My Odyssey - Finding Meaning And Achieving Financial Freedom

[Simon Angel]

I've been in the Meet call for the past 25 minutes just smiling at the camera with a notepad open where I wrote all my questions and ad strategies that we were going to discuss. Must have had about 5 full imaginary conversations in my head by now.

I sent a reminder 5 minutes in that says I joined and a link for the call in case it didn't show up in their calendar. It's now 30 minutes in. Crickets.

Well.. at least I look pretty tonight.

 

[Simon Angel]

Woke up to my first sales call booked via my website for the 14th! I've been really picky with my prospects and here are the stats so far in my current niche using cold emails with video audits:

• 25 qualified prospects
• 70-80% open rate
• 30-40% reply rate
• 4% booking rate

I'm quite OK with this. I've been reaching out to an average of 5 prospects a day (takes me a solid 3-4 hours due to my uncanny ability to get distracted by anything and everything). Of course this is a super small case study but if we go by the numbers, I can book a sales call every 5 days at this rate.

I don't really feel over the moon or anything and that's because I only have 1 call in the pipeline. So with continued effort I'd expect to have 2-3 calls booked per week. Niche is pretty huge so I don't expect leads to dry up very soon. And if they do, I already have more planned. Anyways, this still made my morning.

@Phikey @Xolorr love you guys

P. S Since the call is going to be on the 14th, what would the appropriate course of action be - should I send them any emails prior to our call or just leave it as is? Currently, all they've got is a confirmation email to the Zoom call and the calendar invite.

 

[qcl2768]

Yep, I'm aware of value based pricing. And yes, I'm going after the big 5 English speaking countries for that exact reason - pricing would be a steal for them, I will bring results and the money will be satisfactory for me.

Great work! What's your prospecting method of choice? Facebook groups?

Instead of wasting time and send 1000s email a day, which is basically spamming.

Find a niche/industry.
laser focus on the players that are already advertising (which also means they have a understanding that online marketing is important.
See what they're lacking -> assuming u have the tech/skills to solve
approach the boss/ find out who the boss is.

CONTACT the shit out of that boss.

Linkedin, fan page chat, live chat on website, email, add the boss as friend - everything and anything.

Tell them the 1 main problem that's costing them BILLIONS! ( just kidding - but some big problem (1), that's costing them a lot of potential sales and customers)

See if they're interested for a more in-depth discussion.

Close them.

That's how i closed my first client, 6k.
1x 5 min chat on FB
1x meeting to discuss problems & solution
1x meeting to present proposal and ask for close.
send invoice & collect money
do the work

 

[Simon Angel]

I've got 3 calls booked for today (with another coming up in a few days) and my first sales call ever for my digital marketing agency is in half an hour from now! Fittingly, I also got a cold and a migraine today. However, I'm super proud to have booked 4 sales calls in just the first half of October.

I'm going to give it my best and push through the discomfort! Will update tomorrow when I'm done with all of them.

By the way, I have no idea why 3/4 of my prospects decided to book on the same day but I am grateful for this nontheless.

Update: First call went great (I think).

I'd say 90% of the call was me explaining stuff like Facebook pixels, important ad metrics, custom and lookalike audiences, conversion rates and how it all connects to their business. We had a few laughs as well but all in all, they said they learned a lot in just 30 minutes with me and were very upbeat. I was also explaining the strategy I have in mind for them and what it could mean for their revenue, profits and etc.

I guess I didn't really push to close. At one point they asked me "What would your role be in all of this and could you quote me a price" and I explained that since we're a digital marketing agency we're offering to do all of the tedious and boring stuff related to Facebook advertising for them like managing and scaling their current ads, creating new campaigns and making sure their store converts and has consistent sales with a high ROAS, since they're only doing influencer marketing as of now and said they have $2000 sales one day and $0 for the next 5, so I tried focusing on the "sales consistency" problem with them.

They asked for an email with a quote for the service and I said that I'd like to ask a few questions about their store so that I could give them a quote while we're still on the call since we don't just offer a flat rate for all of our customers due to the fact that people's budgets vary significantly. They said their monthly revenue is about 5k per month and that they're currently spending just $60-70 a week on Facebook ads which they mentioned is mostly because they don't know what they're doing.

