xShepherdx's Progress Thread: Building A Fastlane Business

[xShepherdx]

Thank you, I will absolutely look into that.
In my case the problem was that I changed the title on the top of the page that says "home" and WP automatically changed it to an underlying page then. I made a workaround and said a few words that I dare not repeat here.

P.S. and thank you for the tough love. I worked through many google results, but totally forgot to ask chatGPT about this one although I use it a lot . Could have made my life easier...

+1 on using ChatGPT for fixing or customizing things within WordPress. It's my go-to nowadays for website stuff.

 

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[xShepherdx]

I know I want to buy investment properties at some point, and I figured the best time to start learning is now - while I'm building up my cash pile.

So, I recently reached out to my neighbor who happens to be a real estate broker here locally. He's a SUPER knowledgeable dude but I never had the chance to talk with him outside of a quick hello when we passed each other in the neighborhood.

We met for around 45 minutes at his office and DAMN, that guy is squared away. Super knowledgeable about RE and ran a very solid operation.

He showed me how he differentiated his brokerage by providing real value to their agents instead of treating them like disposable warm bodies. I won't go into the details here, but he is 100% going to be a deca-millionaire or more within the next decade. His competition doesn't stand a chance if he keeps it up.

We chatted for a bit about the systems and funnels he's building/built, where he wants to improve, and just business in general. We totally nerded out and had a fantastic meeting. I learned SO MUCH that is applicable to both RE and my current business.

Some examples of things I'm thinking about now:

• Why don't I have a database of clearly defined SOPs for myself and my contractors?
• Why aren't my existing SPOs organized in a place that's easy for everyone to access?
• What do my funnels look like? How can I consistently fill them up with fresh leads?
• What drives the core of my business? How do I do more of that?
• Where is the industry headed? How can I take advantage of that?
• What do my people/team need? How can I provide that to them and make their jobs easier?
• What goals does my team need to set? How can I get them to achieve those goals consistently?

Leaving the meeting my brain felt like a sponge thrown in the ocean. He shared so much knowledge that my mind felt totally numb. But at the same time, it fired me up and now I have even more direction on where to go with my business.

---

One thing I can't stress enough is this: In scenarios like this, owning your own business completely changes the game.

When we started the meeting, he asked me what I wanted to ask him about. It was a very "student/teacher" question - and totally understandable as he didn't know I owned my own business.

I told him that I didn't know ANYTHING about real estate, other than what I learned in a one-semester class I took while obtaining my finance degree. So, the reason I wanted to chat with him was that I was building an e-commerce business and would be looking to buy investment properties in the next few years and wanted to start gaining firsthand knowledge before I was in the position to buy since I've never done anything in RE before.

Once I mentioned owning my own business, the tone of the meeting completely changed.

Almost instantly, we became equals. He asked some questions about my business and then DUG IN to the meat of his business operated and differentiated itself from others in the industry. It was amazing. There was no stress and he was excited to show off the cool stuff they're doing and struggling with - most of which I would have never thought to ask about and was SUPER valuable to my business.

I believe this meeting would have gone very differently if I was just an employee/prospective realtor "looking to learn more about RE" - and would have been way less helpful.

If you own your own business - even a side hustle - be sure that you IDENTIFY as a business owner and own that sh*t wherever you go.

MJ talks about Identity in Unscripted and I feel like that was what made this meeting so impactful. I identify as a business owner (even though my business is tiny) and that helped me connect with him at the level of business owner - which was truly invaluable.

---

He also invited me to come work for his company and I'm 99.9% sure I'll be taking up his offer. Not a bad outcome for someone whose opening question started with "I know literally nothing about real estate".

I think it will be a great move, but I want to give my business just a bit more time to spread its wings since I only just started seeing results. I want to get a bunch more systems in place so the business is less of a time sink and can operate without my constant attention. I'll likely do the RE job full-time and build the ecom business during the early morning/late evening.

We're planning on meeting up again in a month so I have a bit of time before I have to commit to anything. This opportunity seems way too good to pass up though. It will open tons of doors for me in the RE world, put me around a high-level operator daily, and give me even more knowledge and cash to grow the current business.

And who knows, maybe another Fastlane opportunity will be uncovered along the way.

 

[Matt Lee]

He also invited me to come work for his company and I'm 99.9% sure I'll be taking up his offer. Not a bad outcome for someone whose opening question started with "I know literally nothing about real estate".

I'm having vibes similar to another well-known Gold thread on here. You probably know which one I mean . I'm excited to read your updates. 1+ sub!

 

[xShepherdx]

I'm happy to report that the business has crossed $8k in sales for May - double my initial goal of $4k. We also did ~4.5k in profit - whatever FB bills for ads (probably around $900, could be less though).

The new video ads should be done by the end of the week and I'm excited to get those going.

I also need to look at our remarketing ads more closely as 99% of the purchases have been from our prospecting ads. I switched the FB ads from ABO to CBO to see if that helps - so far FB has spent a lot more on remarketing than I did before and the frequency is up. Now it's time to dial in the creative + positioning of each ad. Maybe I'll add a coupon code or some sort of special offer and see how that goes.

