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Chapas

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Day 29 - Finally Online Again

So I am finally online again. More than 24 hours without power ended last night. I will never underestimate the privilige of a hot meal and a hot shower again.

Most important, we are finally online with my first trial clients Facebook campaign!

Her company runs outdoor fitness bootcamps. Our offer is 2 weeks of free training. So far our numbers look like this:

Campaign running: 20 hours
Budget spent: Approx 5 USD
Reach: Approx 400 people
Landing Page Views: 35
Sign Ups: 5

So far i am pretty satisfied as it is the first campaign I have ever ran. Like FIRST EVER.

The sample is still small and I am still split testing two variations of the ad.

Today I am launching campaigns for two other trial clients as well. One NLP Coach who has a workshop on Thursday (very little time) and one Personal Trainer who needs clients for a 10 week Bootcamp.

Exciting times. Think I am getting addicted to this entrepreneurship thing!
 
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maikooo

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Can you please elaborate this one? Not sure I quite understood it
Sure, so instead of let's say selling filling procedure with 20-30% discount, let them make a special offer where the filling stays the same price, but you package it with dental hygiene (sanding the teeth, etc.) or whatever package makes sense. That might go OK with the law.
 

Conor506

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Day 29 - Finally Online Again

So I am finally online again. More than 24 hours without power ended last night. I will never underestimate the privilige of a hot meal and a hot shower again.

Most important, we are finally online with my first trial clients Facebook campaign!

Her company runs outdoor fitness bootcamps. Our offer is 2 weeks of free training. So far our numbers look like this:

Campaign running: 20 hours
Budget spent: Approx 5 USD
Reach: Approx 400 people
Landing Page Views: 35
Sign Ups: 5

So far i am pretty satisfied as it is the first campaign I have ever ran. Like FIRST EVER.

The sample is still small and I am still split testing two variations of the ad.

Today I am launching campaigns for two other trial clients as well. One NLP Coach who has a workshop on Thursday (very little time) and one Personal Trainer who needs clients for a 10 week Bootcamp.

Exciting times. Think I am getting addicted to this entrepreneurship thing!

Awesome! Very inspiring to hear your story and now your first results!

I'm about to embark on a similar path myself. I've designed a few wesbsites for people and about to take the last and second test for Google Ads certification.

Was always nervous about Facebook ads but now you've inspired me to maybe try that next depending on how things go with Google Ads.

BTW, 24 hours without power is rough. I've lived in Thailand for ten years now and never gone more than six hours without electricity here.
 

PizzaOnTheRoof

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Have you thought about doing 'performance based' compensation? Instead of running their ads for free, you could agree on getting paid if you reach a goal.
For PPC that’s a terrible idea.

What if the client never gets a sale?

What if you spend 20 hours working on a campaign with no results?

You won’t get paid for that time.

Some businesses/products/industries just simply wont perform well on FB Ads
 
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maikooo

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For PPC that’s a terrible idea.
What if the client never gets a sale?
What if you spend 20 hours working on a campaign with no results?
You won’t get paid for that time.
Some businesses/products/industries just simply wont perform well on FB Ads

If not sales, what results do you sell them? Pretty pictures and words?
 

PizzaOnTheRoof

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If not sales, what results do you sell them? Pretty pictures and words?
They’re not buying the results, they’re buying the process. The results keep them coming back...

...because we can’t guarantee them good results.

You should run from any marketer that guarantees you a certain result.

I have a few issues with performance-based pricing:
  1. The PPC manager assumes 100% if the risk. No results? Oh well, the client carries on and the manager can never get that time back. At least with a flat-rate, they can still break even for their time.
  2. What’s stopping the client from walking away after they see success?
  3. What if the client simply lies about the number of sales generated?
  4. If sales dollars are the KPI here, then you better hope your client can close those leads. This is out of your control yet could cost you your income.
*If you're advertising for an e-commerce store, you can disregard #3 and #4.
Performance or commission based pricing assumes the marketer 100% of the risk yet relies on having a competent businesses owner/sales team to make something of if work.

Marketers are an integral part of any business. We're not salesmen.
 

Chapas

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Awesome! Very inspiring to hear your story and now your first results!

I'm about to embark on a similar path myself. I've designed a few wesbsites for people and about to take the last and second test for Google Ads certification.

Was always nervous about Facebook ads but now you've inspired me to maybe try that next depending on how things go with Google Ads.

BTW, 24 hours without power is rough. I've lived in Thailand for ten years now and never gone more than six hours without electricity here.

Thanks buddy!

I think you should focus on Google Ads first and excel in that. I wanted to do Google Ads myself aswell, but decided to put 100 % of my energy into learning Facebook Ads first. But you should definately give Facebook Ads a go at some point. It seems to work!

It was really unlucky with the power haha. There is 2 main electricity-routes that keep this whole region powered on. And BOTH of them got damaged that day. What are the odds haha.

Where do you live in Thailand? We are actually thinking of going to Thailand for 2-3 months from April or May (if the business will thrive). Would be great to network with you about Thailand and Google Ads/Facebook Ads. I will shoot you a PM one of these days :)
 
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Chapas

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Sure, so instead of let's say selling filling procedure with 20-30% discount, let them make a special offer where the filling stays the same price, but you package it with dental hygiene (sanding the teeth, etc.) or whatever package makes sense. That might go OK with the law.

