From scripted scarcity mindset to 250k/y fastlane business in 5 years. This is how I did it (and the shortcut, so you can do it in months)

[m0ntilla21]

Hello everyone, here @m0ntilla21, from Malaga (Spain).

It's interesting.

I first met MJ DeMarco by reading "The Millionaire Fastlane " in 2018. I still remember the tremendous impact the book had on me in terms of mindset.

At that time, I even joined this forum for a few days... but I didn't even try to integrate (big mistake), and I never came back...

Until last week!

When I read an email from MJ mentioning something like "young people should shut down all social media." (Thanks @heavy_industry !)

MJ doesn't usually send emails, and that subject caught my attention because my biggest time and energy thief has always been getting distracted on YouTube.

The fact is, here I am, 5 years after reading TMFL.

These days I've read some threads on the forum, and I can clearly see that here are some extraordinary people with whom it would be great to share ideas and opinions.

So I'm going to start by sharing my story with you and, in the process, showing my journey to a six-figure business that doesn't require more than 2-3 hours of work per week (and you don't even have to do it yourself).

I'll try to summarize as much as possible (I suspect I will fail), and whoever is interested... can count on me to provide more information.

This was my journey:

1. Scripted life until I was 24 years old (1990 - 2014)

Until the age of 24, I lived a completely scripted life.

School > good grades > studied engineering at university > worked for one year as an engineer for someone else.

It's worth noting that I believe my mother gave me good self-esteem, and I've always thought that I have great potential to achieve whatever I wanted (this was one of the factors that later helped me make the decision along with my FTE).

You could consider that year working for someone else as my FTE. I'm not sure if it was a true and traumatic FTE that makes you never look back. But I do know one thing: they paid me 900€ per month for owning my life from Monday to Friday.

Deep down, I've always been an anarchist, always been one who doesn't follow the herd, and that year working for someone else (along with the positive image I had of myself) was more than enough to make the decision never to work for anyone else again.

I finished my one-year contract... and quit that job.


2. First turning point: my first mindset upgrade (The books that started opening my mind)

I don't remember the exact moment I read them, some were shortly after university, but I do remember the 4 books that opened my eyes.

They were:

1. "How to Win Friends and Influence People" - Dale Carnegie.
2. "Emotional Intelligence" - Daniel Goleman.
3. "Rich Dad's Cashflow Quadrant" - Robert Kiyosaki.
4. "The Millionaire Fastlane " - MJ DeMarco.

In my case, they were the missing pieces in my brain. Once I read them, something clicked inside me.

The first two (1 and 2) are about emotional intelligence and dealing with others. An enormous problem that I reflected from having learned everything opposite to what is correct by observing my father.

The next two (3 and 4) are similar in terms of what resonated with me and what I had always felt: "I am not willing to sell my life to anyone. There MUST be another way".

With those 4 books, I had the tools I needed to try live an unscripted life forever.

3. Start of my true self-taught education on a massive scale (2015-2017)

From 2015 to 2019... was my true stage of training and growth.

While helping my brother with his architecture firm and living with him... I dedicated myself to consuming and implementing the best trainings I could find for free on the web.

I chose the ones that resonated with me the most, the ones that made me enjoy and wake up excited in the morning just to keep studying and applying (almost like in university, yes).

I literally spent 5-6 hours a day studying, taking notes, internalizing everything... and applying everything I could at the same time.

I had two major mentors:

1. Ramit Sethi: Helped me launch and grow a blog + infoproducts.
2. Eben Pagan: I learned countless things from him, from productivity to wealth mindset, copywriting, coaching, persuasion...

Although I studied and implemented from many other sources as well:

• Jeff Walker
• Jim Rohn
• Ryan Deiss
• Sam Ovens
• Brian Dean
• Brian Tracy
• Bryan Franklin
• Dan Kennedy
• Chris Luck
• Dan Lok
• Iman Gadzhi

Anyway, as I mentioned, in retrospect... Ramit Sethi and Eben Pagan were my Pareto, the 5% that gave me 95% of the results.

Honestly, if I were to start over... I would save at least 1 year of time by focusing on the teachings of 1 or 2 mentors and applying them without constantly seeking and getting distracted by other shiny objects.

4.- Launching my online business and my first infoproducts (2017-2019)
From 2017 to 2019... I continued with my self-taught MASSIVE training.

