My Odyssey - Finding Meaning And Achieving Financial Freedom

[Morgan77]

Got a sales call set up for an hour from now. I've never used Google Meet before, nor have I ever had a sales call with an American (only Bulgarians until this point).

I'm feeling a bit tense but looking forward to it nontheless!

Go kill it

 

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[Simon Angel]

Go kill it

Thank you! Starting soon.

 

[MHP368]

I'm still sending emails every day, still getting quite a bit of responses. I've only been doing this for about a month and I knew nothing about email marketing, so even though I'm still waddling in a puddle of shit at least I'm getting meetings now.

what country are you in? (its Bulgaria? or that's just where you were born?)

How is your agency different? , whats the value you add? like you're asking them to jump on a call with you - time=money, why should they do that if they're getting slammed with 200 emails from digital marketing agencies a day?

I'm not here to shit on your dream please don't take this as me wanting a fight its just me being "real" , its good that your tracking email KPI's (and btw for the time it takes you to customize those emails you'd get a lot more done just cold calling people , really, go do the math) - but if it takes you "x hours" to get "y clients" and you don't even know how much you'll profit or how long they'll stay....

here lets try this, pretend I'm a prospect and you have me on Linkedin or email.

hit me with your pitch.

 

[Simon Angel]

show , don't tell, I like it.

good.

don't mention this, you shouldn't charge low either. You should charge the highest price the market will accept (unless you have an upsell once they are already your clients so the lifetime value makes this sensible)

good, "only factor"

I don't mention it, but it would surely come as a pleasant surprise for them once I state the price.

 

[Simon Angel]

Switch to pay per appointment/show model and you'll get clients begging to work with you rather than the other way around!

Hey, I thought about you and your situation last night when I went out for a walk before bed. How have you been doing?

Could you share a bit more about your process on pay per show?

 

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[Simon Angel]

I won't say the first month has been problem free since i set up the first 10 clients but I've probably made about £5000 before tax.

I do it a simple way.

- I created a brand in my niche.
- I sign up clients by telling them they don't pay me anything until a lead arrives for their appointment.
- I then run ads under my brand in a certain radius to their location.
- I have team who follows up with all the leads. We book appointments for them directly on our clients calendars.

They arrive and we get paid.

There's a lot of automated processes that make this work but that's basically it in a nutshell.

Solid first month then!

Thanks for sharing. Doesn't look like it's applicable to what I'm trying to do (increase ecommerce stores' ROAS and conversion rate) but I'm happy you've gained traction.

 

[Paul David]

It was fine time to quit fooling around and actually get serious about doing this, so this is what I've been up to the last couple days:

• Designed and set up my agency's website
• Got on a call with someone I really look up to and we formulated a plan for me to execute on
• No more cold, plain-text emailing. It's really not worth reaching out to over 200 prospects for 1 failed meeting
• Back to sending video audits, but (hopefully) in a much better, efficient format that catches the prospect's attention and leads them through my website's funnel

I was about to give up on this about a week ago, but I decided to push through and I'm super happy I did. I'll be sending 8-10+ video audits per day.

Will post an update in about a week. It's do or die.

No one cares what your agency website looks like.

The only thing you should be doing all day every day is setting appointments and closing appointments.

Outreach, outreach, outreach.

Cold call 100 people a day if you have to.

Thats all for now.

 

[Paul David]

So cold, Simon's grinding along & gets nothing while whiny boy earns 7 figures & cries like a baby.
No, I've no time for people like that.

The thread your comment is from is hardly an entrepreneur.
He's just pressed his nose to the glass for seven years, peered in & did nothing.

I follow people like Simon, people that get on with it & don't whine when times are hard.

Like I said, cut your losers & let your winners run.
Law of nature, strong survive, except now, the weak just wail all over the internet.

There's nothing more dignified than bleating to random strangers.

Sorry to derail your thread Simon, didn't want to hurt sad sacks feelings if he saw this.

Simon's had plenty of advice from me and others in this thread. Not sure why you're bringing over comments from another one.

Two people in two different circumstances.