Aaah yes. I have seen Chiropractors also using this tactic. I will definately think about this one. It seems to be within the law :)
 

Chapas

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They’re not buying the results, they’re buying the process. The results keep them coming back...

...because we can’t guarantee them good results.

You should run from any marketer that guarantees you a certain result.

I have a few issues with performance-based pricing:
  1. The PPC manager assumes 100% if the risk. No results? Oh well, the client carries on and the manager can never get that time back. At least with a flat-rate, they can still break even for their time.
  2. What’s stopping the client from walking away after they see success?
  3. What if the client simply lies about the number of sales generated?
  4. If sales dollars are the KPI here, then you better hope your client can close those leads. This is out of your control yet could cost you your income.
*If you're advertising for an e-commerce store, you can disregard #3 and #4.
Performance or commission based pricing assumes the marketer 100% of the risk yet relies on having a competent businesses owner/sales team to make something of if work.

Marketers are an integral part of any business. We're not salesmen.


This is a very valuable post, and I agree with you.

I noticed there are a lot of companies in Denmark doing compensation based marketing. I am definately not going to follow that strategy.
Especially the control part here is an important point. There is absolutely no way that I can control how many clients my clients will close. Even though I do not expect my clients to lie to me - it is still out of my control.

I like to point out to my clients that for this to work we need 2 things: I need to perform my best to bring them leads, and they need to perform their best to bring value to the new prospects and close them later on. This is one of the first things I point out, because otherwise it will not work. I can bring 1000 leads a month for a client, but if he or she cannot close them it does not matter. In the end they will fire me, even though it is their fault for not closing.

Fully agree with everything that you wrote here!
 

Chapas

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Day 31 - Almost One Month In This Game

Cannot believe it has been 1 month since I started this progress threads. I have learned SOOOO much in a month. Even though I have not made a single penny yet, I could not have imagined such a progress to be honest. This is the most consistent and hard-working I have ever been. It is like an addiction now, and I am so much in this game that there is no way back for me. Will write a more detailed post about the first month tomorrow, and what I expect from the second month.

Updates:

  • So things are looking really good for my first ever Facebook Ads campaign for my fitness client. So far our numbers are:

    Campaign running
    : Approx 72 hours
    Budget spent: Approx 24 USD
    Reach: 1725 people
    Landing Page Views: 120
    Sign Ups: 14

    I have split-tested for 3 days now. Tomorrow I will analyze the data, and try to make the campaign even more effective! I am still making some mistakes as this is my first campaign, but I am really proud of the results so far.

  • Launched my second campaign for another fitness client to gather 6 people for her 10-weeks bootcamp. This one is a more difficult one, as I offered her to do a lead magnet in form of a free session, but due to the fact that she needs to travel she could not do that. So we decided to go for a 10 % discount instead. Issue is that the offer is simply not good enough, and the budget is too low to see results this quickly. I am trying to convince her to use that lead magnet, however, she has not replied me since yesterday. Really not my fault if this campaign will not succed.

  • Launched a third campaign for a Coach client today. She has been really slow because she has been busy, and I had to help her with so many technicalities. Issue is that her Workshop event is on Thursday already, and there is little to no time for us to promote it. Again, if this campaign do not work out, then it has been out of my hands.

  • Working out a campaign for a Personal Trainer. Will launch within the next couple of days. This lady is the sweetest ever and very collaborative. Seems like the perfect client! I believe that this is one I can have succes with.

  • Landed a 5th trial client today. She has a lot of experience being a Personal Trainer for 10 years with more than 5000 clients. Now she is creating her online products as she is moving to another country. When she has her online products ready in 3-4 weeks hopefully, I will give it a go!

  • Chiro client is still interested, and I sent him another email explaining some of my ideas. Think I will get him on board later this week as a trial client. Will be good to have a Chiro in my portfolio!
I am starting to value myself more and more. Now I can see that I actually am capable of delivering some results for my clients. I will learn to be more confident and convince them to take action and listen to my ideas. I will also be more picky in the future. Like the coach client. She is the least important in my portfolio, but she has taken up so much of my time. And now we barely have time to create some results for her.

I am also learning more and more about Facebook Ads everyday. You can read and watch so many videos, but it first when you actually start to work with it you really learn. And big thanks to @Lucas Lee-Tyson ! Your advice has been golden, and will help me avoid many mistakes in my future campaigns :-D

I am also starting to systemize things. It takes much less time for me to create a campaign now. I duplicate a lot of what I have had success with. I will try to systemize things more and more.

What Are The Plans For Tomorrow?

- While I am writing this my fitness bootcamp client actually replied me, and I will somehow change her campaign to include the lead magnet aswell. This will give us a much greater chance of succeeding. That I will do tomorrow!

- Will finish up the campaign for my new PT trial client and hopefully launch tomorrow or Wednesday.

- Tomorrow I will FINALLY start my US Cold Email campaign. No excuses! Will send 20 emails out tomorrow. This time not looking for trial clients, but for PAID ones.

- Tomorrow I will follow-up on all of my interested potential prospects, that somehow have been to busy to reply me. Hopefully I can get a couple of them on board.

