Thank you so much for tuning in to the Freelance Friday podcast
today, and want to teach you how to achieve overnight success.
Not really because I don't really think that's a thing now.
I'm sure there is some person in the history of humanity who woke up
one day and was just all of a sudden successful and rich and famous.
But you know what?
I don't think that's most people's story.
So, uh, sorry for the clickbait, I suppose.
But what I do want to talk about today is the perception of success.
And also what really does go into building a successful business from somebody who is
whatever the opposite of an overnight six.
Is I started outlining this episode while watching the Grammys this year.
I really enjoy watching a word shows, even if I'm not like rooting for anybody or,
you know, whatever, I don't know, half the people are nowadays, but I still really
enjoy watching them and just seeing people being celebrated for their achievements.
I think we need to do that more in most industries.
I really love to John.
Album of the year acceptance speech.
I had never actually listened to him before the Grammys.
I really enjoyed his performance, but his acception speeds basically said, you know,
there's no such thing as a best artist.
Art finds you when it needs to, or when you need it.
I'm super paraphrasing here, but you can wash it.
I'm sure there's a clip that I will be able to link for you, but
that's kind of beside the point.
What really got me thinking about this whole overnight success concept is.
The best new artist category is always just so funny to me.
I think every year I'm like, that is not a new artist.
I've been listening to that person for years.
Uh, Jimmy Allen is one of those people, glass animals is one of those bands.
That's like been around for quite a while, but they were nominated
for best new artists this year.
And it's always just so, so interesting to me not to discredit
them or anything like that.
So that they're felt they were nominated in that gallery.
But, you know, to, I guess the general public or the mainstream
or whoever watches, the Grammys, those artists are new to that.
Maybe they had just discovered them this year.
And, you know, I know some of those artists stories and the things
that they'd went to, to, to get to where they were, and it's a
long road, they didn't just pop.
Out of nowhere.
And I think we see this on the internet, you know, in our corner of the world
as entrepreneurs or freelancers all the time, too, you might just, all of a
sudden start seeing this person pop up in your social feeds or this person gets
all this press for, you know, January.
I don't know, a million followers on Tik TOK seemingly overnight.
And you're like, I've been at this for so long.
Why are they getting this so fast and not me?
So I want to talk about some of these complex feelings.
I don't know that I have all the answers, but I certainly have
some thoughts to kick things off.
I want to read to you a quote.
I really love it.
It says the day you plant the seed is not the day you eat the fruit and.
I think if we can all just like tattoo this on our foreheads, like we need
to see this every day because it can be so easy to get down on yourself
or, Hey, I just launched this course and I sold one or I sold none.
I'm not even getting website clicks.
I'm not even getting email signups.
It's so easy to get down on yourself about that.
My first course I created and I, yeah, I got crickets.
I think I got like one person to purchase.
Uh, then I got like two more purchases and then it was like nothing for months
and months and months I'll actually show this graph of my core sales.
I always think it's so, just fascinating to look at because it is literally like
nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing.
Okay.
Something, something, something, boom, something, you know, and I think
that's how it works for most people.
So just keep in mind, like the stuff that you're doing right now, you are
going to be so happy that you did it.
I worked my butt off creating YouTube videos.
I went through periods of time where I was uploading every
day I was doing challenges.
I was working a full-time job and freelancing and YouTube-ing
and doing all the things.
And I'm really glad that I did that because I built that foundation and
I was not getting paid for that.
I was, you know, getting paid maybe a hundred dollars in ad
sense or whatever at that time.
And that's pretty much it.
So I just want to keep that in mind, something that this is actually a concept.
My operations manager, Megan, she introduced me to.
It's a concept of expanders and I'm probably gonna mess this up so she
can comment if I, if I, if she has a better explanation for it, but
basically what it is is like finding people who are, where you want to be.
And actually tracing back, like looking backwards in their story.
And if I'm one of those people for you, like, go off, go ahead, look at
my bad, embarrassing, old videos, if you want to, I'm embarrassed by them.
But I do try to keep a lot of them up because you know,
it is a part of my story.
And I think even for me, it's very helpful to look back and say, oh my
gosh, like six years ago, I didn't know what the heck I was doing.
This is actually really motivational for me too, because if I'm feeling this.
Six year ago, me imagine how I'm going to feel about six years in the future version
of me, I am probably going to be on fire.
Some of those people for me are like Oprah.
I've always looked up, looked up to her, her career and Amy
Porterfield is somebody else.
And just going backwards and looking at their journeys, you realize this is by no
means an overnight success kind of thing.
Oprah was a local news anchor in Baltimore.
Amy Porterfield was working a corporate job, just like I was just a few years ago.
So you'll start to see things that you can identify with and also, you
know, realize like those seeds that they were planting are not unlike the
seeds that you're probably planting for yourself right now, either.
