150k Salary to 1mm sales to 0 sales.. and now?

[Shu]

Good Morning Guys

TLDR; How would you approach finding a remote marketing job for Canadians living in Asia?

Sorry for a stark first post - but really don’t know who else to speak with. I’m a super sensitive person - and Reddit can be quite negative. I promise my content is usually quite positive! I will write about Jung and Asian history sometime too .

I started this journey with you guys. I love to read and stumbled on the Millionaire Fastlane .

I was an investment banker for large tech companies (in reality - equity research, for those that know the nuances) and investment analyst (you can find my research reports in public). But it felt like a hollow job with values I didn’t resonate with. The money just wasn’t worth it. I wanted to make other people’s lives better.

I started several businesses and had failed most. But I finally hit a home-run. Long-story-short, my business on Etsy generated $1 million (80% profit margins) over the course of 2 years and then summarily went to 0. I definitely had a productocracy but now that same product has been relentlessly copied.

I violated the commandment of control (let Etsy decide whether I should make a living) and let hijackers in (a skeevy accountant - whose credentials I didn’t verify - he wasn’t a real CPA).

Well never mind, the past remains the past. I learned from it, and can only control the present. I brushed it off, and started a few businesses. Well, I thought I lacked process or I lacked the discipline to stick with one business - which was true. But the root cause was a lack of mental stability.

Now it’s been 9 months since my business went to 0. And I’ve been AB testing businesses (maybe distractedly - because I lacked mental peace).

I need to find a remote job. I think there’s a lot of value to finding a job in my personal situation, because of the peace it’ll give me. I can then continue creating tools and services to create value on the side. On the plus side - I’ll also immediately be able to afford mental health counselling and a peaceful apartment. This would be amazing to overcome my CPTSD and BPD that are currently being triggered.

Because I’m stuck in another country (where I am the happiest I’ve ever been, and love wayyy more than Canada, and is my forever home); away from my country of citizenship (which I have no roots to). And my home country (which I want to avoid because I despise the lying and scheming culture it’s developed).

A question for you fantastic fastlaners: I’d like to find a marketing job (marketing is something I want to learn more about for my own business). How would you approach finding a remote job in this field? I obviously don’t have direct experience in a formal job for this position. I’ve been using LinkedIn so far to do job applications. Previously, to find my investment jobs the 2-Hour Job Search worked superbly.

 

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[Vntonio]

This is not a job forum.
Tho, it's hard to believe you made 800k and still not being able to made at least a few thousand on your own nowadays. I don't say you lied, but it's just hard to believe you made so much money and you remained with 0 skills that you can monetize or build something upon it.

Just think about it, you can monetize your skills by offering your knowledge to some other new Etsy shops; building another shop (with those 800k-I know this is not pure profit); or pairing with someone who has money so you can try again. Or even a course/pdf/ebook.

I say this because Etsy is not that simple you upload a listing and leave it there and then you make a million-dollar sale. You needed some effort, some strategy. This strategy can be monetized.

 

[Shu]

This is not a job forum.
Tho, it's hard to believe you made 800k and still not being able to made at least a few thousand on your own nowadays. I don't say you lied, but it's just hard to believe you made so much money and you remained with 0 skills that you can monetize or build something upon it.

Just think about it, you can monetize your skills by offering your knowledge to some other new Etsy shops; building another shop (with those 800k-I know this is not pure profit); or pairing with someone who has money so you can try again. Or even a course/pdf/ebook.

I say this because Etsy is not that simple you upload a listing and leave it there and then you make a million-dollar sale. You needed some effort, some strategy. This strategy can be monetized.

Thank you for your response friend.

Consulting was my first approach. Of course it wasn’t so simple as to just make posts.

I tried Etsy consulting (I attached a screenshot of the kind of presentations I made for video meetings with my clients) and got a few clients - but it seemed a lot of them were price sensitive and left after the first session because they saw immediate results and thought they could it do it themselves.

Honestly, I really don’t want to be affiliated with Etsy anymore. I’ve had quite a few negative experiences with the platform and can’t honestly recommend anyone to stick with the platform.

Making money isn’t as hard as finding a positive environment and state of mind (to stick with one thing) for me. I think that’s what I’m trying to achieve right now.

But you’re very right - I have a lot of skills that I can monetize. I just don’t know where to begin after trying consulting and launching an ad agency.

Maybe this is just a rant. Thanks for believing I can monetize my skills. I haven’t been able to share my story with anyone for months. Appreciate you.

 

[Vntonio]

Honestly, I really don’t want to be affiliated with Etsy anymore. I’ve had quite a few negative experiences with the platform and can’t honestly recommend anyone to stick with the platform.

I knew 2 girls who had Etsy shops and they also left after 1-2 years. That's why, yea, it's a better idea to do consulting or Etsy as a service: you get paid only to run a shop for someone else.

Making money isn’t as hard as finding a positive environment and state of mind (to stick with one thing) for me. I think that’s what I’m trying to achieve right now.

Then your level now is difficult, where making some money isn't a problem anymore. Maybe you should try some ideas and see which one of them you like the most, whether it gives you stress or not.

launching an ad agency.

If you like this idea, you can try google/meta/TikTok or even Pinterest/MSN/YouTube.

 

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[Shu]

I knew 2 girls who had Etsy shops and they also left after 1-2 years. That's why, yea, it's a better idea to do consulting or Etsy as a service: you get paid only to run a shop for someone else.

Then your level now is difficult, where making some money isn't a problem anymore. Maybe you should try some ideas and see which one of them you like the most, whether it gives you stress or not.

If you like this idea, you can try google/meta/TikTok or even Pinterest/MSN/YouTube.

Thanks friend . I’ll check it out.