21 Years Old , $7K + Cashflow Business - How I kicked my a$$ into gear after years of action faking

[Wil22]

Thank you!

The forums given me a lot, and looking back I realize that I was one of the people MJ was trying to show how to get the roses. (Damn I need to reread unscripted again!)

I hope this helps at least one person make that mental break through needed

Thanks for posting. It provided me with a format to follow. Definitely helps. I look forward to reading your future posts!

 

[PseudoBobSmith]

Wow, it's been a long time since I've been on this forum.

Hey guys, I'm Xolorr. I'm 21 Y/O from South Africa, and here's my story of how I kicked my a$$ into gear, finally started making some bread, and have some actionable advice that won't be fun but has helped me go from a broke-a$$ 21 y/o to now having $7k pm in MRR.

---

Backstory:

So, if you go back in my profile it'll be a picture-perfect display of action faking. I first found out about MJ and TMF when I was like 16/17, and I was hooked. What followed was years of mental masturbation and "attempts" at businesses. Looking back I'm disgusted to even call those attempts, and are more indicative of a millennial who's grown up on social media's expectations of overnight success, even though back then I swore I was working hard and "hustling".

Such is life, and I'll probably look back on this time in my life being like "wtf was I doing" in a couple of months.

If you don't feel slightly embarrassed/cringe about your past, you aren't growing.

(Not trying to act all high and mighty or as if I'm a millionaire, because I'm far from that lambo, but progress is still progress)

ANYWAYS, let's dive into what you all came for!

How did a broke-a$$ 21 Year old who had $35 in his bank account get to now having a business cash flowing $7k?

It's a long story, and I know that if I try to explain it all, it'll turn into a mini-book. But here's the gist of it.

I blame it all on grit and most importantly, an FTE.

You see, I've been reading and learning about business since I was like 16. I don't know why, but I've always had the surety that I would "make it". Ever since around 15 - 16 I realized school was BS, and I had to make it on my own if I wanted to personally be happy.

That being said, I grew up with bubble wrap. Middle class family, born into complacency in a small town, with no real hardships growing up. Yeah life was a rollercoaster and I have my fair share of childhood trauma, but there was always food on the table, and I lived in complacency. Never really had to work for anything, and kinda just had comfortable life in a small town in the middle of nowhere.

As soon as I turned 18 I wanted to leave, and after highschool I took the normal route of going to uni, except all I did was move to a uni-town, and study online.

I barely touched my books, and tbh had no clue what I was doing with my life. I'd spend all-day on TMF reading and rereading threads like this, and convincing myself I was taking action when truly I was just taking 2 weeks to build a terrible dropship Shopify store, buy an IG shoutout, and quit at the first signs of it not working. I convinced myself I was "taking actions", when tbh I was borderline depressed and lost.

From there I started freelancing photo and video, with whatever jobs came my way, and not actually going out trying to find my clients.

I had a lot of fun and crazy experiences in photo/video, but never earnt more than a couple of hundred bucks per job.

This brings me to the first biggest lesson:

Who you surround yourself with matters.

My roommates would go to uni, eat McDonald's, get drunk, and talk about girls they'd seen on Instagram all day. Compared to them, I was killing it making my $2000 per month off of random freelance gigs.

Things changed completely when I got a friend who "forced" me to start working out. I taught him about photo and video, and he'd train me, which is where everything started to click, and it was the first time I'd worked hard at something over multiple months as opposed to a couple weeks. The simple act of working out nearly every single day and the delay of seeing the results suddenly made me understand business, and how you aren't meant to see results for the first couple months.

After this, my video work started to take off and life improved. I quit drinking, started spending a load of time outdoors and really just feeling happy and passionate, but I definitely didn't have a business or any sustainable income.

Then I found the thread on here about a digital marketing agency, and decided thats what I was going to do.

Months went by of little to no work.

Making the perfect logo
Making the perfect website (Multiple times)
Building slideshow pitch decks

(None of which move the needle at all)

And time just carried on going by.

Then this year things started to change.

My family started to hit some financial struggle, and I saw the effect that it had on them

I made a load of money (at least what I thought at the time) by filming music festivals in the summer (December), but it made my lose my passion for videography and made me hate being treated with a lack of respect. I filmed 13 music festivals in one month, from 3pm to 3am, and finished the edits the next day every time. I slept in some crazy places, on friends couches, in my car, wherever I would find myself in the early hours of the morning, and at the New Years Eve festival, I vowed that it would be the last time I filmed out of necessity for money.

That's when I met my "mentor", who's now one of my best friends.

He had a youtube channel and he was visiting South Africa, and I sent a crazy DM offering to film his videos for him.

Somehow, it worked out.

For the first 5 months of this year, I worked myself to the grindstone.

Outreach during the day for Facebook advertising, in the evenings I would edit whatever I filmed that day and manage the channel.

I didn't get paid a cent, but he let me live with him and covered my food, so I was rent and grocery free for 5 month.

Nothing seemed to be working, and by March I had burnt through all of my savings, and had a whopping $35 in my bank account.

My Instagram made me look like a king from my video work (Trips to Dubai, Greece, Italy, Massive Parties, Jetskis, Etc.) because it was all a part of the job I was doing.

But I was broke asf.

That's when I believe my mental game finally switched on, and when it came to outreach I was on another level.

I would record 10 - 20 videos auditing companies every day, and send them out trying to get meetings, and finally one budged.

I signed my first client in April for $750 + 15% of the return from ads.

And after that, everything had clicked, and my next 2 clients came in like clockwork, taking me swiftly to a reoccurring income of $4000 per month.

More money than I'd ever seen in my life.

And that brings us to today, where I'm managing 5 client accounts (it was six but one dropped after a month because of a silver bullet 20ROAS expectation) and I have 3 deals in the pipeline.

Okay, your stories kinda cool, but tell me how to make money.

Well, I can't.

I'm but a guppy in this wild ocean of entrepreneurship, and there are much better sources than me who have given all of their secrets out on this forum.

You have it all in front of you.

BUT!

What I will do is give you some very practical advice on what has helped me!

#1) Trim the fat.

I don't mean go work out (Even though I should be). What I mean is trim the fat on your time.

Distractions and timesucks are what hold you back the most.

Do yourself a favour and check your screentime on your phone, and audit this CONSISTENTLY.

Hours are stolen by that little infinity box every day and you don't even realize it.

Unless you're crazy famous or an influencer, delete Instagram.

This will do WONDERS for your mental health and wellbeing, and I think everyone should do it.

It literally brings ZERO value to your life, whatsoever.

If you're so addicted that you can't be without it, check it on your computer. It's a much less enjoyable experience on your computer for some reason, and you'll spend ridiculously less time on it.

Same goes for TikTok!!!

I won't rant about this because we'd be here for days, but IMO it's the most brainwashing invention on earth, and it's turning people into zombies with a 2-second attention span.

#2) Prioritize sleep and get out of bed.

The days of "I'll sleep when I'm dead" and "Hustle 24/7" are gone. Save those for the meme pages.

You're a lot more emotionally stable, high energy, and effective when you sleep properly. It should be prioritized above all else.

Get 7 - 9 hours of sleep a night, and wake up at the same time every day.

Like hitting the snooze button? Create a system to stop it.

Download alarms or military alarm, and set it so you have to scan a barcode in your kitchen or do some physical activity to turn off the alarm.

This will work wonders in stopping the fight against yourself.

While you're at it, buy a cheap second-hand phone just for your alarm app of choice and music/podcasts. That way you're disconnected from mainstream BS until you finish your morning work. My main phone doesn't get turned on until 13:00 when I just have calls for the rest of the day.

You can get more done in a morning deep work block than most people can in an entire week if you get rid of distractions.

#3) Get a high-value skill and sell it

I'm not writing about making a new invention, coding, real estate, or anything like that because I've never done it, and to add to that, it takes capital.

My goal has always been to get a cashflow business running on autopilot, and then self-fund more scaleable ventures from there.

IMO the best way to start from zero is to learn a high-value skill, sell that skill, and then hire to do fulfilment.

This doesn't mean that you don't know how to produce the results, but it frees up time from delivering work for clients and being a freelancer, to be able to keep prioritizing sales and allows you to scale to a certain extent.

#4) The internet is the great equalizer

This one goes out to all my third world homies reading this.

YOU HAVE THE BIGGEST ADVANTAGE OVER EVERYONE IN THE STATES AND YOU DON'T EVEN REALIZE IT.

You might think I'm crazy, but let's do a little maths here.

Off a google search that probably has very sketchy data, the average monthly costs for a single person in the US is $2,643.

I believe it's higher, especially in big cities. I mean, rent in LA is like $2k for a one-bedroom.

I'm currently writing this from a prime position, modern two-bedroom apartment in Cape Town, that costs me less than $900 a month, and this is me being extra and flexing my money.

If you're in a third world country or anywhere where your cost of living is low, imagine how well you could live on $2000 per month?!

You'll be spending less than the average American, and probably having 2-3X the quality of life.

SO DO BUSINESS WITH AMERICANS!!

With the internet, nothing is stopping you.

All of my clients are US based, and pay 3X more than what I would get working with local brands, FOR THE SAME AMOUNT OF WORK?!

Why would you not want to get paid 3X for the same time and effort?

Leverage your low cost of living to enjoy life while being frugal (in the eyes of the US).

#5 Quality & Quantity

This applies specifically to sales based models and getting it off the ground, but in today's day and age copying and pasting a "good cold email script" off of Google isn't going to get you anywhere.

People are getting hit up more than ever, and you need to go above and beyond to get even a modest attempt to client ratio.

