Client Conversation - Michael Vargas on His Success on Upwork, Scaling a Digital Marketing Agency, and Much More
The Goal Achievement Podcast, hosted by Productivity Expert Matt East, is all about helping you find clarity, design a plan, and most importantly achieve your goals.
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Client Conversation - Michael Vargas on His Success on Upwork, Scaling a Digital Marketing Agency, a
During today’s episode, Matt interviews Michael Vargas, one of his clients. Michael Is a Digital Marketing Expert and entrepreneur. He is the founder of a digital marketing agency, Forward Growth Media. Learn how Michael has been successful in building his business on Upwork, how he’s scaled his business, and much more!
Michael’s company Forward Growth Media: http://forward-growth-media.com/
Follow Michael on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_michaelvargas_/
Work with Michael on Upwork: https://www.upwork.com/fl/michaelvargas13
Learn more at www.Matt-East.com
Listen to Matt’s book, The Purposeful Planning Method:
Client Conversation - Michael Vargas on His Success on Upwork, Scaling a Digital Marketing Agency, and Much More
Podcast Transcription
Hey, guys, what's up? Welcome to the Goal Achievement podcast.
I hope everybody's doing really well out there, I hope everybody had a really good week. I'm recording this as the last thing I'm doing on a Friday, and it's a really fun episode, I get to have a client for the first time on the podcast, so completely randomly a client of mine, Michael Vargas.
He's an amazing guy, he owns a digital marketing agency and he's been really successful on Upwork and that's kind of why when he said, hey, man, I'd love to come on, I said I jumped on it because I know a lot of people I talked to are thinking of going out to work on a site like Upwork, so I thought it might be really beneficial.
So that is why I'm having Michael Vargas on, this is the first-ever client conversation and I think it's really good, Michael is like such a thoughtful guy, you guys are going to love him, he's an amazing, amazing guy, I've worked with him for a long time. I talk a lot about my digital coaching on here, Michael started as a digital coaching client and then has kind of moved into a package where we talk, Michael and I talk actually every Monday mostly about his business and about his goals and what he's wanting to achieve with his business.
And literally like this week, later in the week, we recorded this earlier in the week, later in the week, he had a huge success with his business and has been able to hit some amazing, amazing, amazing financial targets that he has kind of been aiming for... for a long time. So it's been so much fun to work with him, You guys are going to pick up that he's a really sweet guy, a really amazing guy, and he's young and he is hungry and he is just amazing, it's just amazing that he's been able to achieve what he's been able to do.
So I hope you guys love this interview and love Michael and I will link to some of his social profiles and his business in the show notes. So if anybody wants to reach out to him and hit him up to say good job, I'm sure he was a little nervous jumping on a podcast for the first time. But he did great and here it is. Here's my interview with Michael Vargas, I hope you guys enjoy and have a great weekend.
Matt Welcome to the goal achievement podcast, Michael. How are you?
Michael I'm doing awesome, Matt. How are you?
Matt Man, I'm so... I'm doing wonderful, thank you so much for joining the podcast, I'm so excited to have you on. This is the first time, you know, with my clients, everything is so confidential and you asked me, said Matt, I wouldn't mind being on the podcast, are you ever looking... Would you ever consider having an actual client on?
And I jumped on it because I guess I just want to start the interview off by acknowledging you, because we've worked together for quite a while now, and we'll definitely talk about your digital agency for growth media. But I just wanted to acknowledge you for the development of both your business, but also your personal growth, and it's just been so much fun watching that and being a very small part of it. But being able to somewhat participate in that has been amazing for me, and I just wanted to start off by acknowledging you, so I think you're amazing and... and thanks for... thanks for coming on the podcast.
Michael Yeah, I really appreciate that Matt it's even crazy looking back at when we started considering how many things have changed, and then now it's, it's really crazy what we've been able to accomplish together.
Matt Yeah it's been amazing, it's you, it's... It's... It's a very small part of me, it's… it's all you. It's you taking action and having clarity about what you want to do and then acting on it and I'm not going to take any credit for that, it's all you.
But I... I'm breaking this interview into two areas. We want to talk about your business, I'm really interested in that, and I know there are so many listeners of this podcast that are very into social media and they would love to start a social media digital agency of their own, so I'm going to dig in and ask you some kind of nitty-gritty questions around that.
