How I Got $1M+ in Ad Funding, a Celebrity Partner, and 174 Leads for $500… Without Losing Equity
"𝐂𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐭𝐲 - 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭 - 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐞 - 𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 If you’re constantly broke, it’s typically because you lack one of those 4 things." I’ll never forget the day when @Travis Sago posted that on one of his Facebook posts. I was having a rough month, as a series of bad events had happened in my life within less than a 30‑day span… #1 My dad had 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐫𝐲. #2 𝐈 𝐡𝐚𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐮𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐥𝐲 𝐛𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐲 𝐦𝐨𝐦 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐕𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐳𝐮𝐞𝐥𝐚, since foreigners were having a hard time there due to the political situation. #3 My vehicle’s 𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐤𝐞 𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐧 and almost exploded. #4 My niece, who I’ve raised like a daughter, 𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐤𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐝. #5 When my 𝐦𝐨𝐦 came back to the country, the first thing that happened to her was that she fell down the stairs and 𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐤𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐥𝐞𝐠, limiting her ability to work and giving her A LOT of pain. And the worst part? 𝐈𝐧𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐝 𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 any of those things, so I had to practically cover ALL of those expenses. Fortunately, I had the means to respond, but damn, I left my bank account waaay emptier than I wanted. It was a wake‑up call to realize how life can change in a second if you don’t have the financial means to deal with emergencies that might occur at any time. And 𝐰𝐡𝐲 𝐚𝐦 𝐈 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬? Because this realization made me remember that post I mentioned at the beginning, and how I was missing one of those without realizing it for a loooong time. In my case, the one that was missing the most? The “𝐜𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧” aspect. Historically, every time I had a new business idea, I would do the following: • Spend several 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐡𝐬 saving money (or sometimes using a bit of debt). • Spend a massive amount of time on 𝐛𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 “𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐢𝐠.” • Only to realize that by the time it’s ready, the idea wasn’t as good as I originally thought, since it wasn’t solving a deep enough 𝐏𝐑𝐄𝐒𝐄𝐍𝐓 𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐧 and/or the market conditions had changed. (This is what happened to a blog I created a couple of years ago called https://yourdominicanguide.com/, which by the time it got ranked by Google, the AI stuff came up, and Google started giving AI answers, drastically reducing the traffic and making the blog less needed.)