And there's nothing cold about it. Simon should be setting and closing appointments all day long for the next 6 months. That's the best advice anyone can give him from the stage he's currently at. I've been there.

 

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[Simon Angel]

So cold, Simon's grinding along & gets nothing while whiny boy earns 7 figures & cries like a baby.
No, I've no time for people like that.

The thread your comment is from is hardly an entrepreneur.
He's just pressed his nose to the glass for seven years, peered in & did nothing.

I follow people like Simon, people that get on with it & don't whine when times are hard.

Like I said, cut your losers & let your winners run.
Law of nature, strong survive, except now, the weak just wail all over the internet.

There's nothing more dignified than bleating to random strangers.

Sorry to derail your thread Simon, didn't want to hurt sad sacks feelings if he saw this.

Don't know what this is about but I appreciate the support and acknowledgement. He's obviously of the impression that I'm wasting my time building a business card website while it's actually an invaluable part of the funnel I built and the place I host my videos, so he's neither wrong nor right, just too assuming. I'll also start content writing to drive some organic traffic to it.

 

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[Simon Angel]

Simon, have you thought about using your agency website to advertise on Google Ads and try to target people who are looking for lead gen/marketing type of services?

You could make it more specific by targeting certain markets, but the idea is to find someone who's actively looking for what you have to offer, rather than the cold approach, which you're doing now.

I'm trying this out at the moment as a new way of prospecting, but don't have any significant data to say whether it works or not. In theory, it's just a basic form of marketing - I think the challenge is getting people to fill out the opt-in on my page and get in touch with me...

Something you may want to look into and test it.

I'm focused on making sure I master the current method I am using rather than going grasshopper to the next best thing. But yes I've considered it.

 

[OneLife]

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.

I would send an email 1/2 days before the call to confirm, a lot can happen in 4 days

 

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[Phikey]

I use calendly and set up the automated notifications so it automatically reminds them a few times before the call (2 days, 1 day, & 1 hour). In those emails I also direct them to my content and free course. The idea is to build trust and reduce no-show rates. Usually, by the time I'm on the call, even if they had no idea who I was before booking, they already have some confidence built and so I'm not going in ice cold.

 

[Simon Angel]

BOOM!

There we go man!

Keep going strong, when it seems it's the hardest is when you're about to make a breakthrough.

You've got this

Yo! The man himself who got me into this a few months ago and warned me it's a steep learning curve!

It's always darkest before dawn. I've seen it happen before and it's what keeps me going. Thanks for stopping by my thread and reminding me this!

 

[Xolorr]

After another dreadful day of manual cold emailing I get the sweetest notification there is - another booked sales call!

That makes 2 calls booked this week and my booking rate just shot up significantly but how much exactly - not sure, I can't be arsed to calculate that shit right now!

I'd like to thank all my fans, the Law of Attraction and NoFap for this exciting breakthrough!

And let's be real here, I wouldn't have booked 2 calls this week if it weren't for my future wedding best men @Phikey & @Xolorr. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to change my life, it's time to get this thing rolling.

Hehehe, one step closer to joining me in delusion land.

LETS GOOOO

Keep up the momentum!

 

[Xolorr]

Quick Question, have you thought about changing up your service offering?

I know a tonne of people doing FB ads (me included) and it's getting more and more saturated every day (Doesn't mean you can't make money, just makes it more competitive).

Very few people are doing email marketing, influencer marketing or conversion rate optimisation (all of which are extremely important to ecom businesses).

I have a buddy doing $2k setup fee + 15% email rev and he's KILLING it!

Maybe blast all of your old leads with a different offer & see if anyone bites?

Also don't forget building websites (which is where you had your initial success) &/or FB ads for real estate, chiropractors, vets, etc.

Not here to dissuade you in any way, but I've seen first hand that everyone with an online store is getting hit up every day for FB ads because of the low barrier to entry.

Rn Trade your time for money -> invest that money into a bus that makes CENTS

 

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[Xolorr]

100%. I'm considering mixing it up or switching completely to CRO if needed. I'm a total beast at optimizing stores so I'll definitely have to test that! And yep, I thought about doing it exactly like that lol.

