Built 100k business in 5 months. Now stuck.

[Jakeeck]

This resonates with me as I have experienced this feeling enough times to kill a normal man. The main thing to keep in mind is the type of business we are in. It's a service business. We have direct and instantaneous feedback from our clients and market which can be both a blessing and a curse.

The curse being it is never easy taking an uppercut to the chin due to a mistake on something you or your team has done. While I can say it hurts less the more you fail, it will still always hurt. But this pain is a GOOD thing if you use it as such. It's a guidepost...

The blessing being you get that IMMEDIATE feedback in regard to your failure and how you can immediately fix the potential issue and how you can avoid such a problem moving forward. This allows you to RAPIDLY change and adapt based on the needs of your clients.

Just today I had an employee send a client an email suggesting some new campaign ideas for maybe 1 or 2 months down the road as we like to plan ahead. The client took it ENTIRELY the wrong way and became upset. I immediately pounced into action and poured sand on the spark to prevent a full blown fire. I could have just curled into a ball, but it's all down to our choices.

• Do you want your business to prosper?
• Do you want your life to continuously change for the better?
• Do you want to constantly implement systems and processes to significantly reduce or prevent the likelihood of such a scenario from happening again?

If the answer is yes, then take a stand whenever duty calls. It's tough, but so are all good things worth doing.

All rings so true man. Thanks for the reply.

It reminds me of something I heard from Gary Vee that I loved. Something like "if you're trying to be a millionaire, you have to respect how hard it is. 99% of people never get there. Respect it and know that it's going to be hard. It should be hard."

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Jakeeck]

Had a very nice day off yesterday (well, I worked for about an hour to delegate some things).

My dad was in town so we explored Denver's breweries a bit.

Facing another challenge today that I'm practicing framing as an obstacle to excellence.

Problem is, I can feel my VA starting to slack off a bit. I'm a very easy going boss, but I can tell when someone is starting to slack off and take advantage of that, and she seems to be starting to do it. Might be playing the "friend" role too much as a boss, but we'll see. She just had a breakup with her long-term BF so I'll give her a day or two to get her act together before I say something. Or maybe I'll say something today if it gets a little out of hand.

(edit: decided to say something to her right now as I was writing this.. I said, "everything ok? you seem to be disappearing to spurts of time.. i know you had a big breakup or w/e.. don't know what's going on with that, but if you need some time off, that's fine"... will update on how this goes)

Gary Vee put out another video today with a title I love:
A 1% Life Requires Doing the 1% Work

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDkiqoNX6GM


I didn't watch it yet but I know it's going to be good. Reminds me that I have to experience the mental pain and sacrifice (for work, anyway) of what 99% of people never will.

Feel pretty good and refreshed today with a day off. I'm going to try to get some important growth tasks done today with the energy I have.

I've also made a few recent connections (both in person and over the phone) with a few of you who have been following my thread, which I'm excited about, so I really appreciate whoever reaches out to me.

Best of luck to you all today!

 

[Jakeeck]

Stressed like crazy again today, so I'm making another post.

I'm starting to see stress as a good thing, even though it doesn't feel good. Doing those last few pullups of a set doesn't feel good either, but that's where the muscle is built.

I feel like I'm building resilience, and I feel like today it has led to my most important realization in quite a while. I took a walk with my dog to unwind and I realized...

My work process F*ckING SUCKS!

I need to work in short, creative bursts for the projects that give me a lot of difficulties. What I'm doing instead is trying to complete a very difficult, mentally draining project in one go, with no set definite time limit.

What happens after 5-10 mins? My energy is sapped and I look to short-term gratification to get me the F*ck out of this world.

Does that help? No. Because then I beat myself up for procrastinating, draining even more mental energy.

Then, the work that ISN'T very mentally draining, the stuff I can do on autopilot, never gets done, because I'm always procrastinating on doing the highly creative, hard stuff.

ADDING EVEN MORE STRESS BECAUSE NOW I'M BEATING MYSELF UP FOR NOT GETTING EASY STUFF DONE!

It's an endless cycle of not getting stuff done and beating myself up.

My proposed solution to myself:

High-Intensity Interval Working

I'm going to start like this:

5 mins highly creative work.. the hardest stuff (I take manageable bites of each really hard task, eliminating the draining aspect of feeling like I'll be doing this indefinitely. I can handle 5 mins)
25 mins autopilot work.. the easy stuff (I get done the easy stuff that normally never gets done because I'm too busy procrastinating on the hard stuff)
10 mins judge-free break where I do whatever I want and recharge (I recharge my mental faculties for the next 5 min highly creative interval)

So for today, for example, I have a difficult client who is now wanting multiple intros for his landing page because he's not happy with what I wrote. Stressful as shit because I've already spent a lot of time on it. This will be my 5 min interval tough work.

Then, for my 25 minute interval, I'm going to get something easy done that should have been done a long time ago... adding my portfolio pieces in PDF form to my online portfolio. I can do this listening to music or something... easy

10 minute recharge, repeat.

I think I can optimize the way I work because I realize the way I'm doing it now is causing me a lot of unnecessary stress.

Time to try it out.