Goals for June:

• $12k in revenue
• $4k in profit
• Have functioning system for getting consistent social post made + published
• 2.5x ROAS on FB Ads

How I Plan To Get There:

• Test new ad creatives every 2 weeks
• Test new ad copy/angles every week
• Post YT shorts, TikTok, & IG reels 2x/week (same content)
• Refine systems and build SOPs for myself and contractors to follow. My priority systems are:
  • Ad Creation & Goals
  • FB Ad Management, Testing, & Goals
  • Social Media Content Creation, Publishing, & Goals
  • Website Changes, Testing (CRO), & Goals

Long Term Goals:

• Have my video guy post social content 4-5 times a week on YouTube, Instagram, & TikTok. This will require good systems, planning, and a good bit of cash while we figure things out. Based on my audience and the response to our ads, I think consistently pushing social content in front of our target market will be the way to go. I have a decent plan laid out, I just need to formalize it and get to work. Going to start small on this one ASAP.
• Scale up FB ads to the point that it makes sense to hire someone like an agency to handle everything. Being so in the weeds with FB and the website has distracted me from noticing things at the top-level and slowed our product pipeline a lot. This is a ways off, but I want everything to build to that.
• Release new products once a month. Trends move fast in this industry and people are always wanting that hot new thing. This costs too much right now, but after I dial in the marketing we should be able to go all in on products. Right now my goal is to release new products quarterly though so I'm holding off releasing anything new while I dial in the marketing.
• Get the email flows to convert consistently. Things are working better since changing how the free products are delivered but there's still a TON of room for improvement. Not going to focus on this right now as I've got enough on my plate, though I check metrics and make small adjustments weekly. Still (not so) silently begging @Simon Angel to write his email marketing mega thread.

June is going to be a busy month and I'm excited to get after it.

 

[xShepherdx]

So far, sales this month are down 85%.

This is due to my ad performance dropping off and the fact that my site had a problem that I wasn't aware of.

The site issue has been fixed and I'm still waiting on the new video ads. These should be done by Monday as we had to do some revisions.

I also figured out that my campaign structure is super dated and I'm using tactics that just don't work anymore. Fixing this and getting everything up to today's standards should help a ton.

Once the advertising is consistently profitable we should be off to the races. The plan is:

Profitable paid ads -> consistent social content -> regular product releases

I have all the pieces, now it's time to get them profitable and build a system with a rock-solid foundation. There's no time to waste here so I'm working as quickly as possible.

---

Aside from the ecom stuff, I've also started taking night classes to get my realtor's license.

In ~45 days I should be a licensed realtor and be able to start actively learning via hands-on experience.

There was a long chain of serendipitous events that led to this happening now, but to put it shortly I found a mentor who is one of the smartest RE dudes in the area, get to go to school for free, and have an extremely small class where I can ask all the questions I want. I'm also taking the class with my dad, so we get to hangout and nerd out over RE a lot more which is fun.

The only thing I had to do to make this happen was say YES - so I did. It was just too good of an opportunity to pass up.

So far, it's been lots of definitions and fundamentals about what a property is, what a broker is, etc. I think all the knowledge from this course and from being an active realtor for a few years will be super helpful as I start buying investment properties.

---

Despite the added workload, I'm actually the most productive I've been in years.

It's amazing how fast things get done when you HAVE to do them.

The quote from Tim Ferriss comes to mind: “Are you hunting antelope or are your hunting field mice?”

Without the time for hunting mice, I've been forced to start hunting antelope.

There's no more time for stupid website tweaks, overthinking my ad copy, or worrying about what haters will say. I'm moving at "break stuff" speed to knock out the huge barriers in my way and it's awesome.

 

[xShepherdx]

Ecom Update:

I had a hugely helpful chat with @MitchC who helped me see where I was going wrong in my ad setup. He also inspired me to start using Canva for making video ads and now I'm able to do them on my own.

So now I only need my video guy for specialized videos, which is big because I can create + test ads/offers much more frequently and cheaply now within a proper ad account structure.

Unfortunately, sales have dropped back down to where they were before I started focusing on FB ads which is a bit demoralizing. I'm still spending $100/day on ads but have struggled to maintain breakeven on my ads this month - even with the new video ads and a solid account structure.

My plan now is to do some video ads for my other best-sellers/offers and see where that goes. I'll also be releasing the new products I've got ready to go and see if that improves things.

The only goal I achieved for June is building a system for getting my ads done, which makes sense because those goals SUCKED lol.

While reading The 4 Disciplines of Execution, I realized 3/4 of my goals were LAG measures, while only one was a LEAD measure. (Learn more about Lag vs Lead measures here)

This month, I'll be focused on my LEAD measures, which right now are mainly creating ads and releasing products.

---

Getting Licensed As A Real Estate Agent:

Class is going well and I only have a week or so left. So far, I've learned a TON about RE that will be helpful as both an agent and an investor.

My goal is to start working under a brokerage ASAP and get some sales/industry experience. I've surrounded myself with good people so getting licensed and working should be fun and very educational.

That said, my goal with being an agent is to learn about the industry from the inside, stack cash for my own RE deals, and search for other business opportunities. I don't see myself being an agent for more than a couple of years max.

Which brings me to the last part of my update...

---

An Opportunity In RE:

Throughout the class I've casually mentioned that I own my own business. This has led to a bunch of conversations with realtors, brokers, and educators - all of whom say they're struggling with their own businesses in one way or another.

One person asked if they could hire me to help them with a specific issue they're having. After chatting about their business, I'm very confident that I can help them out.

We talked for an hour and I sent them some basic stuff to work on. I also mentioned that I charge $100/hour for my services and can do X, Y, and Z for them if they want. They were open to hiring me at this rate but wanted to do some of the easy stuff for themselves first. I'll check back in a week to see what they still need help with.

For now, my plan is to hop around "Andy Black" style and help people as a sort of freelancer while I figure out what specific problems people in RE are facing need and how much they're willing to pay to solve those problems.

Ready, fire, aim...?