You've got a unique angle with that as well -> higher CRO = higher ROAS without changing one thing on your ads.

+ you've got a higher barrier to entry because Shopify is a pain in the a$$ to make highly converting.

Use this as an upsell or a last ditch effort if you don't think you'll close them on ads.

"Hey, if it's too much for you to give up control of your ads now, how about I reengineer your landing pages so that you earn more on what you're already doing, and then once I've shown you the value of that we can work on scaling your ads"

 

[qcl2768]

Not quite sure what you're asking? I have a flat monthly fee in mind for my first clients.

ya that's what I meant, just get more clients.

If you charge $500/month/ client, you ONLY need 10 to get 5k/month, and you're pretty golden right? I saw you said your monthly expense is 2k.

 

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[Simon Angel]

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

I appreciate the advice, but I'm not sending 1000 emails a day lmao. I'm sending 5 emails per day each done with careful research and a unique landing page created for each of them. And I'm also contacting them on all fronts as well - email, site chat, Facebook, Instagram and etc. minus linkedin.

I agree with the rest of what you said and I am already doing that, what I found curious was that you hold 2 meetings - one to discuss the problem and the solution and another to present a proposal. I figured this would all be done in one meeting, can you share a little more about why you're doing it in seperate meetings?

6k on a retainer or a one time payment for something like CRO? How many ads was this client running prior to you contacting them? And for your first client too, wow.

 

[Fox]

So I had 2 sales calls yesterday. I already shared what happened on the first, so here's the second:​

Big diaper and masks company. The prospect had a very solid understanding of Facebook Ads so it was smooth sailing. They were already doing 50% of what I wanted to talk to them about, but had no idea about the rest of the 50% and really appreciated the knowledge. They weren't looking to aggressively scale their ads right now, since they have a logistics issue and asked me to set a reminder to contact them again in late November.

They also said that they're in talks with a few other agencies but that none of them shared their strategies outright, especially "personalized for us" like I did and that the others "just kept showing case studies" and that they'll "definitely keep that in mind after we deal with our inventory problem".

And shortly after:

"I enjoyed talking to you and we'll likely seek you out again, but could you maybe set a reminder to reach out to us around late November?". I consider this call a success for sure.

*Sales call No. 3 didn't happen because the prospect had something come up and let me know 2 hours in advance that they need to reschedule, and reschedule they did - as soon as I replied back to them with a "no worries" type of response.

Anyway, just last night I sent the first ever invoice from my digital marketing agency through PayPal.​

It might sound silly but I was actually pretty stressed out about it and now that I've got it all down (including the terms and conditions) it feels so good. I have now completed the digital marketing agency game in full. The whole process. All that is left is for the invoice to be paid, and even if it won't be I still have more sales calls to go this month and feel completely confident in the process and I'm filled with abundance. It took me a few months to figure it out and I got the best help along the way, so it wasn't easy but I'm really grateful that this is all happening.

Also, I recorded a part of my call yesterday and my spoken English has improved significantly since my first ever video audits and our call with @Phikey on the 14th of September. Exactly a month ago I had absolutely nothing going for me and this man slapped me through Zoom. Can hardly believe the progress I've made since then, I definitely didn't imagine to book 4 sales calls in 15 days sending 5 emails per day, but it's now a fact!

Solid progress, well done.

 

[emphasize.v1]

Hey buddy I hope you're well. I've read some of the latest progress posts.

Have you considered going door-to-door in your city/neighbor cities and trying to close clients face to face?

I'm telling you this because we were closing like ~1 client per two weeks even before we had registered the legal entity, at the time when friend and I were in the agency business.

On the contrary, long time after I left the business my friend got like 3000 US-based leads to pitch his services. He closed ZERO clients out of email and he IS a good closer. I tried to help him with it and I coludnt close shit either. Weird stuff...

Do try face to face and hit me up if u need help with that.

Also, make a LinkedIn profile and try to pitch there. I think, for starters, that response rate will.be much higher. I believe you'll know what to do from there.

