Road To 7-Figures - [Daily Update]

[Jo_t95]

Shared my current situation here on the forum.

Tldr- I just came out of a mid-ranged 6-figure business with business partner when things turned sour. Launching a new business off the ground because I need income, I'd rather build an asset(business) than be employed, and I have the skillsets to get the business earning cashflow.

The only 2 things you need for that last bit is lead-generation and sales.

Anywho, I've created this thread to better organise and document my daily progress, execution, goals, and to receive potential feedback from you guys.

Please feel free to add your daily action-items and execution in the thread as well, so we can all keep each other accountable

 

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[Jo_t95]

Milestone
Get core 3 Daily100s running smoothly and consistently:

1. 100mins content-creation /day
2. $100 ad-spend /day
3. 100 message-outreach sent /day

Today's Action-Items

1. Create new facebook page to run ads out of
2. Post first piece of content with selected headline relevant to niche
3. Get started on crafting script for Video Sales Letter

 

[BizyDad]

Your original post gave me some clarity on something I have been struggling with as well. Thank you, and I'm glad you decided to become more active.

 

[Jo_t95]

Today's Action-Items

1. Design Marketing Argument
2. Populate Hooks (for content)
3. Continue populating facebook profile

 

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[Deleted 118285]

Hi Jo, just to encourage you; looking forward to your next daily update

 

[Jo_t95]

Hi Jo, just to encourage you; looking forward to your next daily update

Hi Joost, thank you so much for your words of encouragement. I thought no one was following this thread so didn't come back and update it.

Today's Action-Items

1. Complete script for VSL (damn is this difficult)
2. Practice it

I have to get my VSL written and practiced by tomorrow, as I have a booked session at the studio to get my VSL recorded by then.

 

[Deleted 118285]

Yes I am following it (and have read your other post). I am setting up a business next tot my job and your approach appeals to me. You do not have to post daily specifically for me, but I am interested to follow your developments

 

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[xShepherdx]

Just found this thread and read the other post you linked to and I'm hooked.

Keep the updates coming!

 

[Jo_t95]

Today's Action-Items

1. Complete CTA portion of VSL
2. Record it

Personal Notes
Damn has it been a gruelling past 2 days.

Writing copy can be daunting.

Attempting to write great copy to be used as an actual paid ad is tiring as heck. (even more so when you're using your own $$ to run those ads in your local area)

It took me way longer than expected just to get this portion done, but I'm glad I had a hard deadline (today & tomorrow) to get my recording done.

Can't wait to wind down by next week and write a post over here pointing out great copy, and evaluating a portion of my script with you guys.

Will be going through what top advertising legends tout as the $0.80 of every $1.00 spent on ads - the lead and headline.

 

[Jo_t95]

Today's Action-Items

1. Record 2 more versions of VSL on top of the 2 already recorded
2. Design landing page and select a platform (torn between clickfunnels & lead pages, anyone has a take?)
3. Shortlist 3 fiverr editors to send VSLs for editing

Personal Notes
Hopefully by the end of this week, I'll have my landing page up and facebook ads already drafted so by mid next week I can begin running ads.

Can't wait to begin generating leads, booking them over the phone, and closing. $$$

 

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[Jo_t95]

Today's Action-Items

1. Clean audio of VSL (learn AI / software shortcuts and hacks)
2. Select vendor to edit VSL
3. Set up clickfunnels account and begin creating landing page
4. Find out requirements of landing page & website to allow for facebook ads to run to page

Personal Notes
Taking a little longer than expected to find the right vendor for my VSL, which is 15 minutes long, without also breaking the bank. Realise that even on sites like fiverr, lots of reviews are 'blackhat', and the VSL is important because my core marketing message is there that leads to sales calls bookings.

I would like NOT to end up being the guy editing my audio and then designing how my 15-minute VSL should look, and simply pass that work over to a video editor to work on. But at my current stage, I'm starting to realise I need to work more closely with every step of the creation - which is simply a time-sink.