And then we'll get into kind of your personal growth, and that's going to be the plan of attack. Are you cool with that?
Michael Yeah sounds good.
Matt OK, and jump in any time if you have any questions for me or... or anything. So going back a few years, I'm just interested. And some of these questions are some of these answers will be new to me. I don't know if I've ever asked you this, but going back a few years…
What drove you to start a digital marketing agency of your own?
Michael Yeah, of course, I'll definitely touch on that, I think for me, the journey actually starts a bit before that because I guess just a brief overview, mainly things that drove me in life were just massive pain, so just big experiences I had in my life that caused me to have a lot of pain that kind of forced me to start looking for answers in my life, to really see how I could become the best version of myself because I wasn't really happy with the person that I was a few years ago.
And this journey started for me around when I was 15 and 16, so to... a few businesses I got into actually before even starting my agency and I had like small results nothing too crazy was I actually did a little bit of Amazon to eBay dropship things, so I took a course in that when I was like 16 and got started with that. From there I actually also started a little bit of a clothing brand with a friend and we ended up kind of getting some samples and doing some posts on social media, it was funny because this girl said that I needed it there to make that successful with social media marketing, which I didn't have.
So it's kind of funny how that comes full circle now and I do work with local businesses as well as e-commerce businesses and some businesses, maybe even a little bit similar to the one that I tried to start when I was 5 years ago when I was 16. And then after that, that's what I would say when I got into the whole digital marketing as my main social media marketing and e-commerce space I actually started an agency at the same time starting an e-commerce drop shipping swimwear store with a friend, and ended up realizing that I saw more potential at the agency so I ended up dropping that venture.
Throughout this time as well I had kind of some various hustles like I was doing sales for a bit I actually did Door to door solar sales for a little bit. OK, so it was kind of I guess that's the whole back story and a lot of things that went into skills that I developed before actually starting my agency. But at this point, I started my agency in April of 2017 and what drove me at that point was again, I saw the opportunity to invest in a course around social media marketing agency, the model kind of made sense that a lot of local, small, medium-sized businesses weren't really properly handling their social media and that someone like me who was younger would have actually an authority in that space because it's something that I grew up with, essentially.
So the whole kind of model of it made sense and then ended up investing into a thousand-dollar course and then within the space of a few days, actually ended up going out and just kind of going door to door and talking to business owners and this is actually before I had the door to door sales job doing solar for a little bit, and then talking to business owners and I remember the first one I ever spoke to was a burger restaurant with a few locations and we ended up walking in and was it just ask for the owner? And we spoke to him a little bit about social media and he gave us his card and we ended up following up with him but nothing really happened there.
But at that point, we also were asking people or I was asking people to see if the concept made sense and you know I wanted to start this business where I was doing social media marketing for local businesses and a lot of business owners thought it was a great idea so I feel like that gave me a bit of confidence going into it.
But I would say overall, what pushed me to start it was just kind of a relentless willingness to really I just wanted to succeed and I wasn't really willing to let anything get in the way, I just want to become the best version of myself and I feel like that manifested in a few areas of my life and then one of the big ones being business and starting my own business. And at the time, this opportunity made sense to me I really loved social media and that's kind of that I had that the concept validated by business owners in my area and that's kind of what... what launched it off for me I would say.
Matt That's awesome. So how, how old are you now?
Michael Yeah, I'm 21 I'm about to turn 22 actually next month, so.
Matt That's amazing, you are by far my youngest client, but that is it's amazing that you, I mean you were really entrepreneurial driven if you were getting out there like 15 and 16, and yeah man it's... it's amazing.
So what advice would you give to someone who might be looking to start an agency of their own?
Michael Yeah, I mean, there's a few things I would say, I think your personal development is just as important as the business skills that say you'll learn meaning do you have the right habits in place, which I know is something that Matt focuses on, 'cause I think part of your success in business will be tied to the person that you are in your personal development, so but in terms of that, I mean, I think the few things I would say that are really important if you want to start an agency, is you need to be able to sell these even if you have the best service in the world and you can really help business owners if you can't convey that to them, then the skill set is almost useless, unfortunately.
So I'd say sales is really important.
