Ascend 101

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

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Sometimes you’ll be able to close people straight through your DMs. Other times you’ll have to jump on a sales call first.

But don’t panic. There’s nothing difficult about it at all.

If anything. It’s easier to close them on a sales call because of the connection you’ll be making. Their emotions will be even stronger and it’s much easier to make them understand the value of your offer.

Remember. Sales is nothing more than making people aware of their problems.

Show them how badly their problems are affecting them. Make them believe in your solutions and how they’ll be able to change their lives.

Everything is about emotions & psychology.

Step 1) Start the conversation

Don’t overcomplicate it.

Just say hello. Talk about something. Whatever it is. Act like you’re hopping on a call with a friend you haven’t seen in a while.

Prepare at least 1 or 2 simple questions. Questions that have nothing to do with why you’re on the call.

These can be:

•  “How are you doing?”

•  “Where are you from?”

• “How has your day been?”

• “How’s the weather where you are?”

It can be as generic as you want it to be. The goal is to start talking immediately.

Don’t make it awkward.

Step 2) Frame the call

After you’ve started talking. You want to guide the conversation.

YOU are the one who’s in charge here. This is important to establish early on. Set those expectations and make it clear what will happen.

Here’s an example of what that might sound like:

Step 3) Discover their motivations

Great. They know what to expect. Now is the time to start asking questions and digging deeper into their motivations.

You know they are at least slightly interested in your service. Otherwise they wouldn’t be on the call with you.

Figure out why they’re interested. What is it they’re trying to achieve?

And why?

You might know this already from previous conversations you had in the DMs. Repeat this once again regardless. It’s vital that you understand their motivations.

But it’s even more crucial THEY understand their own motivations.

Make them realize just how much they want to achieve their goal. They need to feel that motivation before they’ll decide to move forward with you.

Example:

Step 4) Understand where they are

You can’t help people reach their goal if you don’t know how far removed they are from it. This is why you’ll dig deep into their current situation to figure out exactly where they are.

• What are they working on?

• What progress have they made?

• What do they still have to work on?

• What information are they missing?

Put yourself in the middle of their journey and help them reach their goals.

It’s also good practice for the prospect to talk about this in as much detail as possible. It helps them clarify their own position. Which will make them realize they might need some help from you to reach their goal.

Once they answer you. Dig deeper.

Their first answer won’t be the main problem. Every problem has layers. And it’s your job to discover the core problem.

Imagine if they struggle with landing consistent clients.

Dig deeper to figure out the true problem. Is it an offer problem? A traffic problem? A story problem?

Also use this moment to make them realize how much this is really affecting their business (and their personal life.)

Ask questions such as:

• “What exactly do you mean by that? Walk me through your process and where you have the most problems.”

• “Have you tried fixing this problem before?”

• “When did you close your last client and how did it happen?”

• “How much time do you spend trying to land new customers each day?”

• “How deep do you dig to uncover their current obstacles?”

• “How do you discover what their true motivations are?”

The best case scenario is when they’ll stumble upon the true problem by themselves while answering your questions.

Step 5) Understand where they want to be

Okay great. By now you should understand their pains. It’s time to ask them where they want to be in the future.

You might think this has already been covered by uncovering their motivations. But that was only a sliver of the full picture.

Dig deeper into their motivations. Ask them to paint a clear picture of where they want to be in 1 year.

• What does their life look like?

• How will they spend their time?

• What will they look like?

• Who are they spending their time with?

• Where are they living?

• How are they living?

Example:

Let them talk as long as they can. The more, the merrier.

The clearer the image, the stronger the emotion.

Help them out by asking questions if they don’t know what to talk about. Ask them if they want to travel. What they want their house to look like. How much time they want to spend working. How many kids they want to have. What they want the color of their kitchen walls to be.

Seriously. Dig deep.

But. Fair warning. Keep it limited to what you can help with.

Don’t ask them whether they want a six-pack or an eight-pack if you’re not a personal trainer.

