markspray
Regular Contributor
FASTLANE INSIDER
LEGACY MEMBER
Read Rat-Race Escape!
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Read Unscripted!
Intro as just got the reminder and loving this group
Ever just take a leap, well I've done it a few times and this time it's a massive leap.
So how did I end up selling my house, packing up my sh*t and take my wife and 2 year old 4500km to the other side of the country not knowing anyone and just like I know we will figure it out. Well lucky enough I read MJ's book a few years back.
It all started 10+ years ago when I had enough working full time, and saw an opportunity a gap in the market
As this stage building an IT business had failed as my side hustle and I was burning out as an IT manager
Son had been diagnosed with Autism and was causing chaos at school and daughter a few years before Type 1 diabetic
I was on a mission the old life didn't work and I had to build something fast.
And that's when I saw they weighted blankets before they were all the rave.
Saw a gap in the market, no one had an online store and no one was advertising here.
So I grabbed a $99 sewing machine, made a blanket and took my $100 google ad voucher and I was in business
In laws laughed at me told me what afriggen idiot I was even tried to talk my wife out of the idea.
It lit a fire in me, within a week the orders where flowing in.
Rest was history, 1 year later we hired a staff member, 2 years later we subleased, 4 years later we rented a massive factory unit
I would love to say it made me millions but at year 6 we hit the wobbles, 10 staff and hitting a million dollars revenue
It had gave me the lifestyle but it was now turning rabid, and my wife and I was burning out. On top of this she was like let's have another kid.
I also during this time had flipped a web design business i had a side hustle and started a marketing agency
My accountant kept saying you realise the agency is more profitable than the big business...
Oh it was the perfect storm, so a major competitor came in. I knew the day would come
So I went from riding the high ... to wife pregnant, tax office chasing me, coming within a whisker of bankruptcy, and the sh*ttest christmas with no money
Praying for our one shot person to buy our business as I had ran out of all money, credit cards maxxed and ready to walk away from it all.
Like I was ready to face the music like jesus you can't make this any worse when people see this failure
(I think at some stage i found MJ's book back then and started to read it to give me motivation)
And we sold it, holy sh*t this is one thing on the journey your going to go to dark places on the journey
Paid off all our debts walked away with a small saving and covid hit baby was due.
Feels like time went slow I bounced from thing to thing with the Marketing Agency, would say the shock of the experience took a bigger impact than I realised.
But felt like am I realing doing all this over again like ground hog day, Older kids had left home at this stage.
And I was hyper aware do not create another monster and MJ's book kept reminding me of that.
I was demolishing books, and then I stumbled upon the next life changing book "The 5 Regrets Of The Dying" by Bronnie Ware"
and the #1 hit home : I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
So within 6 months after chatting to my wife we agreed after a holiday we had had on the gold coast a few years back for a week that is the destination
We sold the house, sold as much as we could and packed our stuff onto a trailer that i drove across australia
No house, no real plan but to make it work.
And here we are year 2, living in a insane place trying to get back into the property market (which has overheated)
But I know I can make this happen, I have a 4 year old and wife with me here, I got all I need
The marketing agency is in play and I have another version of it for the hairdressing market with a partner so that is the longer game. Hyper aware to make this profitable and to follow MJ's Books as we don't want to repeat those 10 years as this is the end game now, or I see it as spin this up to fund the things we need next.
So I was a member of this group a long long time ago and when I saw @MJ DeMarco post on of all place X that this group had gone paid, it intrigued me.
I couldn't help thinking I now what happens once a group goes paid the value inside it increases.
And I was having cashflow issues as lets face it moving and getting all setup took a bit longer than what I expected.
But I've been lurking for the past few weeks, consuming @Andy Black 's content as was like dang this guy gets it to later discover he also is a google ads guy lol. And MJ's wisdom
My new phrase as I network action faking like oh we not doing that.
Within the past few weeks just from being in this group as I open it in the morning and at night things have improved for me, feel like this is a great place to be, bank is filling up. As I usually find when you seeing other people win it rubs off on you like ... damn if they can do it.. it's possible.. no excuses.
