In the blink of an eye I went from “wealthy” 25-year old who was making bank and on top of the world…
To broke ass who couldn’t leave my house and had no idea what I was going to do after that.
This scared the hell out of me and I was lost, not sure what I should do next…
But I did know one thing, I was never going to work for anybody again in my life.
The
company I was working for bribed me with a severance check in exchange
for a signature saying I wouldn’t talk about it, but let’s just say…
My
“firing” was a prime example of revenge, where another co-worker made
up a blatant lie because they were mad I got a promotion over them.
Now that’s all in the past and it’s whatever, but one thing will always stick with me…
The
idea that one person had so much control over my lifestyle, being able
to take away my only source of income and throw me to the
wolves — without any heads up.
This is the moment where I realized I needed to start my own business, but there was one problem…
I had no idea where to start.
I didn’t have enough money to start a “traditional business”…
And I really didn’t want to do manual labor (i.e. lawn mowing)…
So realizing I was stuck, I decided to jump on Google and search around for different ideas I could do for free (or low-cost).
At first I came across some “good” ideas, like starting a home-based bookkeeping business or being a dog walker…
But nothing really stuck out to me, until I came across an article that changed my life
This article, titled “21 Side Hustles You Could Start Today”…
Didn’t cover the “traditional” ideas that I’d heard of before, like bookkeeping or dog walking…
But instead, it talked about things that were completely new to me.
Topics like:
- Affiliate marketing
- Dropshipping
- Online courses
- SEO…
And 17 other things I’d never heard of before, but they all had one common thread…
I could work from anywhere and make money at all times of the day, even as I slept.
Now obviously this was something that really pulled me in, as everybody wants the freedom these methods provide…
But that was the problem, they all sounded great and I didn’t know where to start.
This made me go on another round of research, trying to see what methods other people have used in the past…
And that’s when I found exactly what I was looking for, an article from Jeff Rose talking about how he’d made over $1M in passive income with blogging.
After reading this article and seeing his success, I knew this was exactly what I wanted to do…
So that night I began putting together everything he mentioned.
I started off by finding my target market…
Then I bought my domain…
Then I created my website…
And finally, I signed up for 20+ affiliate links — giving me everything I needed to start making money right away.
The next day, my journey began
I woke up the next morning pretty early as I was excited to start my new venture…
And as all the pros told me to do, I started off my creating my posting schedule.
I was really excited to start getting traffic from SEO, so I decided to blog twice a day and expedite the results…
Then once that happened, I’d reevaluate my strategy after that.
I stayed on track for the first 30 days, not missing a beat and posting religiously…
Then
once day 30 hit, I finally allowed myself to look at Google Analytics
and the affiliate marketing sales — seeing how much money I’d made and
all the organic traffic I’d created along the way.
I
remember pulling up my analytics screen like it was yesterday,
expecting to have AT LEAST 1,000 views by now as I’d created 60 articles
over the last 30 days, following every SEO guideline out there…
But then I saw the actual results, and started to panic right away.
Here I was hoping for (at least) 1,000 views from my hard work, but as I’m sure you can guess, it was far from it…
Coming in at a whopping 79 views, slightly under the mark.
By
that time I didn’t even want to look at my affiliate account as I knew
it wasn’t going to be good, but I figured it couldn’t get worse…
So I checked it out anyway, and there it was — the big goose egg. Zero dollars and zero cents.
Not knowing what else to do, I doubled down
I
took a few hours to let the pain wear off before thinking about what I
was going to do next, but once I finally did — I realized I had no idea
what to do.
I was following all the advice I could find…
And
confident I was doing everything I needed to do, so after a little bit
of thought, I realized there was only one thing I could do…
Work harder.
That’s
when I decided to increase my output from 2 blogs to 3 blogs every day
for the next 30 days, knowing this would start bringing traffic for sure
and solve all my problems after that.
Over the next 4 weeks I followed my blogging schedule to the T, and even though I was on the brink of burnout this entire time…
I was happy I’d stuck with it and even more excited to see my results.
