GuitarManDan
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What?? I was trying to figure out who had given me INSIDERS.. Thank you man!! Dedicating this post to you lol
Wow it's been a year and so much has changed. During those 100 days, I was struggling with getting sales for my digital marketing business and I was desperate to get some form of income going.
I was inspired by @GuitarManDan's thread and decided to take sales head on myself. So, I started this thread.
The content during the 100 days really isn't much. It's all the attempts I tried to get clients for myself. Stuff like trying out UpWork, fulfilling projects for my small clients. Staying busy and trying to develop the best habits, failing for the most part. There were days when I would go missing for like 3 days in a slump and just sum it up in one half-assed post on the journal.
I think I had profited about $1200 during those 100 days haha. There were definitely some low points there.
Looking back, I've come quite far.
In a week, I'll be moving out of my parent's house into my first apartment paid for by myself. It's a work-living space in Long Beach so it'll be really cool. It's my first apartment and my first office in one lol. Right next to the pier and downtown. I have a small amount of money in my bank but it's more than I've ever had in my entire life. I have clients who I get paid nicely for and I'm starting to invest in my own ecommerce product.
That's where I'm at now. I feel like I'm really starting to get a hold of my finances and I'm confident that even if I lose everything, I'd be able to build it back up with what I've learned. I still feel like I have a long way to go but things are starting to look exciting rather than necessary for survival.
Really have to thank @Fox and the Fox Sales Legends groups for everything.
After I stopped my journal, I was really burnt out. Like seriously dreading everything. I had dropped out of college because it was a horrible environment for me and after a shit experience with a summer sales job, decided I would never work for anyone under their terms again. But I had nothing to show for it and I was wondering if that was just a lie I was being told or a dream I'd never reach. I was overworking myself for meager pay and thinking about keeping this up for another 3 or 4 years just burned me out.
I think I had like $750 in the bank when I went to visit my friends in San Francisco. Like $200 of that was going to be spent on alcohol and food for the week I was going to stay with them. I also had a credit card that took me something like 3 years to pay off so I wasn't even considering it. That's actually when I decided that things needed to change.
I also happened to watch a video about strategic debt. The speaker was talking about how going into debt can be good if it's done strategically. If you don't have enough capital to invest in something that will improve yourself, it can be smart to go into debt, learn what you're missing, and recoup that investment.
Also at that time, I was watching youtube videos by A Nerd's World, Ruan Martinho, and of course, Fox, to figure out how to raise my profits.
So anyways, the morning after binge drinking, I apply for Fox's course and to my surprise, I get in.
I've been thinking about something lately. Our source of motivation comes from our vision. In the case of my vision with business, I had long been burnt out because I felt like I was on a track that was separate from the ultimate goal I had. For me, it was like I found a line between my current situation that linked it to my goals.
I really worked on my mentality. The summer sales job left me with an aversion towards sales. I worked as a door-to-door salesman but for businesses. I would walk into businesses unsolicited and try to sell them a product I didn't believe in with a script that made me sound like a machine. Because of that, I spent about a year trying to get clients doing as little sales as I could. I knew that was holding me back but my mentality was preventing me from changing that.
I started doing affirmations, getting clear on my value and my service's value, etc. I started the 75 hard challenge and I think I read over 10 books on sales and 10 other books on self-development or business. I met a prospect in person and I was literally shaking with fear that I couldn't even eat the food he had bought me. Still got the client
I was devouring anything related to sales that I could get my hands on.
I kept raising prices with new clients and dropping some services and clients that I didn't like servicing or working with.
Don't get me wrong. There were extremely low points where I would be lying in bed, waiting for the second wind to kick in one day. But it's almost like action has inertia. Even in my low points, things were happening for me and I found it easier to bounce back than during the 100 days.
About a month ago, I added a new service and found a client for that.
The biggest takeaways I had for myself were:
- Learn my own value.
- Learn how to sell.
- Single down on a service at the beginning.
- Invest in myself and give others the opportunity to invest in themselves through me (cheap and free takes away the value of whatever you're offering).
- At the same time, give freely to those who invest in me.
- Don't work all the time, there's diminishing returns. But also, periods of hyper focus is where I've made the most progress.
- When I take on life, not work, is when I've been the most focused on work.
- Hire! Hire! After a certain level, I don't need to learn more, I need to hire someone who already knows.
- Hire! After a certain amount of work, I don't need to work more.
I'm not really making a crazy amount at the moment but it's enough to live in my own place, eat, and have a life. Now, I'm planning on reinvesting the money I'm making into a product. I'll start a thread on this actually. I'm going to keep this business as a side hustle while I focus on developing my product and later the marketing and ecommerce side.
I'm also joining an inner-work course. Stuff like letting go of past trauma and fears. Really stoked for that.
I'm still not 100% sure if you were the one that gifted me the INSIDERS, @BlackMagician, but if you were, thank you so much! I'll start sharing my journey with ecommerce. Luckily I'm still at the beginning stages so I'm sure I could use all the help I can get from members here.
Isaac I thought there was going to be some epic story about you drunkenly signing up for the Sales Legends program! But seriously, it's been awesome watching your progress man. I have no doubt in my mind you're going to keep crushing it with your digital marketing business.
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