I quoted them $500 + 10% ROAS and explained it's the minimum we offer and they said that it's reasonable and that they'll have to think about it for a few days and come back to me with a final decision. We shared a few pleasantries and ended the meeting.

I'll be writing another email for them later today and potentially attaching a PayPal invoice to it.

I feel like I did everything right but at the same time like I didn't?

Anyway, 1 down and 2 more to go for tonight! Got some practice and I felt pretty confident during the call.

@Phikey @Xolorr @qcl2768 would love some feedback on this. Ideally I think the prospect should have had more knowledge on Facebook ads (since this one had close to 0) so that I spent less time explaining the basics and more focusing on the strategy and scaling.

 

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[Odysseus M Jones]

Thanks for your support, Odysseus. It did make a difference in my darkest times. You're the most thoughtful forum entity ever. By entity, I mean I've no idea who or what you are, lol.

Actually, there's one thing I'm pretty certain I know about you. I think you're British.

Correct, British entity.
It's times like this that remind me I'm relatively normal despite my eventful childhood.
Only the first 16 years was traumatic, after that it was plain sailing.
My neighbours think I'm a normal respectable person, and that's all an Englishman wants.
They actually think I'm retired yet I work 7 days a week.
Like a swan baby!
All serene on the surface, yet furiously paddling.
Image is everything as they say.

But when can I expect to see your progress thread? Or are you already a business tycoon that's just giving support to random people on the Internet? That would explain your anonymity, I guess

That was the plan when I joined the forum.

Been around the block a few times, boom and bust.
So I do have experience and try to help where I can.

Now at 58 it's time to do it all over again.

Onwards and upwards!

Stay tuned.

 

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[BizyDad]

I unliked all your posts in order to re-like them to give you a massive boost and lift you out of your funk.

You did that?!?!

Naturally, because of your OCD you noticed this drop of likes and called me out on it

No way!!! He did that?!?!

I was the very first person to discover your thread and place the first like on your first post. And I was the first person to like all your subsequent posts.
Because I know how to pick winners.

That's amazing. You have quite the talent.

Anyway, this thread is about you not me.

Yes, good point. Sorry, it's just that I haven't seen Odysseus M Jones on the forums lately and here you are sharing awesome stories and putting smiles on people's faces.

I'm glad you're still around.

Ok, back to @Simon Angel . I didn't know you had a progress thread! I'm going to read it now. Maybe not all today, but soon. I cheated and skipped to the end. Sorry you're struggling. Know that you have people in your corner.

And I want to add I appreciate your contributions to the forum. I'm glad you are still around too!

 

[Simon Angel]

Update:

It's been a while.

I still work with a digital marketing agency where I'm head of email marketing. I earn a decent amount of money - about $2000, which is kind of like earning $8-9K in America.

My work is sporadic but tops up at about 1-2 hours per day.

Not sure what I want to add in this update except that I'm feeling nihilistic recently. I'm constantly under pressure with our clients even though we're (over)delivering.

In the past year, I've helped our clients earn more than $10M in total with approx. $1.7M solely attributed to the work I've done.

And yet, I get smartass clients asking me questions in calls they already know the answers to just to see me squirm because I don't know them off the top of my head. Why would people do that shit instead of cooperating?

Now, I might not know all of the technical info and intricacies of the emailing software we use but who even gives a F*ck when I know enough to triple your email revenue.. And we've got a ton of data to prove it?

But as the agency isn't mine I'm unable to take liberty in what I say so I end up feeling frustrated and crushed because some dumb F*ck's in a bad mood. If I can clearly see you're being needlessly hostile towards me when I'm out there caring for your business and making sure you sleep soundly knowing your brand is not only selling but also growing due to the content I put out, then F*ck you.

Anyway, I just hired an accountant and it seems I've done a big oopsie legally as well. Apparently, since I hadn't registered a company, I've only paid insurance as an unemployed person which is a court case ready to happen. I also can't pay tax for 2021 because that basically puts a target on my head. All I can really do is register a company and start paying from this point onwards.

Life is too short to worry about that, though. The worst thing that could happen is me paying a huge fine and losing most of my money which I could care less for.

Yes, I don't care. I have developed a new understanding of money- I know I can help people earn a lot of money so there'll always be some for me. Take all of my money today and nothing will change.

