This is a short guide to give you some actionable steps to get started making money online so you can quit your job and start doing whatever the hell you want with your life.
Why am I doing this?
Because there’s so much misinformation out there on the world wide web… It can be so confusing to know where to begin. It’s often too difficult to know who to believe, what to do, which industry is best for beginners, and how you can actually begin making money.
I know it’s confusing because I was in your shoes not so long ago. Let me give you a brief introduction to me and how I got to where I am today:
I joined the US Army three years ago.
Almost immediately, I knew it was not for me. You see, the military is an amazing experience and it has provided me with great opportunity, cash flow to get my life started, leadership positions, and some fantastic friends.
For many people, the military is an incredible career.
My story is a bit different…
Almost immediately after joining, I started having issues. My first job was working inside a Brigade operations center (if you’ve been in the military, I was an S3 ops officer). For most people, something like this wouldn’t be an issue. For me, it was a nightmare.
Noises seemed to bother me more than the average person.
If someone was talking on the phone while I was trying to get work done, I couldn’t focus.
If coworkers were having a conversation next to me while I was trying to get home to my wife, I felt like my head was going to explode… I couldn’t focus.
For about a year and a half, I was wondering what was “wrong” with me… Why was I different than my coworkers? Why did they all seem totally fine at work throughout the day? Were they out of their minds? Was I the one who was “crazy”?
It was a really confusing and dark period in my life… My relationship with my wife was deteriorating because I would come home from work every day in a horrible mood. What little time we had together was disconnected and beginning to turn into an unhealthy relationship. Honestly, I was not treating her well… I would come home from work absolutely exhausted and I’d take out frustration on her in passive aggressive ways that would never happen today.
Thankfully, we got to the bottom of the issue. Thanks to working with amazing counselors, connecting with great online resources, and leaning into my relationships as best as I could, we figured out what was going on:
I’m autistic.
Do you know much about autism? I could write a full ebook on that (probably will someday!) alone but I’ll just give you a brief rundown:
Basically, I have intense “sensory overwhelm” issues… What does that mean? Noises are more intense for me than the average person… I’m more sensitive to smells, tastes, uncomfortable clothing, heat, cold, and just about everything else.
For us folks on the spectrum, life is more intense.
This is why a 9-5 office job is not an option for me.
For some people, becoming an entrepreneur and starting a business is a nice idea… Average Joe might daydream about working from home but never take much action in that direction. Why? Because their job is fine! They are comfortable! Life is good! There is no deep motivation to make a change.
For people like me, entreprepreneurship is a necessity.
I realized that if I didn’t make it as an entrepreneur, my life would be miserable…
I simply can’t function in a normal job like most people. I had to do something.
So I did!
Through ALOT of trial and error, I was finally able to start making money online. Let me breakdown the process that worked for me. I strongly believe that this is a bulletproof model that someone could use to quit a 9-5 job and start earning enough cash to support themselves online.
The process I’m going to outline assumes that you have a full-time job that pays your bills. I’m also assuming you have roughly 4-6 hours of free time in your day where you could start/run a business… If you are rolling your eyes at this part and thinking “Oh but i’ve got a family!” or “Oh but I go out with my friends at night!”...
Listen. Do you want this?
Do you REALLY want to develop the skills you need to work online?
If not, that’s OK! Again, for many people, a 9-5 job can be great!
However, if you’re someone like me who simply can’t tolerate their job and needs a way out, this guide will help.
There is always a way.
There is always enough time in the day to accomplish whatever the fuck you want to do.
You need to prioritize, take action, and work your ass off every free moment you’ve got.
There are no shortcuts.
I’m not going to lie to you… It is not easy. If you want to have real success, you have to be willing to sacrifice, put in the work, and dedicate yourself to whatever you’re doing.
There are no get rich quick schemes… Anyone who tells you differently is either lying or never did it themselves.
Here’s what works:
Step 1: Start a passion project and DEVELOP A SKILL.
What’s a passion project? Can be anything.
It can be a podcast (that’s what I did!).
Maybe a YouTube channel?
Twitch streaming is exploding these days! Maybe give that a try? Twitch is not just for video gamers these days… Their platform is expanding and looking to compete with YouTube.
Maybe start a blog if you’re a good writer?
Here’s the secret: IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT YOU DO.
All you are looking to do is develop skills.
