Ascend 101

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

The long-awaited case study mail is finally here.

It was supposed to get sent out yesterday. But I was away for the weekend and apparently didn’t have it scheduled. So I won’t take up any of your time with a long introduction. Let’s get into it.

As you’ll see we have 3 real-life situations from my readers.

I first started by giving a quick summary of their situation. Then I’ll dive into explanations as to how they could improve their situation based on the information I’ve gotten.

I want to mention that I didn’t dive deeper into the mails I’ve got and am purely working with the base information. This makes it harder to give concrete advice and solve the root of the problems.

But I’ll nonetheless tackle what I perceive to be the problem at hand.

Once again I want to thank everyone who sent me an email with their situations.

Let’s get started.

Case Study #1 — Alex

Current status:

Working part-time writing content for clients to keep up with college expenses (forensic psychology)
Not interested in pursuing the standard career path of finishing the degree and working in that field

Goals:

Achieving freedom, flexibility, creativity
Pursuing writing, psychology, research
Building a one-person business

Struggles:

No idea what to do
Struggling to choose between blogging, coaching, content creation, or copywriting
Too many interests to choose from

This is a great scenario to use as a case study because the obstacle here is one of the most common ones.

Not knowing what to talk about or thinking you’re forced to pick one of the popular “niches” such as copywriting or coaching.

The good news is that the solution is simple. So simple that most people have the answer but overlook it.

In this case Alex gave the answer in the mail. The exact sentence read:

That’s your niche. That’s what you want to talk about.

You are interested in writing, psychology, and doing research. I always talk about following your curiosity instead of your passion.

And lucky for you, having an immense curiosity is the complete opposite of a downfall. At least when you’re in the education/entertainment business. Which all of us are.

The problem here is that you seem to be confusing your content with your offer.

And I get why it happens. It’s easy to think you have to talk about your offer all the time. How will you get money after all?

But that’s simply not true.

You want to talk about your curiosities. Whatever they are.

Show people what you’re pursuing and talk about why it’s interesting.

Show how psychology is improving your life. Give your audience a taste of how writing is making you live the life of your dreams.

The internet allows us to build according to an audience-first approach instead of the product-first approach most traditional businesses use.

Instead of making a product, marketing it, and looking for people interested in said product, we do the opposite.

You get to build an audience based on your curiosities. You get to educate them on all of your different interests. Then discover the common problems your audience is facing and create an offer to solve them.

This is what 90% of content creators miss. And this is why most of them quit and never get anywhere.

Action step: Talk about your curiosities. Then afterward figure out your offer. (and only talk about your offer in 10% of your content)

Case Study #2 — Harry

Current status:

Working full time
Trying to scale capital through trading
Creating content, engaging daily, building a landing page
Growing a discord community and doing (free and paid) coaching

Goals:

Scaling to 10k/month through coaching
Growing a newsletter
Gaining more clarity

Struggles:

Too many tasks, too little time

Many will relate this to Harry’s case. There’s so much to do, yet so little time.

And the solution to it is two-fold.

Unfortunately, the first part is counter-intuitive. That’s why so many people struggle with it.

And it’s simply to do less. Shocking, right?

But I hear you. There’s so much to do. Surely doing less won’t magically solve everything.

And that’s right. You will feel like you’re missing something. You will feel like you could be doing more. You feel like you could be growing faster or earning more sooner.

And you’d be correct. But here’s the thing. You’ll always feel that way.

Even if you’re working 24/7. Not taking any breaks. Not eating, not sleeping, and in some way still functioning 100%. Even then, you’ll still think that you’ll be able to do more.

So the first part is to do less. And be ok with it.

The reason to do less is so you can focus on doing it better. To come close to perfecting the tasks at hand. And turn them into a system. A repeatable system that you can do without thinking about it.

Maybe you could even automate it. Speed is the name of the game in business. But you don’t get to speed everything up at once.

You get to pick one thing. Work on it for a long time, and hone your skills. Then speed it up. And only then repeat the process for something else.

(This is why you shouldn’t start posting on multiple social media platforms in the beginning. It takes too much time early on and it’s not worth it)

One such example for Harry would be to start creating content in batches. Right now he’s creating for the next day. This takes a long time because he has to reserve some time at night — every night.

A better, more efficient method would be to take an hour or two every Sunday evening and batch-create your content for the upcoming week.

Another example would be how Harry is using free coaching calls hoping to get paying clients. That’s fine if you’re starting out and don’t have testimonials yet.

But I’m quite certain he already has some social proof + he’s even had a few paying clients already. So there’s no point in doing free coaching calls anymore.

They take up too much time and most of the time they attract the total opposite of the type of client you want. You want high-quality clients who see your worth. Not free-loaders hoping to scrape together free information.

Even worse, you’re probably scaring off the clients you want.

(Don’t get me started on building both a community and a newsletter at the same time as someone starting out in the space)

Action step: Do less, but better & develop systems.

Case Study #3 — Adam

Current status:

Improving his (email) marketing skills
Approaching (local) gym owners
Thinking of switching to the real estate market for more success

Goals:

Land his first client
Improve his offer

Struggles:

Positioning problem
Doubting the value of his offer
Not knowing how to address price objections

The biggest problem I see with Adam is not seeing the full value of his offer. Which translates into him not being able to show the client the full value either.

Here’s an excerpt from the mail he sent me:

Now, I don’t know about you. But my alarm went off.

How would it only be worth $500?

I did a quick Google search and sure enough: “The average customer's lifetime value of a gym member is approximately $720.”

However, I do understand what’s happening here. He gets the gym owner 10 new clients. And each client pays maybe $50 for a membership. 10x$50 = $500.

Except that most don’t leave the gym after only a month, right?

Gymgoers, on average, stay for approximately 14 months.

They could stay even longer, especially when you have a good email marketer who’s motivating people to get in shape and educating them on how to do so.

Email marketing isn’t only about acquiring customers. It’s about building a long-lasting relationship. It allows for a lot of aftercare after the original purchase.

We haven’t even spoken about upselling your customers with additional supplements, gym gear, and personal training. Which most (smart) gyms do.

Imagine if Adam could make all of this clear to his prospect.

Imagine if the prospect understood that he could potentially earn a whopping $10,000 from those extra 10 customers with good email marketing.

Now, I don’t know how much Adam is charging for his services. But I’m willing to bet the gym owner won’t be losing money.

And this is only from email marketing. Imagine if Adam could add some design, offer creation, funnel building, or other high-value skills to the table.

It’s easy to charge a lot of money if you start building your skills and convincing people of the value you bring.

There’s a reason Alex Hormozi got insanely rich doing this. (seriously, check out his first book “gym secrets”)

There are some other aspects we could talk about when it comes to this case study. But I’ll leave those for another day.

The mail is already getting long enough.

Action step: Fully understand the true (long-term) value of your offer and make your prospect understand it.

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.

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