Chasing Freedom - Creating My Own Digital Marketing Company

[A-A-ron]

Day 34

Sale #2 is in the books.

Not only that but both my clients have paid for 4-months up front. Great feeling to see a big number like that and now I must deliver the goods!

Now for an update that impacts my journey...

My family & I will be moving in couple months to allow my wife to stay home with our newborn. With the move, I will be unemployed for the first time in my adult life and I am committed to making this business a legitimate way to provide for my family. We will be staying with family for a few months and it seems to be the perfect opportunity to hustle as a full time entrepreneur for the first time.

Excited for the opportunity. The last thing that I want is to resort to finding a slowlane job. With that said, providing for my family is the number one priority so I will need to continue to hustle relentlessly.

Revenue in first 34 days: $3,942

Main focus is still on prospecting. I am a little nervous that my prospect pool may dry up so I am taking a few free projects to build my portfolio & gain testimonials.

KyleT,
Be sure to ask your 2 new customers for referrals. This will help increase your prospecting pool!

 

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[BlackMagician]

@Kyle any updates on sales? learnings? failures/success?

 

[Kyle T]

@Kyle any updates on sales? learnings? failures/success?

I haven't posted for awhile and it has sure been a roller coaster!

The business was growing and I was flying high.

In the last week I have lost 3 of my very first clients and it hit me like a brick In the face. A few lessons that I have learned from the experience:

1) Communication is the number one thing I can improve upon. Communication is the reason that this churn hit me like a bus. I wasn't doing a good job in communicating with my clients. Especially with SEO, there is a ton of work that I was doing for them that they will never notice and that is a problem. Moving forward I am going to be scheduling weekly check in meetings to update them on what is going on and remind them of the expectations and gain feedback from them

2) I underestimated how impatient clients would be. No matter how many times I tell them the timeframe to expect results, they still get impatient. For this reason, I think that PPC ads are a better thing to specialize in for small businesses. They like results and they want them ASAP. The fact that PPC gets their phone ringing quicker is something that would help to prevent the quick churn.

3) I still need to master my systems. I am spending too much time micromanaging my VA and it's not a valuable use of my time. My plan is to divide all the tasks into daily, weekly, and monthly lists and then have my project management software automatically assign it.


A week ago I was on top of the world and I got pummeled. It's way too easy to become content and I still have so much to learn.

 

[BlackMagician]

Well good going man. Sorry to here that but failure is the part of success, right?

Have you gave them enough value until they see the results of SEO? I mean apart from the SEO, anything you could have helped them/adviced them which can potential solved some or atleast one of their problem?

This saturday, i had a meeting with my first client for SMM service. They are having exhibition in June and they need to spread their brand awareness and get sales in that exhibition.

After we shook hand for the deal, they shared one problem. Supposedly they are offering 10% discount on the exhibition day and they want the offer to be limited and it will be only on that day. This was their ideal scenerio but issue is many of the potential clients needed time to think to buy their products because the product value falls in 5 figure.

So if the potential clients come to them after 2-3 days and ask for the discount, it will go against the urgency they are showing on exhibition day but they also can't lose those clients.

And if they give them the discount after the exhibition, many other will ask for the same because that vertical is very concentrated and if they give to one other will come to know.

Hence after comtemplating on the issue, i suggested them to put a signup form(hard paper) in the exhibition and if someone want to buy with the same discounted price they should have filled the form otherwise no discount.
This will lead to get a hold of all the potential clients which can buy in future + strong prospects database for future marketing and it will create a special effect on urgency and uniqueness.

This advice of mine hit them on spot and they were impressed and accepted to implement this. And i am feel the vibe that they won't be impatient for the result and will wait whole month.

-------

I may not be able to portrait my words properly.

 

[Kyle T]

Well good going man. Sorry to here that but failure is the part of success, right?

Have you gave them enough value until they see the results of SEO? I mean apart from the SEO, anything you could have helped them/adviced them which can potential solved some or atleast one of their problem?

This saturday, i had a meeting with my first client for SMM service. They are having exhibition in June and they need to spread their brand awareness and get sales in that exhibition.

After we shook hand for the deal, they shared one problem. Supposedly they are offering 10% discount on the exhibition day and they want the offer to be limited and it will be only on that day. This was their ideal scenerio but issue is many of the potential clients needed time to think to buy their products because the product value falls in 5 figure.

