[Progress] Graphic Designer Going Freelance & Fastlane

[Nicoknowsbest]

If you are like me, you came to the forum a while ago.

Reading this and that, writing up comments here and there.

It all seemed like a big buffet in the beginning. You came whenever you pleased and ate whatever you felt like.

Something didn't taste?

You left it on your plate and went to get yourself something else.

There was enough there, right?

The only problem with this approach is that you feel full before you can make it to the mouthwatering main dishes.


How To Waste Years Playing Wantrepreneur

I was dreaming up ideas every day. Sometimes big, sometimes small.

My hands were shaking in excitement when I sat down and started working on what I believed had to work. From high-tech entrepreneurship to importing, whatever sounded good and worked for others I tried too. I was not bothered by failures in the beginning, since you need a couple of them under your belt anyways - that's what experience is made of.

One day it will work.

It will work. But not, if you make the same mistake over and over again.

I thought my ideas were great. When talking to people, they thought they were great too. Just not for them. When the moment came to collect sales, everybody disappeared and was busy with something else.

Can I blame them?

No. The only person to blame is myself. If I had asked them what they had been struggling with and then had offered my help, no way they would have walked away.

It is not about me, it is about real people with real needs.


Ignore Your Skills At Your Own Danger

For years I have been ignoring my own skill set.

I couldn't imagine doing business in this specific area, since I was connecting it with so many negative experiences, coming mainly from jobs.

Apart from that, this was not where the money was, I thought.


The Moment That Changed Everything:


I was reading @SinisterLex's thread about how to achieve freedom within 15 days, when I saw that @Andy Black posted a new video.

I looked at the video and realized that the audio and the video were out of sync.

Having experience with problems like this, I thought: "Why not send him a message to offer help. What's the worst thing that can happen?"

@Andy Black replied almost immediately, suggesting a Skype call later that day.


The key take away: What are you waiting for? Help Someone With What You Know. Do It Today.


Sounds pretty simple, right?

It turns out that the skill set I had been ignoring for years can be used to help people. To create value for them.

Things started to make more and more sense. @Andy Black left me some crumbles here and there to follow. I did and things started working out.

We talk about all this in our recorded call here.


Starting With Zero Track-Records And Landing My First Sale Within 5 Hours

I decided to go on Fiverr and start offering my services. I had zero experience with selling my skills online, so I figured Fiverr is a good training ground.

I didn't research my competition, I didn't waste more times collecting tips and tricks about how to make your profile look perfect.


There is just one rule: Genuinely help people and create value for them.


With that in mind, I finished my profile, recorded videos to sell my services and went "online".

Now it was time to wait, right?

Once you gained momentum, you need to do whatever it takes to keep that moment up. Action beats reaction and passivity every single time.

So I started sending out applications to requests buyers had posted earlier. I applied what I learned in @SinisterLex's thread.

5 hours later I had my first order.

And they keep coming...








But Is This Fastlane?

Hell no. But that's fine. Process above anything. You got to start somewhere, and you better start today.

The trick is to move through the sliding scale:
Intern > Employee > Contractor > Freelancer > Agency > Productised Service > Platform

Read more on this here.


How To Measure Success

Each time you are looking at traffic, click-through rates, conversion rates, leads and sales, you should...

...stop.

Forget driving more traffic to your website, forget improving your conversion rates.

Simply ask yourself...

...how many people have I helped until now/today/this week?
...how much value have I been creating?

Don't get trapped in numbers, don't cheat the process.


What Will Happen Next?

As pointed out already here, I will be slowly moving away from the online world, because real business happens when you help real people.

Fiverr is just another excuse to hide behind my screen instead of going out and talking to people.

This is why I am saving all my earnings to spend on "Diesel And Coffee".


Become The Guy To Go To For...

For all the ones starting out, working on "the next big thing" right now or simply wondering where to start.

Put everything aside. Stop reading.

Go out and help someone with what you already know.

Refine your skill, become the XYZ guy people want to work with.

Don't try solving problems you don't have.

Save yourselves years of wasted time.

If you cannot get 1 sale within 7 days of starting, your product/service-founder fit is bad.


"The person who'll run with the ball is the person who catches the ball." (Andy Black)

Put yourself out there.

Listen.

Help.

Create value.

Take action.

Run!

 

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[Nicoknowsbest]

How To Become A Digital Slave Or How Freelancing On Fiverr Violates The Commandment Of Control

After working for clients on Fiverr for the last couple of weeks, I changed my plans of slowly moving away from freelancing platforms and cut the ropes immediately. The last couple of clients taught me some obvious and some unexpected lessons. The ones contemplating doing freelance work on Fiverr or generally on-line: you should investigate certain things before you start.

1 - Timezones Are Tricky
When sitting in Europe with clients mainly from the US, Australia and New Zealand, delivering orders within 24 hours gets tricky sometimes. It happened to me that someone ordered my gig at 9 pm my time. Even when sitting at the computer at 6 am, you already lost 9 hours. I had various on-going projects and fitting in new projects was sometimes a problem, especially when they had ordered 5+ revisions.

2 - Act From A Position Of Power
When buyers ordered a certain gig, I assumed they know the basics of what they ordered. This turns out not to be true. I sold a more technical gig for a way too low price and it took me around 8 hours to finish. Why? The buyer had no idea about the technicals and didn't really know what he wanted. Communication with him was extremely difficult. When asking him about details, his answer was "I don't know what is so difficult to understand." When finally coming up with a result that pleased him, he left a less than perfect review.

Bottom line: Don't shoot into the dark. If I had acted from a position of power, I would have made EVERYTHING clear from the beginning. I wouldn't have started working until the last details were clear. Never forget - you are the expert, selling your services to people. Sometimes they don't know what they want, or what is possible. Clear out all doubts before you start. Honesty over the attempt to blindly guess.

3 - Personal Messages Are The New Revisions
When you sell gigs on Fiverr, you create a service package that also includes a number of revisions. Once started, you deliver your work and your buyer can request a revision within the project thread. It happened to me more than once that I sold a package with 2 revisions and after delivering my work, I suddenly get a PM asking me to change things. Assuming that Fiverr somehow deals with this, I just modified the work and delivered again. 2 revisions quickly became 5.

Because Fiverr doesn't take care of this, you have to.

4 - How Late Buyers Cost You Money
When you deliver work and your buyer doesn't request a revision or marks the order as completed, Fiverr automatically completes orders within 3 days after delivery. 7 out of 10 buyers suddenly think of something they want to change around 2 hours before auto-completion. You initially sold your gig on Tuesday, 10 am with a 24 hour delivery. An hour later you delivered. Your buyer doesn't react until Friday morning, finally requesting a revision. Now, instead of another 24 hours or some fair time frame to modify your delivery, Fiverr tells you that you are...

...LATE.

Yes, because your buyer didn't react on time, but has the right to request revisions, you are now officially delivering your work late.

Now it's up to you to imagine how this will affect your profile and visibility on the platform.

5 - Leaving Feedback After You Got Feedback
After completing a project, your buyer needs to leave a review first so you can rate him as a buyer too. If he doesn't, you cannot leave a review on his profile. Now, you could leave a positive one to engage him and remind him to write one for you too. But you could simply write about a bad experience with a seller.

Bad sellers know about this and don't leave feedback on purpose.

6 - Cancelling Gigs Affects Your Visibility And Rating
I got contacted by a buyer and he booked one of my gigs. It turned out soon after that he was a spammer, requesting all sorts of weird things. After messaging back and forth, I opened a dispute and contacted the support to cancel the order. Problem is, that no matter for which reason you cancel an order as a seller, the fact that you do affects you negatively. Your rating drops and you are not that visible on Fiverr anymore.


Bottom line:

Sooner or later you will encounter "buyers", who know exactly how Fiverr works, what they can do, how this negatively affects you and therefore how they can squeeze you like a lemon. I have the feeling that some of them run some local agency and outsource on Fiverr. I am pretty sure that I worked together with the same buyer running various different profiles to look like a "small guy". When I read the same phrases, words and spelling mistakes over and over again, I got suspicious.

Fiverr is a platform for selling services on the very low end. It is heavily twisted towards the buyer's end and as a seller, you are being taken advantage of in all areas. If you really want to go that route, make sure to look at it from a buyer's perspective too. This won't cost you too much and teach you much more.

Apart from all this, Fiverr takes 20% of all your revenues.

NO THANK YOU!

 

[Nicoknowsbest]

Update:

Diesel & coffee works - I expanded my network significantly within just one week.

Within the last 7 days I met and connected with

• a guy who runs a software company with 240+ people in Romania
• a famous radio show host who also talks about tech and business on the Austrian radio
• a guy whose company needs a new website
• a guy who runs a creative agency looking for freelancers that could help him
• a guy who founded a startup looking for design freelancers
• a girl who is a well booked and well connected content marketer/brand strategist, willing to refer me
• a freelancer who is specialized in video production and drone flights. He immediately suggested working together...
• a young and successful software agency owner that is well connected and will refer me to his contacts

First direct response mailing campaign is sent out - offline:


Second direct response mailing campaign is also distributed - online.

Will come back and post the results.

Finally shifted my mindset away from learning and doing everything myself to...

...SELLING more.

