Likes Ain't Cash

How To Transition From Sales Calls To Google Docs: The decision to shift is more based on principles than on finances. - Do I enjoy Zoom? No. - Do I like DMing people so they will book calls? No. - Can setters and closers represent me better than I represent myself? No. The move was needed but I wasn't sure how to make it. So I took the transition slow. Instead of firing my 7-person sales team in one day, I set out to build "profit pockets" so that I could transition out of them and still be fine. The safe route. I whipped a Google Doc Offer and sent it to a few folks. 2 said yes at $1,400/month each. The I hosted a workshop and announced it there. 3 more people said yes at the same price. And just like that a few thousands a month were unlocked without dealing with calls, setters or closers. A profit pocket. All from leads that I already had sitting in my list. This experience taught me that sometimes you don't need to change much to convert "idle" leads. You just have to make your offer look different because even though it's good, they've already got used to it. A Doc does that for you because not only can you have many versions of the same one, You can also change it and make it look new as needed. (Something you can't do with sales calls because the call to action is always the same.) After that first win I started changing my focus: Instead of always pitching people to book a call I started having conversations. It was a hybrid between pitching calls and starting conversations. Call volume went down. But 8 weeks in I had 8 people in with the Doc. $11,200 unlocked. A profit pocket. This kept going for a few weeks but it never made more than the sales team. (In revenue.) But when you subtracted their commission, adspend and software costs, the doc was making more profit. That's when I made the decision to switch. I unlocked profits of $5k in salaries and $3k in adspend. An $8,000 profit pocket plus a $11,200 google doc pocket = $19,200 in recurring profit. Created from a silly little Doc. Simple. But that's what keeps a lot of smart folks from it. The transition isn't hard. It's silencing your inner doubts that's hard: 1. What if this doesn't work? 2. What if I look stupid? 3. What will the audience think? You will have these. But as an entrepreneur you must be able to distinguish the Small Questions from the Big Questions. These are Small Questions. The Big Questions are 1. Is this the way I want to run my business? 2. Which Model will I use 1, 2 and 3 years from now? 3. Does my business serve me or do I serve it? Just being clear in one of these will create an increase in profits. But you've got to have loyalty to the Big Questions and ignore the Small Questions.

There's an epidemic going on. An Nice Coach epidemic. A lot of coaches and consultants have forgot who they are. Just like there's more fat people than fitness coaches, there's more Buyers than Sellers in this world. Which makes you, the coach, the scarce resource. And makes them, the people who need it, the commodity. They are, by definition, more replaceable than you. Real. So when I see coaches with people pleasing tendencies that tend to act low status part of me is a little annoyed. I don't get it. They are the ones with the keys to the kingdom. And the people disrespecting him are the ones that need it. The dynamic is completely flipped. Daniel (Cash Creator) explains it best: -- I fucking love it It's incredible how much respect setting boundaries and walking away/saying no to people creates. It's actually often the opposite reaction that people pleasers are afraid of. They think that people will dislike them but people actually like and respect you more. I know because I have massive people pleasing tendencies, so all this stuff is so good for me to flip out of that mindset. -- This behavior allowed him to close 2x$3,000/month deals and 2x $1k deals. But it's not just about the money. It's about how he got it. No low status. No people pleasing. Just directness and respect from both parties all the way. Most coaches are Nice Coaches: They try to convince people with value and gratitude. But only does that hurt their business. It also hurts their soul. That's why you see a lot of them get burned out. They're just tired of the BS. They get bossed around by leads even though the lead is the one who followed them. He didn't follow them. It's the lead that needs the service. He doesn't need the lead. And it's the lead who constantly reads and implements his stuff. Not the other way around. Content creators are nice. Cash Creators are not nice. We're not in the people pleasing business. We're simply in business. And we behave like it.