Stay within your scope of possibilities.

Step 6) Show them the promised land

Now it’s time to explain your offer.

Don’t go too in-depth. Don’t start becoming technical. They don’t care how your service works. People only care about what your service will help them achieve.

There are 2 ways to go about this:

a) Offer free advice

In this method you’ll immediately offer them at least 3 urgent and actionable pieces of advice. These should be steps they can implement within 5 minutes and will get them results immediately.

You can end the call by asking if they feel confident in doing this by themselves. If they aren’t then you can pitch your service.

You’d want to take this route if you’re an absolute beginner.

It’s good sales practice and it will give you experience fast. (and testimonials)

b) Position your offer as help

Use this method if you already have some experience and feel confident in your offer.

You’ll want to recap everything you’ve been talking about and package it up neatly in your offer.

Show them how your offer focuses on overcoming their obstacles and reaching their goals.

Example:

Step 7) Close

If you’ve done everything mentioned above. This should be a breeze.

In most cases they’ll ask you what the price is. That means they’re interested. You want this.

And even if they don’t. This is the time to reveal the price.

Always mention your highest-tier package first.

This is in case you have multiple offers. Which is recommended as it allows you to be flexible. It sets a price anchor. Everything else will sound less expensive afterwards.

Downselling is easy. Upselling isn’t.

Share your price as straightforward as you can:

You’ve shared your price. Time to shut up now.

Let them think.

Don’t start justifying your price. Don’t beat around the bush. Don’t feel nervous. Let them think. And wait until they react.

The ball is in their field now. Use this silence to your advantage.

In most cases people will say yes. This is an important lesson to learn. People WANT to buy stuff. They’re on this call with you. They’ve gone through this whole explanation for a reason.

Be confident and know this.

If they say yes. 

Just send them a payment link and make sure they pay ON THE CALL. You only closed them once they’ve paid. Not once they said yes.

Let them pay while their emotions are still strong.

Once they’ve paid thank them for your trust and ask when they want to start. In the best-case scenario you’ll already have an onboarding process ready. If not no worries. (we’ll cover that in the future)

Let them know what the next steps are and what they can expect now.

The easiest method is to simply send them an email with a quick overview and a Calendly link to schedule the next call.

If they say no. 

Start the objection handling procedure.

This isn’t as difficult as it sounds. 50% of objections are about the price. Another 40% of objections is “I’ll have to think about it.”

If they give you this objection simply ask them to elaborate.

Example:

If it’s about the offer. That’s easy. Ask them what their questions are and answer them.

If it’s about the price. Then you can either add more bonuses to make it worth the price or you can proceed to downsell.

Downselling can be offering a less expensive offer, taking away certain parts of your offer, or shortening the length/attention of what they’re getting.

Often people will realize they don’t want to reduce to a lower-tier package and end up buying the offer anyway.

Whatever you do. Never discount your price if they think it’s too expensive. You aren’t. Don’t make them think your price is negotiable. It isn’t.

You are in charge here.

By not lowering your price, you’re artificially increasing the value of your offer in their minds as well.

And that’s the entire process.

By now you’ve closed your first client and you’re ready to start scaling your business.

P.S.

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

1. 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.

2. 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.

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.)

1. 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)

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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.

5. 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.

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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!

5 years ago I first created my chess account on lichess.org. All I knew was how the pieces moved. Nothing more.

Forks, skewers, pins, en passant, Sicilian dragon, and fried liver all meant nothing to me. But for some reason I wanted to start playing chess.

I wasn’t even being influenced by anyone or anything.

No streamers, YouTubers, influencers I followed, or friends I had actively played chess. It was just a sudden urge. I have those sudden urges to learn something new quite frequently. But I started playing chess.

By now I’ve reached 1800 ELO. That’s an intermediate chess player if you were wondering. The problem is that I’ve been around that rating for quite a while now.

Sometimes I lose 50 points. Sometimes I gain 50. I plateaued.

