So you want to be an entrepreneur?
You feel it, you know you want it – but you don’t know how to get from A to B.
You always seem to end up going from A to A in a pointless circle.
Stuck in a loop.
I know, I’ve been there.
But first things first…
It takes time to find your “thing”
This process of finding your thing is done through trial and error and actually trying, doing and failing.
I started multiple niche websites that failed, a vlog and personal development blog that never really took off.
I did things I thought could make me money, but were not really me.
II started a website called “remember me” with my brother that completely failed. Our idea was to create a sort of alternative to Legacy.com.
A Facebook for dead people if you will where people could memorialize loved ones.
We spent a few thousand dollars on web development to create this website because it was such a “good idea” we thought.
It never occurred to us to actually create a website that people wanted. Instead, we did what a lot of people do.
You have a “great” idea for a website and think that’s enough. It’s not and we lost thousands of dollars on this project.
Super Awesome Failure
Then I launched a dating blog called Super Awesome Dating (opens in a new tab) years and years ago – I’m so good at this internet stuff 🙂
I paid 1k for a professional design because I was that naive (I also had no idea how to create a website or start a blog – before I developed my tech stack).
I wanted anyone who visited that website to be impressed by it and to trust it.
I got the idea to launch this website because I thought that there was an opportunity to create an authority website on the topic of dating.
Going after keywords for both men and women. Promoting products to both men and women – WIN.
But, 30 year old career women and 20 year old college bros have radically different wants and needs. Instead of picking a market and serving it, I created a broad website that had zero appeal to anyone.
Classic example of the old adage, if you’re for everyone you’re for no one.
To top it off, with a winning name like Super Awesome Dating (good for a comedy site about dating, not for a serious and helpful resource), and mediocre dating advice content written by a goofy out of shape twenty something from Connecticut (me) who only had 2 serious girlfriends up to this point.
What could go wrong?
Everything.
Stupid content, stupid name, unfocused selling point. But I did start to see some small success.
I got to a high point of making about $2-5 a day from AdSense ($120 a month roughly) and was making one-off affiliate commissions.
I made back my initial investment but more importantly was starting to learn what it takes to actually make money and that’s through providing value and solving problems.
Yea sure, SEO is important. Product creation, copywriting, knowing how to sell.
But fundamentally, it boils down to providing value and solving problems.
Leveraging some aspect of you that’s unique. So take off the mask and stop trying to be Mr Cool Guy. Take off the mask and expose your inner entrepreneur.
Treat yourself like a company
You must always present the best version of yourself if you want the best in life.
You’re a salesman whether you like it or not and you have to treat yourself as such if you want your piece of the pie.
You are the marketing for your own company – a YOU, INC.
You, Inc. is the umbrella company for everything you do in your life.
It’s your personal brand, your personal life mission, your reputation and your skills all rolled into one package…
You.
And you can do one of three things with your company:
- Quit your business and let You, Inc. go bankrupt.
- Bounce around from one idea to the other, living hand to mouth like all the other broke as a joke internet marketers.
- Build a brand, be useful to others and make your mark.
You already know the way to succeed, I don’t need to tell you. But I will.
Build a brand. That’s how you succeed. Turn yourself into your advertisement. Don’t fake it ’til you make it – be it.
You’re a walking billboard so drill that into your head. Be the real deal. Not an echo of someone else.
“Am I someone people can trust and believe in?”
If you aren’t, then fix it.
Become the person you need to be and people will be begging for you to take their money, not the other way around.
You have to believe you are special
To be a billboard, to be the CEO of a profitable You, Inc you have to know you have something special to offer.
I know you were taught that you aren’t special. That’s true for most people, the give-up artists and the bankrupt owners of worthless echo’s of more successful people.
But some of you possess talents, traits or characteristics that are special. I do, I always did, and I always knew it…
…but I was afraid of what?
Being immodest? – who knows.
Afraid of success like most people I guess.
When you believe in your heart of hearts that you are special other people will see it and believe it as well.
Because it’s real. Talent is palpable, everyone can see it.
Being modest or immodest about it is irrelevant as long as you believe it.
Paul Stanley from KISS was born with one-ear, had no friends as a kid, no confidence, no support from anybody.
But he knew one damn thing: “I am going to be a rock star.”
You think anybody believed him?