Apart from that, I've also hit a wall in my love life as well. My girlfriend is looking forward to us starting a family and I'm not.

I mean, I have a girlfriend with looks that most men only dream of. We're also a decent match in terms of our values - we fully agree on some things and fully disagree on others.

But I know why she wants kids. She thinks I'm the best man she's ever met. She thinks I'm ambitious and hardworking. And she thinks I'm some hard guy.

Well, I'm not. Everything I've ever done is out of fear, not boldness.

I fear living in poverty, so I started earning money.

I fear losing the respect and love from my friends and girlfriend, so I keep earning money.

I fear being vulnerable and defenseless so I went from looking like George Michael to someone who just got out of prison and can F*ck you up any second (the long abdominal scars help).

I fear being intimidated and walked over so I do my best to intimidate others to prevent that from happening.

I fear not having my name recognized and remembered by many, so I constantly compete and try to set new records on racing tracks or win 20 games in a row in a game of cards, or anything I can get my hands on really.

I fear ending up in hospital with a severe Crohn's flare from the stress of it all, so I never go 100% for an extended period of time. The last time I did that, I was on the verge of death.

Nobody seems to understand this and people get the impression I'm ungrateful for the life I currently have. I actually had my first ever I guess suicidal thought last night. I felt like I had no right choices in life and that everything I do will inevitably end up leaving me unfulfilled. I'm so tired of living up to expectations.

My dream is still to make it into peak motorsport like F1 and Indycar. At least that's the only thing that I feel like I can show up to every time and give 100%. Racing is also extremely mentally taxing and you really can't think about your problems while throwing yourself as fast as you can around corners.

Fittingly (or ironically?) that's also the only thing I'm truly talented at, even though I started extremely late (early 20s) in a sport dominated by people who started when they were just 4-7 years old I want to just stop doing anything except follow that dream. I know that if I invest all of my time into one thing I can become the best there ever was.

And the only thing I've had like that in my life has been racing. It's do or die. So I'm going to invest all of my money into a PRO sim racing setup.

But then I keep circling back to the main issue - that there's obviously something wrong with me and my thinking. I seem to derive my value from impressive accomplishments and the recognition of them from others, yet I don't even have social media or seek out that recognition. When I do become a top racer, the process is probably going to repeat itself... So why should I even do anything apart from either A) doing whatever I feel like at any given time or B) killing myself (not something I'm currently interested in)?

I feel worthless. I know my friends and family love me, even though people have described me as an empathetic dick, but I feel worthless to myself. I feel like I was gifted with so much potential (as ironic as that sounds given my health issues since I was born) and that I would achieve great things but I'm slowly realizing I'm just another nobody who isn't actually destined for anything.

 

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[Bobby_italy]

Bravo Ubace.

I'm from macedonia but I live next to the bulgarian border, really happy for your progress and will follow!

 

[Zyanwc]

Hey, thanks. It really depends how muture of an 19 year old you are. 19 to 22 felt like 10 years worth of growth for me due to what I went through. I'm glad that I've inspired you and yes, you should take action today.



Thanks brat, I'll be sure to check out what you do!



It's certainly interesting to have this disease. Unhinged and neurotic people seem to suffer the worst outcomes (myself included) and I really was at death's door at one point. Fortunately my soul snapped and I realigned myself back on my path again, almost as if I entered some other frequency here on Earth. I'll refrain from going too metaphysical here for now.



Blaise Brosnan is a wise man.

Pierce Brosnan is cool too.



I have bad news, guys..

There were no updates for days 6, 7 and 8.

Now before you are shocked and disgusted by my presumed action faking allow me to explain. I was busy with my client and making sure he is 120% happy, since the guy has good connections with a leading construction company in my city. And yes, they do need a website redesign and fresh SEO.

And I would LOVE to help a construction company get more leads and deals and for me to acquire precious knowledge of the industry to leverage in the future.

I made about 6-7 cold calls per day for the last few days, equaling about 20 calls. Womp womp.

TOP SECRET STORY BELOW!​

Alright so I was walking towards my apartment block at 12:30 AM after escorting my dear girlfriend to hers, which I do every single night because she's as precious to me as The One Ring to Gollum in The Lord of the Rings, I suddenly felt buzzing and was greeted by an almost-blinding bright light coming from the sky.

