Taking the Entrepreneurial Leap, a Deep Abyss of Meaninglessness, a Discovery of Purpose.

[keep]

(I was originally going to post this as my background in a thread I had with questions about pricing. I figured it was more suitable for an introduction post!)

My Background​

I left college in 2014 after one year. (Thanks MJ, your book ruined any chance I ever had of graduating)

Then I started working at a local residential solar installer. At that company, they funded my education in direct-response and entrepreneurship.

I learned about a ton, from copywriting to Adwords to Facebook Ads to email marketing and so on.

They essentially funded my direct-response marketing education and provided the funds and the playground to test it out.

About 6 months ago, I felt the urge to go out on my own. I always wanted to run my own business. I decided to specialize in copywriting and began to acquire clients. I was quickly making more per-hour than at my day job.

4 months ago I took the plunge and moved back in with family temporarily as I build up the freelancing business.

There has been ups and downs but it's been going well.

One big success was that I ended up providing all the email marketing/copywriting for a BIG virtual health summit. That was very cool and I was able to positively impact a huge number of people! We sent over 250,000 emails throughout the whole campaign. Biggest distribution my copy has had yet! A probiotic that we sold on the backend helped a lady pretty much rid herself of the horrendous digestion issues she was experiencing. That was powerful.

One HUGE challenge hit me a month ago. The pink cloud of running my own business wore off and it entered the grind-zone. That's what I signed up for and I knew it. What I didn't know is that my meaning and purpose for my business was insufficiently fulfilling and I began to flounder. It was difficult to get out of bed. Sitting down for client work was a slog. It was brutal and my mind was my own worst enemy.

I knew there was introspection to do.

Over the last week and a half, the fog has cleared. I've re-evaluated my meaning and purpose and my life mission. (If you are in the middle of a bog like that, it's TOUGH. Keep pushing. With enough time and effort (and prayer if you are into that) then you'll come closer and closer to the meaning and purpose that lights a fire under your a$$.)

I realized that I find fulfillment through interacting with others. Talking. Discussing. Helping.

Serving others (without expectation of any gain) is what gives me meaning.

I found a way to align that with my business. Purpose. (Contributing profits to a charity that supports a cause very, very near and dear: helping low-income children to have life-changing experiences out in nature, at an outdoor school that offers all sorts of phenomenal classes throughout the summer. It changed my life and I've already seen it change so many other lives. When a child — who has never had a taste of their own personal abilities to create and manifest their vision into the world — learns how to build a fire from nothing... just wood on the ground and a knife, whittled the correct way to produce an ember which, when properly nurtured, bursts into flame and starts a campfire that the community gathers around, their eyes light up like nothing you've ever seen. Just like ancient man, who lived and ate by their ability to harness the power of fire, a children with that experience wakes up to their own potential in a way that is rarely found in modern society. That's just one of countless life-changing experiences that non-profit supports.)

All in all, I'm back in the game.

Oorah, lets roll.

My Fastlane Gameplan​

I have a lot of directions I can go with my current business. Different verticals, different services etc.

Main Revenue Goal: Increase my hourly to a place where I can live a comfortable lifestyle and have more time on the side to build more Fastlane-aligned businesses (and serve the causes I care about). That number is ~$150/hour. I don't plan on charging hourly, but that's the effective hourly revenue per hour I would need to hit.

I've read Fastlane and am almost done with Unscripted .

I was making $22/hr at my job. I now make $30/hr regularly with one particular client that has loads of work for me. (I should renegotiate that soon, but I'm hesitant until I can approach the negotiation with an authentic lack of neediness.) Aside from that, I have other various clients and projects here and there. With those I work on a flat fee, which usually works out to north of $50/hr or $100/hr depending on the project. My old employer pays me $750/mo for a ~5 hours of work per month (ongoing maintenance of various marketing systems I used to manage.) I also negotiated any additional work beyond that $750/mo contract scope at $67/hr.

I'm creeping up the ladder to hit that $150/hr goal and I'm only in my fourth month of business.