Sell more > earn more > outsource > streamline

 

[Nicoknowsbest]

Update:

• After January being a good month, I had a small dip in February. Currently recovering from that dip and up to making March great again.
• Passive income from royalties was up nearly 500% in January, but dipped 60% in February again. Currently figuring out how to take this to serious numbers and make it sustainable.
• Landing page is tweaked, uploaded in two languages and ready to welcome paid visitors. After taking @Andy Black's AdWords Jumpstart Course (had access to it as a beta-tester), I'll deep-dive into this and add it to my service offer. What about my promise to stop learning more technical skills? I actually consider AdWords a commercial skill in the right context.
• Happy clients keep coming back for more. Asking for referrals to get repeat business works wonders (R+R=profit).
• Diesel & coffee brings me together with the most unexpected people. It's crucial to stay flexible, to not get stuck on what you actually can do and provide them with whatever they are looking for - even if it is something you have to figure out first.
• Once you stop seeing the "sales process" as a scary thing, fearing rejection, but have conversations with people to find out what they really need, warm leads pop out of nowhere, every day.
• The bigger picture is evolving day by day, bit by bit: from graphic design to doing the Internet thing, aka building funnels.

EDIT: Thanks for the rep sent @Vigilante!

 

[Nicoknowsbest]

Update:

• Diesel and Coffee guys. I keep my personal, professional network engaged, take them out for dinner, expand it regularly, tell them what I am up to, but most importantly, I listen. I listen to what problems they are facing, try to help, connect give advice etc. 2 weeks ago I got a call from a friend who's an employee at a company which needed somebody like me. "Can you pass by this week?" Sure, why not. I went in, did my thing and left with my highest sale so far. Mid 4-figure volume, which leaves me with around 5,5x my hourly pay if you want to see it through employee's eyes roughly 6 months after quitting my job and starting out.
• Second meeting into this project, the CEO of this company takes me aside after our meeting and invites me to a business owner breakfast at 6:45 am. I'm about to meet around 50 local entrepreneurs from three different regions here and got the chance to pitch them my services in 60 seconds. This will go down tomorrow.
• I am close to a point where I have to either outsource part of my work by hiring an intern, or refuse future requests. Let's see if I can keep up the momentum.
• 2 things I learned while doing business in the last two months:
  • Being short doesn't mean being rude. It means we are all busy and respect each others time, when communicating with business owners.
  • Being conversational doesn't mean being disrespectful. Talking to a business owner from his perspective makes him see you as a peer, rather than somebody trying to get something from him.
• Be hard to get: somebody very wise gave me the advice to think in terms of abundance, always. I don't need no future client. Neither do you. If they don't see the value in what I do, I'll try to help in whatever way I can and move on.
• I started protecting myself. No more negativity, no more BS. I rigorously cut everything and most of all everybody who distracts, manipulates or influences me negatively in what I am trying to do out of my life. Protect your attention, protect your time, protect your sanity.

 

[Nicoknowsbest]

Fastlane. Freedom. Forever.
(originally posted here: Sidewalk - It's too hard! I quit! I'm done!)

Mindset update:
Being here for a while now, growth has become a habit. Every day, things are falling into place. There is one thing that became clear relatively early on my journey. Most of our goals are tied to numbers. We all have the one number in our head. The one number that would change everything. This one event. Only a couple of million, a quick buy out and life is good. A yellow lambo, a tailor made suit and $ 30 drinks at the country club.

For me, there is something much more powerful. Something so powerful, that all these by-products seem small, unnecessary, heck even redundant.

Freedom.

The freedom to do whatever I please. Whenever. Wherever. With whoever.

Just because I choose to.

Or to put it with @Vigilante's words: GOLD - Because I Can

Thank you @MJ DeMarco for helping me understand that I don't want to be 60 and having to wake up to be on time for work, so I can be debt free. One day. Maybe.

Thank you for helping me understand the power of freedom.

Oh, and thank you for the rep sent.

Progress update:

• First 4 figure deal is in the pocket

 

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[Nicoknowsbest]

Update

Yep, it's been a while. It was one hell of a ride over the last 1,5 years. I learned a few lessons the hard way and now I am back to square one, it seems. But with loads of experiences in your pocket, you are never back at square one, even if it looks like it.

Thanks for your comment @nickgraham1234 - I'll go into detail of what happened down below.

@Ninjakid thanks for stating this fact too - 100% agreed. Without these two, many of us wouldn't be where they are today. Thank you from the bottom of my heart @Andy Black and @Lex DeVille. Without you, life wouldn't be the same.

Before I go into detail, here’s the tl;dr: I was scaling up my revenues until I hit 5 figures a month beginning of the year, was hiring freelancers and thought that I am finally on to something. A few months after that, I crashed, burned and nearly had to file for bankruptcy.

Okay, so here’s what I wrote to two people who have been companions on my journey ever since a few weeks ago:

I thought long and hard about what and how I'll share it, but ultimately decided to share it how it went down, so you guys can all learn from it…

What REALLY happened in the last 1,5 years:

You might still remember my struggles from about 1,5 years ago. Back then, I had a new client, who seemed like a great win, but my feeling was giving me signs already back then.

It was the coach, remember?

The one who made me get a business phone number, because he kept bugging me after office hours, on the weekends, et"C"

Against my better judgement, I went for it.

Why?

Simple...

Because I thought, it was only my comfort zone giving me a bad feeling and I finally wanted to break through. Well... I did break, but not through... I did break a few things on the way, including a few things of myself.

Today, it is D-Day.

Just a few minutes ago I sent this guy an email, cancelling all projects, blocking all contact and warning him to ever come close again.

To send such an email, it takes a lot. Again, you guys might know this... I am a very positive and happy person, usually. I can take a lot of heat, a lot of pressure, a lot of bullshit. But once my red zone is reached, there is no turning back.

Okay...

So what happened?

Let's go back 1,5 years. I moved out of my home office and moved into a shared office in a business park not far from my house. There, I bumped into some weird character, who I found interesting.

Maybe you guys remember “F”.

Anyway, I started chatting with “F” and he became a client for graphic design. We also tried AdWords for him, which you guys know. “F” then introduced me to "C". Sorry guys, I cannot spell out his name at the moment, I am too upset.

Anyway, "F" said I should talk to "C" because he is a super successful business consultant. He was the CEO of big national and international businesses under 30 and lived the life, buying Porsches in cash, until he crashed and had a burn out.

After that, he became an independent business consultant.

Which would help me gain traction. Or so I thought.

"C" then kept bringing up topics that are completely unrelated to business and said I should deal with these, they keep me from having success...

One of these things was a family constellation.

I don't know if you guys have ever heard of such a thing. The basic concept is that information is passed on over generations and that something our grand grandfathers did can prevent us from having success in certain areas of life.

Let's say grand grandfather Albert cheated on his wife. So the theory then says that maybe his grand grandchild Peter lives up to Albert subconsciously and cheats on every partner he has. All of this is not happening on a logical level, but on a spiritual level.

So yeah... Now it begins…

"C" kept pushing me and pushing me. First, he actually paid. I said I'd do some marketing on Facebook and AdWords for him on the side. This didn't work out, for various reasons. Then he pulled the card that I cannot sell stuff I don't know how to do and that I can get sued for that.

Somewhere along the way, I said that this is too much and I want to quit working with him.

Guys, you have to imagine, this guy was obsessing over single letters on whole posters, texting me last thing at night, first thing in the morning, calling me multiple times a day.

He then suggested that he coaches me to success as a compensation for me doing work for him.

And I agreed.

And this is when it all started. He literally dragged me into his world and suddenly we ended up doing all sorts of things that had nothing to do with business after all.

The tricky part comes now...

You might ask yourself: "Why the hell would you do this Nico?"

Well... I was very, very desperate in terms of finally having money and success, that I would have done a rain dance in order to break through. Well, not so far from the truth actually.

The thing is, that my revenues did pick up for a while, and some months, I earned quite big.

But here's the thing... He only sent me his clients, who would of course also do what he said. I got tricked in the beginning of the year, because he sent me a few clients that I closed immediately and I had a revenue of over €10.000 in January - in only ONE month.

A year before that, I earned around €700-800 a month, so of course I was thrilled.

But yeah, bummer...

Until June, I didn't sell that much anymore. So €10.000 a month quickly stretched out over the next 6 months and I was running thin. Also, because making a deal on paper is one thing. Having money in your account is another thing.

Somewhere along the way, he told me that every human being has a mission on this planet. And if you don't follow that mission, your calling let's say, life will punish you for it. And of course he is the one who can tell you your calling.

I was interested, just out of curiosity...

So my calling supposedly is to bring other people into financial freedom through online marketing. With the emphasis on OTHER PEOPLE.

Funny, right?

He needed online marketing a while back... How convenient... That I supposedly become the next prodigy in this field...

I was a bit stunned and skeptical, but hey, I was done with the graphic design stuff, so why not try this. Oh boy, was I naive.

So, on top of him coaching me to success (or was it success?), he offered to buy an online coaching program about online marketing from the German market leader. I think it was around €6.000...

Since it was my reward for work I already did in the past for him - because he stopped paying at the point where we would exchange him coaching me for my man hours - I didn't see a conflict when "accepting" this "present".

Anyway, the training was okayish, but not really worth €6.000. I would have been very upset if this was my money.

