[Progress Thread] Teen Execution (17)

[Funky Monkey]

So one month after I've read all three books, how was my progress? I'm not gonna lie I kinda just did a lot of action faking (watching Alex Hormozi and reading threads, while valueable weren't the solution the the problem in front of me). Why? I think the issue was a lack of clearer direction. I had a general overview of where I wanted to be but no real plans to get there. So I decided to fix that by 1. taking the web design course (by putting money down it'll keep me more accountable) and 2,following along with @Edgar King's post and 3. writing down my actions in the Fastlane planner .

New Monthly goals

• Work on the web design course and start seeing profit within 6 months. [Reason: To build fastlane skills, build some cash flow to be self reliant to pursue a truly fastlane venture]
• Continue building the foundation to start a productacracy
• Study for the SAT 3-10hrs a week,sign up for scholarships (Reason:Keep my parents happy and keep doors open]
• Roughly every week come back to this thread and update it
• Continue going to the gym (Also whats with the weird diet trends from paleo to keto {veganism being the exception} all you have to do is track your calories and protein and eat whole foods 80% of the time} & daily routine

Daily routine:
6:50Wake up,brush,weigh in,meditate,breakfast,bike to school
7:30-2:30School
2:30-5:00Come home either gym for about 2hrs or if rest day go home 2:30-2:40
5:00-8:40 or 2:40-8:40"Free time" (i call it that cause I could be working on one of the goals above)
8-8:40 Hw if I didn't already do it
8:40-9:25 Read for 30-60 mins
9:25 Brush then sleep

Also I changed my mind about bio med and instead plan on telling my parents im doing a gap year and going full steam on entrepreneurship, if need be sign up to community college for 2 years to get some finical help from my parents ( they are very dogmatic about the script so it's college or I'm out)
For anyone deciding on college (in the US): This post should clear things up

Sidenote: Was this hard to read? If so let me know what I can do to improve. I wanted to write some more but I can't seem to put my thoughts into words

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Edgar King]

Awesome that you're taking action and best of luck!

So one month after I've read all three books, how was my progress? I'm not gonna lie I kinda just did a lot of action faking (watching Alex Hormozi and reading threads, while valueable weren't the solution the the problem in front of me).

While it's true you should always be doing actions that move the needle forward, I believe it pays in the long run to assimilate the experiences of those who've done it before. A multi pronged approach of learning and acting are the best combination I'd say!

Why? I think the issue was a lack of clearer direction. I had a general overview of where I wanted to be but no real plans to get there.

If you read my thread, you'll notice at the beginning that Steve reprimanded me for not having a plan. And I'm so glad he did! Without one I'd be moving around in circles thinking I'm making progress, when I might not. If you're serious about achieving anything, you need a proper plan/outline. It doesn't even have to be specific, an outline will do as things evolve over time.

But plans are useless on their own. It needs a proper goal backed up by a proper why. I'd recommend you write in a diary for this part so you can come back to it over and over. You need a proper why to keep you going in the hard times, you need a proper goal to make the actions worth it, you need a proper plan to reach those goals. And these goals need to be SMART goals to actually be achievable (Search it up ).

A why is the reason you're in the game. Without it, you'd just sit on the field.

A goal is how many points you'd score. Without it, you're there for the sake of being there.

A plan is how you're going to pull it off efficiently. Without it, you'd be running around in circles.

So I'd recommend you define and write these.

Check out this post on how to do it-

HOT! - INTRO - Attempting to Build A Productocracy [Niche > Problem > Pre-sell > Solution]

Day 83 (5 minutes) Strategy session ✅ (30 minutes) Landing page - Refine landing page ✅ (1:20 hours) Shopify Construction - Requirements ✅ Today, I earned more in a day than I've ever earned in my life. 45 COOKIES! LOL! Now to some people on here, that might be chicken change, but to me it...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

There are some rules and principles there you might want to implement when you start this to ensure you reach it. They are the culmination of what I learned on finishing the 90 day challenge.

And why not $10K per month in 90 days? You might think this is unreasonable, but trust me, you can pull if off so long as you're consistent and lean to provide value, especially with the time you're putting in.