The most fastlane opportunity on my plate at this exact moment: I'm in discussions with a CRM company to offer a service to their clientele where I'd then offer a backend continuity service that I could build a human-resource system around to disconnect my time and then scale. I could then potentially market that continuity service to every business in the market, which is not HUGE... but even 10 customers would likely achieve my financial goal mentioned above.

Obviously, the end-game is a money-system that puts me in early retirement. Then I can spend my time creating art, serving worthy causes and building more fastlane businesses that can fund various philanthropic ventures.

And that will happen eventually, as long as I keep putting my coins in the right gumball machines and serving others around me.

In the meantime, I've re-connected with my deeper purpose. That purpose gives me the gusto to get out of bed in the morning. Previously I thought, "I'll use the money and time I have eventually to help others in all these amazing ways!" But that wasn't sufficient for myself. I needed to connect that with a tangible "now" way of serving the causes that light me up.

That's why donating my profits to that charity is powerful for me. A portion of every dollar I earn, even if it's hourly, goes towards sponsoring a boy or girl to experience that life-changing outdoor school. It's a potent meaning and purpose, which is the next step after fixing your 3Bs. Now I can move into developing FE and acting with KE. (You've all read Unscripted ... right?

So hello to all of you.

To spark discussion, here is a question:

What is the process you've gone through to find your MP (meaning and purpose) sufficient to drive you to KE (Kinetic Execution)?

Don't be shy. Share those battle-scars and war stories...​

 

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[Parker fields]

they funded my education in direct-response and entrepreneurship.

Oorah, lets roll.

What is the process you've gone through to find your MP (meaning and purpose) sufficient to drive you to KE (Kinetic Execution)?​

I am literally at the exact same point you started in. I’ve wasted too much time trying to find a school that will help me with skills I want, and in my process of taking action into finding what fits best for me so I can dive into my learning grind.

I have to ask, Did you serve? What year did you get out?
(Oorah) just tipped me off thinking you had the GI bill, but the solar company funded your education.

I searched direct response and entrepreneurship, can you elaborate more on this? Where did you go? Did this supply you with the skills and start you needed to get traction?

My kinetic execution has come from working six figure jobs and deciding that money was not building my freedom working for others. No matter who I work for I’m not building my dream, so no time like the present to make changes.

Thanks for writing this up. I like your writing style as well.

 

[keep]

I am literally at the exact same point you started in. I’ve wasted too much time trying to find a school that will help me with skills I want, and in my process of taking action into finding what fits best for me so I can dive into my learning grind.

I knew since high-school that I wanted to run my own businesses. When I left university, I was actually planning on using web-development as my fall-back put-bread-on-the-table bankable skill. Then the solar company gig went full-time and the journey evolved.

I realized early on that what I needed to learn wasn't going to be taught in university. I also knew that I could learn programming on my own and avoid the $40k+ debt-noose. Later on, when considering returning to school at certain times, I also realized the same was true for marketing (the right kind that actually makes money aka: direct-response). And that's what I knew I wanted to specialize in.

But let me be frank, my man. The road has been BUMPY. It's been a hectic last 4 years. I have an obsession with self-improvement as well as a tendency to self-sabotage. That's a fun combo.

I have to ask, Did you serve? What year did you get out?
(Oorah) just tipped me off thinking you had the GI bill, but the solar company funded your education.

No, I did not serve. I considered joining the Coast Guard towards the end of high-school. I was going through a late teen existential crisis (I remember bawling my eyes out in my backyard as my girlfriend (at the time) held me. I had no hope or idea of how to move forward. I felt emasculated, but she loved me for it anyway. Bless her heart, we are still good friends to this day.) and I latched onto the Coast Guard as a concrete way that I could give back to the world and make my life worthwhile: saving lives via helicopter rescue. I was considering AMT or AET, not AST for any Coasties out there. The Guardian was a great movie, but I was not a great swimmer.

Anyway, that short-term goal: "join the Coast Guard" helped get me through that time. I didn't follow-through, partly because it was so impacted that I would have to wait 3-5 years to even specialize into my desired rate and stop swabbing decks.

I eventually took the underlying meaning and purpose (MP) and was able to maneuver it into a sufficient MP which pushed me through my jaunt at university.

I just like battle-yells like Oorah.