---

TLDR / Wrapping Up / Summary:

1) My ecom business has been a great learning tool that I'm starting to leverage into different opportunities. Being able to show people that I've built my own business and know what it's like to be an owner is a huge advantage. That said, I'm getting really burnt out and am considering selling/dropping this business if things don't improve significantly.

2) Getting my real estate license has already opened up a bunch of doors for me and I'm not even licensed yet. As soon as I'm licensed, I'll be working for the broker I mentioned in my previous posts. That guy is a high-level operator and I'm sure I'll learn a ton from just being around him.

3) As I get more into the RE industry I'll also be looking for ways to help people and provide value. I see a lot of opportunities here and have already started laying the seeds for other ventures.

Overall, this month has been tough. It sucks to go from making a bunch of sales, gaining momentum, and feeling on top of the world to a tiny trickle of sales, no momentum, and feeling like you're right back where you started.

I'm very hopeful about the RE stuff, but the ecom stuff doing so poorly this month has honestly messed with my head a bit.

---

July Goals:

• Get my head right and my confidence back to 100%
  • This will be achieved by:
    • Re-focusing on lead measures, not lag measures
      • I tend to feel the best when I'm clearly and visibly working towards goals I can control
    • Finishing up some of the books I've been working through
    • Going camping for a week with family
      • Stepping away for a bit always helps clear my head
• Create 3 new ad angles for my other offers
  • I have the products and angles picked out, now I just need to fire up Canva and make some ads & variations
• Release a new product and see how that helps
  • I know which product I will release, so all I need to do is:
    • Create the product page
    • Determine what the product launch discount/bonuses will look like
    • Write the launch emails
    • Create 3 ad angles for this product using Canva
    • Get 3-5 of my YouTuber contacts to do content around the new product
      • I'll also ask them for UGC-style content for ads
• Pass my licensing exam to become a real estate agent
  • I'll need to study a bit for this but it shouldn't be a problem
• Start working with the broker / start working as an agent
  • This will require me to:
    • Set up a new LLC + bank account
    • Purchase lockboxes, signs, and other stuff like that
    • Learn how to use MLS and the other systems that the brokerage uses
• Do a few hours of freelance work on the side to determine if there is a viable business there
  • Right now, this is mainly just side cash + data as I'll be very busy with becoming an agent and getting first-hand experience in the industry

 

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[Spenny]

We love to see it man, well done for all the progress!

One person asked if they could hire me to help them with a specific issue they're having. After chatting about their business, I'm very confident that I can help them out.

This is big. Not only getting paid but also getting paid in influence.

 

[xShepherdx]

For some reason, creating ads + managing them is something I find myself resisting and putting off.

I have the framework and tools, but creating good ads is taking me FOREVER and is preventing me from getting other important work done.

So, I took a leap and decided to hire a marketing agency to do our Facebook and Insta ads.

I ended up going with an agency that:

• Was already working with someone in my industry and had gotten them results
• Was way more professional than other applicants and had their own systems set up really nicely
• The agency owner hopped into my ad account on a Zoom call and gave me a list of things he could improve on based on what they had done for my peer. He was very open about what they would do, what had worked for the other brand, what he noticed I was doing wrong/differently, etc.
• I actually liked talking with the owner and his team. They were fun to talk to, open, and professional. Lots of shared values.

They were also one of the more expensive agencies to apply, but based on the above I felt they were rockstars and could actually deliver results. There were several other agencies that were cheaper but all I felt was "meh".

This was a big (expensive) decision but I think it will allow me to focus on creating + releasing new products more consistently and engaging more with the community in meaningful ways.

---

Over the last week or two, I've spent a lot of time thinking deeply about these quotes:

"What got you here is not going to get you there" - Marshall Goldsmith (& like 400 billion other people)

"Volume negates luck" - Alex Hormozi in this video

"The easiest way to force growth is to delegate it." - @Johnny boy in this post

"Life is a gumball machine. It has white, orange, red, and golden gumballs in it. You can insert a coin, twist the handle, and a gumball comes out of the tube. Most gumballs are white. Then there are a few orange and red ones, and only one or two golden balls in the machine.

The white gumballs symbolize business ventures you try to make work but don't yield any adequate feedback for iterating the product or service your venture offers. Red gumballs symbolize ventures that generate negative feedback, according to which you can either better your product or service, or give up the venture as a failed idea. Orange gumballs symbolize positive feedback - your business starts to generate income, people like your product, but it's not a massive success. Golden gumballs symbolize the jackpot - a venture that masses and masses of people respond to, for example if you solve a problem millions of people have. A golden gumball makes you rich." - @MJ DeMarco in Unscripted

These quotes have helped me adjust my thinking/mindset and start seeing this business as something bigger than just a solo project with a few contractors to help out.

As a result, I've been constantly asking myself questions like:

• What would it take to compete at the top of my industry?
• Who would I need on my team to make that happen?
• What are my personal strengths and weaknesses?
• How will my team 10x these strengths and/or cover my weaknesses?
• How could I RADICALLY increase the volume of interactions in the marketplace?

These last couple of months have given me a lot of red and orange gumballs to work with, and now I have a ton of ideas on how to get even more of them.

I'm forcing myself to level up and loving every second of it.

---

Real Estate Update

I've passed my course and just need to take the state licensing exam which is scheduled for later this month. I've heard it's pretty tough so I'll need to dedicate quite a bit of time to studying.

Once that's all done, I'll be reaching out to the broker and moving forward with getting licensed.

Overall, the class has been super helpful and I've learned a TON of helpful things about RE. I've also made some good contacts with people who have spoken to and/or taught the class.

From what I've gathered, I'll hate pretty much everything about being a realtor. That has given me a lot of motivation to grow my eCom business and has also helped me see my business in new ways.