I think you've got the daily work schedule down though. Just invest some hours almost every day into it and into reaching your goal and you'll go far long term.

Best of luck!

 

[Disciple96]

Hey man, I'm right here with you.

I'd recommend Oxygen builder instead of Webflow because webflow is just $$$ but worth it when you're in the big leagues.

But since you're taking fox's course it might be worth it just to stick with webflow if you can make it work. You'll need your clients to cover that extra cost at some point

I haven't learned much code yet.

Just make sure to tell everyone you know what you're doing so they might refer you, avoid being pushy however.

Also local business outreach is good. In person is best honestly

As long as you come with the approach of trying to add value and not being selfish you'll find someone who needs your help at the right time eventually and it can only snowball from there.

Keep it up

 

[Funky Monkey]

Good News @Edgar King! I got my first client at a local pool . Granted its a free project but they often have business owners sponser or come to the pool so hopefully it will lead to a good amount of referrals. Kinda funny to me that I was doing all these cold calls when I could have just posted a little message in my neighborhood FB group lol. I got 4 people asking for work from that a post that took me only a few seconds to write

 

[Funky Monkey]

I know its not that much but damn first money I've gotten that isn't a regular job. Yeah sorry I didn't post too much this month as I didn't have much too talk about. I finished the marthon running site but he is having trouble hosting and I've been trying to help him,the pool site decided they no longer wanted to work with me,and I am almost done with the travel club they just need to send me a few things. The guy earlier had asked to send a proposal but never read it so I tried following up on email for 3 weeks no reply. So then I tried calling him and within the same day he replied, I talked about what I proposed and then he said it ok and paid.

 

[Funky Monkey]

Currently about half way through the udemy course,this week went pretty good as I had Thurs until the end of this weekend almost completly to myself. And I almost forgot happy easter

 

[Edgar King]

If you're going the local business approach, just walk up to them.

Go in smiling and ask, "I was wondering if you guys needed a website for your business?"

No? Ok, thanks much! And walk out smiling. Unto the next person who'll need your services.

Yes? They'll then probably call the manager and they might even ask you for price and it'll snowball from there I believe.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Funky Monkey]

More good gumballs I suppose. From one of the cold calls I did earlier, I followed up and got a reply saying they were ready for me to do work and were wondering what the next step was. Basically what happened was he didn't see my emails until just now and thought I was planning ideas for his site. I also decided to work with one more person I got from the FB post for what I'm hoping is very simple project. The orginial site is competely in HTML so he justed needs a simple site with a simple way of managing content. Aka a wordpress theme. Shoutout to @themarkboogie from the Fox Legends Group for putting me on free elementor plugins on wordpress which is what I'll be using for now until I get larger demands/better paying clients.Costs are for hosting (4.99 for first year sale [otherwise 24.99] on siteground for unlimted sites or the 3 dollar one but you only get one site + a domain I just went on name cheap and got the cheapest one 2.98 idk why they make you get domains tbh). Also when paying for siteground I believe you have to pay per year so it cost me ~60 bucks so far but its been a good investment so far.

 

[Funky Monkey]

Mini update: So I kinda of pivoted to doing loom creation services. Basically I was in a FB community and discovered that making looms was a tedious process. So I set up a deal where I would get 25% of first months retainer for every landed deal from looms I made and currently their retainers are 4k. Currently haven't got paid yet as its a performance only deal but if my numebrs are correct I should be able to make profit within the next few weeks. The added benefit on my side is this takes significantly less time to produce than websites. ~10hrs/wk.

I pivoted because with the numbers I would need to do outreach with I would barely get anywhere and the original deal with construction guy feel apart after he ghosted me when I sent him the first draft. I tried to tell him its just a first draft and we could make updates but he was gone.

 

[AppMan]

So one month after I've read all three books, how was my progress? I'm not gonna lie I kinda just did a lot of action faking (watching Alex Hormozi and reading threads, while valueable weren't the solution the the problem in front of me). Why? I think the issue was a lack of clearer direction. I had a general overview of where I wanted to be but no real plans to get there. So I decided to fix that by 1. taking the web design course (by putting money down it'll keep me more accountable) and 2,following along with @Edgar King's post and 3. writing down my actions in the Fastlane planner .