I would also say find a mentor, someone who's achieved the results that you want in social media marketing, I know that I did take some courses and stuff like that, but things also really started to change for me when I started investing in one on one mentorship, it's like the mentorship I have with Matt, so I think the second you can do that, I would recommend that with someone who's credible and has the results you want.
So it's one sales, two get a mentor, and then three, I would say focus on going for warmer leads.
So we'll touch on this, I'm sure, a little bit later on in the interview, but I would say before you start cold calling and cold outreaching to businesses, start looking on places where people are actively searching for social media help because it'll be much easier for you to work with them because instead of convincing them why they need to do social media, they're already looking for that actively, so you just need to convince them to go with you.
I think it's much easier close and it's a little bit easier, especially when you're a beginner you don't have as much sales experience, so I think places to do that are like Upwork, Linked In, job recruitment sites like Indeed, I think those are good places for you to start. So I would say those three things definitely would have fast-tracked my learning curve by at least one year if I started doing those things sooner.
Matt Sure, and you mentioned sales is a skill that's necessary.
Do you feel like your salesmanship has developed over time as you've kind of been in this game?
Michael Yeah, I would say so I mean, also the mindset I have around sales is very different because now I mean, a lot of people have, I think, a lot of limiting beliefs around sales and pushy salesmen and sleazy and stuff like that. But I think at this point and kind of always throughout it, just a matter of figuring out what the client is looking for and then offering them a solution I mean, that's simply what it comes down to, just connecting them with a solution that you can offer, there's no that there's no hard sale that's really needed.
The way I look at it is we're actually helping the businesses by helping them with their social media marketing, get new leads, get new customers, so there's no hard sell that's needed, if they're not a good fit, they're not a good fit, and that's totally fine.
So I think also one thing I've learned by learning sales as well as it's allowed me to have more confidence in social situations as well and just connecting with other people and I think that's something I value a lot, probably even more than the sales and the amount of money you can generate, just the confidence that I've developed in my ability to connect with people on a different level that's something I would say is the number one thing I've gotten from it as well.
Matt Sure, sure and I might get off course here, so bring me back if I am, but what...
What your agency is really good at from just our conversations that we have every week that I've picked up on is really good at Facebook, advertising seems to be a strength and then also just creating content in general and being able to help distribute that content through various social channels. Is that right or am I missing something?
Michael Yeah, those are the two main services for the first two years when I, so I mean to go back a little bit at first I really wanted to offer Facebook ads, but I wasn't really able to convey the value to business owners and then properly get results back when I started like three years ago, from there I transitioned to only doing the content side because it was more manageable and was something that I knew how to do confidently, so I doubled down on that for a while, and then once I got confident that I realized there was a lot of value in businesses looking for leads and new customers through Facebook and paid advertising so then I added in that service.
So essentially now the stage right is taking time to build up to this. Those are the two verticals, basically, the content management, which is social media management across the different platforms, whether that's Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, you can do the graphic design, the caption writing, setting up the hashtags, scheduling out all of the content and then actually replying to the comments and messages, so it's basically an A to Z 100 percent automated social media management service. The other service is Facebook and Instagram advertising where will leverage Facebook and Instagram's paid advertising platforms to acquire new leads and new customers for businesses, so those the two different services that we're offering currently.
Matt Sure and how do you think...
What would you use to determine if somebody wants to become an agency owner like yourself if it makes sense? You mentioned a few platforms like Upwork, Fiverr, or LinkedIn. Like how do you how would you guide somebody to either getting established on a platform like that or making the decision to not get established? Do would you guide them one way or another?
Michael Sure. I think Upwork is the most popular one at the moment, so I'd probably go there instead of Fiverr, Fiverr can be good if you're looking for some lower ticket stuff, maybe getting a few posts created or some graphics maybe as a starter level, I personally never gotten results on Fiverr, but I think Upwork is definitely one to focus on and what I would say is the most important thing is reviews.
And I think it makes sense for all aspiring agency owners to be on these platforms just because, again, you'll be able to connect with business owners who are actively looking for your services and I think it makes more sense to start there and start reaching out to those people before you just start cold calling people that might have zero interest in social media. And of course, if you see value in it for their business and you can convey that to them, that's great, but I personally think it makes more sense to go to someone who is actively searching before you're going to go to someone that isn't.
