I never wanted to do consulting. 

For more than six years, while working a steady 9-5 job in Corporate America, I pursued side hustle after side hustle while actively avoiding offering my skills as a service (ie: Freelance Consulting).

My side hustles consisted of attempts to create new products that didn’t exist. 

In fact, here are all the product ideas (that I can remember) that I tried to build while working a full time job; a job that was the single source of income for me, my wife and two small kids.

• Audio Highlighter – an app that would let you highlight passages of your favorite audiobook.
• Caldometer – a calendar app that would use your calendar to track business miles for end of year tax write offs.
• Stop Reading PowerPoint – an eBook I wrote after sitting in too many boring meetings where presenters simply read their slides to the room.
• Pest Control Product – I don’t have a name for this one but the product was a scale that measured the starting weight of chemicals in a residential pest control sprayer. After each service call, the technician would place the used sprayer on the scale and the reading would report back to a central database. Chemical management is a big problem in the pest control industry and this product was aimed at giving those businesses real time data.

There are a few others but these are the products I actively pursued on the side during my eight year stint in the corporate world. 

They all failed.

Looking back, these failed products all had one thing in common to me…

They weren’t consulting.

I had always pushed away the idea of consulting even though I knew that selling my skills as a service was the fastest path to cash. 

The reason I didn’t want to do consulting or freelance work is because it felt too much like having another job to me. It was trading time for money in my mind and I knew I didn’t want that.

From 2008-2012 I attempted to create and launch the products mentioned above along with a few others. 

But sometime in 2012 I had a breakthrough that changed my perspective. 

I realized that what I really wanted was the opportunity for Unlimited (financial) Upside and Location Independence. 

I write more in depth about the process I took to arrive at this realization here.

The relevant point to make for this guide is that these two phrases changed my perspective on consulting. Knowing what I wanted helped me see consulting as a stepping stone to what I ultimately wanted to build; a life where I could do work once and get paid over and over again from anywhere in the world. 

So I took stock of my skills.

What was it that I could offer to the market?

At that time in my life I was more of a tech guy who was interested in marketing. 

Building websites and connecting them to the new tech tools that were coming out at that time came fairly easy to me. If I didn’t understand how to solve a tech issue, I knew I could figure it out.

But in 2012, I was introduced to a new approach to marketing and selling. It was called Direct Response Marketing and it really clicked with me. 

I quickly saw that if I could learn Direct Response Marketing and combine it with my tech skills, I would be able to create little revenue engines 

Direct response marketers have a collection of skills that allow them to spot a mass desire in the marketplace and channel a portion of that desire toward a product that will satisfy that desire. 

Most people just think of direct response as copywriting but it’s so much more.

I talk more about the importance of Direct Response here. It is the single greatest set of skills I developed that allowed me to build the life I have now. 

I was first introduced to this style of marketing by Dane Maxwell and Andy Drish. 

Dane did a Mixergy interview about copywriting which really opened my eyes. So I started following him.

By following Dane I was eventually introduced to his business partner Andy Drish.

In 2012, Dane and Andy were launching a program called The Foundation which taught anyone how to build recurring revenue by creating niche software products. 

As part of the launch they sold access to a “behind the scenes” mastermind of sorts where they would share each week how they were preparing for the big launch. 

The cost to join the behind the scenes crew was $500. 

I remember talking with my wife asking if I could spend $500 to learn from these guys. It was a big deal to spend that kind of money on education.

My wife couldn’t have been more supportive.

So I joined and I’m so glad I did.

Dane and Andy showed us how they wrote the VSL scripts, how they thought about upsells and downsells, how they were approaching affiliates, writing ads and everything else that goes into a product launch. 

I loved every minute.

I ended up not joining Dane and Andy’s full program during the launch because I didn’t have $2,000 to spend.

This meant I would have to focus on taking what I’d learned watching them prepare for the launch and use that to do my next thing…whatever it would be.

Fast forward several months into 2013. 

I saw a Facebook post from Andy that caught my attention.

The Foundation had just completed taking their first cohort of students through their program and they were investing in growing their team to get ready for the next launch.

Andy posted they were looking to hire a part-time Podcast Producer for a new show they wanted to launch.

Instantly, I knew this would be a good opportunity for me to surround myself with people who saw the world differently even though I had no idea how to create a podcast.

I had never worked on a podcast. 

I had no idea what went into creating one.

