“The secret of getting ahead is getting started” – Mark Twain
These people aren’t going to give you shit. There are no hand outs here. If you are waiting for someone to ‘give a you a chance’, you’ll be waiting your whole life. You have to make your own luck. Go out and get whatever it is you want – bang on the doors – HARD – or knock them down. And if they don’t let you in, build your own castle.
People need to realize, for most people no one is out there trying to sabotage them. For the most part everyone is worried about their own lives. If you want someone’s help, guidance, or need their experience – play to their self-interest. Make it worthwhile for them, If there is no win-win for everyone, it’s usually a bad deal. Don’t be a leech, that’s the one thing I hate. The people that ask for an inch, then keep coming back asking for more and more, leeching onto the energy of others without giving something substantial in return. Problem is by their own admittance they have nothing of value to give OR at least they can’t figure our or recognize their own value in life, so they don’t use that to their advantage.
“There is surely nothing other than the single purpose of the present moment. A man’s whole life is a succession of moment after moment. If one fully understands the present moment, there is nothing left to do, and nothing else to pursue.” – Ghost Dog / Hagakure
So how do you create your luck – fuck, you just do it. Don’t let anyone get in your way of doing it, and if they block you, go under them, around them, above them, just get it done.
I remember when I was starting my marketing agency, we did all the ground work, setup the site, got the marketing going – then did something which most people don’t, we went out and knocked on doors for clients. We cold called like a mofo. In the beginning 80% of our efforts were offline, proactive efforts – it had to be, we were nobodies. Instead of waiting for the SEO to kick in, we traffic leaked small business websites and reached out to people that were in need of better marketing. Eventually the energy we put out trickled back in with clients, revenue, and then eventually profits.
We didn’t sit around waiting for SEO to kick in, or some one opportunity to make or break us. We had multiple irons in the fire, and kept at them. Looking back, the downfall was pretty simple, we never got out of the hustle mode. We were always looking for more and more without defining our desired customer base – there essentially was no – next phase, and with no next phase, you create a situation where ANY opportunity that comes along is taken – meaning there is no real focus.
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will open to you; For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks the door will be opened.” – Matthew 7:7-8
One thing I continue to come across is there is hesitation – mostly out of fear. People are either waiting for someone to guide them alone, take them by the hand, or wait for the stars to perfectly align – you’ll get nowhere with that mentality. Life isn’t fair, get used to it, you need to make your own way in this world and you’d better get started…
“I am the one who knocks!” – Heisenberg
Interesting post – I did not know you had your own agency. This is relevant to my interests. You’ve obviously went full circle. I’m in a similar position at the moment, knocking on doors. Trying to create my own luck, it’s hard though as I’m not a boat burner and am leaching in a day job.
I’m faced with choice: start an agency or a brand, the brand I know is more scalable but my inner doubt is telling me that the agency is more realistic.
Technically I owned 2 agencies. They are both still up and running and profitable. The first was an ‘SEO’ agency, 2nd was a marketing agency. I eventually learned I prefer not directly interacting with clients. I’m just not a ‘lets have a meeting’ type of person.
You can try incentivized referrals. Example pay anyone a percentage for life – 5 or 10% for any customer they refer to you. Or do a one time payment of $150-$500 for any customer referrals, whatever makes sense financially. That’ll have people thinking, hey, I can send clients to him and get paid, eventually the real hustlers with connections will start trickling in referrals left and right. How about you give small businesses your referral program and let them know anyone they send you, they’ll get paid for life. Watch their eyes lite up. 😉
We had a full commission sales team getting paid 50% of the first month and 10% of the recurring month for the life of the client. I know several people that are doing email outreach to get their clients – if you get creative there really is no limit in the SEO industry.
The brand route and agency route are both realistic. For example study the recent successes of Viralnova and the viral aspect of Rapgenius. There is a lesson in everything that’s going on. You can also build up your brand slowly over time while doing the agency thing. I think the biggest hurdle is getting traffic to your brand or agency. Once you can do that successfully, everything else will fall into place. (P.S. people still read their emails – personalized outreach is still huge).
Well put, “luck” has always been an undercover excuse for lazy people!
Paid referrals sounds like a real hook. I’ll have to give this a try once I have my first clients onboard thanks for info I really appreciate your time CC.
I’ve been listening to the Viralnova story on Viperchill’s podcast – I can see the potential in going niche specific.
As for personalisation – just watch an epic mixergy master class 2+ hours long, Jermaine Griggs talks about using his list. He combines everything from the wistia API to txt messages to birthday cards.
Hello CCarter, more of this please. No really, your advice was priceless to me.
Great post. We need more of this in the world. Thanks for the kick in the ass. I feel like I’m burning out every day, so tough love like this is much needed.
You are REAL !