So if the potential clients come to them after 2-3 days and ask for the discount, it will go against the urgency they are showing on exhibition day but they also can't lose those clients.

And if they give them the discount after the exhibition, many other will ask for the same because that vertical is very concentrated and if they give to one other will come to know.

Hence after comtemplating on the issue, i suggested them to put a signup form(hard paper) in the exhibition and if someone want to buy with the same discounted price they should have filled the form otherwise no discount.
This will lead to get a hold of all the potential clients which can buy in future + strong prospects database for future marketing and it will create a special effect on urgency and uniqueness.

This advice of mine hit them on spot and they were impressed and accepted to implement this. And i am feel the vibe that they won't be impatient for the result and will wait whole month.

-------

I may not be able to portrait my words properly.

I feel like there is definitely a disconnect of perceived value. I did many things that went "above and beyond" and provided them with strategy, content & much more than what I promised them.

The trouble that I found was getting them to "buy in". Two of the clients that I lost had an investor initially pay for the services... because it wasn't their own money, I believe they were less invested in the services.

Even getting these clients to respond to an email or to send me pictures was more of a headache then it should have been.

 

[Kyle T]

As I mentioned in my last update... PPC ads seem to be a better service to lead with when forming a relationship with clients.

The last 3 days or so I have been focused on improving my skills with PPC ads as well as to find prospects who would be interested in Google Ad campaigns.

So far, so good! I have found 20 prospects in a matter of 3 days through networking, social media, and my personal network. People seem super interested in the idea and best of all it seems that there are a lot fewer competitors (in my network at least) than website design or SEO.

Feel like I am getting out of my funk and I am excited to be hustling again for the first time in a couple of weeks.

 

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[Isaac Oh]

As I mentioned in my last update... PPC ads seem to be a better service to lead with when forming a relationship with clients.

The last 3 days or so I have been focused on improving my skills with PPC ads as well as to find prospects who would be interested in Google Ad campaigns.

So far, so good! I have found 20 prospects in a matter of 3 days through networking, social media, and my personal network. People seem super interested in the idea and best of all it seems that there are a lot fewer competitors (in my network at least) than website design or SEO.

Feel like I am getting out of my funk and I am excited to be hustling again for the first time in a couple of weeks.

Brother, you've just shoved in my face how much I've been action faking. This thread has been Gold for myself and I'm sure for many others as well.

Thank you.

Time to actually get some sales closed.

 

[GrandRub]

when refering to PPC - you mean GoogleAds/Facebook/Instagram Ads? I understand "pay per click" but 95% is google/fb/ig ads? maybe linkedin?

/what was your first offer? you mention SEO? Backlink Building? Content Writing?

 

[PizzaOnTheRoof]

when refering to PPC - you mean GoogleAds/Facebook/Instagram Ads? I understand "pay per click" but 95% is google/fb/ig ads? maybe linkedin?

/what was your first offer? you mention SEO? Backlink Building? Content Writing?

Whichever one works the best.

Pick one channel and go DEEP.

Max out your earnings as much as possible before adding another one.

Company A that’s murdering on just FB Ads can beat Company B that’s mediocre on FB/Google/Bing

 

[Kyle T]

when refering to PPC - you mean GoogleAds/Facebook/Instagram Ads? I understand "pay per click" but 95% is google/fb/ig ads? maybe linkedin?

/what was your first offer? you mention SEO? Backlink Building? Content Writing?

Originally I was doing way too much. SEO was always my primary offering but it was packaged with website maintenance, social media marketing, content marketing, & reputation management.

When I refer to PPC... I am referring to Google Ads but it is dependant on the business. I specialize in helping home service contractors and the customers are 100% looking for them on Google... so that is where I have focused my efforts.

 

[Kyle T]

Brother, you've just shoved in my face how much I've been action faking. This thread has been Gold for myself and I'm sure for many others as well.

Thank you.

Time to actually get some sales closed.

I struggle with "Action Faking" every single day...

All that matters is that you continue to learn & improve.

"I am not there yet, but I am closer than I was yesterday"

 

Dislike ads? Become a Fastlane member: Subscribe today and surround yourself with winners and millionaire mentors, not those broke friends who only want to drink beer and play video games. :-)

[Isaac Oh]

I struggle with "Action Faking" every single day...