He put himself in a place where he had no other choice but to success. That’s actually a terrifying spot to be in if you think about it.
So who cares who believed what. KISS became one of the biggest bands in the world and one of the biggest brands in the world.
“You can gauge how important something is to you by how hard you are willing to work to get it.” – Paul Stanley
Stop asking permission
You know what the difference between a private prep school and a public school really is? Public schools teach you to get good grades, follow the rules or else, work a job, and move up the ladder for 40 years.
Then maybe you’ll get your chance if you follow all the rules.
Private, elite schools by contrast teach students to not ask permission. To instead go straight to the CEO and ask. If you don’t ask you won’t receive. You have to get what you want through asking for it and earning it with hard work.
Not waiting around for someone to give you permission to win.
So if you need permission, you aren’t going to succeed and your mission is destined for failure.
You’ll succeed when you’re a professional decision maker, not a master beg artist.
If you aren’t driven enough to go ahead without permission guess what you are…
A passenger. Passengers aren’t exactly in control, are they.
When you realize you are the decider, you make the choice, it’s your life and you’ll live it how you please, that’s when you’ll find success – that’s when you’ll get your treasure.
Me giving you permission will not get you what you desire.
I’m not the boss of your company because I’m not in the business of buying bankrupt Echo, Incs.
I only invest in up and coming “You, Inc’s” And when I do, I demand excellence.
I didn’t always know how to make money
I never had a mentor, a teacher, an older brother, a coach or a parent that taught me anything of value.
I didn’t know anything for a long time. That’s the reality.
Everything valuable I ever learned was by using my own eyes, experiencing life’s little lessons (trial and error, doing and failing) and putting the math together; 1+1=2.
Some people like to pretend 1+1=3.
Those people are the “play by the rules” types, even when it doesn’t benefit them and actively hurts them.
It became clear to me, while I was pursuing that 9-5 life, that playing by the rules and going by the book was fruitless.
I didn’t know anything valuable but I knew I wanted out. I didn’t know how I would get out or what I would do.
…but I wanted out.
I knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur in some way, I just didn’t know how. It seemed like an insurmountable problem.
I only knew it was possible because I saw others doing it online. Running large blogs, selling stuff, doing brand deals, making products for sale.
“Where does money come from if you don’t have a job”?
Through providing value and solving problems for the market. But what value and what problem could I solve? I kind of did that with my goofy dating blog, I made some money.
But how do I make real, life changing money? How do I build something that’s mine?
Honestly, I never even met an entrepreneur until my late-twenties in Thailand.
He was balling it out in Chiang Mai while I was in a training program to become an ESL teacher.
What do you do?
“I run Facebook ads for business for companies and myself.”
I had known people who ran pay per click advertising (PPC) and were called “super affiliates.”
I was aware that running ads for affiliate networks was thing, but to meet someone who showed me they were making a 6 figure income from it?
Wow, just wow.
…and here I am training to get a 1k a month English teaching job in Thailand.
Before that, I used to dream about running some big blog, and magically making a ton of money somehow. I would disappear and come back a changed man.
Free to live in a different country every 6 months or something.
That was the silly way I thought I could change my life.
I was actually training for a mediocre job, an extended vacation if you will where I would inevitably end up back in the rat race in America.
But I was comfortable enough….
I complained, I wished things were different but I didn’t do anything to change my situation.
I never actually worked on providing value and solving problems, I just “pretended” to work by writing yet another pointless blog post on my then personal blog.
I was waiting for a miracle to come and save me from my destiny as a 9-5 worker bee.
The miracle came when I started working hard on learning skills to solve problems people actually had.
Looking back, the solution was so simple.
Instead of working fruitlessly at a job, I started working for myself – Becoming the best version of myself.
The thing about hard work is that it’s temporary, like pain.
You do the hard work first and then you can live off of it later. I know this for a fact. I’ve done it with two businesses.
My teaching website where I provided value from my time teaching abroad and online (coaching, referrals, affiliate links, free content as the top of the funnel)
To now my professional brand that you’re engaging with now.
It took me a long time to even realize what was possible, though, and if I could get in a time machine and tell the young and clueless me, this is something I’d tell him…
Provide value and solve problems!
If you want to make money, online or off it comes down to solving problems.
No, your “Mr Cool Guy” blog or YouTube channel where you show off that you’re with some farm girl in a travel vlog the Philippines is not providing value.