Suddenly, I was being abducted by aliens.

"No.." I said, remembering I promised myself and my girl to cold call 25 businesses tomorrow.

"..You can't do this!"

Anyways, they beamed me up and I was greeted by their Lord Commander.

Guess who?

Jordan motherf@#%ing Belfort! Yep, the Wolf of Wall Street is also the Vortigaunt of Nibiru-B17.

"Lol" he exclaimed. "Who the f@#k is this guy?".

- "Wtf dude" I uttered.

"Alright I know it's a lot process. Here's what we're gonna do. I'll tell you a riddle and you have to guess the missing words. If you answer correctly I'll share you my secret of cold calling success."

I was intrigued.

"Are you ready?" Belfort impatiently asked.

- "Sure".

"Roses are red, violets are blue. There's 2 type of people - buyers and non-buyers for you.

Seek out the buyers, leave the non-buyers alone, or else you're an idiot just like _ _ _ _ _ _ _"

- "Cardone".

Jordan Belfort's eyes widened

"At long last! You have finally come. Here, take this and get the f@#k out of here!"

- "Thanks Mr. Belfort"

And so I did.

And now without further ado, the secret Jordan Belfort shared with me:

"You, yes you.

Make 140 cold calls a week.

40 of those calls will be with the decision maker.

Of those 40 times you will close 8 meetings.

Of those 8 meetings 6 will be held.

From those 6 meetings, you will make 2 sales"


...........................

2 sales per week? That's 8 a month.. with a minimum price of $600 per website, that's $4800 per month, 2.5x more than my monthly goal for financial freedom!?

Deep smolder into the distance as the Sun lowers into the horizon to mark the end of the day

I understand what needs to be done. And I'm going to do it, Jordan.

Stay tuned!

Alright, I’ll admit this was a very interesting read, you’re a good story teller. But man...wtf lol... that came out of no where, not what I thought you’d post (but it’s a good thing) just really took me by surprise when I read this. Still not really sure what happened, but I’m glad you had a eureka moment. I think I’m going to join you on that 140 calls a week thing maybe I get a client, or maybe just better and am that much closer to a new client. Thanks again man! Great story.

 

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[Simon Angel]

Day 10​

Cold called 15 businesses. 1 prospect. Yep, not 25. Still 2x more than I've ever done in a single day.

Scheduled a second phone call on Wednesday, we got along well over the phone. His business is in manufacturing and selling carbon brushes. Supplies some pretty large industrial companies.

My client with the cleaning company was very happy with the site he got.

So happy, in fact, that he took me to this run-down tiny "office" (it was an old room in an apartment block with a dude inside that had the weirdest facial hair one could have) and said "You want more work right? Here you go".

The "work" was the dude with the weird facial hair pretty much begging me for help with WordPress. Apparently he also runs some sort of web design business. I listened to his crap for a few minutes and said "I'll think about it" and bailed. Not worth my time at all. My client ran off because he was in a hurry, but we'll be speaking again soon and I'll ask for the construction company referral.

Anyways, from the earnings I get this month I'll be renting an apartment from July onwards. Time to grow up - clean, cook and provide for myself. Also, no more putting up with 2 old women in the house.

I believe me moving to my own apartment will be very beneficial for my business growth. Not only that, but I'll also be able to invite my girlfriend over and pretend we're making babies.

Did I mention my childhood dream of becoming an F1 driver? I had a shitty slowlane, limiting beliefs, "we're divorced so the kid is not my issue" father that couldn't even take me karting. I bought my own sim racing wheel less than a year ago and I'm already getting competitive lap times on most tracks. It appears I have talent, unfortunately my father was never enough of a "father".

I'm 22 so the dream is gone for real life F1, but perhaps I could look to entering F1 eSports the next few years. *sobs determinedly*

Stay tuned..

​

 

[Simon Angel]

Day 11 a.k.a yesterday
​

I literally did nothing. I felt like shit all day physically and mentally, took numerous naps and felt off in general. I felt so shit, in fact, that I couldn't even get myself to post an update.

I did help my girlfriend in the morning with a very important exam.

Need to follow-up with the carbon brushes prospect today. Also wrote down 6 other numbers to call, most of them industrial companies as well (metallurgy).

Will add a Day 12 update today.

