Did It: Zero to $12k a Month While Traveling the World

[GoodluckChuck]

So you saw the headline and decided to click and see what this post is all about. That was literally what I did about 1.5 years ago when I saw Rob O'Rourke's (@Fox) post with a very similar title.

Back then I was looking for a way out of my 9-5 world. Don't get me wrong. I had my dream job. At least it was my dream at the time. I was working full time as a residential construction superintendent. I spent my days driving around Portland, Oregon acting as the bridge between homeowners, contractors, engineers, architects, designers, and city offices.

It was a sweet gig. I was making 52k/yr salary with full benefits, a company truck, cell phone, laptop, credit card, and 3 weeks per year of paid vacation. I was in hog heaven.

Then why did I feel so empty inside? Okay, maybe it wasn't that. Maybe it was the fact that I was removing a nasty-a$$ toilet for the third time in a week for an ungrateful homeowner who had nothing but complaints despite my constant a$$ kissing. That moment while I was hugging that grimy, stinky toilet was my F*ck this moment. You know, that moment that MJ talks about when you drop everything you're doing, turn tail, and get the F*ck out? Ya, that was it. It was the smell of shit coming from the poop stain 3 inches away from my face...

Back Up a Couple Months
The F*ck This Event came in May of 2017. 3 months earlier was when I discovered The Millionaire Fastlane . It's kind of a fun story and I'll try to make it short.

There I was home alone on a Saturday night. My girlfriend was visiting family so I was laying on the couch high out of my mind on some legal Marijuana playing video games. I was 10 hours deep into gaming when I finally turned it off and just sat there. I had a hollow feeling. One that I've had many times. "What am I doing with my life?"

This was a normal pattern for me where I would alternate back and forth between extremely unproductive behavior and the highly motivated obsessive though short lived pursuit of something more.

I decided that my time would be better spent developing a skill that was actually marketable. They always say that it takes 10000 hours to become a master at something and if you want to make a ton of money, you have to be a master, right? So I started doing some calculations to see how long it would take me to become a master at a new skill.

My thought process at the time was Master Skill > Self-Employed > More Money > More Freedom

I added up all the time I spent each week at my job, hanging with the gf, eating, working out, watching tv, etc. When it was all laid out I determined I had about 14 hours per week I could comfortably apply to the pursuit of building a new skillset. Let's see... 14 hours per week at 52 weeks per year is 728 hours per year.. carry the two.. so if I applied 14 hours a week to skill development I would be a master in...

14 years.... F*ck!!!

Holy shit I never realized how much of my time was being eaten up by things I didn't particularly care to do. 50 hours per week for a job? It was that moment that I knew something wasn't right. The seed was planted for me to scrap the old paradigm and find a new one.

After this demystifying exercise I found myself with a gigantic flush of motivation.

I didn't know what else to do so I did a google search for "Best book on being successful."

The first search result was a reddit post where some guy listed his top 10 books on being successful. #1 was TMF . I thought, "Hey it's number 1 so it must be the best." I quickly went online and picked up the digital copy and started reading it.

Needless to say it was riveting. Two days later I finished the last page and immediately had a panic attack. I knew I had to do something to change my life but I didn't know what.

The months following this revelatory learning experience were spent on this very forum obsessively consuming information about what others were doing besides slaving their lives away at a job they didn't even want to do.

This is when I discovered Rob's post about web design. He was making 10k/mo working from Columbia building websites. He also put out a course teaching others how to do it. I bought it along with another course. The total investment was $2300 which was more than I had ever invested in myself before.

There's something to be said about investing a large amount in something like a course. Whether the course is valuable or not, the very act of investing such a large amount triggers the sunk-cost fallacy and makes you feel like you have to get your moneys worth or you'll die. You HAVE to make it work. There's no other choice. This is a good place to be in when you want to achieve something. "I have no other options."

Buying these courses was the smartest things I've ever done.


With all the different business models one could choose, I chose web design and marketing for two reasons:

1. I knew that I wanted to be a businessman, so I needed to learn about business. As a freelance web designer and marketer I get the opportunity to work with businesses of all types in all locations. I get to learn what works and what doesn't straight from the source.

2. I wanted to be free to work from wherever I wanted.



The Runway
While I was taking my online courses, the construction company I was working for happened to be struggling. We had lost the only job we had going which was valued at about 200k. To top it off we had no leads in the pipeline. We were pretty much F*cked.

The owner thought I was the prodigal son and I could do no wrong. So, when I pitched to him that I would make a website and use Google Adwords to get leads, he was onboard. I saw this as an opportunity to get paid to learn a skill I could use to get me some of that sweet sweet freedom.

I threw together a shitty website and ran Google ads with the help of @Andy Black Adwords Jumpstart course. In 2 months we had jobs going and a full pipeline. Success! It was working!

This achievement gave me a ton of courage in terms of quitting my job to start my own business. I've always been a sink or swim type of guy. If things are comfortable I can get lazy, but if I need to perform, I always deliver. I've never missed any payment or bill in my life despite the fact that I've always been very poor.

With that said, I realized that if I kept my 9-5 job and my comfortable salary I wouldn't have the energy after work to pursue anything else. It was a scary decision to consider...

It still took me a few months to build up enough courage, and with ~3k in the bank and a laptop, I quit my job and jumped into Entrepreneurship 100%.

(Please note that I don't have any kids or debt. If I needed to, I could probably get by on less than $1000 per month.)

The First Year
During the first year I only made about $28k doing freelance web design. The cool part is that I was only working part time. I spent about 15-30 hours per week working on projects and 40 or so hours per week reading, studying, taking courses, and experimenting with online marketing on my own projects.

Around May of 2018, about 6 months after I went full time into freelance, my girlfriend quit her job and we started traveling the world. We landed in Bali, Indonesia first thanks to advice from Matt Robinson, another member of this forum. Two weeks in she got bored and quickly found a remote job doing sales for a company called Remote Year. Part of the deal was she had to go live in Mexico City for 3 months and train. I liked it a lot because we got a free condo in a really nice part of town, not to mention the constant exposure to traveling entrepreneurs. Heaven...

The girlfriend working was great for my productivity as I didn't have to put up with a constant moving distraction that seems to be a black hole for attention. You know, the typical girlfriend. Haha

Getting Smart with the Passive Income
In May of 2018 I was feeling the pain of the boom and bust business cycle of a freelance web designer. I would make a 5k sale one month, work on the project for a month, then find myself with no sales and no income the next month. It was emotional going from such highs to such lows all the time. This is when I decided to start going for MRR, or monthly reoccurring revenue.

I started selling website care plans and review funnels in addition to the websites.

A care plan basically means I take care of a client's website and provide 2 hours per month for edits. Besides never having to worry about their website being hacked or down, they get instant responses whenever they have an issue, questions, or just need service. With this I was able to turn regular web design clients into $250/mo care plan clients.

I also sold review funnels. Basically a review funnel is a one page website with a special url that makes it as easy as possible for a customer to leave a company a review on multiple sites. I was selling these for $150/mo. This is a great one because they are super low maintenance and provide a ton of value for the right kind of client. I've seen others charge a lot more but I like to keep it low key as to keep the payments coming in for long periods of time without a second glance from the client.

It only took two months for me to get to $650/mo in MRR. This was a magic number for me because this covered my living and business expenses. Got to love the low overhead of freelance web design...

This lowered my stress tremendously and gave me the breathing room to pursue more risky projects and come up with more creative deals.

The rest of 2018 was great. I spent 7 months abroad. I went to Bali twice and Mexico 3 times. I made friends everywhere and picked up clients each place I went. Now I work with clients all over the world.

2019
Now it's 2019 and business is better than ever. My conservative projection for 2019 is $140k and I'm still only working part time. The MRR is about to pass 3k/mo and only takes up about 3 hours of my time per month.

