I sold 2,000,000 in coaching

Business lessons from 2024

Hi there!

I’m writing this from Amsterdam.

I’m excited to be back in Europe. A bit over a year ago, I wanted to move to Amsterdam but it was going to take most of my savings. Now I’m happy I waited because I had an amazing year living in Charlotte NC with my sales friends.

Big lesson to not always be in such a rush.

And today I want to share with you some more lessons about business and money I learned this year.

Hope it is helpful.

#1 Conviction is king

This year I heard the same quote 3 times from 3 different people:

“Wealth is created through concentration, and protected through diversification.”

In making money and sales, conviction is very important.

For example, I have some friends who have been buying bitcoin since 2020. They are really rich. Because they had conviction and held through massive up and downs

Another example, thanks to a client, I got a chance to invest in SpaceX this year. I only had $15k liquid to invest but if I had had $150k, then you can imagine, I would have 10xed whatever my future returns are.

It’s really an amazing thing.

Or for example, I went from having a handful of clients in 2022, to only three this year (with 1 client making up 96% of my 2024 income).

Why did I do that?

Because I had conviction that the one client (the company I sell for) would be significantly more profitable in the short to medium term than most things I could create on my own.

We’ll see if this remains true through 2024, but for now I have that conviction.

#2 Framing matters

I mention the “client” above.

Well in the beginning of the year I used to view them as my boss. Then we had a meeting and he told us to no longer view ourselves as his employees but rather as one person sales agencies who have outsourced our fulfillment and marketing.

This is really important because it help you act with ownership.

When you are just going through the motions you get bad outcomes but when you act like an owner you treat every instance with importance.

#3 Skill stacking is how you will make more money

I spent 2024 pretty much perfecting just one skill:

Closing high ticket coaching packages over zoom.

I had over 1000 scheduled calls and lots of fun. And while that concentration is great as an initial stage. You will pretty much tap out around low five figures a month.

For context the best earning “high ticket closer” (stupid name) I know earns around 50k/mo and he works for a crazy successful client.

But my closing skill only works in the context of a larger system:

• Organic content funnel

• Paid ads & retargeting ads

• Automations

• VSLs

• Setting process with Text and Email

• An actual product to sell

As you can see by only focusing on closing I was able to make a pretty good living this year but to get to the next level (consistent 30k/mo at 65% net profit), I’ll likely need to add more skills.

#4 Iron out math details immediately, always

This is probably the biggest business mistake I’ve made - like four times at this point.

For example, in my first sales opportunity, I accepted a slightly lower commission than industry standard. To be fair, there were some factors that made it worth taking. (warm leads, very well known in our corner of the internet).

But I just kinda rolled over without even pressing if there was any chance of going higher. That choice cost me over 50,000 this year alone.

You must be 100% certain and never make money decisions based on “systems 1 quick thinking” decision making. That’s the automatic part of your brain which is able to get price anchored.

I really prefer not to make this mistake again.

#5 Constraints breed action

Outside of sales, I spent a lot of time in inaction this year.

Plans to start a second business, but never really did. It wasn’t because I was lazy. It was because I had no constraints on the opportunities I wanted to pursue.

As soon as I decided to pursue “sales consulting” side projects, they magically “appeared” into my consciousness (In reality they were probably around the whole time I just was unable to find them because I had the wrong filter).

It’s like in Grand Theft Auto. Once you start driving a fast car they show up everywhere. But before that you never really see them.

The same thing happened three years ago, I gave myself 2 weeks and the constraint to pick a business loosely related to persuasion because that’s what I was most curious about.

Within a few months I had made my first $1000 online outside of teaching.

#6 Stick with what you’re good at

Business is a lot easier if you play your natural strengths.

I like marketing and I like copywriting, but I have gotten better results in sales.

My first sales call ever, I closed for $2500. And I went from 0 formal experience to closing 7 figures in 6 months, and I held my own on a top tier sales team over the past year.

Every time I try marketing I just get ok results.

It doesn’t mean I can’t do marketing, it’s just that the market seems to reward me quicker and more consistently when I do sales. Find what you’re good at and keep doing it.

#6 Location is more important than you think

Despite the internet, your location still determines a ton about your opportunities.

For example, I went to Miami for a raising capital conference that one of my clients was hosting. From that one conference, I’ve contracted 9k in new sales consulting revenue, and got to invest into SpaceX pre-IPO.

Somethings are better in person.

#7 Liquidity matters

Note to self: You should have 10k cash at all times. Probably more like 30k.

I once had to self off a piece of bitcoin to pay my rent in Hamburg Germany in 2022. Terrible move, never want to eat into my principle again.