With the system I use, I expect a 6% attempt to meeting ratio, and I understand that if I send out 100 outreaches in a month, I can sign 1 - 2 clients per month, at around a $1000 - $3000 MRR and a minimum of a 3-month contract.

In the beginning, all of your time should be spent on finding and getting in contact with prospects.

---

Whatever you're doing now, if you don't have an income stream you can create one with zero capital, and whatever device you're reading this on.

Some good examples:
- Digital Marketing (Getting saturated, I'm already planning on what to do if Facebook ads were to go belly up)
- Copywriting
- Email Marketing
- Photo/video
- Web Design

-----

I hope this all made sense, it's right before bed and I wrote this all off the top of my head.

As I mentioned, $7k per month really isn't a lot compared to the big dogs, but I'm glad that I'm able to save around 50% of that every month while living an extremely comfortable life, and the next steps are scaling this to $30k per month, and using my resources and skills to create new income streams which have more leverage and potential.

WOW.... Respect. I appreciate your story, and truly enjoy the insights of what you've provided.

 

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[Tiago]

Fantastic work @Xolorr, keep up the good work!

 

[Raul V.]

Wow, it's been a long time since I've been on this forum.

Hey guys, I'm Xolorr. I'm 21 Y/O from South Africa, and here's my story of how I kicked my a$$ into gear, finally started making some bread, and have some actionable advice that won't be fun but has helped me go from a broke-a$$ 21 y/o to now having $7k pm in MRR.

---

Backstory:

So, if you go back in my profile it'll be a picture-perfect display of action faking. I first found out about MJ and TMF when I was like 16/17, and I was hooked. What followed was years of mental masturbation and "attempts" at businesses. Looking back I'm disgusted to even call those attempts, and are more indicative of a millennial who's grown up on social media's expectations of overnight success, even though back then I swore I was working hard and "hustling".

Such is life, and I'll probably look back on this time in my life being like "wtf was I doing" in a couple of months.

If you don't feel slightly embarrassed/cringe about your past, you aren't growing.

(Not trying to act all high and mighty or as if I'm a millionaire, because I'm far from that lambo, but progress is still progress)

ANYWAYS, let's dive into what you all came for!

How did a broke-a$$ 21 Year old who had $35 in his bank account get to now having a business cash flowing $7k?

It's a long story, and I know that if I try to explain it all, it'll turn into a mini-book. But here's the gist of it.

I blame it all on grit and most importantly, an FTE.

You see, I've been reading and learning about business since I was like 16. I don't know why, but I've always had the surety that I would "make it". Ever since around 15 - 16 I realized school was BS, and I had to make it on my own if I wanted to personally be happy.

That being said, I grew up with bubble wrap. Middle class family, born into complacency in a small town, with no real hardships growing up. Yeah life was a rollercoaster and I have my fair share of childhood trauma, but there was always food on the table, and I lived in complacency. Never really had to work for anything, and kinda just had comfortable life in a small town in the middle of nowhere.

As soon as I turned 18 I wanted to leave, and after highschool I took the normal route of going to uni, except all I did was move to a uni-town, and study online.

I barely touched my books, and tbh had no clue what I was doing with my life. I'd spend all-day on TMF reading and rereading threads like this, and convincing myself I was taking action when truly I was just taking 2 weeks to build a terrible dropship Shopify store, buy an IG shoutout, and quit at the first signs of it not working. I convinced myself I was "taking actions", when tbh I was borderline depressed and lost.

From there I started freelancing photo and video, with whatever jobs came my way, and not actually going out trying to find my clients.

I had a lot of fun and crazy experiences in photo/video, but never earnt more than a couple of hundred bucks per job.

This brings me to the first biggest lesson:

Who you surround yourself with matters.

My roommates would go to uni, eat McDonald's, get drunk, and talk about girls they'd seen on Instagram all day. Compared to them, I was killing it making my $2000 per month off of random freelance gigs.

Things changed completely when I got a friend who "forced" me to start working out. I taught him about photo and video, and he'd train me, which is where everything started to click, and it was the first time I'd worked hard at something over multiple months as opposed to a couple weeks. The simple act of working out nearly every single day and the delay of seeing the results suddenly made me understand business, and how you aren't meant to see results for the first couple months.

After this, my video work started to take off and life improved. I quit drinking, started spending a load of time outdoors and really just feeling happy and passionate, but I definitely didn't have a business or any sustainable income.

Then I found the thread on here about a digital marketing agency, and decided thats what I was going to do.

Months went by of little to no work.

Making the perfect logo
Making the perfect website (Multiple times)
Building slideshow pitch decks

(None of which move the needle at all)

And time just carried on going by.

Then this year things started to change.

My family started to hit some financial struggle, and I saw the effect that it had on them

I made a load of money (at least what I thought at the time) by filming music festivals in the summer (December), but it made my lose my passion for videography and made me hate being treated with a lack of respect. I filmed 13 music festivals in one month, from 3pm to 3am, and finished the edits the next day every time. I slept in some crazy places, on friends couches, in my car, wherever I would find myself in the early hours of the morning, and at the New Years Eve festival, I vowed that it would be the last time I filmed out of necessity for money.

That's when I met my "mentor", who's now one of my best friends.

He had a youtube channel and he was visiting South Africa, and I sent a crazy DM offering to film his videos for him.

Somehow, it worked out.

For the first 5 months of this year, I worked myself to the grindstone.

Outreach during the day for Facebook advertising, in the evenings I would edit whatever I filmed that day and manage the channel.

I didn't get paid a cent, but he let me live with him and covered my food, so I was rent and grocery free for 5 month.

Nothing seemed to be working, and by March I had burnt through all of my savings, and had a whopping $35 in my bank account.

My Instagram made me look like a king from my video work (Trips to Dubai, Greece, Italy, Massive Parties, Jetskis, Etc.) because it was all a part of the job I was doing.

But I was broke asf.

That's when I believe my mental game finally switched on, and when it came to outreach I was on another level.

I would record 10 - 20 videos auditing companies every day, and send them out trying to get meetings, and finally one budged.

I signed my first client in April for $750 + 15% of the return from ads.

And after that, everything had clicked, and my next 2 clients came in like clockwork, taking me swiftly to a reoccurring income of $4000 per month.

More money than I'd ever seen in my life.

And that brings us to today, where I'm managing 5 client accounts (it was six but one dropped after a month because of a silver bullet 20ROAS expectation) and I have 3 deals in the pipeline.

Okay, your stories kinda cool, but tell me how to make money.

Well, I can't.

I'm but a guppy in this wild ocean of entrepreneurship, and there are much better sources than me who have given all of their secrets out on this forum.

You have it all in front of you.

BUT!

What I will do is give you some very practical advice on what has helped me!

#1) Trim the fat.

I don't mean go work out (Even though I should be). What I mean is trim the fat on your time.

Distractions and timesucks are what hold you back the most.

Do yourself a favour and check your screentime on your phone, and audit this CONSISTENTLY.

Hours are stolen by that little infinity box every day and you don't even realize it.

Unless you're crazy famous or an influencer, delete Instagram.

This will do WONDERS for your mental health and wellbeing, and I think everyone should do it.

It literally brings ZERO value to your life, whatsoever.

If you're so addicted that you can't be without it, check it on your computer. It's a much less enjoyable experience on your computer for some reason, and you'll spend ridiculously less time on it.

Same goes for TikTok!!!

I won't rant about this because we'd be here for days, but IMO it's the most brainwashing invention on earth, and it's turning people into zombies with a 2-second attention span.

#2) Prioritize sleep and get out of bed.

The days of "I'll sleep when I'm dead" and "Hustle 24/7" are gone. Save those for the meme pages.

You're a lot more emotionally stable, high energy, and effective when you sleep properly. It should be prioritized above all else.

Get 7 - 9 hours of sleep a night, and wake up at the same time every day.

Like hitting the snooze button? Create a system to stop it.

Download alarms or military alarm, and set it so you have to scan a barcode in your kitchen or do some physical activity to turn off the alarm.

This will work wonders in stopping the fight against yourself.

While you're at it, buy a cheap second-hand phone just for your alarm app of choice and music/podcasts. That way you're disconnected from mainstream BS until you finish your morning work. My main phone doesn't get turned on until 13:00 when I just have calls for the rest of the day.

You can get more done in a morning deep work block than most people can in an entire week if you get rid of distractions.

#3) Get a high-value skill and sell it

I'm not writing about making a new invention, coding, real estate, or anything like that because I've never done it, and to add to that, it takes capital.

My goal has always been to get a cashflow business running on autopilot, and then self-fund more scaleable ventures from there.

IMO the best way to start from zero is to learn a high-value skill, sell that skill, and then hire to do fulfilment.

This doesn't mean that you don't know how to produce the results, but it frees up time from delivering work for clients and being a freelancer, to be able to keep prioritizing sales and allows you to scale to a certain extent.

#4) The internet is the great equalizer

This one goes out to all my third world homies reading this.

YOU HAVE THE BIGGEST ADVANTAGE OVER EVERYONE IN THE STATES AND YOU DON'T EVEN REALIZE IT.

You might think I'm crazy, but let's do a little maths here.

Off a google search that probably has very sketchy data, the average monthly costs for a single person in the US is $2,643.

I believe it's higher, especially in big cities. I mean, rent in LA is like $2k for a one-bedroom.

I'm currently writing this from a prime position, modern two-bedroom apartment in Cape Town, that costs me less than $900 a month, and this is me being extra and flexing my money.

If you're in a third world country or anywhere where your cost of living is low, imagine how well you could live on $2000 per month?!

You'll be spending less than the average American, and probably having 2-3X the quality of life.

SO DO BUSINESS WITH AMERICANS!!

With the internet, nothing is stopping you.