I've settled on providing complete holistic marketing services for small to medium sized businesses. You could say I'm more of a consultant. I come in and work with a client to figure out exactly what's holding them back then come up with a strategy to get them to where they want to go. Inbound marketing is my weapon of choice as I enjoy creating content that brings in large amounts of traffic which I then turn into customers and sales.

I haven't niched down into any one type of service or market which definitely has its challenges. It's definitely not a business I plan on scaling broadly in terms of quantity of clients, but perhaps in terms of magnitude, or size of projects. The sweet spot for project size for my company is 10-20k. This size project pays well and is still small enough that I don't have to work with large teams or groups of decision makers.

I like this set up because I'm still being exposed to tons of different businesses and learning a lot. It also gives me breathing room to be flexible with my direction which I'm still figuring out. Freedom and flexibility are two of my most important values.

I have a couple side projects going that have potential to earn me a lot more than my marketing agency simply because they are much more scalable. I plan on keeping my agency going if only to service my book of clients as well as market any companies I start or acquire in the future.

One of the best parts of this whole business has been the relationships I've developed with people all over the world. I have more friends than ever and everywhere I travel to I know someone who will meet up for a beer or an adventure. I've even met up with Rob a few times which is super cool because he's someone I really looked up to over the last few years.

Lessons Learned
I hope to share some things that might help others who are just getting started. This could be considered an exercise in trying to relate to myself the way I was 2 years ago before I was blessed with the curse of knowledge. Hell, 3 years ago I had to look up the term "marketing" because I didn't even know what it meant... Can you believe that?

Here is a list of 5 things I would tell my younger self.

1. Mindset is more important than anything else.

There are a lot of things that make up a mindset, for example: self esteem. Self esteem has such a huge role on how we see ourselves and others. It effects every single thing we do and every thought we have. I think the topic of self esteem is worth researching in the very beginning, or at any stage for that matter. Get in tune with where you're at and what you think of yourself. Ask yourself, "What do I need to be like in order for me to feel great about myself?"​

There's three books I recommend for this:

- Awaken the Giant Within by Tony Robbins - This is like an instruction manual for your mind. Mine is full of notes... I regularly open up to a random page and read it like the Bible. (Get the old version at Goodwill or some other thrift shop. The new versions are a condensed version meant to sell his other products.)
- The Six Pillars of Self Esteem by Nathaniel Brandon - A solid presentation of what self esteem is, what it does, and how to cultivate it.
- 177 Mental Toughness Secrets of the World Class by Steve Siebold - This book is a gateway to learning how to be a world class human being. It's got tons of recommendations for other books. I can't recommend this book enough.
​

2. If you don't know what to do, just do something. Anything!

In today's world we have too many options. In the old days people had to find food. They had to build shelter, collect firewood, and make as many babies as they could because most of them wouldn't survive. Life was all about survival.

In today's world we don't have to worry about that kind of stuff. The result of this phenomenon is an entire population frozen in indecision because they don't know what to do. It's my belief that if you find yourself not knowing what direction to head, just start walking. Pick something and start doing it. You'll quickly discover whether it's working for you or not and then decide to continue or change direction.

If you never start moving, it's easy to wake up and realize the years have gone by but you've stood still. This was me for years. Don't let it be you! Get moving!!!
​

3. Read, a lot.

I know a lot of people. The ones that read are miles ahead of the ones that don't. What else can I say? From ages 18 to 28 I read maybe 10 books. From 28 to 30 I read over 100. I can't even begin to describe the difference this made for me.

Read. Listen. Expose yourself to new information in whatever way is effective for you. Just know that there's something special about reading. Your subconscious mind creates a world with the information thus making reading super effective. TV and Audio is good but your brain is much less active during these activities.
​

4. Be a Good Person

Good people are more successful than bad people. This might sound silly but it's true. Write a paragraph about what makes a really good person then make it your mission to be like that.

If you automatically consider other people and go out of your way to make their lives better, money will magically find its way into your pocket. It's magic. Did I say that already?
​

5. Get Uncomfortable

The first time you drive on the freeway it's really scary. Cars are moving fast and the stakes are high. If you mess up, you're dead. It's quite uncomfortable, no?

After a couple hundred times driving on the freeway it's just not a big deal, right? You can do it in your sleep, almost... Why do you think that is? Did driving get any easier? Or, did you just get better?

This analogy can relate to anything in life. If you are always comfortable, it means you are never getting better at anything. If you want to grow and become a better person, you have to expose yourself to situations that make you uncomfortable.

I've learned to notice when I'm getting too comfortable. That's usually the time I pack my bags and head somewhere I've never been or look for a situation that scares me. I can't even tell you how much I've grown since I realized this.
​

Well, thank you for reading my short progress story. I hope you found something valuable to take away and use in your own journey.

If you have any questions, ask away. I've got nothing to hide and am happy to be as transparent as possible to help others like myself who just need to see someone else do it to give them the courage to follow suit.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Stories like this remind me why I write, and why I spend so much time here.

Thanks for sharing, upgraded to GOLD, not because you're making millions, but because you found your freedom and control.

 

[AgainstAllOdds]

All nice and done BUT the point is the Internet is flooded with Freelancers.. so if you have very special connections and found a niche market, gratulations.
Because what i have seen is, its not easy even for advanced programmers. The second thing is most companys already have from the beginning website masters.. so the Entry Bareer is also hard.
But im open for Suggestions.

You have a mindset problem.

"Freelancer" basically means an individual working for different companies at different times rather than being permanently employed by one company.

The concept is simple:

If an employer can afford to hire you, that means that he's making money off of you. You might as well just work for yourself and get paid what you're actually worth in the market. What you're worth is based on how well you market yourself, and the value that you provide.

What are you good at?

How can you make someone else money, or their life better?

Those are the questions you need to answer. Then you need to figure out how much the market values those skills, and how you can go out and find people to pay you for those skills.

Good luck man.

 

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[GoodluckChuck]

All nice and done BUT the point is the Internet is flooded with Freelancers.. so if you have very special connections and found a niche market, gratulations.
Because what i have seen is, its not easy even for advanced programmers. The second thing is most companys already have from the beginning website masters.. so the Entry Bareer is also hard.
But im open for Suggestions.

I take it you haven't tried?

I used to think this kind of stuff too but the better I get, the less competition I see.

Indeed there are a ton of freelancers but the majority of them are lacking sales skills which leaves them hovering around Upwork competing for the same low paying jobs.

When I talk to prospective customers I am ALWAYS the only one that takes the time to learn about them and their company to identify their specific problems so I can present solutions to THOSE problems.

I show them solutions to their problems. Everyone else shows them a website with 8 pages.

The market being flooded doesn't really mean anything.

 

[GoodluckChuck]

I get emails in my inbox daily of people offering SEO services. My question for you would be, how do you set yourself apart.. Are you using name tags? Or do you personally email each prospect?

I'm guessing a batch email to a list is the most common way companies operate in these situations.

Thanks for the writeup and congrats on your success

Yeah I don't bother with cold outreach like spamming hundreds of emails.

I would say I get half my clients from referrals and the other half from content I've produced.

I set myself apart by ignoring my competition and focusing 100% on my prospect. If I think I can get the the results they want I use past success to prove to them I can do it. Then I use creative deal making to lower their risk and make it a no brainier decision.

 

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[GoodluckChuck]

Hi Chuck, thanks for the write up of your story. Amazing read !

I'm also a member of the Fox Pro Sales Group, maybe you recognize me (Christopher Koch).

Anyway, i got one question: What do you think are the key factors that made you succeed so far, compared to many other members in the group or in general as a webdesigner ? (or online marketer if you will).