Thank you guys for tuning in. Lets continue our hustle!
 
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maikooo

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Day 31 - Almost One Month In This Game

Cannot believe it has been 1 month since I started this progress threads. I have learned SOOOO much in a month. Even though I have not made a single penny yet, I could not have imagined such a progress to be honest. This is the most consistent and hard-working I have ever been. It is like an addiction now, and I am so much in this game that there is no way back for me. Will write a more detailed post about the first month tomorrow, and what I expect from the second month.

Updates:

  • So things are looking really good for my first ever Facebook Ads campaign for my fitness client. So far our numbers are:

    Campaign running
    : Approx 72 hours
    Budget spent: Approx 24 USD
    Reach: 1725 people
    Landing Page Views: 120
    Sign Ups: 14

    I have split-tested for 3 days now. Tomorrow I will analyze the data, and try to make the campaign even more effective! I am still making some mistakes as this is my first campaign, but I am really proud of the results so far.

  • Launched my second campaign for another fitness client to gather 6 people for her 10-weeks bootcamp. This one is a more difficult one, as I offered her to do a lead magnet in form of a free session, but due to the fact that she needs to travel she could not do that. So we decided to go for a 10 % discount instead. Issue is that the offer is simply not good enough, and the budget is too low to see results this quickly. I am trying to convince her to use that lead magnet, however, she has not replied me since yesterday. Really not my fault if this campaign will not succed.

  • Launched a third campaign for a Coach client today. She has been really slow because she has been busy, and I had to help her with so many technicalities. Issue is that her Workshop event is on Thursday already, and there is little to no time for us to promote it. Again, if this campaign do not work out, then it has been out of my hands.

  • Working out a campaign for a Personal Trainer. Will launch within the next couple of days. This lady is the sweetest ever and very collaborative. Seems like the perfect client! I believe that this is one I can have succes with.

  • Landed a 5th trial client today. She has a lot of experience being a Personal Trainer for 10 years with more than 5000 clients. Now she is creating her online products as she is moving to another country. When she has her online products ready in 3-4 weeks hopefully, I will give it a go!

  • Chiro client is still interested, and I sent him another email explaining some of my ideas. Think I will get him on board later this week as a trial client. Will be good to have a Chiro in my portfolio!
I am starting to value myself more and more. Now I can see that I actually am capable of delivering some results for my clients. I will learn to be more confident and convince them to take action and listen to my ideas. I will also be more picky in the future. Like the coach client. She is the least important in my portfolio, but she has taken up so much of my time. And now we barely have time to create some results for her.

I am also learning more and more about Facebook Ads everyday. You can read and watch so many videos, but it first when you actually start to work with it you really learn. And big thanks to @Lucas Lee-Tyson ! Your advice has been golden, and will help me avoid many mistakes in my future campaigns :-D

I am also starting to systemize things. It takes much less time for me to create a campaign now. I duplicate a lot of what I have had success with. I will try to systemize things more and more.

What Are The Plans For Tomorrow?

- While I am writing this my fitness bootcamp client actually replied me, and I will somehow change her campaign to include the lead magnet aswell. This will give us a much greater chance of succeeding. That I will do tomorrow!

- Will finish up the campaign for my new PT trial client and hopefully launch tomorrow or Wednesday.

- Tomorrow I will FINALLY start my US Cold Email campaign. No excuses! Will send 20 emails out tomorrow. This time not looking for trial clients, but for PAID ones.

- Tomorrow I will follow-up on all of my interested potential prospects, that somehow have been to busy to reply me. Hopefully I can get a couple of them on board.

Thank you guys for tuning in. Lets continue our hustle!
Awesome results! And great insights! Thanks for sharing
 

maikooo

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They’re not buying the results, they’re buying the process. The results keep them coming back...

...because we can’t guarantee them good results.

You should run from any marketer that guarantees you a certain result.

I have a few issues with performance-based pricing:
  1. The PPC manager assumes 100% if the risk. No results? Oh well, the client carries on and the manager can never get that time back. At least with a flat-rate, they can still break even for their time.
  2. What’s stopping the client from walking away after they see success?
  3. What if the client simply lies about the number of sales generated?
  4. If sales dollars are the KPI here, then you better hope your client can close those leads. This is out of your control yet could cost you your income.
*If you're advertising for an e-commerce store, you can disregard #3 and #4.
Performance or commission based pricing assumes the marketer 100% of the risk yet relies on having a competent businesses owner/sales team to make something of if work.

Thanks for the clarification. Very good points ...

Now I see I should have been more clear about what I mean with the "results". Of course, you can't base your performance based pay on sales your client should do ... or anything that is out of your control for that matter.

What I meant was the "leads" as results. Your client should have some kind of idea how much they are able to close if you bring them e.g. 100 leads (assuming they are high quality leads). E.g. If I as a client am able to close 2 out of 100 and the average revenue from that closed customer is 2x $2000, whatever your negotiation power, you can get paid well. That of course works with the fact that your client is good at closing. That depends on the maturity of the client and the industry. I have seen a lot of success cases where people charge only per lead (CPA so to say) and they are doing immensely well. Yet again, depends on the client and industry.

