Turn Up the BASE - My Entrepreneurial Journal

[heavysm]

Stage 1 day 24

So shit just got real. How real?

I realized it’s time to stop being a little boy about investing in my business. I’ve relied on cheap or free traffic for so long that it has clouded my mind about my business. It’s time to man up.

But what does manning up mean?

I saw that to get anywhere fast I needed paid traffic. I thought my plan was solid, and I have tons of examples to show of what I can do, so I approached a banker/ investor for some biz money.

This bank/ investor is an old friend, but he’s no joke in knowing finances, when ideas are bad/worthless/laughable etc.

I put together my business proposal, had a nice sit down meal with him and now I have a 5 figure startup deal at 50/50 profit share until we reach a certain point in profit for him.

That. Is. Huge.

It just came together so nicely, I’m sort of in a daze right now. Instead of waiting 6 month or up to a year for a solid plan to come together and praying for profit, I’m now short cutting things down to about a month.

Within the next 2 – 3 months I should be at around 3 – 4k profit, which is my share of that 50/50. It would have taken 8 – 12 months previously to hit that considering my lack of personal funds (most of my money is in my publishing business after all).

So…I’ve written quite a bit, but I am honestly at a loss of words.

This is a quantum leap forward in my business and it’s hard for me to imagine where I might be a year from now.

Those lightening moments of insight/ revelation just don’t stop. But I welcome them with open arms lol

Anyway, time to get back to work *pulls up sleeves*

[heavysm]

Stage 1 day 31

Today I’ve felt heavy resistance towards things I should have let go of already, low energy, and a general lack of mental clarity.

Took a 2 hour nap earlier that left me feeling groggy and weak. That’s the exact opposite of how naps normally affect me. I suspect this is just an internal hurdle that’s taking a little extra effort to get over. I hope it passes by tomorrow.

Tomorrow, tomorrow tomorrow. Big freakin day.

That’s when the funds kick in and I have to start working like a mad man to get things squared away.

Looking at 10 – 12 hour days and I HOPE my focus can sustain me for a bludgeoning two week period of getting this all together. Roughly around the 1st of September is when I have to start buying traffic, which will tell me how bad or good my sales page is.

This is all marketing and tweaking to see what works best, really. My investor will have minimal do with anything because teaching him will take too long (I would have to work around the fact that he works full time at a bank as well) so this is me pushing everything to the limit. But it’s all for a good cause, namely my success.

Since I have a partner now I have to be generally less transparent and open about exactly what I’m doing in the business to get the results I’m getting. But general picture/idea explanations should be good enough.

At the end of September, which is roughly mid-way through stage 3, I might put together a short video instead of a written post so I can show some of the results with the product launch. My partner is setting up a new paypal biz account so everything that happens in the account is purely for this business model and nothing else. A paypal account full of funds (in this case profit) should be a nice motivator, and would also prove that this isn’t just a load of crap. I want to show that this is as real as possible while also providing myself with a tiny bit of anonymity considering that my investor wants to keep everything pretty quiet. Doing the video should be alright though.

All of my future posts will be about stage 2 and beyond so here is my overall evaluation of stage 1:

I’m glad I did LTU before BASE. It gave me a nice foundation of mental and emotional strength that I relied on pretty heavily using stage 1 of BASE.

Growing up I had a general stigma against money that it was 100% hard to get, even if you work for it. It took pained labor to get it flowing your way, and now I just don’t think that way anymore. As long as you’re open to money, meaning that your mental money programming tells you that abundance is everywhere – that you just have to go out and get it, it will come to you.

I know my personal idea of wealth has expanded, so the wealth ceiling aspect has greatly affected me. This current business is just a stepping stone to bigger things, and I see that now in greater clarity.

Despite my current work ethic, it’s actually not quite where I want it to be yet. I feel generally motivated and hyped up but not as focused productive as I would like. I am able to clean my house like never before, which is kinda funny. But I’d generally say that my raw productivity is about 50 – 60% of where I’d like it to be.

