How to get a Phd at Hustlin University – How we got more than a quarter of a million dollars in great leads in under a month.

great leads

“It’s cause I have a phd in hustlin!”

About a month ago I was having a call with a friend of mine who mostly does consulting for online startups. We were chatting about the possibility of me working as a process design consultant as I’ve been interested in doing more of that work; not just to improve my portfolio but my capabilities as a process designer. After I showed interest she said she’d take a look at what kind of work would pop up for me and get back to me.

A few days later I get a call on skype. “So I’m working on a couple contracts one would be 10k a month another would be probably 12”

“…really? how the hell did you do that?” I asked

“It’s cause I have a phd in hustlin!”

I wasn’t surprised that that kind of money was available as I’ve seen that kind of work before, what I was surprised at was the speed at which said ‘hustlin’ occurred. I was not excepting almost a quarter of a million dollars in contracts to in essence fall into my lap.

So how do you start the ‘hustlin’ process and get large contracts into your funnel. There are three major factors:

Intimately understanding your skill set and not venturing out of that
Outsourcing everything else that doesn’t fall within that skill set
Lead generation and producing a great leads funnel

Getting high end contracts in what you’re amazing at isn’t difficult, In this post I’ll show you how I went from my first consulting gig up to earning a full time income from literally 6-7 hours of work per week in projects that I find engaging and challenging. I’ll also show you the exact procedures some of my outsourced team members use to get those leads into my funnel.

Step 1 – Get to know exactly what you can do as a consultant

Last year I surpassed a personal milestone when I was able to completely replace myself as a sales person within my online tutoring company but quickly ran into what I’ll call a problem of success… boredom and a lack of passion in what I was doing. I tried solving this problem through outside consulting which initially was a complete disaster as I didn’t understand my fundamental skill set.

It wasn’t until I connected with a few consultants who did high end consulting that I realized being a ‘complete solution’ was making me a Jack of all trades and a master of none which makes companies nervous. I was not being mindful of one of the fundamental lessons in salesmanship, don’t pitch customers what you want to sell, pitch them what they want to buy.  So lesson 1: concentrate on a specific skill set that is unique to you as an individual and bring in others to fill in the gaps that you’re not all that good at.

Here is a basic list of what I’m ‘good’ at and what I should leave to professionals. I suggest you write out the same list and be ruthlessly honest with yourself as it will mean less headaches in the future.

What I’m good at:

  1. Process design
  2. Online collaboration
  3. Virtual team management
  4. Online training

What I should leave to professionals: (I can still ‘do’ these things but get better results by bringing in others “more about this later”)

  1. Lead generation for high end clients
  2. Creative tasks such as ad copy, design and company direction
  3. Customer service
  4. Negotiating price points

Step 2 – Outsourcing everything else that doesn’t fall within that skill set

Now that I understood exactly what I was good at and what I wanted to outsource I began to look for people who could help me with what I wasn’t all that good at.

If you take a look at the list above you can see a general division of creative vs logical mindsets. So I was looking for somebody who could take care of closing the sale with a client and could provide creative input on the business, then I’d deal with the backend issues of making those new ideas work well within the company.

I found somebody who fit really well with me because they understood what I had to offer, they understood what they could bring to the table and this person is an extraordinary sales person.

As a rule of thumb we split contracts 50/50, initially you’d think this was a high percentage, especially if she’s not doing any of the deliverables which takes quite a bit longer than customer service and closing, however you’d be wrong. Looking back on my previous contracts, when I tried to close contracts myself I’d usually close them at approximately 25%-50% of what she could. So by simply giving her my leads and getting her to close them I’d be equalling or doubling my income and have a second consultant at the ready to smooth over any problems if they arose or come up with creative ideas that I would have never thought of. Also, her network allowed her to get access to much larger companies than I had encountered and she was able to communicate my worth to clients as she ‘got’ process design.

Step 3 – Lead Generation And Producing A Great Leads Funnel

You’d think producing the sales funnel should be step 1 but you’d be wrong.

I get propositioned all the time to ‘consult’ or ‘coach’ people on process design, particularly those who are looking to build large online businesses that are dependent upon outsourced labour as the linchpin within their supply chain. I almost always say no as half aren’t serious and the other half aren’t at the point in which they need somebody like me in their business or have the money to make it worth my time (or so I thought).

Once I understood exactly what I was good at and had somebody else fill in what I wasn’t good at I simply forwarded all inquiries to my partner, I also tagged all my emails with a simple note such as…

P.S. If you’re interested in me and my team processing your business for you, you can contact partner@partner.com and be sure to put “Process Design” in the subject line. We’ve been doing it for other clients and would have no problem helping you scale your business as well.

Basically, off that tiny little email we had over a quarter of a million dollars in leads in under a month. If you’d like an example of how I do this, check out the autoresponder box in the right hand corner right here.

Additional: If you liked this post, say so in the comments as I use the amount of comments I get as a barometer on whether I should talk about this more. So if you want more info on how to get great leads into your business, vote with your comments.

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What is Void Avoidance?

Before we get this party started I just wanted to tell you what the Void Avoidance philosophy is all about.

Like many people I’ve been frustrated with the amount of time and energy expelled on voids, voids of action, voids of distraction, voids of communication and voids of business. Two years ago I was lost, just out of grad school with no particular direction in my life. Two years later I’ve built a stable company, destroyed many of the stereotypical presumptions connected with both business and life and have overall been able to overcome some of the major distractions that had stopped me from having an interesting a rewarding life. I’ve decided to share what I’ve learned with a challenge to you my reader to stop wasting your time on the voids in your life and begin to focus on what’s really important.

What is the declaration of the Void Avoidance Philosophy?

  1. Reduction or relinquishing of activities that do not have a stated goal in mind and do not result in either personal or business development.
  2. Embracing activities that are personally rewarding, interesting and will improve you intellectually or philosophically.
  3. Attaining both economic and temporal freedom through self sustainable and automated businesses in order to have the time to engage in the second declaration.

What are the tools we will use to achieve these goals?

You will be getting hours of case studies, my own personal musings, actionable content and in depth analysis on process design, business development and temporal management.

Here is a quick overview:

Process Design

All business’s that are truly successful live and die by process. It is the only way entrepreneurs can stop from working in there to working on it. Process will ensure that you can easily and affordable scale your company leveraging staff to build your business for you.

Business Development

Unique and innovative business development is the second key to living the void avoidance lifestyle. Relinquishing preconceived notions of how to stereotypically run and grow a business is the only way one can achieve economic freedom in order to achieve personal freedom. I’ll share the priceless lessons I’ve learned from online to offline, failures to successes, I’m here to show you how to navigate your business to the next level.

Temporal Efficiency

The third and most important tool to embrace the void avoidance philosophy is temporal management, without it you’re doomed to return to the voids of busy work and work for works sake. The goal is recapture your time and use it the way you want, I’ll provide all that I’ve learned on how to become a more efficient learner.

“LIVE A REMARKABLE LIFE!”

I’m starting this blog because I feel like there has been an enormous gap in concentrating on what’s important, living a remarkable life. From now on I’d like you to concentrate on living a remarkable life and making the time you have as enjoyable and as fruitful as possible.  I hope this blog will help you reclaim your time and let you achieve true economic and personal freedom from the voids that constantly barrage our lives.

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