mikecarlooch
Apprentice & Student Of The Game
FASTLANE INSIDER
LEGACY MEMBER
Read Fastlane!
Read Unscripted!
2019
Sitting in my dark room with things all over the place, I scrolled through YouTube. Video after video, trying to figure out exactly how to make a my "own business" by constantly watching videos about how Warren Buffett made 100 gazillion dollars and I would walk around talking about how I had "3 businesses I wanted to start." None of which ever happened.
All of the content I was consuming was from people who weren't giving actual advice on how to start a business, but just saying "work hard" and "do what you love" and it got so hard in my head trying to figure out what to do that I had panic attacks and constant anxiety thinking about how the hell to start a business!
I made my fair share of money in sports cards, ebay, amazon, and crypto currency, but every single time I'd see someone making a REAL business that was my age, I would envy them. Because for a long time my life was sitting in my room constantly refreshing ebay prices to see if the prices of my basketball cards were going up in price. I would scroll on social media ALL day and see these kids my age making all this money.
ff
"How... HOW ARE THEY DOING IT?" "WHAT IS THE SECRET? I'LL DO ANYTHING.. HOW DO I START??"
My heart would be racing, I wouldn't be able to socialize with people, I had so many limiting beliefs, because every second of the day was about trying to figure out how a business is ran by teaching myself by telling myself thoughts in my own mind, but doing this would just lead to more stress.
But still, there was only one influencer that I would listen to (garyvee) and everyone that was NOT garyvee I considered a scammer. I didn't read any books, didn't even take into account that there were people OUT THERE giving ACTUAL business advice (If I had found MJ 3 years ago, my life today at 19 would be significantly different)
For a while, I gave up. My literal reasoning for why was "maybe they have some kind of wiring in their brain that I don't". or "I guess I'm just not a natural entrepreneur like gary vee said and I didn't want to accept it this whole time"
I started trying meditation, trying to live a "media-less" life, getting into spirituality, as a way to get out of the constant anxiety I was in trying to figure out how to start my 3 businesses. I had quit trying to make content on the internet for a long time after spending literally whole days trying to think of videos to make for each platform.
Then, in January of 2022 (yes, I had a "new years resolution" to figure this out for real) I quit watching gary vee, I quit watching all the stuff that clearly wasn't moving me forward for the past two years except for some luck with basketball cards and crypto currency. I had tens of thousands of dollars as an 18/19 year old, but no idea what to do from that point on because all the money I had made came so easy in market booms.
For the first time, I ripped ADHD self apart and picked up a book for the first time. Next thing you know... I was READING FOR 5 HOURS. Holy crap. This was a book about nutrition, what if I read books about business? Could I find the answer?
While listening to a podcast, I did. someone mentioned Unscripted , and I read the entire book, and was completely fascinated by it, but still didn't understand HOW business worked. I didn't know that. But I was SO Excited.. I felt such a sigh of relief, feeling like I had cracked the code. For the first time I got myself to schedule a session for "deep work" after reading deep work by cal newport, and I made a promise to myself that every single morning, before the gym, before eating, I would go and get into a state of depth for work even if I had no idea what to do.
Overnight, my life went from an absolute mess, to having a planned out daily schedule for the first time in my life
Wake Up->Meditate->Cold Shower->Deep Work With No Phone->Make TikToks->Gym->Read->Deep Work->Brazilian Jiu Jitsu->Sleep->Repeat
My "deep work" was writing self improvement books and setting up a kajabi website to sell some kind of product (I didn't know what the hell I was doing, but I still got it set up.) After a week, I had my kajabi website set up and I was reading Russell Brunson's DotCom secrets. I didn't really take what Russell was saying to heart at the time, because I still viewed him as a "scammer". (Looking back now though, that book is one of the best books I've ever read.)
After staying consistent, I put together one of the worst products someone could ever create. (a book that had no plan behind it and took me 5 days to write) and put it out there and sold 10 copies because my audience was growing well because I understand TikTok very well and started growing my following for self improvement.)
Even though the product was awful, I had never felt more accomplished in my life. I felt like I was actually "DOING BUSINESS". Was 99% of what I was doing action fakes? Yes. But it didn't feel like it at all.
After realizing that it wasn't working, I tried something else. I was still so excited that someone would even BUY my book in the first place, so I decided to make MORE products. I tried to add coaching programs, tried to sell 1-1 consultations on fiverr, I planned to make a fitness course, I put all of these products out into the world and just went on social media and told people "Buy this", but no one did.
I was proud of myself for taking action, but very frustrated because I didn't know why the hell I wasn't rich yet?
I decided to forget about it, and for a few months I just decided to read more books because that's where I got my first bit of information from. I read TMF , The Great Rat Race Escape , Influence, ALL of these different books which finally started to give me the answers to HOW to do business.. I had one part of it down..