Things I’m looking forward to:

Communication and speech enhancement of stage 2 and beyond. I also want to see how Think Like a Millionaire affects me, just because I’m not even sure what that would be like. Entrepreneur mindset, yes. But millionaire mindset? I have no idea.

[heavysm]

Stage 2 day 4

Currently going through a mini meat grinder of crap.

There have been several small delays in getting the actual funds into a usable account (none of which are related to my partner – he’s been very good so far).

Having gone out to eat twice since day 1 of stage 2 I had two orders served to be completely wrong about 3 times in a row each. That doesn’t happen to me. I’ve always wondered how it happens to others and now I realize the slightest change to what you say can alter the way others perceive you in huge magnitudes.

The second of those wrong orders pissed me off royally and I walked out of the restaurant after the 3rd wrong order redo (I am horribly irritable when I am hungry, and in that occasion I hadn’t eaten all day = horrible combination for the wait staff to deal with).

My computer now also has some random malware which prevents me from going to some of my favorite sites. I mention this because this isn’t trivial; I very rarely have computer problems so I know this is internal resistance kicking up.

I hope to God this all calms down sometime this week. I thought I was good with stage 1 but it appears that each new stage of these six stages will likely leave me dealing with resistance. With that in mind I had a horrible urge to jump to stage 7 and just stick with that forever because I’d rather deal with horrible resistance all at once (over a month or however long it takes to pass) rather than deal with it in chunks. Buuuut I know that’s not how it works so I’ll have to deal with the fact that each level will slap me around a bit and in this case I’m hoping it’s just a week or so worth like stage 1.

Aside from ALL of that though, everything seems in order lol

[heavysm]

Stage 2 day 8

Well things appear to have subsided.

I feel more in control now, though my patience is being tested with different designers who appear to want to take an eternity to get my designs back to me.

I’m hoping and praying the designs are ‘alright’ since I have waited so long for them to get back to me. I feel a bit disgruntled that I didn’t learn photoshop well enough in the past so that I have to rely on these people now. I’m thinking about devoting 30 – 60 min daily to just learning PS so this isn’t a problem in the future. We’ll see how that goes.

My dreams have been more vivid and lucid than ever, but it’s almost never anything to do with my business which is odd.

I was thinking that Dream Your Best Solution would give me in-depth plans to try out for my business, but oddly enough I’ve just been dreaming a lot about my next partner.

At least three times a week I’ll have a very deep story oriented dream in which I’m with a different version of my next partner. These aren’t wet dreams (lol), and I’ve actually never had a wet dream before (sad but true), but I tend to see a different version of the future with a different partner. They’re just everyday life situations but with me living actively with my partner.

I’m curious if my subconscious sees this as a challenge to take on; sort of like a question that needs to be answered. So my dreams/ subconscious play out different scenarios with different types of girls to see which fits the best. But who knows really. I’m trying to actively build the foundation of my empire right now and actively/ consciously going out to find Ms. Right just isn’t on my current to-do list. It’s funny really.

Thankfully all versions of the futures I have seen in the dreams have been with me being very successful. I’m quite happy about that lol

[heavysm]

Stage 2 day 13

I feel “express success even before you have achieved it” strongly now, though it is brand new for stage 2.

My projected image for where I should be right now feels like it’s already been achieved, and that’s both amazing and kind of crazy. I have also set long term yearly goals so that I can have markers for achievement, and that in itself feels as if I have subconsciously accepted success deeply enough to be comfortable making bigger and more ambitious plans.

Which leads me to my next point, and this is a short term insight, but I really don’t like that ultra motivation and success aren’t in every stage. UM will be absent in 4 &6 and US absent from 3 & 6. But why does it have to be like that?

I’m guessing that having a few months of those subs should give me some carry over affect from those stages of absence, but it bothers me that those aren’t included all throughout.

It’s a small point to be bothered about, but I have to wonder why consistent inclusion wasn’t done for those subs in particular.

Obviously long term this doesn’t matter. I plan to use the cruiser stage 7 indefinitely or at least until the 8G or whatever writing sub comes out.