Marketers are an integral part of any business. We're not salesmen.
Don't agree with the 2nd part of this. If we are in business, we must be salespeople. How else do we sell our services then? :)
 

Chapas

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Awesome results! And great insights! Thanks for sharing

Thanks for the support buddy!

Thanks for the clarification. Very good points ...

Now I see I should have been more clear about what I mean with the "results". Of course, you can't base your performance based pay on sales your client should do ... or anything that is out of your control for that matter.

What I meant was the "leads" as results. Your client should have some kind of idea how much they are able to close if you bring them e.g. 100 leads (assuming they are high quality leads). E.g. If I as a client am able to close 2 out of 100 and the average revenue from that closed customer is 2x $2000, whatever your negotiation power, you can get paid well. That of course works with the fact that your client is good at closing. That depends on the maturity of the client and the industry. I have seen a lot of success cases where people charge only per lead (CPA so to say) and they are doing immensely well. Yet again, depends on the client and industry.

I actually think the bigger you grow and the more you excel at your skills, then the more commission based pay actually makes sense. Right now I do not want to experiment with it because I do not have the cashflow to do it. The variance can be to big. Would be scared to not know if I will make 500 USD or 5000 USD next month.

I remember when I worked in telemarketing (sales). Our company had 3 payment structures:

1. You could work on a base salary
2. You could work on 50 % base salary and 50 % commission.
3. You could work solely on commission

It was funny to see how those working only on the base salary sold MUCH LESS than those working on solely on commission. Those working solely on commission were by far more motivated and were by far better salesmen than the ones working without commission.

I never understood the fact that they gave the option for people to work without commission. How are you supposed to motivate yourself as a sales person if you do not get commission of what you sell.

Long story short. What I ment to say that I also believe that commission based pay can be really effective. You just have to be at a point in your life where you are willing to take higher risks and be 120 % confident that you can hit certain numbers month after month :)
 
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Chapas

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Day 33 - How To Make It In America

Anybody ever seen this show? About two young designers/entrepreneurs hustling their way through the fashion scene of New York City. Cannot believe they shut down that show after just 2 seasons! Gutted!

Got carried away. This thread is not supposed to be about tv-shows. Just got a little nostalgic when I thought of the headline. This thread is about some updates on some exciting US news I have to share. First some small updates:

- My first campaign has slowed down a little, but it is still getting sign ups. I have analyzed the data and plan to change the ad sets tomorrow, so we can get even more effective with it.

- My campaign for my Coach client is ending tomorrow. Not one single ticket sale for her event. But what to expect when we launch the campaign 2,5 days before the event and so far only spent around 13 dollars (when a ticket for the event cost 38). This campaigned was doomed to fail from the beginning due to the slow response from the trial client. I was ready to launch it in the beginning of January, and then I believe we could actually have seen some results. Well, it happens!

- I have changed around the campaign for my 3rd trial client. Again we have a time limit here, as we are offering a free training session for Wednesday the 23th of January. Our goal is to get 6 signups. Not easy, but not impossible. Will keep you updated about this one!

- Was supposed to have a call today with a prospect. We called each other twice without getting hold of each other, so we agreed a time for tomorrow and will have the meeting then.

- Another potential lead wrote me if I could get on a call with her this week. Also a PT. Hopefully I can get her on a call tomorrow or Friday.

- 75 % finished with my campaign for my 4th trial client. Pretty positive that we will launch in the upcoming days as well.

- Aaaaaand now for the MOST IMPORTANT NEWS OF THE DAY! I started my US Cold Email campaign yesterday. Sent out 10 emails yesterday and 10 today. Tonight I got an email from an owner of a Fitness Studio in New Jersey: "When can we have a meeting?". SO excited that my cold email campaign is also working in the US. We have set up a meeting for Friday. So excited and also a bit nervous. English is not my main language and havent spoken it for a while. But who needs the comfort zone anyways!

I will soon need to read up and watch some videos about sales and closing clients. I feel that the time is coming soon where I will have to start closing. Very exciting times ahead. Will keep you guys updated!
 

Chapas

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Day 35 - God Bless America

It seems like every day keeps getting more and more exciting. Completely have forgotten how amazing you Americans actually are. Spent my sophomore year in High School in Michigan, and havent been back since. Think I need to start making plans to make a little trip over the Atlantic! Some small interesting updates:

- My first trial clients campaign is still going well. We had 20 sign-ups for 50 dollars ad spend. Which is really great! However, 19 of these were women, so I have changed up the ad set to focus solely on women. Looking forward to finding out how it will perform in the next 3-4 days.

- Closed down the campaign for my coach client. 0 signups. That campained were doomed to fail from the beginning. So actually happy it is over.

- Still trying to work magic with the campaign of my 3rd trial client - for her 6 person bootcamp. Still no signups, but I can see the campaign is performing better now than with the initial 5 % discount offer (what a horrible offer btw).

- Finished up the campaign for my 4th trial client. Launching it tomorrow!

- Was supposed to have a call with another PT prospect today. We had to re-schedule for Sunday though. Will 100 % close her there.

And now for the more interesting news:

- Had a talk with a potential PT client yesterday. She was interested, and actually ALREADY wanted to refer me to someone after just a 15 minutes talk. Apparently her best friend owns a big gym, and needs help with Facebook Ads. She gave him my number and he should could me next week. Tomorrow I will create some small ideas for his campaign though, so he already gets a feeling of what I can bring to the table even before we talk on the phone. This could be a HUGE client for me!