You're at the entrance to a dark forest and two guides offer to take you to the treasure on the other end. Guide A says you should just trust him. Guide B pulls out a flashflight and a map and shows you the way. People will choose Guide B. Showing people the Path through which you’re going to achieve the Promise is as important as the Promise itself. A common mistake that makes people ghost coaches is that the path is too intimidating. There is no direct correlation from here to where they're taking the prospect. So they get intimidated because instead of showing a clear path that reduces their anxiety they show them an offer that looks like the wolf picture. There's got to be a straight line from where they are to the future. This matters as much as the promise because people have been desensitized to promises. They now need to see paths and straight lines in order to buy the promise or they will just ghost it.

2 days. The first 2 days of the month are all I need to cover my costs and rent: Christian's salary is $1,500. $1,400 on software (64% of it is Zapier - which we gotta reduce). And that still amounts to $2,900. Add $2k for rent and that's $4,900. And I still have $535 left for gym, some groceries and bills. Everything that comes after day 2 is profit. I've hit over $100,000 in profit every month for the past 4 months. And it's getting easier. Partly because it's hard to mess up your business when you cover your costs in the first 2 days of the month. When people have big costs they have the tendency to prioritize business over art. They have to do business first to cover their costs. Usually until week 3 or 4. And only then can they finally take a step back and do what they really wanna do: Art. Could be writing. New ideas. Video or whatever art form they make. Their art was the main thing. It's always been. Business just was a way to finance the main thing. But at some point the demands of the business became so many that business became the main thing. And that's why there's a part of them that feels a little "idle" inside. (I know because I was there for 2 years). Cash Creators also aim to cover their costs. But we don't have to wait until week 3 or 4. We cover them in day 2. This gives us peace of mind early and 28 days of space to create art. And in a profession like coaching and consulting, it's the art that gets you paid. When we work together with the Cash Creators they bring the art. And I bring the business model that enables that art. So they can create $20k then $20k months and then $20k weeks the way they want to: Not as businesspeople who happen to do art. (That cover their costs on week 3). But as artists who happen to do business. (That cover their costs on day 2).

The $18k Day. A few months ago I ran a workshop for the Cash Creators and sold a guest pass to outsiders. Mentioned that I had 3 spots open if any outsider wanted to join. Sent the invite with an un-fancy google doc in the Zoom chat. Held the workshop. And by the end of the day, all 3 spots were taken. 2 on payment plans, And someone took a $13,000 option I only offer in private. Then another ~$4,500 came from recurring payments. Adding up to a $18,262.50 day: I like the money. But I like how little it took more: Preparing the workshop took me 5 hours throughout the week. Promoting Cash Creators took me ~30 seconds. And the Workshop lasted 2 Hours. Meaning that these $18,000 took about 8 hours of work. (Plus a lot of that will be recurring for the next months to come.) I can pull these numbers off because as Cash Creators we don't create to get paid. We get paid to create. We focus on creating great work. The kind of work that you can use and re-use for months to come and it will still be valuable to clients and customers who get their hands on it. And then use that great work as sellable assets to get clients.

$2k/Day Thread: https://x.com/OneJKMolina/status/1857852440244006954

Most problems are unmade decisions disguised as problems. Let’s say your income dropped this month. If you know the cause, you know the remedy. You don't really have a problem. You have a decision to make. You can either: A) Stop doing what caused the drop. B) Start doing what will get you out of the drop. Often we spend more making a decision than it would take to fix the problem that caused the decision. None of them will kill you. In fact, both have plenty of positives. It's the non-decision that kills you. Every week I'll have conversations with clients. Mostly about problems. Often about decisions. Sometimes I’ll give them what I think is the best answer for them. But in some occasions that would be a disservice. Sometimes the best way I can serve them is to make them choose. ... to act. ... to wait. ... to set boundaries. ... to pivot. … to do the work. ... to stop the work. … to not chase that prospect. … to say goodbye. … to say no. That's what I really needed to do earlier in the year. I needed to choose. ... to go from 15 team members to just 1. ... to focus on many offers to just 1. ... to set boundaries around my time. ... to say no to prospects. ... to say yes to prospects. I made some wrong choices but as I write this on a sunny day with recurring revenue coming in I'm doing just fine. (My hands are a little cold but I think I'll survive). The heaviest thing in the world isn't the wrong decision. It's an unmade decision. We make the decision right then and there. Take whatever comes with open arms. Then plan our next move. Because one decision won't kill you. But going back and forth between decisions will.