All of my clients are US based, and pay 3X more than what I would get working with local brands, FOR THE SAME AMOUNT OF WORK?!

Why would you not want to get paid 3X for the same time and effort?

Leverage your low cost of living to enjoy life while being frugal (in the eyes of the US).

#5 Quality & Quantity

This applies specifically to sales based models and getting it off the ground, but in today's day and age copying and pasting a "good cold email script" off of Google isn't going to get you anywhere.

People are getting hit up more than ever, and you need to go above and beyond to get even a modest attempt to client ratio.

With the system I use, I expect a 6% attempt to meeting ratio, and I understand that if I send out 100 outreaches in a month, I can sign 1 - 2 clients per month, at around a $1000 - $3000 MRR and a minimum of a 3-month contract.

In the beginning, all of your time should be spent on finding and getting in contact with prospects.

---

Whatever you're doing now, if you don't have an income stream you can create one with zero capital, and whatever device you're reading this on.

Some good examples:
- Digital Marketing (Getting saturated, I'm already planning on what to do if Facebook ads were to go belly up)
- Copywriting
- Email Marketing
- Photo/video
- Web Design

-----

I hope this all made sense, it's right before bed and I wrote this all off the top of my head.

As I mentioned, $7k per month really isn't a lot compared to the big dogs, but I'm glad that I'm able to save around 50% of that every month while living an extremely comfortable life, and the next steps are scaling this to $30k per month, and using my resources and skills to create new income streams which have more leverage and potential.

Fuking Awesome!!! You dropped a gem my friend!!!

 

[AWOJI]

Wow, it's been a long time since I've been on this forum.

Hey guys, I'm Xolorr. I'm 21 Y/O from South Africa, and here's my story of how I kicked my a$$ into gear, finally started making some bread, and have some actionable advice that won't be fun but has helped me go from a broke-a$$ 21 y/o to now having $7k pm in MRR.

---

Backstory:

So, if you go back in my profile it'll be a picture-perfect display of action faking. I first found out about MJ and TMF when I was like 16/17, and I was hooked. What followed was years of mental masturbation and "attempts" at businesses. Looking back I'm disgusted to even call those attempts, and are more indicative of a millennial who's grown up on social media's expectations of overnight success, even though back then I swore I was working hard and "hustling".

Such is life, and I'll probably look back on this time in my life being like "wtf was I doing" in a couple of months.

If you don't feel slightly embarrassed/cringe about your past, you aren't growing.

(Not trying to act all high and mighty or as if I'm a millionaire, because I'm far from that lambo, but progress is still progress)

ANYWAYS, let's dive into what you all came for!

How did a broke-a$$ 21 Year old who had $35 in his bank account get to now having a business cash flowing $7k?

It's a long story, and I know that if I try to explain it all, it'll turn into a mini-book. But here's the gist of it.

I blame it all on grit and most importantly, an FTE.

You see, I've been reading and learning about business since I was like 16. I don't know why, but I've always had the surety that I would "make it". Ever since around 15 - 16 I realized school was BS, and I had to make it on my own if I wanted to personally be happy.

That being said, I grew up with bubble wrap. Middle class family, born into complacency in a small town, with no real hardships growing up. Yeah life was a rollercoaster and I have my fair share of childhood trauma, but there was always food on the table, and I lived in complacency. Never really had to work for anything, and kinda just had comfortable life in a small town in the middle of nowhere.

As soon as I turned 18 I wanted to leave, and after highschool I took the normal route of going to uni, except all I did was move to a uni-town, and study online.

I barely touched my books, and tbh had no clue what I was doing with my life. I'd spend all-day on TMF reading and rereading threads like this, and convincing myself I was taking action when truly I was just taking 2 weeks to build a terrible dropship Shopify store, buy an IG shoutout, and quit at the first signs of it not working. I convinced myself I was "taking actions", when tbh I was borderline depressed and lost.

From there I started freelancing photo and video, with whatever jobs came my way, and not actually going out trying to find my clients.

I had a lot of fun and crazy experiences in photo/video, but never earnt more than a couple of hundred bucks per job.

This brings me to the first biggest lesson:

Who you surround yourself with matters.

My roommates would go to uni, eat McDonald's, get drunk, and talk about girls they'd seen on Instagram all day. Compared to them, I was killing it making my $2000 per month off of random freelance gigs.

Things changed completely when I got a friend who "forced" me to start working out. I taught him about photo and video, and he'd train me, which is where everything started to click, and it was the first time I'd worked hard at something over multiple months as opposed to a couple weeks. The simple act of working out nearly every single day and the delay of seeing the results suddenly made me understand business, and how you aren't meant to see results for the first couple months.

After this, my video work started to take off and life improved. I quit drinking, started spending a load of time outdoors and really just feeling happy and passionate, but I definitely didn't have a business or any sustainable income.

Then I found the thread on here about a digital marketing agency, and decided thats what I was going to do.

Months went by of little to no work.

Making the perfect logo
Making the perfect website (Multiple times)
Building slideshow pitch decks

(None of which move the needle at all)

And time just carried on going by.

Then this year things started to change.

My family started to hit some financial struggle, and I saw the effect that it had on them

I made a load of money (at least what I thought at the time) by filming music festivals in the summer (December), but it made my lose my passion for videography and made me hate being treated with a lack of respect. I filmed 13 music festivals in one month, from 3pm to 3am, and finished the edits the next day every time. I slept in some crazy places, on friends couches, in my car, wherever I would find myself in the early hours of the morning, and at the New Years Eve festival, I vowed that it would be the last time I filmed out of necessity for money.

That's when I met my "mentor", who's now one of my best friends.

He had a youtube channel and he was visiting South Africa, and I sent a crazy DM offering to film his videos for him.

Somehow, it worked out.

For the first 5 months of this year, I worked myself to the grindstone.

Outreach during the day for Facebook advertising, in the evenings I would edit whatever I filmed that day and manage the channel.

I didn't get paid a cent, but he let me live with him and covered my food, so I was rent and grocery free for 5 month.

Nothing seemed to be working, and by March I had burnt through all of my savings, and had a whopping $35 in my bank account.

My Instagram made me look like a king from my video work (Trips to Dubai, Greece, Italy, Massive Parties, Jetskis, Etc.) because it was all a part of the job I was doing.

But I was broke asf.

That's when I believe my mental game finally switched on, and when it came to outreach I was on another level.

I would record 10 - 20 videos auditing companies every day, and send them out trying to get meetings, and finally one budged.

I signed my first client in April for $750 + 15% of the return from ads.

And after that, everything had clicked, and my next 2 clients came in like clockwork, taking me swiftly to a reoccurring income of $4000 per month.

More money than I'd ever seen in my life.

And that brings us to today, where I'm managing 5 client accounts (it was six but one dropped after a month because of a silver bullet 20ROAS expectation) and I have 3 deals in the pipeline.

Okay, your stories kinda cool, but tell me how to make money.

Well, I can't.

I'm but a guppy in this wild ocean of entrepreneurship, and there are much better sources than me who have given all of their secrets out on this forum.

You have it all in front of you.

BUT!

What I will do is give you some very practical advice on what has helped me!

#1) Trim the fat.

I don't mean go work out (Even though I should be). What I mean is trim the fat on your time.

Distractions and timesucks are what hold you back the most.

Do yourself a favour and check your screentime on your phone, and audit this CONSISTENTLY.

Hours are stolen by that little infinity box every day and you don't even realize it.

Unless you're crazy famous or an influencer, delete Instagram.

This will do WONDERS for your mental health and wellbeing, and I think everyone should do it.

It literally brings ZERO value to your life, whatsoever.

If you're so addicted that you can't be without it, check it on your computer. It's a much less enjoyable experience on your computer for some reason, and you'll spend ridiculously less time on it.

Same goes for TikTok!!!

I won't rant about this because we'd be here for days, but IMO it's the most brainwashing invention on earth, and it's turning people into zombies with a 2-second attention span.

#2) Prioritize sleep and get out of bed.

The days of "I'll sleep when I'm dead" and "Hustle 24/7" are gone. Save those for the meme pages.

You're a lot more emotionally stable, high energy, and effective when you sleep properly. It should be prioritized above all else.

Get 7 - 9 hours of sleep a night, and wake up at the same time every day.

Like hitting the snooze button? Create a system to stop it.

Download alarms or military alarm, and set it so you have to scan a barcode in your kitchen or do some physical activity to turn off the alarm.

This will work wonders in stopping the fight against yourself.

While you're at it, buy a cheap second-hand phone just for your alarm app of choice and music/podcasts. That way you're disconnected from mainstream BS until you finish your morning work. My main phone doesn't get turned on until 13:00 when I just have calls for the rest of the day.

You can get more done in a morning deep work block than most people can in an entire week if you get rid of distractions.

#3) Get a high-value skill and sell it

I'm not writing about making a new invention, coding, real estate, or anything like that because I've never done it, and to add to that, it takes capital.

My goal has always been to get a cashflow business running on autopilot, and then self-fund more scaleable ventures from there.

IMO the best way to start from zero is to learn a high-value skill, sell that skill, and then hire to do fulfilment.

This doesn't mean that you don't know how to produce the results, but it frees up time from delivering work for clients and being a freelancer, to be able to keep prioritizing sales and allows you to scale to a certain extent.

#4) The internet is the great equalizer

This one goes out to all my third world homies reading this.

YOU HAVE THE BIGGEST ADVANTAGE OVER EVERYONE IN THE STATES AND YOU DON'T EVEN REALIZE IT.

You might think I'm crazy, but let's do a little maths here.

Off a google search that probably has very sketchy data, the average monthly costs for a single person in the US is $2,643.