The solution is being liquid and having way more cash than you need.

#8 Invest time with people who do what you do better

This year I lived with the best sales person I know.

In the very first month, I realized there were significant differences between how he carried himself, his beliefs, his actions, and mine.

I could never have discovered these things over zoom.

Seeing him bust his ass every single day of the month (and sometimes contract 50k in a day), made me realize what true effort looks like.

And what it really means to “follow up’ with prospects. This is something I did not know how to do effectively and should probably write a post just on the systems and things I learned from him.

#9 NLP is worth exploring

A sales coach recommended we read the book “Sleight of Mouth.”

It’s probably the coolest book I’ve read since discovering Stoicism. And pretty much every great sales person I know has mentioned NLP (neuro-linguisitc programming) once or twice.

I’m going to invest more time learning NLP this year.

#10 No need to be “all or nothing”

My best sales month ever, where I collected 137k in upfront cash happened while I was living on my best buddies coach in Greece, starting work at 2pm and also investing significant time into a side client.

So often it feels like you have to be all in or not at all but I’ve found that’s rarely the case.

There are two difference modes:

• Growth

• Maintenance

This is something I learned from my client Dickie. Really You only need to be close to all in during growth mode.

For example, if you are learning a new skill, like closing high ticket coaching products over Zoom. If it’s your first time selling, and you are not all in, you will still probably get good, but it might take 6 months.

Instead if you can cram all of that 6mo of effort into 6 weeks, you can dramatically increase your short term earning potential and rate of overall improvement.

The same is true for language learning, new skills.

Investing a solid 2-4 hours a day during growth mode allows you to move a skill into maintenance mode so that you can still close a high percentage of your sales calls while living on the coaching in Greece and building a side business.

11. Don’t need to do everything all at once

Over the past few years, I’ve been in a rush to become a multimillionaire polyglot father of 7, with an international real estate portfolio and second passport.

But I’m slowly realizing there is not need to be in a rush.

Step, by step and put first things first:

• Get skill based cash flow in a vehicle where smart and hard woork is rewarded

• Skill stack and get more leverage

• Continue fun side quests along the way

12. The easiest “side hustles” are related to your day job

Right now, I invest most of my time closing for my biggest client.

So sales consulting is a pretty easy thing for me to sell on the side, zero context switching.

If I was doing sales full time then a bit of marketing, there’s a tiny bit more friction involved.

13. Would I work with this person for life test?

This year I had a client with unclear financial return (they still haven’t paid me much of anything).

But he opens up a lot of other opportunities. Plus I asked myself, if I had to work with this person for the rest of my life, would I be happy or disappointed.

Resounding happy, so I’m still working with him.

14. Take care of your friends - and you profit the most

This year, I saw my friend Tristan get both of his best friends new sales opportunities.

One went from down and out to six figure opportunity and the other went from Walmart to making money from the couch. But Tristan probably profited the most bc his two best friends are now here for the ride.

This is now a goal for me in 2024, help at least one good friend make money online and get geographic freedom.

15. The biggest investment “alpha” is hidden from the mainstream

I’ve returned over 100% on my investments this year.

And 4xed my net worth since I started tracking. I don’t say that to brag. I don’t know much about investing at all. And one year is not a long track record to boast. But I was very thoughtful on who I decided to let into my brain.

Mostly, I listened to Naval Ravikant and Bull Tied Bow (two twitter amounts and one substack) They look like anon trolls from the outside. Both have a cartoon Twitter profile Pics. But everyone I know who listens to them have done well in the markets.

But if you listen to Jim Crammer on CNBC you would literally go broke (last time I checked reverse Jim Crammer was outperforming Nancy Pelosi stock tracker lol).

What a shame Crammer just endorsed Bitcoin.

16. Nicotine is bad because it simulates the feeling of progress

I’ve struggled over the past five years to fully drop nicotine even though I was completely free from it for years at a time.

When I prayed about what’s the problem with nicotine I got a clear answer.

Nicotine is bad because it is cheap dopamine. It basically produces the same chemicals and feelings of progress towards your goals without you needing to take a step towards your goals. And so you feel good as if you’ve worked hard towards something but actually you’re in the same place.

It’s bad, it’s fake. Don’t consume nicotine.

17. Negative signals scale linearly but feel exponential

This is super important for anyone building a business.

When you have 1 client, it’s super unlikely you have any fires to put out. It’s just one client. But if you have 1000 clients, and 13 are upset, it feels like the business has gotten exponentially worse even tho hat’s like 1%.

You have to remind yourself, negative signals scale linearly, but feel exponential.

That’s all for today.

Thank you for reading and hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving!