Ascend 101

Lessons about building a one-person business, writing, and self-improvement

Twitter wasn’t my first gig. Far from it.

I’ve been “in business” for multiple years before that.

My family still tells this one story about me way back in primary school.

My mother would always give me some snacks to eat while I was in primary school. One of my favorites was this type of thin and dry sausage. God I loved those.

I was about 7 years old at the time. And I’ve always been quite shy for most of my life. Every teacher I had would say how quiet a kid I was.

But nonetheless when it came to these sausages I had a plan.

You see my mother would buy a package of 5 of these sausages for about 50 cents.

But I noticed that some other kid was always interested in this one snack I was eating. He didn’t have those kinds of snacks himself.

But he had money. I would sell him one of my sausages every day for 1 euro. That’s a 900% markup.

I was making some sweet bank for a 7-year-old.

But then it stopped. The other kid didn’t want my snack anymore. I tried looking for other people to sell to. But to no avail.

Now this might sound like just a funny anecdote. But this is exactly the problem I see many people struggling with. They don’t know how to get clients.

Which is a shame because that’s what keeps their business alive.

Without clients you have no business. You’re unable to experiment and compare different offers. You’re unable to scale your business. You feel stuck with no hope in sight.

But here’s the kicker. Whenever you’re not getting clients it’s always because of 3 things: The market, the marketing, or your offer.

I can tell you from experience it’s almost always one of the first two. Rarely is the problem a poor offer. You can make almost any offer work as long as you’re in the right market and have the proper marketing around it.

1) The market

Let’s go back to 7-year-old Alex.

What did I do after losing my first customer?

I started asking random kids in my class if they wanted to buy my snack. The problem?

My classmates on average:

weren’t interested in dry sausages
wouldn’t be carrying money around
expected their friend (me) to give it to them for free
had snacks of their own

I was in the wrong market.

It would’ve been easy to sell my snacks to starving adults at a sports event.

They had money
They wanted something to eat
They’d think it’s cute to see a little boy hustling

2) The marketing

How many clothing brands are there? What about watches? Jewelry? make-up? Alcohol?

How about dentists, doctors, hairdressers, personal trainers, and copywriters?

Let’s not fool ourselves. Every brand (person) in that specific industry sells the same thing as any other brand in the same industry.

But it’s their marketing where they make the difference. The different angles they attack. The stories they tell, the goals they’re working toward, and the values they hold.

Harley Davidson and Ducati both sell motorcycles. But Harley Davidson tells the story of community & freedom while Ducati tells the story of speed & Italian elegance.

Jeff Nippard and Noel Deyzel both sell fitness coaching. But Jeff tells the story of the scientific fitness community while Noel tells the story of him growing up without a father and helping boys become men.

It’s not what you do but who you are and why you do it that matters.

3) The offer

The easiest way of having a good offer is to look at what’s out there (and what’s selling). And just doing the exact same thing.

There’s no need to overcomplicate this part.

As I’ve said. Most of the time it’s not the offer that’s the problem.

I’ve written extensively about offer creation before. Check out the following articles if you wish to learn more about it:

Next week

I’m going to be honest here.

I planned on ending this mail with a step-by-step roadmap to landing your first client. But I had more to do this week than I had imagined (and I procrastinated more as well).

So I didn’t get around to completing it. And I don’t want to leave you with a half-assed roadmap filled with errors and gaps.

It needs to be clear and actionable for everyone.

So you’ll get the roadmap next week.

As an added bonus for not getting it now. Reply to this mail with your current situation.

What you’re currently doing. What you’ve done in the past. And what you think is holding you back from landing your first client (or your 10th).

Paint me a nice picture and I’ll include the best examples in the next week’s email as real-life case studies. With a step-by-step guide to improve your situation.

P.S.

Whenever you’re ready. Here’s how I can help you:

Hop on a Clarity Call with me: Remove all of your uncertainty. Get clear on what you have to do, when you have to do it, and how. Let’s get you on the right track to achieving the freedom you deserve.
Work 1-on-1 with me: We’ll determine where you stand and where you want to go. Then we’ll devise a roadmap to get you from A to B. And get you there in the next 30–60 days.
Download all my products for FREE: Ranging from every resource I ever read to everything I know about content creation. It’s all waiting for you to claim it. Start your journey to financial freedom the right way.

And if you've got a moment, I'd love to hear what you thought of this edition of Ascend 101.

Send me a quick message – I reply to every email!