 

[Jakeeck]

I feel INCREDIBLE today. I think it's my efforts to manage stress.

Been meditating daily. Yesterday my meditation sesh was really tough and I didn't notice feeling much better after, but later in the day and this morning I feel amazing.

My High Intensity Interval Working idea helped too I think. No procrastination.

My mood is about 2x what it normally is and I feel really social today, which is very rare.

We'll see how the day goes

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Trevor Kuntz]

Really interesting thread.

I'm actually considering doing some stints cross-country in a van with my own dog next year for 3-6 months, so I am definitely interested to learn more about the ups and downs of life on the road.

Were you able to resolve the (possible) issue with your VA yesterday?

 

[Jakeeck]

Really interesting thread.

I'm actually considering doing some stints cross-country in a van with my own dog next year for 3-6 months, so I am definitely interested to learn more about the ups and downs of life on the road.

Were you able to resolve the (possible) issue with your VA yesterday?

She told me her mom broke her elbow so she's been trying to help her as much as possible. I'm just kind of monitoring the situation... she was fine the rest of yesterday and today.

As for life on the road... I didn't have any real issues and it exceeded my expectations I had prior to leaving, which were already pretty high. I found some beautiful places that REALLY helped keep my stress low.

One spot I went to had the most beautiful view of the mountains with a lake plopped right in front of them, and then behind me was another, closer lake that I would walk around whenever I felt stressed. Nothing more calming than a walk around the lake in beautiful sunny weather. I stayed here for 2 months and was sad when it started to get too cold and I had to leave.

Then, the next place I went to was called Pagosa Springs, CO, and they had this really awesome resort where they feed 23 different hot tubs with the world's deepest hot spring (located nearby). Each hot tub was a different temperature so you'd just kind of walk around and soak in whatever temp you were feeling like.

Amazing for unwinding at the end of the day. I bought a month pass and went every night, so another great outlet for stress.

From there, I had to start heading south to AZ because it was getting too cold overnight, and the quality of the campsites and landscape started to go down. No lakes, nothing particularly cool around like the springs, so then I was resorting to eating junk food to relieve stress, and I realized I needed a change.

But if I'm not locked down to something next year, I'll go back to the same spots. It was amazing.

 

[Trevor Kuntz]

That sounds really wonderful. Do you plan to stay in AZ/CO and just move between states with the weather for a while or are you thinking about going to other states?

Today, I told my boss that I like being in a long-term relationship with my girlfriend (4 years), but sometimes I wish I could just hop in my station wagon and live out of it for a couple months just for the experience without my girlfriend thinking I'm crazy. He replied, "Well, what if you live out of a modified sprinter van for 3 months while traveling across the US and donating stuff to non-profits?"

That's about where we are right now with the idea, but I'm feeling like "HELL YEAH" inside and trying to figure out the feasibility of doing something like that starting in late-July/early-August.

What kind of challenges have you planned for and solved when it comes to staying connected with clients on the road? Do you have any tips or equipment set-ups that you would recommend?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Jakeeck]

That sounds really wonderful. Do you plan to stay in AZ/CO and just move between states with the weather for a while or are you thinking about going to other states?

Today, I told my boss that I like being in a long-term relationship with my girlfriend (4 years), but sometimes I wish I could just hop in my station wagon and live out of it for a couple months just for the experience without my girlfriend thinking I'm crazy. He replied, "Well, what if you live out of a modified sprinter van for 3 months while traveling across the US and donating stuff to non-profits?"

That's about where we are right now with the idea, but I'm feeling like "HELL YEAH" inside and trying to figure out the feasibility of doing something like that starting in late-July/early-August.

What kind of challenges have you planned for and solved when it comes to staying connected with clients on the road? Do you have any tips or equipment set-ups that you would recommend?

Idk what I'm doing.. that's kind of the appeal of it for me. That I can do whatever I want, when I want. No lease contracts that I'm tied to.

I didn't plan anything when I left, and right now I'm in Denver at the coworking space I wrote about, and if I end up making some great friends and feel like staying here for a while, I will. Otherwise I'll move on to who knows where. I did want to check out Oregon/Washington during the spring, so if I do leave Denver, that's where I'll go.

As for challenges, there are none really. Just one, and that's making sure my campsite has reliable 4g so I can work. campendium.com is the site I use to find sites, and most of the sites have reviews where people say how strong the cell phone signal is for each provider. (you will need either Verizon or AT&T to have reliable service in most places)

Other than that, I just worked from the laptop of my bed, and the one thing I wished I had was a desk just dedicated to work with a nice comfy chair.

That's all I can think of for now, but let me know if you have any other questions!

 

[Jakeeck]

Survived a Mental Breakdown... For Me, It's All Diet

My mindset and mood had been slowly slipping for the past month on this shitty diet I was on. I was basically eating out every meal having whatever I wanted, and I rekindled my addiction to soda during that time.

Then, on Saturday, I had gone to the grocery store to do some grocery shopping to eat healthier again. As I get out of my van, I open up my email notifications. I read an email about my customer doing a chargeback for $800, so I lost $800. The work was good, I just dealt with a scammer.