Anyway brain dump complete and that's my intro.
Ever just take a leap, well I've done it a few times and this time it's a massive leap.
So how did I end up selling my house, packing up my sh*t and take my wife and 2 year old 4500km to the other side of the country not knowing anyone and just like I know we will figure it out. Well lucky enough I read MJ's book a few years back.
It all started 10+ years ago when I had enough working full time, and saw an opportunity a gap in the market
As this stage building an IT business had failed as my side hustle and I was burning out as an IT manager
Son had been diagnosed with Autism and was causing chaos at school and daughter a few years before Type 1 diabetic
I was on a mission the old life didn't work and I had to build something fast.
And that's when I saw they weighted blankets before they were all the rave.
Saw a gap in the market, no one had an online store and no one was advertising here.
So I grabbed a $99 sewing machine, made a blanket and took my $100 google ad voucher and I was in business
In laws laughed at me told me what afriggen idiot I was even tried to talk my wife out of the idea.
It lit a fire in me, within a week the orders where flowing in.
Rest was history, 1 year later we hired a staff member, 2 years later we subleased, 4 years later we rented a massive factory unit
I would love to say it made me millions but at year 6 we hit the wobbles, 10 staff and hitting a million dollars revenue
It had gave me the lifestyle but it was now turning rabid, and my wife and I was burning out. On top of this she was like let's have another kid.
I also during this time had flipped a web design business i had a side hustle and started a marketing agency
My accountant kept saying you realise the agency is more profitable than the big business...
Oh it was the perfect storm, so a major competitor came in. I knew the day would come
So I went from riding the high ... to wife pregnant, tax office chasing me, coming within a whisker of bankruptcy, and the sh*ttest christmas with no money
Praying for our one shot person to buy our business as I had ran out of all money, credit cards maxxed and ready to walk away from it all.
Like I was ready to face the music like jesus you can't make this any worse when people see this failure
(I think at some stage i found MJ's book back then and started to read it to give me motivation)
And we sold it, holy sh*t this is one thing on the journey your going to go to dark places on the journey
Paid off all our debts walked away with a small saving and covid hit baby was due.
Feels like time went slow I bounced from thing to thing with the Marketing Agency, would say the shock of the experience took a bigger impact than I realised.
But felt like am I realing doing all this over again like ground hog day, Older kids had left home at this stage.
And I was hyper aware do not create another monster and MJ's book kept reminding me of that.
I was demolishing books, and then I stumbled upon the next life changing book "The 5 Regrets Of The Dying" by Bronnie Ware"
and the #1 hit home : I wish I'd had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.
So within 6 months after chatting to my wife we agreed after a holiday we had had on the gold coast a few years back for a week that is the destination
We sold the house, sold as much as we could and packed our stuff onto a trailer that i drove across australia
No house, no real plan but to make it work.
And here we are year 2, living in a insane place trying to get back into the property market (which has overheated)
But I know I can make this happen, I have a 4 year old and wife with me here, I got all I need
The marketing agency is in play and I have another version of it for the hairdressing market with a partner so that is the longer game. Hyper aware to make this profitable and to follow MJ's Books as we don't want to repeat those 10 years as this is the end game now, or I see it as spin this up to fund the things we need next.
So I was a member of this group a long long time ago and when I saw @MJ DeMarco post on of all place X that this group had gone paid, it intrigued me.
I couldn't help thinking I now what happens once a group goes paid the value inside it increases.
And I was having cashflow issues as lets face it moving and getting all setup took a bit longer than what I expected.
But I've been lurking for the past few weeks, consuming @Andy Black 's content as was like dang this guy gets it to later discover he also is a google ads guy lol. And MJ's wisdom
My new phrase as I network action faking like oh we not doing that.
Within the past few weeks just from being in this group as I open it in the morning and at night things have improved for me, feel like this is a great place to be, bank is filling up. As I usually find when you seeing other people win it rubs off on you like ... damn if they can do it.. it's possible.. no excuses.
Anyway brain dump complete and that's my intro.
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