lasts until you are producing leads.

For law offices that are consumer facing and are in less than super competitive areas it's pretty easy to get leads by following best practices in web design and SEO.

Google Ads can supplement the SEO is beginning stages.

With so many law offices out there spending a lot on marketing there are tons of good examples to follow. I've even called companies in the past to ask them how they are doing so well...

If you aren't competing with them they will sometimes share their secrets. Just be straight up about your intentions. Might even have some future clients out of it.
 
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bumble_bee

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Law firms is a great niche because they charge a lot of money so they can afford to spend heavy on customer acquisition.

My advice is to get going asap. Use your connections to find someone interested in generating leads with a website and use the project as a tool to learn how to do it.

Find how how much they can reasonably afford to spend and offer the service with a zero fee trial period that lasts until you are producing leads.

For law offices that are consumer facing and are in less than super competitive areas it's pretty easy to get leads by following best practices in web design and SEO.

Google Ads can supplement the SEO is beginning stages.

With so many law offices out there spending a lot on marketing there are tons of good examples to follow. I've even called companies in the past to ask them how they are doing so well...

If you aren't competing with them they will sometimes share their secrets. Just be straight up about your intentions. Might even have some future clients out of it.



Thanks man! Will do

What do you think of the name 'Kelso Creative'?

kelsocreative.net is available

Do you see any issues with the name or the .net?
 

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This thread is GOLD, took the time to read every post and found so many good pieces of gold nuggets. Highlighted the fact that my biggest issue is mindset + too many options + action faking . Need to work on that and thank you again for this amazing thread. You made me buy Tony Robbins Awaken the giant within ;)
 

GrandRub

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Great Thread! i binged the big webdesign thread by @Fox and it is cool to see someone crushing it with this approach!

got some questions :D

1. It is not simply about "web design" but about delivering results,Leads,Sales.. (Would you see a "better" brand because you got rid of a ugly outdated website as a result?)

Do you also manage Facebook ADs or AdWords for your customers? If content marketing makes sense - do you make a monthly plan for contentcreation? Do you also optimize print advertising, flyers or something? How "holistic" is your approach?

Fox writes in his thread that he never got a lead through his website. You write that you get 50% of your customers through your website. Do you rank high for relevant keywords? What do you do differently than him?
 

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