Hey Y'all,
So a little background, I left my corporate job to start my own cybersecurity firm. During the journey, I've learned a lot of new and interesting things. LLC creation, TradeMark, Invoicing, you name it. As MJ says aka the title of his new book "Choose Hard Live Easy" and he's not wrong there! I kind of see it as Choose Hard Not Easy but you know
.
-----
After execution, I got stuck in the phase of cold calls / outreach aka the "desert" of owning your own company. I felt like I would call, email, reach out, and it just felt like folks didn't care. I made posts here on the Fastlane forums for advice (thank you everyone) to help keep me on the right track too.
A majority of days I would sit there and ask myself... "Is this working?" "Maybe I am doing something wrong..." "Should I change my outreach style?" "Is any of this worth it?" -- I hope I am not alone in any of that thought process with some of the rest of you.
From reading/researching, apparently your brain (or some are at least) literally wired to try and 'protect' you. When you make a call and nothing happens, brain goes "Why did we do that?, that was uncomfortable, lets not do that again." I would be lying to you if that doesn't take a toll on you and for me, I began to over analyze. I believe MJ mentioned this as well as it helps having people in your corner to talk with about these things, whether it's your wife, nephew, or someone close who helps support you.
With that though, here was the breakdown.
- 5 cold outreaches per day (I try at least, I could be doing more)
- Adding prosects to my CRM
- Performing scheduled follow ups
With this out of all, I got an 2 IT firms to contact me asking "What I was doing?" We talked, they understood and now both are wanting to meet to discuss options around my services. Not too long after, got a referral in for a company needing help with their domain and email. Basically, it was laggy, not working, huge pain point, and the owner had deals to close and couldn't. I started off lower with a $1500 project fee. She accepted.
Jumped in, worked with the prior domain owner to take ownership (a lot of back and forth there), spun up M365, got their domain connected, performed overall security hygiene for the level of M365 tenant they were on, the works. The biggest piece, keeping the owner updated on the progress (people tend to forget this) and with a focus to not move email in the middle of her getting correspondence for a huge home deal she was working on. Now she's got working email, security banners, spam protection, and other features in place she never had before; cheaper than the previous solution. She is now needing help with data migration / centralization since they've been working out of a personal account (more aspects to secure file usage as well) and wants my help because "She can't trust anyone around this area to do this for her."
-----
All of this to say. There are trials you go through on business, all it takes is getting that first client and once you do, your outlook changes completely. If any of you are struggling, just keep going. Doubt will always form but it's up to you to process that and continue to drive things in the right direction. There are things you will never want to do for your business (I hate cold calling) but with that, in the end, it makes you a better person overall and you learn new things. The "Ownership" of owning your business comes to mind from the Fastlane book.
As I keep going and I encourage you to do the same, next time ask yourself... Were you happy in your previous job/life/etc?
If the answer is no and you are happy now, keep moving forward, even through the tough times.
-----
P.S. - Please read MJs book too if you haven't, there are a ton of valuable lessons there I pull from on the daily.
P.P.S. - My wife also said "You made $1500 in one call, it takes me 80 hours a week to make that!" I died laughing because more went into it than she realizes
P.P.P.S. - MJ don't kill me if I am mis-quoting things LOL.
So a little background, I left my corporate job to start my own cybersecurity firm. During the journey, I've learned a lot of new and interesting things. LLC creation, TradeMark, Invoicing, you name it. As MJ says aka the title of his new book "Choose Hard Live Easy" and he's not wrong there! I kind of see it as Choose Hard Not Easy but you know
.-----
After execution, I got stuck in the phase of cold calls / outreach aka the "desert" of owning your own company. I felt like I would call, email, reach out, and it just felt like folks didn't care. I made posts here on the Fastlane forums for advice (thank you everyone) to help keep me on the right track too.
A majority of days I would sit there and ask myself... "Is this working?" "Maybe I am doing something wrong..." "Should I change my outreach style?" "Is any of this worth it?" -- I hope I am not alone in any of that thought process with some of the rest of you.
From reading/researching, apparently your brain (or some are at least) literally wired to try and 'protect' you. When you make a call and nothing happens, brain goes "Why did we do that?, that was uncomfortable, lets not do that again." I would be lying to you if that doesn't take a toll on you and for me, I began to over analyze. I believe MJ mentioned this as well as it helps having people in your corner to talk with about these things, whether it's your wife, nephew, or someone close who helps support you.
With that though, here was the breakdown.
- 5 cold outreaches per day (I try at least, I could be doing more)
- Adding prosects to my CRM
- Performing scheduled follow ups
With this out of all, I got an 2 IT firms to contact me asking "What I was doing?" We talked, they understood and now both are wanting to meet to discuss options around my services. Not too long after, got a referral in for a company needing help with their domain and email. Basically, it was laggy, not working, huge pain point, and the owner had deals to close and couldn't. I started off lower with a $1500 project fee. She accepted.
Jumped in, worked with the prior domain owner to take ownership (a lot of back and forth there), spun up M365, got their domain connected, performed overall security hygiene for the level of M365 tenant they were on, the works. The biggest piece, keeping the owner updated on the progress (people tend to forget this) and with a focus to not move email in the middle of her getting correspondence for a huge home deal she was working on. Now she's got working email, security banners, spam protection, and other features in place she never had before; cheaper than the previous solution. She is now needing help with data migration / centralization since they've been working out of a personal account (more aspects to secure file usage as well) and wants my help because "She can't trust anyone around this area to do this for her."
-----
All of this to say. There are trials you go through on business, all it takes is getting that first client and once you do, your outlook changes completely. If any of you are struggling, just keep going. Doubt will always form but it's up to you to process that and continue to drive things in the right direction. There are things you will never want to do for your business (I hate cold calling) but with that, in the end, it makes you a better person overall and you learn new things. The "Ownership" of owning your business comes to mind from the Fastlane book.
As I keep going and I encourage you to do the same, next time ask yourself... Were you happy in your previous job/life/etc?
If the answer is no and you are happy now, keep moving forward, even through the tough times.
-----
P.S. - Please read MJs book too if you haven't, there are a ton of valuable lessons there I pull from on the daily.
P.P.S. - My wife also said "You made $1500 in one call, it takes me 80 hours a week to make that!" I died laughing because more went into it than she realizes
P.P.P.S. - MJ don't kill me if I am mis-quoting things LOL.
Dislike ads? Become a Fastlane member:
Subscribe today and surround yourself with winners and millionaire mentors, not those broke friends who only want to drink beer and play video games. :-)
Last edited:
Access Restricted: Unlock 1,000,000+ Posts
Stop Peeking Through the Keyhole.
Open the Door.
You hit a wall because the best advice isn't free—it's earned. Since 2007, MJ DeMarco has been active here daily (99.9% active rate), building a war room for entrepreneurs who refuse to settle for mediocrity.
- Active Daily: Life-changing content posted dozens of times every day. No dead threads.
- MJ's Inner Circle: Direct access to the author of The Millionaire Fastlane.
- Vetted Network: Connect with founders scaling to 7 and 8 figures.
- Proven Roadmaps: Strategy over motivation. Execution over "hustle porn."
"SCALED TO 6-FIGURE MONTHS"
"Tips and advice here saved me from huge mistakes, others allowed me to scale my business to 6-figure months."— User MitchC
"INSANE QUALITY OF PEOPLE"
"The number of high quality people I've met from this forum has been insane. All of it predicated on building real value."— User Richard Peck
"You are the average of the five people you surround yourself with."
Are you surrounding yourself with success?
