This is a long read. If your attention span is like that of a gold fish, just move on.
I’m listening to a “Bass Boosted” YT playlist, checking my clients’ revenue dashboard and grinning like a fat kid in McDonald’s. It’s Friday 3.27am and life is fucking good.
The reason why I’m grinning is because in most cases the payment for my service (email marketing) is based on the results I deliver. Good old revenue share. Meaning if I make my clients more $$$, I get a big fat pay-check at the end of the month too.
Here’s the kicker, I “closed” the first out of now 8 clients in January.
May was the first 5 figure month, and July is looking to be May x2. And yes, that’s revenue and not net profit. I’ve got 5 killers (+2 translators) on my team now and want to pay them well, but of course I’m making sure net profit is decent too.
I started the whole “Internet Marketing” in September 2017. Had zero clients, $7,000 on the bank account (past year video work savings) and mad ambition. Serious for the first time. For the first time working for myself. Finally went ALL IN.
Used my social media to find 3 other online entrepreneurs, and got them to chip in for a kickass flat in central Barcelona. Was a bitch to find the right place and my hand trembled as I signed the $2,000/mo + expenses, with a nice $2,500 agency fee on top contract. #hustlehouse was born.
To be honest, I didn’t have an exact plan. I knew a bit about copywriting and had some great personal relationships (all earned) with a handful of successful people and a mentor.
I still remember the chat in the #hustlehouse in September (we did a goal-setting session, how gay, right? #jk). We talked about the big three, and my relationships/game and health were on point, but in business, I was probably the worst of all 4 guys.
Basically, my whole plan was this – go on Upwork and start freelance copywriting. I heard it could be done, I saw people online that did it, but it was scary as fuck and I wasn’t truly sure if I can make it or not. My $$$ would last for at least 3 months, so I decided to just go with it.
I can still do more vids if I fuck up…
Like one of the dudes in the #hustlehouse advised me (thanks!) – “just follow the process man, don’t think about it.” So that’s what I did. I wrote up my profile and started to apply for job posts while pretending that I knew what I’m doing.
The first call happened, and then the first gig for I think $400. And then in November the first $1,300 gig. And then a few more irregular gigs and the ball started to roll. My skills were getting sharper, and I was starting to grind more and more. I didn’t complain when nobody gave 2 shits about my job applications. I just sent more.
I’d write for everything you can imagine. Bitcoin? Sure. Dog toys dropshipping store? Sure. Sourcing traveling healthcare staff? Bring it on. Fishy casinos? Yup. Didn’t even get paid for that one lol. I even considered doing marketing for a woman doing sex/tantra massages…
I was studying lots of old copy masters (you can find everything online for free btw) and at the same while hustling to actually get people to give me $$$. I begged work from “Clients” that I would never consider nowadays.
I tried everything besides the ongoing upwork, linkedIn, fb groups, web scraping… I even messaged 10 people/friends I know that are balling, and asked them if they have any work or know someone who does… Nada.
Finally got a few more clients in November, and life was becoming good. I think I flew to Tenerife 3 times in the winter. To be honest, I was balling and spending way above what was responsible. But hey, can’t blame a kid from Balkan when he treats his girl to a bottle of wine and a fancy dinner for the first time in his life…
Yet I was still uncertain. I was still afraid. I felt like everything could just disappear and be gone the next day.
And it almost did.
I didn’t perform well enough, two clients were not happy and I got fired. That was rough. Got another client that paid a lot, and my service wasn’t good enough. He didn’t say anything, he even said he liked it, and I hated myself even more for it.
I decided to put in more effort and deliver great, outstanding stuff, no matter what it took.
Around this time I shared one client (that I brought on board) with my mentor. I only got 25% of the share and did more of the work, but was insanely happy doing it. It would barely be enough to cover my expenses, but I was learning a lot and the online dream was still alive.
Money was running out quickly, so drastic measures were needed. I pretty much stopped going out in January and started to put in insane hours. And that’s a big thing to say, considering I was traveling around the world with a dating coach for the better part of 2 years…
Closed my first ecommerce client in January, a large store in the US. I knew I HAVE to deliver so I’d read about all the strategies day and night. Every weekly call I’d drop new strategies and email designs onto the client, every email I’d check 1,000 times to make sure everything is perfect.
I realized there’s a big niche for email marketing specifically for ecommerce and focused exclusively on that. Around that time I hired my first “VA” (a rock star who I met through, believe it or not, game/pickup, on Tenerife). He’s still on the team, learning marketing and crushing it like a badass…
I think another ecom client came in February, and one came and left in March. Two more came in April, and then 3 or 4 more in May. That’s when I hired 2 more people pretty much full-time, and started to invest heavily into mentoring, spending $1,000-2,000 month on getting mentored myself.