I searched direct response and entrepreneurship, can you elaborate more on this? Where did you go? Did this supply you with the skills and start you needed to get traction?

Sure.

First, direct response marketing is the full term.

This is a good article to read re: direct response marketing.

Here's an excerpt from the above linked article:

"Direct Marketing simply means: Communicating to the customer in a personal way and asking them to do something. It’s always measurable, and real practitioners always measure it. Therefore it’s really the only kind of marketing that’s rigorous and scientific. It truly separates the men from the boys."​

Second, I learned "marketing" (still so much to learn) by first devouring every guru I could get my hands on. I went through various phases of jadedness with the "bro-marketing". Luckily, I found my way to solid teachers like Perry Marshall, Dan Kennedy, etc. They opened my eyes to the world of copywriting and direct-response.

They answered the question I had when I left school:

How does this "business" and "entrepreneurship" thing work? How do I take an idea, turn it into a product/service, find prospects, sell them and build a profitable business?

I learned through countless books, courses, audios, emails, articles and teachers. Not just on marketing, but business, sales and everything in between. In addition to marketing, it all gave me a sense for how proper (fastlane) businesses are structured.

It's nice because right now it's a bankable skill I'm using to freelance and build my own business up. Plus it's needed in literally every business or venture I ever start. Value needs to be communicated to people and they must be asked to take a certain action. It's the art of money-getting.

My philosophy leaving college was: if I want to make the big bucks and never be out a job, I need to be close to the money. Sales is literally right next to the money... it IS the money. Marketing is the next closest thing. If you can bring in leads and customers to a business, you can make money. Whether it's your own or a client's.

Hope that clarifies. Let me know what else you'd like me to elaborate on. Happy to share.

My kinetic execution has come from working six figure jobs and deciding that money was not building my freedom working for others. No matter who I work for I’m not building my dream, so no time like the present to make changes.

Thanks for writing this up. I like your writing style as well.

As MJ says (paraphrased), you'll never know when what you've learned or experienced will come in handy. Your time in high-paying positions gives you unique insights into particular verticals that few others have.

Thanks for your comment about the writing style. I've decided recently that I'd like to start writing fiction, so your comment is encouraging.

What's your Meaning and Purpose?

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Thanks MJ, your book ruined any chance I ever had of graduating

Really? Was it a straw that broke a camel's back, or was it the real impetus?

Purpose. (Contributing profits to a charity that supports a cause very, very near and dear: helping low-income children to have life-changing experiences out in nature, at an outdoor school that offers all sorts of phenomenal classes throughout the summer. It changed my life and I've already seen it change so many other lives. When a child — who has never had a taste of their own personal abilities to create and manifest their vision into the world — learns how to build a fire from nothing... just wood on the ground and a knife, whittled the correct way to produce an ember which, when properly nurtured, bursts into flame and starts a campfire that the community gathers around, their eyes light up like nothing you've ever seen. Just like ancient man, who lived and ate by their ability to harness the power of fire, a children with that experience wakes up to their own potential in a way that is rarely found in modern society. That's just one of countless life-changing experiences that non-profit supports.)

Love it.

Great intro and thanks for sharing.

 

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[keep]

Really? Was it a straw that broke a camel's back, or was it the real impetus?

My statement was a slightly facetious reference to this thread.

TMF was more of a mind-virus. Once I allowed the idea of sidewalk, slowlane and fastlane into my consciousness... there was no going back.

I became "infected" and my world view permanently shifted.

Any employment aside from entrepreneurship would quietly whisper at the back of my mind, "what are you dooooooooing..... fastlane, fastlane, fastlane.... don't you remember?"

And so entrepreneurship quickly became the only path.

It was the financial/employment red-pill.

I am very appreciative that I found it.

 

[Parker fields]

So far what major bumps in starting your copywriting journey have affected you the most?

What's your Meaning and Purpose?

My Meaning and Purpose? To break free from the scripted society and build a freedom for myself and those around me.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

My Meaning and Purpose? To break free from the scripted society and build a freedom for myself and those around me.

THIS.

And with THIS meaning and purpose, suddenly the nature of one's work isn't that important. Do what you love, not that important. Follow your passion, not that important. Because MEANING drives the action.

 

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