But whatever, what must be done must be done. Busy working right now, till the next update lads

 

[Jo_t95]

Today's Action-Items

1. Clean audio of VSL (learn AI / software shortcuts and hacks)
2. Select vendor to edit VSL
3. Set up clickfunnels account and begin creating landing page
4. Find out requirements of landing page & website to allow for facebook ads to run to page

Personal Notes
Taking a little longer than expected to find the right vendor for my VSL, which is 15 minutes long, without also breaking the bank. Realise that even on sites like fiverr, lots of reviews are 'blackhat', and the VSL is important because my core marketing message is there that leads to sales calls bookings.

I would like NOT to end up being the guy editing my audio and then designing how my 15-minute VSL should look, and simply pass that work over to a video editor to work on. But at my current stage, I'm starting to realise I need to work more closely with every step of the creation - which is simply a time-sink.

But whatever, what must be done must be done. Busy working right now, till the next update lads

add on - discovered a sick site to literally turn your audio into gold-like-studio-level audio. plugging it in here in case it's helpful for anyone. 10/10 recommend and it's free.

Vendors I found on fiverr literally charge upwards of $200 to edit 15 minute audio and this is $0 and took 15 minutes - Enhance Speech from Adobe | Free AI filter for cleaning up spoken audio

 

[KiwiEC]

add on - discovered a sick site to literally turn your audio into gold-like-studio-level audio. plugging it in here in case it's helpful for anyone. 10/10 recommend and it's free.

Vendors I found on fiverr literally charge upwards of $200 to edit 15 minute audio and this is $0 and took 15 minutes - Enhance Speech from Adobe | Free AI filter for cleaning up spoken audio

That's a crazy tool, thanks for sharing.

Please continue posting your journey to success. I look forward to see the results over the months.

 

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[Jo_t95]

That's a crazy tool, thanks for sharing.

Please continue posting your journey to success. I look forward to see the results over the months.

No problem and thanks for the holler bro

 

[Jo_t95]

Today's Action-Items

1. Complete Funnel on Clickfunnels
2. Get Swipe Copy done up for follow-up email sequences
3. Set up ActiveCampaign account and integrate with Clickfunnels
4. Learning & consuming content effectively (Fb ads, mindset, copywriting)

Personal Notes
In my search for the right vendor over fiverr for my video editing, I came across a guy from Bangladesh and we hopped on a Zoom call to chat. Turns out he's running a team of editors, and we both see eye-to-eye in long-term business partnership. I'm glad that in playing this game and through the internet, I get to meet folks from all over who are playing the game as well. I also found another vendor to do a first draft (without cost) for me to see the quality, so that vendor will serve as a back up. If I decide to go with the former vendor (or vice-versa), I'll just give the other party a tip out of gratituity.

Also with regards to content, I just unlocked access to a 'university' of courses including courses from some legends in the digital marketing space (at least to me) such as Frank Kern, Dan Kennedy. There's also a Tony Robbins course and Garrett White course, which I want to dive into to uncover what nuggets of gold I might be able to find.

The trick here will be sifting through the hours of 'wrap-around' content that might be repetitive, "hockey-pockey", and un-actionable. Not throwing shade at them but once you've gone through your round of online course purchase and consumption (as I have in my early 20s) a lot of stuff becomes repetitive white noise. But I'm certain there is gold to be found somewhere within the haystack, and I'll do whatever it takes to sharpen my edge in the marketplace.

As an aside, I want to write a post about 'time' because it truly is (if not the only) limited resource. I wish I could be learning and productive even during sleep, but I know that sleep's crucial for learning and assimilation of ideas as well. Anyways, quite a long one today, got my work cut out for me. Let's F*cking go!

 

[Jo_t95]

Has been a slow past few days. Edited video that I submitted to fiverr guy 1 was not good, and I'm still waiting for fiverr guy 2 to get back to me. I've also since reached out to a contact in Singapore that used to do video editing for me, but am unsure if she will be available to help me this time around.

