Hello everybody!
My name is Kevin. I’m 25 and I live in NYC.
I’ve just started a web design and SEO agency, and wanted to track and share my progress, as I got my initial inspiration from this forum and the Millionaire Fastlane book.
Here’s the story:
I joined a software company as a User Experience Designer last year. What started off as a positive experience turned sour when we were bought by a foreign company a month after I joined.
Suddenly, my day-to-day became a constant struggle against bureaucracy and middle-management. I figured that since this was my first full time job, I should suck it up and grind it out. My parents told me the same thing.
In this time I became depressed. I gained weight from binging on junk food (I’d buy a pack of Milano cookies every day and eat them in 10 minutes). I went from playing video games on occasion to playing 4-5 hours every day. At my sibling’s recommendation I started to see a psychiatrist, who prescribed me depression medication.
"F*ck This"
In June of this year, I prepared some final designs to present to the Chairman of the Board of our parent company.
When he saw the designs he snapped. He said that the most important line of copy was incorrect, and started to berate my team for not being able to follow directions. Everybody was silent as he heaped abuse on us.
I racked my mind. The line of copy in my design was exactly the line he asked for. We couldn’t have missed that. After all, I had run through the whole thing with my team just before.
I checked my notes.
The copy was correct.
I don’t think I’ve felt anything as ugly as what I felt when I sat there and swallowed his tirade while knowing that he was wrong. I would’ve spoke up but I was afraid. Afraid of repercussion. Afraid of being fired. Afraid of being shamed.
In retrospect, this man is so dogmatically sure of himself, that even if I had shown him proof that he was wrong he would not have listened.
Shawshank
After the meeting I took a walk outside with my teammate. We walked through a plaza as I vented to him about the stupidity of it all.
Something had changed inside of me though.
I had to leave.
I was okay with working a different job.
I was not okay with being forced to work with, or under somebody I didn’t respect.
At home I started to Google things like “making money with side business” and “how to be self-employed”.
Everybody kept on recommending two books: MJ DeMarco’s The Millionaire Fastlane and Napolean Hill’s Think and Grow Rich. I bought the Millionaire Fastlane and read it in one sitting. I spent the entire next day browsing the Fastlane Forum. I read stories like that of @GuitarManDan’s and was so excited I had trouble sleeping.
Baby Steps
At this time I was still quite depressed. I knew I couldn’t quit my job immediately. I needed my insurance to continue seeing my psychiatrist. I was also afraid that without the routine that office life provided, I would become even more depressed.
I started to think about the steps I could take to feel better, and then the steps I could take to quit my job.
The first part was the hardest. Over the next few months, I sorted out many internal issues with my psychiatrist. Painfully, I started to exercise, eat better, work on my relationships and think about the source of my own insecurities. I made an accountability group with my best friend and started with the smallest weekly tasks. I also started to do art again (my biggest hobby when I was younger).
The second part came serendipitously. I was contacted out of the blue by people I had worked with in the past to do freelance design/illustration jobs. I started working on evenings and weekends, making $2K on the side in September and October. This gave me a boost of confidence: if I ever quit my job or was fired I could always do freelance design.
Preparedness meets Opportunity (kind of)
One day in mid October, I went to finally take my Road Test (I'd procrastinated it for years). My driving was rusty so I took a 1-hour class at a local driving school right before.
After I passed my test, I was casually chatting to the owner of the driving school. She mentioned that her business was suffering, and I immediately thought about the people doing Web Design on the Fastlane Forum. I told her that I could redo her website to bring her more customers. I didn't know how to price the site at all, but I nervously blurted out $1K and she agreed. She paid the full sum in cash, upfront, and right then and there I knew she was someone I wanted to do business with.
Over the next 2 weeks I learned to use Wordpress, and set up payments with PayPal and Stripe. The website already had decent traffic coming from Yelp, so I figured the site would be able to make a few conversions.
The site made $2K the first 20 days it was live. I was ecstatic.
Crossing the Rubicon
I told my psychiatrist that I wanted to taper off the medication, and I did. Doing the freelance work (knowing that there were other options out there) and working on connecting with the people around me boosted my energy and optimism enormously.
In January, I will be transitioning from being a full-time employee at my current company to a one day/week remote contractor. The one day of remote work will cover my fairly spartan living expenses, and there is a clause in our contract that says either party must give the other 30 days notice before terminating our relationship.
I did a good job on the website, and pitched the Driving School owner on digital marking services. She agreed and has begun to pay me $650/month to run Google Ads and do SEO.
I have a one strong lead in my pipeline. I’m struggling with this part the most, but have ideas on what I need to do to get more clients.
=============
Since I started freelancing on September 21st, 2019:
Total Revenue: $2950
Monthly Recurring Revenue: $650/mo
============
A Big Whopping Thank You
I have you all to thank for the excitement and joy I feel every day, especially @GuitarManDan @Sean Marshall @GoodluckChuck @Fox and @MJ DeMarco
Of course it’s not all sunshine and roses right now. But this is interesting:
A year ago I couldn’t get out of bed because I thought I was destined to live the Groundhog Day that was my job.
This week I’ve been waking up around 5 every day to exercise and learn SEO before going to work.
I’ll update this post whenever I can, or whenever I hit a snag in the road and need to ask for advice.
I love you all for wanting so badly to create value for the world, and for aspiring to live exceptional lives.