Life is really good now.
The revenue (and profit) are more than fucking solid, and the whole thing is running exclusively online. I’ve registered the business (Hustler Marketing) in Estonia and got a website up. I know those are just candies, but I can afford to lick them with no guilt now…
Next goal is 6 figures monthly in revenue and I honestly think it’s going to happen within 12 months.
Most imortantly, I’m not afraid anymore.
I finally don’t feel like everything can just disappear overnight. In fact, more and more ventures and opportunities are opening up. I’m finally pulling the brakes on the 50-70h workweeks that were a constant from January.
Last week was like the first week where I worked only 3-4h a day. This week was crazier again because the business is not automated enough yet and needed to catch up haha, but we’re getting there.
And don’t get me wrong, I did have lots of fun during the 5 months of epic hardcore hustle too. I mean, the name of my mentoring program is “Balanced Performance” after all. But besides some highlights, all the winter Tenerife flights and regular travels, I was pretty much doing only one thing.
Working on my email marketing.
So yeah, that’s why I’m grinning like a fat kid in Mcdonalds right now. It’s Friday 5.07am and I don’t give a fuck. I can pretty much do anything I want and it feels awesome. In fact, I’m not sure whether I’ll just collapse in bed (pretty tired), go read the new Brandon Sanderson book I ordered, or get high…
Anyway, this is a long-ass post, but hopefully, you were kept entertained and absorbed the rawness of the story. I wrote this post mainly as a message to myself. And to publicly share what I’ve finally accepting deep inside of myself.
The fact that I’m pretty much past financial worries and calibrating into serving people and businesses. Feels so fucking insane.
The second reason is that I want to motivate those 3 people out of 100 that read this, those 3 people whose dreams are not dead yet and who will actually go and take massive action.
Because massive action on a consistent basis for a long, long time is what it takes. Go watch “how to get good fast bosslifehacks” on YT and I’ll give you the recipe…
The third reason is giving an update to you, my old friends and acquaintances. If you are wondering what I am doing all this time, and why I stopped answering phone calls or visiting, or going back to Slovenia. Now you know – priorities. If I didn’t close myself, this would never have happened.
There is no something for nothing, you always have to pay the price.
Hope you’ve enjoyed the read. I did try to spice it up a bit. I feel the next book kicking somewhere inside of me… shit is feeling like some sort of writer’s pregnancy lol.
Finally, here are a few pointers for those 3 people that will take action. All the rest, you can stop here, thanks for checking in, and show me some love in the comments & sharizzles 
What you need to “make it”:
-Insane Work Ethic. This is the single biggest thing I’ve seen in any successful person I met. Unless you’re lucky to have an easier start, you have to grind hard in the beginning. It gets easier once you can hire people…
-You’re never ready. The more “discomfort” you can handle, the faster you will grow.
-Treasure your mentors and relationships with successful people. This might be the biggest asset that you have, even if you think you have nothing. A book can be a mentor.
-Focus on $$$. Nothing else matters. You don’t need a logo or a legit company or a business plan or anything like that. It’s very simple – you need to get $$$, and focus on doing only the things that directly correlate to that. Having a registered business and a logo do not.
-You need to trust and believe. Call it the process, god, or whatever. You need to fucking believe it can work because nobody else will. Vision boards, goal cards, incantations, and all the other crap that might work for you… I say do it all.
-It’s not enough to just dream big. You have to sacrifice too. There is no such a thing as something for nothing.
Peace out,
Bostjan
P.S
Want to shed off a few months of your progress? I’ll open the applications to my private mentoring group called “Balanced Performance” again in September, check it out. It won’t be free. It won’t even be cheap. I paid for the lessons with tons of pure unpolished and unfancy hustle… So don’t even think you can be “hey bro, can you help me out real quick” without adding value. Go watch my 100 youtube videos and then go work your ass off and pay. Or go figure it out on your own – that’s what I did.
P.P.S
If you have an e-commerce store that’s doing $100,000 or more a month in revenue, and your email marketing sucks, hit me up. I’ll help you make a bunch more. If you know anyone who does and will introduce us, and we end up working together, you’ll get $500.
P.P.P.S
Are you a rockstar with a brain who wants to work online but is not afraid to work hard? First read the book called “The Linchpin” then send me a video application (via email) of why you’d be the right fit. Ideally, you know something about emails or copywriting, but a strong character, problem-solving and strong work ethic are way more important. I don’t have a position open right now, but we’re growing really fucking fast.
P.P.P.P.P.S
It’s 5.30am now. I want to get high just for the fuck of it because I’m proud of writing this epic 2,000 word post and well proud of myself in general. But I’ll just go sleep cus tomorrow’s a new day and I need to work on that biz. #priorities
Leave a Reply