Neither is your “fashion and makeup Instagram” where you get to pretend you’re a model and influencer.
Develop a skill, leverage your talents (I’m great on camera and I’m a skilled copywriter) and get to work.
Be consistent and do more of what works too.
Complaining gets you nowhere but it does adds to your unhappiness, exposes you as a whiner and drains the energy of the people you complain to.
Last, if you can’t be great at what you do, don’t do it as you’re going to be competing against those who are actually talented and great.
Do what you’re scared to do as what got you here, really won’t get you there
You can’t make a big change in your life if you don’t do something big. Something big, something drastic, requires change and it’s always scary to change.
It’s easy to stay the same.
I don’t care if you’re a grizzled war veteran, changing your life is frightening because you don’t know what will happen until you try.
It really comes down to a battle between the mind and the soul.
When you have to talk yourself into something it means your soul says no but your mind says yes.
Follow your soul, your heart and ignore the mind.
You know what you need to do, but your mind will always tell you to play it safe. It will rationalize you not taking action.
Talking yourself into staying put instead of making that big change because, eh it’s not that bad right? Your soul is saying no. Make the change, do it.
But like I said, It’s scary to change, that’s why the mind drowns out this other voice.
Make a commitment
Make a commitment to better your life – to become the man you were born to be.
When I say I’m going to do something, especially something big, I do it. No matter how many doubts and second thoughts I have – I just do it.
Jump in the icy cold water, no matter how much you don’t want to.
You’ll never, ever, get anywhere quitting and re-starting.
Reject your paycheck
If I’ve said it once I’ve said it a thousand times…
You don’t need a job to make money.
You can make money on the internet.
You don’t need a job and that’s not a big problem because:
- If you’re American your jobs have been outsourced to foreign countries and job growth is a lie.
- Jobs steal your time, your health and your soul – look at the dead eyes and fat bellies of employees for proof.
- Life is better without a job.
Don’t stop learning
College was a waste of time for me but the endless books, endless experiences and endless amount of self-study has proven invaluable.
For Website Creative Pro, I put in the time to learn how to treat this blog and YouTube like a business, not just a hobby. The thing that started as a little idea in my head has now turned into a profitable personal brand.
What’s the difference between a guy with a guitar in his bedroom and a guy with a guitar on stage? His attitude about his business.
The guy onstage treats it like a business and the guy in his bedroom treats it like a hobby.
You think rockstars are born to rock? No. They might sing about it, but they worked like hell to get what they’ve got. Just like anyone you think is “living the dream.”
Some fellow sent me an email the other day that said “I don’t consider blogging a business.”
Yea, blog alone is not a business. A blog is your “top of the funnel” marketing tool when done right:
Here’s the cold, hard reality: I broke 6 figures a year living abroad (100% online income) while most men of any age make jack shit working a job.
You don’t have to blog to make money online. Shopify stories, running a marketing agency, PPC advertising. The options are limitless.
Working a job is limiting though. I’ve been there, I’ve done it, I wouldn’t wish that life on you.
Life is much better with financial freedom.
You know how I got it?
I put in the time and I worked for it. Consistently. I became a man possessed and did more of what works.
It’s so simple to read but so hard to do. I was there before. Always reading and never doing.
You’ll often hear me say how easy it is. And it is easy because I already did all the heavy lifting.
But it wasn’t easy those years ago when I was in Chiang Mai Thailand for the first time.
Don’t bankrupt You, Inc.
You’re the CEO of your own company, so make your own decisions and make a commitment to those decisions.
Give up too much or beg too much and You, Inc. will go bankrupt.
When You, Inc. goes bankrupt what do you do?
You get a day job.
Well, you call it your day job but what you’ve done is sold your soul, your brand, yourself.
Your day job is now the owner of You, Inc. You went bankrupt and sold out to the lowest bidder.
Now they own you and you’re left with no bargaining power.
Employees are easily replaceable in any company except for one (You, Inc. – the one you sold to the lowest bidder).
When you sell your bankrupt company (You, Inc.) you become like the untouchables of India. Gone, forgotten, invisible and worthless.
Is there a way out?
Yeah, there are 6…
- No.
- More.
- Compromise.
- Get.
- To.
- WORK.
Until next time.
-David
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