Saad Khan's EXECUTION THREAD

[Saad Khan]

Link to the first progress thread:

HOT! - MINDSET - Progression of a 17 year old

Ahh not much to say here. I became familiar with "The Fastlane" at the start of March 2021 and I started to do something worthwhile instead of playing Counter-Strike mindlessly. I took online courses about email marketing and nowadays practicing copywriting (also studying for college cuz need to...

www.thefastlaneforum.com

A little info about me: At the time of writing, I'm a lazy teenager who turned 18 this month. The last year was full of learning experiences and gave me a reality check. I was left disappointed because I set my expectations too high. This time, they'll be realistic. I hope you'll learn something valuable from my experience. Please read the first progress thread for context.

My 2021 Planasy​

This is my 1/5/10 I made when I was starting out back in 2021. I will add the ones I failed to accomplish into my 2022 Planasy. The failed ones are marked "X" at the beginning of each goal.

The biggest mistake was that I didn't break it down to weekly goals. This caused my progress to be stagnant at times and I was action-faking more than taking real action.

2021
- Already started a freelance business (Doing it)
- Get a good PC (Got a mobile instead, so it counts as accomplished)
X Start YT and provide massive value (Deviated after realizing it was not the critical path)
- Get credible (Doing content marketing and helping others)
X Start going to gym (Failed)
X Already start working on creating income streams (Failed. Need to focus on one consistent channel for now)
- Deal with people effectively (Improved my communication skills)
- Do good in studies (Average results)
- Get ready for making an agency after years of experience (I still have more to learn and grow before getting others onboard).
- Read more books and all gold threads (Done)
- Start making enough money to support myself (Already making enough that fulfills my personal expenses)

Seems like I failed in three of my goals or 2021. Not bad. I will be making more specific goals because most of my goals for 2021 were vague and couldn't be measured.

2026
-2 businesses working
-Agency making $10k+ revenue
-300k USD net worth

2031
-Sell one biz for $5M
-Get back free time
-Location independent
-Independent and pull others out of the rat race

Milestones for Q1:

• Expand my skillset into e-commerce, marketing, copywriting. Produce some results in the form of $.
• Establish my profile on freelance platforms and build a personal brand.
• Get my hands dirty in as many things as I can (currently Amazon). I will want to shift to copywriting and marketing full time because that's where my passion lies and I will be able to establish a strong USP.

A tip for young grafters: Don't use Upwork until you're 18 and have a government ID. They will ban you upon signing a contract because you're underage. Take my advice and save yourself 3 months of struggle.

This is my second execution thread. Slow and inconsistent progress last year. From this year and onwards, I'm not going to be an action faker.

What's the BIGGEST reason behind the action faking and inconsistency?

Demotivating environment. No FTE and lack of motivation.

I'm surrounded by slowlaners, sidewalkers, and religious fanatics. This is why I'll be moving to cities with business incubators so I can grow in a thriving environment.

The feedback on my previous execution really helped me boost my morale. I think you might be able to give me unbiased feedback since everyone has an ego that is biased. Here are a few guys who really helped me keep pushing despite the odds.

If you're new to the forum, take a moment to read this. Make a progress thread. That will keep you accountable and also receive feedback from experienced folks, especially @Andy Black. I'd like to thank him and many more people that helped me in my process. Here are a few more.

@Speed112

It's really nice to see how your mentality has shifted over such a short few months.

The insecure start, not really knowing where you're going... the doubt and anger when reality kicked you in the butt... the confidence and reassurance from still making the most out of your path and being rewarded for your effort.

And now, there's the hope and gratitude from living your change and looking forward to bigger things.

You can see these in the language you use, the areas you choose to focus on, and, I would assume, we'll soon see it in your breakthrough and results as well. Great job!

You sound like you've been doing it for years already.

Let us know how you manage to break down your 2022 goals into an actionable plan for the next few months.

There are many others who contributed to the progress thread. You should go and check them out.

Going to post my 2022 Planasy.

 

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[Saad Khan]

Okay so this June I made $170 while putting in maybe around 10 hours a week. $450 in contracts still pending cause one of my clients didn't get results we told him to expect so I'll invoice him when results are gonna start to show (I want to work with this guy long term cause he can be a good source of referrals so I'm looking for the long term picture). We went through a major process for his account, now it's sit back and watch the sales pour in for the client. You might ask, "Where was I the rest of the time?" Here's my story for this month.

To cut this short, I met the Prime Minister of Pakistan at the Prime Minister's house for the pitching competition's result and I didn't win (I'm still satisfied). Yes, it was a government funded competition. I met so many guys doing epic shit (most of them were students with their Final Year Projects). I met 195 people who pitched in front of judges (plus I also had a temporary crush on a tall girl there). And I also went fine dining for the first time. Cost me like $20 bucks lol (it's a lot here). Plus I got the contacts of the 2 out of 3 judges who ripped apart my pitch lol and connected with them on LinkedIn.

People here dream of meeting with Commissioners and here I am hanging out with the Prime Minister and their associates. Mindset is everything! Think big, think bigger! And doing all of this while I'm 18. Grateful beyond measure to the Fastlane community.

You might ask, "What was your pitch Saad? What did you pitch man? Should've pitched your Fastlane progress thread XD"

To be honest, I was nervous. Real nervous. I validated the market need for my EdTech startup with a bunch of surveys in the university and tons of digging in the internet + I created a group (that university community group) in which I teach and learn programming along with my peers which helped me frame a story for my pitch. AI dubbing has made the idea even easier to execute. I need money to be able to afford those AI models man. I contacted google about their api and still haven't received a response + I have a hunch it will cost $3-$4k. I analyzed my idea from many different angles and asked lots of different questions, practiced my pitch for 3 days but all of that went outta the window when I was done pitching to the judges and they started asking questions. I answered all of them except this one. It was about contextual translation. You should've seen me flustering there haha. I agreed to their suggestion of hiring a translator to go through my curricula which you design which was pretty expensive. And it cost me the win I guess?