I didn’t even know how to record an interview. 

But I was confident I could get this freelance job.

Here’s why…

I knew that podcasting relied on technology and technology was something I understood.

So I saw running a podcast as a technology problem I hadn’t solved yet. And I was good at solving those. 

So I watched a few YouTube videos on podcasting and applied for the job. 

Their application process was pretty rigorous. I had to produce an unreleased show and submit it for review. 

Long story short…

…I ended up getting the job and it was a huge confidence boost because I had to beat out A LOT of other candidates. 

This is how I got my first real client, The Foundation. 

They offered me a monthly retainer of $2k/month. 

I countered with a lower retainer amount of $1,200/month. 

I was there to learn, meet new people and develop new skills. The money wasn’t the point for me. 

And I knew they were a young company so I thought a lower retainer would help them.  

Remember, consulting was a stepping stone for me. 

By putting myself in a new environment with entrepreneurs who saw the world differently, I knew I couldn’t lose. 

The name of our show was Starting from Nothing. 

Andy interviewed entrepreneurs who shared their story of how they started their business. 

I ran the Starting from Nothing podcast for the first 52 episodes. 

The following year, Inc Magazine would go on to list our show in their Top 10 list of podcasts that entrepreneurs should listen to.  

So what did “running the podcast” consist of?

I literally did everything.

I chose the guests. 

I reached out to potential guests to book them on the show.

I scheduled the pre-interview and interview.

I did the pre-interviews with every guest so I could prepare the show for Andy.

I wrote the questions that Andy would ask. He could show up completely cold to an interview and do nothing but read the intro and questions I wrote. 

I edited every show.

I wrote the show notes for each episode.

I created an Action Guide for each episode that we used to generate leads.

Then I published the shows to iTunes and promoted them on Facebook.

I did this for a year while working a full time corporate job. 

It. Was. HARD. 

I was working every night after my day job and would find time on the weekend when the kids were napping. 

But it introduced me to some amazing entrepreneurs. 

In fact, I would end up getting my next three clients from this podcast.

They were all guests on the show.  

And do you know what they wanted me to do for them? 

Get them set up with a podcast of their own!

These were all one off consulting gigs – nothing long term.

Still it was pretty cool and for a while I thought that my future was going to be in podcasting. I even developed a podcasting course that I never launched. I should probably add that to the list above. 🙂

The reason that I backed away from podcasting is because I couldn’t see a path to achieving an environment of Unlimited Upside because it wasn’t directly tied to revenue.

Not saying the path wasn’t there, but I couldn’t see it. 

Again, the power of having that North Star Phrase helped me know what to pursue and what to let go. 

Now there’s one client that I got from the Starting from Nothing podcast that I haven’t mentioned yet. 

He was technically my second client and I did see a long term opportunity with him. 

But he didn’t want to start a podcast. 

He was getting ready to leave the company he’d worked with for almost 40 years and was trying to figure out what his next step would be.

We connected on that because I wanted to leave my company too.

His name was Brian Kurtz and he’s one of the most respected (and successful) people in the Direct Response world. 

At the time though, I’d never heard of him before. 

Dane and Andy met him at a speaking event where Brian did a presentation after them. 

Afterward they both sent me a text saying “You have to get this guy on the podcast.”

So I reached out to Brian and invited him on the show, which started with a pre-interview with me. 

Brian and I hit it off immediately. 

I was blown away by his career in direct response – the people he’d worked with, the success he’d had in direct mail (people still use that?), the way he thought about building relationships with customers (ie: marketing)…

We talked for a couple of hours. 

At the end of the pre-interview I told him we’d send our listeners to his website so they could opt into his list. 

“I don’t have a website,” he told me. “And I don’t have a list.” 

Driving home from work that evening I was thinking about how Brian is going to need a website when he decides to leave his current company – Boardroom. 

By the time I got home, I had come up with a way to help him. 

I could build a landing page for him. 

I went home that evening, it was a Friday, and I started building a landing page for Brian with an opt in form. 

The following Monday I sent him a link to the page and said we could use this for the interview with Andy if he wanted. 

Brian was now blown away by what I was able to do. 

And it put me in a position to be the guy that Brian reached out to for anything tech related. 

The following year in 2014 he emailed and said he wanted to put on an event called The Titans of Direct Response. Dan Kennedy was going to be the co-host of the event.