For the rest of this week I intend to:

1. Confirm video editor - be it new editor, do it myself, or give exact detailed instructions on edits wanted
2. Decide on 5 angles for facebook video ads
3. Script out 3 full video copy for facebook ads

 

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[Jo_t95]

Today's Action-Items

1. Review edited video from fiverr editor and giving him exact edits I want made (with timestamp & references)
2. Confirm my 3-5 main talking points to my ideal prospects to indoctrinate (read:educate) them
3. Find a way to systematise my content creation (hook-story-offer) system for Instagram/Facebook page
4. Resume edits on funnel

 

[Jo_t95]

Update:
Already received my first draft of edited video and sent back to editor pointers for revision. Had some friction dealing with him (he wanted me to transact outside of fiverr which posed a risk to me) but hopefully things now are better. I also feel a little more assured since he already made a full edit of my entire 12-minute long VSL, and I spent the whole of yesterday pointing out timestamps of revisions I wanted.

At the same time after thinking it through I realise that video editing is a core skillset I might not want to fully outsource at this point. Seeing that I am a digital marketer who's ultimately selling coaching/advice/information and my chosen medium will rely heavily on videos (through my discoverable content on Instagram, longer-form VSLs on my landing pages, and eventually YouTube content), video editing is an essential ability I must have greater control over.

Other than presenting, coming up with sales messages, copywriting, and funnel creation, video editing is right up there with those important abilities that will directly determine my income. I'm also glad that after a couple of hours yesterday scouring the web, I found an AI platform that will help make it tremendously easy for me to edit my own videos in future - even with re-purposing of long-form video content to short-form ones.

Still, the clock is ticking and my main objective now is to get my indoctrination sequence uploaded and in order, and ready to begin spinning once I begin having traffic go through my lead-generation process.

P.S. - for anyone reading and wondering wtheck 'indoctrination' even is, it's just a term to describe a marketing message that implants ideas in viewers' heads. This is fully orchestrated to lead them to highlight certain axioms in their head and arrive at the conclusion they want/need more of the solution I offer, so that they will decide to take up my coaching/consulting.

P.P.S. - the tools we learn are amoral. The techniques are there, we need to equip ourselves with what's been discovered and effective to lead leads closer to the sale. Welcome to capitalism.

 

[Jo_t95]

Missed the past few days of updates as was on holiday in Bali with the missus - spending time chilling (for the most part) in the day with her and catching up on work at night

Anywho, in the meantime these things have been done:

1. VSL video has been revised thrice, and my final version is going to be sent to me either later tonight or tomorrow
2. My fragmentation funnel has been more or less completed and integrated across Clickfunnels, Activecampaign, and Oncehub. The only page remaining to be edited and confirmed is my 'Success Page' (where I am considering placing a long-form video that I recorded on my last day in Bali)
3. My calendar has been prepared and I have mentally prepped to be in "Sales call booking" mode and "Sales call closing" mode. My new enterprise will live and die on sales, and I would not have it any other way.

What helps me is realising a few hard truths (which might sound like tough pills for even anyone reading). I would write value posts here to share how those beliefs came to be discovered and how anyone with real money / wealth / cashflow knows of them, but now is not the time. Also, my content posting will not be on this site but on my Instagram business account and possibly even Facebook page.

Some hard truths:

1. The rich take money, the middle-income (read: poor) 'earn' money. Governments along with banks make money. Anyone who exclaims "I make money..." is misinformed
2. As such, if you want outsized returns, embrace capitalism and embrace taking money from others. Sales is an example of this, and if you find it hard to swallow this truth (as I had been many months ago) then you will never reap substantial wealth or income because you will always find a way to sabotage yourself from taking money from others; which as I've explained is the only way to reap outsized returns
3. Even through technology advancement, humans still operate the same way. You need others to form relationships with you and perceive you as an expert in your field in order to one to give you money. On a broader scope, persons must always perceive that the value they are receiving in exchange for money (be it for a product or service) is MORE than what they're forking out. I choose to be in the information market / coaching-consulting market because it is scalable and extremely cheap to create content and then scale those content-assets since I record and edit once while others can always consume those assets to build that perceived relationship with me despite me never meeting them in my life or wasting more hours 'investing' in that relationship. This is the reason why people can feel bonded to celebrities they've never met before, and so when/if they meet their favourite celebrity in person and can feel as if they've known the celebrity their whole lives just through consuming their content (eg- movies and clips)