But those were also fun years of implementation.

1. I launched my blog.
2. I hustled to grow my email list to 6,000 people in 6 months (SEO + Posting on Facebook Groups).
3. I created and launched my first online courses (infoproducts).
4. I sold them through email marketing.
5. I hit a plateau.

I was my own boss, I was happy, I worked when and how I wanted, I felt free, I was making around €1,000 - €1,500 per month (which was nice in my mind, especially considering that no one was directing my life and that 70-80% of my "work hours" consisted of studying and learning).

Looking back, I was earning exactly what my mind allowed me to, and what I believed was possible.

My scarcity mindset was sabotaging me.

5.- The second turning point: How I destroyed my scarcity mindset with a five-figure paid mentoring.

In January 2020, I attended an in-person event... where the grand finale was the sale of a €10,000 mentoring program.

During the event, I saw numerous success stories and testimonials. These were people who seemed just like me, with niches even stranger than mine... and they were making 5, 10, 50, or 100 times more money than I was.

I clearly remember the feeling of not understanding how it was possible.

Because I "knew a lot". I had been studying and learning from the best for years.

Moreover, the technical aspects of online marketing, launches, sales techniques, and everything else they explained at the event... I knew them all.

And yet... the fact was that these people were light years ahead of me.

"They must do something, know something, or have something... that I don't."

When the event was about to end, I had one night to decide whether or not to enter the €10,000 mentorship. The next day, the last day of the event, was the deadline for purchase.

I am stubborn. I wasn't sure. I refused to pay 10K to a guy I didn't even knew 2 days before.

When I arrived on the last day... I realized that 100 people had ALREADY BOUGHT the mentorship (conveniently, they were given a different colored lanyard to trigger social proof).

The math was easy: the mentor, the event speaker, had just made €1,000,000 in 3 days.

Right in front of my eyes.

"I have to learn from this guy," I thought.

€10,000 was practically all the savings I had set aside and didn't really need.

So I finally decided to pay.

My experience within that mentorship was quite interesting.

It took them about a month to start and begin delivering the content modules, online masterminds, etc.

But I took off like a rocket by myself, and 15 days after paying... I had already made €50,000 with my first webinar and one-on-one phone sales.

The only thing I needed was another piece lacking in my brain: paying.

Literally, giving a significant sum of MY money to ANOTHER person.

At the moment I paid €10K for training, I realized that I could also charge more for my own training.

So I simply added a few live sessions to my online course, improved it a bit, and raised the price from €1K to €5K.

I changed the name and started calling it "mentorship" instead of "online course."

And I sold 10 units.

In 2 weeks.

Without new content.

Without talking to the mentor.

Simply with a new mindset.

With a new mental horizon of what was possible.

It's worth mentioning that for me, considering that in the previous 2 years I hadn't exceeded €20,000 per year... it was something memorable.


6.- Ups and downs as an entrepreneur

From 2020 to 2022... I lived the roller coaster of being an entrepreneur.

I sabotaged myself several times (I loved reading @Fox post where he talks about experiencing something similar, "How Do You Stop Self Sabotaging For Good?").

I couldn't find something stable that was truly "Fastlane" and worked on autopilot.

I wasn't convinced about the idea of doing webinars to make money.

In fact, I never did another webinar. (That sound still F*ckING CRAZY when I think about it. It's like... "Hey, want another easy 50K?" "Nah, I'm good." If someone can give me an explanation for this... please go ahead. I do like money. I do like 50K easy. And yet I never did another webinar.)

I wasn't convinced about the idea of tying myself to my students/clients with live mentoring sessions. Even if they were just 2 hours a week.

I created and successfully launched other courses and annual mentorships... and even had a six-figure launch in 2021. (That's another story)

But it was more of the same.

Finally, I arrived at my new and last business model with this thought process:

1. All the students in my mentorship (architects) wanted more clients.
2. In my mentorship, it took them 1 year or more to achieve that (the few who took action).
3. I could give them what they were looking for in an afternoon (Build an online marketing funnel + Google ads that would get them clients on autopilot).
4. It would take me one afternoon of work... and zero maintenance thanks to the stability of Google Ads.
5. I could charge a high-ticket monthly fee.