 

[xShepherdx]

So far July has been a better month and the agency hasn't even started anything yet.

I've been working to revamp our Discord community and am prepping my video guy to start doing social content for YT/IG Reels. We've got a decent plan laid out now we just need to make it happen.

The main goal is to provide high-value content that is relative to our products. We will start by showing people how to use our products to solve their problems. That seems to be the shortest distance to the sale so we will start there and branch outwards as necessary.

It's crazy to think that just a few months ago I was praying just to get one sale per day...

And now when I get 5 I'm like "hmmm, why weren't there 10 sales today?"

Once I started making a couple hundred per day this sh*t got addicting fast

 

[xShepherdx]

Ecom Business Update

Hiring that ad agency was probably one of the best decisions I've ever made with this business.

The amount and depth of their testing and strategy are 100x what I could have ever done on my own.

And, most importantly, everything is being done without me needing to spend any time on ads.

So now I'm free to grow the company in other ways that only I can do, which is mainly building industry relationships and building/releasing new products.

I should have done this way earlier!

---

Real Estate Agent Update

I passed my licensing exam and met with the broker & his team again.

In a month or so I'll be fully onboard with them and they've invited me to attend any of their trainings or team meetings in the meantime. I'm hitting all of these since it's free learning and will help me get up to speed faster.

As a bonus, the associate broker was super cool and is way into systems and automation. So I'll be learning more about how they set up their business to be as automated as possible. This will be helpful for both selling real estate and growing my own business.

Overall, this brokerage seems like a great place to learn because I'll be around people who are focused on crushing it every day.

 

[DCG]

Ecom Business Update

Hiring that ad agency was probably one of the best decisions I've ever made with this business.

The amount and depth of their testing and strategy are 100x what I could have ever done on my own.

And, most importantly, everything is being done without me needing to spend any time on ads.

So now I'm free to grow the company in other ways that only I can do, which is mainly building industry relationships and building/releasing new products.

I should have done this way earlier!

---

Real Estate Agent Update

I passed my licensing exam and met with the broker & his team again.

In a month or so I'll be fully onboard with them and they've invited me to attend any of their trainings or team meetings in the meantime. I'm hitting all of these since it's free learning and will help me get up to speed faster.

As a bonus, the associate broker was super cool and is way into systems and automation. So I'll be learning more about how they set up their business to be as automated as possible. This will be helpful for both selling real estate and growing my own business.

Overall, this brokerage seems like a great place to learn because I'll be around people who are focused on crushing it every day.

Glad to see that ur doing well

 

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[Crafty]

2) Figuring out why my email deliverability went into the toilet overnight. I was getting ~40% open rates for a while but now only 2.5% of Gmail users open my emails. And Gmail addresses make up over 80% of my subscriber list. Email has been beyond frustrating for me and this latest struggle only adds to my frustration. Any email pros here?

I've seen this happen before with another company and it was because Gmail started marking their emails as spam.

You can avoid that is by trying to land on the main inbox on Gmail rather than promotions(obvious I know) but there’s a few ways you can do this.

One way is simply asking for replies / trying to engage with your recipients a little more.

This shows email providers that there's a real person behind your address that has conversations and interacts with people. Not just sending email blasts.

This is also a good way to learn about your audience and interact with them.

Also I sent you DM. I think I may be able to help you some more!

 

[xShepherdx]

I've seen this happen before with another company and it was because Gmail started marking their emails as spam.

You can avoid that is by trying to land on the main inbox on Gmail rather than promotions(obvious I know) but there’s a few ways you can do this.

One way is simply asking for replies / trying to engage with your recipients a little more.

This shows email providers that there's a real person behind your address that has conversations and interacts with people. Not just sending email blasts.

This is also a good way to learn about your audience and interact with them.

Also I sent you DM. I think I may be able to help you some more!

Good tip!

That's supremely easy for me to implement and should give some good insights into my audience. Not sure why I didn't do that before haha.

I think my 2 main problems are:

1) I'm using a shared Klaviyo domain and need to set up a dedicated domain with them.

AND

2) I just don't email enough. I only send out campaigns when we release new products or have a sale, which is like 8 times a year right now.

Since my post I've gotten the open rates back up quite a bit, but there's still a TON of room for improvement in my emails IMO.

 

[CardinalFlame]

Thank you for sharing, @xShepherdx! Lots of great insight and tips. I have reviewed some of the content you suggested and will dig into more this week. I am scaling an ecom product right now as well, I just started ads about two weeks ago. I have had 8 sales so far and they have been consistent once they finally started coming in (about a week ago).

How long did it take you to get to a positive ROAS? Bear in mind my margin is 54% but I just started my ad account, website, pixel, et cetera. I am working on optimizing but weighing the industry standard of "you have to pay for data" to begin with. I am not sure what realistic goals are and how much data I need to buy before I can get to a positive ROAS.

 

[xShepherdx]

Thank you for sharing, @xShepherdx! Lots of great insight and tips. I have reviewed some of the content you suggested and will dig into more this week. I am scaling an ecom product right now as well, I just started ads about two weeks ago. I have had 8 sales so far and they have been consistent once they finally started coming in (about a week ago).

Thanks for taking the time to comment, congrats on the sales!

How have things gone for you since then?

How long did it take you to get to a positive ROAS?

Our ROAS is still lumpy. August and early September were terrible. We were at around 0.5 ROAS so we scaled way down. Things are picking back up now but it sounds like a lot of people online are having a tough time with FB ads.