I always kind of feel like I have.
Sort of share a little bit of context for myself personally, too.
I'm by no means like some million follower, tick talker, some child
prodigy or anything like that.
But sometimes I do get messages from people being like, oh yeah, I
think you were like around my age.
And I'm like, actually, no, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not old.
Don't get me wrong.
I don't think I'm old by any means.
It always kind of actually bothers me a little bit when some of my older
friends were like in their fifties.
Forties call themselves a hold cause I'm like, I don't think you're old at all.
Uh, so I don't want to do that to you either, but I am not 24.
I am not 25.
I am not 20 anything.
And I think sometimes, uh, it can be easy to yeah.
Look at people online and think, oh my gosh, they're all these rare
unicorns of these like 19 year old people on Tik TOK or whatever.
It's not to discredit them.
It's not to say that they're not amazing.
But I don't think there's as many, like 19 year old millionaires, as you know,
Tik TOK would make you think a lot of us have been at it for a long time.
I've been working for over half my life.
You know, I've been working legally like on paper since I was 15.
Yeah.
All of those experiences have made me the person that I am, which
makes me the entrepreneur that I am like, I, I always have hated this.
Even when I worked in corporate, when you're like applying for a job.
And I remember one time I got passed over for this promotion
because they didn't feel like I had enough management experience.
Even though I had been managing people in retail for like six years,
I was an assistant store manager.
I feel like sometimes there are these weird, it's like a very classist thing.
We're not going to go off into this.
Like I'm not going to go into it.
But I think sometimes people think that these lower paying positions
or whatever, more blue collar type jobs, they're not real experience, but
like, absolutely like the experience I learned from my grandparents
seed company up in the country.
I learned things that I take with me and my business now, like take
things from retail and restaurants that I worked in and like little
random, odd jobs and stuff like that.
So anyway, the point of that rant is to let you know that all of your experiences
that you've lived so far have brought.
The point, and that is a really wonderful thing.
And we can't discredit that.
Here's what overnight success overnight success, which doesn't exist.
Here's what success really requires.
There's three things, in my opinion, playing the long game and being
forward-thinking, it requires consistency and it requires.
It requires patients.
Okay.
First thing, when it comes to playing the long game, I think you need to create
little like signposts for yourself.
My first goal was just to stop working retail, right?
Like I just wanted to graduate college and get like a real corporate
job and to get a good salary job.
Boom.
Did that check that off the list?
I knew that that was not going to be my retirement plan.
I knew I did not want to retire from some corporate company.
I always wanted to work for myself or do something more interesting
or creative, but my first goal, I just needed to get myself there.
I just needed to get myself to that good salary, that consistent nine
to five schedule so that I could build my business on the side.
So figure out what that's going to be for you, you know, is that
going to be the good salary?
Is that gonna be.
The four day workweek, is that going to be a certain income goal in your business?
A monthly goal of whatever.
Figure that out.
My second goal done was to build a sustainable side hustle.
So again, the nine to five, the consistent schedule, the consistent
income allowed me to work on some passion projects and build up that
consistent side hustle, a side hustle.
Actually made money every single month.
It wasn't just a one-off thing.
But third goal was then to build a second revenue stream.
So once I had a good client base, it wasn't, you know, a billion
dollars or anything like that.
But I was making a few thousand dollars a month for my side hustle.
I said, all right, now it's time to diversify.
And I created my.
It was a very, very, uh, old version of what exists now, of
course, they've added to it and changed it and made it even better.
But I created that first course.
And then I decided to take the leap.
That was the fourth goal.
I wanted to make sure that I had at least two revenue streams really had
three, because then I had YouTube at that point as well that I was also growing.
Then I felt comfortable taking the leap.
I felt like, all right, it's not just relying on one client.
It's not even relying on two clients.
And it's not just relying on client work at all.
Either.
I also have multiple different revenue streams now I'm ready to quit my job.
And then the fifth goal was to be able to focus on passionate projects.
I'm at a point now where, you know, I'm still not fully there.
I'm still not at a point where I can just like, do whatever I want, but I do have.
Consistent sustainable, reliable income.
That requires less of me, you know, then like working 40 hours a week for a
client or whatever that now I can dive into some of those things that I've
been wanting to do for so long writing.
My book is something, I started a version of this book like
three years ago, I think.
And I just stopped because one, I didn't love it, but two, because I just
really couldn't invest the time into it.
I had to just pay the bills, you know?
So even just looking at somebody like me or whoever you want.
Look at as an expander or, or somebody who, you know, you think kind of.
Blew up out of nowhere.
That's a long path that just to that.
And that's not even counting all the years of working retail and
going to school and all that stuff.
Number two is consistency.
I really love this Sara Blakely quote.
She says everybody has a multi-million dollar idea inside of them.
Addison said, genius is 1% inspiration and 99.
