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digital nomad

How I went from $0 to $7,620 per month (my Lifestyle Design experiment)

Just over a year ago (before I started this blog) – I went on a mission to be a digital nomad, to work for myself in a ‘location independent’ fashion. In this post I’ll tell you how I went from earning $0 to $7,620 a month while doing most of my work on the beach.

But first, let me set the scene……..

Ever since I read the Four Hour Work Week – and had my mind opened to the possibilities of ‘Lifestyle Design’ and being a digital nomad, I knew it was something that I wanted to give a try.

I was bored in what I was doing (a funded PhD), so about 18 months ago I quit and later that day I boarded a plane to Australia, via Asia – > determined to give this ‘New Rich’ lifestyle a go.

I had very little relent experience. But I had built a website from scratch during my ‘failed’ startup that I launched in college – so I knew I could learn this shit.

So I spent the first few weeks in Malaysia consuming every recommended book I could get while lying on a beach. I read everything from Lifestyle design texts to books about psychology, marketing and vagabonding. I was hungry to learn.

By the time I hit Sydney about 2 weeks later I was pumped and ready to take action. I flirted with affiliate marketing initially, and while it was cool to learn the principles through the course I took – I didn’t get a sniff of a sale and didn’t really enjoy it. Too mechanical & soulless for my liking.

Then one day, while googling a local business in Sydney I stumbled upon something that would take me on a different path. I noticed that the local business didn’t have a website. A bit more research showed that almost every small business around where I lived didn’t have a website. None! Very different that back home in Ireland where every business has had a website for years!

I smelled an opportunity

So I hit the streets and started walking into businesses to offering doing them websites – the first business I signed up? The Topless Bar that was across the road from our hostel. Rock on!

A New City

Soon after we had to move to Adelaide, a smaller city in Australia (part of our travel schedule). It was bad timing cause I just felt I’d started some momentum.

After I got settled I hit the streets in this new city and went door to door to businesses…. asking people if they wanted a website

Except nothing happened. Even if they did not have a website – they were not interested! I even remember being laughed at one day as they said ‘sure, why do we need a website – we’re on Google’ (?)

My early success with the Topless bar in Sydney wasn’t being replicated – had I just got lucky?

Despite the fact I was getting shot down time and time again – I kept at it. Walking into businesses unannounced asking for business. I HATE rejection, so it was difficult to do time and time again. But before every business I would call into I would read a quote from Zig Ziglar that says something along the lines of:

Every rejection, every failure brings me one step to mastery

So I kept at it. For weeks and weeks. Kept on being rejected, learning and keeping at it. All the while, my savings were running dangerously low as I was not earning anything!

And then one week it started to come together

First: I was getting some business cards printed at a printers, the conversation went onto websites and she said she’d like wanted a website done (note: I did not directly ask her for business). = Deal worth $870

Second: She introduced me to a print client of her’s who also wanted a website. = Deal worth $3,700

Third: A Friend from back home who knew what I was doing, contacted me to request a website = Deal worth: $2,500

Fourth: The cheque from the Topless bar arrived in the post = Worth $550

In total I had just made $7,620!!

These events may sound random, even lucky – but looking back there’s some important lessons we can all learn from them:

1) Success comes from taking action. If I had not started my failed startup in college – and then tinkered with Affiliate marketing in Sydney, I would not have learned how to build a website and would not have noticed, or taken advantage of the opportunity

Lesson: Just take action – good things that you can never foresee will come from it

2)  Despite all the cold call walk-ins I did trying to sell websites. Every big sale came from people who I either
knew (friend), was intro’d to (friend of Printer), approached indirectly (printer) or had something in common with (living across from Topless bar). Not one completely cold call turned into a sale.

Lesson 1: People don’t like to be directly sold to – a good salesman will approach it indirectly, establish what the customer wants and ten introduce his solution

Lesson 2: Personal connections is the most important asset you can have

3) I burnt a lot of rubber (cycle tyre rubber) to get those deals. I get rejected and it hurt. But I kept going – I would never hav achieved anything if I stopped

Lesson: Keep believing, keep going. Every rejection, every failure brings you one step to mastery

4) Tell everyone you know what y0u’re offering – you never know who in your network might need your service. Then do a good job

Lesson: Work your network to get your first customer – This might sound frustrating as you might want to ‘go big’; quicker than that (I know I did), but remember, even the biggest companies: Ebay, Amazon – even McDonalds – started with 1 customer and grew

5)  Lifestyle design is hard. Selling marketing/websites to local businesses is hard. There are lots of websites out there telling you that this stuff is easy, that you can sit on a beach, take it easy and let the cash roll in. I also see lots of sites that say selling internet marketing and websites to local businesses is a gold mine. 

These are usually sites that are trying to sell you something.

I’ve tried to be as honest in this post as possible without glorifying what I went through. It was hard work and difficult. But I look back on it as an amazing learning experience – and that feeling of success when it all came together, was  amazing.

Lesson: This is all possible – just be prepared that it’s going to be hard work

Your Turn: Have you ever tried anything like this? Or would like to? Want to ask me any questions about how I did it? Write them in the comments below:

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Barry Shaverin: Founder and CEO of Zip World London
Barry Shaverin: Founder and CEO of Zip World London

Most obviously, Howard is great marketer. He knew which channels we should try, when we should try them, how we analyse and how to react to them….as a result we sold a lot of tickets. Which was obviously great for us.

Joel Burgess, Founder and CEO Nutrifix
Joel Burgess, Founder and CEO Nutrifix

Escape Velocity was a game changer for us. The biggest impact on us was that it gave us clear direction of what we need to achieve. It has really massively impacted on my life and given me the clear direction and the sort of tools to manage my business.

Julien Deslangles-Blanch, Regional Director, UK & Germany at General Assembly
Julien Deslangles-Blanch, Regional Director, UK & Germany at General Assembly

Howard has been with us in the past five years and has taught thousands of students. I can say he is a fantastic instructor. Honestly, students just love him.

Jakob Modéer, Entrepreneurship Program Manager, Swisscontact Worldwide
Jakob Modéer, Entrepreneurship Program Manager, Swisscontact Worldwide

Our program consists of Macedonia's top performing startups (some already doing millions in revenue $). When I asked the teams who they would like me to bring in to coach them on growth, Howard's name was proposed. Howard came in and made an overwhelming positive impact and has helped our entrepreneurs grow their businesses to the next level.

Jennifer Maerz, Editor in Chief & Program Chair, The Lean Startup Co
Jennifer Maerz, Editor in Chief & Program Chair, The Lean Startup Co

Howard gave a fantastic keynote at Lean Startup Summit London 2017. His talk blended strategic thinking with practical takeaways that engaged the audience throughout.

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