I believe it's higher, especially in big cities. I mean, rent in LA is like $2k for a one-bedroom.

I'm currently writing this from a prime position, modern two-bedroom apartment in Cape Town, that costs me less than $900 a month, and this is me being extra and flexing my money.

If you're in a third world country or anywhere where your cost of living is low, imagine how well you could live on $2000 per month?!

You'll be spending less than the average American, and probably having 2-3X the quality of life.

SO DO BUSINESS WITH AMERICANS!!

With the internet, nothing is stopping you.

All of my clients are US based, and pay 3X more than what I would get working with local brands, FOR THE SAME AMOUNT OF WORK?!

Why would you not want to get paid 3X for the same time and effort?

Leverage your low cost of living to enjoy life while being frugal (in the eyes of the US).

#5 Quality & Quantity

This applies specifically to sales based models and getting it off the ground, but in today's day and age copying and pasting a "good cold email script" off of Google isn't going to get you anywhere.

People are getting hit up more than ever, and you need to go above and beyond to get even a modest attempt to client ratio.

With the system I use, I expect a 6% attempt to meeting ratio, and I understand that if I send out 100 outreaches in a month, I can sign 1 - 2 clients per month, at around a $1000 - $3000 MRR and a minimum of a 3-month contract.

In the beginning, all of your time should be spent on finding and getting in contact with prospects.

---

Whatever you're doing now, if you don't have an income stream you can create one with zero capital, and whatever device you're reading this on.

Some good examples:
- Digital Marketing (Getting saturated, I'm already planning on what to do if Facebook ads were to go belly up)
- Copywriting
- Email Marketing
- Photo/video
- Web Design

-----

I hope this all made sense, it's right before bed and I wrote this all off the top of my head.

As I mentioned, $7k per month really isn't a lot compared to the big dogs, but I'm glad that I'm able to save around 50% of that every month while living an extremely comfortable life, and the next steps are scaling this to $30k per month, and using my resources and skills to create new income streams which have more leverage and potential.

I'm also from South Africa, Cape Town. I can relate to your story because I took the same road as you. I went to varsity but I got depressed because I wasn't enjoying my course. I decided to drop out and pursue digital marketing which was my interest at the time. I followed the advice on this platform on how to setup everything and I even drew up a business plan and registered a company. I was rejected by most institutions and even youth based organizations. I was discouraged by all of that and I left it for a while. I'm now completing a coding programme and I'd like to combine these skills and officially open a business but I'm doubting myself still. What would your advice be seeing that we are in the same country. How should I do things differently. All advice will be much appreciated.

 

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[Ot_adams]

@Xolorr thank you so much for this thread. I got the notification on my mail last night and I am happy I came across this thread. I have been looking for ways to find foreign clients to create explainer videos with me and I am yet to start because I felt I did not have enough information necessary to start off. I am from Nigeria, and I understand the bottlenecks experienced by third-world nations. Thank you once again, and I will be following this thread closely.

 

[OneLife]

I vet my clients pretty thoroughly.

You're correct that there's a lot I don't have control over, but that doesn't mean I can't influence it.

I try to help my clients in every way I can to lead to mutual success.

Plus with this particular client their ad account was in shambles, while they have a good product, site & conversion rate, so I'm pretty confident there.

I can't take a terrible site and hit 3-4x, but I can take a good site & offer and be the little boost that the client needs to get there through media buying, copy + creative.

I'd say majority of Facebook ads comes down to copy + creative, both of which we control.

Appreciate it man. So basically work with clients that already have a good offer and site, and with your agency be the last 'part' of the equation that gets them the results they need.

I actually run an eCom store now that has really good potential but the whole thing is so unstable and it's an emotional roller coaster every single day, so I always come back to this idea of building a marketing agency because you know exactly how much profit/money you make every month and it's somewhat stable.

 

[andreAbtahi]

Wow, it's been a long time since I've been on this forum.

Hey guys, I'm Xolorr. I'm 21 Y/O from South Africa, and here's my story of how I kicked my a$$ into gear, finally started making some bread, and have some actionable advice that won't be fun but has helped me go from a broke-a$$ 21 y/o to now having $7k pm in MRR.

---

Backstory:

So, if you go back in my profile it'll be a picture-perfect display of action faking. I first found out about MJ and TMF when I was like 16/17, and I was hooked. What followed was years of mental masturbation and "attempts" at businesses. Looking back I'm disgusted to even call those attempts, and are more indicative of a millennial who's grown up on social media's expectations of overnight success, even though back then I swore I was working hard and "hustling".

Such is life, and I'll probably look back on this time in my life being like "wtf was I doing" in a couple of months.

If you don't feel slightly embarrassed/cringe about your past, you aren't growing.

(Not trying to act all high and mighty or as if I'm a millionaire, because I'm far from that lambo, but progress is still progress)

ANYWAYS, let's dive into what you all came for!

How did a broke-a$$ 21 Year old who had $35 in his bank account get to now having a business cash flowing $7k?

It's a long story, and I know that if I try to explain it all, it'll turn into a mini-book. But here's the gist of it.

I blame it all on grit and most importantly, an FTE.

You see, I've been reading and learning about business since I was like 16. I don't know why, but I've always had the surety that I would "make it". Ever since around 15 - 16 I realized school was BS, and I had to make it on my own if I wanted to personally be happy.

That being said, I grew up with bubble wrap. Middle class family, born into complacency in a small town, with no real hardships growing up. Yeah life was a rollercoaster and I have my fair share of childhood trauma, but there was always food on the table, and I lived in complacency. Never really had to work for anything, and kinda just had comfortable life in a small town in the middle of nowhere.

As soon as I turned 18 I wanted to leave, and after highschool I took the normal route of going to uni, except all I did was move to a uni-town, and study online.

I barely touched my books, and tbh had no clue what I was doing with my life. I'd spend all-day on TMF reading and rereading threads like this, and convincing myself I was taking action when truly I was just taking 2 weeks to build a terrible dropship Shopify store, buy an IG shoutout, and quit at the first signs of it not working. I convinced myself I was "taking actions", when tbh I was borderline depressed and lost.

From there I started freelancing photo and video, with whatever jobs came my way, and not actually going out trying to find my clients.

I had a lot of fun and crazy experiences in photo/video, but never earnt more than a couple of hundred bucks per job.

This brings me to the first biggest lesson:

Who you surround yourself with matters.

My roommates would go to uni, eat McDonald's, get drunk, and talk about girls they'd seen on Instagram all day. Compared to them, I was killing it making my $2000 per month off of random freelance gigs.

Things changed completely when I got a friend who "forced" me to start working out. I taught him about photo and video, and he'd train me, which is where everything started to click, and it was the first time I'd worked hard at something over multiple months as opposed to a couple weeks. The simple act of working out nearly every single day and the delay of seeing the results suddenly made me understand business, and how you aren't meant to see results for the first couple months.

After this, my video work started to take off and life improved. I quit drinking, started spending a load of time outdoors and really just feeling happy and passionate, but I definitely didn't have a business or any sustainable income.

Then I found the thread on here about a digital marketing agency, and decided thats what I was going to do.

Months went by of little to no work.

Making the perfect logo
Making the perfect website (Multiple times)
Building slideshow pitch decks

(None of which move the needle at all)

And time just carried on going by.

Then this year things started to change.

My family started to hit some financial struggle, and I saw the effect that it had on them

I made a load of money (at least what I thought at the time) by filming music festivals in the summer (December), but it made my lose my passion for videography and made me hate being treated with a lack of respect. I filmed 13 music festivals in one month, from 3pm to 3am, and finished the edits the next day every time. I slept in some crazy places, on friends couches, in my car, wherever I would find myself in the early hours of the morning, and at the New Years Eve festival, I vowed that it would be the last time I filmed out of necessity for money.

That's when I met my "mentor", who's now one of my best friends.

He had a youtube channel and he was visiting South Africa, and I sent a crazy DM offering to film his videos for him.

Somehow, it worked out.

For the first 5 months of this year, I worked myself to the grindstone.

Outreach during the day for Facebook advertising, in the evenings I would edit whatever I filmed that day and manage the channel.

I didn't get paid a cent, but he let me live with him and covered my food, so I was rent and grocery free for 5 month.

Nothing seemed to be working, and by March I had burnt through all of my savings, and had a whopping $35 in my bank account.

My Instagram made me look like a king from my video work (Trips to Dubai, Greece, Italy, Massive Parties, Jetskis, Etc.) because it was all a part of the job I was doing.

But I was broke asf.

That's when I believe my mental game finally switched on, and when it came to outreach I was on another level.

I would record 10 - 20 videos auditing companies every day, and send them out trying to get meetings, and finally one budged.

I signed my first client in April for $750 + 15% of the return from ads.

And after that, everything had clicked, and my next 2 clients came in like clockwork, taking me swiftly to a reoccurring income of $4000 per month.

More money than I'd ever seen in my life.

And that brings us to today, where I'm managing 5 client accounts (it was six but one dropped after a month because of a silver bullet 20ROAS expectation) and I have 3 deals in the pipeline.

Okay, your stories kinda cool, but tell me how to make money.

Well, I can't.

I'm but a guppy in this wild ocean of entrepreneurship, and there are much better sources than me who have given all of their secrets out on this forum.

You have it all in front of you.

BUT!

What I will do is give you some very practical advice on what has helped me!

#1) Trim the fat.

I don't mean go work out (Even though I should be). What I mean is trim the fat on your time.

Distractions and timesucks are what hold you back the most.

Do yourself a favour and check your screentime on your phone, and audit this CONSISTENTLY.

Hours are stolen by that little infinity box every day and you don't even realize it.