Value. Okay. I need to give Value.. But what else, How do I give Value?
I found another book that I had been putting off for a long time because I again perceived the author a scammer. His name is Alex Hormozi. One day, I got my head out of my a$$ and I read his book $100M offers, all of it in one day.
"Holy Shit" I thought to myself "This is it. This is all I need to do. This is the secret If I just could have known this whole time I would've understood business!"
Step 1. What product are you going to sell Step 2. Who are you going to sell it to Step 3. How are you going to get them to see it Step 4. Make an offer so good that they can't refuse it.
And then to top it off, I read a post by @Andy Black that was talking about how you don't NEED a website. You don't NEED any of this stuff you think you need. All you need is SALES. Earned traffic, paid traffic, manual outbound, reaching out to PEOPLE. Talking to PEOPLE and showing them MY OFFER. and if they TRUST ME, because they've SEEN ME BEFORE, and they also NEED my product, they will give me money!
"Duh Stupid! This is what you've been trying to find out for the past 2 years and you just found it out within a couple hours!" I thought to myself.
So that's what I did. But what am I good at? What value can I give people? I know how to make tiktoks... I know how to workout... But do people really need this?
In order to get myself to believe what all of these people were saying, I would need to see it work. I would need someone to say yes to my offer..
I decided to call a business owner that didn't KNOW me, but was aware of me to make him an offer on TikTok marketing.
This business owner was a motivated buyer for what I had. He said to me "I want my own personal brand on TikTok, how do I do it??" So we got on a sales call, and I was soso nervous. My first sales call... Ok what do I know.. I had studies Alex Hormozi's CLOSER framework like the back of my hand.. So I decided to go with that.
But the price... What was I going to charge?! This guys my first customer.. He doesn't even know it.. Do I charge $500?? No. $3000 for 2 months of marketing. Alex always says if there's one thing you should do, charge a lot of money. That was what I was going to say..
And so I did.
Guess what happened
"Okay I'll pay the 3 grand just send me a proposal"
"HOLY F**K. WHAT THE F**K?" I thought to myself.
And now here I am today, typing this. Looking for new prospects doing the same thing. Excited as hell for the future.
Am I rich yet? No. But I feel like I know how to be now, and the outcome of ALL of this was mental clarity, something I have been seeking for years.
I hope you guys enjoyed my story,
Thanks for reading!
Sitting in my dark room with things all over the place, I scrolled through YouTube. Video after video, trying to figure out exactly how to make a my "own business" by constantly watching videos about how Warren Buffett made 100 gazillion dollars and I would walk around talking about how I had "3 businesses I wanted to start." None of which ever happened.
All of the content I was consuming was from people who weren't giving actual advice on how to start a business, but just saying "work hard" and "do what you love" and it got so hard in my head trying to figure out what to do that I had panic attacks and constant anxiety thinking about how the hell to start a business!
I made my fair share of money in sports cards, ebay, amazon, and crypto currency, but every single time I'd see someone making a REAL business that was my age, I would envy them. Because for a long time my life was sitting in my room constantly refreshing ebay prices to see if the prices of my basketball cards were going up in price. I would scroll on social media ALL day and see these kids my age making all this money.
ff
"How... HOW ARE THEY DOING IT?" "WHAT IS THE SECRET? I'LL DO ANYTHING.. HOW DO I START??"
My heart would be racing, I wouldn't be able to socialize with people, I had so many limiting beliefs, because every second of the day was about trying to figure out how a business is ran by teaching myself by telling myself thoughts in my own mind, but doing this would just lead to more stress.
But still, there was only one influencer that I would listen to (garyvee) and everyone that was NOT garyvee I considered a scammer. I didn't read any books, didn't even take into account that there were people OUT THERE giving ACTUAL business advice (If I had found MJ 3 years ago, my life today at 19 would be significantly different)
For a while, I gave up. My literal reasoning for why was "maybe they have some kind of wiring in their brain that I don't". or "I guess I'm just not a natural entrepreneur like gary vee said and I didn't want to accept it this whole time"
I started trying meditation, trying to live a "media-less" life, getting into spirituality, as a way to get out of the constant anxiety I was in trying to figure out how to start my 3 businesses. I had quit trying to make content on the internet for a long time after spending literally whole days trying to think of videos to make for each platform.
Then, in January of 2022 (yes, I had a "new years resolution" to figure this out for real) I quit watching gary vee, I quit watching all the stuff that clearly wasn't moving me forward for the past two years except for some luck with basketball cards and crypto currency. I had tens of thousands of dollars as an 18/19 year old, but no idea what to do from that point on because all the money I had made came so easy in market booms.