This hasn’t been the first time though. Chess is a plateau-heavy game as I like to call it. When you start playing you’ll quickly rise (or drop) to your current skill level. Then you plateau.

You don’t move around much. Because that’s how good you are. You also don’t get better by “just playing”. You get better by deliberately practicing. That’s different.

Over the years I’ve often spent long periods of time where I was blitzing (playing 3-minute games) regularly.

But I didn’t make any progress.

I wasn’t analyzing them. I wasn’t trying out new strategies.

I stayed the same level. Until I decided to deliberately practice instead of merely playing. But there’s something unique about this process.

When it starts, you’ll actually first lose ELO.

Yes. You’ll get worse. That’s because you’re trying out new strategies. New openings. New playing styles. Styles you aren’t familiar with.

So you’ll perform badly.

That is. Until it finally clicks. Then suddenly your ELO soars. You’ll start winning game after game. You’ll rise far above the previous rating you’ve had. You’ve officially gotten better.

Then you’ll plateau once more. And the process starts all over again.

I don’t expect you to believe me without any proof to back up this claim. So here’s the graph depicting my rating changes over the last 2 years. Notice where I added the red rising lines. There’s almost always a green declining line in front of it. That’s this exact process in action.

Why am I sharing this? Well I’m not changing my niche to becoming a chess coach. Don’t worry. It’s not that I want you to start playing chess or anything. No.

It’s simply because this process is universal.

Most people plateau in life or improve extremely slow. So slow you can’t even notice they’re improving at all. That’s because there’s no deliberate practice. There’s no experimentation with new methods.

Take writing emails for example. Everyone says to just start writing. And yes that’s true.

But you need to be deliberate with it.

You need to reflect on your writing. You need to think actively about what you’re writing, who you’re writing to, what your writing has to accomplish, and whether that’s indeed the case.

Do you see why I started writing daily emails now as well? I experimented with weekly ones for 3 months. I learned a fair bit writing those. Now it’s time to experiment with daily ones.

Will my metrics suffer? Yes. Yes they will. I’ve been getting more unsubscribes. A lower open rate. And the overall quality of my emails has probably gone down. (I think I’m doing a good job with these so far, but what do I know?)

The point is. That doesn’t bother me.

I know I have to get worse. I know I’ll suck at it. But I also know that at some point. It’ll just click. All the pieces will fit together. And I’ll become better than I have ever been.

That’s the universal principle of improvement.

So think to yourself. Have you been analyzing your positions and testing out new openings? Or have you merely been blitzing chess games every day?

Let me know what you’ve been practicing lately. And how you’re going about it. What is keeping you from obstructing your own growth? Simply reply to this email.

I’d love to know.

Two weeks ago my brother-in-law let me borrow his copy of The Catcher in the Rye. He knew I was interested in reading more classical English/American literature. He asked if I’d like to read it because he had it lying around somewhere.

Now I didn’t know what the book was about. I had heard the title a long time ago in English class in high school. But I never read it.

Still I said yes. I was excited to read it. I really was. At that time I was still reading To Kill a Mockingbird. But I finished it quickly to hop into this new book I’d gotten.

I just finished reading The Catcher in the Rye today. The story is engaging. I just love how it’s written. And I’d recommend the book to others. It’s a great read.

But remember how I didn’t have a clue what it was about before I started? Yet that didn’t hold me back from picking it up. It’s not like my brother-in-law recommended it to me. He just told me he had it and asked whether I’d like to read it. I didn’t even ask him what he thought about it.

So then why was I so excited to read it?

Social proof & authority.

It was a widely popular book. I had heard it somewhere before. I knew it was supposed to be good. That’s all.

There weren’t any fancy marketing tricks. Salespeople didn’t make me feel the pain. Copywriting didn’t tell me about the benefits. Funnels weren’t used to nurture me.

This goes to show you just how powerful social proof & authority really are. That’s why people build a personal brand. Having a personal brand (and an audience) gives you social proof & authority.