Unless you're crazy famous or an influencer, delete Instagram.

This will do WONDERS for your mental health and wellbeing, and I think everyone should do it.

It literally brings ZERO value to your life, whatsoever.

If you're so addicted that you can't be without it, check it on your computer. It's a much less enjoyable experience on your computer for some reason, and you'll spend ridiculously less time on it.

Same goes for TikTok!!!

I won't rant about this because we'd be here for days, but IMO it's the most brainwashing invention on earth, and it's turning people into zombies with a 2-second attention span.

#2) Prioritize sleep and get out of bed.

The days of "I'll sleep when I'm dead" and "Hustle 24/7" are gone. Save those for the meme pages.

You're a lot more emotionally stable, high energy, and effective when you sleep properly. It should be prioritized above all else.

Get 7 - 9 hours of sleep a night, and wake up at the same time every day.

Like hitting the snooze button? Create a system to stop it.

Download alarms or military alarm, and set it so you have to scan a barcode in your kitchen or do some physical activity to turn off the alarm.

This will work wonders in stopping the fight against yourself.

While you're at it, buy a cheap second-hand phone just for your alarm app of choice and music/podcasts. That way you're disconnected from mainstream BS until you finish your morning work. My main phone doesn't get turned on until 13:00 when I just have calls for the rest of the day.

You can get more done in a morning deep work block than most people can in an entire week if you get rid of distractions.

#3) Get a high-value skill and sell it

I'm not writing about making a new invention, coding, real estate, or anything like that because I've never done it, and to add to that, it takes capital.

My goal has always been to get a cashflow business running on autopilot, and then self-fund more scaleable ventures from there.

IMO the best way to start from zero is to learn a high-value skill, sell that skill, and then hire to do fulfilment.

This doesn't mean that you don't know how to produce the results, but it frees up time from delivering work for clients and being a freelancer, to be able to keep prioritizing sales and allows you to scale to a certain extent.

#4) The internet is the great equalizer

This one goes out to all my third world homies reading this.

YOU HAVE THE BIGGEST ADVANTAGE OVER EVERYONE IN THE STATES AND YOU DON'T EVEN REALIZE IT.

You might think I'm crazy, but let's do a little maths here.

Off a google search that probably has very sketchy data, the average monthly costs for a single person in the US is $2,643.

I believe it's higher, especially in big cities. I mean, rent in LA is like $2k for a one-bedroom.

I'm currently writing this from a prime position, modern two-bedroom apartment in Cape Town, that costs me less than $900 a month, and this is me being extra and flexing my money.

If you're in a third world country or anywhere where your cost of living is low, imagine how well you could live on $2000 per month?!

You'll be spending less than the average American, and probably having 2-3X the quality of life.

SO DO BUSINESS WITH AMERICANS!!

With the internet, nothing is stopping you.

All of my clients are US based, and pay 3X more than what I would get working with local brands, FOR THE SAME AMOUNT OF WORK?!

Why would you not want to get paid 3X for the same time and effort?

Leverage your low cost of living to enjoy life while being frugal (in the eyes of the US).

#5 Quality & Quantity

This applies specifically to sales based models and getting it off the ground, but in today's day and age copying and pasting a "good cold email script" off of Google isn't going to get you anywhere.

People are getting hit up more than ever, and you need to go above and beyond to get even a modest attempt to client ratio.

With the system I use, I expect a 6% attempt to meeting ratio, and I understand that if I send out 100 outreaches in a month, I can sign 1 - 2 clients per month, at around a $1000 - $3000 MRR and a minimum of a 3-month contract.

In the beginning, all of your time should be spent on finding and getting in contact with prospects.

---

Whatever you're doing now, if you don't have an income stream you can create one with zero capital, and whatever device you're reading this on.

Some good examples:
- Digital Marketing (Getting saturated, I'm already planning on what to do if Facebook ads were to go belly up)
- Copywriting
- Email Marketing
- Photo/video
- Web Design

-----

I hope this all made sense, it's right before bed and I wrote this all off the top of my head.

As I mentioned, $7k per month really isn't a lot compared to the big dogs, but I'm glad that I'm able to save around 50% of that every month while living an extremely comfortable life, and the next steps are scaling this to $30k per month, and using my resources and skills to create new income streams which have more leverage and potential.

You are such a champion, thank you for inspiring us. That was such a needed piece of fuel!

 

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[Ocean Man]

How did I not see this thread before? Way to leave gold nuggets OP. You're literally telling people, step-by-step, how to how you did it.

 

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[Peter Kay]

Wow, it's been a long time since I've been on this forum.

Hey guys, I'm Xolorr. I'm 21 Y/O from South Africa, and here's my story of how I kicked my a$$ into gear, finally started making some bread, and have some actionable advice that won't be fun but has helped me go from a broke-a$$ 21 y/o to now having $7k pm in MRR.

---

Backstory:

So, if you go back in my profile it'll be a picture-perfect display of action faking. I first found out about MJ and TMF when I was like 16/17, and I was hooked. What followed was years of mental masturbation and "attempts" at businesses. Looking back I'm disgusted to even call those attempts, and are more indicative of a millennial who's grown up on social media's expectations of overnight success, even though back then I swore I was working hard and "hustling".

Such is life, and I'll probably look back on this time in my life being like "wtf was I doing" in a couple of months.

If you don't feel slightly embarrassed/cringe about your past, you aren't growing.

(Not trying to act all high and mighty or as if I'm a millionaire, because I'm far from that lambo, but progress is still progress)

ANYWAYS, let's dive into what you all came for!

How did a broke-a$$ 21 Year old who had $35 in his bank account get to now having a business cash flowing $7k?

It's a long story, and I know that if I try to explain it all, it'll turn into a mini-book. But here's the gist of it.

I blame it all on grit and most importantly, an FTE.

You see, I've been reading and learning about business since I was like 16. I don't know why, but I've always had the surety that I would "make it". Ever since around 15 - 16 I realized school was BS, and I had to make it on my own if I wanted to personally be happy.

That being said, I grew up with bubble wrap. Middle class family, born into complacency in a small town, with no real hardships growing up. Yeah life was a rollercoaster and I have my fair share of childhood trauma, but there was always food on the table, and I lived in complacency. Never really had to work for anything, and kinda just had comfortable life in a small town in the middle of nowhere.

As soon as I turned 18 I wanted to leave, and after highschool I took the normal route of going to uni, except all I did was move to a uni-town, and study online.

I barely touched my books, and tbh had no clue what I was doing with my life. I'd spend all-day on TMF reading and rereading threads like this, and convincing myself I was taking action when truly I was just taking 2 weeks to build a terrible dropship Shopify store, buy an IG shoutout, and quit at the first signs of it not working. I convinced myself I was "taking actions", when tbh I was borderline depressed and lost.

From there I started freelancing photo and video, with whatever jobs came my way, and not actually going out trying to find my clients.

I had a lot of fun and crazy experiences in photo/video, but never earnt more than a couple of hundred bucks per job.

This brings me to the first biggest lesson:

Who you surround yourself with matters.

My roommates would go to uni, eat McDonald's, get drunk, and talk about girls they'd seen on Instagram all day. Compared to them, I was killing it making my $2000 per month off of random freelance gigs.

Things changed completely when I got a friend who "forced" me to start working out. I taught him about photo and video, and he'd train me, which is where everything started to click, and it was the first time I'd worked hard at something over multiple months as opposed to a couple weeks. The simple act of working out nearly every single day and the delay of seeing the results suddenly made me understand business, and how you aren't meant to see results for the first couple months.

After this, my video work started to take off and life improved. I quit drinking, started spending a load of time outdoors and really just feeling happy and passionate, but I definitely didn't have a business or any sustainable income.

Then I found the thread on here about a digital marketing agency, and decided thats what I was going to do.

Months went by of little to no work.

Making the perfect logo
Making the perfect website (Multiple times)
Building slideshow pitch decks

(None of which move the needle at all)

And time just carried on going by.

Then this year things started to change.

My family started to hit some financial struggle, and I saw the effect that it had on them

I made a load of money (at least what I thought at the time) by filming music festivals in the summer (December), but it made my lose my passion for videography and made me hate being treated with a lack of respect. I filmed 13 music festivals in one month, from 3pm to 3am, and finished the edits the next day every time. I slept in some crazy places, on friends couches, in my car, wherever I would find myself in the early hours of the morning, and at the New Years Eve festival, I vowed that it would be the last time I filmed out of necessity for money.

That's when I met my "mentor", who's now one of my best friends.

He had a youtube channel and he was visiting South Africa, and I sent a crazy DM offering to film his videos for him.

Somehow, it worked out.

For the first 5 months of this year, I worked myself to the grindstone.

Outreach during the day for Facebook advertising, in the evenings I would edit whatever I filmed that day and manage the channel.

I didn't get paid a cent, but he let me live with him and covered my food, so I was rent and grocery free for 5 month.

Nothing seemed to be working, and by March I had burnt through all of my savings, and had a whopping $35 in my bank account.

My Instagram made me look like a king from my video work (Trips to Dubai, Greece, Italy, Massive Parties, Jetskis, Etc.) because it was all a part of the job I was doing.

But I was broke asf.

That's when I believe my mental game finally switched on, and when it came to outreach I was on another level.

I would record 10 - 20 videos auditing companies every day, and send them out trying to get meetings, and finally one budged.

I signed my first client in April for $750 + 15% of the return from ads.

And after that, everything had clicked, and my next 2 clients came in like clockwork, taking me swiftly to a reoccurring income of $4000 per month.

More money than I'd ever seen in my life.

And that brings us to today, where I'm managing 5 client accounts (it was six but one dropped after a month because of a silver bullet 20ROAS expectation) and I have 3 deals in the pipeline.