 

[Odysseus M Jones]

Are you saying there's a shortage of cleaners?
Too many clients not enough maids.
Why is there a shortage?

How long would it take you to build a website to attract would-be maids?
Referrals, directory, agency, just thinking out loud here.

Solve Mr Rich Guy's & others problems.

 

[Andy Black]

My advice would be to just start and get data from running campaigns.

Given his circumstances and frame of mind I’d be tempted to just do this for free. I still don’t charge my first case study.

Also, I’d remove the personal stuff about your friend from the post above. Do things so that they’d be happy, even delighted, if he found what you wrote.

 

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[Simon Angel]

I called a few more prospects. Nothing.

*In the voice of Duke Nukem* Now I am really pissed off.

Fortunately, I called my client with the cleaning company. Told him about Google Ads.

Explained how nobody else is running them from his competition neither in the city nor in neighbouring towns.

He asked about how much it'd cost.

I told him the budget will be low since we're not competing with anybody and that I'd do it for free to help him grow and for me to gain experience with Google Ads as I've only done Facebook Ads as of current.

He was ecstatic about the offer. His only concern was whether they'd be able to handle the extra clients and work, but was relieved once I told him the ads are on a daily budget and that we can stop them as soon as the leads become too many for them to handle.

"Let's collect some data and see where it goes, then we can think about what we can do it with!".

After getting him excited about the possibilities and promising to meet up in a few days to make this happen, I asked whether he knows or has heard of anyone needing help with their websites and online presence.

His response to that was he'll make sure I have more work "very soon".

 

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[Simon Angel]

Day 17​

Launched my first Google Ad today for a past client who's a plumber! Got 90BGN to spend for free from Google, which is about $50. Set it up and everything, used a lot of exact matches. @Andy Black

However, for this client I entered my own card, name and etc in the billing information. Is that the proper way of doing it?

For example, should I also run my client with the cleaning company's ads from the same account, with my billing information (and have them deposit the ad budget to my bank account) or should I create new accounts for every client and have them enter their own info?

I could be getting a referral from the plumber soon, one of his friends is opening a massage studio and he said she is in need of a site and that he'll recommend me today!

 

[Andy Black]

Day 17​

Launched my first Google Ad today for a past client who's a plumber! Got 90BGN to spend for free from Google, which is about $50. Set it up and everything, used a lot of exact matches. @Andy Black

However, for this client I entered my own card, name and etc in the billing information. Is that the proper way of doing it?

For example, should I also run my client with the cleaning company's ads from the same account, with my billing information (and have them deposit the ad budget to my bank account) or should I create new accounts for every client and have them enter their own info?

I could be getting a referral from the plumber soon, one of his friends is opening a massage studio and he said she is in need of a site and that he'll recommend me today.

You could pay the bill, or they could. They’re different business models. I personally prefer the client to pay the bill direct to Google. It’s more transparent for them, and less risk of me being left holding the baby if they do a runner.

Create an account per client, and an MCC to manage all the accounts.

 

[Andy Black]

Quick update
​

I've been learning Google Ads and cold calling. Mostly the former.

I launched a lead gen ad for one of my past clients who's a plumber and it's getting $0.07 CPC. The competition locally is non-existent. We're ecstatic.

Made some cold calls today.

New, very engaged prospect!

We had 2 calls today - one introductory and a second to discuss everything in-depth.

They are a plumbing contractor with a good amount of clients and employees but also open to the idea of acquiring more.

We had a great talk - I had 0 anxiety and was leading the client through the process. They were assertive and loud, but that only made it easier to communicate with them as those people are usually very straight-forward and honest, which I value.

At one point they said:

"We both know where this is going to lead. We're going to discuss something that benefits the both of us."

- "You are correct. However, what matters to me the most is making sure you get the results and growth you are after. I've also worked with *X neighbouring city plumbing contractor firm" and we had X ROI. What I charge is more often than not irrelevant as I don't consider my job done until the people I work with get at least 5x more than they invested".

We agreed on a new website, Google Ads (explained the likelihood of game-changing results, the low risk and my other clients' results so far) so if everything goes smoothly (which is rarely the case) we should be doing business together from Monday onwards.

He asked how I found him. I told him the truth - I recently worked with a similar company, decided to look for other contractors that may need help and made a list.