Then, I go and buy a couple things and have to go to another grocery store to get a couple more things, and my engine is overheating. Take it to a shop on a Saturday so my only choice was a Meineke nearby.

Long story short, $1,200 repair needed. I had them take me back to the garage and show me. It was legit.

So $2,000 gone sent my stress levels through the roof when they were already high. Keep in mind I'm living in my van so now I'm just on my own. They told me they'd have it done same day -- I knew it was probably just a selling tactic, but I held out hope anyway.

I get a call at 5pm that he's not going to have it finished until Monday now (not open on Sunday ofc). So now I have 2 nights without a place to sleep. I couldn't even get over to the shop to grab stuff from my van because it was a 40 minute walk and they just closed, and I basically accepted defeat in my awful mood and didn't even bother trying to get an Uber and asking him to stay a little late for me.

So for 2 days I had nothing, slept on the couch in my office where it was freezing overnight, curled my legs in my dog's dogbed to stay warm and used the rug as a blanket. Thank god it was the weekend and no one else saw me sleeping in there.

On Monday, I call him up at 10am to get an update on the van. Says it'll be done in an hour. I head over there to get there at about 11:30. In a series of ridiculous events and excuses, I didn't get my van back until 5pm, so my whole day was shot.

Tuesday I hit my lowest point. Mood was so f'ing terrible I couldn't even stand walking past anyone. Diet was really getting the best of me, but I had started to eat healthy this day as well.

2 days later of eating healthy, I feel great again. Mood is good, I look a lot better, a ton of water weight has dropped off of my bloated face. Just a miraculous turnaround in only 48 hours. I'm always F*cking amazed by how much diet affects my mindset.

I always get caught up in this thinking that every self-help person says: it's all your mindset and how you think. I've experience the opposite. My physical state determines my mental state to a large degree. I know they both have pull on the other, but if my diet is poor, I have ZERO chance of regulating my mood or thoughts, and I'm just coming to accept this and realize I need to put systems in place to ensure I'm always eating 80-90% healthy foods.

Work has been coming in a bit slow because of the weekend fiasco and I need to retake over sales instead of having my VA do it. She's really trying hard, but she just can't replicate my sales skills because she doesn't know what I know.

For example, yesterday I was approached by a company selling bone broth. I got all excited and told them I'm HUGE on bone broth grass-fed, high-quality foods, and I closed the sale easily with that. My VA wouldn't be able to make those relations and close that sale.

So, I'm going to have to do some rearranging. Business picked up a bunch started yesterday afternoon and has continued into today, so everything seems back on track and I'm feeling good again.

 

[Jakeeck]

Donated a bunch today... feels really good to finally start giving back

Business and mood have been excellent for the past week. I was feeling really good today and decided it was time to give back. I've always felt like a leech on society so I'm very happy to be contributing.

I called an animal shelter and asked what kind of supplies they needed. Went to Petco and bought a ton of stuff and took it there. Feels really good, not gonna lie. I'm not passionate about my business, so using those profits to feed it into something I AM passionate about is huge and gives me extra motivation.

Like 8-9 cat/dog beds, 15 toys, bunch of bags of treats, house training pads, lots of cans of cat food

I've decided I'm going to donate 10% of my profits every month.

I really wanted to find a smaller shelter that needed more help, but I suppose any shelter needs as much help as they can get.

If anyone in the Denver area knows of a small operation, let me know and I'll consider it for next month.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Jakeeck]

Been a while since an update.

I fell into a bit of a mental slump for a bit so I relied heavily on my VA and writers to just keep everything afloat until I straightened myself up again. Feeling great again now!

Business is a little slower due to holidays and seems like end of year is always slow for freelancers, possibly due to end of year budgets/goals already being finished.

Anyway, I used that time to expand and it's already paying off. I don't know if December will be my highest revenue month, but it does look like it. Christmas/New Years may put a damper on that. Anyway, I truly expect my income to double by February with all the work I've been putting in.

Ended up "firing" my VA and making her one of my writers instead. I can close sales at about twice the clip, so for now I'm just biting the bullet and handling all sales/inquiries from prospects.

So I have 2 full-time writers and I will for sure need a 3rd one very soon.

Other than that, life feels headed in the right direction. I'm making money that I really didn't expect to be making at this point in the business, and I'm using it mostly to eat healthier/improve my health in any way.

My CC debt is almost paid off which is a MAJOR relief. Should be all gone by mid January.

I'm still living in my van on the streets It's getting cold as hell here in Denver overnight, but I'm going to see if I can somehow last the whole winter. Will be fun.

Going to be donating another big haul to an animal shelter near me again on the 31st. I still haven't found a smaller shelter that needs more help, so if anybody has any ideas, please let me know

Hope everything is going well for anyone reading this!

Peace!

 

[Sheens]

So good to hear you are doing well!

The extra money you see coming in seems to allow you to be healthier and more productive, absolutely important... but try not to lose sight of keeping and reinvesting as much money in your business as possible. This helps buffer those days you want to curl up and try to stay warm!

I live a few hours from Denver, but my most recent rescue dog is from a small rescue in the Denver area that I can give you details on if you are still looking (just tell me to message you for a contact if that is easiest!)