So I think it makes sense for everyone to be there and I think the number one thing that will help you get started there is your reviews, so if you and you can leverage maybe people in your existing network or do some jobs on there for lower prices than your usual adjustability views, that will help you and help you make a lot more money in the long run than if you just start from scratch. And again, I didn't necessarily have those things to leverage when I started and I was able to make it work but looking back, I think it's easier if you have some case studies and some work to leverage on those platforms to start acquiring new clients.
Matt And I know you're using a lot of business through Upwork, I mean, it's not your only way that you're winning business I know you do direct work, too, but your Upwork is very established and you're an established service provider on there. Is there anything besides kind of subsidizing your price early on to kind of win deals, to get reviews?
Is there anything else you'd give as advice to somebody that's trying to get going on Upwork and trying to win their first deal or second deal or, you know, anything they can do besides lowering the price?
Michael Of course I like that question a lot, Matt.
So I think another thing to do is go more of a... more of a customized approach, so I think a lot of people, when they get more established, they have more leads and they don't necessarily maybe have the time to really engage with the potential clients as much as you do and when you're in the beginning, let's say you don't have clients and you have less leads so I would really go out of your way to make it a personalized experience.
One way you can do that is including video so maybe let's say they have their website and the job posting on their social media links, you can actually do a screen recorded video, a little Google Chrome extension I like for that is called Boom and you can just send them a quick message saying, hey, I saw your job posting maybe these are three things I would change about your social media presence if you'd like to learn more about what I can do to help you, let's book in the call, just reply to this message and I will send you over my calendar link and we can have a chat, just something basic like that that will show the business owner that you're a lot more interested, let's say than a lot of other candidates who just have written proposals.
Matt Right.
Michael And I think from there it'll help you stand out because I know that for a fact 95 to 99 percent of people aren't willing to actually get on video and do that so I would recommend that, I'd recommend that for sure. And again, another thing I want to say to you is it's a numbers game.
In the beginning, when you have less experience and less leverage, you might need to reach out to more people than let's reach out to more businesses than, let's say, someone like me who has more experience to start working with a client. But over time, as you get more used to the approach, as you get more confident, as you have more case studies, you'll need to reach out to less and less people to close clients. So it only gets easier, the hardest one is the first one, and then, you know, as you move on, it only gets easier, so I think that's the words of encouragement I would give as well.
Matt So would you suggest like I guess that's a better question than I was going to ask. So if you, I mean, if you're getting started early on, I'm like Upwork and you don't have any clients, you're saying, hey, the one thing you have is time, so really nurture and baby along and really, you know, try to customize that first experience or the first few clients. There's no reason because you're not, you're not swamped with work at that time you can dedicate your time to winning business.
Michael 100 percent yeah, and you can go above and beyond for these clients, really understand their needs, give them a personalized approach that they're not getting from other places, and then eventually they'll come into contact with someone who appreciates that. Then also the thing is your mindset will get changed because once you start working with a client, you get them resolved and you see that they're happy, you're going to be more confident what you have to offer and you're going to go on this upward spiral and this upward snowball were you're going to build momentum, which I think we both know how important momentum is in business and in life in general.
So those are the two main things. I would say, though. Do whatever you can to leverage your views and testimonials on these platforms, because in general, all these platforms especially, it's very helpful, and then go out of your way to give a customized experience and really go above and beyond for the client to show them why they should hire you instead of someone who does have results and does have case studies and things like that that they can leverage.
Matt I love that. So what's the best part, in your opinion, of owning a business and owning your own agency?
Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of the cliche stuff that people talk about when it comes to entrepreneurship, I mean, it's... It's nice to have that freedom and to be able to kind of work on your own schedule, on your own terms, which I think at one point, as we discussed, can kind of flip around and sometimes be a stressful thing. But I think in general, it's... it's really nice to have that freedom and, you know, you can make decisions if you want to take on a client you can, if you want to work more to try to get new clients or to get your existing clients better results or put a system in place, you have that control and I think I really like that.
If I don't want to take a client on, which happens from time to time as well, I don't have to, right? There's no one forcing me to do that, I don't have to work with someone I don't want to work with. But I think the freedom definitely the control aspect I mean, and also like just someone like me, like I really enjoy growth and I think when you're in entrepreneurship, at the end of the day, you're the one on top. It all comes down to you, so all of the growth is dependent on me in a way and also all of the downsides can essentially be linked to my fault as well.