And that is my current business model. It's essentially a lead generation marketing agency, hyper-specialized in a specific niche.

In my case, architects.

Some simple maths:

10 clients at 2,000€/month per client make 20,000€/month.

Thats more that 200K per year.

Maintenance? Close to zero.

With the baggage I had acquired, doing that was really easy.

Attention! It's not all sunshine and rainbows because the agency model, at least in my case, also has some difficulties and problems when it comes to scaling.

Although I'll discuss it in another post. I've been writing this for about 2 hours already, and it's meant to be just my story. I guess a pretty long one.

Obviously, there are countless details and peculiarities that I've skipped, but you already have the big picture.

I'm going to try to summarize the conclusions, learnings, and turning points.

Summary, Conclusions, and Learnings (TL,DR):

1. Even being anarchic and rebellious by nature, I followed 24 years of scripted life until I sold a year of my life working for someone else for 900€/month (My FTE).
2. Several books helped me fill in some mindset and interpersonal skill gaps (I mention them in point 2).
3. The real university began after university. Studying and, above all, applying the things that truly resonated with me.
4. You don't need 50 mentors or online courses; it's better to focus on 1 or 2 good ones and take massive imperfect action. (Don't search for "how to" or "techniques for"; it's better to search for "WHO already has what you want to have" and then learn from that person and do the same. You'll achieve similar results).
5. My limit was in my mindset; you'll never earn more than what you believe is possible. In my case, at first it was 1,500€ per month until the second turning point.
6. Until I connected with people who were earning much more than me and, above all, until I paid 10,000€ of my own money, I didn't break my limiting beliefs about money and what I could earn. Still, I'm aware that I only climbed one step of an almost infinite staircase.
7. In my case, entrepreneurship has been a kind of roller coaster due to my nonconformity character. Money wasn't a sufficient motivator; the only thing that has always mattered to me is 100% unconditional freedom.
8. I discovered that providing the result my clients want QUICKLY, with a guarantee and with little or no maintenance needed... is a fastlane. In my case, it's a niche marketing agency.

---

And that's it guys.

I have always been more about action than words, more about "doing" than "showing" or "telling"

In fact, I have never used Facebook or Instagram for any of my businesses.

And, of course, I had never told my story in such detail.

But I hope these hours writing serve to inspire someone.

And I hope we keep reading each other for a long time.

Hugs to everyone.

PS: Feel free to ask about the details.

PS: If you've read this far, truly, thank you and congratulations. You have more patience than a saint.

 

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[FreakyThomas]

Thanks a lot for sharing your story.

You can't know how much testimonials like you help. It gives social proof that it's possible, and motivates to take action. Still struggling with this and working in my slowlane J.O.B.

Congrats on your 100% freedom business. Enjoy! And keep looking for new challenges because in the end it's what makes us happy!

 

[Lyzmin]

Awesome story @m0ntilla21 , thank you for sharing.
I've even read it two times because there is so much execution gold!
Also like the way you write, easy to read .

When I read an email from MJ mentioning something like "young people should shut down all social media." (Thanks @heavy_industry !)

@heavy_industry Also big thanks for indirectly getting this gold story to the forum!

They were:

1. "How to Win Friends and Influence People" - Dale Carnegie.
2. "Emotional Intelligence" - Daniel Goleman.
3. "Rich Dad's Cashflow Quadrant" - Robert Kiyosaki.
4. "The Millionaire Fastlane " - MJ DeMarco.

How was you reaction when you first read "people work for money, but die for recognition"?
To me that was such a major communication insight van Dale, it blew me away at 19 years haha.

I created and launched my first online courses (infoproducts).

Were these already focused on architects?
How was/is your decision making process in what products to focus on?

I created and successfully launched other courses and annual mentorships... and even had a six-figure launch in 2021. (That's another story)

Would love to read this story !

All the students in my mentorship (architects) wanted more clients.

Do you work locally or globally at the moment?

You don't need 50 mentors or online courses; it's better to focus on 1 or 2 good ones and take massive imperfect action. (Don't search for "how to" or "techniques for"; it's better to search for "WHO already has what you want to have" and then learn from that person and do the same. You'll achieve similar results).

Find your guru on a specific topic.
I'm a student of Jordan Belfort on his sales skills, but wouldn't ask him about ethics.

