Written by Torben Anderson
About 3 weeks before I had to go back to my office job, I landed 3 paying customers. One for consulting and two for marketing, a total of 20k/month in recurring revenue.
I want to share my story, for all those who think that it's too late to leave the corporate world.
You can do it!
I’m going to tell you how. Through a simple process of consistent and committed action. I became a personal brand. An on-demand CTO and growth hacking engineer for small and medium businesses. Unintentionally becoming a LinkedIn lead generation expert along the way.
I am 40. It was now or never really.
I have been in the corporate world for 20 years. I’ve tried many times to find a way out.
What I hadn’t done was, to actually make the time. To leave your corporate job, you have to block the time out, and go for it. I took unpaid leave from my day job. I also joined the Foundation to learn from their mentors. The Foundation community gave me the accountability I needed. You will need this too. It will keep you on track outside of the corporate world.
Of course, you don't have to be 40 and corporate for these strategies to work, nor do you have to take time off work. If you commit, you can use the same principles I used, to get out there and start a business of your own.
I want to help you get there! As a servant-leader you will focus on growth and helping people and your network. In a corporate job, traditional leadership generally involves accumulating power. Then exercising that power through hierarchy. Servant leadership is different. The servant-leader puts the needs of others first. Helping people develop and perform at their best.
My story...
How I grew my Linkedin network, from 500 to 2500 customers. How I finally developed a servant-leadership mindset, learned how to sell without selling, and most importantly how I learned to experiment multiple businesses and hustle my way to FREEDOM.
Later in this post, I’ll tell you about my new growth hacking business and explain how I teach entrepreneurs how they can get massively more out of their technology teams than they ever thought possible.
I'll explain how I also spun out a LinkedIn lead generation business that fell into my lap. It creates loads of great leads.
When I joined the foundation, fear of failure was not an option!
I wanted to escape the corporate world once and for all.
I felt silly. Like I was running after every shiny thing!
I was totally directionless.
By not focusing, I would for-sure never get anything off the ground.
About 3 weeks before I had to go back to my office job, I landed 3 paying customers. One for consulting and two for marketing, a total of 20k/month in recurring revenue.
Little did I know that I was actually building a marketing business. By helping others to apply the very thing I was using to build my own businesses.
Consulting is still my core business, and I'm busy building a personal brand around that. Linkedin lead gen continues to be my side hustle and the potential continues to surprise me. It's my insurance policy so I never have to go back.
I still fear that things will fall back, and I'll call my ex-boss or that agent, for that job.
Everyday I stay in business true freedom continues to settle in..
Freedom to choose my customers and work from anywhere, anytime.
Here is how you can do it….
[1] Go out and build a skill. Something different, anything!
Let’s say you wanted a dog walking business. Well, go out and find a dog to walk. Document what worked and what didn’t work. Then improve each and every day. Enjoy the process. Get better.
In my case, I was using Linkedin to create a pipeline of qualified leads for my recruitment SaaS and consulting projects. It took me 6 grueling hours a day to find the right leads and create a consistent daily routine.
Before I knew it though, I was optimizing this process and I cut it from 6 hours per day to just 2 hours per day. I could now triple my lead generation output!
I started out by spreading my efforts over multiple domains—cold email, cold calls, you name it. It was only when I picked one and focused that things took off. You need to find the channel that works for you. Mine is Linkedin.
[2] Spend the same amount of time, every day doing this one thing!
For example, try to walk a dog every day, say Monday to Friday.
It's all about consistency.
Ok, so you may have to walk the same dog or start out with friends and family. It doesn't matter. Consistency is everything. Just make sure you do it everyday to create that routine and learn to improve the process.
For me, LinkedIn was the thing. Daily, and consistently I'd reach out to customers who wanted my consulting or SaaS. I would generate up to 5 calls per day. If you start a daily routine you will have a bulletproof system before you know it. Mine wasn’t perfect to start off with, but it was still a system that I could improve.
[3] Block your calendar to make sure you do it every day!
I would block my calendar at the same time every day. Don’t use a to-do list. Just block your calendar and then commit. If you have a heavy day job then block your own time after-hours, but make the time. The main thing is to do it every day.
I blocked everything: my dinner, sport, even my actual day job. Try your best to stick to your routine. Try to leave work religiously at 5 pm no matter what. Trust me you will survive, and those that rely on you will too.
Don’t forget to be easy on yourself. If your train is late you have to give yourself a break and roll with the punches. The trains are always late in London!
Organizing your life around your goals takes you one step closer to FREEDOM.
[4] Build expertise, and you will build a story of how you did it!
Let’s recap.
You are now building a machine by doing something consistently every day and continuously improving it, little by little. As you improve, you are actually building a strong, repeatable system.
At this point you are also building a story.
If you are walking dogs, then it's a dog walking story. You'll have discovered lots of ways to improve things and built a library of great dog walking war stories.
In my case, I had grown my Linkedin network from 500-2,500. It started to make for a great story.
So I made a video of my LinkedIn System to help me tell people about it. You can't keep it to yourself when you've become successful or discovered something great.
You've got to set up the lemonade stand. The lemonade stand says you went out there and you did something. You didn’t sit on the couch. You serve the lemonade and it's now refreshing and helpful to others besides you.
You made it really good and then you told people about it.
I got distracted and changed my dog walking example to a lemonade stand. You get the idea. You’re the dog walker. You figure out what your lemonade stand is. I just like lemonade and I’m thirsty.