Whether I hire the wrong person or structure, deal wrong, or whatever it is, I'm just giving out examples that's on me too so I think it also allows me to take one hundred percent accountability and the other thing too is I've realized your business will often reflect will be a mirror of your life. So if there's something you struggle within a different area, that'll... That'll likely over... that'll likely translate into a problem that you have in your business, so I think it also gives me like self-awareness to see where I might be coming up short in other areas of my life as well, and stop me if you think that doesn't make sense now, you think I'd be more clear in that, but I think the main thing I've gotten
Matt No it makes complete sense, let me ask you this. So I know you see people like you're so involved in this community, you see people, they're like, I'm going to start an agency or I'm going to get on up work and try to win some jobs and I know occasionally I'm sure you're like rolling your eyes and you're like, you're not going to succeed.
What's the biggest mistake you see people making that you can, like, foresee that it's going to be... It's not going to work out for them.
Michael I like that question a lot too, I would probably say mindset and habits, definitely, because people will come into it with the wrong expectations they'll see someone that has two years of experience closing all these clients and doing all this big stuff, and they might try to model that success and start building out the wrong systems.
This assumes that you need a year or two and not a week too just because they think that they're doing a good thing by modeling success, which is a great thing to do. But you have to also model success at different stages. I think that's another thing I used to struggle with. If you're trying to implement a system into your business that you realistically don't need unless you have 20 clients, when you have one client, you're doing the wrong thing at the wrong time.
So I think that's why the mentorship and having that guidance is important at the right stages. But that's the other main thing, is having the wrong expectations people will go into it and think they're going to charge their first client a whole bunch of money and just because they see people that have three years of experience doing that, and that's going to be the perfect client. But I think you have to understand that there will be a journey along the way where you can charge more for your clients, you can get them better results as you learn, as you build your team, and it will become more of a streamlined thing.
But in the beginning, it's almost kind of just figuring out what's going to work for you, because what works for me might not necessarily work for someone else so it's a matter of doing the right things at the right time and having the right expectation.
The other thing, too, when it comes to mindset and habits, is people will, let's say, start reaching out to clients, so say I'm going to reach out to 50 clients that they might do that day, they might not get any replies because they're doing something wrong and then they want to get discouraged and give up, whereas they could say, let me build the habit of doing 10 a day and I'm not going to... I'm not going to give up until this works.
And that was kind of the mindset I have, I was like, I'm going to reach out to new clients every day, whether that's one or 15, I don't care I'm just doing it every single day, and then I'll tweak my approach as time goes on and if you have that mindset, yeah, it might take you longer than someone else. But if you're doing it consistently, you're doing it every day and you're constantly tweaking your approach, you eventually you'll get the results that you're looking for.
Matt OK, and I know we've talked a lot of bit... a lot about your... your work style that you've gone to at least this year and maybe late last year is really unique in that it's a very collaborative environment where you're like basically virtually kind of working alongside, but not with some other agency owners and other social media experts and you're kind of collaborating virtually as opposed to just like hustling at your office by yourself or by yourself.
Can you chat through, like, how that's helped you and even just the process a little bit for people to understand what you're doing?
Michael Yeah, of course, so through one of the course groups that I met actually met up with or connected with two other agency owners that do the agency full time, and we obviously all work from home and from different coworking spaces and things like that. So one thing that you can struggle with or that I've struggled with in the past when we started working together, Matt was actually having the accountability because, at the end of the day, I was only kind of accountable to myself.
So if let's say there was something I told myself I would do, but I wanted to do what I didn't do it, there was no necessary downside to that that was immediate. Obviously, I'd be sabotaging my long-term success, my long-term goals so I was like, hey, what if I put a system in place? And obviously one of the ways that this was coaching with you as well, but where I was working day by day with other agency owners, we would keep each other on like weekly goals and things like that.
So we'll actually meet up daily on Zoom for the most part and we'll... we'll go on to work sessions and then we'll kinda discuss what we're looking to do, any problems we're having in our business, and kind of just helping each other grow and I found it's a much more enjoyable way and a much more beneficial way to get work done instead of just going at it alone and making mistakes and not having any oversight or being able to collaborate with others. Does that answer the question Matt?.