Short sidenote...

Don't forget, I had daily contact with him. Never hearing a positive word, only getting pointed out my mistakes, that I am an amateur, etc. My girlfriend's alarm bells were already ringing like crazy, but since he was so close to my thoughts, he navigated all these things like a wizard.

Meanwhile, I did loads of work for him and his clients. The work I did for his clients was paid, otherwise I would have gone broke loooong time ago. But he insisted that I do his things always first and always as quickly as possible…

Why did I do this?

Because I felt I had to pay back for him sending me clients. Multiply that with the thought of me going broke without his clients and you have a super dangerous cocktail of “obedience”.

Meanwhile, I disconnected with many, many people. I disconnected partly with my parents, because successful people cut out everybody that doesn’t follow their rules, right?

I disconnected with my friends.

Slowly slowly, people started wondering what was going on with me. They started worrying - most of all my girlfriend together with my parents.

“Who are you becoming? You are not yourself anymore…” was a daily comment.

I didn’t see it, because I didn’t want to see it. I was on my way to my first million, and nobody would stop me. And successful people burn bridges, don’t they?

So all cool, right?

Well yeah…

So I was heading full speed towards a frontal crash into the wall, without me even thinking that this was an option.

The breaking point

Ha, I bet you wondered already when that would come up, right?

Sooo… It was December. Meanwhile, I was working like a maniac. Late nights, super-early mornings, weekends. ALL THE TIME. I went to the office at 4 am in the morning at times. I worked so much and let "C" create so much pressure for me that I literally couldn’t stand anymore. I gave up everything else in life.

No parties. No drinks. No gym. No boxing. No soccer. No friends. No family. Nothing.

I wanted it so badly. I wanted to finally be a success. I forgot about everything else.

One Sunday I get a text from him, that I need to check something out. At that point, we had already talked about advanced visualization techniques for more success, meditation, etc.

All in the light of bringing my full power on the road and becoming a huge success… Or so…

So, I should check out some sort of Yoga to get ahead even quicker. That’s what all millionaires do. In my mind, I was already a billionaire. So I went to this weekend course that turned out to be a one on one spiritual coaching in this yoga teacher’s run down flat.

It was cold, dirty and I was wondering what the hell I was doing. That was the first moment after months in which I woke up.

After this experience, I was so shocked, I couldn’t think straight for days, if not weeks. I nearly lost it guys… I didn’t know how this would fit in the picture of me becoming a millionaire.

So I confronted "C" with this and he just said that most people don’t understand it at first, but that I should trust him.

Yeah well…

The second breaking point came soon after. He invited me for a coaching to his office as a reward for the “great” work I had been doing for him at this point.

Oh boy, now shit hit the fan…

He told me that he recently did a course on hypnosis and that he wants to help me to success quicker through hypnosis. First, I was like: “What the hell?”.

But then I thought, okay, let’s test this guy. I thought, let’s see what he really wants. I blocked the hypnosis and listened to every word he said during this time span.

Afterwards, I had to digest what I heard for a few days and weeks. It didn’t make sense to me and I couldn’t fit it in the picture of me becoming a millionaire...

Anyway, I laid low for a while and hoped that all would make sense at one point.

Oh, before I forget… Before the coaching unit mentioned above, he made me sign up for a 12 month group coaching for entrepreneurs. We would meet up once a month and work towards our goals, create synergies, etc.

Yep, I did that too…

Don’t ask.

While sitting on the floor for hours (the meeting was scheduled from 7 till 9 pm, but often lasted until midnight - and remember, his office was 350km away from me and I went there and came back straight away, working the day of the meeting and the next day) we started talking about how we all love each other and world peace and that sort of stuff…

I told you not to ask ;-)

The final act

While all these things were happening and I was running out of A) work and B) money, "C" said that my final break-through is about to come.

There is just one thing left to do. Create a full-blown, fully automated online marketing system for him, that sells his products day and night.

That was the topic of the course I took that he paid for…

I was telling myself that this is the final act and then I will quit. Remember, I NEVER EVER quit. At least that’s what I kept telling myself.

For some reason, I couldn’t do it. Literally every time I started working on it, my brain froze.

It’s hard, "C" said, because this is the final stage. I have to push through. I need to work more, best 2 weeks non-stop, with only 2-3 hours of sleep a day.

Don’t forget - I was already in the red zone for months at this point. I was completely destroyed physically and mentally. I jumped through all the hoops there were.

And now I should push more?

There was no more. I gave it all I had, but I ran out of gas. Around that period, my girlfriend and me booked a small vacation. It was planned as a vacation, but actually it was some sort of rehabilitation camp for my burn-out, or whatever that was.

I sat on the beach for hours, not talking, not sleeping, not doing anything, except for staring at the sea.

After days of doing this, I started feeling a bit better. Somewhere deep down, a new flame started lighting up. So I started feeling a bit better.

After we returned home and hell started from scratch. Now, the pressure of running really low on money was added to the mix and again, this was a deadly cocktail.

I started ignoring "C", not taking his calls, not responding whatsoever. He even started texting my girlfriend and my brother, which was the last, but not least line he crossed.

I thought: “Okay, hey, let’s deal with it like men do.” and I went to talk to him. Don’t forget, it is 350km away. Don’t ask me what happened, but after coming home, I was in some sort of tunnel. AGAIN.

I thought okay, let’s finish this for him. Maybe it really is my breakt-through.

Can you guess what happened next?

Right. I went bankrupt. I had to borrow money from E.V.E.R.Y.B.O.D.Y.

When I told "C" that he had done a good job coaching me to success, he told me that life is forcing me now to finally live my calling and do online marketing which of course would start with building his system first. And that I should ask my parents for money. He said I should take 3 months off, build his system while living off my parents’ pockets.

And this is when I saw red.

I got the signs a long time ago.

I ignored them all.

I saw red.

All of a sudden.

Not a little red.

F.U.L.L. R.E.D. all the way.

I took a bit of time off last week and thought to cool down before I say stuff that would hurt people.

Wrong decision, again.

Because, yeah, you guessed right.

"C" kept texting me in my vacation. And just now, around an hour ago, I cut A.L.L. cords. I told him to never call me again. To never text me again. To never come close to me again. To leave my girlfriend in peace.

It was a very slick, but crystal clear email. If you want, you can read some threat between the lines. That was also the intention. Because I felt threatened. Not only did I see my well-being endangered, but also that of the people around me.

While I am sitting here typing these words, I feel sick. Sick of myself. For somebody with half a brain, all of the above would have been very clear. I know I have a well functioning, whole brain, and all I can ask myself now is…

HOW THE HELL DID THIS HAPPEN?

WHY THE HELL DID THIS HAPPEN?

This is my story. This is what really happened over the last 1,5 years. It’s the main plot, while there are many more details I spare you at the moment. Maybe I’ll write a book about it one day, who knows.

All I can ask of you is to try to understand me. And don’t judge me. I know I would judge somebody telling me such a f*cked up story. But the truth is, and I never believed this, it happened to me…

I hope you guys can learn one or two lessons from this.

Oh, and feel free to ask away anything that comes to mind. Literally, anything. No borders. I think part of me dealing with this is to be brutally honest about it. And that encounters brutally honest answers to brutally honest questions.

Even if it hurts…

P.S. I am unbelievably grateful that I can share that with you guys. You have been there all along, and this I will never forget.

 

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[Lex DeVille]

Update

Yep, it's been a while. It was one hell of a ride over the last 1,5 years. I learned a few lessons the hard way and now I am back to square one, it seems. But with loads of experiences in your pocket, you are never back at square one, even if it looks like it.

Thanks for your comment @nickgraham1234 - I'll go into detail of what happened down below.

@Ninjakid thanks for stating this fact too - 100% agreed. Without these two, many of us wouldn't be where they are today. Thank you from the bottom of my heart @Andy Black and @Lex DeVille. Without you, life wouldn't be the same.

Before I go into detail, here’s the tl;dr: I was scaling up my revenues until I hit 5 figures a month beginning of the year, was hiring freelancers and thought that I am finally on to something. A few months after that, I crashed, burned and nearly had to file for bankruptcy.

Okay, so here’s what I wrote to two people who have been companions on my journey ever since a few weeks ago:

I thought long and hard about what and how I'll share it, but ultimately decided to share it how it went down, so you guys can all learn from it…

What REALLY happened in the last 1,5 years:

You might still remember my struggles from about 1,5 years ago. Back then, I had a new client, who seemed like a great win, but my feeling was giving me signs already back then.

It was the coach, remember?

The one who made me get a business phone number, because he kept bugging me after office hours, on the weekends, et"C"

Against my better judgement, I went for it.

Why?

Simple...

Because I thought, it was only my comfort zone giving me a bad feeling and I finally wanted to break through. Well... I did break, but not through... I did break a few things on the way, including a few things of myself.

Today, it is D-Day.

Just a few minutes ago I sent this guy an email, cancelling all projects, blocking all contact and warning him to ever come close again.

To send such an email, it takes a lot. Again, you guys might know this... I am a very positive and happy person, usually. I can take a lot of heat, a lot of pressure, a lot of bullshit. But once my red zone is reached, there is no turning back.

Okay...

So what happened?