I also told him how I first called his competition who did not appreciate my outreach, were rude and lacked a growth oriented mindset, unlike him. That seemingly stroked his ego as he continued by saying "That's right, I am open to everything and we've been doing very well even the past few months".

Special thanks for my girlfriend for telling me to pick up the damn phone today. I had been slacking.

Other currently not-so-noteworthy happenings​

One of my past clients is on the lookout for people to refer me to, and another has already referred me to someone who is opening a massage studio (I mentioned this before). However, I haven't contacted them yet.

Client said that the massagist is currently moving stuff and setting up the new place, so I am unsure if calling them right now is a better idea than waiting for them to contact me. I can't trust them to make the first move, so I'll probably be the first to initiate.

Still $600/2000 goal for the month, but I have some more time!

Been looking at apartments to rent. Found a super cheap one-room apartment that looks good enough for me.. *cough* and my girlfriend. I'm more motivated than ever to rent that place and move out for the first time ever!

EDIT: 2 more cold calls, 2 more prospects! Not as likely to end up being a sale as the one above, but we talked for more than 10 minutes with both and I really got to know their problems and how I could help them.

Both said "I really want to do this but 2 months from now/when Fall comes because.. etc".

I've had tens of calls just like these and I'm sure that at least 1 or 2 out of them will end up contacting me eventually, so it's worth it.

That's all for now, I'm done calling for today.

Well done.

@Blackman @sonny_1080 ... it might be worth you following this.

 

[Simon Angel]

Nice work mate!! This is action taking right here. I wouldn’t put yourself down too much. You’re miles ahead of most people that want to do what you’re doing.

I remember being in a similar hustling place years ago when I started my own agency too. Hustling like crazy and making as many calls and emails as possible. It was the best feeling hitting that $1k MRR mark, then $2k, then $5k then $10k and after that it just became whatever.

Once you get that network and momentum going it’s gravy.

Thanks man, I appreciate you stopping by to post this. I've seen some of your posts in the past and I was also able to relate to you. It's like something in your mind clicks just right when you hit a certain milestone and you just know you have to keep doing what you're doing.

May I ask what your MRR consists of? For example, what were you doing in terms of services offered when you hit your $1k, $5k, $10K and etc in MMR mark and for how many clients?

 

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[Blackman]

Going to follow this, as I'm doing pretty much exactly the same thing aka offering lead gen via Google Ads for local businesses, except I don't do any website design or SEO for them, as I'm using my own landing page.

Don't get discouraged by cold calling - it can definitely be very daunting, especially when you keep hearing "not interested", "too expensive" and "we're already doing this", but remember that you need just 1 guy to say "yes", and that's it. Even if it's one guy out of 100 calls, but ideally it shouldn't take that long...

Thanks for the videos @Phikey , going through them now!

 

[Simon Angel]

You must be exhausted.
In other news, if you're interested in buying the course Phikey mentioned, it's £20.99 when you first sign up to Udemy.

It was €17.99 for me at first. I had €17.38 left on the card.

Exited checkout, came back 5 minutes later, Udemy offered me €15.99 instead. So about $18.

 

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[Odysseus M Jones]

Well done!
You're an inspiration.
I hope some action fakers see this & get off their butts.

Tip: When staring at your lead's number on your phone instead of having pretend-conversations and making needless preparations, which is just procrastination, have your hand push the call button and roll with it, just like you would with a cold shower - don't build up to it, just instantly crank the knob to freezing cold water.

From now on you'll be known as
St. Simeon, Guardian Angel of Action Fakers

So right now I am selling ads. If the prospect wants ads, but their site is trash I tell them the ads won't be effective and money would be wasted without a landing page that is able to convert the traffic they pay for. That's exactly how I made my second sale.

Or maybe The Bulgarian Black
Seeing as you're following in Andy's footsteps

And if three action fakers start executing we'll call them Andy's Angels
In honour of you both

 

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[Simon Angel]

Woke up with a pulsating earache and damn vertigo, no idea why.

Might've been the binaural beats I'd been listening to these past few days.. I also already evaluated the likelihood of it being corona.


Called the prospect I was supposed to be meeting..

..And they said they're unable to meet me today as they're driving to X city (sounded in a hurry) and offered to do it tomorrow instead.