I'm a student of Jim Rohn on his personal philosophy, but wouldn't ask him what CENTS business to start (he did MLM).

I'm a student of Matt Walker on his science on sleep, but wouldn't ask him about marketing.

Thanks again and my gut tells me this is only the beginning for you!

 

[m0ntilla21]

Thanks a lot for sharing your story.

You can't know how much testimonials like you help. It gives social proof that it's possible, and motivates to take action. Still struggling with this and working in my slowlane J.O.B.

Congrats on your 100% freedom business. Enjoy! And keep looking for new challenges because in the end it's what makes us happy!

Thomas thanks a lot for your comment, the very first! I like the people with courage who lead the way.

So, despite your current situation in a job, please know that you got a leader inside of you.

In fact, I just remember this video that analyzes what means to be a leader:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hO8MwBZl-Vc


I hope that, in addition to kite surfing, you know how to dance

PS: I am really grateful for your comment, I was somewhat thinking that maybe I took almost 3 hours to write all that in spanish, then translated into english... for something so long that nobody would even read. You made me realize It was worth it!

 

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[m0ntilla21]

I've even read it two times because there is so much execution gold!
Also like the way you write, easy to read .

Hahahaha you really made me smile Lyzmin, must be totally crazy

Kidding, that was super nice.

How was you reaction when you first read "people work for money, but die for recognition"?
To me that was such a major communication insight van Dale, it blew me away at 19 years haha.

To be totally honest, I don't remember that phrase nor in which of the books I would read it.. but totally makes sense.

If you observe, It's totally crazy what people do to fulfill the need of feeling important.

Social media, consumerism and in some way my very own post... has something to do with that insight!

Were these already focused on architects?
How was/is your decision making process in what products to focus on?

Yep, I focused on architects from the beginning. I really got to study the niche in those 6-9 first months... had hundreds of conversations, surveys, quizzes and 1-1 sales and I could articulate their fears, frustrations, dreams and aspirations better that them.

And those (I call them FFWA) are the ones that made crystal clear which products should I create first.

Their main issues had to do with getting clients and getting a nice paid job, and both wanted to feel more fulfilled because they are really pasionated about architecture.

So it was pretty obvious.

Just for you to know, this was the order of launches:

1.- How to get your dream job as an architect.
2.- How to be a Freelance Architect (Getting clients)

Later came...

3.- More projects in 21 days (How to sell your services as an architect)
4.- How to get job interviews (Producticed the best module of the first flagship course).

And then came my mentorship: "100K Architect: become a 6-figures architect".

I also wrote a book that you can find on Amazon. (It was really quick a simple, I am not really a writter and found a way to write and launch a book in days haha I guess that's also another story!).

Then came the service (Digital marketing agency for architecture firms).

Would love to read this story !

That was the one I may be the most proud of... I'll add it to my to-do's and tag you when I write it!

Do you work locally or globally at the moment?

Locally at the moment, and I give "geographic location exclusivity" to my clients. (That's the thing that keeps me from scaling in Spain).

I'll open a post about this the next week!

I'm a student of Matt Walker on his science on sleep, but wouldn't ask him about marketing.

I didn't know Matt Walker! But I am a total freak of sleeping. As a dolphin, I really struggle with that and worked hard on improving my sleep metrics (Oura ring helped a lot in terms of finding areas to improve).

Thanks for the reference and for your kind words!

 

[BizyDad]

I don't know how I missed this thread before. Good stuff.

How is it going attracting architects?

Did you ever decide to do another webinar?

 

[FreakyThomas]

Thomas thanks a lot for your comment, the very first! I like the people with courage who lead the way.

So, despite your current situation in a job, please know that you got a leader inside of you.

In fact, I just remember this video that analyzes what means to be a leader:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hO8MwBZl-Vc


I hope that, in addition to kite surfing, you know how to dance

PS: I am really grateful for your comment, I was somewhat thinking that maybe I took almost 3 hours to write all that in spanish, then translated into english... for something so long that nobody would even read. You made me realize It was worth it!

Of course it's worth it!
It helps everyone get that *click* in their brain/mindset you're talking about.

Yours was "I just paid 10K for a guy I barely know!"
Mine is "This guy has a business that makes the same money as I do, while spending almost no time on it!" and probably it will be the same for others!

Have you think about how you can scale this even more ?

 

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