- Had my first US call today! It was soooo great to hear the American accent again! Sincerely missed it. This lady has her own gym in New Jersey. I loved her! She is the type that says things straight from her heart and is transparent as water. We spoke for 55 minutes. We even spoke about marijuana, alcohol and animal rescue. Did not even feel like a client, but like a friend I havent spoken to for a long long time haha. Basically she loved my personality and the approach I had towards her business, and even said "she would love to work with me". We agreed to do a screenshare on Tuesday where she will show me how she runs her campaigns now, and then I will get the chance of running her campaigns for 2-3 days - if successful, she will hire me.

GOD BLESS AMERICA! You guys are amazing!
 
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Natural

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Amazing to see this journey unfold my friend. I still remember our talk before you started and I think we are both surprised at how fast things have been developing. Guess that is the beautiful benefit of taking consistent action toward your goal.

I need to step up my own game now and create a thread. Then we can both drink a bottle of wine at the end of the year and skim through our threads. Let's do this!
 

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Canada, AB
Day 35 - God Bless America

It seems like every day keeps getting more and more exciting. Completely have forgotten how amazing you Americans actually are. Spent my sophomore year in High School in Michigan, and havent been back since. Think I need to start making plans to make a little trip over the Atlantic! Some small interesting updates:

- My first trial clients campaign is still going well. We had 20 sign-ups for 50 dollars ad spend. Which is really great! However, 19 of these were women, so I have changed up the ad set to focus solely on women. Looking forward to finding out how it will perform in the next 3-4 days.

- Closed down the campaign for my coach client. 0 signups. That campained were doomed to fail from the beginning. So actually happy it is over.

- Still trying to work magic with the campaign of my 3rd trial client - for her 6 person bootcamp. Still no signups, but I can see the campaign is performing better now than with the initial 5 % discount offer (what a horrible offer btw).

- Finished up the campaign for my 4th trial client. Launching it tomorrow!

- Was supposed to have a call with another PT prospect today. We had to re-schedule for Sunday though. Will 100 % close her there.

And now for the more interesting news:

- Had a talk with a potential PT client yesterday. She was interested, and actually ALREADY wanted to refer me to someone after just a 15 minutes talk. Apparently her best friend owns a big gym, and needs help with Facebook Ads. She gave him my number and he should could me next week. Tomorrow I will create some small ideas for his campaign though, so he already gets a feeling of what I can bring to the table even before we talk on the phone. This could be a HUGE client for me!

- Had my first US call today! It was soooo great to hear the American accent again! Sincerely missed it. This lady has her own gym in New Jersey. I loved her! She is the type that says things straight from her heart and is transparent as water. We spoke for 55 minutes. We even spoke about marijuana, alcohol and animal rescue. Did not even feel like a client, but like a friend I havent spoken to for a long long time haha. Basically she loved my personality and the approach I had towards her business, and even said "she would love to work with me". We agreed to do a screenshare on Tuesday where she will show me how she runs her campaigns now, and then I will get the chance of running her campaigns for 2-3 days - if successful, she will hire me.

GOD BLESS AMERICA! You guys are amazing!
Great job Chapas!
Your journey is so inspirational.
 

Chapas

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Amazing to see this journey unfold my friend. I still remember our talk before you started and I think we are both surprised at how fast things have been developing. Guess that is the beautiful benefit of taking consistent action toward your goal.

I need to step up my own game now and create a thread. Then we can both drink a bottle of wine at the end of the year and skim through our threads. Let's do this!

Thank you my friend. I owe a big part of this to you. For countless years you have encouraged me to take action and I have always been too lazy, too comfortable and too inconsistent.

You were actually the one who showed me TMF and this forum many many years ago. So happy that this time it was me that finally got you back on this forum :)

Looking forward to your progress thread. I think you have a real life changing year in front of you, and I will be happy to help wherever I can! Cannot wait to open up that bottle of wine in the end of the year and see how far we have come!
 
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Chapas

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Great job Chapas!
Your journey is so inspirational.

Thank you buddy! So happy that my little story can inspire someone. Just like I have been inspired countless times by the various progress and execution threads in here!
 

maikooo

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Thanks for the support buddy!

I actually think the bigger you grow and the more you excel at your skills, then the more commission based pay actually makes sense. Right now I do not want to experiment with it because I do not have the cashflow to do it. The variance can be to big. Would be scared to not know if I will make 500 USD or 5000 USD next month.

I remember when I worked in telemarketing (sales). Our company had 3 payment structures:

1. You could work on a base salary
2. You could work on 50 % base salary and 50 % commission.
3. You could work solely on commission

It was funny to see how those working only on the base salary sold MUCH LESS than those working on solely on commission. Those working solely on commission were by far more motivated and were by far better salesmen than the ones working without commission.

I never understood the fact that they gave the option for people to work without commission. How are you supposed to motivate yourself as a sales person if you do not get commission of what you sell.

Long story short. What I ment to say that I also believe that commission based pay can be really effective. You just have to be at a point in your life where you are willing to take higher risks and be 120 % confident that you can hit certain numbers month after month :)

Agreed, it's about the confidence in your own skills which comes with experience!