All that matters is that you continue to learn & improve.

"I am not there yet, but I am closer than I was yesterday"

btw I learned Google Ads from Isaac Rudansky's Udemy
Your Total Guide To Google AdWords: Turn Profit With PPC

Honestly, some parts were outdated but I got a ton of value from it

 

[Andy Daniels]

@Kyle T Keep on pushing brother! I'm on a similar track as you, and it's hard work.

Thank you for the amazing value you have already provided this community.

I'm here for you!

-Andy

 

[Matt Hunt]

Are you buying email lists in order to send 30-50 per day?

 

[Kyle T]

Are you buying email lists in order to send 30-50 per day?

Paid a VA to scrape 1000 leads for $100. Then sorted into 3 categories: "Great Website", "Outdated Website", "No Website/Expired Domain".

Then plugged the respective groups into cold email campaigns with cold email software.

 

[The Abundant Man]

What do you think about cold approaching businesses? Just walk in and tell what I do?

 

Dislike ads? Become a Fastlane member: Subscribe today and surround yourself with winners and millionaire mentors, not those broke friends who only want to drink beer and play video games. :-)

[Kyle T]

What do you think about cold approaching businesses? Just walk in and tell what I do?

Works well if you emphasize that you are a small local business. Small businesses respect that and it brings there guard down when you attempt to make the connection. They will be more likely be open to supporting you.

It also helps to have a person or business to name drop like:

"I was doing a meeting next door with [Client's Name] and figured I'd pop in and introduce myself."

"Rachel from the Chamber of Commerce recommended that I reach out to you and introduce myself"

etc.

 

[Kyle T]

Alright, I am overdue for some updates…

One of the biggest realizations that I arrived at recently is that I was a lot farther from the Fastlane than I had anticipated. I am speaking from a personal development perspective and I need to figure out how to become a better & more consistent performer.

I spend way too much time feeling sluggish, tired, or unmotivated. This KILLS my productivity so I am determined to improve myself which will allow me to improve my business.

Recently been focused on establishing the following habits:

• Meditation
• Low Carb Diet
• Daily Exercises (at least 15 minutes)
• Early Morning Wakeups
• Daily Vitamins.
• Apple Cider Vinegar
• Cold Shower
• 20 Minutes of Sunlight
• 30 minutes of reading
• Affirmations & Self Talk
• 100 oz of Water per day

The days where I can avoid brain fog is when I feel unstoppable. My goal is to figure out how to feel like that every single day.

In other news, I am in the process of closing on our first home! Big step and extra scary being self-employed, but business is doing well (update coming soon) and I am excited about the future.

 

[The Abundant Man]

Works well if you emphasize that you are a small local business. Small businesses respect that and it brings there guard down when you attempt to make the connection. They will be more likely be open to supporting you.

It also helps to have a person or business to name drop like:

"I was doing a meeting next door with [Client's Name] and figured I'd pop in and introduce myself."

"Rachel from the Chamber of Commerce recommended that I reach out to you and introduce myself"

etc.

Thanks a lot!

 

[Kyle T]

As I mentioned in the last post, I haven't been satisfied with the quality of my work recently.

There is tons of room for improvement. Despite this, business is still chugging along and growing! Closed 3 new deals this month and I am finding a groove that is really starting to energize me.

1. Less is More: In the last month, I reduced the number of services that I am focused on. Now I am solely focused on Website Maintenance, Reputation Management & PPC ads. I find that these services are easier for me to control and it has also allowed me to reduce my expenses significantly. As I realized last month, SEO is something that small businesses don't understand and don't have the patience for. Plus Google is making SEO less and less important every passing month and I am not confident in it remains valuable in the long term.
2. The Pipeline is Strong: Since I have changed my focus to Google Ads I have been getting good levels of interest from my network. My goal is to close 20 new deals before the end of the year and I am excited to keep filling my pipeline. Been using Pipedrive CRM and I absolutely love it. Also, have just started to integrate it with Klenty for email sequencing and loving that it will save me a lot of time and prevent prospects from falling through the cracks.
3. Future & Beyond: My projections have me set to gross $125,000 next year and a profit margin sitting close to 70%. As I mentioned in my last post, I have a mortgage now and my back is up against the wall... but you know what? I LOVE it. I have never felt so energized and motivated to go out and work hard.
4. New Cold Calling Strategy: One of my newest strategies that I am excited about is finding businesses that have crappy Google Ads. Examples of this are companies that are advertising in the wrong location or completely irrelevant keywords. Giving them a call and framing it in a way of: "I am helping a client of mine and I found your Google Ad displaying for [search term]... based on your business I am sure that you didn't want to be advertising for that term so I figured I would reach out and let you know...Normally when there are small mistakes like this is can be costing you quite a bit of money. I would be willing to walk you through how to go about fixing it... would that be something that you would be interested in?" I really need help fine tuning this script. If anyone has any ideas then please feel free to provide some input.