Anyway, I saw that I can do better than most of the guys in that auditorium at the Prime Minister's house. I saw guys smarter than me who weren't committed to making it big with their ideas. Like dude imagine you make an IOT sensor that can help you measure all the soil contents and water the crops either automatically or manually through a mobile app. Then there was this guy who made a sensor that you put in buildings to see where you can reinforce the beams + pillars of the building to make it more earthquake resistant. When talking to them, they were like, "If I don't get the grant, I'm throwing my idea in the drawer, in the abyss of academic marvels and getting a job at a multinational firm."

This also gave me an idea. Why not go to Ivy League schools and get their faculty to show you the research of their alumni to get inspiration for some ideas. Then when you validate the idea you go to that engineering alumni, sell him the Fastlane dream and the stats and onboard him towards making a CENTS business?

Thank you for reading my braindump.

Now what's next?

I learned that in order to be able to pursue my EdTech idea, I need to make sure that:

• I put all my energy and money towards it and expect nothing for 5 years. Just replace EdTech with a CENTS business. That's what I mean.
• Should have an income stream that pays for my bills.

So my short term focus is that I need to scale up my Amazon PPC business and differentiate in that market somehow so I can charge more and earn more to pump more money into my CENTS idea.. Also I'm an AI student so I've been taking data science + maths courses and had been practicing maths on MAPLE software recently (It was fun to see I was solving problems I didn't even know what the question meant lol). For context, I hated Maths.

So yeah, 60% focus on learning and 40% focus on earning. Cause there isn't really some major thing I can differentiate with from the competition except my communication (which is a big thing) but I need to stack up more. Plus there was this idea of outsourcing manpower to companies in the US. There were 2 guys like me from the US getting their stuff set up while I was doing the recruiting process. So yeah, I also interviewed 30 people on call with those guys and have a general flow of like what to ask from an applicant in an interview. Now they're getting funds to hire 10 guys out of those 30 so now the ball is in their court and this is on standby for now.

This paragraph is for @ZCP. Yes, that doctor turned engineer who now owns an EV bike company he agreed to make a group. He didn't win the grant tho so when he told me about this he was kinda sad so I didn't poke him much there. But yeah, it was just my mind that was painting a doom and gloom picture.

Amidst all of these exciting events, There's one thing that bugs me. It's just that my lazy and distracted mind isn't in my absolute control. I waste so much of my energy on things that don't move the needle. Like some days I get back on gaming, when I get out of it, I get on some harmful stuff like porn, then its a perpetual cycle of misery. I've realized that I'll never stop playing games. I kept saying to myself that after I finish this game, then no more games. Guess what? I've been saying that for the past 6 months or so. Technology is a blessing when
you control your mind but a curse otherwise.

Moral of the story: Believe in yourself. Take Action. Knowledge and grit is all you need.

 

[Saad Khan]

I got fired from the agency for being honest. Here's how it happened.

When I got access to the facebook ad accounts, they were badly optimized and the agency did some grave mistakes such as turning off profitable campaigns with positive ROI when Christmas was coming because they didn't want to spend money on ads at "Christmas". All of this happened before 2022. They also used click farms to drive traffic to their Facebook pages. Talk about sabotaging your own campaigns LOL.

There were lots of other mistakes such as not making any kind of audiences from facebook pixel. The pixel had virtually no data.

To give you an idea of how bad it was, the agency spent £3,000+ on an ad account and generated 2 sales (on record).

I know you're cringing. I felt the same.

So I messaged the CEO about all of this mess (he also acts as the account manager), and didn't get a reply for 3 days straight.

Client calls me and asks me about progress. I was doing a very good job on messenger campaigns but no WhatsApp ones (I couldn't track their metrics). I told him about all the blunders.

Welp.

Long story short, I argued with the CEO about the values the agency was operating on. He boasted about his 4 years of experience (stick it up your a$$). I lost my temper and said lots of honest things.

Then I learned a lesson.

Loyalty>Honesty.

This is the agency that made me work for free for 3 months for free

I decided to use them to learn as much as I could and then leave. I had no intentions of taking revenge tho. I just happened to take revenge with my honesty XD.

What I learned when I was managing those Facebook ad accounts was priceless. Will say I achieved my objective.

I also did launch profitable B2B messenger campaigns in one ad account. Their ROAS was about 6-7X. Made them around £1200 with £200 ad spend.

As of now. I have now time to focus on lots of exciting things. I will write about what's happening nowadays in detail later.

I applied for other agencies but didn't get hired.

Oh yes, because I'm underage. Wow. Don't ask me why, my age on official papers is 17. And I'm actually 18.

I have built a stronger resume than most of 18 year olds.

I need to land a good gig so I can make some money to launch some Amazon dropshipping stores with my amazon geek buddy.

This is the thing that I've been learning after being laid off from the agency. A few years down the line, I might be the amazon guru here, who knows?

I don't intend to compete with @biophase. He's one of the guys I look up to and have respect for.

I haven't compared myself to anyone other than myself.

I have penetrated the amazon space and will be using it to generate capital to launch Fastlane businesses. Sounds good, right?

A CENTS business is my biggest goal.

"It doesn't matter what you know. What matters is what you do with what you know."​

I still struggle with procrastination and action faking. I binge-watched the first season of peaky blinders. Loved it. Also felt guilty after finishing it.

