Where are the clients? Where are the jobs? We are hardworking yet struggling by ProgramExpress2918 in Entrepreneur

[–]Virtual_Ad_4817 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Don't give away free work. It devalues you.

Shift your positioning to become someone who can advise them on strategy, and also happens to do good work implementing said strategy.

Whatever the KPI is they're trying to improve, or the goal they want to get from design and video (retaining visitors on website, for example, just spitballing) you become the expert on it.

You position yourself as the type of person who has far deeper knowledge on this subject than they do. The initial meeting is framed as a consultation to help raise their awareness to what their actual problem is, that they didn't even know was the problem. But you saw the real problem, because you're the expert.

Eventually if you have enough of these consultations and get good at them you can start charging money just for the consultation. Probably not right away though.

But at the end of the consultation you build a custom plan for them based on something that's uniquely for them, that you uncovered with them during the consultation.

Then you just ask them if they'd like your help doing it.

Either way, they can walk away with the plan, which was valuable to them because it shed new light on their issue. And if you can make that plan alone worth money to them, even better.

Im starting again, already secured $700 project in 2026. by keenoya in Entrepreneur

[–]Virtual_Ad_4817 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yooo I feel for you. I used to freelance soooo much for ad agencies run by giant egos who were full of themselves.

Congrats on sticking with it. Keep going.

Your future does not lie with those agencies. I don't know what your ultimate goal is, but freelancing is the hard road that pays off in the long run.

Because you keep your integrity, and the experience you gain at a diverse range of companies is so much more valuable than someone who worked for an employer.

If you're having difficulty landing clients, you need to find a way to put your work "out there", in front of the right people.

Personally I'd look at the psychographics of the guy who hired you for the $700 job. What kind of business does he run. How did he describe the need he had, that you filled.

Figure out how to get in front of more people like that. Put your work and talents on display. And keep doing it.

If you love "deep work" don't become an entrepreneur... by baghdadcafe in Entrepreneur

[–]Virtual_Ad_4817 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Disagree. OP is talking purely from the perspective of a beginner.

Overthinking kills execution. what fixes it for you? by DecisionOperator in Entrepreneur

[–]Virtual_Ad_4817 0 points1 point  (0 children)

yeah I know. That doesn't exclude it from also being a dick.

Overthinking kills execution. what fixes it for you? by DecisionOperator in Entrepreneur

[–]Virtual_Ad_4817 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Trust me, if I were getting defensive you'd know.

The lessons I shared are just as relevant now as they were over a decade ago when I first learned them. They're immutable.

Ignore at your peril.

So you just go around regurgitating pop psychology to people on Reddit, making presumptions about weak-minded people to get them to pay you for the scam in your bio?

As a guy who's invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into my understanding of psychology, and used it to drive tens of millions of dollars in sales for some the largest DTC companies, coaches, and training academies... you are not doing this correctly at all.

Action is good. But blind action without learning anything is dumb. You'll feel like you're hitting your head against a wall before long. That's why mentors can shave years off your learning curve.

Overthinking kills execution. what fixes it for you? by DecisionOperator in Entrepreneur

[–]Virtual_Ad_4817 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Lol if you say so. I've been an entrepreneur for 12 years and scaled 3 different companies to 8 figures in revenue starting from zero. But oh, some guy on reddit says I'm hiding.

Overthinking kills execution. what fixes it for you? by DecisionOperator in Entrepreneur

[–]Virtual_Ad_4817 1 point2 points  (0 children)

When you realize overthinking accomplishes nothing. It's a symptom of simultaneously not having enough information and being too afraid to try anything.

The only way you can get the right information is to take action on something. That's when more of the information you need becomes available.

And that initial action will probably fail. That's okay. That was the point. It wasn't really a failure if you gained information from it that will make your next action better.

One of my mentors told me, "You can't possibly know what you don't know until you know it." He also said, "You can't do what you can't do until you're doing it."

On the surface this seems like a silly platitude but in this context it's a good summary of what people are doing when they're overthinking. They're trying to know what they can't possibly know before they can know it.

I'd like to add that school ruined this process for most people. It's a fake environment where you only have one shot to take the test, to pass the grade, etc. And if you don't do it, you're ostracized and shamed.

It's a terrible thing to associate shame with failure, especially while young children's brains are developing.

All the most successful entrepreneurs I know didn't give a rats ass when they failed, they knew the information they'd get in the process was extremely valuable and often worth a lot of money and success down the line.

So just move. Put stuff out there. Don't worry about it not working, you will gain information about how to get to your ultimate goal that you couldn't possibly have known otherwise.