New Monthly goals

• Work on the web design course and start seeing profit within 6 months. [Reason: To build fastlane skills, build some cash flow to be self reliant to pursue a truly fastlane venture]
• Continue building the foundation to start a productacracy
• Study for the SAT 3-10hrs a week,sign up for scholarships (Reason:Keep my parents happy and keep doors open]
• Roughly every week come back to this thread and update it
• Continue going to the gym (Also whats with the weird diet trends from paleo to keto {veganism being the exception} all you have to do is track your calories and protein and eat whole foods 80% of the time} & daily routine

Daily routine:
6:50Wake up,brush,weigh in,meditate,breakfast,bike to school
7:30-2:30School
2:30-5:00Come home either gym for about 2hrs or if rest day go home 2:30-2:40
5:00-8:40 or 2:40-8:40"Free time" (i call it that cause I could be working on one of the goals above)
8-8:40 Hw if I didn't already do it
8:40-9:25 Read for 30-60 mins
9:25 Brush then sleep

Also I changed my mind about bio med and instead plan on telling my parents im doing a gap year and going full steam on entrepreneurship, if need be sign up to community college for 2 years to get some finical help from my parents ( they are very dogmatic about the script so it's college or I'm out)
For anyone deciding on college (in the US): This post should clear things up

Sidenote: Was this hard to read? If so let me know what I can do to improve. I wanted to write some more but I can't seem to put my thoughts into words

Why you want web design ? now a days it is very challenging business to get customers, and you are student , not much time for marketing. I would pick another thing like selling online , etc

 

[Funky Monkey]

So far progress is good, continuing to make my way through the course
I should probably study for the SAT a little bit more
Also thanks Edgar for the tidbit about taking a multi pronged approach.
PS. When I reply to my progress thread do I just hit the reply button and delete the quote or is there a way to just post a reply within the thread (sorry if it doesn't make sense)

 

[Edgar King]

So far progress is good, continuing to make my way through the course
I should probably study for the SAT a little bit more
Also thanks Edgar for the tidbit about taking a multi pronged approach.
PS. When I reply to my progress thread do I just hit the reply button and delete the quote or is there a way to just post a reply within the thread (sorry if it doesn't make sense)

To post a reply, just scroll down all the way to the bottom before the blue footer banner and you will see a text box for you to reply.

 

[Johnny boy]

@Fox is awesome, web design is a good way for you to hustle and make some good money while in school. It feels great to charge a thousand bucks to build a website and spend 10 hours on it. So much better than working a job at your age.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Funky Monkey]

Wow its been almost a month. I finished the SAT last week. Right now I've almost finished the course. I am at the part where I need to learn how to code so I will be working my way towards it.

 

[Edgar King]

Good News @Edgar King! I got my first client at a local pool . Granted its a free project but they often have business owners sponser or come to the pool so hopefully it will lead to a good amount of referrals. Kinda funny to me that I was doing all these cold calls when I could have just posted a little message in my neighborhood FB group lol. I got 4 people asking for work from that a post that took me only a few seconds to write

LETTTSSS GOOOOOO!

Awesome. It might also help to ask for a referral and a video testimonial. Aim to charge for the next clients if you're confident you can make the sites and increase your rates down the line.

Yeah, it takes a while to realise the method of outreach doesn't really matter. There are about 6 variables I'd say you need to consider to make a sale...
1. Offer
2. Person in need
3. How you'll reach them
4. Payment
5. Fulfillement
6. Scale

Get those right and I'd say you'll be just fine.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Funky Monkey]

@Edgar King

 

[Edgar King]

Ayeeeee, I'm proud of you bro! Earning at all can be quite a hurdle, but you put your head down and helped someone so the results followed.

Now that you've got your first customer. The next steps should be to build a produtocracy. You know the point where that same customer goes to his friends and recommends you and you grow organically? Yes, that one. One way I've heard to do just that is to lay out your value skews, what desirable qualities will you be a master of in your market? Speed? Design? SEO? Hit 2, 3,4+ and you should have yourself a home run!