Key upcoming milestones:

- complete funnel, test it, get it live​

- create my facebook ad creatives (copy ads, VSL scripts)​

- begin running ads $100/day on facebook​

- design and create facebook page​

- design and create instagram profile​

- Begin recording daily reels / content​

- Begin daily 100messages/day outreach on instagram​

- Sales calls & Sales closing​

 

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[Jo_t95]

Key Update: My funnel is complete and finalised, consisting of:

• Opt-in page
• Value video page
• Scheduling page
• Survey page
• Thank you page

Upcoming Milestones:

1. Facebook ad creatives to be completed
2. Facebook campaigns to be set-up (at $100/day)
3. Leads to start generating
4. Sales calls to be done

Key Reflection: It's been 1 month since I first posted on my situation and progress. Man, it took me an entire month to complete my funnel, and it hasn't even been tested at the marketplace yet. On one hand that's cool because this is my first value-video funnel I've ever created, and I started practically from scratch. Also, I spent an inordinate amount of time studying my market.

But on the other hand, speed-to-market is super important. Making pitches and getting rapid feedback from the marketplace before committing to more investments of time/money is crucial as a capitalist rather than trying to perfect things from the get-go. I need to speed up how quickly I get quality work done.

Bank accounts are going down, but not dire. I've not been getting income for the past 2 months. Instead of getting distracted looking for a job, I decided to double-down on entrepreneurship & capitalism to carve out an income from the marketplace. I must launch soon.

With the completion of my upcoming milestones, I'll finally see the effectiveness of my funnel in the marketplace.

---

1 sale will net me $5,997 which will help me survive and also continue my lead-generation for the business (meaning I can continue advertising and earning more revenue). I will have a runway of money prepared as well for the testing, tweaking and troubleshooting I foresee to be done before my lead-generation & sales process turns predictable.

Let's go

 

[Jo_t95]

Another thing to add- upon reviewing my calendar over the past month, time was spent being on staycation & being overseas with my partner. (we went to Bali)

In 2 weeks, I have a trip to Krabi to meet another partner of mine and I will spend 5 days there. I realise overseas trips take up a huge chunk of my time, and also a huge chunk of change as well ($$). I will be more thoughtful and careful about where I allocate my time, and determine a fixed number of trips I can take each year.

Likely at max,

• 1 trip to Johor Bahru per 6 weeks, and only by train
• 1 trip per quarter to a SEA country
• 1 trip a year anywhere in the world (with partner)
• Only 1 staycation every 6 weeks until my income goes back up, then 1 staycation every month

Keep me accountable.

 

[BizyDad]

Keep me accountable.

Say no more.

What's the latest? The thread has been live a month. Have you launched yet? Made a sale? Close?

 

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[Jo_t95]

Say no more.

What's the latest? The thread has been live a month. Have you launched yet? Made a sale? Close?

Hey bud, thanks for asking and keeping me accountable.

My latest update: Facebook ads have been created and I've brushed up on my campaign creation methods (vastly different than when I touched fb ads back in 2020).

This Friday, I have a call set up with a friend to run through my sales script. So from now till then, I'll be confirming my sales script and setting up the facebook campaigns (pixels, events, Google Tag Manager, email auto-responder sequence, and testing everything).

