The 1 thing you need before your 1st client

It’s 3am and I stink of stale pizza after working a graveyard shift at Dominos.

I’m hunched over my shitty 8-year-old laptop.

Blue light illuminates my exhausted face.

I’m scheduling tweets for the next day.

“If I don’t post every day, my head explodes.”

This is the mantra I repeated to myself since I began posting in September 2020.

At this point, I’d posted content for 3 months straight.

• 3 months of shitty growth.

• 3 months of feeling like an idiot.

• 3 months of making a whopping $0.

I was working night shifts at Domino's, taking a full college course load, and using every spare minute to build something most people thought was ridiculous.

The War You Secretly Fight

I thought the hardest part of making money online was learning to write, build an audience, or land clients.

I was wrong.

The hardest part was convincing myself that it was even possible.

Convincing myself that some kid with a $200 used laptop and a garage-sale desk could break free from the matrix.

It’s funny, everyone sees the END result of business…

• The money.

• The lifestyle.

• The freedom.

But nobody sees the war happening inside your head every single day.

The voice that whispers: "Who do you think you are?"

The doubt that creeps in at 2 AM: "Maybe I'm just not cut out for this."

The fear that gnaws at you: "What if I'm just wasting my time?"

I call this the "Proof Problem."

It's the catch-22 of success:

You need proof to believe in yourself, but you need to believe in yourself to create proof.

Most people get stuck in this loop forever.

• They wait for validation before committing.

• They look for guarantees before taking risks.

• They need evidence before they have faith.

And that's exactly why they never break through.

On December 4th, 2020, I Made The biggest Bet of My Life

I refused to tolerate any more of the bullshit that society told me was “normal.”

I refused to accept I needed a degree to be successful.

I refused to accept I needed to work a job I hated to make good money.

I refused to accept I had to work 40 years at a job before I could be free.

So I dropped outta college, quit my job, and went all in on building my business.

I didn’t know how, but I told myself “F*ck it, I’m gonna make this work no matter what.”

Now, I wish I could say I starting landing clients right away and it was all sunshine and rainbows…

But I struggled.

• I struggled to find my niche.

• I struggled to understand business and content.

• I struggled to find a clear roadmap to follow.

And most of all, I struggled to believe in myself.

If I didn’t hold so much hatred toward the traditional path society laid out, I’m not sure I woulda kept going.

But I didn’t give myself any other option.

I had faith that if I was consistent, I’d figure things out.

So…I kept writing, learning, and hell, I even dropped $6K on a mentor (when I only had $8K in my bank account).

And that brings me to the most important lesson I’ve learned…

You Don’t “Have Faith,” You Build It

Everyone is waiting to build proof before they have faith in themselves.

But here’s the brutal truth:

Proof doesn’t come before faith. It comes after.

Faith isn’t sitting in a church hoping for a miracle.

Faith is dragging your tired, skeptical ass to the computer at 2am, even when all the “proof” suggests you’re an idiot.

It’s waking up early to write when no one’s reading.

It’s sending that DM to a potential client when you’re 99% sure they’ll ignore you.

Most people wait for permission to believe in themselves.

They wait for someone to say, “You’re good enough.”

They wait for the money to roll in before they take themselves seriously.

But I didn’t believe in myself because I landed my first $3K client.

I landed that $3K client because, for the first time in my life, I decided to believe in myself, without proof.

Same with my Growth Ghost member, Mike Bolton…

Same with my Growth Ghost member, Magdalena…

Same with my Growth Ghost member, Thomas…

If you’re waiting for proof before you bet on yourself, you’re going to be waiting a long, long time.

Faith before proof is the only way it works.

Happy Saturday.

Your Canadian friend,

Dakota “Have Some Faith” Robertson

P.S.

If you want help landing your first client as a ghostwriter, or just wanna scale tf up, click here to apply for my coaching program.