If you've sold anything worth more than $1 in the past: Congratulations you have an unfair opportunity. You know people who not only have a problem, But are willing to pay for a solution. Maybe you sold a course. Or a workshop. Or you had clients you stopped working with. You're more likely to find your next client within this group than outside of it. They know and trust you enough to pay for your help. So you might as well ask them if they'd like more help. This can be as easy 1. Finding the list of people who have given you at least $1. 2. Cooking up a Google Doc offer. 3. Making the offer. Ayo had a pretty successful launch of his summit with $33,000 in revenue and ~70 customers. He was happy but I knew he was far from done. I suggested he made an offer to these 70 customers: Would you like more access to me? Nothing special. We cooked up a quick n' dirty Google Doc Offer and sent it to his customers. (Not leads. Just 70 customers.) 6 days later: He collected an extra $7,500 in cash. Plus added $20,000 in recurring revenue. He made an extra $27,500 from 70 customers and 1 move: Ask customers if they would like to become clients. This is a major lesson we prioritize as Cash Creators: You don't always need to focus on turning leads into clients. It's easier to focus on turning customers into clients because 1 customer is worth 50 leads.

The people you see are not the people who buy. A friend opened a community and thought about the people who were going to join: He thought it was going to be the people he talks to daily. Turned out to be a bunch of people he has never seen in his life. If you’ve been coaching for a while, you’re probably noticed this pattern: The people who engage with your content are usually not the people who buy your coaching. People who engage with your content do so for different reasons: Some may be doing growth tactics. Some may just want to chat. Part of the game. But assuming that just because you see them every day they’re going to become clients is a stretch. In my experience - buyers are quiet. You don’t see them but they see you. You don't know who they are but they're inside your audience. They're Whales. And when you show them content that resonates with them they are much more quick to buy. This kind of content is called Whale Bait. It’s about knowing who you can serve best and creating hyper-specific content for them. The hard part isn’t creating it. It’s resisting the urge to not post Fish Bait. It used to be tough because Fish Bait usually gets more engagement. But then I realized I have more active clients than average likes per post. And I see the Cash Creators hitting $30k months with less than 10k followers... ... And $260k months with 20k followers. And that urge just fades away.

I choose my bottleneck. My bottleneck is not leads or offers. It's how many 1-on-1's I'm willing to do. I like 1-on-1's and that's the first thing I do with new clients to get them clear on their offer. Often we have some leftover time so we also cover how to launch and get their next 3 clients. A lot gets done. And I like it. But they do take energy. Energy that I'm not willing to give away to everyone. Last week I opened 12 client spots and they were all taken before the official email came out. I could easily open more but I won't. Some months, like January, I'll take 25 clients because I want to work. Some months, like this one, I'll only take 12 or 8 because I've got stuff going on. Yet we can still make money predictably because we follow two Cash Creator Principles: 1. Deadlines. My deadlines are impossible to fake. Example: I run workshops some Mondays so I can't really sell it on Tuesdays. When your deadline is real people move faster. 2. Capping Spots. I limit my spots because I know my Freedom Number and how many clients I need to get there. And when you limit your supply, it sends a signal to the market that you're not desperate. As a result, demand goes up. As Cash Creators we don't get our bottleneck chosen for us. We choose our bottleneck. And it can be as simple as getting clear on what you want and how many clients you need to get there.

We market backwards. We push when we should pull. We tell when we should show. We sell products when we should sell ideas. We put prospects first when we should put clients first. We optimize for revenue when we should optimize for profit. We take unlimited clients when we should have limited spots. We prioritize marketing when we should prioritize product. We try to be perfect when we should show we're imperfect. We hide our offers when we should promote them daily. We say yes 99% of the time and no 1% of the time when we should say yes 1% of the time and no 99% of the time. We post what our audience wants when we should post what we want. We hide our losses when we should make our losses public. We talk and then do when we should do and then talk. We sell in public when we should sell in private. We force content when we should let content come to us. We drive marketing to a product when we should let the product be the marketing. We play a character when we should just be ourselves. We optimize for likes when we should optimize for cash.

