Day #1 — How to Become a Highly Paid Marketing Consultant in 50 Days (Live Case Study)

Adam Dukes
6 min readMay 25, 2017

This is a LIVE case study where I am documenting my journey to becoming a highly paid marketing consultant by blogging everyday for 50 consecutive days. It’s called “50 Days to Freedom: My Journey to 5 Figures in 50 Days“. At the end of the post, you will find links to all the previous days.

Why a lighthouse?

A guy online shared a story a few years back that I absolutely loved. This is going to be in my won words, so I apologize in advance, Jesse Elder.

A lighthouse and a tugboat have the same job: save ships.

However, they both go about it in drastically different ways.

A tugboat: Goes out in the water, and fights the elements to save ships Constantly pushing, pulling and smashing into other tugboats.

A grueling and tiring job.

A lighthouse: Stands in one place and shines its light. No pushing. No pulling. No fighting the elements. Ships out in the water can see the light, and can CHOOSE to come to shore for safety.

And I am trying to be a lighthouse with this challenge in shining my light, and sharing the ups & downs with you on this journey.

Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due

Gary Vaynerchuk talks a lot about documenting vs creating. Below you’ll find the video in where he goes into more detail about it…

Also, I just found a post in a Facebook group where a guy from Australia is doing something similar, and where I got the idea, so giving him majority of the credit for this challenge.

You can read his story here: Building an Agency in 90 Days

As soon as I read a couple of his posts, I opened up Medium and started writing.

This was not an idea 30 minutes ago, but I am going to run with it.

BACKSTORY

I got started with online marketing in 2010, so I am not new to it. I have dabbled in quite a few different business models over the years. Some have been successful, and most have been down right depressing.

Over the last 18 months, and looking back over the last 7 years, I have realized something…

I wasn’t doing the work required.

I was lazy, at times.

This is going to be a public journal/challenge/live case study where I document my journey on becoming a highly paid marketing consultant.

I have done this work in the past, so I am not completely starting from scratch. I am using the knowledge I’ve gained over the last 7 years. I currently generate revenue with online courses/products and some coaching, but looking to add consulting to the mix.

Often times when talking with coaching clients. I tell them….

Give me 90 days of focused action, on ONE business model, and you will gain traction. I guarantee it.

So, in a way, this is me taking a dose of my own medicine.

Now, I got started prospecting last Monday (5/15/17), so I am going to backdate and update as best I can.

Today is 5/25/17.

Going forward, from day #11, will be a more of a live recap of my day.

WHY AM I DOING THIS?

Accountability to myself. This is something many struggle with, myself included, and it’s held me back over the years.

I think it’ll be a lot of fun to do. More work on my plate, but know it will be worth putting in the late nights to update this journal.

And I am competitive AF, so I want to absolutely smash the goal of $10,000 in 50 days!

More importantly, this is to inspire others to show what is possible with focus, hard work & determination. I hope this motivates others to launch their own business/idea/movement/etc.

Or it could scare the shit out of them and they never escape the grueling, soul-sucking 9-to-5 for the rest of their time on this planet.

I sure as Hell hope not :D

WHAT IS THE GOAL?

Five figures in 50 days.

Meaning I will be generating at least $10,000 per month (five figures) in 50 days, starting from scratch.

Start Date: May 15, 2017

End Date: July 4, 2017 (was not planned)

This is about building the “American Dream”, and just so happens to end of July 4th, which I had NO idea — it’s fate :)

WHAT ARE YOU SELLING?

If a business has been around for at least 3 years, it is almost certain that they have hidden assets in their business that are not being fully employed. These hidden assets can increase sales, cash flow, and profit margins by 25% — 100%…or more.

Showing any business how to increase their profit margins in 60 days, WITHOUT spending a penny on advertising, is my ‘Godfather offer’, one they simply cannot refuse.

I will also talk with them about Facebook ads management services. My ‘Godfather offer’ is a free 7 day trial run, to prove I can produce a positive ROI for them.

Having an irresistible offer is a key component in marketing yourself online successfully.

Keeping this simple, I will only focus on these two offers as my foot in the door.

Over the years, I have been good at over complicating things — no more!

WHO ARE YOU SERVING?

I will be testing a few different industries with this.

To start, I will be focusing on businesses who can instantly benefit from optimizing their under utilized assets (email database, increasing retention, lead follow up, etc).

STRATEGY

I also want to hammer home that starting a busienss does not involve taking out a second mortgage on your home.

Or selling your dog or second child.

You can get started for little money, if you’re willing to put in the work.

I will be using a lot of cold emailing, my personal Facebook profile & Facebook groups. I plan to test Facebook ads at some point, but won’t invest too much in them.

The two biggest excuses I hear when people want to launch an online business are: No money & no time.

I might even get up enough courage to stop in and chat with business owners face-to-face.

DOCUMENTING

This will probably change as I go, but for now, I will share a quick lesson learned that day, so you get value with each post. A possible video mixed into them as well, as videos are much faster to produce.

I will also share what I did that day towards the challenge, along with my numbers.

DAY #1 Breakdown

I use an email scraper called Profit Renegade, which I bought in 2012 — and it still works today — absolutely amazing in the internet marketing software space.

Most software lasts a few months, at best.

Profit Renegade scrapes the Yellow Pages for business information. An absolute must have tool if you do cold calling, direct mail and/or cold email. I’ve used a lot of scrapers online, and it’s hard to find a better one than this.

I also use a software called MailShake, which is a simple cold email outreach tool. I am a new user to this, but really liking this tool, and for $9/mo, it’s a no brainier. You can put together email sequences (follow up) with it, and currently have a 3 part email sequence dripped out over 7 days.

Today, I sent out emails to Las Vegas chiropractors, landscapers & kickboxing gyms. My ‘Godfather offer’ was to help them uncover & optimize their existing assets.

Day #1 Numbers

Emails Sent: 69

Sales Calls: 0

Facebook Posts: 2

Leads Generated: 0

Revenue Generated: $0

If you’re getting value from any of these posts, please share with a friend.

If you have comments and/or suggestions, please leave a comment below!

Last, but certainly not least: Thank you so much for reading, it means more than you know!

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Adam Dukes

A stay-at-home-Dadpreneur, a marketing strategist, a cheeseburger connoisseur and a wastebucket full of useless sports knowledge.