Okay, your stories kinda cool, but tell me how to make money.

Well, I can't.

I'm but a guppy in this wild ocean of entrepreneurship, and there are much better sources than me who have given all of their secrets out on this forum.

You have it all in front of you.

BUT!

What I will do is give you some very practical advice on what has helped me!

#1) Trim the fat.

I don't mean go work out (Even though I should be). What I mean is trim the fat on your time.

Distractions and timesucks are what hold you back the most.

Do yourself a favour and check your screentime on your phone, and audit this CONSISTENTLY.

Hours are stolen by that little infinity box every day and you don't even realize it.

Unless you're crazy famous or an influencer, delete Instagram.

This will do WONDERS for your mental health and wellbeing, and I think everyone should do it.

It literally brings ZERO value to your life, whatsoever.

If you're so addicted that you can't be without it, check it on your computer. It's a much less enjoyable experience on your computer for some reason, and you'll spend ridiculously less time on it.

Same goes for TikTok!!!

I won't rant about this because we'd be here for days, but IMO it's the most brainwashing invention on earth, and it's turning people into zombies with a 2-second attention span.

#2) Prioritize sleep and get out of bed.

The days of "I'll sleep when I'm dead" and "Hustle 24/7" are gone. Save those for the meme pages.

You're a lot more emotionally stable, high energy, and effective when you sleep properly. It should be prioritized above all else.

Get 7 - 9 hours of sleep a night, and wake up at the same time every day.

Like hitting the snooze button? Create a system to stop it.

Download alarms or military alarm, and set it so you have to scan a barcode in your kitchen or do some physical activity to turn off the alarm.

This will work wonders in stopping the fight against yourself.

While you're at it, buy a cheap second-hand phone just for your alarm app of choice and music/podcasts. That way you're disconnected from mainstream BS until you finish your morning work. My main phone doesn't get turned on until 13:00 when I just have calls for the rest of the day.

You can get more done in a morning deep work block than most people can in an entire week if you get rid of distractions.

#3) Get a high-value skill and sell it

I'm not writing about making a new invention, coding, real estate, or anything like that because I've never done it, and to add to that, it takes capital.

My goal has always been to get a cashflow business running on autopilot, and then self-fund more scaleable ventures from there.

IMO the best way to start from zero is to learn a high-value skill, sell that skill, and then hire to do fulfilment.

This doesn't mean that you don't know how to produce the results, but it frees up time from delivering work for clients and being a freelancer, to be able to keep prioritizing sales and allows you to scale to a certain extent.

#4) The internet is the great equalizer

This one goes out to all my third world homies reading this.

YOU HAVE THE BIGGEST ADVANTAGE OVER EVERYONE IN THE STATES AND YOU DON'T EVEN REALIZE IT.

You might think I'm crazy, but let's do a little maths here.

Off a google search that probably has very sketchy data, the average monthly costs for a single person in the US is $2,643.

I believe it's higher, especially in big cities. I mean, rent in LA is like $2k for a one-bedroom.

I'm currently writing this from a prime position, modern two-bedroom apartment in Cape Town, that costs me less than $900 a month, and this is me being extra and flexing my money.

If you're in a third world country or anywhere where your cost of living is low, imagine how well you could live on $2000 per month?!

You'll be spending less than the average American, and probably having 2-3X the quality of life.

SO DO BUSINESS WITH AMERICANS!!

With the internet, nothing is stopping you.

All of my clients are US based, and pay 3X more than what I would get working with local brands, FOR THE SAME AMOUNT OF WORK?!

Why would you not want to get paid 3X for the same time and effort?

Leverage your low cost of living to enjoy life while being frugal (in the eyes of the US).

#5 Quality & Quantity

This applies specifically to sales based models and getting it off the ground, but in today's day and age copying and pasting a "good cold email script" off of Google isn't going to get you anywhere.

People are getting hit up more than ever, and you need to go above and beyond to get even a modest attempt to client ratio.

With the system I use, I expect a 6% attempt to meeting ratio, and I understand that if I send out 100 outreaches in a month, I can sign 1 - 2 clients per month, at around a $1000 - $3000 MRR and a minimum of a 3-month contract.

In the beginning, all of your time should be spent on finding and getting in contact with prospects.

---

Whatever you're doing now, if you don't have an income stream you can create one with zero capital, and whatever device you're reading this on.

Some good examples:
- Digital Marketing (Getting saturated, I'm already planning on what to do if Facebook ads were to go belly up)
- Copywriting
- Email Marketing
- Photo/video
- Web Design

-----

I hope this all made sense, it's right before bed and I wrote this all off the top of my head.

As I mentioned, $7k per month really isn't a lot compared to the big dogs, but I'm glad that I'm able to save around 50% of that every month while living an extremely comfortable life, and the next steps are scaling this to $30k per month, and using my resources and skills to create new income streams which have more leverage and potential.

Inspiring thread Xolorr

 

[Peter Kay]

Here's my advice:

If you're able to reply to this and learn code (Meaning you have access to the internet and some type of computer) there's really no excuse.

You don't need a business plan (I still don't have one)
You don't need any organizations
You don't need a registered company

All you need is to get infront of people, and offer them a service.

What can you offer?

It sounds like you know how to code, so why not start freelancing code?

(Don't reach out to South African businesses, we want to earn dollars. It's easier to earn $1000 than R17000)

So have a look at @Fox 's threads on web design, it's all there, and start sending emails to companies who could need your services.

Start building websites, writing copy, and build a portfolio around whatever you want to do.

Here's the blueprint:

You've got a PTY LTD, so it sounds like you already have a business name, if not, come up with one.

This shouldn't take more than 10 - 15 minutes, use Business Name Generator - Easily create Brandable Business Names - Namelix

Keep it simple, names really don't matter.

Have a name?

Cool, let's make it official

Get a domain from godaddy.com or some other registrar

Get a .com, most clients will be boomers and won't trust a .xyz or something else that looks spammy

Get yourself a website, don't be tempted to go down the rabbit hole here, we want to get you up and running asap. You can change it later.

I'd recommend using Carrd - Simple, free, fully responsive one-page sites for pretty much anything, it's dead simple.

This shouldn't take more than an hour or two, use unsplash.com for photos

Get a logo, again, don't overthink this. There are a ton of logo generators, you can literally just make your logo text saying the company name as well.

Free Logo Maker - Make a Free Custom Logo in Minutes!

Make a custom logo using the free logo maker tool. Choose from millions of graphics and icons to make your logo. Trusted by 10M+ of people.

logomakr.com

Logo Maker | Create a Pro Logo Design for Free | Tailor Brands

Make a unique logo that's a perfect match for your business or project with Tailor Brands logo maker. No design skills required.

www.tailorbrands.com

Fiverr

Dead easy.

Sweet! So now you've done literally nothing that will earn you money (most people think the $$$'s should start rolling in after they spend 5 days crafting the 'perfect' logo & put entrepreneur in their insta bio.

All you've done is make your business look legit in the eyes of your customer, which reduces the friction when it's time for them to get out their credit card.

So what are you going to sell?

I recommend code, copywriting or digital marketing.

Find something where you can trade time & expertise for money.

Not Fastlane, but nothing is from the start.

You can outsource delivery later to focus on a more scaleable bus later, let's just get you your first $1000

Now that you've decided on something you're gonna sell, split your time between two things:

Learning & implementing (these go hand in hand, you can't just watch youtube videos without implementing what you learn and call yourself an expert. Write mock ads, create websites, whatever you need to do to actually implement your skills).

Selling.

Selling is what's going to move the needle.

Selling 101:

- Pick a niche

There are SO many out there, just pick one where your services are valued

- Find a database of leads:

Selling to architecture firms?

Google: California + architecture firms should be good

Have a look at their websites/FB ads/Copy/Email List, whatever you're selling, and check how you can improve it.

If you can improve it, add it to a google sheet

If you can't, move onto the next.

Cool! Now you have a list of leads!

Next is to get in touch of the decision makers.

There are SO many ways to do this.

- Cold Email
- Cold Calling
- LinkedIn
- Facebook
- Instagram
- Messenger Pigeons

Pick one, and get in touch.

Your only objective is to get them on a call. (In your case skype or zoom)

Sell the meeting, not the service

You landed a sales call? HOLY $H*T, TAKING ACTION ACTUALLY WORKS!

You've still got a long way to go from here, but I'm proud of you.

It'll probs take you multiple calls to sign a client, but that's the name of the game.

Explain what you can do, how it's going make them WAY more $$$, show them examples of your work, and explain why what you're going to do for them is 20X more valuable than the money they have sitting in their platinum Amex.

Name a price.

They said yes?!

Now things are rolling...

Get yourself a PayPal or Transferwise so that you can claim your $$$

Make an invoice with some online generator

Now all you have to do is deliver on what you promised, get a good review, ask for referrals, then rinse & repeat.

There are nuances to every part, but that's for you to figure out by trial and error.

Create systems which you can replicate, and this becomes second nature.

& there it is, your ticket to R100k per month ($8k)

I challenge you to send out 15 emails today to prospects & see what happens

This is literally a blueprint well laid out for many here. Thank you Xolorr for being this generous.

 

[Xolorr]

Appreciate it man. So basically work with clients that already have a good offer and site, and with your agency be the last 'part' of the equation that gets them the results they need.

I actually run an eCom store now that has really good potential but the whole thing is so unstable and it's an emotional roller coaster every single day, so I always come back to this idea of building a marketing agency because you know exactly how much profit/money you make every month and it's somewhat stable.

Why not focus on the ecom business?