Will be posting soon regarding specific processes that I am fine tuning and I look forward to input from you all!

Kyle

 

[Kyle T]

NEW DEAL!

Someone who has been on the fence for months just referred a friend to me and will be a great account. $1500 website to start with an ongoing package too.

The person who I initially talked to was an acquaintance of mine who I have known for a few years. She is a very small business that I was going to help with her website. The value of her potential deal really isn't that much, but I treated her like she was a VIP.

I gave her honest advice & feedback and was extremely patient with her. We have spoken on the phone 5+ times over the course of the last few months and I obviously have left a lasting impression.

The best part is that the friend who she referred to me to is a much bigger account.

Moral of the story is to treat every potential client like they are a VIP. Even if they don't purchase from you, leaving a positive impression with them can lead to positive things in the future. Build relationships and referrals will start flowing.

 

Dislike ads? Become a Fastlane member: Subscribe today and surround yourself with winners and millionaire mentors, not those broke friends who only want to drink beer and play video games. :-)

[Andy Daniels]

Hey @Kyle T ! Been following this thread for a while and it really resonates with me. I'm taking the leap to full time web design agency and my last day working in the slowlane is June 30. It's both terrifying and incredibly exciting.

The value you have given this forum is extraordinary. Congrats on closing on the house! I really look forward to more updates!

All the best,

Andy

 

[Santi M]

@Kyle T Wow mate... Incredible thread, incredible value, this is gold. What a big motivation for starting my own digital marketing agency. I just read the whole thread now and by taking some of your advice you just saved a lot of time for me.
Thank you so much. I'm following your thread and look forward to your next post!

 

[Santi M]

It is a one-page landing page that has About Me, Services and link to Contact Form.

Why did you change your website in that sense? I mean, you now have a menu with different pages and more pages inside those (like in the HOME page explaining each service ).

By the way, your web is beautiful and original, I love it. Did you use WordPress?

PPC ads are a better thing to specialize in for small businesses.

Great value here, thank you a lot.

I am willing to stray away from my niche.

Did you finally focused on your niche or focused on small business independently of their area?

Moral of the story is to treat every potential client like they are a VIP. Even if they don't purchase from you, leaving a positive impression with them can lead to positive things in the future. Build relationships and referrals will start flowing.

This is great, "treat every potential client like they are a VIP"

 

[ecommercewolf]

Impressed with how quick you move and how you're executing. Great thread.

2 questions:

1. Did you have any prior digital marketing experience before building up this digital agency or have you learned everything through trial and error and Udemy courses?

2. When first starting off, do you recommend sticking with just 1 niche (example: SEO services, website building, FB ads, IG account management etc...) or do you recommend offering all services?

 

[Champion]

Kyle, thanks so much for this thread, its really a motivation to see how you are executing one step after the next!

Best,
Champion

 

Dislike ads? Become a Fastlane member: Subscribe today and surround yourself with winners and millionaire mentors, not those broke friends who only want to drink beer and play video games. :-)

[Kyle T]

Why did you change your website in that sense? I mean, you now have a menu with different pages and more pages inside those (like in the HOME page explaining each service ).

By the way, your web is beautiful and original, I love it. Did you use WordPress?



Great value here, thank you a lot.



Did you finally focused on your niche or focused on small business independently of their area?



This is great, "treat every potential client like they are a VIP"

Thank you for the kind words, my friend.

When you are growing it is very hard to say "No" to anyone who wants to give you money. So I was always actively prospecting within my niche but I have gotten several clients outside of it from being open-minded.

Regards to my website... I honestly haven't spent that much time on it. I know it may seem ironic but waiting for people to stumble onto my website & get sold on your service doesn't work very well for B2B services.