Matt Yeah, yeah. How did you find those? How did you find like you're the people you wanted to collaborate with? Because that's a big deal. And like you're going to let these people into your life a little bit and you're going to be spending your energy, you know, talking and collaborating with them. How did you decide that?
Michael Yeah, so again, they were found we all connected through a mentorship like business group that we're in and it was on a live call and it was actually brought up the idea of the person hosting the call It was like, oh, you got you guys are all doing a similar thing maybe you should hop into some sort of weekly accountability group and then from there we started discussing it.
I really liked the idea and its one that I've had before, but I struggled to find the right people because that's, I think the expectation I want to set as well. The first time you perform on these groups, it might not be with the group that you're going to end up within the long run, even me now in the group I'm in, I don't know if this is an accountability group I'll be in... in three, six, nine months, I mean, things are going well now, but people change, people's goals change, you want to go in different directions.
So I've started other groups in the past, it might work for a week or two, but then people start not showing up to calls because they have something else, another commitment, or they don't do their action steps or whatever it is, and it becomes a waste of time for everyone.
This one happened organically, as in we just plan on doing weekly accountability calls, then eventually we all realize that we're all working from home and things like that and we wanted that daily accountability. So we're like, oh, would it be crazy if we did the calls every day? And then that's kind of what started happening where it's like a weekly it's like a daily ritual always happens.
At some point now some of us might have sales calls or things like that where we have to leave or show up at different times that happens like today, for example, I had a sales call at 10:00 a.m., which is when we usually start the call, so I showed up a bit late because of that and they were in there working so that definitely happens. But in general, we're basically in that call every day for at least a few hours getting some work done, so it's been really helpful.
Matt I love that. So you guys, your group is two other people?
Michael Yeah, and I think that's a good number as well because if you're with one other person and let's say they don't show or they don't, they don't slack off or they don't show it, it kind of just discourages you because you're the only one left. But if there's three if someone slacking or something like that or someone doesn't show up, they're still two other people to collaborate and push each other. So I think three is a good number, anything larger than that, it might get a bit messy and if you do with one other person, if one person doesn't show up or slacks up, then I mean, the group is kind of abolished. So I think three is the perfect number for accountability groups like that.
Matt Sure, so this is kind of like I mean, I know this is totally separate, but what's the service where you can, like, login and do work sessions for, like, fifty minutes? Do you know what that's called?
Michael Oh yeah and you recommended that to me as well, and that's one that I use for a while as well. It's called Focusmate.
Matt Yes, Focusmate is great, and it's kind of like this, but it's... it's a little more random in the people that you're meeting with. But I think that you kind of had some success with that before going into, like this model.
Michael Yeah and I still have a subscription with them, I think it's really it's like four or five dollars a month, I think it's definitely worthwhile. I haven't used it in maybe a month or two, but before that, I think I logged maybe close to two hundred sessions, I just got it to a little bit better to have the personal connection so that you always get partnered up with, like random people for the most part.
There are ways to have groups in there I don't really know too much about that, but there are also benefits to working with a random person. I kind of just liked working with the group because we can plan out our monthly 90 day goals in Focusmate you can only really focus on that one session, so I just like the ability to have the bigger vision in mind as well.
Matt OK, great. And where can people who are interested in your business learn more about... about it, like your website, or would you send them to Upwork or where would you want to direct traffic?
Michael Yeah, I would say my website and then from there, if anyone wants to have a chat, they can always book in a free discovery call, but I would just be www.forward-growth-media.com, and then that would probably be the main place. Outside of that, I mean, if anyone wants to connect with me through Instagram, my Instagram handle would just be _MichaelVargas_ so that would be my Instagram handle.
Matt Perfect and we'll all include those in the show notes guy so don't worry about that. And then so personal growth-wise, we're going to turn the conversation a little bit. So personal growth-wise, so why did you originally like you're young? I like just so you know, and the audience wouldn't know this and you wouldn't know this, like when I, I do a lot of advertising for my business and you know this with what you're doing, you can really narrow into your audience who you want to pursue even with age, you know, and I always I don't start like most of my clients are all older than I'd say 30 because most 20-year-olds know everything, so they don't want any help, they don't want a coach like they're like, you know, they know and they probably can't afford it 99 percent of them, but I don't, I don't spend any money in advertising to 20-year-olds, not because I wouldn't love working with them and I think that I could help them and... and all that. But, you know, most 20-year-olds, they have it figured out so they don't want a coach they, they got... they, they know what they're doing.