My only reason for not launching my own brand is the pain in the a$$ payment gateways that kill conversions and trust (Stripe isn't available here).

I'm going to launch an ecom brand as soon as I can, more scaleable.

 

[OneLife]

Why not focus on the ecom business?

My only reason for not launching my own brand is the pain in the a$$ payment gateways that kill conversions and trust (Stripe isn't available here).

I'm going to launch an ecom brand as soon as I can, more scaleable.

haha, I feel you on the payment gateways. I was only using PayPal and they hold 100% of my payments all the time. Cash flow game non existent.

I already got my LLC and will be getting Stripe within the next couple of days, so It'll be interesting.

 

[ProcessPro]

Racial profiling is certainly a thing and I've found pretty much everyone to be guilty of it. It's not just about color but also culture, accent, manner of speaking. It's tough but I wouldn't really worry if your English is nice and fluid. If it's not, work on that first but mostly work on your overall message - get to the point straight away (how you can help them) and use permission-based marketing to set up a call/meeting i.e "Would you be open to a quick call this week?".

Thanks Simon. I appreciate your response and the ideas and will definitely give it some further thought as I plan a way forward.

 

[Frozt]

Stripe isn't available in my country either. I was looking into ways I could get it to work earlier this year and I stumbled across this:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmPVHhg7zXY


I haven't tried it myself yet though.

Anyways, thanks for this thread. It's inspired me to aim higher in my freelancing work and to try to think of ways to grow it. I too am from a 3rd world country so that part really resonated with me. I get underpaid by US standards (I work for $1500 USD per month) but it converts really well for me - to about 2x the salary I got working locally in my last job, so I'm really happy with that, plus, I always think that they only hired me because they know that they can pay me a cheaper rate since I'm a third worlder.

I'm now thinking of ways I can do better though. If I can work up to 7k monthly...That will be like a year's expenses every month.

I want to apply your model of acquiring clients to my own work, but if I'm to be completely honest, I'm concerned about both my accent and race (I'm of Indian descent but I'm from the Caribbean). I don't want to ask you your race, but if you were non-white and had an accent too, I'd totally think that if Xolorr can do it, so can I...haha. Totally embarrassed to admit that, but it's an honest thought.

Do you use cold calling to reach out your customers?

 

[Photool]

@Xolorr - Curious do you have any SOPs in place currently ?

Systems = Automation = Scalability

 

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[Royal Function]

Heyyyyyo fastlane fam.

It’s been a while, so I thought I would give ya’ll an update on what’s happening as well as a bit of insight/advice I would tell myself from 6 months ago.

Update:

Signed on 2 new clients at $2500 pm, so that’s another $5k pm profit. Not crazy growth, but it’s cool!

@ $12k pm rev, around $9k profit depending on how dumb I am with my spending. (I’ve made some real stupid purchases testing ideas, some worked some didn’t)

Results are going well for our current clients, starting to scale up spends, prepare for Q4, etc.

Had issues with one client, but we’re fighting through it. We’re struggling to get them profitable, and I’m starting to get hands on in other parts of their business to get through this. Even though the results aren’t there, they love us and have made it very clear we’ll be working together through into 2021. Why? Because we’re not lying or shifting blame with results, we’re finding their problems, being very vocal about them, and planning / helping them overcome them, even if it’s outside the scope of our deliverables.

Another massive opportunity has popped up partnering with an established retailer to launch their D2C side. They're doing 6 figures + pm in retail with no online presence, and I've managed to strike up a 20% rev share deal (total online rev, not just FB ads) for the next 6 months to launch and run their online side, and potentially get equity.

I was sitting in an Uber earlier & thinking what would I tell myself 6 months ago to REALLY level up?

And I came to the conclusion that it would be this:

Set a money-making routine, straight away.

What’s a money-making routine?

It means the 1 - 3 things you can do before 12 that ensure you’re growing your business and getting your hands on some more $$$’s.

This should be your main priority, and tasks that actually drive revenue. Now the point of this isn’t to be doing the same stuff over and over again, but rather spend this time building the system which you can automate and outsource, then you move on to the next piece of the puzzle.

If you keep doing the same work over and over again you’ll just become a hamster sprinting on a wheel and you’ll burn out.

Figure out how to do it, test it until you’re happy with the consistent results, outsource.

So how does this work in my situation?

Currently, if I don’t do any cold outreach I won’t get more clients, simple as that. So I spent the last few weeks building a solid outreach system by trial and error myself, and now I’ve just hired a VA @ $5 an hour to do most of the manual work.

Now my focus is tweaking this the point where it can run without me and I can book meetings on autopilot.

Build the system, then remove yourself from the system.

That's all for today, I'll try keep these coming.

Adios

Sounds good.
Is your prospecting all outbound for now via cold outreach? Have you tried any inbound strategies and found them effective?

 

[Xolorr]

Sounds good.
Is your prospecting all outbound for now via cold outreach? Have you tried any inbound strategies and found them effective?

I've just finished systemizing and outsourcing outbound, and I'm about to turn my head towards inbound & branding these next few weeks. Will keep you updated!

 

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[Jakelow]

Great Post,
The morning undistracted deep work block is something I will be trying from tomorrow!

 

[Saad Khan]

Wow, it's been a long time since I've been on this forum.

Hey guys, I'm Xolorr. I'm 21 Y/O from South Africa, and here's my story of how I kicked my a$$ into gear, finally started making some bread, and have some actionable advice that won't be fun but has helped me go from a broke-a$$ 21 y/o to now having $7k pm in MRR.

---

Backstory:

So, if you go back in my profile it'll be a picture-perfect display of action faking. I first found out about MJ and TMF when I was like 16/17, and I was hooked. What followed was years of mental masturbation and "attempts" at businesses. Looking back I'm disgusted to even call those attempts, and are more indicative of a millennial who's grown up on social media's expectations of overnight success, even though back then I swore I was working hard and "hustling".

Such is life, and I'll probably look back on this time in my life being like "wtf was I doing" in a couple of months.

If you don't feel slightly embarrassed/cringe about your past, you aren't growing.

(Not trying to act all high and mighty or as if I'm a millionaire, because I'm far from that lambo, but progress is still progress)

ANYWAYS, let's dive into what you all came for!

How did a broke-a$$ 21 Year old who had $35 in his bank account get to now having a business cash flowing $7k?

It's a long story, and I know that if I try to explain it all, it'll turn into a mini-book. But here's the gist of it.

I blame it all on grit and most importantly, an FTE.

You see, I've been reading and learning about business since I was like 16. I don't know why, but I've always had the surety that I would "make it". Ever since around 15 - 16 I realized school was BS, and I had to make it on my own if I wanted to personally be happy.

That being said, I grew up with bubble wrap. Middle class family, born into complacency in a small town, with no real hardships growing up. Yeah life was a rollercoaster and I have my fair share of childhood trauma, but there was always food on the table, and I lived in complacency. Never really had to work for anything, and kinda just had comfortable life in a small town in the middle of nowhere.

As soon as I turned 18 I wanted to leave, and after highschool I took the normal route of going to uni, except all I did was move to a uni-town, and study online.

I barely touched my books, and tbh had no clue what I was doing with my life. I'd spend all-day on TMF reading and rereading threads like this, and convincing myself I was taking action when truly I was just taking 2 weeks to build a terrible dropship Shopify store, buy an IG shoutout, and quit at the first signs of it not working. I convinced myself I was "taking actions", when tbh I was borderline depressed and lost.

From there I started freelancing photo and video, with whatever jobs came my way, and not actually going out trying to find my clients.

I had a lot of fun and crazy experiences in photo/video, but never earnt more than a couple of hundred bucks per job.

This brings me to the first biggest lesson:

Who you surround yourself with matters.

My roommates would go to uni, eat McDonald's, get drunk, and talk about girls they'd seen on Instagram all day. Compared to them, I was killing it making my $2000 per month off of random freelance gigs.

Things changed completely when I got a friend who "forced" me to start working out. I taught him about photo and video, and he'd train me, which is where everything started to click, and it was the first time I'd worked hard at something over multiple months as opposed to a couple weeks. The simple act of working out nearly every single day and the delay of seeing the results suddenly made me understand business, and how you aren't meant to see results for the first couple months.

After this, my video work started to take off and life improved. I quit drinking, started spending a load of time outdoors and really just feeling happy and passionate, but I definitely didn't have a business or any sustainable income.

Then I found the thread on here about a digital marketing agency, and decided thats what I was going to do.

Months went by of little to no work.

Making the perfect logo
Making the perfect website (Multiple times)
Building slideshow pitch decks

(None of which move the needle at all)

And time just carried on going by.

Then this year things started to change.

My family started to hit some financial struggle, and I saw the effect that it had on them

I made a load of money (at least what I thought at the time) by filming music festivals in the summer (December), but it made my lose my passion for videography and made me hate being treated with a lack of respect. I filmed 13 music festivals in one month, from 3pm to 3am, and finished the edits the next day every time. I slept in some crazy places, on friends couches, in my car, wherever I would find myself in the early hours of the morning, and at the New Years Eve festival, I vowed that it would be the last time I filmed out of necessity for money.

That's when I met my "mentor", who's now one of my best friends.

He had a youtube channel and he was visiting South Africa, and I sent a crazy DM offering to film his videos for him.

Somehow, it worked out.

For the first 5 months of this year, I worked myself to the grindstone.

Outreach during the day for Facebook advertising, in the evenings I would edit whatever I filmed that day and manage the channel.

I didn't get paid a cent, but he let me live with him and covered my food, so I was rent and grocery free for 5 month.

Nothing seemed to be working, and by March I had burnt through all of my savings, and had a whopping $35 in my bank account.