In regards to my work and progress so far, things have been heavily limited by relying on and outsourcing to others, setting up a new server to handle the monstrous traffic we’ll be throwing at it, and just lots of tiny problems adding up to delay overall to my launch time. Sigh. I’m pretty sure this is just the grind stage where I just have to plow through the technical crap before the real fun begins (I say “I’m pretty sure“ but what I really is mean “I know damn well that…” lol).

[heavysm]

Stage 2 day 18

I’ve been negotiating deals for traffic since I now have to deal with bulk traffic sellers in order to get deals for sub-40 cents IF I can even get it that low.

One point that I need to clarify, however, is the point I made before about not having done paid traffic before. That’s not actually true.

I’ve done quite a bit of paid traffic before, sometimes sending 10,000 – 50,000 visitors to my sites in just a few days. The difference between doing that and what I’m doing now is the cost of the visitors.

I sent those massive traffic swarms to offers in the past because I got those clicks for 1 – 3 cents each, and sometimes with good enough luck/negotiation, for under a penny each. In that case 10,000 clicks would be less than a couple hundred bucks, which I can easily deal with.

Since I am in a new market now which happens to be both massive in size and hugely saturated with tons of people/ competition, the low end for traffic is around 40 cents per click and the high end is 70 cents to $1.

It’s not the act of paying for traffic that I’m new to, it’s paying so much per click that scared the hell out of me for the longest time. Paying 40 cents a click didn’t make sense with any of my previous business models, but now it does because I have the products and funnels in place to make back my money pretty quickly.

It’s a new dawn. It’s a new day =)

[heavysm]

Stage 2 day 27

Lots and lots and lots going on…

But I still haven’t starting buying traffic yet! That’s actually tomorrow, which means that I am 99% done with phase one of new business startup.

I had to bend and stretch over the past month or so, considering that I had to essentially learn html, photoshop and other web-based tools almost from scratch.

Setting up new hosting took about 10 days, which was a heavy delay, but everything should be fine now.

Overall, I’m really just anxious for what the near future holds. I have several grand in $$ at my control which will hopefully turn into $$$$ (double my investment…maybe?) on the front end, and then bend and stretch again to pull another 300 – 400% MINIMUM from the system I am setting up.

Setting everything up felt like an act of God with hosting giving me horrible problems, then realizing my knowledge sucks, so I had to relearn 90% to do the coding and graphics.

If it wasn't clear before, and I’m not actually sure I ever mentioned it, the actual launch date was ‘supposed’ to be the 1st of September LOL

Being two weeks late isn’t sooo bad, just so as long as profits pour in and no major problems pop up.

But this is it folks. Like an Olympian getting ready taking that deep breath before they hit the big stage, tomorrow is the day and my fingers are crossed. Let’s see what happens.

[heavysm]

Stage 3 day 7

My lord have things gotten busy for me...

This isn't busy work either. It's negotiating traffic deals from ridiculous rates down to reasonable/ borderline regrettable rates (by the sellers, not me hah) so that this can all be profitable for me.

I had to switch the business model slightly, simply because dealing with potential refunds is a big problem in the industry as I've now come to find, so I am now buying and growing my inventory for traffic in a very different and unique way. In the rare moments i am able to step back out of dizzying haze of facebook groups and tracking tools, I am able to appreciate how genius this new business model is. It's just a matter of building solid reputation now that matters.

One cool but random thing that happened just yesterday - I bought a new office chair. Having to sit for several hours at a time made me realize the cheap fold up chair + cushion I'd been using for so many years just isn't cutting it anymore. So on with craigslist and a quick visit to an old neighborhood and $25 later (yes, the chair was a steal for the price Lol) I can now enjoy a nice and squishy/ legit chair. May not seem like a big deal, but now my ass and back are thanking me.

Business overall is slow and tedious. I have to message suppliers, ask about rates, haggle pricing, then hopefully come out with some quality traffic.

Sometimes waiting for responses from these people has been incredibly time consuming, so i bought a rubix cube randomly and I've been practicing doing that in my down time. I went from not being able to solve it at all, to now cutting down my solve time to under 2 min. Yes - I do spend a lot of time with the cube and have even written down personal algorithms to solve it faster...BUT it does greatly help kill time while i wait for people to get back to me. It's become a new favorite hobby. Don't judge me.