That being said, if your 9-5 job is already dealing with something you think can be turned into some sort of business (for example, you work in the marketing department at a large corporation), you’ve got a bit of a shortcut. When I started, I had ZERO skills. I was a 22 year old kid with no real experience, no real skills, and a ton of mental health issues… All I had was a passion for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu! I started the Mat-Tricks BJJ Podcast and got to work.
For every type of passion project, there are associated skills.
Let’s do a case study: Let’s say you decide to start a YouTube channel about your favorite hobby (let’s use Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu as an example because that’s what I did!).
You start filming yourself doing some Jiu-Jitsu techniques with your friends. Let’s say you come up with 10 videos you think are pretty good.
Now you need to edit those videos. It’s time for you to hop on iMovie, Adobe Premier, or another video editing software… You start playing around. Your first few videos will SUCK. That’s OK! Everyone’s first stuff sucks :) My first podcasts were horrible! You can’t even find them online anymore because I’m so embarrassed by that content haha.
This is part of the process… You will spend a few weeks or months going from “sucking” to “pretty good” at whatever it is you’re doing.
Let’s say you’ve practiced editing videos for a few weeks and you finally have a few that you think might look good on YouTube.
Now you need to learn about how to rank videos on YouTube. To do this successfully, you will need to learn about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and also a bit about writing copy (copy is words that get people to take a certain action - in this case, watch the video!).
Your first few videos will probably be seen by hardly anyone… Again, this is normal.
Eventually, you’ll realize that you’re going to need some social media skills if you want to get anywhere.
To help promote your new YouTube channel, you make a Facebook page. You also make an Instagram account. You start writing some posts, getting some of your friends and family to like/follow your pages, and start getting your first fans!
Oh! I almost forgot! You’ve also gotta make your YouTube channel look good!
This means designing some cover art (canva.com is badass for this), recording/editing a channel introduction video, creating some playlists, and a few other things.
After a few weeks/months of learning all about YouTube channel optimization, social media marketing, search engine optimization, and video editing, you’re starting to get some traction!
Finally, one day, it’ll happen.
You’ll have a video that does pretty well!!!
Instead of your usual 100 views, you manage to get shared around by a few of your new fans! You start getting some extra views, people start commenting on the video and saying “this is great!” and stuff like that, and your video starts ranking higher on YouTube because of the traction.
Now you’re starting to get around 1,000 views a video! More subscribers start to show up and suddenly you start realizing that you have fans that you’ve never met in real life.
Congrats, this is your first real breakthrough and it’s damn hard to get here… Most people give up before this point and go back to trying to climb the corporate ladder.
Here’s the thing: you might think you’re starting a YouTube channel… Although that’s true, what you’re really doing is developing skills you can leverage into legit money making activities.
Using our YouTube channel example, **here’s a breakdown of the skills you’ve developed so far. Each one of these is worth big money if you take the time to become a real master.
Video editing
Search engine optimization
Copywriting
Social media marketing
Graphic design (cover art and YouTube thumbnails!)**
If you started a podcast instead of a YouTube channel, you’ve been practicing audio engineering, interviewing, social media marketing, and maybe you’ve started venturing into a bit of email marketing.
Maybe you started a blog? Congrats! You’ve been working on developing writing skills, search engine optimization, copywriting, website design, and more!
You get the point.
For every passion project, there are skills that go hand in hand. Those skills are extremely valuable. This brings us to step two.
Step 2: Start building a portfolio around your favorite skill.
Let’s stick with our YouTube channel example.
So now you’ve got some skills!
Here’s the thing: you won’t enjoy most of them. You will realize quickly that one or two of your new skills are clear favorites over the others. For example, let’s say you realize you don’t enjoy editing videos… In fact, you’ve decided that you’re going to hire someone as soon as you possibly can to edit videos for you… That’s the thing about starting out: in the beginning, you’ll have to do everything yourself, even the stuff you hate. It’s almost a rite of passage amongst entrepreneurs.
That’s why it’s a great idea to partner up with a friend to get started!
However, this guide is assuming you’re in this alone, like I was.
So you’ve found that you don’t like editing videos but you LOVE writing posts on social media… In fact, you’ve found that you’re pretty good at it! Your small following is liking, sharing, and commenting on your posts. When you see your friends in person, they say things like “great post you made on Facebook yesterday”... Stuff like that.
You also find you enjoy designing the thumbnails for the YouTube videos! Whenever it’s time to open up canva.com and design a new thumbnail, you spend way more time than is necessary just because you love what you’re doing.
Social media marketing and graphic design are both incredibly valuable skills in today’s market.