What If Growing Your MRR Is The Wrong Move? Last week I asked some Cash Creators something strange: I asked them if they'd like to reduce their fee. Naturally this reduces my income. Yet I was happy to make the trade. I like playing long term games with long term people. It's less stressful and I've found you just make a lot more money this way. (I could've sold my company for more. But I was too focused on the short term. I wasn't mature, skilled or patient enough to see the value in the long game.) So I changed things up. And offered some folks to reduce their weekly fee in exchange for a longer term agreement. 8 folks took it. And with it my MRR reduced by $1,600. Yet I'm ok with it because that secures $8,000 in MRR for the rest of the year ($96,000 annually). But most importantly it allows both of us to play long term games. It's easy to have a good month. Repeating or increasing it is a different story. It requires a longer term view of things - a view enabled by these sort of deals. Not "one time transaction" deals. But deals in we both trust each other and have someone we can play the long term game with. This is where true wealth is created. It doesn't matter much that you go slow today. Because when you play long term games with long term people things just have a way of working out in your favor.

Before: - 15 person sales team - 10 hour workdays - 8% profit margins The way to burnout. Today: - 2 person team - 3 hour workdays - 95% profit margins - Filled client spots 6 months in a row (no sales calls) The way to Simple.

The Cash Creator Way

Who you think will buy: The guy with professional pictures with 3,000 followers that always engages with you. Who actually buys: The guy with 2 followers and no profile picture you've never seen in your life.

The end is near. We're in the last 9 weeks of the year. The year in which I gave myself the goal of hitting $100,000 in monthly profit by the time it was over. I've hit $100,000 in profit for 3 months in a row. According to the projections, this will be recurring by the time the year is over. Mission Complete. I thought that by writing this I'd feel excited (and a little cocky). I'm actually a little bored. The Model works. It's robust and I find myself spending less and less time on it and stressing about it. There's no giant cloud looming over my head like there once was. And I'm grateful for it. Now I only have one thing to do. Or not do: I just don't have to fuck it up. If I just keep doing my fundamentals as a Cash Creator I know that the $100,000 goal is inevitable. Which can be boring. But it doesn't make them less effective: 1.Create Whale Bait to attract leads with the problems you solve and the budget to pay. 2.Turn them into leads with Insight-Based Content while keeping Value behind a paywall so you attract buyers and not triers. 3.Sell pieces of Value at a small fee to filter out the folks who want closer help. 4.Turn them into clients using The Workshop Funnel and your Proprietary Google Doc Offer. 5.Serve them to the best of your ability according to the level of access they purchase in your Offer Shell. And upsell them using Cash Injections that take 10 minutes a month to sell (upselling clients is easy because they trust you. A subtle reminder that they have the option to purchase more from you is both respectful and optimal). What clients note most is how simple the Model is. And it is. It has to be. Because other things in my life are taking priority: I'm getting married soon. And I know how important it is to keep a good relationship. So I don't plan on winging it. I want kids. But I know how hard it can be to raise kids without having them fall for the "woke" stuff. So I gotta find ways to raise them properly. This requires time and effort. I have more disposable income now. Investing is now important to me and hence why I'm looking into people, companies and funds to put my money in. Latinos have a culture of building a "family estate" so that all the family can live there and spend time together. I love that idea. But it requires land, building it, finding the right spot and a lot of work. I love business and I will never stop doing it. But I gotta do it differently because I'm entering a new phase of my life. I know that doing the "boring" stuff will get me to my initial $100,000/month profit goal. So right now the priority is simple: "Just don't fuck it up."

Reframe: There's more people with the problem you solve than people with the solution you offer. You are the one with the keys to the kingdom. They're the ones that need it.