I agreed and assured him that I'll take responsibility to contact them tomorrow morning so that we could agree on a time and place that works for us.

One small issue though. I've got another meeting appointed for Wednesday (tomorrow)

I'll either have to be flexible and meet both of them or postpone one for the next day. Will improvize tomorrow with this.


I haven't managed to do much else today thanks to this damn ear..

Light, sound and even the smell of my own farts would trigger dizziness. I did watch about an hour of the Google Adwords course but ultimately ended up just drinking a lot of water and waiting for the curse of The Binaural Beetlejuice to go away.


I did set up conversion tracking for phone calls for my cleaning company client.

Traffic has been steadily growing, too, a really hard and impressive feat when there's 0 competition (literally).

Fortunately, the cursed ear thing did go away at about 6PM after invoking the Law of Attraction (thanks Napoleon Hill).

I worked out and cooked dinner as celebration.
_______________________________________________________________________________________

Going to catch up on the Google Ads course for the next few hours before bed and visualize how I'm going to close my first RE client tomorrow for some sweet MRR (with a website redesign upsell as the current one isn't even mobile responsive).


In the meanwhile, here's what I listen to when I'm visualizing my rise to success and pretending I'm a mobster in the 50s in a jazz club with an unlit cigar as my girlfriend sits next to me.

Why unlit? Because I have Crohn's disease and smoking is bad (unless it's weed):

I am very aware that I suck at formating. This has been my 5th edit.

 

[Andy Black]

You had vertigo and ear ache and still managed to watch an hour of Google Ads course? You’re a glutton for punishment!

 

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[Simon Angel]

You had vertigo and ear ache and still managed to watch an hour of Google Ads course? You’re a glutton for punishment!

I feel like you're busting my balls, but to be fair it was also 35 C today and I lose the majority of my brain function in the heat.

Like, my IQ drops from Genius to just Gifted.

And you already know I ain't paying that AC money.

 

[Odysseus M Jones]

Thanks man, nice name!

In England at school they'd have called him Velikan the Pelican.
Kids are so cruel.
Just trying to cheer you up.
Remember, it's all in the mind.
Reality doesn't change, it's how you perceive it that does.

Thank you for a much valuable thread @Simon Angel!
I’m also in the stages of starting my webdesign business, but still looking for my first client.
I thought i was taking consistent action, and primarily doing cold emails without much results. Your thread and sharing of your process have given me a kick in the right direction, and I’ll begin to do cold calls instead on a consistent basis. So again, thank you for sharing!

A quick question: Do you have a system for all the prospecting you do? A system which helps you keep track of who you’ve contacted, and when to follow up?

Oh dude, 8 posts & still parked, they're cruel here too.
You see here likes are currency & they're stingy with them even though they're free to give.
Unless you're an epic legendary then your followers like anything you post.
That's more about the fanboy culture though.

 

[Simon Angel]

Hahaha, man I’m glad I was able to make an impact!

No so I actually do video audits on cold/no contact. You can publicly view any ads any Facebook page is running via page transparency > Facebook ads library. So although I can’t view the metrics/data, just from the ads their running I can get a general idea if they know what they’re doing or not.

for video audits I use loom, I seem to remember reading a thread on here of a very similar method by someone else.

then just make sure to find the Decision makers email (a bunch of softwares for this) as well as LinkedIn, etc. and send it out!

same amount of effort as getting local clients with 2-5x the returns.

My man you're a F*cking genius and a life saver. Never thought of doing it that way without the metrics.

May you share an example of how you present yourself in these e-mails? I assume you also talk on the video audits? I've got a slight accent but pretty good actually, I'd shit myself on the phone though and probably talk way too slow. I assume on the camera behind the screen it gets a bit easier to talk. Btw, don't know if you can relate to that but in Bulgarian I am the complete opposite - loud, clear and a pretty smooth talker.

 

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[Simon Angel]

Hahahaha you’re gassing me up too much!

it’s definitely a very different type of outreach that takes some time to master, but based off my metrics at 5 per day I book around 6 sales calls per month, which depending on lead quality & my sales results in 1 - 2 clients per month.

in the beginning I was sending 10+ per day, but I couldn’t sustain that output with managing the team and clients, so now I’ve got someone working for me on commission basis with my exact system.