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Choate]

So I finished a site for one person and now I just need to figure how to get it on their hosting properly, been waiting for ages on the pool project that I got to give me content, waiting on content for the travel club project I took on. As for paid work the client that I talked about earlier from cold calls basically asked for a proposal (had a few hiccups with emails as he sometimes wouldn't respond and getting to know the context of what he was looking for). I sent him one for $500 (Low balling as I think this site will also provide lots of leverage). Somewhat odd to me, was the fact he needed a site for just displaying his works and actually didn't really care to much about getting clients via the web.
I also finished an SEO course.
On a sidenote I recently read seven figure agency roadmap by Josh Nelson and I will most likely change my strategy. I'm going to try to become proficient in PPC so I can start offering a online marketing package Web Design,SEO,PPC,and Social media mangement if needed for a specific niche. The package will build on itself basically the main offer will be the SEO+PPC but if they have not site and need social media management it will be added one. Once I become proficient in PPC and find a niche I should serve. I will start taking the action steps from the book.

Web design, SEO, PPC, and social media management is a lot to take on all at once - especially SEO and PPC. A lot of money is lost in PPC, and smaller budgets and inexperience are limiting factors here. Skip the PPC altogether. It's one thing to sell clients on a website, it's another thing entirely to sell them on a $500/month ad budget and $500/month retainer. And then you have to find clients where this is even worth it for them.

An easier way to create recurring revenue with clients is to offer maintenance packages. WordPress needs to be updated regularly. So does its themes and plugins. Stuff breaks, even in lightweight builds. Create backups, perform updates, help with employee onboarding, then add in other small content updates that the client wants and you can charge an easy $50/month recurring. It's worth it for most businesses to not have a website that breaks.

As for SEO, some of this should be part of your core website build: setting up proper HTML structure, tags, submitting sitemaps to Google, configuring Yoast or RankMath, etc. But honestly, and this is just my opinion, real growth oriented SEO is out of reach for a lot of small businesses and you won't have the resources or time to one man it yourself. For any serious amount of traffic you are talking about a dedicated SEO team, content management + writers, etc. What you can do is use the free version of Semrush, Google Analytics, and Google Search Console to create a consultative SEO service in addition to following best practices for your website builds.

For social media management, just helping get these profiles setup, looking good, and teaching the client how to use them should be sufficient for most. Some will want help but most can handle it on their own these days. Social media is sort of a never ending blackhole of content that you nor your client owns, so don't spend too much time here.

Keep practicing CSS, start learning JavaScript, and keep on with WordPress - majority of small businesses are on here and already using Elementor, and are looking for someone like you to help out after parting ways with their web developer, who may have just been a one time deal. Don't be a one time deal. Look for ways to add value and build relationships that will last years.

 

[Funky Monkey]

Hey there, checking in. What made you discontinue wanting to make websites? It sounded like one deal went bad and you pivoted. That's ok, but has the Loom videos been profitable yet?

There is a lot of potential with WordPress websites still. Tons of small businesses have existing WP sites that need updating, redesigns, or someone to just run a backup and update the plugins each month. Really easy to do while you're studying. Charge 2 hours per month for 15 minutes of work per website (unless client needs something more) and it's passive income lite.

You mentioned earlier in the thread you are on SiteGround, right? One website for $15/month. You can upgrade to their $25/month or $40/month plan and start hosting clients websites for $100-$150 per year + maintenance packages. Only takes a couple of clients to cover the cost, and with basic brochure sites, you can easily fit 20-25 clients on their servers (they limit you by inodes eventually).

Just throwing out some ideas. My agency has their $40/month plan and I put clients there that don't need WPEngine (more expensive solution).

Yeah actually just came back to update.
Made 1k so far after 3 weeks with more in the pipeline
The only issue is I haven't found a way to transfer the money as all the apps and stuff require you to be 18. Interesting how easy it is for me to consume and spend all my money but in order to receive money I have to go through a bunch of hoops. Luckly for me my birthday is Oct 27th so as a last resort I could just wait.
The main thing that is making what I'm doing right now so alluring is how flexible it is for me. I basically can do it whatever time works best for me. Which I need since I'm basically doing this behind my parents back.