Bear in mind my margin is 54% but I just started my ad account, website, pixel, et cetera. I am working on optimizing but weighing the industry standard of "you have to pay for data" to begin with. I am not sure what realistic goals are and how much data I need to buy before I can get to a positive ROAS.

Personally, I think the "you have to pay for data" stuff is a marketing ploy by Facebook and ad agencies. They're not wrong, but simply spending money on the platform doesn't really get you closer to a positive ROAS.

However...fixing the "leaks" in your funnel/business will!

I'd spend some time making sure your:

• Offer is above average
• Ad creatives are really good
• Ads are targeting the right people
• Site is very easy to navigate & buy from
• Email flows bring people back to the site to reorder/buy another product

Your ads are just one small part of a bigger system. Everything should work together to turn leads into buyers, and buyers into repeat customers.

 

[xShepherdx]

Been a while since I updated this.

---

Ecom Update

Since my last post, things have been…meh.

Since taking over the ads, the agency hasn’t really been able to scale or get consistent performance. They’re testing a lot, but we got totally crushed in August and the beginning of September. Performance has come back a bit now but we in the negative for a bit.

On the plus side, the ads doing poorly forced me to level up the other areas of the business. I’ve reworked my email flows and am now seeing some consistent purchases there which is huge.

Some of the changes include:

• A new welcome sequence: This hard-sells people who download my free products or opt-in at checkout. The goal is to present all of my best offers over the first 10-14 days and highlight their value without shame or fancy stuff like timers. So far the results have been promising.
• A 90-day drip sequence: that sends 2-3 emails per week during that timeframe. This is triggered after someone has been on my list for 14 days (so past any welcome or post-purchase sequence). The goal here was to nurture leads and customers via high-value videos & blog posts, additional freebies, deals, customer-specific product recommendations, etc.
• Weekly split tests on my most sent email flows: I'm trying to find the subject lines and content that bring people back to the site to buy. So far my click rates have gone from 0.2% -> ~1% which is great - and all I've tested so far were subject lines!

I'm also in the process of getting social media content done on a consistent basis. We're starting with YouTube tutorials that highlight the products in a non-salesy way. These tutorials will be edited for YT shorts, IG reels, TikTok, etc. but the main focus is YouTube right now.

We will also be releasing a new product next month with more ready-to-go behind it.

Content + product releases seem to be the key to driving growth, so getting those done consistently should help things a lot. Especially with good ads and email systems.

TL;DR - I’m still getting my a$$ kicked every day but I’m constantly learning and refining.

---

Real Estate Agent

Finally got all my licenses and classes done and my broker turned my leads on. It's not much, but I should get ~30 leads a month just from their ads/systems which is nice.

In addition to the licensing classes, I've attended as many of my brokerage's trainings as possible. Fortunately, the brokerage is big on training - and most of the training sessions are taught by the brokers themselves which is super helpful.

They've taught me a ton about cold-calling, systems, scripts, nurturing leads, and just business in general. Oh, and a bunch of stuff about real estate which is cool too lol.

I can totally see why people recommend sales jobs for newbie entrepreneurs. The experience has already helped a TON and I'm only at the beginning.

 

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[CardinalFlame]

Been a while since I updated this.

---

Ecom Update

Since my last post, things have been…meh.

Since taking over the ads, the agency hasn’t really been able to scale or get consistent performance. They’re testing a lot, but we got totally crushed in August and the beginning of September. Performance has come back a bit now but we in the negative for a bit.

On the plus side, the ads doing poorly forced me to level up the other areas of the business. I’ve reworked my email flows and am now seeing some consistent purchases there which is huge.

Some of the changes include:

• A new welcome sequence: This hard-sells people who download my free products or opt-in at checkout. The goal is to present all of my best offers over the first 10-14 days and highlight their value without shame or fancy stuff like timers. So far the results have been promising.
• A 90-day drip sequence: that sends 2-3 emails per week during that timeframe. This is triggered after someone has been on my list for 14 days (so past any welcome or post-purchase sequence). The goal here was to nurture leads and customers via high-value videos & blog posts, additional freebies, deals, customer-specific product recommendations, etc.
• Weekly split tests on my most sent email flows: I'm trying to find the subject lines and content that bring people back to the site to buy. So far my click rates have gone from 0.2% -> ~1% which is great - and all I've tested so far were subject lines!

I'm also in the process of getting social media content done on a consistent basis. We're starting with YouTube tutorials that highlight the products in a non-salesy way. These tutorials will be edited for YT shorts, IG reels, TikTok, etc. but the main focus is YouTube right now.

We will also be releasing a new product next month with more ready-to-go behind it.

Content + product releases seem to be the key to driving growth, so getting those done consistently should help things a lot. Especially with good ads and email systems.

TL;DR - I’m still getting my a$$ kicked every day but I’m constantly learning and refining.

---

Real Estate Agent

Finally got all my licenses and classes done and my broker turned my leads on. It's not much, but I should get ~30 leads a month just from their ads/systems which is nice.

In addition to the licensing classes, I've attended as many of my brokerage's trainings as possible. Fortunately, the brokerage is big on training - and most of the training sessions are taught by the brokers themselves which is super helpful.

They've taught me a ton about cold-calling, systems, scripts, nurturing leads, and just business in general. Oh, and a bunch of stuff about real estate which is cool too lol.

I can totally see why people recommend sales jobs for newbie entrepreneurs. The experience has already helped a TON and I'm only at the beginning.

Awesome update!! Keep pushing, my sales from ads has dipped significantly the last few weeks and we are not alone from other ecom colleagues! Get ready for BFCM!