Let's go back 1,5 years. I moved out of my home office and moved into a shared office in a business park not far from my house. There, I bumped into some weird character, who I found interesting.

Maybe you guys remember “F”.

Anyway, I started chatting with “F” and he became a client for graphic design. We also tried AdWords for him, which you guys know. “F” then introduced me to "C". Sorry guys, I cannot spell out his name at the moment, I am too upset.

Anyway, "F" said I should talk to "C" because he is a super successful business consultant. He was the CEO of big national and international businesses under 30 and lived the life, buying Porsches in cash, until he crashed and had a burn out.

After that, he became an independent business consultant.

Which would help me gain traction. Or so I thought.

"C" then kept bringing up topics that are completely unrelated to business and said I should deal with these, they keep me from having success...

One of these things was a family constellation.

I don't know if you guys have ever heard of such a thing. The basic concept is that information is passed on over generations and that something our grand grandfathers did can prevent us from having success in certain areas of life.

Let's say grand grandfather Albert cheated on his wife. So the theory then says that maybe his grand grandchild Peter lives up to Albert subconsciously and cheats on every partner he has. All of this is not happening on a logical level, but on a spiritual level.

So yeah... Now it begins…

"C" kept pushing me and pushing me. First, he actually paid. I said I'd do some marketing on Facebook and AdWords for him on the side. This didn't work out, for various reasons. Then he pulled the card that I cannot sell stuff I don't know how to do and that I can get sued for that.

Somewhere along the way, I said that this is too much and I want to quit working with him.

Guys, you have to imagine, this guy was obsessing over single letters on whole posters, texting me last thing at night, first thing in the morning, calling me multiple times a day.

He then suggested that he coaches me to success as a compensation for me doing work for him.

And I agreed.

And this is when it all started. He literally dragged me into his world and suddenly we ended up doing all sorts of things that had nothing to do with business after all.

The tricky part comes now...

You might ask yourself: "Why the hell would you do this Nico?"

Well... I was very, very desperate in terms of finally having money and success, that I would have done a rain dance in order to break through. Well, not so far from the truth actually.

The thing is, that my revenues did pick up for a while, and some months, I earned quite big.

But here's the thing... He only sent me his clients, who would of course also do what he said. I got tricked in the beginning of the year, because he sent me a few clients that I closed immediately and I had a revenue of over €10.000 in January - in only ONE month.

A year before that, I earned around €700-800 a month, so of course I was thrilled.

But yeah, bummer...

Until June, I didn't sell that much anymore. So €10.000 a month quickly stretched out over the next 6 months and I was running thin. Also, because making a deal on paper is one thing. Having money in your account is another thing.

Somewhere along the way, he told me that every human being has a mission on this planet. And if you don't follow that mission, your calling let's say, life will punish you for it. And of course he is the one who can tell you your calling.

I was interested, just out of curiosity...

So my calling supposedly is to bring other people into financial freedom through online marketing. With the emphasis on OTHER PEOPLE.

Funny, right?

He needed online marketing a while back... How convenient... That I supposedly become the next prodigy in this field...

I was a bit stunned and skeptical, but hey, I was done with the graphic design stuff, so why not try this. Oh boy, was I naive.

So, on top of him coaching me to success (or was it success?), he offered to buy an online coaching program about online marketing from the German market leader. I think it was around €6.000...

Since it was my reward for work I already did in the past for him - because he stopped paying at the point where we would exchange him coaching me for my man hours - I didn't see a conflict when "accepting" this "present".

Anyway, the training was okayish, but not really worth €6.000. I would have been very upset if this was my money.

Short sidenote...

Don't forget, I had daily contact with him. Never hearing a positive word, only getting pointed out my mistakes, that I am an amateur, etc. My girlfriend's alarm bells were already ringing like crazy, but since he was so close to my thoughts, he navigated all these things like a wizard.

Meanwhile, I did loads of work for him and his clients. The work I did for his clients was paid, otherwise I would have gone broke loooong time ago. But he insisted that I do his things always first and always as quickly as possible…

Why did I do this?

Because I felt I had to pay back for him sending me clients. Multiply that with the thought of me going broke without his clients and you have a super dangerous cocktail of “obedience”.

Meanwhile, I disconnected with many, many people. I disconnected partly with my parents, because successful people cut out everybody that doesn’t follow their rules, right?

I disconnected with my friends.

Slowly slowly, people started wondering what was going on with me. They started worrying - most of all my girlfriend together with my parents.

“Who are you becoming? You are not yourself anymore…” was a daily comment.

I didn’t see it, because I didn’t want to see it. I was on my way to my first million, and nobody would stop me. And successful people burn bridges, don’t they?

So all cool, right?

Well yeah…

So I was heading full speed towards a frontal crash into the wall, without me even thinking that this was an option.

The breaking point

Ha, I bet you wondered already when that would come up, right?

Sooo… It was December. Meanwhile, I was working like a maniac. Late nights, super-early mornings, weekends. ALL THE TIME. I went to the office at 4 am in the morning at times. I worked so much and let "C" create so much pressure for me that I literally couldn’t stand anymore. I gave up everything else in life.

No parties. No drinks. No gym. No boxing. No soccer. No friends. No family. Nothing.

I wanted it so badly. I wanted to finally be a success. I forgot about everything else.

One Sunday I get a text from him, that I need to check something out. At that point, we had already talked about advanced visualization techniques for more success, meditation, etc.

All in the light of bringing my full power on the road and becoming a huge success… Or so…

So, I should check out some sort of Yoga to get ahead even quicker. That’s what all millionaires do. In my mind, I was already a billionaire. So I went to this weekend course that turned out to be a one on one spiritual coaching in this yoga teacher’s run down flat.

It was cold, dirty and I was wondering what the hell I was doing. That was the first moment after months in which I woke up.

After this experience, I was so shocked, I couldn’t think straight for days, if not weeks. I nearly lost it guys… I didn’t know how this would fit in the picture of me becoming a millionaire.

So I confronted "C" with this and he just said that most people don’t understand it at first, but that I should trust him.

Yeah well…

The second breaking point came soon after. He invited me for a coaching to his office as a reward for the “great” work I had been doing for him at this point.

Oh boy, now shit hit the fan…

He told me that he recently did a course on hypnosis and that he wants to help me to success quicker through hypnosis. First, I was like: “What the hell?”.

But then I thought, okay, let’s test this guy. I thought, let’s see what he really wants. I blocked the hypnosis and listened to every word he said during this time span.

Afterwards, I had to digest what I heard for a few days and weeks. It didn’t make sense to me and I couldn’t fit it in the picture of me becoming a millionaire...

Anyway, I laid low for a while and hoped that all would make sense at one point.

Oh, before I forget… Before the coaching unit mentioned above, he made me sign up for a 12 month group coaching for entrepreneurs. We would meet up once a month and work towards our goals, create synergies, etc.

Yep, I did that too…

Don’t ask.

While sitting on the floor for hours (the meeting was scheduled from 7 till 9 pm, but often lasted until midnight - and remember, his office was 350km away from me and I went there and came back straight away, working the day of the meeting and the next day) we started talking about how we all love each other and world peace and that sort of stuff…

I told you not to ask ;-)

The final act

While all these things were happening and I was running out of A) work and B) money, "C" said that my final break-through is about to come.

There is just one thing left to do. Create a full-blown, fully automated online marketing system for him, that sells his products day and night.

That was the topic of the course I took that he paid for…

I was telling myself that this is the final act and then I will quit. Remember, I NEVER EVER quit. At least that’s what I kept telling myself.

For some reason, I couldn’t do it. Literally every time I started working on it, my brain froze.

It’s hard, "C" said, because this is the final stage. I have to push through. I need to work more, best 2 weeks non-stop, with only 2-3 hours of sleep a day.

Don’t forget - I was already in the red zone for months at this point. I was completely destroyed physically and mentally. I jumped through all the hoops there were.

And now I should push more?

There was no more. I gave it all I had, but I ran out of gas. Around that period, my girlfriend and me booked a small vacation. It was planned as a vacation, but actually it was some sort of rehabilitation camp for my burn-out, or whatever that was.

I sat on the beach for hours, not talking, not sleeping, not doing anything, except for staring at the sea.

After days of doing this, I started feeling a bit better. Somewhere deep down, a new flame started lighting up. So I started feeling a bit better.

After we returned home and hell started from scratch. Now, the pressure of running really low on money was added to the mix and again, this was a deadly cocktail.

I started ignoring "C", not taking his calls, not responding whatsoever. He even started texting my girlfriend and my brother, which was the last, but not least line he crossed.

I thought: “Okay, hey, let’s deal with it like men do.” and I went to talk to him. Don’t forget, it is 350km away. Don’t ask me what happened, but after coming home, I was in some sort of tunnel. AGAIN.

I thought okay, let’s finish this for him. Maybe it really is my breakt-through.

Can you guess what happened next?

Right. I went bankrupt. I had to borrow money from E.V.E.R.Y.B.O.D.Y.

When I told "C" that he had done a good job coaching me to success, he told me that life is forcing me now to finally live my calling and do online marketing which of course would start with building his system first. And that I should ask my parents for money. He said I should take 3 months off, build his system while living off my parents’ pockets.

And this is when I saw red.

I got the signs a long time ago.