 

[Funky Monkey]

You could also post value adding content on a platform like tiktok/ Youtube shorts to be seen as an authority figure. Then the leads could come to you (Haven't personally tested this strategy for leads though, but I've seen others do this and be successful with it on the platform)

Thought about it but seems like twitter is the place to be for my offer. Might implement it later

 

[Funky Monkey]

So I've had to stop doing looms as I wasn't able to keep a consistent schedule. My mom goes to parties and events 2-4 a month and forces me to go and I couldn't tell her that I didn't want to go since I was working because then she would have gotten mad and shut off my internet for not studying and doing things to prepare for university.

So far now I'm signing up for this sales course/camp thing where it teaches sales but gets you landed at a job for 60-100k a year. I decided I would get a sales job in the meantime so I can make enough money to move out to Arizona (though I'm considering Austin or Silicon Valley for the obvious reasons)

I also somehow convinced my parents to sign me up for a startup camp in Feburary (Luckly they didn't read into that well and just saw it as something for my transcript) and if I get accepted into I can maybe use them as an institutional [They won't listen to their "young and dumb" son but they will listen to mainstream media,instutions, and anyone else with American authority] reason to be working on something like a startup.

While I'm doing all that I'm going to see if I can do some tutoring as its the only acceptable "work" (besides my minimum wage slaving) that I can do. Maybe while I'm doing that I can scale that by hiring other people but well see.

Hope yall have an enjoyable holiday season.

 

[Funky Monkey]

Why you want web design ? now a days it is very challenging business to get customers, and you are student , not much time for marketing. I would pick another thing like selling online , etc

I think it would be a great way to monetize getting fastlane experiences and being in a group of people like fox's would keep me on the right track.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Funky Monkey]

Yeah sorry I haven't posted in a few weeks. Progress has slowed down as I had to spend more time studying for the SAT. Luckily the exam day is near so soon I'll be able to devote a lot more time on web design

 

[Funky Monkey]

Finished HTML & CSS course. Gonna end it here for today and read. Tomorrow I'll make my way through the udemy course.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Edgar King]

Currently about half way through the udemy course,this week went pretty good as I had Thurs until the end of this weekend almost completly to myself. And I almost forgot happy easter

Happy Easter

 

[Funky Monkey]

Nearly done would have finished it earlier but my mom wanted me to go this event and it lasted almost the whole weekend (which is when I get to put most of my hours in). Once I finish I am again going to have to slow down cause of a exam upcoming May 12th (but it won't be as bad as the SAT so I should still be able to have some progress).

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Funky Monkey]

Wrapped up both courses and I've to build my portfolio by offering free design in some local FB groups,looking at google maps for local business with bad or old sites, and I might start looking at some business networking groups either in person (which may be hard for me to get to as of now) or online.

 

[Funky Monkey]

Sorry I didn't post in a couple weeks. After I finished my exams I took a little break and came back, Currently lined up a portfollio client right now and am planning on wrapping up a site for him in 2 weeks from the coming Wednesday.

 

[Funky Monkey]

Sorry I didn't post in a couple weeks. After I finished my exams I took a little break and came back, Currently lined up a portfollio client right now and am planning on wrapping up a site for him in 2 weeks from the coming Wednesday.

Email the person a couple of times and it seems like they might have ghosted me. Which most likely my fault for not setting the project the correct way. I rushed into it without even getting sales call or a proposal because the person was a relatively close connection. Currently reaching out to some local businesses and brainstorming about any other businesses I could potentially work with.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[radiximus]

Email the person a couple of times and it seems like they might have ghosted me. Which most likely my fault for not setting the project the correct way. I rushed into it without even getting sales call or a proposal because the person was a relatively close connection. Currently reaching out to some local businesses and brainstorming about any other businesses I could potentially work with.

can you send a link to the udemy course? or is it the one fox reccomended?