My Instagram made me look like a king from my video work (Trips to Dubai, Greece, Italy, Massive Parties, Jetskis, Etc.) because it was all a part of the job I was doing.

But I was broke asf.

That's when I believe my mental game finally switched on, and when it came to outreach I was on another level.

I would record 10 - 20 videos auditing companies every day, and send them out trying to get meetings, and finally one budged.

I signed my first client in April for $750 + 15% of the return from ads.

And after that, everything had clicked, and my next 2 clients came in like clockwork, taking me swiftly to a reoccurring income of $4000 per month.

More money than I'd ever seen in my life.

And that brings us to today, where I'm managing 5 client accounts (it was six but one dropped after a month because of a silver bullet 20ROAS expectation) and I have 3 deals in the pipeline.

Okay, your stories kinda cool, but tell me how to make money.

Well, I can't.

I'm but a guppy in this wild ocean of entrepreneurship, and there are much better sources than me who have given all of their secrets out on this forum.

You have it all in front of you.

BUT!

What I will do is give you some very practical advice on what has helped me!

#1) Trim the fat.

I don't mean go work out (Even though I should be). What I mean is trim the fat on your time.

Distractions and timesucks are what hold you back the most.

Do yourself a favour and check your screentime on your phone, and audit this CONSISTENTLY.

Hours are stolen by that little infinity box every day and you don't even realize it.

Unless you're crazy famous or an influencer, delete Instagram.

This will do WONDERS for your mental health and wellbeing, and I think everyone should do it.

It literally brings ZERO value to your life, whatsoever.

If you're so addicted that you can't be without it, check it on your computer. It's a much less enjoyable experience on your computer for some reason, and you'll spend ridiculously less time on it.

Same goes for TikTok!!!

I won't rant about this because we'd be here for days, but IMO it's the most brainwashing invention on earth, and it's turning people into zombies with a 2-second attention span.

#2) Prioritize sleep and get out of bed.

The days of "I'll sleep when I'm dead" and "Hustle 24/7" are gone. Save those for the meme pages.

You're a lot more emotionally stable, high energy, and effective when you sleep properly. It should be prioritized above all else.

Get 7 - 9 hours of sleep a night, and wake up at the same time every day.

Like hitting the snooze button? Create a system to stop it.

Download alarms or military alarm, and set it so you have to scan a barcode in your kitchen or do some physical activity to turn off the alarm.

This will work wonders in stopping the fight against yourself.

While you're at it, buy a cheap second-hand phone just for your alarm app of choice and music/podcasts. That way you're disconnected from mainstream BS until you finish your morning work. My main phone doesn't get turned on until 13:00 when I just have calls for the rest of the day.

You can get more done in a morning deep work block than most people can in an entire week if you get rid of distractions.

#3) Get a high-value skill and sell it

I'm not writing about making a new invention, coding, real estate, or anything like that because I've never done it, and to add to that, it takes capital.

My goal has always been to get a cashflow business running on autopilot, and then self-fund more scaleable ventures from there.

IMO the best way to start from zero is to learn a high-value skill, sell that skill, and then hire to do fulfilment.

This doesn't mean that you don't know how to produce the results, but it frees up time from delivering work for clients and being a freelancer, to be able to keep prioritizing sales and allows you to scale to a certain extent.

#4) The internet is the great equalizer

This one goes out to all my third world homies reading this.

YOU HAVE THE BIGGEST ADVANTAGE OVER EVERYONE IN THE STATES AND YOU DON'T EVEN REALIZE IT.

You might think I'm crazy, but let's do a little maths here.

Off a google search that probably has very sketchy data, the average monthly costs for a single person in the US is $2,643.

I believe it's higher, especially in big cities. I mean, rent in LA is like $2k for a one-bedroom.

I'm currently writing this from a prime position, modern two-bedroom apartment in Cape Town, that costs me less than $900 a month, and this is me being extra and flexing my money.

If you're in a third world country or anywhere where your cost of living is low, imagine how well you could live on $2000 per month?!

You'll be spending less than the average American, and probably having 2-3X the quality of life.

SO DO BUSINESS WITH AMERICANS!!

With the internet, nothing is stopping you.

All of my clients are US based, and pay 3X more than what I would get working with local brands, FOR THE SAME AMOUNT OF WORK?!

Why would you not want to get paid 3X for the same time and effort?

Leverage your low cost of living to enjoy life while being frugal (in the eyes of the US).

#5 Quality & Quantity

This applies specifically to sales based models and getting it off the ground, but in today's day and age copying and pasting a "good cold email script" off of Google isn't going to get you anywhere.

People are getting hit up more than ever, and you need to go above and beyond to get even a modest attempt to client ratio.

With the system I use, I expect a 6% attempt to meeting ratio, and I understand that if I send out 100 outreaches in a month, I can sign 1 - 2 clients per month, at around a $1000 - $3000 MRR and a minimum of a 3-month contract.

In the beginning, all of your time should be spent on finding and getting in contact with prospects.

---

Whatever you're doing now, if you don't have an income stream you can create one with zero capital, and whatever device you're reading this on.

Some good examples:
- Digital Marketing (Getting saturated, I'm already planning on what to do if Facebook ads were to go belly up)
- Copywriting
- Email Marketing
- Photo/video
- Web Design

-----

I hope this all made sense, it's right before bed and I wrote this all off the top of my head.

As I mentioned, $7k per month really isn't a lot compared to the big dogs, but I'm glad that I'm able to save around 50% of that every month while living an extremely comfortable life, and the next steps are scaling this to $30k per month, and using my resources and skills to create new income streams which have more leverage and potential.

Glad to hear your story, I'm 17 right now and I've started learning email marketing and seeing you share your story makes me feel like I can relate to your stage 1 of the story. Just glad to see this post that what I chose (email marketing and then later on copywriting etc) is not obsolete yet. Your story has motivated me and I hope this motivation is an enabler and not a therapy. Good luck in your future career. May God bless you.

 

[Paul David]

"You don't have a business problem, you have a personal problem which is being reflected in your business"

- Xolorr

Your mentor isn't Joel by any chance is it?

 

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[Xolorr]

Your mentor isn't Joel by any chance is it?

Joel Kaplan?

Lol, no, definitely not

 

[Paul David]

Joel Kaplan?

Lol, no, definitely not

Yes. I sense you're not a fan of his?

 

[Paul David]

To be honest not really...

From what I understand, I'm pretty sure he doesn't even have an agency (Same with a ton of those dudes), so I'll let you do the math on what that means.

Also, not a fan of those agency program/youtube guys at all, just because everybody copies their stuff for 2 weeks and then quits when they don't get a client, or they get a client and can't deliver results and the client just gets burnt.

IMO, whatever the masses are doing, do the opposite.

That's my goal with how I'm building/structuring things, so if Joel or any of these other gurus says go right, I go left and it seems to work better.

My mentor runs 2 of his own ecom brands, so I learnt what he does to market his brands and apply that to my clients.

In the future, once South Africa gets it's act together with payment processing I plan on launching my own brand(s), but right now there's no viable solutions to accept payments without killing your conversion rate with sketchy redirects, etc.

Edit: These are just my thoughts. I'm not claiming Joel doesn't have an agency/know what he's doing, but this is my view on it + 90% of the people selling online courses

Thanks for replying. I'm actually in one of his groups. He does have an agency. I can understand how you feel though, I'm sick and tired of seeing gurus selling courses now!

The good thing about Joel is that he cut's through all the BullSh*t, when people are talking about doing this or doing that which is not getting them any closer to a client - he tells them to focus on setting appointments with potential new clients and closing appointments. No website design, no designing logos for two days. Stuff that moves the needle!

 

[didicoimp]

My mentor runs 2 of his own ecom brands, so I learnt what he does to market his brands and apply that to my clients.

In the future, once South Africa gets it's act together with payment processing I plan on launching my own brand(s), but right now there's no viable solutions to accept payments without killing your conversion rate with sketchy redirects, etc.

Nice thread bro, congrats on your results! Keep growing

what do you mean by ecom brands?
Like your mentor's got a product, like an appearl brand or by ecom brand you mean like a digital marketing agency? What's the path you are looking for?

Thank you bro

 

[XxThelionxX]

Have you thought of getting around even better people? I know you surrounded yourself with good people... what If you get around even better?

 

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[Xolorr]

I seriously don't get why this went unnoticed... but here's a comment to send it to the front lol

Also, I'm following your thread closely, hope you keep on killing it @Xolorr !!

Thanks for the kind words and the bump haha!

Cooking up the next post but I'm very wary of spending too much time talking vs doing.

Some fire is coming as this venture progresses.

Stay tuned

 

[Klausson]

Xolorr, thank you for the insights. Pur gold!

 

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[DougRMR]

SO DO BUSINESS WITH AMERICANS!!

With the internet, nothing is stopping you.

All of my clients are US based, and pay 3X more than what I would get working with local brands, FOR THE SAME AMOUNT OF WORK?!

Why would you not want to get paid 3X for the same time and effort?

Man, this kind of hit me in a different way. I live in Puerto Rico and for the past month have been working on a website for my digital agency. I decided to take the niche approach and made it Spanish so that my people here could benefit from my services. But now this got me thinking...

Should I work to translate it all to English? It never solidified in my mind, but yes, it makes sense to focus on the U.S. which has a much more open mind to digital marketing and web design AND its economy is much better (yes, even with the COVID quarantine). Now I don't know what the hell to do. Any advice you might have, I'll appreciate it.

 

[OneLife]

"You don't have a business problem, you have a personal problem which is being reflected in your business"

Awesome stuff bro.
btw, Iman Gadzhi, right?
(still reading all the comments, this really is gold. Had to comment on this one though haha)

 

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