RYAN LABAR — There’s nothing I’d rather do

In the military, you have people yelling at you to do shit — in entrepreneurship, you have to motivate yourself.

I didn’t have the best work ethic, but I wanted to be my own boss and have full control over my time.

Everyone is always selling their time.

You either sell it to someone else (a job) or you sell it to yourself (entrepreneurship). It’s all work — but in only one of those scenarios are YOU your own boss.

After two deployments and a computer sciences degree, I was working in IT for a non-profit here in Oklahoma until 2020 — when I decided I wanted more freedom in my life.

I wanted my own online business.

I joined an online rank-and-rent program. Example of rank-and-rent:

• Create a landing page for tree-cutting services

• Get it ranking at the top of Google, using a generic name like Oktreecutters.com

• Gather the leads of people who need tree-cutting services.

• Go shop around for tree cutter service providers who want the jobs.

I did good. But when the pandemic hit, a lot of us marketers lost clients because businesses were closing.

That’s why I joined the LMV program. I needed to help businesses get customers quickly, and the six-month rank-and-rent wait period wouldn’t cut it.

That was the turning point for my business — and I wouldn’t do anything other than what I’m doing today. I love it.

Step-by-Step Strategy

1. Search websites like Upwork to find businesses looking for simple digital marketing tasks.

2. Use a foot-in-the-door service like reputation management or message marketing to get them some income.

3. Show them some real value by getting them results and build that trust.

4. Once you’ve earned them some extra income, introduce lead generation to help them get more new clients this month.

5. Slowly introduce larger services, like SEO, to keep growing their business and yours.

   
   

The rank-and-rent model is still a tool I use in my business, and I can still offer it to clients.

But not nearly as many small businesses want to fork out the $5,000+ prices for a fully functional rank-and-rent website.

It’s something we can work our way up to once we’ve done some other services first.

Earn that business some extra income that they can re-invest in more services to keep growing.

I look at what steps we can take to help them get from “We’re about to close our doors” to “We’ve got some extra budget!”

That’s where smaller services come in like reputation management, sending out newsletters, or getting a social media presence in place.

We’ve found that most businesses need more help in those beginner and intermediate stages than they do the more advanced stages.

I’ve realized that most small business owners are operating by the seat of their pants.

They had an idea, they implemented it, they started making money, and everything became a catch-up game from that point on.

Focus on really helping those businesses level up. Help first, and the money will come.

Isn’t Everyone + Their Mom Doing Digital Marketing Today?

A lot of people jump from opportunity to opportunity when they get into online business, because it’s the potential they’re in love with — not the work.

They invest in a course, go through that excitement, then get into the first couple months of grinding — only to realize this is actual work.

Then they join another program, and just keep riding that wave all the way into the poor house.

Those are usually the people who are quick to call something a “scam” — because they weren’t willing to put any work in to make it work.

This is why your market will never be too saturated. Out of 100 people who start a digital agency, 90 will quit before they’re successful.
It’s like the Navy SEALS!

How to Price Yourself

The benefit of entrepreneurship is that the harder you work, the more money you can keep making. In a stable 9-5, the harder you work…your pay usually stays about the same.

As you help your clients grow, your business (and your income) grows too.

I would use a foot-in-the-door service to get them some quick wins and get them excited.
Something like rep management or message marketing will bring in some traffic, and typically cost $300-$500 / month.

Then, level them up to lead gen at around $1,000 / month.

After attracting new customers and recouping their investment, we can offer a higher-tier service like SEO for up to $5,000 / month.

Don’t be afraid of upselling your clients bigger services.

Your goal as a marketer is to make them enough profits that they don’t even have to think about paying you again next month.

Today, our agency brings in between $15 - $25k per month.

Tools + Costs to Run the Biz

The two tools I’ve used every single day, for years now, are GHL and Canva. Go High Level (GHL) is my home base and funnel-builder, and I use Canva for design tasks.

Other than that, I’ll use sites like Semrush and Ahrefs for keyword research.

I also have a couple VAs and freelancers that I outsource some tasks to.

Go High Level — $197 USD / month
Canva — $15 USD / month

How to Get Clients

There are techniques you can learn on how to talk to clients, but you’ll find what feels natural for you.

When I was first starting out and was getting on CQI calls with new prospects, I would literally pray they wouldn’t show up. I was scared shitless to talk to them.

I stressed about not having the answer they needed, not knowing what to say, imposter syndrome — you name it.

But what helped me overcome that was just reminding myself that I am not here to sell them. I’d repeat that to myself before going into the call.

“I’m not here to sell them anything. I just want to learn about their business.”

I’d talk to them like any other normal person, and see if there is something I can do to make their situation better.

That mindset tweak made all the difference in the world for me.

Ever since I adopted that let me find out what’s wrong with your business approach — I have never been asked to provide references or my portfolio.

Come at it as a confident problem-solver, and they will feel confident in you.

Productivity Hack to Get Sh*t Done

Start planning out every hour of your day — seriously!

I start my day around 4:30am, and I’m downstairs with coffee in-hand by 5am to map it out.

Every hour of my day gets accounted for.

That way, I know when my meetings are and what times I’ll be working on projects.

I can’t even explain to you how much this has increased my productivity.

I always kept track of appointments, but before I’d have all this time in between them and a million things floating around my head — and I’d end up doing nothing because I wouldn’t decide what to work on.

Writing down my weekly goals and then mapping out the time to work on them makes me actually get shit done!

One Weird Wealth Habit

If you focus less on the money, more will probably come.

So many people see marketing and scamming as the same thing — because they’re both focused on selling something. There’s a science to selling.

People believe that we have this power to persuade them — and nobody wants to be persuaded against their will.

But the difference here is that we don’t sell anyone anything — we just provide them with the services that we know they need.

If they want the help, we get paid for our solution.

New businesses are being formed every day who need what you offer. And if you come at it from that humanitarian point of view—where your main goal truly is to help people—you’re going to feel far more rewarded in your ventures because it becomes about more than just the money.

This has been one of my business core values since day one.

Make other people succeed, and you will succeed more too.

For Aspiring Entrepreneurs

1. There’s plenty of success to go around, if you’re actually willing to commit to making something successful. Your market isn’t saturated, because too many people give up.

2. You’re in control of your success. It’s scary, but that’s what life is, man! It’s a ride. You have to take those big leaps if you want the big rewards.

3. Don’t be afraid to say “I don’t know.” People will respect you more when you’re just being real. Just be honest and say, “You know what, I don’t know the answer to that. But I will have an answer for you later today.”

   
   

Find Ryan’s BONUS advice in our end-of-month issue, where we’ll compare it to two others to give YOU the top takeaways!