Time for you to start building a portfolio around those two skills so you can start making some money.
If you want to quit your job, you need money ASAP.
Here’s the hard truth: you will not make money quickly off your passion project alone.
It is a long grind to monetize a YouTube channel… You need a lot of subscribers before you can start making a reliable living off selling merchandise, creating content on a service like Patreon, sponsorships, or YouTube ads… This is a side note but currently a lot of YouTube content creators are struggling because YouTube ads are starting to pay much less money than they did in the past (I won’t get into the details here… Just look it up on YouTube if you’re interested!).
If you want to make money quickly, you need to create a business around your skill set and use your passion project as practice.
How do you do this? **Start networking!
If you want to get anywhere in business, you will quickly realize that networking is one of the most important skills you can develop.**
Don’t think networking is a skill? Think again. Networking is probably the most profitable and important skill you will ever develop.
If you can talk to the right person at the right time and have the right conversation, you can accomplish just about anything… Assuming you know your shit!
That’s the hard part: knowing your shit… Hence why you’re practicing hard on your passion project!
Networking might come easily to you. Maybe you already have quite a few friends who own businesses? If not, start meeting small business owners.
What’s the best way to do this? Use your passion project!
Using our YouTube channel example: start collaborating with other content creators.
In any niche you go into, there are thousands of content creators… Some of them will be way out of your reach (unless you’re lucky and in the right place at the right time!) but many are people who are just a few months ahead of where you’re at. Many of these folks have found ways to start making some money, although they probably are not making a large amount… Again, they are maybe 8-12 months ahead of you.
Connect with these people. Invite them to do a YouTube video with you! If they say no, move on to the next person. Eventually, several will say yes.
How do you reach these people? Easier than you think if they aren’t too big. Usually, if you just send them a message over social media, they’ll respond. Eventually, you’ll start reaching out to some more influential people in your industry (which is way more complex) but that’s down the road.
Start getting to know them. Become friends! Do not rush this process. Do not be fake. Be a real person. Just be yourself!
Start growing your network and getting more involved in your niche. How long will this take? It depends! If you love talking to people (like I do), it might take a couple of weeks. If you’re shy and it’s tough for you to break out of your shell (which is OK!), it might take longer. Be patient, know yourself, and be natural.
Once you have a few friends who have actual businesses, offer to help them out for free.
“What!?!?! For free!??! But where’s the $$$??”
Yes, work for free.
Again, this guide is assuming you’re starting off like I did: you’re a total beginner! You’re a nobody.
Working for free helps you build up a network of people who will vouch for your work.
This is HUGE. It is absolutely essential if you want to go from zero to hero.
I started out by helping local Jiu-Jitsu academy owners run their social media pages.
Once you have 2-3 people who you’ve been helping for a few weeks/months, it’s time to go to step three… The one where you finally make some dough.
Step 3: Make some dough.
Let’s recap your progress so far:
You now have a portfolio of 2-3 business owners who will vouch for your work.
You are still hustling on your passion project and putting our consistent content.
You are developing your favorite skills and learning all you can.
You are continuing to network your ass off however you can.
You still work at your job to pay the bills.
Ok, time to make some $$$.
Time to leverage your portfolio into bigger opportunities.
If you’ve been working hard and networking your ass off, people will come to you!
That’s what happened to me. My first client for social media marketing reached out to me and asked if I wanted to work for him as a social media manager. I didn’t have to sell him on anything! He wanted me!
Why? Because I had been putting out consistent content on social media for almost a year.
I had been putting out one podcast every single week for that same time period.
Finally, after about 11 months, I was going to get paid. I had finally developed my skills to a point where they were worth money.
Will it take you this long? It all depends on you… Again, I was a young kid who knew absolutely nothing. Like I said before, if you already have some skills from your 9-5 job, this process won’t take nearly as long. You’re already experienced!
What if they don’t come to you?
That’s when it’s time for you to develop a new skill: Sales.
Start reaching out to people in your network who you KNOW you can help.
If you want to become a social media manager (which is one of the things I do!), start looking at the Facebook pages of people in your network.
If you’ve developed your skills to a certain point, you will be able to quickly see who actually knows what they’re doing.
Let’s say you find a friend who 1. Owns a business and 2. Clearly doesn’t know what they’re doing with social media… What do you do?
Do you message them and say “Hey pay me $1000 a month and i’ll fix your Facebook page!”
NOPE!
Message them and point out what they’re doing wrong in a really nice way.