Perspiration the same holds true for innovation invention and entrepreneurship.
I saw her say some, some variation of that quote at a conference a few years
ago, and it really resonated with me.
I mean, I don't know if you're a creative person or if you're
an entrepreneurial person.
I have so many ideas every single day.
I am always just like thinking of business ideas that I just don't know
how to implement, or I just don't want to put the time in to implement.
And that's what.
That's really the difference, but that's what separates the people who
have these million or billion dollar ideas is they actually go after them.
They actually make them happen.
So, yeah, overnight.
Air quotes success.
It takes consistency.
It takes many, many videos for most people before they really take off.
It takes many, many podcasts.
Before you get a bunch of listeners.
It takes many take texts, you know, it takes.
Knows.
I mean, the number of nos that I got in my career, I could cry.
Okay.
I side know, I feel like I was really bad at interviewing for jobs.
A lot of people would think the opposite because I had a really good experience.
I feel like I'm pretty good talking to people.
I'm creative.
I'm nice.
I interviewed for so many jobs and like, I would get like second and third interviews
and then they would just, I think I might've been my social media presence.
I don't know.
I think maybe like people got freaked out by the fact that I had a YouTube channel
or something, but anyway, you got to get a lot of nos before you get any yeses.
That's one of the things that I try to tell entrepreneurs when they first
are starting is like, get 10 nos.
I'm going to challenge you to get 10 nos.
Because chances are one of them is going to turn into a yes.
And even if one of them does not becoming, yes, you're going to now be so much
stronger than sitting at your desk.
And just wondering what if, what if you know, or I wish I had the courage
to knock on a door, just do it.
Don't knock on a door, actually pick up the phone or walk into
an establishment and say, hi.
Here's what I do.
Let's chat.
Number three, going along with consistency, it does require patience.
It is really hard to knock on 10 doors and get 10 nos.
It is really hard to post 10 videos and have one or two
or three people watch them.
It is.
I understand that and it's even harder to keep on going.
Uh, I did it for a long time because I really loved it.
And I really had a vision for.
What I wanted the business to look like.
And I also had studied a lot of expanders, you know, I'd studied people
and I saw like, wow, this person has 500 videos on their YouTube channel.
If I want to get a million subscribers, like, I guess I got to post 500
videos, at least very few people.
You're going to see that have one video and a million subscribers, unless
they're like some ultra celebrity.
Right.
And even then even, sometimes you look and like a celebrity.
Management or whatever, it will start them at YouTube or social channel.
And they wouldn't even have very many followers.
Like that's not enough sometimes.
So instead of sitting there and just hoping for that next signpost.
Focusing so hard on that next milestone.
You know, we're always striving for the next thing and not
soaking up enough of the moment.
I think, I think we really need to start celebrating the season that we're
in and, you know, taking it for what it is like just enjoying the ride.
The journey is a huge part of the destination.
I mean, honestly, like I'm so grateful for everything I have.
And every aspect of my life right now, but like, there are things that I did on
YouTube, but that I so wish I could do.
Now, it's not say I couldn't do them.
Like I would get in trouble or anything, but they come with so much
more judgment or I felt like I could speak so much more freely when I
had a hundred people watching me.
I felt like I could really play around and have fun.
And not again, that's not to say don't have fun on YouTube, but
you understand what I'm saying?
Like, there are different benefits to each stage of life that you're in.
And there's so many benefits, like when I was in college and I could just.
Not care about stuff and didn't really have responsibilities besides just
keeping my lights on and keeping myself alive, you know, but when I
was in that stage, I just so could not wait to be the age that I am now.
And now I'm like, dang, like I kinda miss, I got to miss that era of my life.
You know, I think we need to just celebrate the season that we're in.
I actually bought this bracelet because.
On the inside, it says stop and smell the roses.
And again, this is like another one of those phrases that I really need
to like get tattooed on my forehead or something, because I'm always
just moving on to the next thing.
I'll have a really nice call with somebody.
And instead of like taking five minutes to maybe journal about it, to remember
that feeling, that that call gave me.
Even just like sitting there and thinking about it and
smiling to myself a little bit.
I dunno.
Is that cheesy?
Yeah, probably, but like be cheesy.
Like we only live one life instead of doing that.
I'm always just like, okay, next meeting, next call, next task.
You know?
And so I'm always having to remind myself to stop and smell the roses
and appreciate, appreciate the moment, appreciate what we're doing.
So those are my secrets of how to get online success and how to do
it all and how to run the perfect business that never has any issues.
Uh, sarcasm, sarcasm, sarcasm.
Thank you so much for tuning in today.
I hope you enjoyed this episode.
If you did be sure to review and rate the podcast on apple
podcasts on Spotify and, uh, yeah.
Thanks so much for tuning in.
I appreciate you as always, and I will talk to you in the next one.
Bye.