A personal brand allows you to sell your products and services to people without having to use fancy sales & marketing tactics. They’ll trust you just because of your social status. They’ll trust you because they see other people trust you as well.

Don’t sleep on this opportunity. Build your personal brand and learn how to make people want to work with you as much as they’d like to read The Cather in the Rye.

I’ve started reading The Art of War recently. It’s a classic that almost everyone has heard of before. I hadn’t read it yet. So I thought I might as well give it a go.

It’s an old book. Still around (and being printed) to this day. That’s an easy way to know whether a book is worth reading.

If an old book is still around. There’s something in there that makes it worth reading. Consider books like The Art of War, Meditations, The Epic of Gilgamesh, Odyssey, Plato's writings, Commentarii de Bello Gallico, and so on.

Anyway, it’s been a great read so far. There’s one concept that stuck out to me above all else. Sun Tzu makes a distinction between what he calls Cheng and Ch’i.

Ch’i operations are always unexpected, weird, and unorthodox; A Cheng operation is straightforward. Sun Tzu said that great generals should attack with Cheng, but win with Ch’i. Implying that the final blow for victory should always rely on distractions and diversions. To attack them where the enemy won’t expect it and is least prepared for.

It gets trickier as you dive deeper into the topic. Some attacks can start as Cheng and end up as Ch’i, while others will start as Ch’i and end up as Cheng. 

Sun Tzu describes these two concepts as running into each other like two sides of a circle. Nobody knows where one begins and the other ends. They can blend into each other depending on what the situation requires.

Two other comments go:

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1) “We must cause the enemy to regard our straightforward attack as one that is secretly designed, and vice versa; thus CHENG may also be CH`I, and CH`I may also be CHENG.”

2) “A CH`I maneuver may be CHENG, if we make the enemy look upon it as CHENG; then our real attack will be CH`I, and vice versa. The whole secret lies in confusing the enemy so that he cannot fathom our real intent. To put it perhaps a little more clearly: any attack or other operation is CHENG, on which the enemy has had his attention fixed; whereas that is CH`I, which takes him by surprise or comes from an unexpected quarter. If the enemy perceives a movement which is meant to be CH`I, it immediately becomes CHENG.”

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I won’t act like I’m an expert and understand everything completely. I don’t. But this is how I interpret it: focus on using a combination of Ch’i and Cheng operations. Make straightforward strategies look unorthodox and make the unorthodox seem straightforward. Confusion is your biggest ally on the battlefield.

That being said. I probably won’t find myself leading an army on the battlefield any time soon. But that doesn’t mean I can’t regard business as my battlefield.

Every piece of content. Every email, every tweet, every sales page. They’re all individual battles that make up my war. And it’s my duty as a great general to attack with a Cheng and win with a Ch’i operation.

So now that I’ve got your attention fixed on this CTA (my Cheng operation). Reply to this mail to see if you can figure out what my underlying and unexpected Ch’i operation is. I’ll respond to you with the correct answer.

Yesterday I celebrated the shadow ban being lifted from my account.

I’M BACK BOYS!

Ain’t no shadowban getting me down.

They call me Arnold ’cause I’ll be back.

That being said, I updated my newsletter landing page.

What do you think?

— Alex Van Dromme (@VanDrommeAlex)
Jun 19, 2023

You might have noticed the Twitter armageddon last week. 99% of all Money Twitter creators ended up being shadowbanned (a normal search suggestion ban) for a few hours.

The world went crazy. It was a true apocalypse. Everyone started freaking out. Thinking Elon finally revealed his true nature. He had to unleash his hatred on fake gurus and stoicism accounts. Because believe me.

Not a single “Stay calm”, “This too shall pass”, or “We suffer more in imagination than in reality” post was made.

But that wasn’t it. After this generic shadowban was lifted from anyone. Elon announced the team was experimenting with new security measures.