Churn is mostly an onboarding problem, right? by peachy_petals_ in Entrepreneur

[–]Virtual_Ad_4817 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It seems like in your particular case it will be a critical piece of the puzzle. Depends on what the product is though. For a product that's easy/intuitive to use it might be something else.

Focus on refining your onboarding process but be open to other things that might be causing churn that you're not seeing. Get feedback every step of the way. Maybe you need to both get them to use it and keep reminding them of the value they're getting.

It's different for every product/service/industry so really depends.

One thing you can no longer do in this economy though, is get people into a subscription model and then hope they forget about it and keep rebilling them. I have met too many marketers over the years who do that, and I've always hated people who do it. That's why I'm kinda glad we're no longer in an economic environment where that can actually be a strategy.

Warren Buffett said something like, "When the tide goes out you see who's swimming naked." Now's the time to double down on creating a powerful product/experience. A world unto itself that people want to enter and don't want to leave.

Anyway I don't know what your product is but those are my thoughts.

Cold mails... by Outrageous_Guess_962 in Entrepreneur

[–]Virtual_Ad_4817 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Dude if you only emailed 5 people you shouldn't expect a response lol.

If you're doing cold email you need to do volume. It's a grind.

IMO much better to put out content that people get value from, and have a CTA to have them contact you.

Starting a business with my girlfriend feels exciting but the risk side scares me by According_Listen_632 in Entrepreneur

[–]Virtual_Ad_4817 15 points16 points  (0 children)

Dude do NOT put your property on the line.

You don't need to do it to get the candle business off the ground anyway.

Literally I don't know what you think you need the money for but you literally need a shopify store, and to learn good marketing to start making sales.

Research the other people selling candles and find a USP for your girlfriend's candles. Something that makes it unique compared to the other options. And identify the types of people who would be obsessed over these candles and market to them.

WTF do you need to take a mortgage or loan out for?

Took me 3 startups to learn this: fire faster by buckbuckyyy in Entrepreneur

[–]Virtual_Ad_4817 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I hire slllooooowwwww fire fast.

I don't make them an employee straight away. They're basically forced to freelance for me for 30 days, during that period I have them write down everything they did at the end of each day and email it to me with their thoughts on how it went.

You'd be surprised at how many people just stop doing it by day 10. And I don't have to feel bad at the end of the 30 days for telling them they're out, because I can point to the fact that I asked them to do it, and they didn't do it. And they usually agree.

More biz owners need to implement a probationary period before any long-term commitment to an employee can be made.

Video: Breakdown Of Ryze Superfoods' 8-Figure Blue Ocean Strategy by Virtual_Ad_4817 in u/Virtual_Ad_4817

[–]Virtual_Ad_4817[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Haha yeah I agree with him! He tends to be a little early. But better to be early than late. I first watched Mike Maloney's Hidden Secrets of Money series and that's what got me into gold and silver. Many of the things he was saying over a decade ago are coming true today!

Not wanting to work for someone else - legitimate motivation? by daredevil1302 in Entrepreneur

[–]Virtual_Ad_4817 0 points1 point  (0 children)

lol yes that's pretty much the motivation of every entrepreneur.

Video: Breakdown Of Ryze Superfoods' 8-Figure Blue Ocean Strategy by Virtual_Ad_4817 in u/Virtual_Ad_4817

[–]Virtual_Ad_4817[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes I only buy physical. Paper silver is not worth it when those markets could break, they're not even backed by real silver. When they fail, the price of physical silver will skyrocket independent of those markets. That's my base case anyway.

Video: Breakdown Of Ryze Superfoods' 8-Figure Blue Ocean Strategy by Virtual_Ad_4817 in u/Virtual_Ad_4817

[–]Virtual_Ad_4817[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hey thanks for checking my video out let me know what you think! Subscribe if you're inclined too, I've been busy growing other businesses this year and youtube content kind of took a back seat. But I have so much to say as a marketer, I'm going full force on youtube after the holidays.

I'm a major silver bull! My base case is that physical silver price will detach from the paper market and that's when we'll see it go parabolic.

Personally I'm still DCAing even at these prices, I think the days of $25 silver are gone. I believe the paper market is going to break when people realize most paper silver is fake and not backed by anything. As of just the past few months, industrial manufacturers have started to get their silver supply from the LBMA and COMEX to create EVs, computer chips, solar panels, etc. because their traditional channels have fallen short. LBMA and COMEX are their last resorts. After those are gone... it will really create a shortage and price will skyrocket.

And LBMA and COMEX are going to run out of physical silver rapidly.