Maybe something like this:
“Hey man! I noticed you’ve been sharing a lot of links lately on your Facebook page… I absolutely love your content and I know that Facebook doesn’t show your content to a lot of people if you’re sharing a lot of links. It reduces your organic reach! If you want your content to be shown to more people, post the links in the comments instead of the post itself!”
Maybe they’ll say “Thanks” and never talk to you again.
If that happens, onto the next person!
You’re looking for that person who says something like this:
“Dude thank you so much… Honestly, I’ve got no time for social media. I’m so busy these days running the business that social media isn’t a priority… I know it’s important but I just don’t have the time to learn.”
Some variation of that.
So what do you do next?
Do you say “Pay me $1000 a month and I’ll solve all your problems??”
NOPE!
Something like this is better:
“Man I know how hard it is to get ahead these days… Social media is super confusing at times… I’ve been in the social media game for the past year and it’s tough to stay ahead! Thankfully I get a lot of practice helping out insert name of one of the people you help for free”
What did you do here?
You just wrote something that we call a “brand building message/post”.
Basically, some sort of message or post that tells people 1. What you do. 2. How long you’ve been doing it and 3. Who you’ve been helping… All without going over the top and being obnoxious!
If you’re talking to the right person, this might be all you need to do. That might be enough for them to want to hire you.
However, sometimes you might have to get them on a call.
Maybe ask them to hop on a skype or phone call to see if you can give them some tips?
“Hey man, I know social media is tough. Want to hop on a call? I’ll share some of the tips I’ve picked up that will save you a lot of time.”
If they agree, get on the call and start dropping KNOWLEDGE BOMBS.
Share everything you know for as long as the call lasts. Don’t hold anything back.
Outline every single little thing they should be doing to expand their social media presence. If you’ve successfully worked hard on your skills, you should have enough information to blow their minds.
If you don’t blow their minds, you either aren’t talking to the right person or you need to go back to practicing.
If you’ve done everything in this guide correctly up to this point, you’ll blow some minds.
So how do you “close the deal?”
Well, before you ever hopped on the call, you should have first taken some time to figure out what you deserve to be paid for this service.
My first paying gig was $500 a month. Why so low? Because that is what the people in my network could afford to pay.
Again, you’re new. You might not have reached a point where you’re rubbing shoulders with people running multi-million dollar businesses.
If you have, then ask for more!
You have to realize that your skills are incredibly valuable. If you have truly put in the work to become an expert, you deserve the money… Even though you haven’t made any up to this point!
If you’re an amazing video editor, you can help your clients create professional and amazing videos that will help them make hundreds of thousands of dollars if they use those videos correctly.
If you’re an incredible social media manager, you can help your clients build a massive audience, sell more products, signup more clients, and take their business to the next level.
If you’re a fantastic graphic designer, you could partner with a t-shirt company and design shirts that sell like crazy.
Your skills are worth REAL FUCKING MONEY.
That being said, you have to charge what the people in your network can actually afford.
If you are talking to someone owning a business that is doing under $300k in annual revenue, they probably cannot afford to pay you $1k per month. That is OK!
If you want to make more money, you’ll have to start networking with some more successful people. That comes with time… It might take a little while to start meeting and connecting with the people in your industry who can afford to pay you the big bucks. Again, be patient, work hard, and keep hustling.
As I’ve said before, this guide is assuming you’re a complete beginner with no skills and zero network whose desperate to quit your job and start working online.
So back to our call.
Let’s say you know that your client can probably afford around $500 a month.
You’ve spent thirty minutes on the call sharing everything you know… They’re clearly interested, taking notes, and saying things like “wow, this is great!”... You are going strong!
Do you say “Hey man, if you want to hear more, you’re going to have to pay up! $500!!!”
Nope.
YOU WAIT FOR THEM TO ASK YOU HOW MUCH YOU CHARGE.
Again, they already know what you do.
They’re not stupid.
At some point in the call, they’re going to say something like “Alright, this is awesome, clearly we need to work together. What do you charge?”
That’s when you say $500.
If you follow this process correctly, the client will sell themselves on your service.
If you’re a beginner, I recommend this is the process you take. As you gain experience, you can be less generous with your time. However, if you’re new, that’s still a ways away.
The process I’ve found that works the best for selling your skills is to provide free advice until they realize they need you around in a more permanent capacity.
If you’re talking with the right person at the right time, you should have yourself your first actual client. Congrats!!! This is a huge step. Now you’re ready for the final step: the big bucks.