[5] Create a system to talk to people daily, and tell them your story!
Now get on the phone and talk to people.
"Hey bro, remember that dog walking project I started? I'm building this dog walking system and I wonder what you think of it..."
Call anyone in your network who will listen and tell them your story. Don’t try to sell! Just tell them what happened. The reward of getting positive feedback from others and celebrating with them will be motivating enough. Soon people will gravitate towards you. They'll want to help you and learn from you. They want to join the snowball of your success.
Plus, if you listen to them carefully you will discover new ways that they are crying out to pay for your help.
Here's a great example of what I learned by talking to my network. One day I interviewed this business owner, who had hired a 'techie' CTO, and gave them salary and equity. This was really a programmer who had been promoted. He understood how to lead a team of programmers but unfortunately, he didn't know how to be a CTO.
This well-meaning fellow would come in declaring the next big thing without considering the long-term impact. The business owner had discovered that, honestly, the CTO didn't understand what he needed in place to truly scale-up.
It was as if he was directing a short-term project.
This made sense given his experience leading programmers.
The CTO ended up railroading the business down a dead-end route. The business owner had settled for a 'techie' CTO pushing the business down a technical route.
He realized that what they really needed, was a non-biased partner to help them scale!
This is how I learned that I could apply my new and existing skills and be a badass growth engineer and on-demand CTO.
Now I'm booking free best practice sessions with guys just like this business owner and I'm converting new clients! At least while there's still blocks left in my calendar.
That's how www.rewired.co was born!
[6] Tell your story with passion, focus on the details and your impact!
"So I've only got one dog walking customer but I've tripled my efficiency in managing them. And they are so happy they've hired me for twice the hours. Here's how that happened..."
Don’t forget to tell your story with passion. Be honest. Provide full transparency. Truth is the way. Your potential customers will love the story you have to tell.
You see, I didn’t buy my Linkedin network. I traded my time to create a system of consistent action to go from 500 to 2,500. Sure it would be far better to tell a potential customer that you sold 10 new clients. It sounds great to a prospect, right? Well, sure it does! But if the honest truth is instead that you've developed a bulletproof machine through consistent action then you need to notice that success and share that.
The Foundation is about bootstrapping. It’s about starting from nothing. So what's the next best thing to starting with something?
Starting with time! Trade your time by taking consistent action. Build a story and tell others about it. Before you know it, customers will pay to be part of your story.
[7] Keep updating your story by asking people what they think!
Now is the time to tweak your story. Tell people your story and get their advice. Find out what parts appeal to which people. You want to find out how to communicate your story to each person in a way that shows how you can help them. How will you know how to do that? Listen to people's feedback on your story. People love to give advice and share their thoughts and ways they can help you.
Remember in step 5 where I told you how I discovered the market for www.rewired.co? Now I know the very specific pains I can address for business owners because I listened carefully. My story now conveys that I understand the difficulties of finding the right CTO.
Maybe your connection will put you in touch with another dog walker who would pay for you to help them tweak their system. Or maybe they've got a similar system they need to be tweaked.
You just have to listen. Potential customers will help you learn how you can help them.
Listen, make notes and tweak your story.
[8] If they respond, don't ask for money, ask how you can add value!
For example, if you talk to someone about dog walking, you don’t know if they even have a dog.
Here is the trick. Don’t ask.
Just tell the story, if they have a dog, I’m quite sure they will tell you about it. If they don’t, no problem, this customer is not for you.
[9] Keep building your network, keep speaking with someone daily!
Now comes the slightly harder part. It can only be described as "DON’T GIVE UP!" If you can ask for unpaid leave from your employer, do it! This will give you the edge you need. If you can’t find extra time it will take a little longer. You can still get there no matter what.
With a lot of entrepreneurial projects just talking to one new or established connection every day could be the secret ingredient to explosive results.
And remember, I am your servant-leader. Let's talk!
If you want to know more about how you can execute your own Linkedin campaign, then go ahead and ask for access from this google folder. It includes an instructional video, presentation and a template to get you started. If instead, you need more help then check out www.linkedinvortex.com.
Consulting
Are you are a founder, CEO or CIO? Are you are tired of not having control of your technology teams, missing deadlines, or just firefighting? If you think you need a CTO but can’t afford a full-time person or you just need coaching for your current CTO then check out www.rewired.co.
Unlike other CTO’s I don’t take equity, I don’t take a salary, it's a flat fee so it's easy for you to plan, and give notice anytime. I just grow with you.
For a limited time, I’m offering a free strategy session, check out www.rewired.co.
Don’t forget, to be prepared. Get your finances in order. If you can save money to give you more runway. Start saving a year in advance. Remove any expenses you don’t need. And create your own space. I converted the garden shed into an office.
[10] To recap, repeat the above for as long as you can, FREEDOM will follow!
- Go out and build a skill. Something different, anything!
- Spend the same amount of time, every day doing this one thing! Or in my case multiple experimental businesses.
- Block your calendar to make sure you do it every day!
- Build expertise, and you will build a story of how you did it!
- Create a system to talk to people daily, and tell them your story!
- Tell your story with passion, focus on the details and your impact!
- Keep updating your story, by asking people what they think!
- If they respond, don't ask for money, ask how you can add value!
- Keep building your network, keep speaking with someone daily!
- Repeat the above for as long as you can, FREEDOM will follow!
Use the comments section below, I would love to hear your story.
Written by Torben Anderson, CEO & Founder, www.rewired.co!