Also discovered my personality type is ENTJ. Guess I'm a ruthless commander, eh?


P.S. In case you were wondering, getting fired from the agency was the best decision for me. I decided to leave the agency in January but didn't have the balls to say it. Grateful that it was done for me.

 

[Rabby]

The routines you consistently implement will carry you through to the goal. Or at least, you'll have something you can evaluate and figure out how to change so that the next iteration carries you to the goal. You're ahead of where I was at your age in executive thinking... I would bet you're on the right path.

This year I’ll become good at what I do

This also helps, so much. Being a technician at something, caring about the work and making it better and better, pays compound interest.

Good luck skill! I'm looking forward to following along.

 

[Andy Black]

2022:

• Get $100 of consistent income (First milestone). Then $200 and so on until I hit the goal of $1000/month this year (low expectations but not pessimistic)
• Learn excel (so I’m able to analyze data from tools and find the right product to pitch to amazon sellers).
• Post content on social media (once per week at least)
• Establish my profile on freelance platforms and build a personal brand
• Start going to the gym
• Regular morning walks
• Start waking up at dawn
• Improve my communication, marketing, sales, and copywriting skills (I’ll stick to this one forever)
• Start getting orders on freelance platforms and social media
• Work on creating multiple income streams
• Build marketing and sales funnels and work on CRMs this year
• Build and market private label dropshipping stores. Doing this because it’s low cost and the fastest way to become good at driving traffic and sales (This is more of a learning-oriented goal than a CENTS-oriented goal).

This year I’ll become good at what I do, so good in fact that I’ll consistently overdeliver.


Monthly Breakdowns (For February)

• Learn excel. Watch at least one course every day.
• Get amazon tools. Spend 1 hour at least hunting products and markets.
• Start running and managing ad accounts (especially Facebook ad accounts)
• Start working on my freelance and social media profiles

How I define myself right now:
"I’m an unscripted entrepreneur who is temporarily working at a marketing agency as a copywriter and marketer.”

Try rewriting “Start going to the gym” with “Go to the gym 3 times a week”.

I have a couple of videos on a YouTube channel called “Excel Corner”. They’re only short but might help.

 

[Andy Black]

I got fired from the agency for being honest. Here's how it happened.

When I got access to the facebook ad accounts, they were badly optimized and the agency did some grave mistakes such as turning off profitable campaigns with positive ROI when Christmas was coming because they didn't want to spend money on ads at "Christmas". All of this happened before 2022. They also used click farms to drive traffic to their Facebook pages. Talk about sabotaging your own campaigns LOL.

There were lots of other mistakes such as not making any kind of audiences from facebook pixel. The pixel had virtually no data.

To give you an idea of how bad it was, the agency spent £3,000+ on an ad account and generated 2 sales (on record).

I know you're cringing. I felt the same.

So I messaged the CEO about all of this mess (he also acts as the account manager), and didn't get a reply for 3 days straight.

Client calls me and asks me about progress. I was doing a very good job on messenger campaigns but no WhatsApp ones (I couldn't track their metrics). I told him about all the blunders.

Welp.

Long story short, I argued with the CEO about the values the agency was operating on. He boasted about his 4 years of experience (stick it up your a$$). I lost my temper and said lots of honest things.

Then I learned a lesson.

Loyalty>Honesty.

This is the agency that made me work for free for 3 months for free

I decided to use them to learn as much as I could and then leave. I had no intentions of taking revenge tho. I just happened to take revenge with my honesty XD.

What I learned when I was managing those Facebook ad accounts was priceless. Will say I achieved my objective.

I also did launch profitable B2B messenger campaigns in one ad account. Their ROAS was about 6-7X. Made them around £1200 with £200 ad spend.

As of now. I have now time to focus on lots of exciting things. I will write about what's happening nowadays in detail later.

I applied for other agencies but didn't get hired.

Oh yes, because I'm underage. Wow. Don't ask me why, my age on official papers is 17. And I'm actually 18.



I need to land a good gig so I can make some money to launch some Amazon dropshipping stores with my amazon geek buddy.

This is the thing that I've been learning after being laid off from the agency. A few years down the line, I might be the amazon guru here, who knows?

I don't intend to compete with @biophase. He's one of the guys I look up to and have respect for.



I have penetrated the amazon space and will be using it to generate capital to launch Fastlane businesses. Sounds good, right?

A CENTS business is my biggest goal.





I still struggle with procrastination and action faking. I binge-watched the first season of peaky blinders. Loved it. Also felt guilty after finishing it.

Also discovered my personality type is ENTJ. Guess I'm a ruthless commander, eh?


P.S. In case you were wondering, getting fired from the agency was the best decision for me. I decided to leave the agency in January but didn't have the balls to say it. Grateful that it was done for me.

Be careful with that type of honesty. There is a time and a place. You can often get your point across and not burn bridges. Sounds like you needed to move onto somewhere with similar values to you.

 

[Saad Khan]

I have one main goal for 2022. Get good at what I do. And what I chose was Amazon PPC.

I managed some accounts individually and got some results, but it's time to up the game and get really good at Amazon PPC to be able to deliver results like the big sharks.

I joined a PPC agency today as a PPC manager.

I just got off the onboarding session and here I am writing this message. I'll be learning so much in the process.

Did I mention it's remote 9-5?

 

[Saad Khan]

Update 17th April 2023:

From now on, I will be mentioning how much I make per month, because I feel vulnerable about it (and that's exactly why I'll do it)

March 2023 - Made $50 from a Pakistani client. That incoming $300? Yes, I'm now chasing clients to pay their invoices. Smh.