That evening I decided to change things up and check my affiliate marketing sales first, then I’d worry about traffic later…
And after logging into my Rakuten account, I couldn’t help but have a mental breakdown.
After all that work, putting in 80 hours a week and isolating myself from pretty much all human contact for 60 days…
I’d
generated a whopping amount of 27 fucking dollars, enough for me to
grab a bottle of Vodka and not think about it for a few days.
3 days later, I had to make a tough decision
After my hangover wore off and I let my brain cool down for a few days, I finally sat down and tried to reevaluate my situation.
I
started off by going back and reading the articles that had gotten me
to this point, trying to figure out if there was something I missed…
And after pouring through each of these articles, dissecting every word to see if there was anything I missed…
I had to finally face harsh reality, this wasn’t going to work. Not as soon as I needed it to anyway.
Scared, broke and not sure what to do…
I jumped back on the Google machine and started looking for other ways of making money online.
I
really didn’t know what I was looking for and had some vague searches
at first, but then after an hour of aimlessly wandering around…
I came across an article by Ramit Sethi, saying how the biggest problem aspiring entrepreneurs face is that they don’t understand the principles of online business.
Really wasn’t sure what he was talking about at first, but as I continued to read on…
I started to see some things that made sense.
Things like:
- How most people focused on outdated tactics, not timeless principles…
- How very few people have the “micro-skills” to properly start a business, something none of the “gurus” ever talk about…
- And most importantly, how most people skipped over building a foundation. A simple misstep that makes it nearly impossible to succeed online, and if you do — then it’s usually short-lived
Now this made sense to some extent, but at the same time…
It really didn’t.
I mean, I’d worked with business owners the last 5 years and had my MBA, so I had a good understanding of business…
But
I guess I really wasn’t sure about online business, so I decided to
humble myself and email Ramit. Seeing if there was anything I could do
to learn online business the right way.
To my surprise, he emailed back the next morning and provided a lot of information…
But it all came down to 2 things I needed.
1. Learn the timeless principles of business that’ve worked for hundreds of years, including:
- Human psychology
- Positioning
- Niches
- Funnels
- Etc…
And he said once you learned these principles, then you had to find a way to deliver them.
That was an extremely interesting concept I’d never heard of before, and after asking if he had a favorite delivery method…
He responded with one word — copywriting.
2.
Learning how to freelance as this would allow me to start making money
right away, keeping my motivation up and paying the bills…
While
also providing the opportunity to “immerse” myself in the industry for 6
months, something that’d provide invaluable experience and allow me to
see what worked and what didn’t (while getting paid for it).
Now
this made sense and by this time, I’d actually dabbled with freelancing
a little bit as a freelance bookkeeper, just didn’t like it as I’d
spent most of my time looking for clients…
But
after hearing Ramit’s advice, I immediately purchased his copywriting
course (that taught all the hidden principles he’d told me about) and
got to work after that.
Within 3 weeks, I knew my life had changed forever…
After
getting through the first 3 modules of his copywriting course and
learning about most of the hidden principles he’d talked about, I knew
I’d made the right choice.
Why?
Because in these 3 modules I’d learned more about “real-life” business than I did in my 6 years of schooling.
Instead
of focusing on things that didn’t matter, like reverse supply chain
diversification and profit margins, we focused on important things in
business — like:
- Why people actually buy things
- How to sell to a large audience, without ever picking up the phone or even physically talking to them
- How to create a passive stream of income that generates revenue at all times of the day with automation, allowing you to make money without paying salaries…
And a bunch of other things that I wish I would’ve come across months before.
A few weeks later, I knew I was ready to bring my copywriting knowledge to the freelance world…
And
after series of random events, I actually came across a course where
this guy taught people how to get jobs on Upwork — and the crazy part
was how he was a Ramit Sethi student himself.
I
immediately purchased his course after learning this, essentially
spending the last $1,500 I had to my “name” (even though it was credit
card debt) and got to work after that.
The results?
AMAZING!
