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

21elnegocio

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First of all great F*cken story man, that is the life I want to live. Pack my bags and leave somewhere else, with that said I wanted to see what you would recommend me to look into buying that gives you that life style?

Also where do I look for this business ?
 
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GoodluckChuck

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First of all great F*cken story man, that is the life I want to live. Pack my bags and leave somewhere else, with that said I wanted to see what you would recommend me to look into buying that gives you that life style?

Also where do I look for this business ?

The lifestyle I've enjoyed over the last few years is based on having few obligations and no liabilities.

Nobody was relying on me for support so I could effectively disappear for a year and nobody would suffer.

I also had very little debt. I actually coasted around a 0 bottom line for a year. I would have like 6k in the bank and 6k on the credit card. This happened a few times.

Over time the balance improved and I made sure to keep the debt at 0. That way, worst case scenario I was starting at scratch. I'm kind of a hustler so I've never not been able to put food in my belly.

Another thing to note is that I didn't decide what lifestyle I wanted and then set out to get it. I had an idea but I really just winged it. I knew more about what I didn't want than what I wanted.

I also have a girlfriend who is Scrappy as F*ck when it comes to getting remote jobs on demand and being willing to travel. My life would have been less luxurious had she not been around since her job paid for a lot of the places we spent time at in 2018.

That's the thing. She quit her job and hit the road too. One week in she decides it was boring and started looking for a remote job. One week later she was hired at Remote Year and we bounced to Mexico for 3 months so she could train.

Point of mentioning that is this: There are a million ways to get what you want. The hard part is being certain that you want it. Sometimes it's easier to know what you don't want. Like me, I didn't want to be tied to any one place. I also didn't want to spend another year in the same life I had been living. That was enough to push me out the door.

If you don't have any obligations and you want to travel, get your a$$ out the door and figure it out. If you have a fighter spirit you will figure it out.

If you travel abroad, get travelers insurance!
 

demirciler

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I started blocking my calendar for these tasks every day. It works better like this because that way none of these things ever hit the back burner. If you take your foot off the gas in any of these areas for too long, then it takes 100x more work to catch back up, if you even can...

This ties in nicely with the patience idea. Now that I am really settling in for the long haul and thinking longer term, I see how a little progress in each of these areas each day will add up to huge results over time. That's the... what do you call it?.. oh yea, the process!

Thank you for keeping us updated and sharing your lessons! I definitely agree with this in every area of your life. The main reason I couldn't get successful is that getting in a loop which I constantly switching between gas and brake and not working on anything consistently.

It's hard to be patient and keep going when results are not coming and hold your ego when the success happens. You should always keep yourself on track because momentum is the hardest to get and very very easy to lose.
 

GoodluckChuck

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Thank you for keeping us updated and sharing your lessons! I definitely agree with this in every area of your life. The main reason I couldn't get successful is that getting in a loop which I constantly switching between gas and brake and not working on anything consistently.

It's hard to be patient and keep going when results are not coming and hold your ego when the success happens. You should always keep yourself on track because momentum is the hardest to get and very very easy to lose.

75 Hard has been the best tool for getting "into the loop" and gaining momentum.

I'm on day 67/75 and it's been life changing. Its become a way of life and I don't want to go back.

I recommend completing this challenge for anyone who has a hard time sticking to things and thinking long term.
 
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Simplify

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@GoodluckChuck great thread and congrats on the progress so far.

I didn't read the entire thread so forgive me if my question has already been answered.

I am in a similar situation to where you started at. I'm 25 years old and have a decent life.

I was thinking of the master a kill route, turn that into freelance work, gain more freedom, etc.

Did you start off with any prior web design experience?
Or did you start with the courses that you mentioned?

I am at the point of looking for that skill to master and to move into freelance for more freedom.

Any advice for todays marketplace in terms of a great marketable skill?
 

Nitrous

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Long post I don’t have time atm to read it all but I read enough of certain parts to decide that I just need to jump in somewhere in something with someone in consulting type services because that is what I’ve been geared towards the last few years but I’ve been afraid I guess to just jump in get messy and risk being a complete and total failure in order to have some success.
 

GoodluckChuck

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@GoodluckChuck great thread and congrats on the progress so far.

I didn't read the entire thread so forgive me if my question has already been answered.

I am in a similar situation to where you started at. I'm 25 years old and have a decent life.

I was thinking of the master a kill route, turn that into freelance work, gain more freedom, etc.

Did you start off with any prior web design experience?
Or did you start with the courses that you mentioned?

I am at the point of looking for that skill to master and to move into freelance for more freedom.

Any advice for todays marketplace in terms of a great marketable skill?

I started off with the courses I mention. I had almost zero web development skills. The HTML/CSS Course that I took twice gave me the skills needed to use HTML templates. Then, over the course of about 6 months, I switched to Wordpress using page builders which allows you to build websites with very little HTML coding and a moderate amount of CSS.
 
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GoodluckChuck

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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!
 

RehabThis

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Love the story Chuck! I also am a member of Fox's group. Think we have chatted once or twice. Cannot wait to see more from you in 2020!
 

