I started my first business thanks to MJ's writings many years ago when I was 17 years old, and it was a life-defining decision. I made many mistakes along the way and should have followed some of MJ's advice more closely, especially the commandment of control. Essentially, we got sh*t-sandwiched between Amazon and Google with my business, and while it worked out beautifully for a while, it only took them a month or so to send us down from $250K/month to almost nothing.
The positive:
I made and saved well over $1MM during the last couple of years while living a Fastlane Lifestyle and traveling the world in my 20s, so I won't complain. Also, the business I originally started is still yielding some ~$5K/month in passive income, so I'm in a good position to start over now. The hard thing right now is to actually get moving with full speed again. I can't deny that I had become too complacent during the years of success. Or, in MJ's words from his first book, I stopped running.
Physically, I'm in my prime, since I've been taking great care of my body. I look (and probably feel) younger and more energetic than most people in their 20s, myself included.
I'm ready to roll again, to start over and to build something bigger, better, and more impactful this time!
Cleaning out my closet:
Here are some things I want to clarify to myself, the world, and the universe before this new journey begins:
My plan:
I am going to learn how to use short-form videos for marketing, especially on TikTok. I'm aware that they could be banned in the US, but for me, it's less about learning how TikTok works specifically and more about the format. The way the TikTok algorithm and video content work is just too addictive and well-made not to be picked up by many others over time. In fact, we are already seeing this with YouTube Shorts, Instagram, as well as LinkedIn.
With that being said, I do see some serious opportunities coming up with TikTok specifically in the short term. People, especially younger generations, are increasingly relying on it as a search engine, and TikTok Shop will launch in Europe (my home turf) sometime later this year.
My bet is that I will be able to build up a TikTok agency with some productized services to help eCommerce companies build up a following on TikTok, drive traffic to their content (organic and paid), and boost their sales. The launch of TikTok Shop will be a catalyst on top of that. I should be able to scale that business to some $100K/month rather quickly (within a couple of months) through pure hustle, grind and sales.
Once I reach that point, I should have a Fastlane Business again, as I will build this up as a proper system. This system should also serve as a marketing machine for any future brand or service that I might conceive. Additionally, it will provide me with market insights that I would otherwise not be able to capture.
Next steps:
Using a B2C beauty and supplement brand that I invested in as a test case, I am going to learn how all of this works, define my product offerings, and build up my first successful example to use for sales. I am also going to start a TikTok channel myself and talk about a topic that I feel passionate about (supplements and longevity) to learn and understand the content creator side of things.
Once these are running, I already have but closed 3 clients to work with me, one of them I'll take on for free during the first 3 months (personal favor, I owe these guys), the two others are paid.
The goal is really to get my operations around my agency's services structured and streamlined. I built and scaled another service business up to ~$30K/month on the side in my 20s and I already know how important this is. Once you have a service that you can actually sell, sales are hardly the bottleneck, but rather your backend operations.
Apart from that, I am in the process of setting up a website for the agency that I'll optimize for organic Google. The channel is no longer as cool as it used to be, but it still works and in my niche the competition doesn't look too fierce yet. I'm positive that within a couple of weeks or months I should be able to get dozens of leads every month that way.
So, yeah, this is it. I've just left the service area, I'm on the acceleration lane, and I'll see you guys back on the Fastlane later! I'll be posting my updates in this thread.
The positive:
I made and saved well over $1MM during the last couple of years while living a Fastlane Lifestyle and traveling the world in my 20s, so I won't complain. Also, the business I originally started is still yielding some ~$5K/month in passive income, so I'm in a good position to start over now. The hard thing right now is to actually get moving with full speed again. I can't deny that I had become too complacent during the years of success. Or, in MJ's words from his first book, I stopped running.
Physically, I'm in my prime, since I've been taking great care of my body. I look (and probably feel) younger and more energetic than most people in their 20s, myself included.
I'm ready to roll again, to start over and to build something bigger, better, and more impactful this time!
Cleaning out my closet:
Here are some things I want to clarify to myself, the world, and the universe before this new journey begins:
- While I made some stupid mistakes and eventually lost my business, it is still absolutely valid to feel proud of the achievements in my 20s. Yes, I could have made more money had I been smarter about some things, but these events are now in the past. I am obliged to learn from my mistakes and anti-patterns, but I still have every reason to feel proud of my accomplishments and I want myself to remember that whenever I feel down, not worthy, or not smart enough to hit the accelerator hard.
- What is to follow for me is a period of temporary restraint in areas that have nothing to do with building my Fastlane Business. Physical fitness, mental health, and spending time with family and friends occasionally are non-negotiable. However, playing video games, spending money on unnecessary things, and loading up my plate with issues that don't serve me on my quest are not.
- I'm doing this because I know that I have it in me, and because I want to allow my future family and myself to live our best lives, fueled by freedom and the power to live our lives on our own terms.
- I am not going to touch the money I made with my last business unless I really need capital to scale, and I'd need to get that capital from investors or the bank. After careful calculation, I'd still consider it a necessity to touch my own capital. I wasted like $200K of my own money on a rather stupid SaaS idea that I could have validated with much less money had I actually had less money and had been more creative about my approach and less lazy.
My plan:
I am going to learn how to use short-form videos for marketing, especially on TikTok. I'm aware that they could be banned in the US, but for me, it's less about learning how TikTok works specifically and more about the format. The way the TikTok algorithm and video content work is just too addictive and well-made not to be picked up by many others over time. In fact, we are already seeing this with YouTube Shorts, Instagram, as well as LinkedIn.
With that being said, I do see some serious opportunities coming up with TikTok specifically in the short term. People, especially younger generations, are increasingly relying on it as a search engine, and TikTok Shop will launch in Europe (my home turf) sometime later this year.
My bet is that I will be able to build up a TikTok agency with some productized services to help eCommerce companies build up a following on TikTok, drive traffic to their content (organic and paid), and boost their sales. The launch of TikTok Shop will be a catalyst on top of that. I should be able to scale that business to some $100K/month rather quickly (within a couple of months) through pure hustle, grind and sales.
Once I reach that point, I should have a Fastlane Business again, as I will build this up as a proper system. This system should also serve as a marketing machine for any future brand or service that I might conceive. Additionally, it will provide me with market insights that I would otherwise not be able to capture.
Next steps:
Using a B2C beauty and supplement brand that I invested in as a test case, I am going to learn how all of this works, define my product offerings, and build up my first successful example to use for sales. I am also going to start a TikTok channel myself and talk about a topic that I feel passionate about (supplements and longevity) to learn and understand the content creator side of things.
Once these are running, I already have but closed 3 clients to work with me, one of them I'll take on for free during the first 3 months (personal favor, I owe these guys), the two others are paid.
The goal is really to get my operations around my agency's services structured and streamlined. I built and scaled another service business up to ~$30K/month on the side in my 20s and I already know how important this is. Once you have a service that you can actually sell, sales are hardly the bottleneck, but rather your backend operations.
Apart from that, I am in the process of setting up a website for the agency that I'll optimize for organic Google. The channel is no longer as cool as it used to be, but it still works and in my niche the competition doesn't look too fierce yet. I'm positive that within a couple of weeks or months I should be able to get dozens of leads every month that way.
So, yeah, this is it. I've just left the service area, I'm on the acceleration lane, and I'll see you guys back on the Fastlane later! I'll be posting my updates in this thread.
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