 

[Phikey]

So I had 2 sales calls yesterday. I already shared what happened on the first, so here's the second:​

Big diaper and masks company. The prospect had a very solid understanding of Facebook Ads so it was smooth sailing. They were already doing 50% of what I wanted to talk to them about, but had no idea about the rest of the 50% and really appreciated the knowledge. They weren't looking to aggressively scale their ads right now, since they have a logistics issue and asked me to set a reminder to contact them again in late November.

They also said that they're in talks with a few other agencies but that none of them shared their strategies outright, especially "personalized for us" like I did and that the others "just kept showing case studies" and that they'll "definitely keep that in mind after we deal with our inventory problem".

And shortly after:

"I enjoyed talking to you and we'll likely seek you out again, but could you maybe set a reminder to reach out to us around late November?". I consider this call a success for sure.

*Sales call No. 3 didn't happen because the prospect had something come up and let me know 2 hours in advance that they need to reschedule, and reschedule they did - as soon as I replied back to them with a "no worries" type of response.

Anyway, just last night I sent the first ever invoice from my digital marketing agency through PayPal.​

It might sound silly but I was actually pretty stressed out about it and now that I've got it all down (including the terms and conditions) it feels so good. I have now completed the digital marketing agency game in full. The whole process. All that is left is for the invoice to be paid, and even if it won't be I still have more sales calls to go this month and feel completely confident in the process and I'm filled with abundance. It took me a few months to figure it out and I got the best help along the way, so it wasn't easy but I'm really grateful that this is all happening.

Also, I recorded a part of my call yesterday and my spoken English has improved significantly since my first ever video audits and our call with @Phikey on the 14th of September. Exactly a month ago I had absolutely nothing going for me and this man slapped me through Zoom. Can hardly believe the progress I've made since then, I definitely didn't imagine to book 4 sales calls in 15 days sending 5 emails per day, but it's now a fact!

Great stuff man!! Huge leap forward from where you were when we spoke in mid-september. You're clearly making progress and fantastic to hear about that first invoice. All the hard work is now bearing fruit.

 

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[Simon Angel]

Goes to show that if you throw enough mud at the wall, some of it will stick.

No one is born a millionaire knowing exactly what business is right for him, so it's always a case of trial and error, not quitting, being consistent and just ploughing along until something clicks.

Agree 100%. Hope you're doing well man.

 

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[Beerbread]

Congratulations!!! That was a helluva ride! It's strange what you come starting one thing and then it morphs into something completely different! I'm glad it's working out for you!

 

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[Simon Angel]

Congratulations!!! That was a helluva ride! It's strange what you come starting one thing and then it morphs into something completely different! I'm glad it's working out for you!

Oh, definitely man! I started off by trying to get back to the "dropshipping glory days", offering web design for local service-based businesses, Google Ads for RE brokerages, then Facebook Ads in the US, UK, and Australia for e-commerce stores.

Dropshipping almost worked out again but I was really low on money, web design pulled me out when I was massively in debt, Google and Facebook Ads were a huge fail in the sense that I made zero, but the hustle transferred to my copywriting prospecting and is the reason why I landed my clients. I don't think I'll be going back to dropshipping now that I have the capital though, I'm sticking with copy for sure.

 

[Simon Angel]

Well done! Without a website, how were you attracting clients?

Upwork. First client was a guy from my network, but Upwork was a game-changer.

Great man nice work,
I see you post less and less of web design, what about that?

I only did web design for 2 months last year.

 

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[Dami-B]

​

Update on January 2021​

​

​

MY GOAL OF FINANCIAL FREEDOM HAS BEEN ACHIEVED!​

It's been a hectic month, but with an average work time of 2 hours per day, I've earned $2000!

Wow. Going back half a year ago when my journey here started, I calculated that my "fastlane" or financial freedom is earning $2000 in my country with plenty of free time left to follow my other interests (such as racing).

Well, it looks like I done did it..