One of which was an entirely new type of shadowban — the one I got a few days later. The community now refers to it as a ‘soft shadowban’. But don’t let that name fool you. It’s the hardest one I’ve ever experienced.

My posts were only shown to my current followers. That alone already reduces your reach by 80%. Then my comments didn’t exist. Truly. I could leave as many comments as I liked. Twitter wouldn’t show them.

Not even in the “show more” comments section. They just didn’t exist at all.

This went on for over a week. As you might imagine. I didn’t grow a single follower over the last few days.

Why am I sharing this? Am I whining about this? No. Or I don’t hope so at least. All in all it didn’t bother me that much. I knew this was only temporary. It wouldn’t matter a year from now.

But this has been a useful experience. It showed me just how reliant we are on Twitter. On our accounts. Everything could be going smoothly until one day something happens. Twitter shuts down. Your account gets (shadow)banned. You never know.

That’s why it’s important not just to have an audience. But to own your audience. One way to do so it by building an email list.

You might have missed me on your Twitter timeline. But you sure as hell didn’t miss me in your inbox. Whatever happens to my Twitter. I retain my email list. I never have to start from 0 ever again. It’s also a consistent source of income. One that can’t be taken away from me.

I hope you realized how important it is to build your email list by reading my story. If you don’t have yours yet. Don’t waste any more time. Create yours today. Secure your audience. Don’t be reliant on external channels you have no control over. Build an audience you own and an income source that can’t be taken away from you now.

This Friday I wrote an email titled Chicken, Eggs, and Tea in which I experimented with a new type of email format. I got a reply from one of my earliest subscribers Carol:

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I love this Alex!

Was not expecting it, it made me want to read until the end.

Great hook.

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Maybe you agreed with Carol’s opinion about my mail. Maybe you don’t.

But it’s responses like these. Simple ones like these that keep me going. It doesn’t have to be much. But small affirmations that people like the content you’re putting out.

It’s also a great reminder to myself. A reminder that I don’t know what will work and what won’t. It’s a reminder to keep experimenting. Try out new strategies, tactics, formats, topics, marketing angles,… The list goes on.

Who knows. Maybe you’ll discover a unique opportunity. A business model nobody has thought of. A content plan nobody can compete with. An idea nobody has shared before.

The only thing holding you back is your own insecurity. Your fear of failure. This is especially true in the creator economy.

You’re creating a personal brand for yourself. A personal brand is by definition one of a kind. There can only be one YOU. You’ve made your own Blue Ocean. Whether you realize what that means or not.

I could go on and on about this. About how there’s a gigantic opportunity in front of you. About how the only way to know whether this will work is to get out there and start experimenting.

But I won’t. You don’t need motivation. You don’t need information. You need action. You need to take your first step. Then your second. Then your third. And so on.

So don’t wait any longer. Take your first steps and build your creator business so you can earn money online while working less than 3 hours a day.

Ascend 101

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

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Last week we went over building connections through DMs. And that’s great for growing your account and all. But we’re here to earn ourselves a living as well. And we’ll need to make sales to do so. Preferably high-ticket ones.

While they might look similar. The underlying goals of building connections differ from making sales. This means our strategy will also change.

Making sales depends on making our prospects aware of their problems and our solutions. We want to nurture and guide them towards wanting (needing) our product/service.

You’ll see how this entire process focuses on raising the awareness level of your prospects. Let’s get into it.

My 8-Step Framework for Getting People On Sales Calls

There are a few things you need before you get people ready to buy and on sales calls:

– An offer (this can be a service or a product)
– A scheduling software (Calendly is great to schedule calls)
– A qualifying form (you want to filter the number of calls people book)

That qualifying form is optional. But it’s highly recommended not to allow everyone who finds your Twitter to book a call. It can be time-consuming and we’re not aiming to build another 9–5.

However. It’s beneficial to skip this if you’re just starting out. It’s good to get the practice in. Even if you know some people simply can’t afford your prices.