I have come to realize that this business relies a ton of gaining momentum, which requires a heavy grind at the beginning (in which a TON of people drop out of the business because they think it's too hard).

Good sellers in this industry only have the problem of being over booked, sort of like a restaurant with a huge waiting list to dine at. The food is good, so people wait.

Mediocre and bad sellers in the industry sort of need to lower their prices and tend to have inferior quality services, so people only use them as a last resort or because they tend to be so cheap. Think late night run to below average food place that's only technically good because they're open at 3am.

As i see it this industry has the businessmen and serious marketers...and then there's everyone else. The serious people have sales pages which flash their bling and how good their services are whilst some of the lesser sellers don't even have a sales page. Many say they're in the process of creating one...only they've been in the industry 1.5+ years and that's likely to be total bullcrap at this point.

Has everything been completely positive at this point for me? Nah, not at all. But I'm 100% certain BASE is making me waaaay more resilient so that I am able to bounce back almost instantly.

Is BASE a magic bullet for business, wealth, happiness, moneyz and chicks?? Lol so far it's been a natural transition to a more strategic, goal oriented, and entirely practical approach to getting things done. My productivity is as high as it can be right now. I am attracting people, tools, random things etc that make my business and life in general far easier to manage and steer the course of, so to speak.

As a note, in starting stage 3 I've noticed my income goals for the next 3 years have exploded and are congruent with Think like a Millionaire. I just don't see any valid reason why i can't achieve big goals unless crazy sh!t happens (always does) or I am pulled away from my work (could easily happen). Nevertheless though, I feel like the persistence and self discipline I'm gaining from BASE are definitely going to help me pull through. And I think that's something to be positive about

[heavysm]

Stage 3 day 16

My business is evolving very rapidly. It has to bend and twist as I test out new phases, sales pages, color schemes, page layouts…everything that we take for granted on any web page I am testing now. And there’s a lot more that doesn’t work out there than that does. But that’s the whole point of all of this; to test and toss aside what doesn’t work, making room for everything that does.

Even though I had a lot of guidance and research into this biz, it is definitely an uphill grind.

I am told that the first 30 – 60 days are the roughest, depending on how much you get done and work ethic. Being less than 3 weeks into all this, I can say that that estimates feels about right.

For traffic purchases I am making back roughly 50 – 60% of my money with my new shift in funnel structure and how I acquire my leads. That figure needs to be over 100%, all of my money being made back from traffic purchases in order for me to comfortably report profit when I sell traffic.

And the crazy thing is…I am selling traffic lol I have roughly 1500+ clicks sound within the past 2 weeks, which isn’t bad at all.

All of my current testimonials report stellar results and sales, which is amazing for a first timer like me.

I am still putting in 8 – 12 hour days. I still have to negotiate traffic buys constantly. And, like mentioned above, I am still not completely making back my money from traffic buys, which is incredibly important.

So far I can definitely report resistance in terms of wanting to be more productive, but not really being sure how I can do that. Motivation is sky high, and positivity is about the same. I feel an internal shift this month more toward being luckier than generally successful, so I can’t wait until the success programming is put back into with stage 4.

I feel as if Think Like a Millionaire, Seize the day, and Seek the Challenge are really pushing me forward. I have already mapped out what the next year or so should look like and I have made what I call “evaluation points” for months into the future about where I should be, and if I’m not at certain goals yet, how I might re-evaluate myself at those points.

This is all a very intensive process, but BASE is very intensive, and I love how I think and feel almost obsessively pushed to get shit done now.

A very nice thing happened the other day when a traffic supplier and I were having a simple conversation and he asked me how long I’d been in the industry. When I said less than 2 weeks (at the time) he literally had a ‘wtf?’ moment and would not believe me. According to him I have more knowledge than 95% of the people he deals with, so that was a big confidence booster. This guy is a 2 year veteran of the industry and already pushes over $40k monthly in profit through his business.