Juan Pimentel

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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!
Hey thank you so much for this thread and update. Im finding myself not knowing what to do quite yet. I have read marketing books and I believe i can add value via online marketing. What are some steps I should take? Learn to code so i can build websites? If so what skills do i need to know before i learn that? Im coming from a blue collar job. I do have a history in sales for both a retail store and family landscaping company though. Sales is where im a bit stronger but not so much in the technology side. What can i read or watch so i can better understand this business. Thank you.
 
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GoodluckChuck

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Hey thank you so much for this thread and update. Im finding myself not knowing what to do quite yet. I have read marketing books and I believe i can add value via online marketing. What are some steps I should take? Learn to code so i can build websites? If so what skills do i need to know before i learn that? Im coming from a blue collar job. I do have a history in sales for both a retail store and family landscaping company though. Sales is where im a bit stronger but not so much in the technology side. What can i read or watch so i can better understand this business. Thank you.

Hey Juan!

My recommendation is to just start doing stuff. Doing is the best way to learn and there isn't anything in the online world you can't learn online, so pick an objective and set out to win. You'll surely have to study as you go and hack things together, but you'll learn so much that in a month or two you won't even believe how far you've come.

These days, I don't read or take a course unless it's about a problem I'm trying to solve at this very moment. I got to this point by doing a bunch of stuff.

Good luck!
 

Juan Pimentel

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Hey Juan!

My recommendation is to just start doing stuff. Doing is the best way to learn and there isn't anything in the online world you can't learn online, so pick an objective and set out to win. You'll surely have to study as you go and hack things together, but you'll learn so much that in a month or two you won't even believe how far you've come.

These days, I don't read or take a course unless it's about a problem I'm trying to solve at this very moment. I got to this point by doing a bunch of stuff.

Good luck!
Ok thank you!
 

FirstLawMotion

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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.
That's amazing! Travelling the world while working projects and living off of passive income sounds great. Congrats.
 

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That's amazing! Travelling the world while working projects and living off of passive income sounds great. Congrats.
Thanks! It was really cool. I hope to do it again someday when the world calms down.
 

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Thanks! It was really cool. I hope to do it again someday when the world calms down.

Where is that update ha!

Of course no travel right now but you are making tons of progress in other areas.
 
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New progress thread coming soon!

I'm also looking forward to it! Your thread has been one of the most motivating for me since I relate to you in many ways.

As a newb with a few paid clients under my belt, I must say I haven't had many referrals yet so far though, is it likely to kick off from now on or do I just have unwilling clients? I keep hearing "there's this guy I'll connect you soon" and stuff like that but yeah.

Do they tend to pop up after months down the line? Or should I be more aggressive and call them and ask for "that guy"'s phone number or something.

Been mostly doing cold calls lately which I admit is not fun at all. I do OK though, all anxiety is gone and my average call's duration is about 3-4 minutes so I am able to keep them on the phone.

I have an execution thread too if you wanna check it out:

2020: Growing A Digital Marketing Agency And Achieving Financial Freedom As Fast As Possible!

Awesome progress! I'm at 600/2000 of my revenue goal for this month (1 sale and multiple other "almost" sales) and I want to move to my own place in July. Trying my best to make it possible. Not having to cold call and getting leads organically sounds like a dream right now lol.

Will be monitoring your account for activity.. closely.
 

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The total investment was $2300 which was more than I had ever invested in myself before
I am going over your old posts and seriously wonder "how come you did not get trapped in the scam", maybe it was 2017
 
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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.
I agree with you. A wealthy target that I approached recently told me that, the best way I could have won his heart or other established institutions is if I did a review of their marketing then presented it to them for free. That way I could have established myself as both a Credible Expert and agitated the problems that I could sell solutions for.
 

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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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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.

What a great niche.... small business operators who want to focus on their trade, not on marketing, reviews, social media, and other common nuisances now that come expected for small business.
 

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Way to go Chuck! It is really fun watching you grow. Keep it up!
 

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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.
I know it has been 3 years but hopefully you will be able to answer some of my questions.

How do I get web design clients starting out? I have been struggling for months to land clients. I live in a 3rd world country so the pay here is terrible (like $30) and they don't see the value of websites.

So I started targeting other countries via cold email but have failed to get any result from it. Cold call would require a lot of money which I don't have. So what do you recommend I do?

Also which niche are the most profitable?

I hope you would be able to answer these questions
 
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Karume

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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.
Thank you so much for your inspiring story and congratulation on your success.

I have a question: "How can someone deal with constant/regular romantic relationships that suck to death?"

I mean, on the journey of building wealth that last, if you have a girlfriend/boyfriend that she or he is not supportive in your endeavour, that can be the most ugly and toxic moment to be in.

As I have read and understood you, you were fortunate enough to have a supportive girlfriend but if she could be the opposite, it wouldn't be easy to be as successful as you are right now.

One of my terrible mess on my journey toward building wealth that last is being that "mr. nice guy" who always get runned over by merciless gold diggers...and it really stinks! It smells mediocrity to death!

How can we do to raise high on our journey of wealth, freedom and happiness without keeping being victim of sucking intimate relationship?

Karume.
 

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