Ascend 101

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

I enrolled in university back in September 2018.

I always excelled in maths, economics, and most of the sciences (except for biology). So with no idea what it meant I enrolled in Business Engineering (I still don’t know).

As the years went on I added more IT-related courses to what I was studying.

Data science was the new hot shit. And I wanted a piece of the pie as well. Machine learning, AI, data mining, you know. All the cool fancy words that everyone loves to talk about but nobody actually has a clue what it means.

This was before ChatGPT and the likes were around. So most of the world literally didn’t know about the existence of those words.

I pretty much had my life all figured out. I would graduate and become a consultant for one of the Big 4 with my expertise being data science.

Like any other student wanting to be informed and secure the safety of their future. I too would often go to networking events and meet with different people from different departments of these firms.

We’d talk about what business culture I could expect and what my average day of working for them as a consultant would look like. I couldn’t help but notice that every conversation with every single person from every single corporation went exactly the same.

They were all duplicates of one another. They all had great working environments. Big paychecks. Wonderful colleagues. And they loved what they were doing.

Some of those claims were true. Some of them weren’t. I don’t think I have to explain which ones were and which weren’t.

I figured I didn’t want any part of this. Working 60+ hour weeks for years. Doing unfulfilling work for other people. Not building something for myself. Looking forward to those 1–2 vacations I can take each year. And doing this until I retired at 65.

No thank you.

The summer of 2022 came around and so I had a lot of free time. I always get a burst of passion for some new skill or hobby whenever I have a lot of free time OR a complete lack of time (which doesn’t help during finals). No in-between.

I became obsessed with both game development & music orchestration during that summer. I spent months learning, experimenting, and creating my own games & soundtracks.

The underlying goal for me was to find a career path where I could be independent and make a living doing something I enjoyed.

Eventually I figured that both these options weren’t the best for making a good living. Looking back that’s not entirely true. But I was missing the knowledge necessary to do so.

After some more digging around I came across SMMAs. Social Media Marketing Agencies. They were a big thing on YouTube at the time. So this led me to become a digital marketing freelancer. I learned everything I could about creating social media & Google Ads (I still have my certifications).

I got a few projects on Fiverr. But that didn’t do it for me. One reason is that I don’t like the business model. Or at least not how most people are being taught how to do it.

The second and far bigger reason is that I’m a creative person. Something that I only realized a few months ago. I need a way to express myself and create something of my own. Creating ads for others wasn’t going to cut it.

I needed to find yet another method to become obsessed with.

You’ve probably guessed it. This is when I came across Dan Koe on YouTube. Everything he talked about resonated with me. I devoured his content and without any hesitation I got started.

I logged back into my old Twitter profile from 2016. Cleaned it up. Deleted the handful of dumb tweets I made. Unfollowed everyone. Quickly made a banner in Photoshop — It was a picture of a road with the text “Start Your Journey” in front of it. I added a new profile picture. And I posted a tweet. It was a list tweet about 5 life lessons going to the gym taught me.

I’ve never gone from idea to execution so fast in my entire life. It wasn’t perfect. Far from it. But I got started.

Within a month of writing on Twitter I knew I finally found it. It just felt right.

Building an audience. Sharing what I learn with others. Helping people achieve freedom in their life.

This is what I’m supposed to be doing. This is what I want to keep doing this for the rest of my life.

It was right then and there that I decided to drop out of Uni. 5 years of education were already behind me. There’s only 1 year remaining and I would’ve gotten my master’s degree in Digital Business Engineering: Management Information Systems.

But that didn’t matter. I have no use for that piece of paper in my life. It won’t give me the life that I dream of.

Still I’m grateful for all the years I’ve spent in that place. All the lessons I’ve learned and experience I’ve gained. They weren’t for nothing.

I made friends for life. Friends who don’t understand exactly what I’m doing. Friends who probably think I’m crazy for dropping out like this. But friends that are still subscribed to my newsletter and read every mail I send regardless.

I've grown and developed as a person. The person I was 5 years ago and the person I am today are 2 completely different people. I worked on my social skills, my thinking skills, my sales skills, and even my leadership skills.

I wouldn’t take that back. But that season of my life is over now. It’s time for a new chapter.

Finishing my degree would be the safe bet for sure. But it would be a waste of my time and an easy excuse for why I’m not going all-in on building my creator business.

Most people would tell you to play it safe and take the long route. I’m not most people. I’m telling you to take that risk. Fully commit to it.

Light that fire under your ass and force yourself to make it work.

This holds especially true if you’re in your 20s. This is the time in your life when you have to go all in. Try 10 different things and fail at 9 of them. Fail fast and get back up again.

I’ve made the jump and figured out how it works.

It’s your turn to make the same jump right now. But you’re not on your own this time. I’m here to help guide you. You don’t have to struggle like I did. Spending $1,000’s on courses only to struggle to implement them.

Schedule a call with me and we’ll figure out how to get your creator business started so you can start living independently as well.

You owe it to yourself not to give up on your dreams. You owe it to yourself to stop wasting your time. You owe it to yourself to reach your full potential.

Check out how I can help you and decide what’s best for you.

Cheers,

Alex “Make that jump” Van Dromme

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.

P.P.S.

For those interested, this is the software stack I use:
(These are affiliate links, so if you sign up, I'll get a small referral bonus.)

Beehiiv for my newsletter: One of the biggest, easiest, and best providers for people wanting to build their newsletter. A logical choice to make with its abundance of integrated solutions for easy growth. (e.g., an integrated referral program)
Tweethunter for everything Twitter: From scheduling tweets to gathering inspiration and engaging with others. TweetHunter has everything you need if you’re serious about building your business on Twitter.
Carrd to build my landing pages: You’re building a business. You need simple and effective landing pages for your funnels. Carrd is an easy-to-use website builder that does exactly that.
Testimonial to gather testimonials: Simply drop your clients a link where they can leave a testimonial. Gather everything in one place. And embed it on your landing pages as you wish.
Ilo for my Twitter analytics (+10% discount): The most advanced Twitter analytics tool and a MUST if you host spaces. Get in-depth knowledge about your audience, what they like, and who they are.

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

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