I expect to get that invoice paid in the upcoming days (the client paid it once but the payment bounced). Damn the banking system in Pakistan. Regarding payment processors getting set up, I'm completely dependent on my partner, which isn't a good thing. So now I'll be opening my personal bank accounts (I went to a bank and they told me to come back with my father. He visits us 2 times/a month so it's more hassle).

I also made a promise to myself. I will now stop working with clients for less than $100/mo. No more working for and with Pakistanis. I've been spending my energy on broke clients who are looking for a silver bullet.

So I outsourced all the work for less than $100/mo to my neighbor I've been training. He's ecstatic.

I've gotten some work on Upwork (which is more than $100/mo haha)

So in total, I have restored some of my free time again while making more than I used to. I also spent $200 on a Growth Marketing Course by a Pakistani guy I admire in my space. Before paying him a single cent, I secured a 1-1 session with him (Hint: Have something to offer which they really want). I literally invested all my savings. This is my first time I'm ever paying for a course.

Here's the bright side. My income all this time has been largely independent of freelance platforms. Right now I need to hit my goal of $500/mo consistently.

My holistic situation:

1 Client on retainer at $150/mo.
1 Upwork client with a $120 contract.
My university community which I'm working on
Training and nurturing some interns so they can be able to do the work without my input.
Learning Javascript and Vue JS in order to start making some websites (I have a guy in my neighborhood who's mentoring me on this and since I'm a CS student it makes sense)

Didn't go to the gym once in Ramadan.

I was having a chat with one of my friends and he mentioned how I ranked an entire food brand on Amazon and helped them make 12,000 pounds in December 2022 under the agency but I was paid only $100/mo for it. This led me to a realization. I'm devaluing my own self. So now I'm fixing that.

Plus I got enterprise-level software for managing Amazon PPC for free just for helping a fellow man in my niche haha. Good juju coming my way

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention a close call for one of my clients. I and my partner finalized the products and did all the due diligence (except checking their credibility because we both assumed we did it). We were getting a 20% ROI on our inventory and even got the invoice from the distributor. At the last moment, it turned out the distributor was a scam.

Now back to the drawing board. The client had been getting impatient and now it's more delays for him again. Unlucky. So for that reason, I've asked my partner if we can offer him a guarantee that after processing the current invoice, we'll keep working with him until he gets his product live on Amazon (which in itself is a tedious process, provided you're doing everything legally).

 

[Guest-5ty5s4]

I learned my lesson. Loyalty is what holds families and corporations together. I will say I'm glad I realized this early on and will be avoiding these kinds of mistakes in the future.

I think that’s the wrong lesson. The real lesson is what @Andy Black said: know the time and place.

You need to be respectful and appropriate for the right situations.

Hell, I rant and post a lot of stuff on the forum anonymously that I would never say in front of a customer or an employee etc.

You can be honest without being rude or disrespectful.

There are times when you really need to watch what you say.

Again, this will seem reallyyyy ironic coming from me (lol) but I promise I act way different in a professional setting in real life than I do talking to fellow fastlane forum members. I consider this more of a “safe zone” to chat, because I’m not selling anything here on the forum or putting up a persona.

When you’re working, you are selling, always. You’ve got to take care with what you do and say. It sounds shitty, but it’s true. It is hard. Trust me. And there are some things that are WAY more important than your career success, and I get that, and you might want to stand up for those things. But that is the lesson in my opinion.

(If you are selling something on the forum you should really treat your account like a professional/business account and avoid arguing with people and stuff. I’m not. This is my personal account only.)

 

[Simon Angel]

I think that’s the wrong lesson. The real lesson is what @Andy Black said: know the time and place.

You need to be respectful and appropriate for the right situations.

Hell, I rant and post a lot of stuff on the forum anonymously that I would never say in front of a customer or an employee etc.

You can be honest without being rude or disrespectful.

There are times when you really need to watch what you say.

Again, this will seem reallyyyy ironic coming from me (lol) but I promise I act way different in a professional setting in real life than I do talking to fellow fastlane forum members. I consider this more of a “safe zone” to chat, because I’m not selling anything here on the forum or putting up a persona.

When you’re working, you are selling, always. You’ve got to take care with what you do and say. It sounds shitty, but it’s true. It is hard. Trust me. And there are some things that are WAY more important than your career success, and I get that, and you might want to stand up for those things. But that is the lesson in my opinion.

(If you are selling something on the forum you should really treat your account like a professional/business account and avoid arguing with people and stuff. I’m not. This is my personal account only.)

This. I am also no expert in diplomacy in my personal life but in a professional setting, everything changes.

@Saad Khan When you're working in an agency you have to remember that you are a part of the agency. You're not just out for yourself. Furthermore, someone (the client) has trusted you with their money - one of the most vital components of our lives.

Now, people get lazy. Colleagues can be incompetent. And sometimes, even the CEO has it all wrong...

And that's EXACTLY when you should be opportunistic!

Why?

Because if you get the job done in spite of those things/people holding you back while also using diplomatic language to minimize the damage your dumb & lazy colleagues caused, you will now be seen as The Guy™.

Who's The Guy™?

The Guy™ is an expert who can compensate for his colleagues' lack of abilities by taking control (regardless if he's just a worker or the CEO, or whatever the F*ck).

For example, your colleagues forgot to set up the pixel (or it stopped working for some reason and they neglectfully did not notice). This has been an ongoing issue for a week, your client's revenue has dropped significantly and they're panicking.