Step 4: The big bucks.
So now you’re finally making some money!
You finally have a paying client.
Do you still keep helping the other people for free? Up to you! Maybe you have a chat with them and see if they’re ready to hire you for something more professional? If you’ve done a great job, this should be an easy sell. However, sometimes you might decide to find a new set of clients all-together because you think you can do better. That’s fine too!
Regardless, time to start making some big bucks.
How do you do this? Keep networking. Keep hustling on your passion project.
By now, your passion project has probably gained a bit of traction. If it’s a YouTube channel, hopefully you have a few thousand subscribers. If it’s a podcast, hopefully each of your episodes gets around 500-1000 downloads. If it’s a blog, you’re getting consistent traffic to all of your posts.
Start reaching out to the people who are running successful businesses in your niche. Invite them to be a guest on whatever you’re doing on your passion project.
Start networking with people who are running businesses that earn at least $1 million in gross annual revenue… Hopefully much more. Begin making friends in high places.
Eventually, one of these people will need help doing what you do best.
By now, you’re a real expert in your skill.
You should be able to blow the minds of just about anyone who isn’t already an expert in your skill.
You’d be surprised how many super successful business owners don’t know the first thing about social media marketing, graphic design, video editing, or whatever else you’ve been working to develop.
That being said, they know a real expert when they see one. Although they might not know much about your particular skill, they can tell whether or not you know your shit just by chatting with you.
That is why it’s so important to not skip any steps. Real entrepreneurs can smell a faker a million miles away. You must become a real expert with real clients who will speak on your behalf, if necessary.
How do you close the deal? Exactly the same way you closed your first clients.
Get them on a call and start dropping knowledge bombs. Blow their minds with free advice until they ask you how much you charge.
This time, ask for the big bucks. Be sure you’ve done your research prior to the call and you’re asking for what you’re really worth. Typically, around $1000 a month is considered entry level work for most skills (obviously, it will depend on the specifics of what’s being asked). If you’re going to be spending a significant amount of time working for this client, expect to charge $2-3k per month. Trust me, you’ll be working hard for this person and you’re worth every penny.
What if they say no? WELCOME TO THE GRIND!
Onto the next person.
Keep it up and you’ll suddenly find yourself working with some super successful people who are paying you real money.
Congrats! You’ve done it.
You now have the potential to have a real business based around selling a skill.
I know I was using the example of social media marketing/YouTube channel in this case study but I hope you see how this can be applied for any skill you might have developed.
Want some more tips?
Excelsior 3 made a video for you to help even more...
What’s next?
Is it time to quit your job? Well, that’s up to you!
Some people bail out as soon as they have enough money to cover their bills. Personally, I recommend you hustle for a few more months to make sure you have a long-term relationship with your new clients.
Relationships can go south. Personalities might not match up. There’s a million reasons that things with your client might not work out. It might be worth your effort to ensure you’ve got some legit clients who will be paying you for a long time.
That being said, you can now rest assured that you’re a real professional.
You can do this! You’ve got the skills you need to make it as an entrepreneur.
Congrats! I know how hard it is… There are long nights, missed opportunities with friends, and plenty of frustration.
Oh! And say goodbye to your lunch break at work. That hour of your day is now dedicated to working on your passion project or helping your clients.
I feel confident that the process outlined in this guide can help anyone go from zero to hero and start earning money online, even if they have zero skills and zero network.
How long will this process take you? It really does depend on a lot of factors. Maybe you don’t have a family and you are hustling 6-8 hours per day after work? Maybe you have a wife and 3 kids and you can only work 2-3 hours per day on all this stuff? Perhaps you connect early-on with some excellent entrepreneurs who decide to help you out?
For me, it took about two years from the time that I recorded my first podcast on my cell phone while driving in my car (absolute shit) until the point I was earning a few thousand dollars a month.
Nowadays, I’m doing everything that I can to make sure this process is as easy as possible for people who are trying to break free from a job they cannot bear to keep.
That is why we created the Excelsior platform.
When I was trying to learn more about a skill, it was super confusing… There’s a million different “gurus” who are trying to teach a million different ways to become an expert.
It’s hard to sift through all the bullshit unless someone has already screened that content to make sure it’s legit. That is what we are trying to do with Excelsior.
Haven't seen the platform yet? Go to bit.ly/excelsiorbeta
It's all completely free... There aren't any sneaky upsells
That tool will take you very far. It is filled with all the videos that actually help.
Talk soon!
- Excelsior 6