This week I turned down at least 3k worth of offers.
An agency owner reached out to ask me whether I could be a type of creative strategist for him and guide his team in making the right campaign decisions (without actually needing to do any of the work myself). He’d pay $1,500 per month per client…
If you’ve read "The Introverted Entrepreneur’s Guide to Thrive," you know I’m a hardcore capitalist.
So naturally, a gig like this is incredibly tempting for me… even though I have my own agency and digital product business (which I have neglected a bit since the end of April) and don’t really have time to do anything like that at all.
A tempting offer, yes, but also with a lot of uncertainty attached to it.
I hopped into a Zoom with the agency owner, and we chatted about the project scope.
The moment the call ended, I knew that I’d turn down the offer. Not because it doesn’t pay well enough or because I’m not the right candidate for it, but because this project lacks one major thing:
Clarity.
Clarity… that’s the thing we all crave so fucking much in our business, isn’t it?
This agency owner had no idea what he was even looking for, what kind of freelancer he needed for this, or how to solve his problems.
He had no clarity at all.
And usually, a project like this is bound to be a disaster.
I know this because I have been the clueless agency owner before (and still am most of the time) and the poor freelancing soul in a couple of projects like this.
The client doesn’t know what he wants, and I don’t know what is expected of me or what I should deliver.
It’s incredibly time-consuming to kick a project like this off, and nobody is really happy. After a couple of weeks, the collaboration then ends with a somewhat bitter taste on both sides.
Yeah, no thanks.
Not worth the money.
Not worth the trouble.
The same day, as if the universe wanted to test me again, a fellow Social Recruiting Agency owner reached out and asked me if I could build some funnels for her. She knew that I once offered white-labeling for other agencies and she found herself losing too much time building funnels herself.
I told her my price: 490 EUR per funnel.
I’ve built over 500 recruiting funnels in the last couple of years. A funnel takes me 2 hours, tops. So, that's a pretty good rate, and I know she can still make a very reasonable profit on that.
A couple of days later, she wanted to order two funnels.
The moment I saw the message, I knew:
Fuck, I really don’t wanna do this.
Again, it was about clarity.
But this time, I didn’t have the clarity.
I should never have even offered to do it in the first place. Again, capitalism, greed, profit… why not make 1k for half a day of work?
The thing is, though, I can barely manage to build the recruiting campaigns for my agency clients these days.
Brings me no joy at all.
Actually, that’s a bit of an understatement…
I fucking hate it. Can’t stand it anymore.
I’m just so god damn annoyed every time I see yet another crappy job description in a horrible company paying way too little and expecting far too much from applicants.
Clients expect me to magically make their jobs appealing to talent and generate top-quality candidates.
You know, I try my best, I really do. I come up with unique angles and creative ways to catch the audience's attention.
But they always find a way to make it unappealing again.
Water it down until it’s some lame, dull bullshit recruiting campaign, nobody cares for.
Stuff like:
“omg, we can’t post our salary.”
“No, don’t use the only good photo we have, there is a guy in it who left the company two weeks ago.”
“I have no fucking clue about marketing, but I think it’s better if you do this and that”
“Yeah, we’re looking for an assistant, but the assistant should have leadership skills or worked as a manager before.”
Fucking hell. I am so fucking done with this BS.
I get it; all clients are like that to some degree… But recruiters, honestly, they are the worst.
Ok..
Enough of my ranting.
So, I didn’t want to do these funnels because of a lack of clarity. Should I really do this? Is it worth the pain? Am I stupid for not taking this job? When I offered her my price, I didn’t know at all. I was totally clueless.
One moment, I thought, hell yeah. The next one, oh my god, what are you even thinking about doing it?
No clarity at all.
I’ve been an entrepreneur long enough to know:
If you have no clarity in business, you’re bound to fail eventually.
And yet, we all struggle with clarity in our business.
It’s what dozens of people have written me in one way or another as feedback to my guide:
“Really great stuff in the guide, BUT I don’t know if it works for me.”
“Is my positioning, aka my niche, really the right one?”
“My business is going nowhere, I’m so different, and nothing works. What should I do?”
A lack of clarity, uncertainty, anxiety, and an insane amount of overthinking seem to be common themes among introverted entrepreneurs.
As a result, we are stuck in analysis paralysis.
Overthinking, procrastinating, and not getting anywhere.
A vicious cycle that eventually leads to the one thing we secretly all fear the most:
WASTING OUR POTENTIAL and becoming failures.
So, the question is, how do we escape our doom?
The answer is to get clarity.
And how do we get clarity in business?
By taking action.
By figuring out what works and what doesn't.
By doubling down on what works and doing more like that.
To come back to the initial story…
I turned down these offers not because they were bad.
But because for the first time in a while, I had enough clarity to say:
“This is not my game anymore.”
I’ve spent the last few weeks reflecting deeply. Saying no. Observing. Thinking.
And now, finally, after gaining some clarity, I’m taking action again.
My action plan is pretty straightforward:
1) I’m refining my signature positioning. It’s not just introverted entrepreneurs. It was a bit too broad. I’ll be helping introverted course creators.
2) I’m rewriting my guide specifically for my new audience.
3) My Anti-Guru Lead Gen System was a “nice to have” course, but it doesn’t solve my audience's most pressing problems. I'm rebuilding it to help introverted course creators clarify what positioning works for them and finally get them to take action to have some success with their business.
Clarity is never something you stumble into.
It’s the reward for action.
(Even when it feels messy, chaotic, or unprofitable in the short term).
So if you’ve been stuck lately, I want you to ask yourself:
What offer, opportunity, or habit do you need to say “fuck no” to…
in order to finally get your “hell yes”?
Let’s get clear.
Let’s get moving.
Have a great week, my friend.