So what can you do? Here's an example:

You can give your colleague a chance to redeem themselves by pointing out to them that tracking seems weird lately and asking whether they might know what's causing it. If they proceed by troubleshooting the error and fixing it, let them know that they should write an update and send it to the client so that they know you're staying on top of things (in control of the situation).

HOWEVER...

If they don't fix the problem - fix it yourself. Even if it's not your job. Use Google.

Boom, you just took control and got some The Guy™ points with your client!

But what if they fix the issue without updating the client?

Well, that basically means they only fixed HALF the problem. Because the biggest problem you have as an agency is retaining that client for as long as possible and they NEED to know that you're doing things. Useful things.

So, just write the update yourself. And even if you fixed the problem all by yourself, always acknowledge that you're a part of a team by saying "We fixed X and did Y, and now Z is back to bringing sales.".

Boom, you just took control and got some The Guy™ points with your client AND team!

A week later, you notice that one of your colleagues is exceedingly useless and even detrimental to the agency's relationship with a client.

What do you do? You kill FOUR birds with ONE stone!

But how?!

Well, you take control by helping your boss out with finding and interviewing a much better candidate for that colleague's position. Your client is now ecstatic about the results he's getting while your boss thinks you're a F*cking genius. Hell, you even gave an actual worthy individual a job which could very well change their life!

Boom, you just took control and got some The Guy™ points!

And hey, guess what - the CEO, your boss, noticed all of this. That same CEO who's been dreaming for YEARS about how someone competent takes over his business and just manages shit for him.

Boom, you're now The Guy™ and took over the agency.

Suddenly, you start getting offers for way more money and work than you even anticipated while also acquiring godlike confidence with all sorts of clients + the ability to lead others.

You now have your own agency.

Anyway..

Gimmicks aside, you have to know how to turn a bad situation into a good situation for everyone (or at the very least someone).

In services that usually means appeasing your client first. Then your boss. And finally, yourself.

But what you did did not appease anyone. Your client thought you were all idiots and left. Your boss was affected by the loss of a client and an attack on his ego. Your ex-colleagues are still incompetent. And you? You're left without a job.

ZERO value provided.

It's basically The Butterfly Effect. A small change can significantly influence a future outcome.

To quote the Lawrence of Arabia:

"Big things have small beginnings."

Good luck!

 

[Saad Khan]

Today, I'm dedicating this post to an entrepreneur that deserves nothing less than everything. He showed me that it's possible to do the impossible.

Thanks to the 5-day BootCamp, I got to network with entrepreneurs. There was one guy that stood out. He was a 27-year-old doctor who built an electric bike. Yes, he started learning engineering at 21 (when he was studying medicine) and has built ten prototypes.

I asked him to bring an unfinished prototype with a new design from the factory, and he did. Everything in the bike, except for the batteries, is made in Pakistan. It goes fast, and has excellent fuel efficiency. (0.3 cents/per kilometer). You bet I'm buying one of these when it hits the market.

His advice for everyone?
Perseverance, resiliency, and consistency will get you anywhere you want to go.

Anyways, I came up with an idea and pitched it on Day 5. My idea was an e-learning platform that provides certified technical courses to students and job seekers in Pakistan in their local languages. It's like Udacity, but the course is in local languages. Now I'm working on developing an MVP.

I'll be pitching in front of the government (this time, it's real) to get a grant to work on my business idea.

Best 5 days spent in my entire life so far!

 

[wyattnorton]

How is this fine? I'm seeing that I'm doing work but its not translating to systems. I'm trying to train a friend of mine to do the redundant tasks that I do so I can free up time and focus on 20% of the work that generates 80% of the outcome.

Right now, my time is maxed out. Even today I got off my schedule so tomorrow I have to work double the time.

Need to work on creating systems. I need to free up the time to focus on high leverage tasks. Perhaps @Black_Dragon43 can deliver some insights?

Thank you for your input nonetheless bro. I didn't mean to water down your words. I'll check out Kinobody.

When you first start out Saad, you're going to be working crazy F*cking hours until you get the hang of it.

Right out of college, I was pulling 4 am to 10 pm days building my landscape company.

I was doing all the WRONG and all the RIGHT things at the same time. Over the days, I figured out which actions worked better. I didn't give a shit about "my routine" just how can I get clients, fulfill their project, and hire/train employees.

Your routine is not the problem man... it is what you're doing during your work time.

How about you create a routine for your work hours instead of just your day?

First hour of work is proposals, second hour of work is fulfillment of services, third hour of work is studying the skill you're doing, fourth hour of work is learning how to get clients, etc etc.

Or one day you do solely outreach or 3 hours and fulfillment for 1, then the next day you do 1 hour of outreach and 3 hours of fulfillment.

 

[BizyDad]

Woah. @heavy_industry did you help @Saad Khan upgrade his profile pic?

That is QUITE the transformation. Good for you dude. Stepping your game up. You won't regret it...

 

[woken]

He boasted about his 4 years of experience

Yes, and there’s a better way to generate more revenue.

You’re just lacking a bit of diplomacy and that’s fine when you’re just starting out anyway.

Most people prefer sugarcoating.

I just told you you’re just starting out, I didn’t call you young & stupid.

Notice the difference words have on you?

I too had a problem with being too honest. People respected that but nothing else. It crippled my ability to make more friends/ network more.

 

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[Saad Khan]

11th March 2021.

This date has a special place in my heart.

I decided that I would no longer give the medical exams I had been preparing so hard for (This decision turned out to be good). I even paid for 3 months coaching alongside school. I sealed the deal with writing myself a 3 line promise on a notepad. This was before TMF .

2 days later, I discovered TMF . I devoured it and on 15th of March, I signed up here.