 

[Saad Khan]

I'd spend some time making sure your:

• Offer is above average
• Ad creatives are really good
• Ads are targeting the right people
• Site is very easy to navigate & buy from
• Email flows bring people back to the site to reorder/buy another product

Your ads are just one small part of a bigger system. Everything should work together to turn leads into buyers, and buyers into repeat customers.

Gosh, you sound like you can coach an ad agency yourself! Good progress! @xShepherdx

Really happy for how far you've come!

 

[xShepherdx]

Ecom Update

For a long time, I thought my marketing sucked and I just couldn't communicate our product's value to potential customers/users.

So I hired a "professional ad agency" to run my ads...

And I ended up losing $6k over the last 3-4 months as they ran unprofitable ads with fees piled on top.

Now, I want to make it clear - they actually did an awesome job and delivered on everything they said. So no hard feelings or anything like that on my end.

The return just wasn't there.

Why? Because what I initially perceived to be a marketing problem was actually an operations problem.

This business lives and dies on new product releases.

And I have only released ONE new product this year.

That's FAR off my goal of one a month.

Not to mention the developer of the software we piggybacked on - which was initially hugely popular - has essentially abandoned it.

So no product releases + a catalog of products built for abandonware has led to a slight decrease in sales and negative growth month over month.

It doesn't matter how hard we push the dying products, the TAM just isn't there - and seems to be diminishing.

So I've shifted into building products for a larger TAM within the same market.

Our first product NOT built for the abandonware product comes out soon and based on early feedback I'm optimistic.

We've also been doing consistent YouTube videos now and are figuring out a lot on that front.

All that said, I'm not sure I'll continue on with this business much longer as I feel I've leveled up and am starting to understand this vehicle just won't get me where I want to go.

Since day one of starting this business I've changed dramatically. My family jokes that this was my "Masters Program" and honestly that feels pretty accurate.

And now I want to start something fresh that actually brings value to people's lives. Something I can be proud of. And something that might actually put me on the Fastlane path.

But, in the meantime, I'm still grinding and learning every day.

---

Real Estate Update

I've gone hard into real estate and learning sales and it's honestly pretty fun.

Cold calls are actually fun and my brokers are hugely supportive and love to share everything they know. They're also huge into providing value to clients every day so that's been a fun mental exercise.

Outside of my own brokerage, I'm learning so much every day about the market by talking to lenders, title companies, clients, etc. Everyone has their own little niche and it's fun learning how it all works together.

I haven't closed any deals yet but I'm starting to get close. My goal is 3 by the end of the year and I have a pretty straightforward path to get there.

 

[Sirrom]

Ecom Update

For a long time, I thought my marketing sucked and I just couldn't communicate our product's value to potential customers/users.

So I hired a "professional ad agency" to run my ads...

And I ended up losing $6k over the last 3-4 months as they ran unprofitable ads with fees piled on top.

Now, I want to make it clear - they actually did an awesome job and delivered on everything they said. So no hard feelings or anything like that on my end.

The return just wasn't there.

Why? Because what I initially perceived to be a marketing problem was actually an operations problem.

This business lives and dies on new product releases.

And I have only released ONE new product this year.

That's FAR off my goal of one a month.

Not to mention the developer of the software we piggybacked on - which was initially hugely popular - has essentially abandoned it.

So no product releases + a catalog of products built for abandonware has led to a slight decrease in sales and negative growth month over month.

It doesn't matter how hard we push the dying products, the TAM just isn't there - and seems to be diminishing.

So I've shifted into building products for a larger TAM within the same market.

Our first product NOT built for the abandonware product comes out soon and based on early feedback I'm optimistic.

We've also been doing consistent YouTube videos now and are figuring out a lot on that front.

All that said, I'm not sure I'll continue on with this business much longer as I feel I've leveled up and am starting to understand this vehicle just won't get me where I want to go.

Since day one of starting this business I've changed dramatically. My family jokes that this was my "Masters Program" and honestly that feels pretty accurate.

And now I want to start something fresh that actually brings value to people's lives. Something I can be proud of. And something that might actually put me on the Fastlane path.

But, in the meantime, I'm still grinding and learning every day.

---

Real Estate Update

I've gone hard into real estate and learning sales and it's honestly pretty fun.

Cold calls are actually fun and my brokers are hugely supportive and love to share everything they know. They're also huge into providing value to clients every day so that's been a fun mental exercise.

Outside of my own brokerage, I'm learning so much every day about the market by talking to lenders, title companies, clients, etc. Everyone has their own little niche and it's fun learning how it all works together.

I haven't closed any deals yet but I'm starting to get close. My goal is 3 by the end of the year and I have a pretty straightforward path to get there.

Nice to read an update from you.

Good that you learned a lot in your e-commerce business. Not everything has to work out at once. It's ok to fall and get up again. You learned a lot and from what I can tell you finally identify yourself as a full-on entrepreneur now! Congrats. Don't lose this identity!

On your RE: Seems like it's going alright and you're on the right trajectory. Can I ask you where you live? I see a lot of people on this forum talking about cold calls, but I never know who they are calling and how they get the phone numbers. Is it so that in the USA(?) the phone numbers of RE owners are publically accessible? In my country you can only get their name so it's very hard to approach people to tell them you want to buy their property.

 

[xShepherdx]

Nice to read an update from you.

Good that you learned a lot in your e-commerce business. Not everything has to work out at once. It's ok to fall and get up again. You learned a lot and from what I can tell you finally identify yourself as a full-on entrepreneur now! Congrats. Don't lose this identity!

Thanks for taking the time to comment. I've been struggling with feeling like a failure/like I'm giving up and this is exactly what I needed today.

And yes, good observation. I completely identify myself as an entrepreneur now and feel very confident that my next venture will go way better.