Thanks and regards from germany !

The biggest difference I've noticed between myself and others around me is perseverance.

Most people seem to give up so easily while I refuse to give up.

It's not just business. When I go into our storage room to find a ball pump and don't find it right away, it's not uncommon for me to have every single box out looking for it...

Over the last few years I've developed a different idea of challenge. It empowers me now. When something doesn't work out right away I get excited. It's weird, honestly.

I get a burst of energy to find that ball pump even though I don't even need it that bad. If I don't end up finding it and do decide to give up eventually, I feel a terrible despair.

That's probably it. When I look back over the last 2 years I can count on 1 hand the things I gave up on before I succeeded.

It's a magical thing too, because once you realize that you have this power, your confidence goes through the roof. When you know without a doubt that you are the type of person that will find a way to the finish line NO MATTER WHAT, you know that you will eventually get what you want.

Then the matter becomes really figuring out what you want, but that's a WHOLE different topic.

 

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[Andy Black]

Good work on escaping a job, and then escaping freelancing by growing your MRR.

I love the advice to just get moving. "You can't steer a parked car" (James Schramko)

I threw together a shitty website and ran Google ads with the help of @Andy Black Adwords Jumpstart course. In 2 months we had jobs going and a full pipeline. Success! It was working!

Dayum. Good work!

 

[GoodluckChuck]

Did you develop this mentality through concsious effort, or did it come naturally ?

For most people, as you said, the thought process i guess for doing something hard is probably like that:

1. Ok, let's get the ball pump
2. What ?! It's not where it's supposed to be ? Okay... take a look around... Nope, can't find it.
3. Ask someone else if he/she saw it
4. if no -> give up and play gameboy


Can you describe yours ?

Also: You mentioned the tony robbins books: Did you do all the 'exercises' he mentions ? If yes, did those had an effect on you ?

First of all, back when I read TMF I decided then and there I was going to make it happen for myself. Up until that point I guess I just wasn't sure if it was something I could do. Once I learned that other people just like me were changing their lives, I knew there was a way I could it as well.

The thing about mindset is that it's a feedback loop. I look at it like this:

1. I decide to start persevering on everything in my life.
2. I make my way through various situations that require me to try over and over to succeed at something before I get the results I'm after. This is a new pattern of behavior for me so I have to make a conscious effort to do it.
3. My subconscious mind and nervous system get used to this mode of action slowly over time.
4. The decision sinks in even deeper and becomes something I do unconsciously. It becomes who I am.

I think this is true in every part of life. This is why knowing is never as good as doing. Knowing something consciously is easy and only uses a small part of your brain. Doing something allows the rest of your brain and body to know it as well.

The way I made sure I would follow through is I designed my living situation so that I had no choice. At least I felt like I had no choice. This was key.


As far as Tony Robbins' material, I didn't do all the exercises the first time through. Just reading was enough for me to have a thousand epiphanies about life based on my past experiences and current interactions with others.

I've read through Awaken the Giant Within twice and did the exercises in my head the second time. I also listened to Personal Power II while driving to and from work and did the exercises in my head.

A little hack I did was using my Apple Watch to set myself reminders to "consider the pleasure and pain of a decision I made that day". After a month or so of practicing thinking of things in terms of pleasure or pain the material really started to sink in and all my interactions with others improved.

I will go over this material once a year for the rest of my life as I think it's so critical to understand how and why do things on an individual basis. It helps a ton with copywriting and sales as well, understanding why people do what they do.

Simply understanding the fundamentals of human behavior is incredibly effective for business. Think about it, business is all about trading humans value for money. Understanding what they find valuable, why they find it valuable, and how they decide to buy it gets you a really long ways towards having a successful company.

Besides business, Tony Robbins' material has helped me understand my friends and family better which has given me A LOT more empathy for them than I used to feel.

 

[GoodluckChuck]

Since I started this thread I've been trying to think of more valuable experiences I could share that would be helpful to you guys and gals.

One thing I think we all struggle with, especially in the beginning is getting overwhelmed.

In the beginning of 2018 I was constantly feeling like I was barely keeping my head above water. My mind was plagued with doubts of whether or not I was making the progress I desired.

The solution I found helped a lot. It's possible that the method I'm about to share is one of the main reasons I've had the success I've had.

It's called the Power List method. The power list is a concept made popular by a man named Andy Frisella. Hid podcast The MFCEO Podcast was a great source of inspiration and motivation for me during this time.

The power list concept is simple. You start every day by writing down the 5 more important things you have to do that day. No matter what happens, you make sure those 5 things get done. Even if you don't do everything on your agenda, if you do this 5 things, you win the day.

What isn't immediately apparrent about this productivity method is how effective it is at negating feelings of being overwhelmed.

The way I see it, even if I can't get to everything I want to do, or even remember everything, as long as I do those 5 things every day, I am headed in the right direction.

Frisella did a podcast about this. I think it was called "trust your instruments."

He likened being an entrepreneur to being an airplane pilot flying through fog. You can't see where you're going, but you have instruments that guide you one mile at a time and you have to trust they will take you in the right direction.

The power list is my instrument and I know that as long as I keep doing those 5 things each day, I will get to where I want to go. It's inevitable.

This takes a lot of the pressure off and let's me relax and enjoy the process.

A tool I use for my power list is called Trello. I create a card for each day and have 30+ days of cards made ahead of time.

I use these cards as my schedule. If I have an appointment or a sales call coming up, it goes on my power list.

If I'm working on a project, I break it into pieces and put those pieces on various power lists.

I start each day by opening up Trello and looking to see what I have on the list. I complete everything on there and I move the card to the 2019 folder.

I don't worry about what's on the list tomorrow or next week. I don't dwell on the mountain ahead of me. I just focus on what is on my plate today.

This breaks the gigantic process of building a multi-million dollar lifestyle into tiny bite sized chunks that are easy to swallow.

This keeps me from getting overwhelmed and even allows me to enjoy the process.

I can look in the 2018 Trello board and see 365 cards with completed power lists. The life I'm enjoying today is a result of the work that is displayed on those cards.

With this method literally anyone can do anything one power list at a time.

Thank you Andy Frisella for this awesome podcast. If you want to learn more about this concept you can listen to the episode here: Trust Your Instruments, with Andy Frisella - MFCEO183A

If you are feeling overwhelmed about the mountain of work you see in front of you, try the power list method. I promise it will change your life.

 

[Andy Black]

Great journey my friend! Thanks for sharing it here.

It surprises me though, that the webdesign industry isn't saturated yet. Anyways, you seem to have found a way through it also a key thing for an entrepreneur to have I guess

Web design is NOT saturated. More people are searching online than ever before, and most websites are shocking on desktops never mind mobile.

Even if everyones’ sites were good, then how would business owners set themselves apart from the herd? By raising the bar constantly.

 

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[GoodluckChuck]

Someone asked me in a private message how I recommend they get better at sales. I thought the response would be useful to others in here so I'm posting it publicly.

"Hey! Thanks for taking the time to read my post. I'm glad you got something out of it.

As far as sales goes, it's actually really easy. It starts with truly understanding people and why they do what they do. I learned a lot of this from Tony Robbins.

The way I make sales is I talk to my prospect and do my absolute best to understand them, their business, what they are trying to do, what is holding them back, and what they would like from me. A lot of it is just asking a ton of questions until there's nothing left hiding.

Once I have a clear understanding of the entire situation, I know whether or not I can help them. If I can, I make a plan and present it to them while making sure they know that what I'm really selling is my commitment to solving their problem. If I can't help them then I try to point them to someone who can.

Sales really starts with a mindset of wanting to help as much as possible. Forget about yourself completely and focus 100% on helping them achieve their goals. The cool thing is that if you can get good at helping other achieve their goals, money will magically find it's way to your bank account.