So why did you originally, like, even have the foresight to be like, I think I want to hire a coach to kind of help a little bit?
Michael Yeah, of course, so at that point in my business, I was doing OK, I did have clients and I had things rolling, but I knew that my biggest area of improvement was my personal productivity because I've gotten to a point where I would get my things done day-to-day, but I would procrastinate and waste hours and hours and hours in the day and maybe be finishing up things that should take me three hours over the course of 12 hours.
That's, I think, the main problem I came up with, I was having troubles with inconsistent wake-up times and sleep times and I mean, again, I was doing OK, but I knew that the personal habits that I had there would also reflect over into the business success I had so I was like, I don't need another tactic on how to get new clients. I don't need another Facebook ad strategy to get my existing clients better results, I need to really just take control of my personal life and my personal habits and my routines, so that's really where that started.
I just realized also the importance of having the external accountability, because, again, at that point I was self-employed and that's how to have anyone holding me accountable aside for myself? which is great, but I think also you want to put as many systems in place in your life as you can so that the things, the direction you want to go in, in life, and the things you want to see happen or kind of just guaranteed, whereas just relying on your own personal motivation or things like that is like, hey, how can I put systems in place? So the results I want are basically guaranteed.
So that's kind of where it started from before that, even like I said, like in terms that that was where it started in terms of me seeking coaching, but before that, I've always wanted to be the best that I can be due to different struggles or different pains I've experienced in my life, that was like an over overarching theme, I just want to become the best I can.
I know that investing in myself, investing and coaching, getting around people that know more than me is how I'll be able to do that and also, as I invest more and learn more and things like that and scale my business, I realize how little I actually know in comparison or what's out there.
So I think there's like a graph wherein the beginning you think you know everything and then you kind of get into it and as you learn more and more, you realize you actually know less and then eventually it kind of comes full circle where you're confident in the information that you have but I'm always willing to invest and to learn more and how much more out there there is to learn. So that's kind of my mindset around that.
Matt OK, that's awesome. What advice would you have for someone who is, like, considering a coach, considering hiring a coach? What would you say?
Michael I would say I mean, obviously, you know, reviews and things like that are important, but I think it's also important that you actually connect with the person that you're going to be working with. So obviously, I spent a good amount of time talking with Matt virtually through message and on our weekly calls, so I think if me and if me and Matt didn't connect on a personal level or an emotional level or similar energy levels, I don't think it would really be it would really work.
But I know that for Matt, he's very high energy, he likes to push his clients to achieve their goals, and I know that I look forward to my call with Matt every week because every Monday and it's kind of like a kind of like an energy boost because of Matt's very high energy and very enthusiastic.
So I think it's a call I look forward to and it gives me like a jump for the week and as we plan out, my week and what I'm going to be doing that week, it kinda just helps me jumpstart my week. So I think you really wanna be able to connect with that coach on like a personal and energetic level because you will spend a good amount of time talking to each other. You know, virtually a few messages as well as on phone calls.
Matt Sure and I should mention to the audience out there, because they may feel a little confused because I'm always pushing my digital coaching, and then once somebody is kind of ready to move up or if they want to actually have some dialog, some actual conversation, a lot of times clients will want to move up into a different coaching package.
But about 90 percent of my clients, it's all digital, so just kind of wanted to mention that because I'm always saying digital coaching and guys don't if you're going to if you're thinking of, like, I should do this, just do the seven-day free digital trial. Don't sign up for like a hundred dollars of coaching course with me without talking to me first, because it makes sense to kind of baby step into it.
So awesome Michael, this was so cool. What else is there anything else we should talk about? This is amazing... Right before the call, this is why I love coaching right before you hopped on because you and I were chatting before the interview and you said, oh, that I wanted to tell you I just won two new deals like you just landed two new clients yesterday.
And I should mention to people like your business is legit, man, you've got, you're making more money than 99 percent of America, probably, so you're doing awesome and I'm just so proud of you and I love working with you, and I just think the world to you, so I'm very honored to call you a client, and it was so... It was so cool when you said, hey man, I'd come on the podcast if you're ever looking for somebody, so that was great.