What follows is the 8-step framework I used to get people on sales calls, something I talk more about in my Abundant-Client System, which teaches you all about getting leads, qualifying your prospects, and landing clients consistently and effortlessly.

Step 1) Find someone to DM

This step is the same as before. You can’t send a DM to someone if you have nobody to DM. That much is obvious.

The difference is where we’ll find the people we want to DM. This time we’re looking for prospects. Warm traffic.

We’re looking for people with similar interests as you but who are 1–2 steps behind you on their journey of solving their problems.

You’ll find these people:

– In replies, likes, retweets, DMs, or other forms of engagement with you
– In the engagement section of other people that create similar content
– In the “following” or “followers” section of accounts that are similar

Find 1–5 people every day that engage with your actionable or educational posts. These people are the most interested in the topics you talk about.

Step 2) Send the first message

Don’t overthink this part. Be open. Friendly. And authentic.

Example:

– Hey ___! I’ve seen you engage with my content a few times now. Thought I’d come say hi. How’s everything going?

Literally anything goes.

(If they send YOU a DM first. Reply to their message and transition into the next steps.)

Step 3) Transition

This is the moment when we’ll want to uncover their goals and what they’re trying to achieve.

In the best-case scenario, they’ll briefly describe how they’re trying to go about it. You can always ask them yourself if that’s not the case.

The goal here is to understand their desires and get a feel for who they are. You’ll also be able to tell whether they’re a good fit for your service based on the answer they’ll give you.

You don’t want to spend your time pitching a high-ticket offer to someone who isn’t at least aware of their own problems.

Example:

– That’s awesome man. Glad to hear it. What are you working towards?

Step 4) Identify the roadblock

There’s a crucial rule of sales that you need to remember. People pay to solve problems. If there’s no problem. Then there’s nothing to buy.

It’s important then to understand what they’re struggling with. What are their current obstacles? It’s your job to identify them.

Then build your offer around helping them overcome those obstacles.

Example:

– Sounds like an impressive goal. I’ve helped a good amount of people reach a similar goal in this space actually. What’s your biggest obstacle so far?

Step 5) Dig deeper

The first problem they mention is never the real problem. It’s the surface-layer symptom of a deeper root cause. Figure out what the root cause of the problem is. Ask as many questions as you need to understand their situation.

Asking questions makes you look like you know what you’re talking about as well. This builds up trust & authority before you’ve even given a single piece of advice.

Examples:

– Have you done anything to try and fix it yourself?
– Why do you think that approach failed?
– Is this related to [some other problem]?

Tip: use carefully crafted questions to guide your prospect to a realization. This is a great way to raise their level of awareness before you pitch your offer.

Step 6) Pitch

Now is the time. It’s time to pitch your offer.

There are 2 ways to go about this. You can either:

– Full-on pitch your paid offer and get them on a sales call immediately
– Help them for free with one simple obstacle and ask if they’d be interested in continuing with you

Most people immediately jump for the first option. They want to get paid without wasting any time. And that’s fine. If you know what you’re doing.

But if you’re just getting started. Give the second option a chance. This gives you the opportunity to:

– Get more experience
– Build up more trust
– Get testimonials

And you can still pitch your offer at the end of that call. Do a good job on the call and they’ll want to pay you for your service.

Example (free call):

– I see. I’ve actually implemented a system for myself that might be able to help you. Would you be up for a call so I can tell you how it works?

Example (immediate pitch):

– I offer a pack of 4 calls that would run you through my entire system and solve your obstacle for good. Is that something you’d be up for hearing more about? I’m happy to schedule a call to get to know each other and see if it would help. If not. No worries. Happy to [help some other way].

That other way could be just sending a document/course of your system or some resource you’ve found. It could be hopping on a short one-time call as well. It’s up to you.

The most important is to build connections with people. You want everyone to get to know you. People will start referring their friends to you as you keep doing this. With time those referrals will start compounding so much that you don’t have to do any work yourself.

