Stephan Franklyn (AKA: Damien Westview)

I used an alias when I started my business because Jason from the Local Marketing Vault did it.

I was like, “If he can do it, why can’t I?” and that’s pretty much remained my motto in my business ever since.

Today, I run a full-service marketing agency that focuses primarily on chiropractors.

I didn’t expect that I’d focus on chiros, but after I closed my small business and got into the online world, it made sense to use these skills on my wife’s chiro practice.
Getting results for chiropractors has become very plug-and-play for me now.

I still mentally kick myself sometimes thinking about how much quicker I could have progressed if I’d just focused on chiropractors sooner instead of spending six years being a generalist.

That’s entrepreneurship for you — it’s all a learning process.

Once I stopped dabbling and actually commit to this full-time, I went from making $500-1000 per month to like $12k per month.

Today, I get to come to work every day with my wife and daughter — who’s waddling around somewhere in the next room right now.

We have the lifestyle we’ve always wanted, and it’s here to stay.

Step-by-Step Strategy

This is exactly what I did in the beginning, and it’s probably the easiest way to get clients, referrals, and—at the very least—quick testimonials.

1. I’d find a local non-profit in my area.

2. Reach out and offer them a free, one-hour consultation. No strings attached. “I’m just looking to build connections with non-profits.”

3. Regurgitate strategies I learned in the LMV program on how any business could use message marketing. Don’t sell them anything, just share helpful knowledge and be friendly.

4. Go to some local business networking events, and I’d watch how these non-profits do the networking for me.

Non-profits are so connected because their entire business is based on relationships and getting funded. I’d show up at networking events and these people would introduce me to other business people like, “You’ve gotta talk to Stephan! He’s so knowledgeable!”

If you have a skill or knowledge that not everyone has, just talk about what you know and how it helps people.

People think that business owners have their shit figured out — but most really don’t.

They have their skillset down, and everything outside of that is a disaster half the time.

We sold firearms in California, I didn’t know anything about how to grow my company. We’d collect everyone’s email and phone number—to let them know if they got approved—and we always planned to create a database so we could market to them. Never happened.

We were entirely focused in the business, and that is what everyone does.

All the things I do for chiropractors today are services that they COULD learn themselves — but they won’t.

We start with message marketing and reputation management to get them more reviews. Once that’s rolling, we launch Facebook ads to get new leads, and we handle all the follow-up.

That combo brings new revenue coming in for the clinic, which always gets them excited. Then we work on their Google My Business profile, introduce some SEO, and now we also build their Google Local Service Ads (LSA) — which just opened up for chiropractors.

95% of business owners are so focused on the next job that they’re not thinking about how to market themselves.

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

No, because most the people who start an online business quit for one of two reasons:

1. They cling to that “I knew this wouldn’t work for me” mindset. They get started, feel excited for a couple weeks, but they don’t really believe in themselves.
   
   They’re not willing to fail over and over again and THEN succeed. So, they don’t recover from their first little failure because that “I knew it” voice comes in.
   

2. They don’t prospect enough. The number one thing ANY entrepreneur has to do is get clients — everything else is secondary. Clients are what keep you in business.
   
   The people who you see KILL IT quickly in online business are the ones who focus on prospecting.

If you’ve got one hour a day to work on your business, don’t spend it on your website or Facebook page. Get talking to people!

You’ll have really high moments when you land a client or get paid or get great results, and you’ll have moments of despair where you get all stressed out.

Just stay in it until you get the win, and know that it’s a constant cycle.

How to Price Yourself

You will become more comfortable charging what your service is worth as you gain experience.

The very first video I saw of LMV was James saying, “Google ‘tow trucks near me’ and go to the fourth page. Find a tow truck, and tell them you’ll do Google Ads for free.”

I got my first two clients doing that. The first paid me $300, the second one $500. I’d just accept whatever I could get.

Those payments were enough for me to be like, ‘Woah, I can actually make money doing this!’

That was really empowering for me, honestly. Just seeing that I could do something completely different and actually be successful at it.

But once I knew that, I didn’t want to keep giving my services away for free.

It was SO frustrating offering my time for free and these dudes who are about to go out of business are too smug to say yes.

Once you prove to the business owner, and to yourself, that you can really provide value — charge what your service is worth!

Tools + Costs

• GHL - Client management and campaign tracking - $197 USD / month

• Upwork - Outsourcing tasks and landing new jobs - $14.99 USD / Month

Landing Clients

I don’t know why I rejected Upwork in the beginning. It’s so easy to find clients, if you’re consistent.
Once I was sending five proposals a day, it took me a couple weeks to get paid.

I was like, “Damn…this is what I needed to be doing this whole time.”

Upwork has a plan where you can pay like $15 monthly and it gives you 80 connects. Connects are your bids.

The algorithm will look at a job and judge how many connects it’s worth. Then you select how many you want to bid based on how close to the top you want to appear.

Tip: Don’t try to get the #1 spot — it’s often an insane amount like 40 connects, but second place will be like 10.

I’ve both landed jobs from Upwork and hired people from it, and it doesn’t matter if someone’s #1. Here’s what I look at:

• their portfolio headline

• if their photo stands out (Tip: put your headshot on a bright orange background)

• having something in their proposal that speaks to MY post.

If you’re going to commit to growing your business, just suck up the $15 fee. Think about it like this…

You can put $15 dollars into a Facebook ad and get a couple likes on your post.
You could go through the grind of cold calling.
Or you can put $15 into Upwork, and actually land a job.

Being able to land jobs from my home is well-worth the investment.

Productivity Hack to Get Sh*t Done

The first half of my day is about productivity. I try really hard to not take any sales calls, no email responses, and no looking at my phone until around 12-1pm.

I just do solid proactive work like getting proposals out, doing my cold calls or emails — whatever it is that I’m doing to prospect.
Then the rest of the day is kind of a win because even if I don’t get anything out of it, I’ve still moved the needle forward a little.

When you do that, it puts your mindset into taking action instead of reacting to things.

When I get on my computer and answer an email, that’s gonna draw my attention to something else. Then I’m like, “Oh, let me check the campaign.” Then I notice another email, and suddenly it’s 3pm.

Proactivity first, reactivity second.

One Weird Wealth Habit

W-I-I-D-W-O

What if it does work out?

Ask yourself this every single time you feel anxious or find yourself having those “What if it doesn’t work?” thoughts — because you WILL have them.

I went to this mastermind in Phoenix and met a guy who’s crazy successful. He tattooed “W I I D W O” on his right arm after writing it on there every day for two years — to keep his mindset in check.

Remind yourself over and over, as many times as it takes, that this is going to work out — no matter how many times you fail at first.

For New Entrepreneurs

1. Prospecting is everything. If you don’t prospect, you’re not gonna get clients. When you’re new at business and don’t have credibility or referrals, you need to pursue your first clients.

2. Niche down only once you’ve gotten a wide gamut of clients and you figure out who you actually enjoy working with. Focus on them and develop an expertise.

3. Stop being too proud to ask for help. If you were to go look at all the posts I’ve made in the LMV group, you’d see tons of moments of me trying to get unstuck. The people who seem to succeed in online business are the ones who find a community and use those connections to progress.

   
   

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