Michael Yeah, I really appreciate that Matt, and yeah, it is exciting to be able to... That's another thing I will say about the coaching, it's nice to be able to share your wins from someone who wants to see you succeed, that's something we didn't really touch on but, you know, some people deal with like maybe toxic friendships or people that don't support you as you grow, so it's nice to have someone that you can just share your wins and someone that actually wants to see you succeed.
I will also mention that I did also start out with the seven-day free trial that I was referring to and then from there, I did move up into one of the higher coaching packages as I saw it made sense for me and my situation.
Matt Yes, yes and what you just mentioned is 100000 percent true, that's why I use one of the reasons I use Chris Sowers, who is a coach through coach.me. I hire him because, you know, it's like if I celebrate something that's going really well for me with, like, a friend, I mean, hopefully, they're encouraging and they want to see me succeed or they wouldn't be a friend.
But I mean, you know, I'm actually paying Chris to be excited and like, he's excited for me because he can, you know, say, hey, I worked with this guy who had these successes and it's... It's hard you know, I just published my book, it's been going really well, it's been selling really well, and I don't know if I go tell a friend that I feel like I'm, like, bragging right?
And if I tell Chris who helped me with the book, he's like, this is badass I'm so proud of you, and it's genuine and it's amazing, it's amazing, so totally agree with that. Thanks again for coming on Michael, you were amazing. You're... You're so well-spoken and such an incredible person, so thanks again, and any last parting words of advice for people?
Michael I appreciate that Matt. And I think the one thing that I would just like to leave people with is if you're at a situation in life where I would assume most of you guys are where you're really looking for more or maybe you've had some reason on ideal circumstances, maybe things went wrong or things like that, you're not in the best place right now.
I just would say that always hold on to the hope, because there are lots of examples out there like me or Matt, and there's a lot of people that are really pushing and trying to grow. But we also maybe didn't have the most advantages in life either and we just took the most of what we had and ran with it and use that pain or those uncomfortable situations actually make us grow.
So I would say, like no matter what position you're in, no matter where you're at if you think that things aren't going well, that there always is the potential of a bright future. If you surround yourself with the right people if you invest in yourself and you just focus on building the right habits and taking a little bit of action each day and I know that for me if I didn't do those things, I wouldn't be in the position where I am now. So I think that's what I would want to leave everyone with
Matt Boom! I can't top that. So thank you so much, Michael and you did so well you have to come back on some time.
Michael Thank you Matt, thank you.
Matt OK, bye-bye.
Hey, guys, it's Matt again, I hope you loved that interview with Michael ain't he a cool guy? He's amazing, just an amazing guy, so that was so much fun for me, and like I said, that's the first time I've ever interviewed a client, so that was just super cool for me.
And yeah, that's it.
I am running out of spots guys, I limit the number of digital coaching engagements I do and I think I have maybe one or two spots that I... are open right now, I think it might just be one at the moment. But yeah, when I hit a certain number, I shut that down and I'm close, and then essentially if somebody drops off, then I open that spot up because there's no like long term agreement, you can start and stop your coaching whenever you want, so it's pretty fluid, people do drop off and so but if you ever try to sign up and you can't, that's why.
But I would recommend if you try to sign up and you're unable to sign up with another coach, there are some amazing coaches on there I think most of you know, I use a coach on there I use Chris Sowers right now as a writing coach, I've used Rob Filardo, he's a... Those are both amazing guys, I'd highly recommend if you're trying to write develop the habit of writing every day, hire Chris Sowers.
Sorry, you can probably hear Spike in the background.
Hire Chris Sowers and if and if you're looking for more of like a productivity type coach Rob Filardo is absolutely amazing just an amazing guy, he lives here in Indianapolis, too, and totally trust those guys, and all the coaches are really, really amazing. But I have personal experience with both of them.
So if you ever go to sign up with me and I'm... I'm not accepting new clients, sign up with one of them and or another coach that resonates with you.
So that's it, guys.
You can always use the promo code Matt East Week for a free week with me or with any coach on that platform, so keep that in mind. All right guys, that's it. Have a... have a great weekend and if you need anything, shoot me an email or hit me up on the socials. So see you later, bye-bye.