Before all this happened, I wanted to become a doctor. Desparately. Why?

I had witnessed my father forced to liquidate his shares in a pharma manufacturing factory in 2017. It wasn't easy. That event led me to decide I would no longer want to RUN a business. I'd rather become a doctor. Unfortunately, my father got into an accident and all the money my dad made was spent on treatment. Back to square one.

But fate had other plans.

Here's who I was on March 15th, 2021

Sleeping at 4 am
Playing 10-12 hours of Counter Strike on shit internet, cussing everytime my game lagged
Following the crowd and on my way to seal my fate as a sidewalker.

Today (15th March 2023)

Sleeping at 11 pm (Sleep fixed)
Hitting the gym
Working on building a community of software engineers and AI programmers for my fastlane ventures at uni
Helped Amazon brands add more than $400,000 to their bottom line (under the Amazon Ads agency's umbrella)
Started a small youtube channel with valuable content for my niche, where I teach newbies what Iearned, no holds barred.
Shifting my focus from working for local clients and agencies that pay pennies to now directly working with foreign clients.
Consulting FBA sellers on how to capture more market share in their markets.

And today I'll confess something which I feel vulnerable about. F*ck, I'll spill everything. Hiding it has hurt me long enough.

How much I made in those 2 years. And that figure is $1500. I made 50% of that in the last 4-5 months.

I've seen many folks make big figures here, and I'm happy for them. And when I compare that to what I earned as a 18 year old, I feel like I'm not doing something right.

@Black_Dragon43 got a peek at my GSD trello board with what I aimed to achieve in July 2022.

He laughed. At the tasks I was giving priority to. I was action faking. I'm still struggling with it, I think I need some of Tudor's tough love. And then he saw my income goal for that month.

It was me trying to make $100/month stable (I've grown out of it since). I didn't want anyone to know about it but I accidentally showed it to him. I was super insecure about it. My own fears have held me back for so long. Not now.

At that point I was about to handle my first ever Amazon Ads account of my friend's launch in August. I had devoured everything I could learn about Amazon Ads and blew all my savings on courses. Looking back, it paid off.

Before that, I was working for breadcrumbs and pennies and working in a Pakistani market that didn't know what copywriting was so I was working as a content writer for the agency (if you know, you know). Simply put, I was overworked and underpaid. That led me to hate writing content for money. And the fact that I didn't see a clear impact the content made me want to switch my skillset even more.

LESSON: If you're from a 3rd world country and decide to follow the copywriting mantra here and don't find a way to work with foregin clients, you might end up like me. Be careful. Go where your work is appreciated.

While this post is no where close to Fastlane success, I'm 100% sure I'll become an unscriptee. I'm on my way there. One step at a time.

 

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[Saad Khan]

2022:

• Get $100 of consistent income (First milestone). Then $200 and so on until I hit the goal of $1000/month this year (low expectations but not pessimistic)
• Learn excel (so I’m able to analyze data from tools and find the right product to pitch to amazon sellers).
• Post content on social media (once per week at least)
• Establish my profile on freelance platforms and build a personal brand
• Start going to the gym
• Regular morning walks
• Start waking up at dawn
• Improve my communication, marketing, sales, and copywriting skills (I’ll stick to this one forever)
• Start getting orders on freelance platforms and social media
• Work on creating multiple income streams
• Build marketing and sales funnels and work on CRMs this year
• Build and market private label dropshipping stores. Doing this because it’s low cost and the fastest way to become good at driving traffic and sales (This is more of a learning-oriented goal than a CENTS-oriented goal).

This year I’ll become good at what I do, so good in fact that I’ll consistently overdeliver.


Monthly Breakdowns (For February)

• Learn excel. Watch at least one course every day.
• Get amazon tools. Spend 1 hour at least hunting products and markets.
• Start running and managing ad accounts (especially Facebook ad accounts)
• Start working on my freelance and social media profiles

How I define myself right now:
"I’m an unscripted entrepreneur who is temporarily working at a marketing agency as a copywriter and marketer.”

 

[MitchC]

There’s a book called how to win friends and influence people.

One of the biggest takeaways I took from it is asking yourself “what is the purpose of my communication?”

Asking yourself this will result in far better outcomes than just saying what you want to say.

Since the agency fired you and you were running successful campaigns for that client, could you steal that client?

 

[Andy Black]

Since the agency fired you and you were running successful campaigns for that client, could you steal that client?

Ah. I wouldn’t do that. Everything we do and don’t do is building our personal brand. It’s an asset that can bring us business throughout our lifetime. If anything I’d see if I could mend those burnt bridges and part on good terms.

 

[Rabby]

It's good to mess up once or twice in a professional environment, especially when you're young. I recall getting on the nerves of an important broker once, at a place where I worked. It taught me how not to get on the nerves of important brokers, a skill I put into practice from that point on.

 

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[Saad Khan]

Not gonna lie, my ego-stroking got me shortlisted for a college expo. Because of my first impressions, the director appointed me as an organizer for the university event. I got a chance to meet with the other guys and most of them were just there. Doing nothing at home with tons of free time. And here I am, literally struggling to not get fired from the agency because of not being available at their specified times. (I am in a hurry)

I feel something is wrong as if I'm the smartest person in the room at the university. I guess I'm stroking my ego again?

Anyways, now I'm catering to:

The PPC Agency (I have to cater more to them so I can learn faster)
1 client of my so-called "agency" on a retainer.
2 Freelance clients (mostly inactive but the workload is significant when they need something)
and now...

I'm a university event organizer and I have the job to call the brands and get them to invest in the expo they're doing at the uni + gotta manage a team of 5 guys. I mean why did I open my big mouth!?