My website is just meant to give relevant information and as long as it isn't embarrassing me then I am okay with it being minimal and yes it is built on a free WordPress theme.

The redesign was kind of just spontaneous and it all happened within a day.

1) I stumbled onto another website that I really liked and I wanted to emulate it.
2) Had a web designer lined up who I wanted to "interview", so I had him try to recreate a similar design.
3) He had a draft ready within 12 hours & I liked it so much that I transferred over to it.
4) Only cost me $20 - $30 and now I have a new rockstar VA to help with client's websites.

Impressed with how quick you move and how you're executing. Great thread.

2 questions:

1. Did you have any prior digital marketing experience before building up this digital agency or have you learned everything through trial and error and Udemy courses?

2. When first starting off, do you recommend sticking with just 1 niche (example: SEO services, website building, FB ads, IG account management etc...) or do you recommend offering all services?

1) Very little. I had been in the fitness world and have built my own websites and managed my own social media. Other than that, I have been developing my skills more every single day.

I try to only fill my brain with the knowledge that is required to overcome obstacles that are in my way. When I don't know how to do something then I go out and figure out how to do it.

I tell clients "Yeah, for sure I can do that!" even if I have no idea what the steps are going to be. Then I go out and find information that will help me to solve it in the form of podcasts, articles, books, courses, etc.

2) IMO 1 service category is too limiting. I think that if you find 2-3 that can be packaged together or target buyers at different parts of their journey then you will be in great shape.

Web Design + PPC ads are my primary two and they are completely different, so they don't overlap. I am using Website Design as a way to build relationships with potential leads. I give them an affordable website, build their trust, and become their "marketing guy" for the future or maybe even get them on a 100-200 dollar/month website maintenance plan.

Then you keep in touch with them and follow up routinely.

Ultimately You want to transition them to your 2nd service which is hopefully ongoing.

i.e. "Your website is running and performing great! Plus it looks awesome! Now we just need to help you to figure out how to get more traffic to the site. Would you be interested in chatting about the different things that we can do to get more traffic"

Kyle, thanks so much for this thread, its really a motivation to see how you are executing one step after the next!

Best,
Champion

Thank you! Glad that you are finding some value.

Kyle

 

[baguvix]

it is built on a free WordPress theme.

May I ask what is the name of theme?
Edit: I got it, but thanks anyway

 

[ZeroTo100]

I haven't posted for awhile and it has sure been a roller coaster!

The business was growing and I was flying high.

In the last week I have lost 3 of my very first clients and it hit me like a brick In the face. A few lessons that I have learned from the experience:

1) Communication is the number one thing I can improve upon. Communication is the reason that this churn hit me like a bus. I wasn't doing a good job in communicating with my clients. Especially with SEO, there is a ton of work that I was doing for them that they will never notice and that is a problem. Moving forward I am going to be scheduling weekly check in meetings to update them on what is going on and remind them of the expectations and gain feedback from them

2) I underestimated how impatient clients would be. No matter how many times I tell them the timeframe to expect results, they still get impatient. For this reason, I think that PPC ads are a better thing to specialize in for small businesses. They like results and they want them ASAP. The fact that PPC gets their phone ringing quicker is something that would help to prevent the quick churn.

3) I still need to master my systems. I am spending too much time micromanaging my VA and it's not a valuable use of my time. My plan is to divide all the tasks into daily, weekly, and monthly lists and then have my project management software automatically assign it.

A week ago I was on top of the world and I got pummeled. It's way too easy to become content and I still have so much to learn.

Dude, give yourself a pat on the shoulder. You’re doing well...better then a lot of people. I know what it’s like because I have kids and family too! Finding the time is super hard sometimes.

A little advice - let loose! Unbutton your shirt and take it easy. Sometimes it’s worth stepping away from your business and taking a refresher. Look at things from the outside in.

Ask yourself if there is a smarter way to do what you’re doing? Is there a smarter way to get leads coming in VS you going out after them? Is outreach the only way? Can you build a simple funnel system?

As Entrepreneurs, we think we can handle it all. We think we have to do every single job...you’re going to deteriorate bro...

You ever think about hiring a company to handle your outreach?

What do you pay your VA?

Systems are super important, especially in the service business. Establish those systems even if it means cutting your client list down until you’re where you need to be.

 

[Deleted68316]

Thank you Kyle. I started with the course of Sean. Keep reading your posts for encouragement.