Step 7) Send a form or calendar link

Have a Calendly event prepared and send it to them when they say yes to your previous message.

Once you’re more experienced you’ll want to transition to sending them an intake form. Think Google Forms or Typeform.

This is to limit the number of calls you have to get on. That way you can qualify them before you hop on a call. No point in pitching your $5,000 coaching service if you know they’ll never be able to afford it.

Sending a form will also make it easier for qualified people to hop on a call with you. They’ve already invested time & energy in filling out the form. This reduces the friction of hopping on a call. Win-win.

Step 8) Follow Up

This process won’t go smoothly all the time. You will get people who don’t respond. You will get conversations that die out.

Most sales aren’t made the first time you contact someone. The real money is in the follow-ups.

How you follow up is up to you. You can send them a resource of something you’ve found related to their goals/obstacles. Or you can simply mention that you’d wanted to check up on them again and see how everything’s going.

An example follow-up schedule might look something like this:

– First follow-up: spaced 2 days apart after the initial message
– Next 2 follow-ups: spaced apart 1 week after previous follow-ups
– Last 2 follow-ups: spaced apart 2 weeks after previous follow-ups

Just let them go after those follow-ups. There’s no point in wasting your time any longer. Your time is better spent with other people at that point.

And that’s it.

If you’d like to learn more about getting leads, qualifying your prospects, and landing clients consistently and effortlessly, then be sure to check out my Abundant-Client System.

In it, I’ll show you my entire system, every single framework I use, and how to adapt it to your business, so you can get paid (with or without having to hop on sales calls).

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

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. Download all my products (free & paid): 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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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!

Do you like eggs?

I know I do. Not as much as bananas of course. But I love some good eggs.

They’re great. You can put them in everything. There’s not a single meal on earth that doesn’t get better when you add an egg. Hell they’re even used in cocktails as well.

But why am I talking about eggs?

Well I’m subscribed to quite a few email newsletters. And one of them caught me completely off guard. The mail opened with the following question: Do you have enough chickens to make an omelet for breakfast in the morning?  

Well no I thought. I get them from the store. Like most people. Why would I need chickens?

But that wasn’t the point. The mail goes on to explain how having enough chickens to make an omelet is like having enough marketing power to sell your product/service.

I’ve seen my share of crazy analogies in the past. But this one I didn’t expect.

So let me enter this game and start making my own analogies. One even crazier.

I asked you if you liked eggs at the beginning of this email.

Imagine if you said no. You don’t like eggs. But do you like pasta? (the type with eggs in it). Do you like a frittata? How about Shakshuka? Tortilla? Hollandaise sauce? Quiche? Egg fried rice? Pancakes???

Everyone likes pancakes.

My point is. You don’t have to like every single ingredient to like the recipe. Switch it up. See what other recipes you can make with that ingredient. There’s bound to be something you like.

I once knew a guy that said he didn’t like tea. I asked him what kind of tea. He said “just tea”. What do you mean you don’t like “just tea”? Tea is water with a taste. It can almost be any taste you could imagine. Tea doesn’t even have to be hot. Cold tea exists as well.

Anyway.

It’s the same when it comes to building your creator business on Twitter.

Imagine you don’t like engaging all that much. Have you tried posting different types of comments?

Instead of being all serious and sounding like you have something smart to say. Experiment with sharing your own experiences in the comments. Not your thing either? Try making jokes related to the tweet. Turn every tweet into a philosophical lesson about bananas (my favorite).

I’ve even seen people use the main idea of a tweet as inspiration to write a short 280-character poem. If it works it works.

Focus your attention on what you like most. Don’t say something isn’t for you if you haven’t tried all the recipes yet.

Now go out there and find your favorite recipes. Don’t be the person who doesn’t like tea. Be the person who LOVES a few select egg recipes.

If you like to know more about marketing and how the original analogy went with having enough chickens. Be sure this subscribe to Adam’s newsletter. He’s a great marketer and knows what he’s talking about.

http://the-adam-james.ck.page/e769c48621

Do you still remember the welcome email you’ve gotten when you signed up for my newsletter?