Thank you again for being kept posted and keeping me accountable! Very soon my offer will be tested in the marketplace and I will be tweaking based on very real market feedback

 

[Jo_t95]

Key Update: My ad-copy is created:

• 5 Ads with 5 Angles
• Dialled in client persona and problems
• Core ad-thesis to be accepted by readers: If my audience comes to believe that learning more about the power of “Paid Workshops” in the free training on the next page will help them gain access to a super effective lead-generation method that few others in their industry are using and will help them to generate the most eager, qualified leads (and hence easy sales and an explosion in their business) then they have no choice but to click, give me their name & email address, & access my training video.
• My ad copy are all positioned towards cementing the above thesis to its readers

Upcoming Milestones:

• Craft sales script
• Practice sales script (with friend)
• Craft email auto-responder sequence and integrate into software
• Set up tracking across my funnel (GTM and Fb Pixel)
• Test everything

 

[Jo_t95]

Business Update

My Facebook Ads are live, running at $120/day as a starting budget. The game plan is to let the campaign run for 4-5 days and then review its performance. My schedule has also been set to allocate daily time blocks for sales call appointments from the leads that come through. The whole process is automated via facebook ads manager through my appointment funnel (hosted on clickfunnels with integrations to activecampaign, oncehub and google meets).

Next up, I'll be executing on creating organic content to be published on Instagram reels for my business account. This will serve as social proof, and deliver results-in-advance to my audience. What's more, it's a sort of 'insurance' for me in case my ads bomb. Either ways, I already have a contingency plan on ad creatives AND my facebook campaign (I'll try a lead form campaign on the facebook platform instead of a conversion campaign that leads to my external pages. This contingency campaign will lead to WhatsApp where I'll schedule sales calls). The contingency plan will kick in if my current campaign performs way out of metrics.

I'm excited to keep you guys posted on the results. Technically, I can spend $1-2k on ads and, just by closing 1 client, I will already be profitable and yield 2x ROI as the ticket size of my DWY consulting is ~$5k. (all revenue less ad-spend will go directly to me as I have yet to hire any staff for the moment)

Here are the metrics that I wish to play within:
Cost per click: <$3
Cost per lead: <$15 (meaning ~15-20% conversion rate on my lander)
Cost per appointment booked: <$250 (meaning ~ <6% conversion rate on my value video to form submission)

After applying a further margin of safety, $2,000 in ad-spend should yield me roughly 6-7 sales calls. Assuming I disqualify 2 calls, I will have 4-5 appointments booked. I am confident in my sales call closing over the phone, and a 20% closing rate should be below minimum standard. At the edge of these metrics, I should have my first 1-2 paying clients by the end of it.

Will keep you guys posted on how things unfold.

 

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[Jo_t95]

Personal Update

My ads and campaign were actually ready to launch since last week, but I had to take a short getaway trip to Krabi, Thailand to meet a partner there.

Right now it's truly all systems go. I realise how important it is to make sure everyone I'll be spending sustained periods of time with (ie- family, partners, loved ones, peers) needs to be onboard with my game plan for success.

In my case, it means that in my self-allocated timeblocks for work, my loved ones know not to touch me during those hours and those hours must be honoured and maintained no matter what. I'd even go on to call them 'sacred hours'.

This concept has been really crucial for me since I manage my own time as a'self-employed' business owner. No one decides for me how and where I should spend it, and because of that, if I'm not sharp on where I spend this resource, I'd be doomed. I'm curious if any of you guys running your own gig(s) have encountered this same phenomenon as well.

It's funny that when I first started out playing this game, my initial desire was to 'escape' the 9-5. Live a life of 'freedom'. Not having to 'take shit' from anyone above me who I didn't have respect for and who I had to listen to just because they were higher up on the corporate ladder.

Yet when it came down to it, this game we've decided to play is exactly all of that -- but gruelling on an entirely different level. Those same things I was trying to escape from are still there, but this time they've got to be self-administered. And instead of taking shit from someone above you, you must now always have a finger placed against the pulse of the market, listening intently to its movements and manoeuvring according to its tune. I've thankfully learnt to love the market and not judge it, and hopefully this will yield me the fruits of abundance I so crave.

Anywho, it's been fun. I've got no regrets. I'm so ready to get obsessive on booking sales calls, filling up my calendar, and closing my first 5-10 clients. Once that's done, I'll go ham on hiring my first 1-2 sales people whilst doubling down on video content and posts (be it ad creatives or organic reels) to make sure my well of leads never runs dry. Let's get it!!!