Cheers,
Kevin
My name is Kevin. I’m 25 and I live in NYC.
I’ve just started a web design and SEO agency, and wanted to track and share my progress, as I got my initial inspiration from this forum and the Millionaire Fastlane book.
Here’s the story:
I joined a software company as a User Experience Designer last year. What started off as a positive experience turned sour when we were bought by a foreign company a month after I joined.
Suddenly, my day-to-day became a constant struggle against bureaucracy and middle-management. I figured that since this was my first full time job, I should suck it up and grind it out. My parents told me the same thing.
In this time I became depressed. I gained weight from binging on junk food (I’d buy a pack of Milano cookies every day and eat them in 10 minutes). I went from playing video games on occasion to playing 4-5 hours every day. At my sibling’s recommendation I started to see a psychiatrist, who prescribed me depression medication.
"F*ck This"
In June of this year, I prepared some final designs to present to the Chairman of the Board of our parent company.
When he saw the designs he snapped. He said that the most important line of copy was incorrect, and started to berate my team for not being able to follow directions. Everybody was silent as he heaped abuse on us.
I racked my mind. The line of copy in my design was exactly the line he asked for. We couldn’t have missed that. After all, I had run through the whole thing with my team just before.
I checked my notes.
The copy was correct.
I don’t think I’ve felt anything as ugly as what I felt when I sat there and swallowed his tirade while knowing that he was wrong. I would’ve spoke up but I was afraid. Afraid of repercussion. Afraid of being fired. Afraid of being shamed.
In retrospect, this man is so dogmatically sure of himself, that even if I had shown him proof that he was wrong he would not have listened.
Shawshank
After the meeting I took a walk outside with my teammate. We walked through a plaza as I vented to him about the stupidity of it all.
Something had changed inside of me though.
I had to leave.
I was okay with working a different job.
I was not okay with being forced to work with, or under somebody I didn’t respect.
At home I started to Google things like “making money with side business” and “how to be self-employed”.
Everybody kept on recommending two books: MJ DeMarco’s The Millionaire Fastlane and Napolean Hill’s Think and Grow Rich. I bought the Millionaire Fastlane and read it in one sitting. I spent the entire next day browsing the Fastlane Forum. I read stories like that of @GuitarManDan’s and was so excited I had trouble sleeping.
Baby Steps
At this time I was still quite depressed. I knew I couldn’t quit my job immediately. I needed my insurance to continue seeing my psychiatrist. I was also afraid that without the routine that office life provided, I would become even more depressed.
I started to think about the steps I could take to feel better, and then the steps I could take to quit my job.
The first part was the hardest. Over the next few months, I sorted out many internal issues with my psychiatrist. Painfully, I started to exercise, eat better, work on my relationships and think about the source of my own insecurities. I made an accountability group with my best friend and started with the smallest weekly tasks. I also started to do art again (my biggest hobby when I was younger).
The second part came serendipitously. I was contacted out of the blue by people I had worked with in the past to do freelance design/illustration jobs. I started working on evenings and weekends, making $2K on the side in September and October. This gave me a boost of confidence: if I ever quit my job or was fired I could always do freelance design.
Preparedness meets Opportunity (kind of)
One day in mid October, I went to finally take my Road Test (I'd procrastinated it for years). My driving was rusty so I took a 1-hour class at a local driving school right before.
After I passed my test, I was casually chatting to the owner of the driving school. She mentioned that her business was suffering, and I immediately thought about the people doing Web Design on the Fastlane Forum. I told her that I could redo her website to bring her more customers. I didn't know how to price the site at all, but I nervously blurted out $1K and she agreed. She paid the full sum in cash, upfront, and right then and there I knew she was someone I wanted to do business with.
Over the next 2 weeks I learned to use Wordpress, and set up payments with PayPal and Stripe. The website already had decent traffic coming from Yelp, so I figured the site would be able to make a few conversions.
The site made $2K the first 20 days it was live. I was ecstatic.
Crossing the Rubicon
I told my psychiatrist that I wanted to taper off the medication, and I did. Doing the freelance work (knowing that there were other options out there) and working on connecting with the people around me boosted my energy and optimism enormously.
In January, I will be transitioning from being a full-time employee at my current company to a one day/week remote contractor. The one day of remote work will cover my fairly spartan living expenses, and there is a clause in our contract that says either party must give the other 30 days notice before terminating our relationship.
I did a good job on the website, and pitched the Driving School owner on digital marking services. She agreed and has begun to pay me $650/month to run Google Ads and do SEO.
I have a one strong lead in my pipeline. I’m struggling with this part the most, but have ideas on what I need to do to get more clients.
=============
Since I started freelancing on September 21st, 2019:
Total Revenue: $2950
Monthly Recurring Revenue: $650/mo
============
A Big Whopping Thank You
I have you all to thank for the excitement and joy I feel every day, especially @GuitarManDan @Sean Marshall @GoodluckChuck @Fox and @MJ DeMarco
Of course it’s not all sunshine and roses right now. But this is interesting:
A year ago I couldn’t get out of bed because I thought I was destined to live the Groundhog Day that was my job.
This week I’ve been waking up around 5 every day to exercise and learn SEO before going to work.
I’ll update this post whenever I can, or whenever I hit a snag in the road and need to ask for advice.
I love you all for wanting so badly to create value for the world, and for aspiring to live exceptional lives.
Cheers,
Kevin
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