I ignored them all.

I saw red.

All of a sudden.

Not a little red.

F.U.L.L. R.E.D. all the way.

I took a bit of time off last week and thought to cool down before I say stuff that would hurt people.

Wrong decision, again.

Because, yeah, you guessed right.

"C" kept texting me in my vacation. And just now, around an hour ago, I cut A.L.L. cords. I told him to never call me again. To never text me again. To never come close to me again. To leave my girlfriend in peace.

It was a very slick, but crystal clear email. If you want, you can read some threat between the lines. That was also the intention. Because I felt threatened. Not only did I see my well-being endangered, but also that of the people around me.

While I am sitting here typing these words, I feel sick. Sick of myself. For somebody with half a brain, all of the above would have been very clear. I know I have a well functioning, whole brain, and all I can ask myself now is…

HOW THE HELL DID THIS HAPPEN?

WHY THE HELL DID THIS HAPPEN?

This is my story. This is what really happened over the last 1,5 years. It’s the main plot, while there are many more details I spare you at the moment. Maybe I’ll write a book about it one day, who knows.

All I can ask of you is to try to understand me. And don’t judge me. I know I would judge somebody telling me such a f*cked up story. But the truth is, and I never believed this, it happened to me…

I hope you guys can learn one or two lessons from this.

Oh, and feel free to ask away anything that comes to mind. Literally, anything. No borders. I think part of me dealing with this is to be brutally honest about it. And that encounters brutally honest answers to brutally honest questions.

Even if it hurts…

P.S. I am unbelievably grateful that I can share that with you guys. You have been there all along, and this I will never forget.

This reads like a story straight out of "Combatting Cult Mind Control" and you don't need to feel any particular way about it except what you already feel with regard to anger and frustration.

Cults and the gurus who run them target intelligent, hard-working producer types. They don't want stupid people. They don't want lazy people. They want producers who will produce for them. They want people who think they are too smart to fall for the traps because those people let their guard down.

Gurus and the cults they form center around pulling people in and keeping them so busy and confused that they don't have time to think. Members become mentally exhausted and vulnerable to concepts such as hypnosis, which it sounds like he was using from the start, not just at the point when he mentioned it.

Based on what you've described here, you took the best action. Cut ties. Never talk to him again. You have everything you need to create a $10k/mo business on your own even if you have to start from scratch. Good for you for realizing it when you did. Could've wasted a lot more time and energy and wound up even worse off.

 

[Nicoknowsbest]

Some things that dawned on me over the last days:
"If you stop being a student of entrepreneurship, you start being an entrepreneur."

This is taken from Dan Norris new book "This is the Answer." and resonated a lot. I put myself in a position where I switched off my brain and looked for answers all around.

The truth is...

...nobody has them, except...

...Y.O.U.

Every single situation on an entrepreneurial journey is different. What worked for others, might work for me too, but it is more likely it won't. It is for me to figure out ways to make things work, because this is what entrepreneurship is about.

Entrepreneurship is a position of leadership by definition, so don't put yourself in the backseat of somebody. Lead by figuring things out for yourself.

Now it even makes more sense why certain things have never worked for me... UpWork, flipping used items, affiliate marketing, etc. Looking back, the best thing I can do now starting all over is to move as quickly as never before.

Because it's about trial and error to find the sweet spot and the sooner I find it, the better it will be for me. It's not a scientific equation, it is a wild ride with loads of lessons, experiences, failures and wins.

I doubted myself so much that I was ready to f*ck everything and go back to a job. Until I realized that entrepreneurship is not a personality trait (good with numbers, good with people, outspoken, etc.), but a way of thinking. I realized that I ultimately cannot run from it. So better get to it right away.

Over the last 3 days I realized that I actually need to double down on what I thought is stopping me from breaking through.

So, after a bit of blah blah, what are my next action steps?

• I will finish my concrete framework for my offer this week. I call it a framework because it's just a hypothesis I want to test. The market will tell me how to adjust.
• I will spend exactly one week (next week) to find a new client for this new offer. If I don't, I will pivot. No business cards, no logo, no website, no bullshit.

What happened meanwhile?

• Closed a deal for €500 for a brand design and got paid in advance this time, which was a nice experience.
• Closed a smaller deal for €100 probably resulting in more work later on. But if not, no worries. Give without expect anything in return.
• Will start working on a €1000 deal that is still open from the previous month.
• All of this will give me a bit of peace of mind.

Stuff to ponder?

• I have a new routine of going for a walk after lunch and listening to a podcast. I believe it was TopricalMBA #307 today and they talked about the idea of a SWAS = software WITH a service. Take a software (e.g.: Drip - the email marketing automation tool) and become the go to guy for that. This way, you tap into existing cashflows (people paying for the software already) and can deliver a much better service at a much better price than companies could get from in-house employees. Intersting...

Closing thought?
Who has the answers?
Nobody.
Go figure them out.

 

[Nicoknowsbest]

Small update:

The average logo gig is around $ 5 across Fiverr.

Last night, I sold a logo gig for $ 130.

That is 26x what I initially sold logos for.

Same work, same time, same skill, same effort.

How mindset changes everything.

More to come.

 

[Nicoknowsbest]

Mindset update

On the entrepreneurial roller coaster
From being ecstatic about my biggest win I almost immediately fell into being "angry" about myself for neglecting my principles.

From my diary
(initially shared here - Just got my first freelancing gig!)

I am somewhere between freelancer and agency at the moment. I started out in September last year and was able to land my biggest client at the end of march. Mid 4-figure deal, so around 5.5x what I used to make as an employee before that if you compare the hours put in. I was ecstatic. I am a big believer in "giving first". I always give, I give for free and I don't expect anything in return. That's part of the fastlane mindset.

The CEO of the company I closed the deal with pulls me to the side after the first meeting and said he was really impressed by me. "Please send me your offer, we'll do it with you..."

I prepare the offer, put my numbers down, send it and 10 minutes later get a call. It's the CEO. "Awesome, I won't haggle on price with you. I just have two problems. A, we need to start now. B, I agree to the 50% upfront payment, but we haven't been paid by our client yet. Could we make a gentlemen's agreement? You start and I promise you, the first to be paid as soon as the money comes in is you? I cannot tell you when, maybe next week, maybe in 10 days."

Okay, why not. Hey, I am a giver, right?

So I go ahead and give it all I've got. The company mentions on every occasion that there is so much future potential and they are absolutely in love with my work. I am super happy, checking my account every 3 days... Nothing. All fine, two weeks pass, the projects starts to look like something. Suddenly, everybody is in a hurry. The outsourcing partners refuse to start working until I am done. So I stay up until 3 am, sometimes working 7-8 hours straight, without really taking a break. One Friday, I sat at my desk until 9.30 pm to deliver.

Most of all, I start neglecting other clients.

It's all good I tell myself...

Fast forward to today. We are 5 weeks into the project, I invested 65 hours and haven't seen a dime. I already got two emails today telling me how important it is to finish everything this week...

I got frustrated and asked somebody I deeply respect for advice.

They told me to "down my tools immediately", which I did.

I sent a note to the CEO that my clients, who already paid, are my priority until he pays me.

I am still waiting for his reply.​

Despite the outcome, this brought me to a very important question:
Where does fastlane mindset end and where does selling yourself short start?


On quotes and lines borrowed from @Andy Black and Blaise Brosnan that describe my lessons:

"Your lack of planning is not my emergency."
Only because they are bad operators doesn't mean they can pressure me. Good work takes time.

"At the first sign of non-payment, unapologetically down tools."
I just have to find the sweet spot between "giving" and "selling myself short".

"Money can't be in two places at once."
Until it's in your account, it's not your money.
I was smart enough not to spend the money I expected beforehand, yet it is a powerful realization.

"When someone tells you they love everything about what you do and how they see a great future in working together. You're being setup."
Oh boy, this one stings. I'd rather learn it now than later though.

"Money talks."
Cash is KING.

"Tell me what you've done and I'll tell you who you are."
Let them swee-talk you. Don't even listen. Just watch what they are doing and you'll see who you deal with.


On acting like a business owner
This post by @Andy Black on Facebook at AndyBlack.net opened my eyes.
Do you want to be seen as a peer? Act like one.


On letting go
(originially posted here - AndyTalks with @Contrarian about starting his side hustle in local lead gen)
My Facebook feed is filled with Rolex's, big Audis, mortgage announcements and engagement rings with stones as big as my index finger's nail.

If you compare the numbers, I come out at the short end.

For now.

I know I am investing in something bigger than I can imagine at the moment.

It will all come back and more.

Once you decide to let go, half the battle is won.


On leaving my comfort zone
I started doing Skype calls with people I met online to talk about business and see how I can help them.

I also did my first video analysis of a landing page together with a fellow fastlaner.

We are starting to build our personal brands through consulting and content creation.


On being part of a team
You can do it all by yourself, but it will be much harder.

Being part of an amazing team will kick-start things and help you launch the rocket.


On my biggest realization:
If I don't WORK, I don't earn.

My income is brutally tied to me actually working, except for a few cases.


On being calm
It's a journey.

Even though I am aware of that, I tried to manipulate certain dimensions, or simply make time spin faster.

I quickly realized that this can get dangerous quickly and lead to health problems.