I can't believe how much shit I tried to get to this point. It was anything but easy, I was severely in debt with my mother and we were on the verge of hunger. I had to constantly manage my lifestyle and stress levels to not cause my Crohn's disease to flare up (huge trigger) while also putting food on the table and helping with the bills.

​

We're mostly BLIND to the big picture and overly self-focused.
​

Interestingly, a few months ago when I was at my lowest point financially, a rich girl friend of mine asked me to meet up with her at the park to talk about some relationship issues she'd been having at the time.

As time went by, our conversation evolved into her complaining how tough her life is and how she "barely makes any money" with her $1 million+ valued house, which was given to her as a birthday gift from her father, and costs $500 per night to book, and is only vacant 5-10 days per month.

Her only expense is the cleaner she massively underpays.

That was pretty shocking for me to hear, but then again, it's all about perspective, isn't it?

I am a pleb in the eyes of a McDonald's employee in a 1st World Country and a privileged individual in the eyes of the 1 billion actively dying of hunger all over the world.​

And even though my life has been mostly suffering, I've found meaning in it and at least I had the opportunity to change. Many people don't even get that, so I AM lucky.

​

Persistence, tears, depression, and Amor Fati.​

​

I kept failing, and failing, and failing.. over and over again. Every day. I would often sell some of the weed I got for my Crohn's disease when things got rough, even though it was hard to get ahold of as it is and I needed it to maintain remission. At one point I even considered selling hard drugs because I didn't want me and my mother to starve.

No matter how close I got, the breakthrough just didn't seem to come.

Until it did.

I reached my goal of what I personally consider financial freedom ($2000 per month). I started with zero courses, practice, and no portfolio, and in just 2 months earned more than I did in the past 3 years! Way more.

In just 2 months, my portfolio size has grown from 0 to 350+ products worth of copy and I've got 3 recurring clients!

And the biggest support I ever got wasn't from my friends, mother, or even my girlfriend, but people here from our forum. I appreciate everyone that came through to help me out in my journey with @Phikey being the one who changed my life with his wisdom and was there for me every step of the way. If I were a woman, I'd be head over heels for him, what a man.

And now I can finally, confidently say that I found out what I love doing for a living - copywriting.

To anyone out there struggling - as banal as it sounds - JUST DON'T GIVE UP!​

Days before I landed my first copywriting client I didn't even know I wanted to be a copywriter and I was all out of ideas. It just happened.

Maybe the Universe rewarded me for my efforts, as wretched as they were. The point is, you never know what tomorrow has in store for you.. and sometimes, it's good.

Your journey put a huge smile on my face, I'm glad you're doing great

 

[Simon Angel]

No.
Leave it for posterity.
A reminder of your metamorfosis from caterpillar to butterfly.
But if you insist, at least change journey to Odyssey.
It didn't take 10 years but it was an ordeal and you did go through hell.


Also it pays homage to my former screen name a Odysseus M Jones, your first and most ardent supporter.

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.

Of course if someone checked that, they will see that I am not the first person to like your post but as you recall during one of your deepest darkest depressions I unliked all your posts in order to re-like them to give you a massive boost and lift you out of your funk.

Naturally, because of your OCD you noticed this drop of likes and called me out on it before I re-liked your posts.

That's why all my likes on your posts are on the same date when I re-liked liked them all.

Anyway, this thread is about you not me.

Congratulations on your success Mr king of push-ups and future world formula 1 champion.

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.

And yes, I'm definitely still working on becoming a Formula 1 World Champion and improving my driving every day. I'm actually up there with the eSports guys now, many of which have gained entry into motorsports from their simulator success, so that's a future possibility along with video game writing.

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.

 

[Itizn]

It's been said before, people want to hear your story, almost more so than what you can do for them.

The first post was great, congrats on what you've accomplished.

Haven't read through the entire thread, so sorry If it's been answered, but are you planning to remain in Bulgaria or do you have a country you'd like to relocate to?

 

[Andy Black]

P.S. I'd love it if we could rename my thread to "My Journey - Finding Meaning And Achieving Financial Freedom".

Done.

 

[Simon Angel]

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.

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.

Very poetic - looking forward to seeing what you'll get into!