I read TMF during my second to last semester at college. I was working full-time at a clothing store and although I managed to get through college without any student loan debt, I was always dissatisfied with my paycheck. After reading TMF, I came up with a bunch of ideas to start a business, trolled the forum for about a year, and when I graduated college with a BA in Economics, all I had was a degree, a job at a clothing store, and a bunch of ideas. Then the 'rona came and it was the perfect opportunity to jump on Udemy and take a digital marketing course. Fortunately, my job was still paying me, and I got unemployment from the state of California. I spent the entire quarantine studying Andy Black's courses and feeling my way around Google Ads, Wordpress, Elementor, and Excel before I got the courage to join a BNI meeting and make cold calls to promote "Sonny's Google Ads management service".
I got a few clients and started generating between $1200-$1800 a month. The first time I got checks sent to my mailbox was a feeling I will never forget. I felt so successful that I decided to leave my clothing store job. The drive to succeed withered away and I stopped hustling to get more clients (mistake #1). And being far from an expert at Google Ads, my clients drifted away one by one. After about 6-7 months, I decided to build a lead gen/user review website. I learned JetEngine, wrote content, borrowed money from my Godfather, worked alongside a web developer and voila - that website launched within about 3 months. It was a new concept for a niche that I thought would really benefit from it, but I got discouraged when it didn't perform as well as I thought it would (mistake #2). I reached out to different business founders with similar concepts. They all related to me and helped me not beat myself up (which was mistake #3). One of them recommended "The Lean Startup" and the "E-myth" - both very helpful.
I have my next experiment planned out for the website. There isn't a proven concept for this niche yet, so I'm applying the Lean startup's principle of using the scientific method for startups, but I need money to pay my bills so I've been picking up work here and there. I decided to sell life insurance from my home because I should be able to make some money to pay my bills and reinvest in the website, while also controlling my schedule. I don't know if this website is going to work or not, but if it doesn't, at least I'll have the underpinnings of something functional that can be applied to a niche that will work.
I wish my digital marketing skills were as good as other people's. I wish I was so confident in my skills that when I spoke to a prospect I could guarantee that within x amount of time, my services would pay for themselves AND add to their profits. My hat is off to those of you who have that skill. I'm pretty confident in my ability to sell stuff I believe in, I just don't believe in my own Google Ads skills or the website service (until my experiments accept or reject my hypothesis). Fortunately, my sales skills got me a few job opportunities.
Even with the mistakes I made, I'm glad I rolled the dice. I've learned a ton and I'll continue to do so. I'm 29 now with no student debt, no kids, no mortgage, and an exceptionally supportive girlfriend... so I'm blessed.
And TFLF, @MJ DeMarco , TMF, Unscripted, @Andy Black and everybody else here have been the biggest resource throughout this whole journey by far. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Hopefully by my third anniversary I'll be a millionaire
I got a few clients and started generating between $1200-$1800 a month. The first time I got checks sent to my mailbox was a feeling I will never forget. I felt so successful that I decided to leave my clothing store job. The drive to succeed withered away and I stopped hustling to get more clients (mistake #1). And being far from an expert at Google Ads, my clients drifted away one by one. After about 6-7 months, I decided to build a lead gen/user review website. I learned JetEngine, wrote content, borrowed money from my Godfather, worked alongside a web developer and voila - that website launched within about 3 months. It was a new concept for a niche that I thought would really benefit from it, but I got discouraged when it didn't perform as well as I thought it would (mistake #2). I reached out to different business founders with similar concepts. They all related to me and helped me not beat myself up (which was mistake #3). One of them recommended "The Lean Startup" and the "E-myth" - both very helpful.
I have my next experiment planned out for the website. There isn't a proven concept for this niche yet, so I'm applying the Lean startup's principle of using the scientific method for startups, but I need money to pay my bills so I've been picking up work here and there. I decided to sell life insurance from my home because I should be able to make some money to pay my bills and reinvest in the website, while also controlling my schedule. I don't know if this website is going to work or not, but if it doesn't, at least I'll have the underpinnings of something functional that can be applied to a niche that will work.
I wish my digital marketing skills were as good as other people's. I wish I was so confident in my skills that when I spoke to a prospect I could guarantee that within x amount of time, my services would pay for themselves AND add to their profits. My hat is off to those of you who have that skill. I'm pretty confident in my ability to sell stuff I believe in, I just don't believe in my own Google Ads skills or the website service (until my experiments accept or reject my hypothesis). Fortunately, my sales skills got me a few job opportunities.
Even with the mistakes I made, I'm glad I rolled the dice. I've learned a ton and I'll continue to do so. I'm 29 now with no student debt, no kids, no mortgage, and an exceptionally supportive girlfriend... so I'm blessed.
And TFLF, @MJ DeMarco , TMF, Unscripted, @Andy Black and everybody else here have been the biggest resource throughout this whole journey by far. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Hopefully by my third anniversary I'll be a millionaire
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