 

[Jo_t95]

Business Update
Just ran facebook ads for 4 days, spending $320 in total. The ads account is new, hence the ad spend per day was limited to just around $68 instead of my set adspend of $150.

Here are the stats:

Click through rate (ctr)	1.56%
Landing page cnv (lpc)	20%

Cost per 1k impr (cpm)	$41.46
Cost per click (cpc)	$2.70
Cost per lead (cpl)	$17.34
Cost per survey (cps)	N.A

As I'm running an application funnel and am selling high-ticket over the phone, I need survey applications. Right now after spending $320 in ads, I have 0 surveys submitted. Although in theory I could still continue running my ads to chalk up the number of leads, I've decided to pause the campaign on the 5th day to review and inject new assets to try and get my numbers up.

Here are the additional assets I'll be introducing or editing before turning the campaign back on (as well as how the improvements should affect conversions):

1. Creating an email autoresponder sequence - this is so that the leads that sign up but do not submit and application are kept warm, and I get to deliver value in advance to them. Within the sequence, I will also include a CTA that routes back to the survey application. This should bump up # of surveys gotten and Cost per survey.
   
   
2. Creating 3 Facebook video ads and using these as creatives- this should lower my cpm and cpc, thereby lowering cpl which is ~$2 outside of metrics at the moment. Also, I realise that videos as an ad medium are way more current than the image-copy ads I've been using. Edit- I've also just realised the key metric that is way out of whack is my CPM ($40) which is 2x more than the upper limit. Changing my creative medium from copy to video should help here as well.
   
   
3. Re-doing my Value Video, which is the video leads who submit their email address get access to. This Value Video is also the video that provides the "reason why" fresh leads should go on and submit an application form with me - I will be creating an Irresistible Offer for them to submit an application and sit through the call which will include things like - sales templates, opening WhatsApp scripts, and maybe a playbook for admins to engage with new leads. Done right, this should bump up my survey application conversion rate.

Let's do this. Will update again when those get done and I run my next round of test campaign.

 

[Jo_t95]

Personal Update

My bank account is getting lower by the day, and I've been quite stressed out. Today marks Eid, which is something like the New Years. In Singapore where I'm at, we visit families and give them 'green packets' - which is similar to the 'red packet' of Chinese New Year. Basically, those who are working give money in packets to the younger folk and kids.

I've been really stressed out about this, and tbh I feel shitty giving a small amount of money in my green packets. I think it's a pride thing, but that's what my finances allow me to do at this point in time. I've also had to tell my partner in Singapore about this stressful period I'm going through. She understands and is patient, but will also have to accommodate to my stresses and change in budget. This is not the kind of man I envision myself to be, and it really sucks.

On the side, I've started applying for tutoring gigs (I used to teach Math and Science when I was in college to earn my own pocket money). It's a far cry from earning 6-figures, which had been my previous income from the past year.

Still, I've got to pull through and grind things out. I've got to have faith things will work out and keep working my plan. Wish me luck my friends.

 

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[Jo_t95]

Wanted to post a 3 months update on things.

I stopped running the ads as I realised it was not a good idea to be burning cash to optimise my offer + ads without getting a sustainable inflow of income.

The past few months consisted of ups and downs - giving my original business partnership another shot, realising after a week of grinding that things were really not amicable between me and my old partner (but parting ways very courteously), almost "settling" for a lame old 9-5 job, and then me running a service-offer to a niche and getting clients.

I've now got my income up to a level where I can still live fairly alright but not have a huge time-sink on my time. (Earning around ~S$5k/mo)

I'm still in the game though. In Oct/Nov of this year is when the industry will have a lull in service work, and that's where I will be creating content to grow a following/community. Will sell them something when the time is ready. This is the only way to financial freedom and where my income isn't pegged to my time.

Not sure if there's anyone still following, but wanted to just come full circle. I will be posting updates in Oct/Nov when I start posting content.