Not only have I learned a TON of business skills, but I've also ironed out a lot of personal problems / limiting beliefs that were holding me back.

On your RE: Seems like it's going alright and you're on the right trajectory. Can I ask you where you live? I see a lot of people on this forum talking about cold calls, but I never know who they are calling and how they get the phone numbers. Is it so that in the USA(?) the phone numbers of RE owners are publically accessible? In my country you can only get their name so it's very hard to approach people to tell them you want to buy their property.

Idaho, USA. Our office uses Vulcan7 but there are some other options out there. You might need to do some searching for something that works in your area.

 

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[xShepherdx]

After a lot of thought, I decided to give the company to one of the contractors I've worked with for over 3 years.

Aside from myself, this contractor put the most work into the company and is in a WAY better position to make it profitable. All they need to do is keep doing what they've done for the last 3 years - which is content, content, and more content.

The rest of the systems are set up for them to win almost immediately.

Unfortunately, as someone who doesn't make content in my niche, the costs to grow the company outpace any returns I could earn from the products we sell. The math just doesn't work unless I'm the one continuously creating everything from scratch.

So, as of today, I no longer own this company.

I'm now in the process of onboarding the new owner and honestly, this is the best I've felt in years.

My customers will be taken care of, the new owner has a clear plan to grow the brand, and I'm FREE (other than the onboarding, but that's actually fun).

I consider this a successful exit in all ways except for financially, which I'm 100% okay with on this one.

I built a strong brand recognized by many people in my industry - including several of the big dogs at the top. I learned a TON of skills related to e-commerce and business in general. I learned EVEN MORE about myself, how I work, what I like, etc.

I've learned so much over the past few years that I'm excited to share with you all.

If anyone is interested, let me know below and I'll share my biggest takeaways and lessons learned.

If not, I'll be starting a new progress thread on the inside once I get something new rolling. That thread will likely be much more valuable than this one - or at least that's the goal!

 

[Spenny]

I've learned so much over the past few years that I'm excited to share with you all.

If anyone is interested, let me know below and I'll share my biggest takeaways and lessons learned.

We'd love to hear it.

 

[CardinalFlame]

Why? Because what I initially perceived to be a marketing problem was actually an operations problem.

This business lives and dies on new product releases.

And I have only released ONE new product this year.

Why do you make this statement or what pointed towards this assumption? Not knowing your niche, I wouldn't agree with this statement. While it is important to expand the product offerings (value) over time, I don't see this as a requirement if your product brings value to consumers. Interested on your take.

So, as of today, I no longer own this company.

This was quite the update! I didn't expect to read this!

I built a strong brand recognized by many people in my industry - including several of the big dogs at the top. I learned a TON of skills related to e-commerce and business in general. I learned EVEN MORE about myself, how I work, what I like, etc.

I've learned so much over the past few years that I'm excited to share with you all.

If anyone is interested, let me know below and I'll share my biggest takeaways and lessons learned.

This is a great mindset and it sounds like these failures are being used as building blocks, which all failures should be! I would be very interested in your biggest takeaways! I am still grinding my ecomm brand out and am having lots of struggles with Meta. It's extremely frustrating. I am amidst and winding up to explore other avenues and hoping I can get those to profitable (TikTok ads/shop, email list growth + email marketing, organic content creation, affiliate marketing, organic giveaways, other forms of advertising like podcasts and blogs, et cetera).

If not, I'll be starting a new progress thread on the inside once I get something new rolling. That thread will likely be much more valuable than this one - or at least that's the goal!

Can't wait for the new thread and to hear about the new niche and process!

 

[xShepherdx]

Why do you make this statement or what pointed towards this assumption? Not knowing your niche, I wouldn't agree with this statement. While it is important to expand the product offerings (value) over time, I don't see this as a requirement if your product brings value to consumers. Interested on your take.

This part is really the key:

I don't see this as a requirement if your product brings value to consumers

Our products were good, but the value they brought to customers was super low. It was essentially a commodity product with slick branding and as much hype as I could push into it.

We weren't changing people's lives or solving a real problem and the revenue of the business reflected that reality.

In order to keep up the hype, new products and content needed to be pumped out consistently. However, the returns just weren't there because the underlying economics of the business sucked.

The new owner will do really well with this as a lifestyle business because he can do all the content and marketing for essentially free + ad costs.

Previously, I had to pay him to make everything which just didn't work, which slowed down releases, which dropped the level of "hype", which dropped revenue, etc.

For fun, I made the expected value table that MJ wrote about in TGRRE and ran the business through it. At most, it was a couple hundred grand opportunity - and that's WITH excellent execution.

Hence why I was finally able to call it a day on this one and move on.

This is a great mindset and it sounds like these failures are being used as building blocks, which all failures should be! I would be very interested in your biggest takeaways!

Thanks, I'm still trying to piece together everything I've learned into something that makes sense to other people.

While I'm doing that, feel free to ask about specific things you want to know or hear about. I'm an open book so ask away!

I am still grinding my ecomm brand out and am having lots of struggles with Meta. It's extremely frustrating. I am amidst and winding up to explore other avenues and hoping I can get those to profitable (TikTok ads/shop, email list growth + email marketing, organic content creation, affiliate marketing, organic giveaways, other forms of advertising like podcasts and blogs, et cetera).

Okay, I don't know your situation or what you're selling so take this with a BIG grain of salt...

Don't do that stuff. Like, hardly any of it.

If Meta isn't working, you should seriously be asking why. It's probably your offer and MAYBE your creatives or landing page. Be SUPER honest with yourself here.