As a note, it doesn’t take very long at all to be considered a good supplier in this industry. As long as your traffic converts - which is the point of this whole business; to provide quality traffic that actually buys stuff or results in email subscribers for these businesses and marketers – it doesn’t matter if you have been in the industry for 2 weeks or 2 years, people will flock to you like you’re a God lol

My next step is to charge more for my traffic so that profit can be made easier. Once branding is achieved, the possibilities are endless. I might even open up a coaching program for hard driven individuals who want to create a nice little side income. I don’t know, we’ll see.

I currently feel like the hill I am ascending for the first grinding phase of this business is starting to level off. That just means that the current effort I am putting in will have far more impact soon as things get easier. So working those 8 – 12 hours daily will mean serious growth for my business rather than mere upkeep and maintenance. I look forward that that stage

[heavysm]

Stage 3 day 25

I have done so much “pushing” and innovating within the past 3 weeks that I am now doing new stuff most in my industry have never seen before.

Though it took me around 8 – 10 hours a day minimum to completely sort out, I am now profiting consistently from my traffic purchases. It’s not much profit. Out of the $350ish I pay for weekly traffic, I make about $20 – 50 depending on how much I sell for. This is a huge development considering that I am now able to charge more for my services.

I have only used about $3,500 of the money apportioned to me by my investor, and considering that there is about $14,000 available (it grew over the past few weeks since I have been able to prove the profitability of this business to my partner) I actually don’t think I’ll need to dip into that much longer.

If you think about what’s happening, it’s actually absolutely incredible. Though I have a stack of money waiting to be spent, or rather invested, into the business I literally don’t need it. I have reached a point in the business where my traffic purchases pretty much pays for itself with a little extra left over. That is fantastic because the business model proves that over time it can support itself with a little work AND profit is already coming in without having to drive either of us further into debt.

Right this very moment I have several hundred clicks of visitors going to different client websites, and it’s all already paid for. The fact that the traffic funnel model I came up with is so efficient at self liquidating…it’s actually just damned brilliant, without patting myself too much on the back, of course.

I realllly wish I could post my sales page, because I custom coded the whole freaking thing (which I had to relearn just for this) without any help, and I’m really proud of it. Perhaps at the end of BASE I’ll post it just to show how far I’ve come. We’ll see what happens with that.

Clients are continually praising my services and asking me how I’m able to deliver such crazy results to them. I’m certain that the script of “Become the Best of the Best in Your Field” is working like gang busters right now, just because I feel so empowered to deliver better and better results for each order I do. I also see how I can innovate over time to deliver even better results as I take on more clients. Then I can provide training on how customers can position themselves to best use my services, so it’s like a mega WIN-WIN situation going on where I teach my customers how best to profit from my services. Almost no one in my business does it, but guess what? I am, and it’s going to be glorious.

I can comfortably see the business pulling in $5 – 8k within the next 3 months if my vision can manifest as smoothly as I can work. Next year I’m going to slam everything into over drive and try to reach for some mega goals in this biz. It will be even more interesting when I have to start hiring employees to help me run customer service. That’s a journey all unto itself, but this is a journey made step-by-step, day-by-day. I suppose that’s “Maintain consistency in everything you do towards your goal” script and “Paced working & Entrepreneurial Efforts to prevent Burnout” are kicking in. Each day literally is a step closer to actualizing huge leaps forward toward my goals.

I can see the direction of where the road goes, but it fades off into the distant horizon where it gets a bit hazy. I just know there are crazy and exciting things lying up ahead. I’m seriously excited =D

[heavysm]

Stage 4 Day 1

This isn't a business update so much as a reflection over this sub...

I made a big mistake today, and this was purely an accident but it affirms what Shannon has said about using 6-stage subs.

For some ungodly reason i had stage 7, which has the whole BASE script in one sub, on my music player instead of stage 4 and I had it on for about 6 hours while i worked.

This was like a freakin repeat of the discomfort i felt when first using LTU - my brain felt like it was maxed out, a tiny it of disorientation was felt and I just couldn't think properly.

When i looked back at my player to see what was up it was one of those epiphany/ facepalm moments. I didn't know whether to laugh or feel fortunate that I caught this so into into stage 4.