BTW, funny you mention telemarketing. My first ever part-time job during the University was partially in telemarketing, but I sucked at it without proper coaching :) Then my first full-time job after University was in a Direct Marketing Agency which had a huuuuge Telemarketing department. They had a very skilled boss who coached them (sth. like Wolf of Wall Street but on a smaller scale) Those people were "monsters", working on min. base salary + commission ... selling for clients like their life depended on it! I should have put myself through that boot camp. Wish I was smarter then :))
 

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Day 33 - How To Make It In America

Anybody ever seen this show? About two young designers/entrepreneurs hustling their way through the fashion scene of New York City. Cannot believe they shut down that show after just 2 seasons! Gutted!

Got carried away. This thread is not supposed to be about tv-shows. Just got a little nostalgic when I thought of the headline. This thread is about some updates on some exciting US news I have to share. First some small updates:

- My first campaign has slowed down a little, but it is still getting sign ups. I have analyzed the data and plan to change the ad sets tomorrow, so we can get even more effective with it.

- My campaign for my Coach client is ending tomorrow. Not one single ticket sale for her event. But what to expect when we launch the campaign 2,5 days before the event and so far only spent around 13 dollars (when a ticket for the event cost 38). This campaigned was doomed to fail from the beginning due to the slow response from the trial client. I was ready to launch it in the beginning of January, and then I believe we could actually have seen some results. Well, it happens!

- I have changed around the campaign for my 3rd trial client. Again we have a time limit here, as we are offering a free training session for Wednesday the 23th of January. Our goal is to get 6 signups. Not easy, but not impossible. Will keep you updated about this one!

- Was supposed to have a call today with a prospect. We called each other twice without getting hold of each other, so we agreed a time for tomorrow and will have the meeting then.

- Another potential lead wrote me if I could get on a call with her this week. Also a PT. Hopefully I can get her on a call tomorrow or Friday.

- 75 % finished with my campaign for my 4th trial client. Pretty positive that we will launch in the upcoming days as well.

- Aaaaaand now for the MOST IMPORTANT NEWS OF THE DAY! I started my US Cold Email campaign yesterday. Sent out 10 emails yesterday and 10 today. Tonight I got an email from an owner of a Fitness Studio in New Jersey: "When can we have a meeting?". SO excited that my cold email campaign is also working in the US. We have set up a meeting for Friday. So excited and also a bit nervous. English is not my main language and havent spoken it for a while. But who needs the comfort zone anyways!

I will soon need to read up and watch some videos about sales and closing clients. I feel that the time is coming soon where I will have to start closing. Very exciting times ahead. Will keep you guys updated!
Sweet, congrats on the results. Your English is absolutely fine! Americans find accents exotic ;)
 
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maikooo

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Day 35 - God Bless America

It seems like every day keeps getting more and more exciting. Completely have forgotten how amazing you Americans actually are. Spent my sophomore year in High School in Michigan, and havent been back since. Think I need to start making plans to make a little trip over the Atlantic! Some small interesting updates:

- My first trial clients campaign is still going well. We had 20 sign-ups for 50 dollars ad spend. Which is really great! However, 19 of these were women, so I have changed up the ad set to focus solely on women. Looking forward to finding out how it will perform in the next 3-4 days.

- Closed down the campaign for my coach client. 0 signups. That campained were doomed to fail from the beginning. So actually happy it is over.

- Still trying to work magic with the campaign of my 3rd trial client - for her 6 person bootcamp. Still no signups, but I can see the campaign is performing better now than with the initial 5 % discount offer (what a horrible offer btw).

- Finished up the campaign for my 4th trial client. Launching it tomorrow!

- Was supposed to have a call with another PT prospect today. We had to re-schedule for Sunday though. Will 100 % close her there.

And now for the more interesting news:

- Had a talk with a potential PT client yesterday. She was interested, and actually ALREADY wanted to refer me to someone after just a 15 minutes talk. Apparently her best friend owns a big gym, and needs help with Facebook Ads. She gave him my number and he should could me next week. Tomorrow I will create some small ideas for his campaign though, so he already gets a feeling of what I can bring to the table even before we talk on the phone. This could be a HUGE client for me!

- Had my first US call today! It was soooo great to hear the American accent again! Sincerely missed it. This lady has her own gym in New Jersey. I loved her! She is the type that says things straight from her heart and is transparent as water. We spoke for 55 minutes. We even spoke about marijuana, alcohol and animal rescue. Did not even feel like a client, but like a friend I havent spoken to for a long long time haha. Basically she loved my personality and the approach I had towards her business, and even said "she would love to work with me". We agreed to do a screenshare on Tuesday where she will show me how she runs her campaigns now, and then I will get the chance of running her campaigns for 2-3 days - if successful, she will hire me.

GOD BLESS AMERICA! You guys are amazing!

Totally agree with you, Americans are great to make business with - it's either clear yes or no. No BS, just business! Wish you success!!
 