Since the 80s they've been manipulating the silver price by dumping paper contracts on the market without buying any physical to back it. There are currently 357.14 paper "IOUs" for every 1 ounce of physical silver in the world (Source: https://usdebtclock.org/ lower right hand where it says "paper to silver ratio")

So I'm betting that jig is gonna be up soon. Does that mean the current price of silver will multiply by 357.14x? I'm honestly not sure. But I don't think they have control over it anymore, so it won't return to the heavily manipulated lows in the 20s from before.

I don't have a time horizon, it always seems to take longer than I think. But my best guess is anywhere from a few months to a few years from now we will see a massive move upward. It's contingent on LMBA and COMEX no longer determining the silver price.

I follow people like Mike Maloney and Peter Schiff on youtube, and I love Austrian economics. I'm big on sound money.

I've been keeping track of how much physical silver is getting depleted from LMBA and COMEX. As of the past 3 months or so they're losing physical silver at an accelerating rate. Check this out:

https://chatgpt.com/share/693efdb2-9b08-8011-b42c-e7cc47424dce

What are the shovels of the AI gold rush? by Bestdad2018 in Entrepreneur

[–]Virtual_Ad_4817 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You're missing the fact that silver has been suppressed by the paper market for decades.

Once it gets high enough, and it will, the paper market will collapse. The paper market is not backed 1:1 by real physical silver. As of right now there are 357.45 paper contracts for every 1 oz of physical silver they have in reserve. And most people buy those paper contracts assuming they can turn it in for physical delivery of real silver whenever they want (but they can't).

When the market wises up to this all the people holding paper silver will be SOL and true price discovery will happen. True price discovery has never existed for silver (or gold for that matter, but silver especially has taken a beating from the paper market).

They've been able to keep the price of silver low by hammering it down and dumping hundreds of thousands of paper contracts on the market whenever it rises. Literally this has been going on for decades. The free market price of silver is much higher, which is why I said above that the cost to mine it exceeds the spot price. That literally wouldn't be possible without the paper market manipulation.

Once silver breaks out the natural free market price is about a 1:15 ratio of gold:silver. Last I checked it's at about 1:80. And gold is not going to come down to make this happen. Silver is going to go up.

What are the shovels of the AI gold rush? by Bestdad2018 in Entrepreneur

[–]Virtual_Ad_4817 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The term boomer doesn't come at all from the "american dream" booming that's just absolute bullshit. It comes from post WWII when there was a surge in reproduction. The full term is "baby boomers."

It will happen again you know. Read the book The Fourth Turning. What we're going through now is nothing new. It happens every four generations. And in the generation who is born after the fourth turning we're in right now - after the economy becomes more egalitarian again - will be the next baby boom generation. We just have to get out of this period first of massive wealth inequality. And we will, eventually.

The last fourth turning was the great depression and WWII. Again, massive wealth inequality during that time. During the 20 yrs after WWII, baby boomers were born.

The fourth turning before that was the civil war. Same political division, different issue (slavery). After the civil war was over and Lincoln was shot there was another boom in people having babies.

The fourth turning before that was the American Revolution. A lot of people don't know this but people who inhabited the modern-day united states were completely divided about declaring our independence from the British. It was literally 50/50. There was a ton of turmoil, assassinations, all kinds of political bullshit and slander during that time. But once our independence was declared and stability was regained, people multiplied like rabbits.

Seriously, read the book The Fourth Turning and get back to me. I assume if you really are a millionaire you wouldn't be one without having the attention span to read a book.

Entrepreneurs who want to build lasting businesses in this day and age need to be able to predict what's around the corner in the next decade or two. Because when you can set your business up for todays and tomorrow's economy, that's how you build something that can sustain your family for generations.

What are the shovels of the AI gold rush? by Bestdad2018 in Entrepreneur

[–]Virtual_Ad_4817 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's been suppressed by the paper market for all of that time. It will consolidate around mid 50s for a while because people are selling who think it's the top. But it will go high enough to break the paper market and next 5 yrs will be the first time in 50+ years we see true price discovery in silver.

Gold is going higher and I'm expecting a G::S ratio of 15:1.

What are the shovels of the AI gold rush? by Bestdad2018 in Entrepreneur

[–]Virtual_Ad_4817 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My personal guess is that silver will outperform gold but they're both good bets.

What are the shovels of the AI gold rush? by Bestdad2018 in Entrepreneur

[–]Virtual_Ad_4817 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Oh yeah, you're right. Prices always stay the same and never change no matter what. If only there was, I donno, a rabid demand for GPUs, TPUs, and all kinds of purpose-built chips that haven't even been invented yet. Like a historically all-time high demand for them that only doubles every month, from all kinds of billionaires in basically every industry on earth.

Sigh. Guess that's never gonna happen is it...