There are lots of strategies, tips, and tricks when it comes to sales, but starting from a place of wanting to make your customers' lives better is the best way to go."

 

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[GoodluckChuck]

As a newbie getting started/ getting used to how this forums interface/search works. Thank you for doing the legwork!

These are great resources...

My suggestion is to split your time in half between doing and studying.

My approach to trying new things had changed a lot.

I start by writing down what I know now. I make a list of questions as thorough as I can and I answer them with my present knowledge.

Let's use surfing as an example since I'll be trying that soon.

I have never surfed or taken a lesson. I've spent a lot of time thinking about it though and applying my knowledge of snowboarding to what I expect surfing to be like.

Next, I'll rent a board and go give it a try. I'll probably struggle at some parts and be pretty good at others.

Then I'll go get a lesson. By this time I'll already have some working knowledge and experience to use as a foundation for learning the details. I'll likely have some questions and be able to get more out of the lesson than I would have with zero foundation.

This is what I recommend for people starting something like web design.

First, write down the steps you'll take the best you can with your current knowledge. Then, go find a YouTube video and follow along in buying a domain, setting up hosting, and start in on building the site.

See how far you can get. It will be a struggle and that's GOOD.

If you reach points you can't progress past, use Google to help. You can literally Google your way to building anything online...

Once you have a website live and you have produced something, then go find a course.

You will have a solid foundation of experience to build your knowledge on.

Without the foundation the knowledge will have no leg to stand on.

Ive learned to use courses as a boost rather than a foundation.

I'm sure will disagree, but one thing we can all agree on is that it's really easy to get into the trap of taking tons of course and feeling like you're taking action even though you aren't actually producing anything.

Producing vs Consuming 101.

 

[Andy Black]

All nice and done BUT the point is the Internet is flooded with Freelancers.. so if you have very special connections and found a niche market, gratulations.
Because what i have seen is, its not easy even for advanced programmers. The second thing is most companys already have from the beginning website masters.. so the Entry Bareer is also hard.
But im open for Suggestions.

Mind your speech patterns. They stop you seeing solutions and opportunities.

Yes, but

 

[GoodluckChuck]

Wow!

It's been nearly three years since I posted this. It's funny that my profile picture is from Mexico City because that's where I'm typing this from right now. It was 4 years ago in Mexico City that I really started taking my business seriously and it's fun to be here again looking at the same skyline while everything else in my life has changed.

I'm just free-writing this so it's not going to be polished, but I'm going to call out some highlights from the last couple of years and maybe share some things I've learned. If anyone has questions or wants me to elaborate, I'm open to that. The juicy stuff always comes from conversation anyways...

Youtube
2020 was the first year I had a big enough tax bill that I was trying to spend as much money as possible before the year ended. I wanted to buy something that held its value somewhat, so I bought a nice camera, a couple of lenses, and some other camera gear. It was fun spending almost 10k on toys and calling them business expenses. I did not forsee what would happen next.

Right before I bought the camera, I rented an office. I paid 6 months upfront to add to the expenses for the year. It was kind of scary to spend all this money, but I'm not a fan of giving my money away so... With my new camera and in my new office, I started recording videos and putting them on Youtube.

I started out doing 1 video every day where I just turned the camera on and talked. I was nervous at first but basically the only people that watched it were my family members so who cares? I would literally call out my mom on some videos.

Every few days I would make a video talking about my businesses. At the time I was a general contractor and I had my marketing company. I would talk about how I was generating leads for my own business and share what I was learning as I went.

Flash forward about a year and I was no longer a general contractor. I calculated my net profit from 2020 and it was clear that the online business paid 5x more and required 1/5 the time. I kept on with the videos tough. I only did the daily ones for about 40 days but I kept doing the business ones, almost daily. It was around the 1 year mark when the Youtube channel started to bring in leads.

Here's a chart of the first year of my Youtube channel. You can see that nothing really happened until around month 10.


Each color line is a different video so you can see that one video got a lot more views than the others. I had hit a sweet spot. More importantly, after a year of making videos almost daily, magical things happened:

• I got really comfortable in front of a camera.
• I got really good at talking about my subject matter which is very niche.
• I learned a lot about the subject matter by writing outlines and delivering the content.

In my opinion, these things were much more valuable than the views, subs, leads, etc. I was gaining skills that would be with me forever.

As time went on I stayed consistent with the videos. I didn't post every day and sometimes would go as much as a month without posting, but very rarely. For the most part, I was very consistent and I've noticed an improvement in growth during periods when I'm very consistent, so Youtube certainly rewards that behavior. Why wouldn't they?

Another year later and the channel continued to grow.

You can see that none of my videos every go viral. None of the videos get that many views, but I have a lot of videos... The 80/20 rule also applies, or more like 90/10 rule. A handful of my videos get the views and subs while the rest are only watched by my die-hard fans, and I do have some of those. LoL. It's funny to me when people get on the phone with me and fanboy. I'm just a dude with a camera that pounded nails and built websites, but I've helped a lot of people by sharing my experiences.

In Spring of 2021 I decided to create a productized marketing service for contractors. I had this audience and after talking to hundreds of them I understood exactly what they needed/wanted, so I made a product that fit that perfectly.

This was a huge lesson for me!

If I were to start over again, I would start with finding and building the audience. I might use a tool like Facebook Ads to speed up the process but for many niche businesses, I think it starts with an audience. Once you have the attention of a group of people, you can talk to them and find the patterns in their situations and create an offer and product that solves their problems. Knowing this, I could start this business again and be in the same place I'm at now in 1/10th the time.

In 2022 I decided to get professional help. Not that kind! I'm talking about a company that specializes in growing Youtube Channels. I hired my buddy Roman at Super Spreader Media. My in-house editor was good but I wanted a professional team to take my channel to the next level. This was a good call for two reasons.

1. My ability to come up with spontaneous content was dwindling because I had exhausted the subject a bit. Roman helps me produce the content over video calls which allows me to talk about this stuff conversationally. This has allowed me to produce a month's worth of content in an hour or two and then they take care of the rest.
2. The production value went up a lot. Now, the production value isn't everything and I do believe raw videos do well, but adding a little more consistency has been huge.

A few months after starting to work with them, the channel started growing faster and it's bringing in more leads than ever. It's very fun to get to a point where the door of opportunity is getting big and more exciting. I spent a lot of time taking action without getting any feedback. MJ calls this the "dessert of desolation". It is a cold, dry place, my friend.

Here's a snapshot of the channel analytics for the lifetime of the channel as of today.


That's what 278 videos over 27 months looks like for this channel.

The lead gen from this channel has changed the business entirely and opened a lot of doors. It's also changed me and my ability to communicate as well as deliver the results my clients desire. It's been a fun journey and I'm looking forward to seeing how it plays out further down the line.

I could say more about this but I have to run. Let me know if you have questions.

Later!

 

[GoodluckChuck]

Excellent. Thanks for showing us what's possible.
I'm only at the beginning of my web development freelancing business but I look forward to making enough money to do just that and have back my freedom and location independence.

If I can do it, anyone can.

You will alternate between really excited and unsure whether it's the right path. It's normal.

When you are taking lots of action and things don't seem to get happening, that's a good sign. It means you're getting close to a breakthrough. If you can learn to recognize these feelings and use them to give you a boost of energy and effort, you will make it.

Don't give up before you succeed! If you want to give up, do it after.

Cheers

 

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[GoodluckChuck]

Great post @GoodluckChuck. I loved reading your progress thread. You are a very captivating writer.

Are you building them from scratch (programing/coding) or using a platform (ex.Shopify) and helping clients setting them up that way?