He asked if I could help with the website, write some of the promotional emails, set up the shopping cart, payment gateway, guest registration and all things tech.

The event was a who’s who of direct response marketers. 

Tickets started at $3,500. I couldn’t believe I was there and had played a role in making this event happen.  

Two years earlier, I didn’t even know what direct response was!

Many of the audience attendees were heroes of mine and they had responded to a series of emails that I helped write. I had to keep pinching myself.

A few months after the event was over, Brian struck out on his own with Titans Marketing. He put me on a small retainer. 

And he sent me referrals of other people who could use my ever improving direct response skills married with my technical know-how.

Eventually, there was one client referral from Brian that was large enough for me to have the option to leave my day job. 

I left in October 2015 and dove into the world of freelance. 

Even though I knew I didn’t want to build a consulting business, I was content taking on clients that helped me feed my family while I figured out what to do next. 

This is the part of my journey where I moved from employee to freelancer. 

I would soon discover the concept of Profit Partner and made that shift with a couple of clients, including Brian. It’s a natural fit for any freelancer who can show that their actions create profit for their client.

A-list copywriters who earn royalties for the performance of their copy packages are essentially Profit Partners. 

I’m not an A-list copywriter and those copywriting royalty deals aren’t easy to get.

So I took a different approach. Again I started by taking stock of what I could do well. 

I was a pretty good copywriter and getting better. 

I understood the importance of following up with leads and customers. And I knew tech which meant I knew how to systemize those follow ups.

Plus, because I’d been doing consulting for a little while with the Foundation and wrote many of the ads for their second launch, I knew that I could build marketing campaigns that generated revenue. 

If you know how to generate revenue for your client and you’re willing to put skin in the game for the chance to earn a share of the continued profit…

Then making a shift to Profit Partner might be something you’re interested in.

You can read how I made the switch from Freelancer to Profit Partner here.

Sharing in the profit that you create for someone else is extremely motivating. It does take having the right partner, which I discuss more in depth at the link above.

But this is how I moved from employee to freelancer and got my first few clients. 

It started with one opportunity of producing a podcast. Each subsequent opportunity built off of the other one.

Brian and I still work together today although in a different capacity. 

If I had tried to map this out and plan it all, I don’t think it would have worked. 

I would have found something I didn’t like about the plan or something would have seemed too risky and I would start overthinking.

The nice thing about taking action is that it forces you out of the conceptual world and into the real, physical world. 

I realize that my path into freelance/consulting isn’t a nice, neat package that anyone can replicate.

But instead of trying to replicate my exact path, I encourage you to replicate the environment of opportunity I created for myself. 

Here are a few of the lessons that I see in this story that may be helpful for you:

• Find your North Star because it puts opportunities into perspective. Because I knew I wanted Unlimited Upside and Location Independence, I was able to break free from “all or nothing” thinking and see consulting as just a stepping stone; not a permanent deal. To find my North Star, I went through the process of understanding why I was so unhappy in my current situation. It’s’ Step 2 described in this Guide here.
• Give Freely. I gave The Foundation $800/month back ($9,600/yr) when they offered me a $2k/month retainer. I built a website for Brian without him asking and without charging him anything. I didn’t expect or ask for anything in return.

• Surround yourself with other entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs are professional opportunity spotters. You want people in your life who see the world this way because you want to train your brain to look around and see opportunities where others see challenges or excuses. I was able to do this by running Starting from Nothing and doing the pre-interviews with every guest. You can do this by joining a mastermind, Facebook Group, Discord server or accountability group. If you go the mastermind route, pay for it if you can because it comes with a commitment from the host to help you succeed. Here’s the virtual mentorship program I run with Brian as an example.  
• Take stock of your skills. When I decided to offer consulting, I had to start with what I knew how to do; which was tech. As I developed new skills as a Direct Response Marketer, I was able to provide more value to my existing clients and the market in general. Making a list of everything you know how to do is pretty eye opening. You can do so many things that other people don’t know how to do, don’t want to learn how to do and are willing to pay someone to do it for them. But if you don’t make that list, your skills won’t rise to the top of your mind. 

So there you have it. This was my journey into freelancing. 

You can read about my shift away from freelancing and into becoming a Profit Partner here.

And if you want to hear more from me you can join my free email list here.

I talk about how I’m continuing to build Unlimited Upside as well as how you can develop your Direct Response Marketing skills.