Spreading yourself out thin by running ads on several platforms, bringing on affiliates & managing them, running giveaways, getting links from blogs/podcasts, etc. will drain your energy and just make you mediocre at all of them.

I'm very cautious about adding new channels to my marketing now because I've lived through how f*cked up it is to try and be everywhere at once - especially when you're still trying to get product market fit or product marketing fit.

My advice is to pick one or two channels to really dominate and start there. I'd say Meta and Google Ads are my go-to's, with basic email flows running on the back end.

Get new creatives made, run some tests, and see how things go. If Meta ads won't work now, why stick with the product?

For specific advice on running Meta ads well, @crystal_ shared a good strategy for running Meta ads in their thread here. Check it out and see if you can rework your creatives somehow.

Can't wait for the new thread and to hear about the new niche and process!

Thanks, you've given me some extra motivation today with your questions and kind words!

 

[xShepherdx]

Alright, made some big changes over the last few months and now have a way better direction for where I'm going.

1) I'm 99.9% done transferring the old business to the new owner. Everything's been handed off, now we just have to announce it publicly. My buddy is already smashing it as the new owner and I sleep great at night knowing my customers are taken care of.

2) I quit being a Realtor. It was a great learning experience but I couldn't shake the feeling that it felt like an MLM and I would always be stuck doing the worst parts of the job. I ran some #'s and even if I executed great, the money just wasn't worth the effort or stress. Fun experience, but definitely not the "business" for me.

3) I got a seasonal job at Target doing order fulfillment. Now, I'm getting paid $15/hour to shop for other people and see what's popular. At 30 years old with a bachelor's degree it's not a glamorous job but I needed some quick cash to get financially stable again. The biggest takeaway from this is that people are spending a TON of money on all kinds of crap. It's been said many times on this forum but now I think I get it - THERE IS LITERALLY MONEY AND OPPORTUNITY ALL AROUND US!

4) I've been working on myself a TON. I've been taking medication for ADD for a while now and it's had a huge impact on my life. I never realized how much it had held me back but now that I'm on the meds I'm working on developing new habits & behaviors that will hopefully result in me weaning off the meds eventually. Target has actually been very helpful in giving me lots of chances ("Reps") to test my new behaviors and build new habits. I feel like a whole new person and the tiny amount of cash I'm earning has really taken the stress off. I'm actually way happier now and am being who I want to be, which has helped in both my personal life and the pursuit of a Fastlane business.

5) I committed to doing eCommerce and finding products that meet very specific criteria to sell, such as being a physical consumable product that can hold premium pricing, makes use of a growing trend, already exists & is being sold, and that has lots of attributes to skew (aka problems to be solved). I've found something that meets all my criteria and looks promising so I'll be testing that out soon.

To find this idea, I read the first few chapters of Breakout Advertising and watched these two videos:

1) Moiz Ali On Selling His Natural Deodorant To P&G For $100M, Investing In Manscaped, & Holding Cash
2) From A Farm In Finland To A 9 Figure Empire | Tero Isokauppila

My plan now is to finish researching for the new product, get some mockups / MVP's ready, and start testing ASAP. I also need to do a proper plan/timeline for this now that things are finally stabilizing a bit again.

 

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[Spenny]

Great update Shepherd, it looks like you've got a lot of great things on the horizon - have you seen any products you could add because of your target stint? No need to say what they are, I am just intrigued

 

[xShepherdx]

Great update Shepherd, it looks like you've got a lot of great things on the horizon - have you seen any products you could add because of your target stint? No need to say what they are, I am just intrigued

Good question! The answer is TONS.

I see so much stuff that’s selling a lot that I could make better or market to a different audience.

These two videos gave me a really simple framework for finding ideas, maybe they’ll be helpful for those on the hunt:

1) Moiz Ali On Selling His Natural Deodorant To P&G For $100M, Investing In Manscaped, & Holding Cash

2) From A Farm In Finland To A 9 Figure Empire | Tero Isokauppila

 

[UnusualSubstance]

Good question! The answer is TONS.

I see so much stuff that’s selling a lot that I could make better or market to a different audience.

These two videos gave me a really simple framework for finding ideas, maybe they’ll be helpful for those on the hunt:

1) Moiz Ali On Selling His Natural Deodorant To P&G For $100M, Investing In Manscaped, & Holding Cash

2) From A Farm In Finland To A 9 Figure Empire | Tero Isokauppila

When I was working part time for a supermarket that was when I learnt the power of upsells.

Despite the awful working environment there was a silver lining at least 😀

Ryan Moran's vids are amazing, that's for sure. I learned about him through Russell Brunson.

Have you read his 12 months to 1 Mil book?

 

[xShepherdx]

When I was working part time for a supermarket that was when I learnt the power of upsells.

Despite the awful working environment there was a silver lining at least 😀

Ryan Moran's vids are amazing, that's for sure. I learned about him through Russell Brunson.

Have you read his 12 months to 1 Mil book?

I love it! So many people at my job complain about, well... everything.

They're not wrong that these jobs suck. However, I think that in their frustration, they're missing the many lessons these jobs can teach us.

For example, in the last 3 months I've learned SO much about how product is sold, shipped, packed, distributed, salvaged, secured, promoted, and all the other things that come with retail. I'm literally getting paid to learn this stuff every day because all my leads are dying to teach this to someone. (It pays to be curious!)

So, in a lot of words, I'm very glad to hear you found some silver linings in your experience!

And yes, I read the book and found it to be pretty good. It felt a bit "1, 2, skip a few, now you're making a million a year" but the big ideas in the book were helpful.

I found his podcast to be a better resource though, especially his episodes with Moiz Ali and Ryan Deiss.