I am 1000% convinced I would have been over loaded with stage 7 if i had continued using it. My brain is still recovering from it. Think of it like being a fighter put into the ring with an opponent who has been misjudged for talent and is waaaay above your current skill level at fighting. You're not going to stand a chance. Period.

I always sort of half wondered what would happen if I used stage 7 instead of one of the other six stages to try and "shortcut" things. DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT IT. I say that with every bit of seriousness that i can.

I'm actually going to sleep without any BASE tonight just so I can settle down from what happened. You've heard it from me folks. Shannon ain't kidding about using these 6-stagers in order and not using the 7 until you have completed all 6 stages. Definitely a lesson i will take to heart

[heavysm]

Stage 4 day 2

Well, i officially despise changing levels, especially when things are going well.

I've had 3 random massive hurdles within the past day that meant the total pause of the entire business and me running around like a madman trying to contact traffic suppliers (who are also likely taking the day off as it's a weekend) to stop sending traffic because tech stuff on my end is completely f*cked.

This "random bad stuff happening" only comes up when i start the first few days of a new level. I now feel unease, discomfort and a general dislike for the world right now.

Mother of God help me (JK, I'm not religious at all. Da funk do you do when everything goes wrong?)

**It appears this rather large problem is affecting everyone in my business using a particular service. I would not want to that customer service for them right now lol

[heavysm]

Stage 4 day 11

I can feel the success programming coming back, and it’s helping me do some big things.

The only downside right now is that I can feel the motivation programming slip a little. I want to be productive but the fuel of motivation isn’t as strong right now.

Previously I was a ravenous lion just smashing away on work and creating amazing results for my clients. That hasn’t changed so much, but I can feel myself slipping on wanting to push on the projects I have planned. That isn’t a good feeling; it’s happened too much in the past and I can’t stop work now (motivation, where art thou?!)

For some the upcoming holidays mean that work slows down and a sort of hibernation comes into play. Screw all of that lol I am hitting this with holiday deals for my clients and a launch of new products. I’m taking full advantage of the salesy aspect of this time of year just so I can push this business cleanly to the next level.

My metaphor here is lifting up an entire train from a track, which was heading in the very different direction, and placing it onto another track that treks into the mountains to a higher plateau of something far greater. I am currently lifting that train onto the new track, and though it’s heavy as a son-of-a-bish, little by little the pieces are coming into place.

I see the laziness of other marketers in my industry, and it makes me laugh quite a bit. Some scoff at my sales setup, my lack of a pitch (my customers come to me, hah!), and that I’m pushing so hard in the ways that I am.

The crazy thing is that when I talk to new clients and customers, they’ve never seen some of the stuff I’m offering, so I’m literally booked up like 2 weeks in advance just because a lot of my stuff is so effective.

I’ve only had one or two instances so far where I had to take down pages just because I had a “hunch” another marketer was trying to copy my stuff. Not gonna happen buddy. I’ve even had relatively big name people in my industry try to buy traffic from me…only problem was that they were trying to negotiate a dirt cheap rate. Let’s just say that I charge what I’m worth, and when I’m booked 10 – 14 days in advance for my traffic, you’re not getting clicks for 37 cents when I’m easily clearing 55 – 75 cents per order. That just made me laugh lol

I foresee Stage 5 being where I really kick things up, since the motivation programming comes back there. Stage 6 might be a little tame. But I have no idea where stage 7 will carry me. Perhaps to my goals, perhaps beyond…we’ll see.

[JackOfHearts]

The stage 7 isn't meant to be use as the last stage, the stage 6 is the last stage. A lot of people misunderstand the 7th Stage which is a refresher. It is meant for people who didn't use the whole sets for a long time and want to refresh the programming without doing every stage from the beginning. That being said you should use the 7 stage only if you had very good results with the sub and most of the time it's almost impossible in only 1 run. 3 times is the recommended minimum before you should be able to use the refresher (7th stage).

Example: I did AM5 and AM6, I had some decent results with them but when I used the 7th stage AM6 It felt like too much for me and I stopped after 5 day. Same thing happened with someone using SM3 7th Stage after only one run.