Picture this.
In Washington DC, there is an out of shape 33 year old man.
With no money.
Living off the couch in the basement of his mother’s home.
Here is another man.
Happy, living an excitement and purpose filled life in Bali.
Traveling the world as an international professional photographer / videographer while running 2 successful online companies. (kind of grounded at the moment until flights open up).
These are TWO COMPLETELY DIFFERENT lives.
There is NOTHING similar between these two men.
Except both people are me.
Two different people. Two different mindsets.
If you want to change your life, the only thing you need to do is to change your mindset.
Hanson Cheng
HERE ARE THE EXACT STEPS I TOOK TO CHANGE:
FROM
- Having no skills
- Being overweight
- Drinking 2–3 nights a week
- Living on my mother’s couch
TO
- Discovering What I Wanted To Do With My Life
- Finding My Dream Girl
- Creating My Perfect Life in Paradise
- Rapidly Learning Skills to Increase My Value to Others
Step 1: What Would You Do If…
This question is the first I asked myself when trying to figure out what I wanted.
There are several ways to ask this question.
What would you:
- Do If You were guaranteed to be successful?
- Love doing every day even if it never led to success?
- Do if you had a billion dollars?
Answering this question is difficult.
It’s difficult when you are drowning in debt.
It’s difficult when you feel like a disappointment to your family or your friends.
It’s difficult when you have responsibilities.
This question is difficult for EVERYONE, regardless on where you are in life.
Everyone has their own reasons why it’s difficult.
But Answering this Question is the first step you need to take.
This is the first step to take because the questions cuts through all the wrong reasons why you should do something.
These reasons include:
- Money / Status
- Family / Friends Influence
- Lack of options
- Materials
- Being Afraid to Fail
- Security
When I didn’t know what I wanted, I would look at Instagram and see photos of places I could never imagine existed.
These photos were taken by normal people traveling around the world. They explored the most beautiful places in the world. What they did seemed so courageous and interesting to me.
I thought, “I could never do that. “
But I asked myself,
“What would I do if I couldn’t fail.”
“I want to experience everything I can in this world before I’m too old or before I die.”
“ What would I do if I never became successful?”
“ I want to experience the world before I die.”
“What would I do if I had a billion dollars?”
“Travel. Duh”
So this narrowed it down.
I needed to find a way to travel anytime I want.
Live anywhere I wanted.
But I needed to find a way to make money doing that.
So… Jump to Step 2.
STEP 2: WHO IS CURRENTLY DOING WHAT YOU WANT TO DO
Looking at the lifestyle I wanted to create, I was intimidated. All I’ve ever known was life in Washington DC.
I started reaching out to people through Instagram and asking how they lived their life.
How they got to travel so much.
Here is where you need to be persistent.
Talk to as many people that are living a life that you want.
Ask them if they like what they do.
Can you be proud of yourself, doing what they do?
You need to be REALLY PICKY here.
This will be the first step of a long road. You don’t want to come to the end of this road to discover you never wanted to go there.
This is why you’re reading this article in the FIRST PLACE!
When I was trying to figure it out, I only knew a few things.
I knew I loved taking photos. I’m proud of the photos and videos I create.
But did I want to take photos for other people?
How was I going to make money?
Now, you need to combine what you love doing with what people want and will pay for.
If you love to play the piano, you can’t expect people to pay to watch you play the piano immediately.
But, maybe people will pay to have you TEACH them to play the piano.
Start doing your research!
STEP 3: ACQUIRE SKILLS AND TEST YOUR NEW LIFE
If you want to make a quick change in your life, you need to learn new skills QUICKLY.
Each new skill you add opens up a new stream of opportunity.
Combining skills (photography + video + copywriting + digital marketing) make you highly desirable and allow you to charge more for what you do.
The way you should choose the first skills to learn is to talk to the people you want to work with.
I talked with online entrepreneurs, online coaches, brands i wanted to work with, and tech companies.
They all wanted:
- A system to create more photos and videos to drive sales for their businesses
- More Sales
- More efficiency in their day to day so they could spend more time growing the businesses
- A second brain
If I wanted to help them, I’d need to learn how to create engaging content, build teams and systems, figure out how to get them out of the day to day so they could focus on growing their companies faster.
So I offered to help for free.
And this is how I began my deep dive into learning:
- How To Make Money Online
- Copywriting
- Digital Marketing
- Blogging
I learned I didn’t enjoy digital marketing and running FB Ads. But I still wanted to learn how to make money online.
So I used what I knew to get my foot into the door. I found the top entrepreneurs I knew who had successful online businesses. I discovered where they needed helped and showed value.
In this case, I offered to create all their content and build an entire content creation team in exchange for equity.
In our first month, we made over $240,000 in profit and I got a piece of that!
I haven’t met another photographer / videographer that can say the same.
In addition to the equity, I got to learn the ins and outs of a highly successful online business model. This is much more valuable to me because I’ve added this knowledge and skillset to my tool belt FOREVER.
Through this experience, I’ve partnered with ANOTHER successful entrepreneur because of the connections I made.
In addition, I decided to start a passion project, where I’m learning how to create a successful blog from Adam Enfroy.
If you don’t know who Adam Enfroy is, he created a blog that now generates over $80k a month in a year.
I reached out to Adam using the SAME TECHNIQUES I’M teaching you. I am bartering with whatever I have that I know would be valuable to him. In exchange, I asked him to mentor me.
During this step, you need to continually TEST what people are willing to pay for or exchange for.
Understand what their biggest pain points are, learn the skill or find someone else with the resources to solve the problem for them.
Then Rinse and Repeat.
PRO TIP: Always try to give MORE than you’re compensated for. The goal isn’t to make a lot of money in this pivotal point in your life. The goal is for quick / massive transformation. Holding out or negotiating is only friction for speed of growth. Your compensation will come. Trust me.