I have a Shopify store and when people tell me how good my website looks and that I must know a lot about computers I feel guilty that it is a template from Shopify.

But then I think about walking into local businesses and helping them get leads by upgrading their websites, social media pages and overall marketing.


Do you target companies that have low quality websites and do not seem to be to internet save?

Thanks!

Let me ask you, if you could bake a delicious, great looking cake with any oven, then how important is the oven?

I use WordPress to build 99% of the websites I build. I use page builders which make it easier.

My clients don't hire me for the tools, they hire me for the results I get.

What goes on the website and how it fits in with their sales system, business, and customers experience is where I add the real value.

Business is all super simple. People will pay for what they want or need, so if you can deliver that, they will pay you for it.

People don't come to me for websites. They come to me to help them sell more product and acquire more customers.

 

[GoodluckChuck]

Hi, I'm new to the forum. Just joined because your post is inspiring. Thank you for sharing.

I liked this review funnels thing you mentioned. Where can I find how to do something like that? Do you integrate some kind of special tool/form for this? Do you host the page yourself and then get paid monthly while your client uses it?

Thanks in advance, and congrats on the business!

Hey Mauri!

I'm glad you joined TFF. Its a good place to surround one's self with like-minded people.

The review funnel thing started with Grade.us.

You can purchase their service for 3 websites for 90/mo. There are tons of these services these days so you can probably do a search for "review management" and find a bunch.

Some of my clients didn't need the full reputation management service so I made a very similar thing with WordPress.

Be aware that "review gating" is against Google terms of service so don't try to ward off bad reviews.

A neat thing about the review funnel is you give it its own URL and make it no index so the only people that go there are the ones sent there.

 

[GoodluckChuck]

Stories like this remind me why I write, and why I spend so much time here.

Thanks for sharing, upgraded to GOLD, not because you're making millions, but because you found your freedom and control.

Wow, I'm honored. Thank you MJ.

Thank you for starting and maintaining this community. I can't imagine the ripples you've started and how big of an impact you've had through the lives you've changed.

It's so cool that I can connect with the person who sparked the fire for me in the beginning.

 

[Vigilante]

So you saw the headline and decided to click and see what this post is all about. That was literally what I did about 1.5 years ago when I saw Rob O'Rourke's (@Fox) post with a very similar title.

Back then I was looking for a way out of my 9-5 world. Don't get me wrong. I had my dream job. At least it was my dream at the time. I was working full time as a residential construction superintendent. I spent my days driving around Portland, Oregon acting as the bridge between homeowners, contractors, engineers, architects, designers, and city offices.

It was a sweet gig. I was making 52k/yr salary with full benefits, a company truck, cell phone, laptop, credit card, and 3 weeks per year of paid vacation. I was in hog heaven.

Then why did I feel so empty inside? Okay, maybe it wasn't that. Maybe it was the fact that I was removing a nasty-a$$ toilet for the third time in a week for an ungrateful homeowner who had nothing but complaints despite my constant a$$ kissing. That moment while I was hugging that grimy, stinky toilet was my F*ck this moment. You know, that moment that MJ talks about when you drop everything you're doing, turn tail, and get the F*ck out? Ya, that was it. It was the smell of shit coming from the poop stain 3 inches away from my face...

Back Up a Couple Months
The F*ck This Event came in May of 2017. 3 months earlier was when I discovered The Millionaire Fastlane . It's kind of a fun story and I'll try to make it short.

There I was home alone on a Saturday night. My girlfriend was visiting family so I was laying on the couch high out of my mind on some legal Marijuana playing video games. I was 10 hours deep into gaming when I finally turned it off and just sat there. I had a hollow feeling. One that I've had many times. "What am I doing with my life?"

This was a normal pattern for me where I would alternate back and forth between extremely unproductive behavior and the highly motivated obsessive though short lived pursuit of something more.

I decided that my time would be better spent developing a skill that was actually marketable. They always say that it takes 10000 hours to become a master at something and if you want to make a ton of money, you have to be a master, right? So I started doing some calculations to see how long it would take me to become a master at a new skill.

My thought process at the time was Master Skill > Self-Employed > More Money > More Freedom

I added up all the time I spent each week at my job, hanging with the gf, eating, working out, watching tv, etc. When it was all laid out I determined I had about 14 hours per week I could comfortably apply to the pursuit of building a new skillset. Let's see... 14 hours per week at 52 weeks per year is 728 hours per year.. carry the two.. so if I applied 14 hours a week to skill development I would be a master in...

14 years.... F*ck!!!

Holy shit I never realized how much of my time was being eaten up by things I didn't particularly care to do. 50 hours per week for a job? It was that moment that I knew something wasn't right. The seed was planted for me to scrap the old paradigm and find a new one.

After this demystifying exercise I found myself with a gigantic flush of motivation.

I didn't know what else to do so I did a google search for "Best book on being successful."

The first search result was a reddit post where some guy listed his top 10 books on being successful. #1 was TMF . I thought, "Hey it's number 1 so it must be the best." I quickly went online and picked up the digital copy and started reading it.

Needless to say it was riveting. Two days later I finished the last page and immediately had a panic attack. I knew I had to do something to change my life but I didn't know what.

The months following this revelatory learning experience were spent on this very forum obsessively consuming information about what others were doing besides slaving their lives away at a job they didn't even want to do.

This is when I discovered Rob's post about web design. He was making 10k/mo working from Columbia building websites. He also put out a course teaching others how to do it. I bought it along with another course. The total investment was $2300 which was more than I had ever invested in myself before.

There's something to be said about investing a large amount in something like a course. Whether the course is valuable or not, the very act of investing such a large amount triggers the sunk-cost fallacy and makes you feel like you have to get your moneys worth or you'll die. You HAVE to make it work. There's no other choice. This is a good place to be in when you want to achieve something. "I have no other options."

Buying these courses was the smartest things I've ever done.


With all the different business models one could choose, I chose web design and marketing for two reasons:

1. I knew that I wanted to be a businessman, so I needed to learn about business. As a freelance web designer and marketer I get the opportunity to work with businesses of all types in all locations. I get to learn what works and what doesn't straight from the source.

2. I wanted to be free to work from wherever I wanted.



The Runway
While I was taking my online courses, the construction company I was working for happened to be struggling. We had lost the only job we had going which was valued at about 200k. To top it off we had no leads in the pipeline. We were pretty much F*cked.

The owner thought I was the prodigal son and I could do no wrong. So, when I pitched to him that I would make a website and use Google Adwords to get leads, he was onboard. I saw this as an opportunity to get paid to learn a skill I could use to get me some of that sweet sweet freedom.

I threw together a shitty website and ran Google ads with the help of @Andy Black Adwords Jumpstart course. In 2 months we had jobs going and a full pipeline. Success! It was working!

This achievement gave me a ton of courage in terms of quitting my job to start my own business. I've always been a sink or swim type of guy. If things are comfortable I can get lazy, but if I need to perform, I always deliver. I've never missed any payment or bill in my life despite the fact that I've always been very poor.

With that said, I realized that if I kept my 9-5 job and my comfortable salary I wouldn't have the energy after work to pursue anything else. It was a scary decision to consider...

It still took me a few months to build up enough courage, and with ~3k in the bank and a laptop, I quit my job and jumped into Entrepreneurship 100%.

(Please note that I don't have any kids or debt. If I needed to, I could probably get by on less than $1000 per month.)

The First Year
During the first year I only made about $28k doing freelance web design. The cool part is that I was only working part time. I spent about 15-30 hours per week working on projects and 40 or so hours per week reading, studying, taking courses, and experimenting with online marketing on my own projects.