I decided to enjoy my journey.

I don't have to get there in 6 months.

I can also arrive in a few years.

But I'll have lived consciously meanwhile.

Because you can prepare all you want, but life is happening right now.

It won't wait for you.

 

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[Nicoknowsbest]

The Calm After (Or Before?) The Storm

Chasing Paper
Over the last 4 months (counting June too), I was able to stabilize my income. Due to a big project that is about to come to an end, my revenues were in a steady mid 4 figure range. I was working crazy shifts, long hours, early mornings, late nights and everything in-between, while juggling some smaller projects and this one, bigger one. Jumping up a level in income compared to my first 4 months was a mental test to my ego, my plans and the answer to the question: "How bad do I really want it?".

Suddenly making a comfortable amount of money made my mind go places it shouldn't go. I was catching myself checking new cars, making excuses to go to the mall and go "window-shopping" and thinking about a new phone. Talking to my accountant quickly put this day dreaming to a halt. Even if I made a good amount of money, that would be needed to balance out the weaker months when it comes to paying taxes, health insurance and such.

What is more important though is the fact that I never relied on this big project (and future big projects) to keep up the pace of my income development. I have been working quietly on the side to develop monthly recurring revenue - not by myself, but as part of a great, great team. I am about to invoice the company I am working with on the big project for the last time. Knowing that next month money will come in without me even selling anything gives me peace of mind.

A period of weakness was immediately interrupted by a wake-up call. Now I can say: "Been there, done that." Not that it won't happen again, but I learned a couple of things about myself, my inner workings and how to deal with them.

A Moment of Unsubscribe
I was catching myself sitting at the table with my better half, checking my emails over dinner, manically waiting for client feedback, a new email introduction, a new idea, a new prospect, a new payment... I was taken back to reality when she made noise already on the couch. She had left 15 minutes ago without me noticing.

Last week some day in the city, after meeting a client, I was sprinting through the streets. After almost crashing into a biker, I had to collect my notepad from the floor and suddenly realized...

"Why the hell are you sprinting like a maniac?"

I realized that it is not normal to be able to go for a coffee in the sun at 11 am, because I can. Of course I knew it was not normal. But it took me a while to realize it. That was a small taste of the power of being "unscripted ". I didn't have to rush back to the office to punch in my meeting time in front of my boss's eyes.

Because I am my own boss.

The script is everywhere. Running a business and talking to other business owners doesn't automatically mean you enter the land of the "unscripted ". I had an eye-opening meeting with fellow local business owners the other day:

Just yesterday I had a networking/collaboration meeting with two people in my industry.

They have been doing this for 6 and 13 years.

They still struggle to pay bills.

"This industry just sucks."

"Well, I wasn't born to have a better life."

Trying to suggest something productive, I was thinking of things that work for me.

"Nah, this is not how you do things." was the answer.

Uhm, really?

Thanks, but no thanks!​

(Original comment: When did you realize the system is rigged?)

It was a realization that hit hard.

It hit hard because I realized that the script is EVERYWHERE.

But it hit even harder because I knew the difference that moment.

It hit harder because I know I have the CHOICE.

Thank you @MJ DeMarco for leading the way. And thank you for sending rep the other day!

I decided to hurry less, because as @biophase asked correctly, Why does everyone want to get there so fast?.

tl;dr:

• Suddenly making more money puts you to a test. Be prepared.
• MRR is KING.
• Lots of happy clients and a relatively stable income give me peace of mind.
• Calm the f@ck down. We are in it for the long haul, so we'll as well enjoy the ride.
• Next? Looking into @V8Bill's Global Wealth Formula here https://www.thefastlaneforum.com/co...-for-insiders-my-global-wealth-formula.67419/
• Lots of work to come. The magic happens when you FOCUS.

 

[Nicoknowsbest]

UPDATE:

The summer has been interesting, but also showed me that I need to move on and develop myself further.

Let's see what happened:

• I finished a big, ongoing contract at the end of June and was left with a significant drop in income and some more time to think about what happened over the last year.
• For the first time in around half a year, in-bound leads were drying up a bit and I needed to find some ways to generate leads and sales again.
• Before I could get into serious strategic planning, the company I worked with over the last couple of months on the big project called me up again - they'd need some more help in the coming weeks.
• I put the strategy back into the drawer and worked away at my tasks.
• August was again up in terms of revenues, since I also got a new referral job. The amount of hours worked was crazy and left me wondering if that was it at the end of the month.
• I cleared out almost all remaining work and the beginning of September left me again with a serious dip in revenue.
• Now, finally with some time for strategy, I sat down and thought about the last months.

Things I don't like and that I'd need to change:

• Work was so much at some points that I barely could handle it. This felt good initially, but I was wondering if I should hire some help. Good thing I didn't, because I wouldn't be able to pay for an employee only a few weeks later. My margins were a bit too tight to be able to outsource the work to somebody external, and since I am still building my reputation, I didn't want to risk a bad result.
• My revenues have been jumping like crazy, month in, month out. I'd need to find a secure stream of leads and work coming through.
• Sometimes, it feels I created another job for myself, just with more responsibility and less security in terms of money coming through at the end of the month. Also, I haven't been able to really make strategic decisions since I my workload didn't allow this.
• Not having many leads/sales lined up for September is a blessing and a curse. I need to watch my spending for now. On the other hand, I was able to put my AdWords knowledge to work, which opened up completely new worlds for me. I talk about my journey of creating leads with AdWords here: Progress Thread - Paid Traffic For Creatives
• I started buying media and found out, what people are looking for in my vertical locally. I will run the same experiment globally and see what the market wants.
• I should again do more of what's already working for me: diesel and coffee.
• I'll finally start documenting my journey to create more content that might help more people.
• I started engaging and helping people more on Social Media.
• I have been working from home for the last year, but I am starting to be done with it. I feel I need a regular change in environment to help me keep up my performance. I'll look into finding a cheap (shared) office somewhere close.

Short-term tasks:

• Get a blog online to store all my content.
• Develop a social media presence across all channels and produce content regularly, following the rule of doing the actual work 50% of the time and talking about it the other 50% of my time.
• Refine my local lead gen AdWords campaigns, setup a targeted landing page serving the need I identified as well as update my generic website and send visitors to these.
• Collect more global data with AdWords, identifying more needs to fulfill.
• Meet more people again - I locked myself up at home to be able to cope with the work load.

Adapted course slightly and now full steam ahead - let's see what changes.

 

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[Nicoknowsbest]

Hi guys.

It's been a while...

It's been crazy hectic months since I last posted.

What has happened recently?


Feeling Stuck
I felt that I was turning in circles before Christmas. I felt that something I couldn't get my hands on was holding me back. I also realized that it has been bugging me for a while. I looked around for a while and then decided to start working with two coaches on different levels to solve it. The experience was interesting and I learned quite some things about myself. It seems I had been held back by my self-image and hadn't given me permission to succeed before. This is a very complicated matter, but if you think you are struggling with something similar, I suggest to read @eliquid's excellent thread here: Not Fulfilled? Depressed? Maybe You Need An Alignment.


Spirituality
"When the student is ready the teacher will appear." - Buddha

I was somebody who never gave a thought about spirituality. My religion was work and my church the office. I thought enlightenment will come if I only work hard enough. Well, that didn't work so well. Around Christmas I then met somebody who introduced me to meditation. The effect it had on me was incredible. Slowly, step by step, all my negativity, stress and nervousness started to calm down and I felt power from within. Regularly meditating changed me and the way I interact with people quite a bit. It made me more grounded. It's now part of my morning routine and it works really well for me.


Offer
In the past year I have been doing nearly everything for everybody. I had around 40 clients or so in year 1 and worked on close to 100 projects. It was mostly one-off bespoke work, which was quite a pain. Week by week, you need to go out and hustle for it. Year 2 started off very promising. I met a key client who helped me refine my offer as well as my business model and connected me to some great people locally.

I am now reducing one-off bespoke work to almost a minimum, because I have been signing up 4 new clients over the last weeks who pay me MRR, monthly recurring revenue, for me to take care of what they need. Imagine it like a membership for design & marketing services. I am currently expanding my skill set and learning Facebook/Instagram ads, because I got the feedback from the market that this is where I should be going, taking my current skills into consideration.

The next step will be to do less of the actual work and start outsourcing to free up my time again.

MRR, though not passive, is amazing, because I finally can do some calculations and forecasting. Thank you @Andy Black for showing me the power of this.


Morning Routine
I finally got into a rhythm of a morning routine that is inspired by Hal Elrod's Miracle Morning. It's a great way to ground yourself before you start your day and calibrate your mind. Leaving the house after some silence, thoughts of gratitude, affirmations and visualizations, meditation and some stretching is a game changer.


Diet
When I am under stress, I tend to fall into bad eating habits. Mix in some tiredness, and I eat whatever comes along, in huge quantities. I also tend to overspend on food in these moments, just because I couldn't control it properly. I knew I needed to fix this, so I got a custom meal plan from a friend who is a nutritionist. The change was huge in the beginning and it took quite some willpower, but at the end feeling better was well worth it.


So far, so good.

Happy Tuesday everybody!