You might’ve gotten it 3 months ago when I first started. Or you might have gotten it only yesterday.

Whatever the case may be. You might remember this sentence:

“I’m making this up as I go. It’s not a structured newsletter yet.”

It’s something I wrote at the end of my email. At the time I had no idea what I was doing. (I still don’t). And I wanted to use that fact as a motivational message.

I hope it worked. I sincerely hope you realized that it’s okay NOT to know what you’re doing. You wouldn’t be here otherwise. I know I wouldn’t.

But that brings me to the topic of today’s email. And the reason why you’re even getting an email from me today.

I’ve been writing weekly emails for the past 3 months. In that time I’ve learned quite a few things. One of them is that I absolutely love writing these.

They’re satisfying to write. It’s motivating to receive so many positive replies. And it’s the only way I could ever go so in-depth into certain topics. Something a 280-character tweet doesn’t allow me to do.

So all in all. I love writing a weekly newsletter.

But then again. What about a daily one? I wouldn’t know. I've never done it before.

This is something I’ve been thinking about for quite a while now. And you know what. I shouldn’t have been thinking about it for this long.

I always advise people to jump in head-first. Act now — think later. Business is about speed.

So here’s my plan. I’ll start writing daily emails from now on. Just to get a feel for them. See how they go. See how I like them. And see how you like them as well.

With one small change. I’ll only write a daily email each weekday. I feel like there’s a lot of value in my weekly email so I’m not willing to quit writing those. But since I’ve been writing an email each Monday. That’ll have to change.

So here’s the new schedule:

• Monday: Short Daily Email

• Tuesday: Short Daily Email

• Wednesday: Short Daily Email

• Thursday: Short Daily Email

• Friday: Short Daily Email

• Saturday: No Email

• Sunday: Longer Weekly Email (Ascend 101)

This allows me to experience the best of both worlds.

Let me know what you think of this new schedule by clicking one of the links below:

As for the name of this email. I don’t even know. Does an email need a name? It probably does. The longer weekly email is named Ascend 101. And it’ll be useful to have another name for the shorter email to differentiate between the two.

It’ll also be useful to have an option that lets you choose if you want to receive both emails or only one of them.

Here’s the deal. I’ll look into adding the latter as a functionality. And you’ll be able to name the new daily email newsletter if you like. Simply reply to this email if you have a recommendation.

And who knows. The entire future of my creator career might be determined by your idea.

That’s it for today. I’m looking forward to seeing what the future holds.

See you tomorrow. (I’ll have to get used to this)

Cheers

Alex

Look.

If you had one shot.

Or one opportunity.

To seize everything you ever wanted.

One moment.

Would you capture it?

Or just let it slip?

Yes I've just quoted Eminem.

Why?

Because I'm a big fan first of all.

But also because I need to remind myself of this way too often.

I'm working towards building my dream life every single day.

And it feels good.

Too good sometimes.

I'm working so hard to reach a certain milestone.

And when I reach it? I have to celebrate ofcourse.

But that celebration can become dangerous.

I become complacent. I stop putting in the same level of effort that got me here.

I need to become aware of the fact that the race isn't over. Far from it.

There's still so much more to do.

I have to remind myself to keep on the lookout. On the lookout for great opportunities to come along.

And most importantly. To jump on them as soon as I can. No hesitation.

Opportunities that can change your life are rare to find. Don't let them get away from you.

One of those opportunities is hopping on a clarity call with me and learning how to get your first client. Your first victory. Your first $1,000.

No longer suffer from your uncertainty, limiting beliefs, or missing pieces of information that hold you back from getting what you set out to achieve.

Book yours today before time runs out and the price increases by 50%.

Today's your last chance. Tomorrow morning the price will be updated. Don't hesitate any longer.

Cheers,

Alex "seize your opportunity" Van Dromme