4
days after purchasing this dude’s course on how to get jobs on Upwork, I
landed a long-time gig where the client was going to pay me $45/hr.
This
blew my mind as that’s nearly twice as much as I’d ever made before,
even in a field where I had my Master’s Degree (Accounting)…
But I wasn’t complaining, so I accepted the job and started working on it right away:
Then
after 6 months of experience, I had enough money in my bank account to
slow down on freelancing and try out some personal projects instead.
I started off by creating a dropshipping store, which scared me as I’d read how over 50% of these stores never get a sale…
But since I was able to apply the hidden principles Ramit taught me, along with the experience I’d gained from freelancing…
I was able to start a store in 48 hours, getting 102 sales that first week.
Now
this was absolutely amazing and I LOVED how I was able to get sales at
all times of the day, essentially creating a business that had no
ceiling…
But there was one problem, I didn’t like what I was doing.
Sure the money was nice and I think I was making roughly $1K per week, but it wasn’t quite what I’d set out to do…
So
a few weeks after that, I setup my next business — an online course
that helps others start their own freelance side hustle, at a small
fraction of the price I had to pay.
It took
awhile to get everything together as I wanted to make it perfect and
spent a lot of time “testing” it, getting real results before launching
it to the public…
But a month later I was finally ready, and began setting the wheels in motion.
I spent the next few days getting my automated funnel in action, creating things like:
- An effective landing page that’s generated conversion rates 4x higher than the industry standard…
- An email funnel that turned the casual looksy-loo into a paying customer…
- Along with a sales page that sold for me at all times of the day…
And after that was complete, I started putting traffic into my funnel.
Now there’s a few ways to do this and I’m sure you’ve heard of FB ads before, which do work great…
But
I wanted to take a different approach and see if I could do this
without spending a dime, so I created a few blog articles and let the
process take care of itself after that.
The results?
Well, let’s just say I officially created a source of passive income that not only generates around $1,500/week:
And that’s why I wish every aspiring entrepreneur knew these 7 things
Long story short, after being a freelancer for the last few years and working with countless “entrepreneurs” during that time…
I
am REALLY tired of seeing people read a few blog posts, learn the
tactics, fire up a business and then cry once it doesn’t work right
away.
Trust me, I get it. I’ve read Pat Flynn’s articles too…
Talking
about how he was able to write a few blog posts and generate $100K
every month, but here’s the thing — he built his online presence before
blogging was cool.
Now everybody and their dog thinks they can write, and don’t get me wrong…
I’m a HUGE supporter in seeing people take the leap, publishing their thoughts to the world…
But
I’m also pragmatic and realize that just makes it harder to cut through
the noise, which is why every aspiring entrepreneur needs to know:
Focus on principles, not tactics
I don’t get this much anymore now that I’m established and can show results, but in the early stages of my copywriting career…
My favorite thing to hear was always “wait, you’re charging $125 for an email?!?!”
Now
this obviously came from clients asking me to create a funnel for them,
and happened before I raised my rates (so I only work with people who
know what they’re doing)…
But with all that
said, it always made me laugh as I couldn’t help but think — what, you
think 5 generic emails are going to sell your course?
And in retrospect, I probably could’ve done a better job of explaining why I had to charge that much…
But that’s a story for a different time, and here’s where I’m trying to get with this…
Don’t focus on the what (emails), focus on why it works (reciprocity, breaking down false beliefs, decompression zone).
And this is something many people don’t know, but these are the same principles used for webinars, sales letters and FB funnels…
Showing
that the tactic really doesn’t matter as there’s always more than one
way, but you have to understand the principles in order to execute.
The takeaway:
Every “tactic” has an underlying principle.
Affiliate marketing works because people trust the person giving advice, not because they put a
hyperlink in the right place…
SEO works because Google ranks the best content at the top, not because you have the fastest site
speed or most images…
FB Ads work (for e-commerce) because they’re giving a reason to buy (i.e. discount or free plus shipping), not because FB Ads are the godsend everybody is looking for…
Copywriting
works because you’re able to understand the underlying psychology of
things and show people how your product (or service) can help them reach
their goals, not because it’s a bunch of fancy words that makes you sound smart…
And I could go on forever, but I hope you get the hint. Always try and figure out why it works, because once you do…
Things get easy after that.