Around May of 2018, about 6 months after I went full time into freelance, my girlfriend quit her job and we started traveling the world. We landed in Bali, Indonesia first thanks to advice from Matt Robinson, another member of this forum. Two weeks in she got bored and quickly found a remote job doing sales for a company called Remote Year. Part of the deal was she had to go live in Mexico City for 3 months and train. I liked it a lot because we got a free condo in a really nice part of town, not to mention the constant exposure to traveling entrepreneurs. Heaven...

The girlfriend working was great for my productivity as I didn't have to put up with a constant moving distraction that seems to be a black hole for attention. You know, the typical girlfriend. Haha

Getting Smart with the Passive Income
In May of 2018 I was feeling the pain of the boom and bust business cycle of a freelance web designer. I would make a 5k sale one month, work on the project for a month, then find myself with no sales and no income the next month. It was emotional going from such highs to such lows all the time. This is when I decided to start going for MRR, or monthly reoccurring revenue.

I started selling website care plans and review funnels in addition to the websites.

A care plan basically means I take care of a client's website and provide 2 hours per month for edits. Besides never having to worry about their website being hacked or down, they get instant responses whenever they have an issue, questions, or just need service. With this I was able to turn regular web design clients into $250/mo care plan clients.

I also sold review funnels. Basically a review funnel is a one page website with a special url that makes it as easy as possible for a customer to leave a company a review on multiple sites. I was selling these for $150/mo. This is a great one because they are super low maintenance and provide a ton of value for the right kind of client. I've seen others charge a lot more but I like to keep it low key as to keep the payments coming in for long periods of time without a second glance from the client.

It only took two months for me to get to $650/mo in MRR. This was a magic number for me because this covered my living and business expenses. Got to love the low overhead of freelance web design...

This lowered my stress tremendously and gave me the breathing room to pursue more risky projects and come up with more creative deals.

The rest of 2018 was great. I spent 7 months abroad. I went to Bali twice and Mexico 3 times. I made friends everywhere and picked up clients each place I went. Now I work with clients all over the world.

2019
Now it's 2019 and business is better than ever. My conservative projection for 2019 is $140k and I'm still only working part time. The MRR is about to pass 3k/mo and only takes up about 3 hours of my time per month.

I've settled on providing complete holistic marketing services for small to medium sized businesses. You could say I'm more of a consultant. I come in and work with a client to figure out exactly what's holding them back then come up with a strategy to get them to where they want to go. Inbound marketing is my weapon of choice as I enjoy creating content that brings in large amounts of traffic which I then turn into customers and sales.

I haven't niched down into any one type of service or market which definitely has its challenges. It's definitely not a business I plan on scaling broadly in terms of quantity of clients, but perhaps in terms of magnitude, or size of projects. The sweet spot for project size for my company is 10-20k. This size project pays well and is still small enough that I don't have to work with large teams or groups of decision makers.

I like this set up because I'm still being exposed to tons of different businesses and learning a lot. It also gives me breathing room to be flexible with my direction which I'm still figuring out. Freedom and flexibility are two of my most important values.

I have a couple side projects going that have potential to earn me a lot more than my marketing agency simply because they are much more scalable. I plan on keeping my agency going if only to service my book of clients as well as market any companies I start or acquire in the future.

One of the best parts of this whole business has been the relationships I've developed with people all over the world. I have more friends than ever and everywhere I travel to I know someone who will meet up for a beer or an adventure. I've even met up with Rob a few times which is super cool because he's someone I really looked up to over the last few years.

Lessons Learned
I hope to share some things that might help others who are just getting started. This could be considered an exercise in trying to relate to myself the way I was 2 years ago before I was blessed with the curse of knowledge. Hell, 3 years ago I had to look up the term "marketing" because I didn't even know what it meant... Can you believe that?

Here is a list of 5 things I would tell my younger self.

1. Mindset is more important than anything else.

There are a lot of things that make up a mindset, for example: self esteem. Self esteem has such a huge role on how we see ourselves and others. It effects every single thing we do and every thought we have. I think the topic of self esteem is worth researching in the very beginning, or at any stage for that matter. Get in tune with where you're at and what you think of yourself. Ask yourself, "What do I need to be like in order for me to feel great about myself?"​

There's three books I recommend for this:

- Awaken the Giant Within by Tony Robbins - This is like an instruction manual for your mind. Mine is full of notes... I regularly open up to a random page and read it like the Bible. (Get the old version at Goodwill or some other thrift shop. The new versions are a condensed version meant to sell his other products.)
- The Six Pillars of Self Esteem by Nathaniel Brandon - A solid presentation of what self esteem is, what it does, and how to cultivate it.
- 177 Mental Toughness Secrets of the World Class by Steve Siebold - This book is a gateway to learning how to be a world class human being. It's got tons of recommendations for other books. I can't recommend this book enough.
​

2. If you don't know what to do, just do something. Anything!

In today's world we have too many options. In the old days people had to find food. They had to build shelter, collect firewood, and make as many babies as they could because most of them wouldn't survive. Life was all about survival.

In today's world we don't have to worry about that kind of stuff. The result of this phenomenon is an entire population frozen in indecision because they don't know what to do. It's my belief that if you find yourself not knowing what direction to head, just start walking. Pick something and start doing it. You'll quickly discover whether it's working for you or not and then decide to continue or change direction.

If you never start moving, it's easy to wake up and realize the years have gone by but you've stood still. This was me for years. Don't let it be you! Get moving!!!
​

3. Read, a lot.

I know a lot of people. The ones that read are miles ahead of the ones that don't. What else can I say? From ages 18 to 28 I read maybe 10 books. From 28 to 30 I read over 100. I can't even begin to describe the difference this made for me.

Read. Listen. Expose yourself to new information in whatever way is effective for you. Just know that there's something special about reading. Your subconscious mind creates a world with the information thus making reading super effective. TV and Audio is good but your brain is much less active during these activities.
​

4. Be a Good Person

Good people are more successful than bad people. This might sound silly but it's true. Write a paragraph about what makes a really good person then make it your mission to be like that.

If you automatically consider other people and go out of your way to make their lives better, money will magically find its way into your pocket. It's magic. Did I say that already?
​

5. Get Uncomfortable

The first time you drive on the freeway it's really scary. Cars are moving fast and the stakes are high. If you mess up, you're dead. It's quite uncomfortable, no?

After a couple hundred times driving on the freeway it's just not a big deal, right? You can do it in your sleep, almost... Why do you think that is? Did driving get any easier? Or, did you just get better?

This analogy can relate to anything in life. If you are always comfortable, it means you are never getting better at anything. If you want to grow and become a better person, you have to expose yourself to situations that make you uncomfortable.

I've learned to notice when I'm getting too comfortable. That's usually the time I pack my bags and head somewhere I've never been or look for a situation that scares me. I can't even tell you how much I've grown since I realized this.
​

Well, thank you for reading my short progress story. I hope you found something valuable to take away and use in your own journey.

If you have any questions, ask away. I've got nothing to hide and am happy to be as transparent as possible to help others like myself who just need to see someone else do it to give them the courage to follow suit.

Noteable. Rep+

 

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[Deleted50669]

This is an excellent write up, thank you for this.

Number 4 - being a good person, speaks to me especially. It's not talked about a lot, but it's very important.

 

[GoodluckChuck]

Hi @GoodluckChuck ,

Thank you for sharing. Some questions if you don’t mind answering:

1. You state that you are now working “part-time hours” for your 12k/mo (revenue?). Would you say you are on the low end or high end of the “part-time range” in terms of hours worked at present (e.g. 5hrs per week vs 25).

Do you have any plans to make this 100% passive or do you see yourself as always doing part time hours here and there indefinitely?

2. What were some of the biggest and most difficult obstacles you encountered during this process? From your post you made it really sound like a walk in the park (e.g. you travelled the world whilst doing this).