 

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[Nicoknowsbest]

Update:

My two direct response campaigns were not successful economically speaking. But I learned a lot about myself, my business and my offer. I was able to get some excellent feedback from 4 different people and a big hint about why it didn't work. A lot of mindset shifting has been happening lately and I hope to be able to translate that into concrete revenue numbers in the following weeks.

• Instead of approaching 20 businesses a day, making it a numbers game, I am trying to find that one client who I can really help.
• Benefits before features. Simple concept, but I have been struggling with that in practice.
• Recurring revenues, no matter how small, bring peace of mind.
• I need to stop trying to learn more technical skills. Commercial skills is what I need to focus on.
• Free isn't free. As soon as people invest time, it's not free anymore. Time is a business owner's biggest asset.
• Progress over profits. Smaller projects with different clients help you get your processes straight and prepare for bigger sales.
• Grow with your clients, aim at making them to partners.

I am currently waiting for one of my client's feedback. If positive, I'd have my first four figure deal in the pocket.

 

[Nicoknowsbest]

This reads like a story straight out of "Combatting Cult Mind Control" and you don't need to feel any particular way about it except what you already feel with regard to anger and frustration.

Cults and the gurus who run them target intelligent, hard-working producer types. They don't want stupid people. They don't want lazy people. They want producers who will produce for them. They want people who think they are too smart to fall for the traps because their guard is down.

Gurus and the cults they form center around pulling people in and keeping them so busy and confused that they don't have time to think. Members become mentally exhausted and vulnerable to concepts such as hypnosis, which it sounds like he was using from the start, not just at the point when he mentioned it.

Based on what you've described here, you took the best action. Cut ties. Never talk to him again. You have everything you need to create a $10k/mo business on your own even if you have to start from scratch. Good for you for realizing it when you did. Could've wasted a lot more time and energy and wound up even worse off.

Thank you very much for taking your time to read this and respond @Lex DeVille! Your words are the missing piece of the puzzle for me. Now I really understand what happened. Oh boy! I am even so far that I am thankful it happened how it happened, because...

A) it's an experience I can learn many things from, which prevents me falling for it at a later stage...

...and...

B) I could have ended up much worse...

Where will you go from here? What's next? How will you start to pick up the pieces and put them back together?

I was left with no money and almost no clients, but a bunch of skills. Thinking about it now I actually consider it a blessing in disguise. The way I was going, even if it worked, was a programmed failure. I for instance realized that I don't want to be building an actual agency anymore.

Looking at what I have been selling over the last years, I learned two things:

1. Graphic Design projects are freaking hard to sell. You cannot really measure ROI on investments and it is hard to justify asking for more money at the end of a project if you haven't moved the needle for the business. Moving the needle always means more leads, more sales, more revenues.
2. It is sooo tiring to sell one-off, smallish projects, month after month. No matter if it's a $100 flyer, a $1000 logo or a $5000 All-In Deal (I have sold all of these and more), at the end of the day, at one point, the project is finished, the client is served and you have to start from scratch. Building a business that way is very, very hard, since it's not predictable.

So I decided to focus on a skill that moves the needle and can be packaged into monthly recurring revenues. Instead of playing wantrepreneur, building a new brand, a new website, business cards and what not I will only use my name and my LinkedIn profile.

The milestones for the next weeks/months are these:

• Use my network of contacts and past clients to hustle to 1x again, doing anything that needs to be done
• Meanwhile, focusing on selling the chosen skill as a service and building MRR (monthly recurring revenue) up to 1x

Once this is done, I'll have some breathing space to make new decisions.

Let's go

 

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[Black_Dragon43]

Hi Nico! Sorry to hear about what went on with you... definitely something to watch out for, and I hope more people on this forum read your story and learn from it.

I think another important point is that you need to get your priorities right: money is important, but it's not the MOST important. For example, it wouldn't be worth having all the money in the world if you had to be a slave for it.

Money is valuable because it helps you achieve FREEDOM. So tying yourself to "mentors", "gurus", and the like is the opposite of freedom. You're exchanging your freedom for money, and the whole point was to get money to increase your freedom. So if you lose sight of the real purpose, then you can easily fall into traps.

I'm happy to hear that you're restarting if you want any pointers or advice at any point feel free to reach out. I own a direct response agency, and we work with many entrepreneurs online selling all kinds of products and services. I'd be happy to help you out with advice if you ever need it (not with our services because we're quite expensive and most people can't afford haha).

One piece of advice:

1. Graphic Design projects are freaking hard to sell. You cannot really measure ROI on investments and it is hard to justify asking for more money at the end of a project if you haven't moved the needle for the business. Moving the needle always means more leads, more sales, more revenues.
2. It is sooo tiring to sell one-off, smallish projects, month after month. No matter if it's a $100 flyer, a $1000 logo or a $5000 All-In Deal (I have sold all of these and more), at the end of the day, at one point, the project is finished, the client is served and you have to start from scratch. Building a business that way is very, very hard, since it's not predictable.

1. Then you shouldn't try to sell your product by relating it to ROI. Maybe there are other benefits of having great graphic design - a website that you're proud of and that represents you, etc. Maybe it will be really hard to track the ROI and see how it improves it, but we all intuitively know that better, easier to understand design that is neat and clear WILL make you look more professional and bring in more buyers. And you have the stats to back it up. So don't give up on it. You've uncovered a problem. Solve it!! Start blogging about it, educate your market, and they'll flip out their wallets like you've never thought possible before. That's where it's at nowadays - education. It's all about that.

2. Yes, the project is always finished and the client is always served, BUT... what's your referrals strategy? Every client should mean more clients. Have you thought about that? What about follow-up strategy? Keep your clients updated with news about graphic design through a newsletter. Then every once in a while you publish an article like "How A Well Designed Brochure Can Increase Your Revenue" and offer them a discount coupon for a brochure. If you build your list out the right way, these people are going to buy from you...

Remember - don't run from problems. The obstacle IS the way.

Good luck!

 

[Andy Black]

Here's a video message I sent to @Nicoknowsbest after I first read his story. It's an unlisted video but Nico is happy for others to see it.

View: https://youtu.be/i8ejPEDfBjs

 

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[Nicoknowsbest]

This seems to be the start of a great progress thread. Keep up the great work!

Thanks!

Just wondering, how do you go about building your network with potential clients online? Is your direct response mailing campaign just simply cold emailing?

For now, it is based on four pillars:

• Upwork
• Cold emailing
• Referrals
• Diesel and coffee

I noticed since I started meeting new people less...my sales have also gone down...

Yes. This resonates.

I am meeting at least 3 people a week over lunch/coffee/Skype.

By tapping into their networks, I can grow mine exponentially.

Paid off well until now.

 

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[Nicoknowsbest]

Passive income from royalties was up nearly 500% in January, but dipped 60% in February again. Currently figuring out how to take this to serious numbers and make it sustainable.

Just received the numbers for last month:

Disclaimer: the numbers are still very small, but I am working my way up.

Total number of downloads of my assets: + 521%
Sum of paid downloads: + 562%
Royalties earned: +268%

Very interesting development. Let's see how this continues...

 

[Nicoknowsbest]

How I cleared my mental fogginess

If I get into a rhythm of working long hours, not getting enough fresh air, postponing my workouts and not sleeping enough, I tend to lose control a bit. When I am stressed and overly tired, I neglect health. I don't workout and I eat fast food, because yeah, clients are waiting, right?

I had a rough cold a few weeks ago and it took me a while to get back on track, physically as well as work-wise. So I decided it was about time to break this cycle and put myself, my business and my health first again.

Action #1
My most important client is my own business. So I scheduled my day around 1 hour of growth work every morning during which I am not reachable for clients. Phone off, earphones in - this is where progress is made.

Action #2
I decided to do a reset in my body and do 2 weeks of dieting. I committed to eating only alkaline foods. This means I had to step down from 4-5 cups of coffee a day, for instance. I was vegan for a while before, so I knew what was coming up in terms of veggies and fruits. One week down, another one to go - the effects are very positive. My head is clear, I have way more energy and I feel much better overall.

Action #3
I am working out at 7am 4 times a week again. I am adding a couple of shorter runs/sprints after work at night - because being active outside is just irreplaceable. There's nothing too intimidating anymore after starting off Monday with 4 sets of heavy squats. If in doubt, squat


Thanks to @Andy Black I look at my progress in weekly cycles and evaluate what happened last week with the following questions:

1) Next Sunday, when you look back on this week, what needs to have happened for you to be happy with progress this week?

2) What can you do to make a sale this week?

3) What should you stop this week?

4) What should you start this week?


Here's what I am thinking about it this week:

1) I'd be happy if I find one more client this week and get the basics of my own branding done.

2) Follow up with my client base as well as talk to my contact who I have a referral deal with.

3) I should stop taking phone calls at all hours of the day.

4) I should start writing and documenting my journey and producing content every day.


Happy Monday everybody.

 

[Nicoknowsbest]

Update:

It's been a few weeks already since my last update. I am working on getting into a continuous rhythm of keeping track of what is happening week by week.

Where do I stand?

Revenues:

• My MRR currently is €1k. This is below what I need every month to stay afloat (=1x). I am looking to bump this up to €2k.
• Just finished two bigger graphic design projects this week. One was paid upfront, the other I billed today.
• Except for my MRR, revenues fluctuate big time right now.

