(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!)
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.
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:
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...
Don't be shy. Share those battle-scars and war stories...
Dislike ads? Become a Fastlane member:
Subscribe today and surround yourself with winners and millionaire mentors, not those broke friends who only want to drink beer and play video games. :-)
Membership Required: Upgrade to Expose Nearly 1,000,000 Posts
Ready to Unleash the Millionaire Entrepreneur in You?
Become a member of the Fastlane Forum, the private community founded by best-selling author and multi-millionaire entrepreneur MJ DeMarco. Since 2007, MJ DeMarco has poured his heart and soul into the Fastlane Forum, helping entrepreneurs reclaim their time, win their financial freedom, and live their best life.
With more than 39,000 posts packed with insights, strategies, and advice, you’re not just a member—you’re stepping into MJ’s inner-circle, a place where you’ll never be left alone.
Become a member and gain immediate access to...
- Active Community: Ever join a community only to find it DEAD? Not at Fastlane! As you can see from our home page, life-changing content is posted dozens of times daily.
- Exclusive Insights: Direct access to MJ DeMarco’s daily contributions and wisdom.
- Powerful Networking Opportunities: Connect with a diverse group of successful entrepreneurs who can offer mentorship, collaboration, and opportunities.
- Proven Strategies: Learn from the best in the business, with actionable advice and strategies that can accelerate your success.
"You are the average of the five people you surround yourself with the most..."
Who are you surrounding yourself with? Surround yourself with millionaire success. Join Fastlane today!
Join Today