For the first time, I ripped ADHD self apart and picked up a book for the first time. Next thing you know... I was READING FOR 5 HOURS. Holy crap. This was a book about nutrition, what if I read books about business? Could I find the answer?
While listening to a podcast, I did. someone mentioned Unscripted , and I read the entire book, and was completely fascinated by it, but still didn't understand HOW business worked. I didn't know that. But I was SO Excited.. I felt such a sigh of relief, feeling like I had cracked the code. For the first time I got myself to schedule a session for "deep work" after reading deep work by cal newport, and I made a promise to myself that every single morning, before the gym, before eating, I would go and get into a state of depth for work even if I had no idea what to do.
Overnight, my life went from an absolute mess, to having a planned out daily schedule for the first time in my life
Wake Up->Meditate->Cold Shower->Deep Work With No Phone->Make TikToks->Gym->Read->Deep Work->Brazilian Jiu Jitsu->Sleep->Repeat
My "deep work" was writing self improvement books and setting up a kajabi website to sell some kind of product (I didn't know what the hell I was doing, but I still got it set up.) After a week, I had my kajabi website set up and I was reading Russell Brunson's DotCom secrets. I didn't really take what Russell was saying to heart at the time, because I still viewed him as a "scammer". (Looking back now though, that book is one of the best books I've ever read.)
After staying consistent, I put together one of the worst products someone could ever create. (a book that had no plan behind it and took me 5 days to write) and put it out there and sold 10 copies because my audience was growing well because I understand TikTok very well and started growing my following for self improvement.)
Even though the product was awful, I had never felt more accomplished in my life. I felt like I was actually "DOING BUSINESS". Was 99% of what I was doing action fakes? Yes. But it didn't feel like it at all.
After realizing that it wasn't working, I tried something else. I was still so excited that someone would even BUY my book in the first place, so I decided to make MORE products. I tried to add coaching programs, tried to sell 1-1 consultations on fiverr, I planned to make a fitness course, I put all of these products out into the world and just went on social media and told people "Buy this", but no one did.
I was proud of myself for taking action, but very frustrated because I didn't know why the hell I wasn't rich yet?
I decided to forget about it, and for a few months I just decided to read more books because that's where I got my first bit of information from. I read TMF , The Great Rat Race Escape , Influence, ALL of these different books which finally started to give me the answers to HOW to do business.. I had one part of it down..
Value. Okay. I need to give Value.. But what else, How do I give Value?
I found another book that I had been putting off for a long time because I again perceived the author a scammer. His name is Alex Hormozi. One day, I got my head out of my a$$ and I read his book $100M offers, all of it in one day.
"Holy Shit" I thought to myself "This is it. This is all I need to do. This is the secret If I just could have known this whole time I would've understood business!"
Step 1. What product are you going to sell Step 2. Who are you going to sell it to Step 3. How are you going to get them to see it Step 4. Make an offer so good that they can't refuse it.
And then to top it off, I read a post by @Andy Black that was talking about how you don't NEED a website. You don't NEED any of this stuff you think you need. All you need is SALES. Earned traffic, paid traffic, manual outbound, reaching out to PEOPLE. Talking to PEOPLE and showing them MY OFFER. and if they TRUST ME, because they've SEEN ME BEFORE, and they also NEED my product, they will give me money!
"Duh Stupid! This is what you've been trying to find out for the past 2 years and you just found it out within a couple hours!" I thought to myself.
So that's what I did. But what am I good at? What value can I give people? I know how to make tiktoks... I know how to workout... But do people really need this?
In order to get myself to believe what all of these people were saying, I would need to see it work. I would need someone to say yes to my offer..
I decided to call a business owner that didn't KNOW me, but was aware of me to make him an offer on TikTok marketing.
This business owner was a motivated buyer for what I had. He said to me "I want my own personal brand on TikTok, how do I do it??" So we got on a sales call, and I was soso nervous. My first sales call... Ok what do I know.. I had studies Alex Hormozi's CLOSER framework like the back of my hand.. So I decided to go with that.
But the price... What was I going to charge?! This guys my first customer.. He doesn't even know it.. Do I charge $500?? No. $3000 for 2 months of marketing. Alex always says if there's one thing you should do, charge a lot of money. That was what I was going to say..
And so I did.
Guess what happened
"Okay I'll pay the 3 grand just send me a proposal"
"HOLY F**K. WHAT THE F**K?" I thought to myself.
And now here I am today, typing this. Looking for new prospects doing the same thing. Excited as hell for the future.
Am I rich yet? No. But I feel like I know how to be now, and the outcome of ALL of this was mental clarity, something I have been seeking for years.
I hope you guys enjoyed my story,
Thanks for reading!
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