Offer:

• I am moving away from doing bespoke graphic design work if it's not part of an MRR deal.
• I decided to combine my graphic design skills with my Google Ads skills.
• I am looking at video and especially Youtube at the moment.
• The rest gets left behind for now.

Mindset:

• Since I realised I am giving from a position of weakness, I worked hard on changing this. The book "Give and Take" by Adam Grant helped with that. I feel more stable now and think I got on top of this.
• I fell into a huge emotional hole when waking up after the ride described above. All that time I was so focused on the end goal that I forgot to enjoy my time meanwhile. So for now, I am focused on enjoying the ride too.

Things that helped along the way:

Dan Norris new book "This is the answer". It's a great, short book that helped me get some things straight in my head.

Key take-aways:

• Nobody has the answers, it's your responsibility to forge your own path
• Entrepreneurship is such a big risk that the potential upside has to be rewarding enough
• It's not a mindset, it is a personality trait - embrace it and live it

Perry Marshall's Marketing DNA helped me sharpen my view on what I do and made me realise why I have a hard time doing certain things.

Key take-aways:

• My biggest strength seems to be that I am very balanced in everything
• I shouldn't be doing quite a few things I am doing on a daily basis

James Schramko's book "Work Less, Earn More." helped me get order in my working day and actually focus on what I should be doing.

Key take-aways:

• Work less, be more effective, not more efficient
• Create decision making filters
• Be kind to people, but ruthless with your time

A few of the TropicalMBA podcasts

• #474: Sell things you cannot fulfil yourself to avoid facing the E-Myth problem
• #337: Decide what YOU want from life, not your spouse, family or anybody else
• #321: Focus on solving one problem in one way delivery one solution
• #311: Work with realistic profit margins when outsourcing
• #218: Make a hypothesis, get to market asap and pivot when necessary

Next Steps:

• Get MRR up to €2k, 'cause you gotta stay in it to win it
• Get a few videos done in order to get comfortable with it
• Look at Youtube

 

[Nicoknowsbest]

Update:

• Over Christmas, I've been using the down time of my clients to work on my landing page. Almost done and ready to launch.
• Starting off the new year with a bang, I was able to secure a nice deal that is pushing me more into a productised service direction.
• MRR, or monthly recurring revenue is slowly building up. No matter how small, this makes me sleep better at night.
• I've been working together closely with two outstanding people, both professionally as well as character-wise, over the past weeks. Complementing each other's skills, the learning curve is exponential and the speed of action is picking up more and more.
• I started uploading assets I create to various marketplaces and collected my first royalties in December. Though small, this could turn into decent passive income. And it felt damn good. Consumer --> Producer
• Sales have been growing steadily over the last three months. January is looking very pretty so far.
• More importantly, opportunities have started to peek around almost every corner - more to come.

2017, here we come.

 

[Contrarian]

@Contrarian - thanks for taking the time and reading through everything, all the likes and the rep sent - much appreciated!

Credit where credit is due sir.

We all get burned, but we need to learn!

I am happy it happened, because it's another lesson right there in my pocket.

The situation was resolved last night, so it had a good ending.

Great!

In big letters on my wall:

"Money can't be in two places at once."

I won't start anything until the agreed upfront payment is in my account.

Awesome. Love it.

In my days of no-win, no-fee recruitment, I had to learn how to qualify ruthlessly. Otherwise you'll never make any money, no matter how alluring the fees might seem.

Working with five other recruiters already? Bye then.

Too busy to brief me properly? Bye then.

Won't see the first candidate I sent you for no valid reason? Damn unicorn hunters. Bye then.

Stopped returning my calls half way through the search? Down tools immediately.

Pathetic low ball offer to a great candidate who's now insulted? No, I won't help you find someone else.

Good to learn the difference between being helpful and being a mug. Or being productive and being a busy fool.

 

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[Andy Black]

In my days of no-win, no-fee recruitment, I had to learn how to qualify ruthlessly. Otherwise you'll never make any money, no matter how alluring the fees might seem.

Working with five other recruiters already? Bye then.

Too busy to brief me properly? Bye then.

Won't see the first candidate I sent you for no valid reason? Damn unicorn hunters. Bye then.

Stopped returning my calls half way through the search? Down tools immediately.

Pathetic low ball offer to a great candidate who's now insulted? No, I won't help you find someone else.

Good to learn the difference between being helpful and being a mug. Or being productive and being a busy fool.

100%

"Sales is a screening process."

"How you do anything is how you do everything."

"Your job is to find out asap whether they see the value or the cost in what you do."

 

[Nicoknowsbest]

Quick Update:

I restructured my days and I now spend 50% of my time doing, and 50% of my time talking about it.

Things accomplished since my last post:

• Founded an umbrella brand who unites all my single service.
• Built a website for the umbrella brand and the first single service landing page.
• Started preparing content and case studies from the previous year to be published on my blogs and social media handles.
• Made the promise to myself to reach out relentlessly.
• Dived into LinkedIn and connected with around 200+ people.
• Got invited to a business owner event with 50+ CEOs to pitch my services to.
• Got approached randomly in the street by a local entrepreneur who I'll meet for coffee next week.

Less technical work, more hustle.

This is fun!

 

[Nicoknowsbest]

Hi @AdamMaxum!

Great thread, although your latest posts indicate that something has to change and it sounds as if you're making those changes so that's good.

Good spot - I am changing things up a bit and started to see some first, small results.

Once they pass those tests, use them to sell your service so that they start doing the work and you sell / oversee.

Great advice. My work is very time intense and I pay the price for not spending some time on documenting what I am doing, talking to more people and start implementing sales processes.

My key task is to find somebody I can outsource some tasks to, apart from getting a steady stream of leads.

I somehow only really felt that work was achieved when I could deliver a project to a client, and not when I was on LinkedIn chatting to people.

Big mistake.

Basically, you want to outsource as soon as possible and focus your energy on sales/material/managing.

Freelancing by yourself is a tough game, because if you don't create assets or processes that you can re-sell or outsource, it's basically just another job - without any scaling opportunities whatsoever.

You are working away, but not really building a business.


It's been quite a thunderstorm over the last two weeks, but I started seeing some patterns emerge.


Thanks for your comment!

 

[Nicoknowsbest]

Looking back, here are the recent developments:

Separating my lives, business and private
I have clients who don't respect my privacy and text/call me at all times of the day, no matter which day of the week. After bringing this up a couple of times but nothing changing, I got a business phone number where I am reachable during office hours. Special clients have my private cell and know how to handle it.

Cleaning out my private life
To be able to focus on growth 100%, I needed to get rid of some obligations in my private life. I cleaned up my friends' list and stopped playing soccer. I used to be in a club, train 2 times a week and play a game once a week during the season. The management wanted to push me into a leading role and I declined and walked away. It took me around 45 mins in the car to go there, so much more time for growth and recovery now.

Tracking clients' progresses
I am sending my clients a weekly update now, covering time worked, problems solved and results/goals achieved. So far, my services are hard to tie to actual numbers, but getting there.

From graphic designer to consultant
Clients don't call me the graphic dude anymore. I added PPC skills (AdWords & Facebook), copywriting and social media marketing to my offer after clients suggested I help them with these. This means that I am getting paid to learn and refine my skills while adding more value. This shows that the fact that people buy from people is more important than actual skills. Some of my clients even call me for business advice now, before they make a bigger decision. This makes me feel very humble and shows me that I am progressing.

Looking at my goals from last week...

• 1) I'd be happy if I find one more client this week and get the basics of my own branding done. --> DONE: branding is almost there, new client deal might be sealed today.
• 2) Follow up with my client base as well as talk to my contact who I have a referral deal with. --> DONE: meeting a new lead today and sent out an offer to an existing client.
• 3) I should stop taking phone calls at all hours of the day. --> DONE: whenever I do technical work, I mute my phone. This increased my productivity drastically.
• 4) I should start writing and documenting my journey and producing content every day. --> FAILED: I still need to integrate this better into my daily routine.

For this week...

• 1) Next Sunday, when you look back on this week, what needs to have happened for you to be happy with progress this week? --> Close two open leads and add MRR, finish my branding.
• 2) What can you do to make a sale this week? --> Told my referral deal partner that I have more resources so I am waiting to hear back from him.
• 3) What should you stop this week? --> After 2 weeks of eating clean, I fell into old habits and immediately paid the price. I should stop eating stuff I know is not good for me.
• 4) What should you start this week? --> Writing every day.

Thanks for reading and happy Wednesday!

 

[Ika]

Diesel & coffee works - I expanded my network significantly within just one week.

Congratulations, its awesome to see you taking that much action and seeing results!

I'm interested to see your results of both campaigns!

 

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[The Racing Driver]

This seems to be the start of a great progress thread. Keep up the great work!

Second direct response mailing campaign is also distributed - online.

Will come back and post the results.

Finally shifted my mindset away from learning and doing everything myself to...

...SELLING more.

Sell more > earn more > outsource > streamline

Just wondering, how do you go about building your network with potential clients online? Is your direct response mailing campaign just simply cold emailing?

I noticed since I started meeting new people less...my sales have also gone down...

And for my situation, A lot of my ideal clients don't really congregate much in my city. Even if I did want to meet them, I'd probably have to make some kind of connection online to set up a meeting.