I really need to:

Invest time in building my personal brand (literally, this is the most important thing out of everything above. I can't help but sob why I can't find time for it.)

I do have time. I plunder it sometimes. Damn Youtube feed and shorts on the mobile app! Every time I want to go watch downloaded math lectures on youtube, I end up getting stuck in the feed and shorts. Someone, PLEASE get rid of them addictive algorithms! If this idea is executed right, it will be CENTS and super Fastlane.

I want to have 48-hour days now :/

Or I need to cut off some weight off my shoulders

 

[Saad Khan]

I feel something is wrong as if I'm the smartest person in the room at the organizer gathering. I guess I'm stroking my ego again?

Ok so being a smartass doesn't matter if you can't execute your thing better than others.

I learned a couple of things from the organizers. Especially the chief organizers and directors.

Action is the name of the game. Those guys were ON THE PHONE. ALL. THE. TIME. Even at 8 pm, they were calling everyone in the city. Now that's what you call cold calling unlike me who called 12-13 people in the span of 4 days. They literally went to their offices and sat for hours there to get them to sign the contract.

Sure, they are the ones getting the money but man, they were determined. That makes me question how much action I'm taking. If they were my competitors, I would get crushed. What's clever is that they leveraged all the manpower they had available. Pretty good use of unemployed students, huh?

When will I start to take this much action??? When will the day come when I cold call and message 30-40 people daily? I'm clearly not taking enough action.

I DMed the guys I was working with, unlike the other organizers who communicated in group chats. Let's say my messages remained obscure and their efforts were praised. Ouch.

I asked if I could go with them but it was too late. They had finished.

3 days left till the event starts.



If I had not read Fastlane in 2021, here's how it would have ended up for me (80% likely):

1. Failed the medical entrance exam (try competing for 300 seats with 500,000 students. Good luck with that)
2. Wasting a year sitting at home, just to give the exam again.
3. Fail the exam again (lose my 2nd and last shot) cause I spent only 2 months studying out of 12 months. Then try to convince myself that it was worth it and then join an expensive uni with an expensive degree and study like a studyaholic (new word, anyone?)

Thank you for writing the book, MJ!

 

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[Saad Khan]

So the 2-day event happened. I was appointed as a head organizer. Came home exhausted and couldn't function normally for 2 days. That's why I'm updating here right now with tons of work I need to do on Sunday.

One of the gentlemen owns 6 Amazon brands (that's what he said) and I booked a meeting with him tomorrow at his office. The reason he was interested is that he wants me to launch PPC campaigns for his new product in the UK. We'll see how that goes.

He also had his stall at the event. Met him as well.

I got invited to another event to become an organizer again. F*ck, I'm gonna do it again. I'm doing it for the connections and for building my reputation.

I got a prospective lead for Amazon PPC from LinkedIn today. Let's see how that goes.

Edit: I'm forecasted to fail in my first semester if I don't get my shit together.

Edit 2: I forgot to mention that I signed up as a brand ambassador for a real estate development society that had set up a stall with them. Good opportunity to poke around and understand how the real estate dynamics work in my town. I still have to visit them a their office which I'll do today

 

[BizyDad]

Agency making $10k+ revenue

This number is too low for 2026. Do what you say you're going to do this year, put your systems in place, be consistent, and you can hit this kind of revenue by the end of 2023.

 

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[Saad Khan]

@Saad Khan When you're working in an agency you have to remember that you are a part of the agency. You're not just out for yourself. Furthermore, someone (the client) has trusted you with their money - one of the most vital components of our lives.

I love your take on the possibilities that were possible.

I wanted to leave the agency in January 2022.

I didn't realize that telling the client the problems that I fixed would result in such a mess. I did provide value to them and kept their ROAS at 6x-7x. This was the client I wanted to work with, can't believe I ruined it for everyone with my ignorance.

And you? You're left without a job.

Yes. I'm actually very happy that I have left that content job. That's what I wanted. I wanted to leave the agency because:

1. They treated me like a slave for the first 4 months and didn't pay me a dime. When I asked for it they refused (despite working for them 4-6 hrs a day). That led to me having a vendetta against them.
2. I hated writing content for them because they offered unlimited revisions to their clients. Clients would exploit the heck outta me and make me write 10 bullet points in 10 days!
3. I despised the first client they made me work with. I pleaded to them to let me handle other accounts.
4. I have exams and tests every month (have to prepare for that).
5. What do you expect from a Pakistani agency? The CEO literally told me he was going to hire unpaid interns and recruit the best one with the lowest wage and maintenance. Talent doesn't come for cheap.

There are so many factors and events that would take me a good hour to write here. In a nutshell, I ruined my mental health for the clients and my learning progress stagnated.

1. He doesn't value talent. I witnessed at least 4 skilled marketers and copywriters come and stay at the agency for 3-4 days (max was 2 weeks), and never look back.

I will be ecstatic to work for other agencies because they don't ditch your efforts and make you their slaves. They also have talented people you can learn from.

@Simon Angel , talk about wisdom, your advice was the best choice I could've possibly made for everyone.

 

[Saad Khan]

This is a question for anyone who is not getting results.

Are you consistent? Don't lie to yourself.

I know I'm not.

Consistency is the sauce I need to obtain and I need discipline for it. One of my goals for 2022.

Okay, back to LinkedIn profile optimization

 

[Saad Khan]

If anybody tries telling you selling on Amazon is easy, they are doing one of two things:

1. Trying to sell you a course
2. Lying

 

[Saad Khan]

Good news. Some of our classes have 1.5 hours of time block breaks in between. That's good as I can go back and forth from uni to my workstation in 15 mins (considering I have a bike). Looks like managing uni and work wouldn't be as hard as I anticipated.