Do you see yourself as relatively talented at learning new things? You seemed to have been able to distinguish yourself as a website creator in the website market after only 2 years, when many website creators probably have trained for many more years than that yet probably still make much less income than you do.

Happy to answer these questions. You caught me as I just woke up with a cup of coffee in my hand so prepare for some long-winded answers.

1.High end or low end for part time work... It varies. I say part time but to be honest I don't really know how much time I spend working. To be clear, when I saw work part time I mean work part time on paying projects. The amount of time I've spent reading, taking courses, practicing on my own projects, etc. would account for much more than full time hours if I added them all up. It's been an obsession for me.

Did any of this feel like work to me? No, because not only do I enjoy learning but the idea of taking action now that will pay off later is extremely motivating to me.

So, when I say I work part time, I mean I work part time on acquiring and delivering client projects. The rest of my time is spent working on myself and my own projects. Without the second part, the first part wouldn't be paying so much after 2 years. To quantify it with a guess, I would say I've spent about 15 focused hours per week average on client projects over the last 2 years.

The way I work is not focused so I quantify this by thinking "If the client was standing there watching me how much time would I bill them for." It's not uncommon for me to be doing research on how to do something while I'm doing it. Learning on the fly.

1.2 Do I plan to make it 100% passive? No. This model can't be 100% passive. Even if I hire someone to manage it all for me, I have to manage them so it will take some of my time. The MRR part of this model suffers from client turnover meaning some clients drop out after a while so in order to keep the income the same I have to be making constant sales.

My plan for the marketing agency is to keep it going organically as I focus my power on things that can be either more passive or bring in exponentially more income.

If I created something that was 100% passive I might sell it for a lot of $. I'm a busy body and the idea of 100% passive doesn't seem all that sustainable to me. The world changes as do the markets in it so nothing lasts forever.

2. Most difficult obstacles... To put it in a ratio I attribute my success 3:1 mindset to skillset. In the beginning I was terrified of selling because I was unsure of what I could deliver. I learned to rely on my commitment rather than track record because I didn't have one. I told myself, "If I get this job I will not sleep until I get the results I promised."

After a few projects, I realized this was a good way to go about things because it allowed me to take on projects I was under-qualified for while being confident enough to sell them. Don't get me wrong, it was still difficult to sell because I still lacked confidence. I would find a million reasons why not to get on the phone. This resulted in me taking lots of courses... (Action faking)

As my skillset grew from the courses and practice, my confidence did as well and I was better able to take bigger bites and be more ambitious with my endeavors.

When I look back now I can see it is mostly mindset and self esteem that separates me now from me then. I have experience but I'm not doing things a whole lot different than I was then. If I could have been more courageous a year ago I could have probably been making a lot more money then. On the same token, I could probably be making 5x what I am now just by having a more advanced mindset...

This is the way it goes. We see things from the perspective of the place we're at. That's why I spend most of my free time now working on understanding mindset and how to shape that. The difference between someone with 100k in the bank and 100b in the bank is the way they view themselves and the world.

Another huge obstacle for me was comfort. When I'm comfortable I get lazzyyyyy. Traveling helped get me out of my comfort zone where I perform much better and with more vigor and endurance. Being in a new place where nobody speaks the language or gives 2 shits about me made me feel like I had to work a lot harder to survive. This made me work a lot harder. This is why Mexico City will always hold a special place in my heart. It's where I found my inner strength and courage and built the momentum that carried me to where I am today.

2.2 Am I good at picking up new skills? Yes. I've always been really good at developing new skills. It's a strength of mine. As a kid I was always better than my peers at skate boarding, baseball, subjects in school that interested me (I almost flunked out of high school). On the flip side my weakness is that I have a hard time sticking with things once I break past the initial difficulty phase. I just get bored. Maybe that's why I run a marketing agency with no niche. I like to learn new things then move on. Discipline is a challenge for me.

As for why I can charge more than other web developers and designers... That's just because I choose to. Pricing in this industry is incredible arbitrary. In the Fox Web School gang we focus on value pricing because it allows us to create win-win deals with every client. If I can make someone 100k with a new website then charging 20k is still a no brainer for everyone.

Do I get a knot in my stomach when I throw out a high price tag? Yeah... When they say yes immediately I wonder if I could have asked for more... I get about 50% of the projects I propose so I think that's okay.

A lot of web developers and coders don't understand why they can't make as much. A lot of them are self-proclaimed "bad at dealing with people". That's just a mindset + skillset thing. It takes practice like everything else as well as the courage to suck at it for a while.

My message to anyone in this industry that wants to make more is this: Work on your people skills and sell your own projects. You can ask for as much as you want. If you have a full time job then ask for a high amount that you feel like you probably won't get. An amount that if you did get it, you could quit your job and start freelance full time. After enough sales calls you will eventually find someone willing to pay this... It truly is a numbers game.

 

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[SDE]

Could you post a link to Rob's course. I'm new to this forum and don't know where to find it? Also would it be possible to learn web design like you did while also being a full-time college students

I think this is the one.

Web Design Business Foundation

Fox also created some excellent threads:

GOLD! - How to Learn Code, Start a Web Company, $15k+ per month within 9 months

Fox's Travelling the World while Coding Thread


EDIT: Thank you for sharing your story @GoodluckChuck. It was inspiring.

 

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[GoodluckChuck]

Can you say a little more about getting business from the content youbahve produced? Where are you posting this stuff? How do you decide what to focus on? I love the idea of providing value first via content but don’t want it to get lost ...

While I build websites for clients I also build them for myself. Most of them are simply a hand full of articles about a certain topic that I have expertise in.

I use a tool called Ahrefs to research what websites are out there, what keywords they rank for, and roughly how much traffic those keywords generate. This way, if there's a topic I want to write about, I can do research and know how to make my content get found by more people.

The techniques I use branch into many different disciplines such as SEO, content marketing, email marketing, as well as web design.

Once the content is written, I promote it through various channels like Facebook, Medium, etc.


A good way to start is to write things about your local area. Local topics are typically easier to rank for because they are more niched.


I understand where you are coming from when you say "but I don't want it to get lost" but you have to get rid of that mindset. This tiny sentence turned an actionable idea into a non-actionable idea.

If you want to start making content, do it. Focus on helping people and you seriously can't go wrong. Once you have 20 pieces of valuable content I can almost guarantee it will be found by someone. Even if it doesn't, you've already taken care of the hard part. Attracting eyeballs is easy when you have something of value.

 

[GoodluckChuck]

The 2019 Year End Update

What a year! I accomplished so much that it feels like 3 years went by. There were high highs and low lows, but what would you expect when you're winging it through learning business?

First, let's talk about the results I got for my clients. All the clients that stuck with me through the entire duration of their SEO or marketing have seen great results. That's good because I don't do long-term contracts so, in order to keep the money coming in, I have to produce results!

• The SEO clients are sitting right on target at the top of Google Search and getting the right kind of traffic to grow their businesses.
• The websites I built this year have met their goals and we've moved onto the next round of goals (ie. went from no leads to too many leads, now we need to filter them, email marketing, etc.)
• The Google Ads clients that stuck with me are happy and rolling right into 2020
• The various websites I maintain are my favorite part of this business. They stay happy and I stay paid over the course of years.

Second, let's talk about numbers. I finished the year off with about 85k in sales, about half of what my goal was, 160k. The first half of the year was boss. I had a lot of sales coming in organically and was able to close a nice amount of work.

The second half of the year was very slow for me. There are a lot of reasons for this, but my main contribution was letting my foot off the gas on sales when I was abroad. The 12 hour time difference was a good excuse for not following up with anyone... Not the way to get sales!