Start small and grow
It’s human nature for us to seek out the easiest method providing the fastest results (what some refer to as “cocaine” brain)…
And that’s not always a bad thing, but at the same time — it usually does more harm than good.
What do I mean?
Well, let’s go back to my story for example.
I
loved the idea of affiliate marketing as it was the easiest way for me
to make $1 Million and I didn’t think it’d take a long time to do.
I feel like an idiot for thinking this now, but I was seriously convinced that it was going to happen…
And that’s just one of the million examples showing how dangerous these get rich quick schemes can be, but on top of that…
It gives us WAY too much confidence as we think we’ve found our way out (i.e. bitcoin).
Don’t get me wrong, I’m a huge fan of “cutting the line” and do this whenever I can…
But at the same time, I’ve studied enough psychology to understand that we need small wins along the way to keep going.
Say what?
Well, whenever we don’t see results relatively soon…
It’s really hard to find the motivation to keep going.
We instantly think we’ve made a mistake and need to cut our losses…
Which
is a surefire way to fail, and that’s why I think it’s extremely
important to find something you can start making money in right away (or
at least soon).
This not only provides
motivation to keep going, but it also gives you some extra funds to try
out all those tools you’ve been eye-balling.
The takeaway:
Don’t go for the home run right away, and instead — find something you can start seeing results in relatively soon.
This
is one of the many reasons why I advise freelancing, as it’s not that
hard to learn (you just need a simple skill - like powerpoint design,
bookkeeping or even proofreading)…
And trust me, there’s plenty of entrepreneurs out there looking for help in these fields (making it very easy to get started).
Don’t take the leap
One of the absolute worst things anybody can tell you is to “take the leap”.
This
advice is usually justified with some sort of “focus” rationale, saying
how you’ll only expedite your results when giving it 100% focus…
But here’s what they don’t tell you, very few people are able to get results when they’re under an immense amount of stress.
This
is something I’ve really noticed after teaching students how to
freelance, because the ones under a lot of stress will always burn
through material and miss out on 50% of the important details…
Where
students who kept their jobs and learn on the side always succeed,
because they’re not having a constant panic attack and actually take the
time to learn everything.
The takeaway:
Trust
me, I hate jobs and never want to see anybody sacrifice precious years
of their life doing something they don’t want to do…
But
at the same time, I also know taking the leap is actually a slower
option (for most) as it puts you under constant stress and forces you to
make mistakes.
P.S. On a side note, this is another reason why I teach aspiring entrepreneurs how to freelance…
As
they can easily make a full-time living working 20 hours a week
(freelancing generally pays 3–4x more), giving them more time while
keeping the stress away — a win-win for any aspiring entrepreneur.
It’s easier to sell (1) $200 product than it is to sell (100) $2 products
Another huge mistake I see with a lot of new entrepreneurs, and one I’ve made countless times throughout my career…
Thinking they need to sell “cheap” products as that’ll make things easier and allow them to get started right away.
Now don’t get me wrong, I can’t sit here and say cheap products aren’t easier to sell…
As
that’s a no-brainer, but I don’t care if you’re selling a 50 cent
sticker or a $500 course — getting sales online is very hard.
There’s so much noise out there today that people are starting to get fatigued with any type of sales pitch, expensive or not…
And
trust me, it’s a lot easier to find one interested buyer for a $200
course than it is to find 100 interested buyers for a $2 sticker.
The takeaway:
Always consider profit margins when finding your product (or service).
This is one of the main reasons why I can’t stand dropshipping or affiliate marketing, as it’s a lot of work for little reward…
And even though those products are a little easier to sell than digital products (online courses or ebooks)…
They hardly ever work out in the long run.
Be human
It’s almost sad to say this, but I’ve literally made a living teaching companies how to be more “human”.
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