Jonathan Hoch

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- Had my first US call today! It was soooo great to hear the American accent again! Sincerely missed it. This lady has her own gym in New Jersey. I loved her! She is the type that says things straight from her heart and is transparent as water. We spoke for 55 minutes. We even spoke about marijuana, alcohol and animal rescue. Did not even feel like a client, but like a friend I havent spoken to for a long long time haha. Basically she loved my personality and the approach I had towards her business, and even said "she would love to work with me". We agreed to do a screenshare on Tuesday where she will show me how she runs her campaigns now, and then I will get the chance of running her campaigns for 2-3 days - if successful, she will hire me.

That is not an American accent. If she's FROM Joisey, she speaks her own language. :D

Congrats on this momentum! It's always exciting when the snowflake of an idea turns into a snowball... Soon you'll have yourself an avalanche of clients!
 

Chapas

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Agreed, it's about the confidence in your own skills which comes with experience!

BTW, funny you mention telemarketing. My first ever part-time job during the University was partially in telemarketing, but I sucked at it without proper coaching :) Then my first full-time job after University was in a Direct Marketing Agency which had a huuuuge Telemarketing department. They had a very skilled boss who coached them (sth. like Wolf of Wall Street but on a smaller scale) Those people were "monsters", working on min. base salary + commission ... selling for clients like their life depended on it! I should have put myself through that boot camp. Wish I was smarter then :))

Haha. I totally agree. The word MONSTERS is perfect! Those people really are monsters - in a good way. Also wish I stayed there longer. But I decided to move to Barcelona to play poker and do sportsbetting instead. They actually offered me a free drivers licence and a leased car if I stayed with them. But you gotta follow your dreams!

I was never the best sales guy over the phone. I think it also depended on the products I sold. However, I remember once I was selling a health magazine. I sold to 10 customers in a row. That was absolutely insane. 10 dials - 10 sales! Think we had like an hourly wage of 15 USD and around 4 USD in commission for every magazine we sold. So that was a good day for me haha.

Sweet, congrats on the results. Your English is absolutely fine! Americans find accents exotic ;)

Thanks man :-D

A lot of foreigners I meet keeps asking me if I am from the UK or Australia. I have no idea how I have developed a UK or Australian accent. But I guess it is not that bad after all!

Totally agree with you, Americans are great to make business with - it's either clear yes or no. No BS, just business! Wish you success!!

Love Americans! Straight to the point! Thanks buddy! All the best for you as well!
 
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Chapas

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That is not an American accent. If she's FROM Joisey, she speaks her own language. :D

Congrats on this momentum! It's always exciting when the snowflake of an idea turns into a snowball... Soon you'll have yourself an avalanche of clients!

Oh man, totally forgot about Jersey Shore. It´s T-shirt tiiiiime haha! Actually her accent did not sound like she was from Joisey :-D

Thanks buddy! I really hope so! An avalanche will probably be to much to handle right now, but a little snowstorm would be great :-D
 

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Day 38 - Never Put All Your Eggs In One Basket

I have always had this issue. Once I feel things are looking good, I slow down a little. Last time I had this was when I was looking for a job 3-4 months ago. I was so focused for 2 weeks for my third interview with this well-paying job, that I completely stopped the process of looking for other jobs as well. I feel that I can see some of the same mindset problems here.

I have many trial clients now, many good prospects and good leads as well - but I have to move forward continuously. I cannot afford the assumption that I will land these trial clients/prospects/leads as paying clients. And there is no guarantee they will stay as retaining clients month after month. Therefore, I have to keep hustling every SINGLE day and keep finding new leads and prospects.

Also I need to optimize my processes as I keep spending to much time on stuff that I should not have to do. I will write a couple of more detailed posts about how I plan to optimize my processes and how I will optimize my time every single day, to make sure I will work in the most efficient way.

Some small updates:

- Campaign for 1st trial client is looking good still. Changed the campaign objectives and target group. Got 25 sign ups in 10 days. Need to find out how to transition her from being a trial client to a paid client. Only issue here is that I did not set any deadline. So I need to figure out how to tell her that I soon cannot do it for free anymore and then close her as a paid client. If anyone has any advice on this, please let me know! Fortunately, I do not have the same issues with my other trial clients as we discussed length of the trial and the possible future opportunities.

- Killed the campaign for my PT client for her bootcamp as she had to go on vacation. We did not get any signups. However, she is still happy with my work and we decided to give it ago again in March when she needs to find 36 clients for her outdoor bootcamp. I actually think I will do this one commission based. I cannot justify to charge her a standard fee each month now - but commission based I think will be good.

- Finally launched the campaign for another PT trial client. Excited to see how it goes!

- Had a call with another PT prospect yesterday. Landed her as a trial client. Agreed that I will run her campaigns for 1 week, and then we will talk about further opportunities.

- A dentist lead replied me. Not just a dentist. But the same dentist clinic that I used to go to when I was 10 years old haha. It has been a month since I sent the email to them. I might give them a shot, even though I have no idea how to get around these legal issues in Denmark and the fact that I have chosen to focus on the fitness niche now. Will reply them tomorrow!

- Tomorrow is the BIG DAY! I have the second meeting with my first US client. She already mentioned for me that she has a lot of friends with their own business who also needs help with Facebook Ads. So landing this client could be so HUGE for me! Wish me luck guys!
 

