5 more pounds

I sat here staring at the title bar trying to figure out what to call this email. Then, I remembered that part doesn't really matter that much.

What matters, and I mean really the only thing that matters, is showing up. One of my very favorite analogies for growing a business is lifting weights. I used to run a lot (20-25 miles a week), and running just doesn't lend itself to the same anecdotes.

But lifting...man, it is perfect. My friend Wade talked about this a couple of days ago in his email about how he lifted 12,000lbs that day. Incredible! Well, here's the thing: Wade is crushing it, but his lifts are only about half of mine. But you know what? A few years ago my lifts were in the exact same spot at his are now.

What is the magic to take a 225 pound squat up to 415? Nothing. There is no magic at all. You just need three ingredients:

➡️Food (you gotta eat)

➡️Rest: you have to sleep.

➡️You just add 5 more pounds on the bar next time.

That's it. If you did 200 this session, next session it will be 205 and so on. Of course, this doesn't work forever because your body eventually plateaus otherwise every dude would be a 900 lb squatter.

But for the sake of this thought exercise, it just requires showing up everyday. On your non-lifting days, you still have to eat and rest.

Building a digital business (I really get tired of the word 'freelancer' and 'freelancing;' it makes it sound not like a real business) is not an altogether difficult thing. You just need a skill to market and clients to pay you. But you have to be working on your craft every single day. What do you think happens when I don't hit my workouts on time? My lifts suffer immediately.

There is nothing sexy about taking your deadlift from 225 to 465. You just keep doing the exact same thing over and over and over again. It is not cool, it is not even all that fun, but it is effective. You'll know it when you have to go up two shirt sizes in a year.

Polishing your skills here is absolutely no different. You show up when you don’t feel like. You write an email when you don’t feel like it (like right now for me). You cold pitch ten prospects tomorrow even though you didn’t hear back from the ten today or the ten yesterday.

No sir, building your piece of digital real estate to carve out a hunk of WiFi money is the farthest thing from sexy. It is boring, monotonous, and for the most part nobody is going to give you the time of day.

But just like the gym around February 1st, your competition is gone. If you can tune out the white noise and the self-doubt, you will succeed at this game. You only have yourself to beat.

Ready to level up the playing field? Get started with my free guide on cracking the freelancing code. It’s the fastest and simplest way to start a digital services business and start making real money. It’s free, so you really don’t need to think about it.