For me, 2019 could be classified as more of a "working vacation." I was in denial about this until October or so when I looked back and realized I was spending a lot more time playing than working...

So, I wasn't building a gigantic empire... But, I was checking things off my bucket list left and right while developing a lot of skills that are setting me up for nice progress in 2020. My only regret is that I didn't 100% embrace this "vacation" mindset and spent a lot of time frustrated that I wasn't making the progress I wanted. Looking back, I could have relaxed and enjoyed it more, but, lesson learned. I will work to be more honest with myself in the future.

Where do I go from here?

Well, I'm stationary now so my plans are changing a little bit. Since I'm not traveling, I no longer need to work remotely and my options are opened up.

Lately, I've been hitting a ceiling with web design where I want to build things that I don't know how to build... I don't know any real development languages so I've been teaching myself Python/Django so I can build some web apps on a couple of my websites. After a few months of spending multiple hours a day doing this, I realized that I could probably get paid to learn this stuff.

I looked online and found tons of web dev jobs in my area that actually pay pretty good. After the holidays are over I'm going to talk to a few companies and find one that will put me on a team of developers. It appears that I have all the skills necessary to fill a junior web dev role and maybe even a senior web dev once I have a little more programming chops.

That's a pretty cool thought for people who are looking for a good career and have an affinity for technology. You can spend a year or two freelancing web design and marketing and end up with skills that can pay you 80k+ per year. Not bad considering you hopefully made money during those two years!

A junior dev income combined with my residuals from the marketing company would be a killer way to get paid to learn a skill I want. It's not a long-term plan for me to have a job, but I feel like it's the best way for me to figure out how software engineering works in the shortest amount of time possible. It will also be nice to work with some other people for a bit. Home office life gets old...

No matter what happens, I'll continue to run the marketing company on the side. I can easily match what I did in 2019 in 2020 while maintaining a separate fulltime job. If anything, I will have to turn more clients down because of my limited time which will probably create a higher-end clientele. That's how it seems to work... When you are picky and choosy, you tend to land the bigger fish. That's my experience anyway.

The plan for this marketing business is to get the processes down and put any new clients into longer-term contracts so that in another year or two this marketing company is something I can exit for a nice profit if I want to. In the meantime, the monthly income for little time invested rocks.

I'm excited for 2020 and all it will bring. I'm sure it will be fun and go by too fast!

Thanks for reading and happy new year!

 

[GoodluckChuck]

It's been over a year since I last posted here. A lot has changed over the last two years since I was active in this thread.

In the beginning of 2020 business was pretty slow so I decided to try my hand as a general contractor partnered with my father. 2020 was a great year for both businesses. The marketing business doubled and the construction business tripled. That said, I made almost twice as much from the marketing company and worked 1/10 as much so at the end of the year the experiment was over and I bowed out of the construction business.

2020 was the year that I productized our service and narrowed down the niche. We now focus almost exclusively on marketing for home service contractors. Our product is a package that includes a website, SEO, simple automations, and an accompanying longterm marketing service plan that is comprised of various services. It's a semi-custom solution but structured in a semi-scalable way.

I have two full time guys that handle almost 100% of the delivery and get amazing results. I've had to learn how to lead a team and, more importantly, build a leadership team. Hired our 3rd full time person about 2 months ago and am currently hiring 2 more.

2021 has been all about marketing. Things have really come full circle. My team and I are great at marketing for our clients but it's always been a challenge to generate our own leads. Doubling every year is sweet but I want to 10x in 2022! Figuring out how to market to the masses has been my latest challenge.

It's been a very interesting and rewarding journey so far and I'm excited to start adding to this progress thread again as I go through the process of scaling this business as big as I can get it.

Latest activities that I'll be talking about soon:
- Using Facebook Ads to generate leads for my own marketing business
- Building and testing a lead qualifying funnel
- Crafting (testing) offers that people can't say no to

 

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[Mauri Dovan]

Hi, I'm new to the forum. Just joined because your post is inspiring. Thank you for sharing.

I liked this review funnels thing you mentioned. Where can I find how to do something like that? Do you integrate some kind of special tool/form for this? Do you host the page yourself and then get paid monthly while your client uses it?

Thanks in advance, and congrats on the business!

 

[GoodluckChuck]

The most inspirational thing I read in 2019 so far. Thank you for sharing this epic story.

Your mindset is very similar to me, and I am also o huge fan of Tony Robbins. Awaken the giant within is the first self-help book I read and it literally has blown my mind.

I had a question about sales. How do you know if you actually can't help a client or you think in that way because you are afraid of something or avoiding pushing your comfort zone?

How you can be sure you will get real results to your client, and you are a great fit for the job?

I base decisions off too main things.

1. Past results

Have I done this before? Based on past results can I expect to get the desired results?

A lot of marketing and sales is numbers and probabilities. With a big enough pool of prospective customers I can be reasonably certain to make some sales.

2. My time constraints.

Like it or not, time is always a factor in this type of service, whether it's mine or someone else's that I'm paying for.

When I sell a project the main thing I'm selling is my commitment to produce the results. This is where the confidence comes from. I am certain that I can do it, it's just a matter of how long it will take.

I weigh time with other more subjective factors like:

Do I like this client?
Do I like this project?
Do I like this market?
Is this a bite I can chew?

In the beginning I asked questions just like this. "How do you know if you can get results?"

You can know with your conscious brain by learning how others do it.

You can learn with your sub conscious brain and nervous system by doing it.

In the end, you never know for sure. You just get more confident in your ability.

If you can manage to commit 100% to it, then you know you'll either make it happen or die. Of you die, then who cares?

 

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[GoodluckChuck]

What is your sales process and sales turn around look like? Do you do the majority of your sales accessing your network or is it cold email/phone call? What is your success rate if you were to approach 100 businesses? I find most people that get into digital marketing are very secretive (no idea why) about their success or failures.

Sales is a numbers game.

In the beginning I did a bit of networking. Networking events were not very lucrative as they were mostly made up of insurance salesmen and mortgage brokers.

The kind of networking that worked for me was reaching out to other web designers and marketers. The fact is people don't have a ton of friends so if you call them up and offer to buy them lunch, they usually say yes.

With a hand full of people referring me work about 50% of new projects come from this channel.

The other 50% comes through my website.

I don't do any cold outbound but I would if I had no clients.

Sales process is simple.

1. First touch to schedule a longer call.
2. Second touch I'll try and get as many details as I can about their challenges and goals.
3. Third touch is about reviewing their pain points and presenting a solution to their problems while informing them about what I discovered while researching their business/market. I always try and close them on the phone at this point before I send any kind of proposal.
4. When they soft close on the phone I'll send a proposal/invoice. If they don't immediately pay then I follow up weekly until they pay or ask me to stop. Sometimes I have to follow up 10+ times. People are weird and they have their own reasons for not responding right away.

Another good % of work comes from past clients and their referrals.

As for secrets, there's no need to be secretive. There are a bajillion businesses out there that need marketing and a shortage of good people to give it to them.

People who think the market is saturated are making excuses why they dont have success in the industry.

 

[D.I.Schuyler]

Awesome job! Thank you for your testimony. I definitely resonated with what you said in the beginning of you post..."normal pattern for me where I would alternate back and forth between extremely unproductive behavior and the highly motivated obsessive though short lived pursuit of something more." It got to the point where I said enough is enough.

I'm a year in to my ecomm business and I've had many success and failures during that time, but I keep moving forward and working toward my first goal of hitting five figures /mo. This will allow me to finally quit my job and start living life on my own terms and beyond.

I look forward to reading more great things from you.

 

[GoodluckChuck]

Awesome. How do you make connection while living at new place?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

All sorts of ways...

Facebook groups was a big one. There's a "foriegners in x" group in every city I visited.