I'm literally getting paid to learn at the agency. You know it's a meaningful job when your only motive isn't money for the bills.

 

[Funky Monkey]

Update 17th April 2023:

From now on, I will be mentioning how much I make per month, because I feel vulnerable about it (and that's exactly why I'll do it)

March 2023 - Made $50 from a Pakistani client. That incoming $300? Yes, I'm now chasing clients to pay their invoices. Smh.

I expect to get that invoice paid in the upcoming days (the client paid it once but the payment bounced). Damn the banking system in Pakistan. Regarding payment processors getting set up, I'm completely dependent on my partner, which isn't a good thing. So now I'll be opening my personal bank accounts (I went to a bank and they told me to come back with my father. He visits us 2 times/a month so it's more hassle).

I also made a promise to myself. I will now stop working with clients for less than $100/mo. No more working for and with Pakistanis. I've been spending my energy on broke clients who are looking for a silver bullet.

So I outsourced all the work for less than $100/mo to my neighbor I've been training. He's ecstatic.

I've gotten some work on Upwork (which is more than $100/mo haha)

So in total, I have restored some of my free time again while making more than I used to. I also spent $200 on a Growth Marketing Course by a Pakistani guy I admire in my space. Before paying him a single cent, I secured a 1-1 session with him (Hint: Have something to offer which they really want). I literally invested all my savings. This is my first time I'm ever paying for a course.

Here's the bright side. My income all this time has been largely independent of freelance platforms. Right now I need to hit my goal of $500/mo consistently.

My holistic situation:

1 Client on retainer at $150/mo.
1 Upwork client with a $120 contract.
My university community which I'm working on
Training and nurturing some interns so they can be able to do the work without my input.
Learning Javascript and Vue JS in order to start making some websites (I have a guy in my neighborhood who's mentoring me on this and since I'm a CS student it makes sense)

Didn't go to the gym once in Ramadan.

I was having a chat with one of my friends and he mentioned how I ranked an entire food brand on Amazon and helped them make 12,000 pounds in December 2022 under the agency but I was paid only $100/mo for it. This led me to a realization. I'm devaluing my own self. So now I'm fixing that.

Plus I got enterprise-level software for managing Amazon PPC for free just for helping a fellow man in my niche haha. Good juju coming my way

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention a close call for one of my clients. I and my partner finalized the products and did all the due diligence (except checking their credibility because we both assumed we did it). We were getting a 20% ROI on our inventory and even got the invoice from the distributor. At the last moment, it turned out the distributor was a scam.

Now back to the drawing board. The client had been getting impatient and now it's more delays for him again. Unlucky. So for that reason, I've asked my partner if we can offer him a guarantee that after processing the current invoice, we'll keep working with him until he gets his product live on Amazon (which in itself is a tedious process, provided you're doing everything legally).

Damn start marketing in America or Europe my friend. I make 500 for simple 1-2 page sites that take like 10hrs if I do it all by myself and that's marketing to small business. Large business pays many times that. Hate to see a south Asian brother struggle.

Btw tip on being consistent with the gym: Treat it like chores and reduce friction as much as possible. I make it easy for myself by going to the gym uas late as possible because it makes me sleepy so I go an hour or 2 before bedtime and I don't even worry about clothes I'll go lift in my jeans and polo. Also having a program (if you dont have one 4 day GVS on Yt) and seeing your lifts go up (or down if you didn't eat/sleep properly) can be good motivation for going.

 

[Saad Khan]

Woah. @heavy_industry did you help @Saad Khan upgrade his profile pic?

How did you know? What is he, a jedi? @heavy_industry

 

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[Roli]

Amidst all of these exciting events, There's one thing that bugs me. It's just that my lazy and distracted mind isn't in my absolute control. I waste so much of my energy on things that don't move the needle. Like some days I get back on gaming, when I get out of it, I get on some harmful stuff like porn, then its a perpetual cycle of misery. I've realized that I'll never stop playing games. I kept saying to myself that after I finish this game, then no more games. Guess what? I've been saying that for the past 6 months or so. Technology is a blessing when
you control your mind but a curse otherwise.

Unfortunately an intrinsic property of the human mind is it tends to focus on the negative. Sometimes this helps us, like in instances where we focus on a negative outcome to spur us on to do something positive (example: I don't want to get fat so I take up jogging).

However this doesn't benefit us in so many areas. I have read a large part of your thread and you have clearly made progress in so many areas. I'm sure if I had told the Saad Khan who started this thread that he would be going to the Prime Minister's house to pitch a business idea, that guy would have told me I was mad.

So let's get to the porn and gaming and anything else you want to stop. Instead of focusing on the times you give in to your urges, you're going to create a subtle mindset shift with the following exercise.

Take a piece of paper and draw a vertical line down the middle. Then pick at random, either the left or right side as your favourite.

Now each time you feel you've played a game for "too long" add an 'X' to your least favourite side of the paper.

When you feel you have resisted the urge to lose yourself in gaming, either by not logging in or stopping a session, add an 'X' to your favourite side of the paper.

Each day, look at the paper with no judgement. All you are trying to do is fill up your favourite side, if all the exes are on the "wrong" side, just shrug and repeat the exercise the next day.

Make a different piece of paper for porn, don't mix the two as it is not as psychologically beneficial.

Remember, don't do the exercise with any self-judgement in mind, you are simply adding crosses pieces of paper.

Have a go at that and see what happens. Let me know the results in a few weeks time.

 

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