I won’t share one of my examples publicly for obvious reasons, but it goes a bit like this:

- find a list of qualified leads, and find the DM email via LinkedIn/Snov/hunter
- Start recording on their website, introduce myself and give a hook. “I want to show you how you’re missing out on $10k, if not $100k pm in sales”
- quick intro of myself
- audit (compliment) their website, product, reviews, IG, and content
- go to their FB ads library “this is why I was surprised to see that a business of your caliber wasn’t taking full advantage of FB ads”
- change tabs to a google slides which is a quick pitch for the agency (Shopify specialists, 800k+ in adspend, guarantee results)
- show case studies / results from previous clients (proof)
- audit ads (too few ads, copy, creatives, etc.)
- show case studies again and give a CTA “if you re interested in generating results like these, I’d love to book in a quick 15 min call”

and then rinse and repeat that 10x per day.

I think this would probably work great for you with website builds aswell, especially given you have a portfolio.

as I said, don’t giveup the cold calls, but start adding this to your outreach system! You’ll need to write out a 3 - 5x email sequence and store leads in a google sheet / CRM as well so you don’t lose track.

LMK if I missed anything, this was all just off the top of my head while I wait for an uber haha

Thanks a lot for the step-by-step man. I've never had any Facebook Ads clients apart from my own stores, so I'll have to pull up some of the more impressive data from my own ad manager for the case study, at least for now.

You mentioned you're averaging around $5000-7000 a month, how many clients is that for you?

How did you get your first 1-2-3 clients? Same deal but without the portfolio part?

Have you niched out in terms of what type of businesses you help? Since you mentioned Shopify, I assume you're looking for ecommerce store owners. Ever thought about utilising Facebook groups?

Thanks a bunch again.

 

[ksiendzu]

Hi Simon,

I usually just read threads and sometimes like better posts, but your last post made me writing this - damn you!

You have nothing to appologies for - its normal that things turn out to be more difficult and time absorbing that expected.

Please dont give up, because you're inspiration to many people, even if you dont know about their existance, because they just read your thread. (And your go-get-it attitude despite living in eastern Europe, having disease and being 20'something makes you even bigger inspiration for people that can relate to that - Yes, for example me )

To be honest Im not surprised that you feel like its going nowhere, when you spend time to record, postproduce and send audit and that email doesnt even gets opened.

Do you qualify in any way your prospect?

Even if you send quick message and only half replied positively, that still saves you so much time, because you'll be making audits just for people that showed interest in your service (True story - I recently got message on LinkedIn asking "which email you'd like me to sent audit of your site?")

I see that you feel tired and doubtful, so take your time to reset, but man, please, dont f*ckin quit, cuz I got hooked into your story and want to see you win and keep winning

Geting back to updating thread when you hit 1k MRR is fair enough, but remember to reach out for help if needed

 

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[Simon Angel]

Hi Simon,

I usually just read threads and sometimes like better posts, but your last post made me writing this - damn you!

Thanks, you're really kind!

Yes, I do qualify prospects by the following criteria:

• Must be an ecommerce store - preferrably Shopify/Woocommerce
• Must have an Instagram account with a following between 10 to 100K with regular uploads
• Must already be running mediocre Facebook Ads, that most commonly translates into them having 5-10 ads running, usually with subpar ad creative while some of their competitors are running hundreds.
• Preferrably not a dropshipping store, though it's quite rare to see one with a solid social media following as building a brand is rarely a concern for dropshippers. I should know.

I'll never quit. However, I am disappointed with my lack of progress, especially looking back at 19 year old me profiting $10K a month, while 22 year old me is a bum.

Thanks again for the uplifting reply! I am the most confident man with the lowest self-esteem.

 

[Simon Angel]

No problem man, thanks for that thread!

I should have been clearer - do you qualify prospect in a sense that if your email with included audit is the first message that they get?

If yes then you spend time on creating audits that may not even be watched, because person that you're sending audit to didnt showed any interest or commitement.

When you change the sequence - message first, then they reply, if interested then send audit - you will be making audits just for people that showed interest and you'll increase chances of closing clients, because you'll focus time on those who responded in the first place.

Brilliant idea, I could just message a lot of people every day with something similar to "Would you be interested in a free, personalized audit of your ecommerce store and your Facebook Ads?" and only audit for those that reply.

Thank you!

 

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