Chapas

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Optimizing My Processes And Time

I really feel that I lack structure in my life. Because of that I do not get as much done as I want. Yesterday I spent 2 hours trying to get a client to give me access to her Ad Account so we could run the campaigns. Furthermore, I am doing 2 or 3 things at a time and it ruins my focus so much. So today I have tried to come up with a plan for how to better structure my processes and time. If you have any feedback I would love to hear it!

Processes:

So far I have 4 major processes.

- Onboarding clients
- Creating campaign
- Creating the ad
- Marketing (so far only Cold Emails)


I have outlined the process that I need to do for each one of them in order to save time. I think if it works properly I can save up to 3 hours a day on this. Will let you know and share with you if it works!

Structure:

I really lack structure. I have created a schedule for the next 2 months. It might seem crazy for someone, but I live and breathe this business 24/7 these days, so I am sure I will not burn out. I will also take a couple of days off and travel a bit, but most of my days will look like this broke down into 1 hour blocks:

9:00-10:00
Coffee on the balcony and email/social media replies.
10:00-11:00
Find and add 20 new LinkedIn connections.
11:00-12:00
Eat breakfast and check up on campaigns.
12:00-13:00
Fix/Set Up campaigns and miscellaneous stuff.
13:00-14:00
Send out 10 US cold emails.
14:00-15:00
1 hour of business development (website, content, new marketing strategies etc).
15:00-16:00
Approach LinkedIn connections and reply emails.
16:00-17:00
1 hour of business development (website, content, new marketing strategies etc).
17:00-18:00
1 hour of learning new stuff about FB Ads and Digital Marketing in general.
18:00-19:00
Send 10 more US cold emails.
19:00-20:00
Fix/Set Up campaigns and miscellaneous stuff.
20:00-
Work the rest of the night on what I did not finish.

I have a lot of phone calls in between and I am also helping my wife with her drawing "business" so I might not be able to follow the plans 100 %. But this structure will help me be more efficient with my time!

Oh shit. I totally forgot lunch and dinner haha. Guess I will find time for that someway or another!
 
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maikooo

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Campaign for 1st trial client is looking good still. Changed the campaign objectives and target group. Got 25 sign ups in 10 days. Need to find out how to transition her from being a trial client to a paid client. Only issue here is that I did not set any deadline. So I need to figure out how to tell her that I soon cannot do it for free anymore and then close her as a paid client. If anyone has any advice on this, please let me know! Fortunately, I do not have the same issues with my other trial clients as we discussed length of the trial and the possible future opportunities.

Congrats on the progress!!

To your question. I'd be direct. First, ask her how satisfied she is with the results and if it matches the expectations she had before you started working together. Ideally, she would be positive about it. After this, don't beat around the bush. Tell her, this was a trial work so she could see how you perform, but from now on you will need to charge her. Lead the discussion from there. Wish you success!!
 

maikooo

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Optimizing My Processes And Time

I really feel that I lack structure in my life. Because of that I do not get as much done as I want. Yesterday I spent 2 hours trying to get a client to give me access to her Ad Account so we could run the campaigns. Furthermore, I am doing 2 or 3 things at a time and it ruins my focus so much. So today I have tried to come up with a plan for how to better structure my processes and time. If you have any feedback I would love to hear it!

Processes:

So far I have 4 major processes.

- Onboarding clients
- Creating campaign
- Creating the ad
- Marketing (so far only Cold Emails)


I have outlined the process that I need to do for each one of them in order to save time. I think if it works properly I can save up to 3 hours a day on this. Will let you know and share with you if it works!

Structure:

I really lack structure. I have created a schedule for the next 2 months. It might seem crazy for someone, but I live and breathe this business 24/7 these days, so I am sure I will not burn out. I will also take a couple of days off and travel a bit, but most of my days will look like this broke down into 1 hour blocks:

9:00-10:00
Coffee on the balcony and email/social media replies.
10:00-11:00
Find and add 20 new LinkedIn connections.
11:00-12:00
Eat breakfast and check up on campaigns.
12:00-13:00
Fix/Set Up campaigns and miscellaneous stuff.
13:00-14:00
Send out 10 US cold emails.
14:00-15:00
1 hour of business development (website, content, new marketing strategies etc).
15:00-16:00
Approach LinkedIn connections and reply emails.
16:00-17:00
1 hour of business development (website, content, new marketing strategies etc).
17:00-18:00
1 hour of learning new stuff about FB Ads and Digital Marketing in general.
18:00-19:00
Send 10 more US cold emails.
19:00-20:00
Fix/Set Up campaigns and miscellaneous stuff.
20:00-
Work the rest of the night on what I did not finish.

I have a lot of phone calls in between and I am also helping my wife with her drawing "business" so I might not be able to follow the plans 100 %. But this structure will help me be more efficient with my time!

Oh sh*t. I totally forgot lunch and dinner haha. Guess I will find time for that someway or another!
Great that you are trying to find a structure. Personally, I wouldn't go for exact times, because it may demotivate you if you miss it. Rather define 3 main tasks with any subtasks that you need to finish every day, the night before together with the assessment of what you did on that day - what worked, what didn't. Celebrate the small wins every day and learn from failures.

Another point. Don't forget to take care of your mind and body - healthy diet, exercise, meditation. Set at least one day a week to clear your head and do something else to recharge for the next week.

cheers!
 

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