We all have a story to tell, this is a little piece of mine…
Some of us are better at sharing our stories than others.
I am someone who is traditionally not a very good storyteller.
My fiance, on the other hand, is so much better at telling stories. (She also remembers things in amazing detail, which can sometimes get me into trouble 😉 )
But before you click your back button or close this window and continue living your life, let me tell you why I’m sharing this story for the very first post of this blog.
I want to start our relationship off on a good foot.
I don’t expect you to stick around this blog if I hide behind a curtain like the guy from The Wizzard of OZ.
I want us to have a relationship that’s more than just me creating content and you skimming through it not getting any value from it. I actually want to serve you.
I want to get to know readers like you and what you’re going through on your journey in hopes that I can help you along the way.
I’ve made a deal with myself that if I could be even a little part of your success story, all this work that I’m putting into this will be worth it.
Does that sound fair?
And for the record, I don’t particularly like talking about myself. Lord knows I’m not that good at it yet. But, my intention is to help you in any way I can with what I know and what I’ve learned through my experiences.
By the end of this post you’ll discover:
- Why becoming a Janitor was actually a blessing in my life.
- What changed everything for me and can change everything for you, too.
- What you can expect from me and this blog.
So, let’s dive in…
The backstory…
It’s an old copywriting trick to start in the middle of the story so that you get right to the good stuff.
But, because I’m not trying to write copy right now, let’s just quickly cover some backstory facts.
I was born and raised in Southern California. My mom was a single mother who did her best to raise my sister and me right. We moved around apartments a lot because they’d raise the rent so we’d have to find the next deal. I was always in either baseball or football and I also enjoyed playing World of Warcraft for hours on end. I was a secret geek.
I enjoyed school and did very well (Mom made sure of it). I played football in high school, sang in the choir and even performed in the spring musical my junior year! (I was Charlie Brown in You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown). Eventually, I graduated high school with honors and got accepted to a local private Christian university.
And that’s where this story begins….
I knew what I wanted in life…
I have always been into design and drawing.
I’d consider myself a creative kid growing up. I loved to draw, paint, play instruments, make songs, and sing.
And I was relatively good at all those things. But when it came time to pick a major for college I was told to be practical, so I choose business.
Even though I went the practical route, I knew what I really wanted in my heart was to have and live a life of creativity, freedom, and family. If I could get there, I knew I’d be happy.
It turned out that I actually enjoyed business school. I would take what I was learning in classes and try to use it in my little website projects.
It was around this time that I really started understanding the power of the online world and how it was possible to have an online business.
I started to read blogs like smartpassiveincome.com and entrepreneurs-journey.com. I listened to podcasts about business, marketing, personal finance. I was a voracious learner.
And I still am today.
I think that’s one of my strengths.
Then I ran into a wall…
Things really changed for me when I had to leave school during my senior year.
I was no longer going to be able to keep my job on campus and I had to painfully tell my friend, who’d I’d been living off-campus with, that I’d have to move out because I wasn’t going to be able to afford rent.
That was hard because we had been through so much together trying to get the place we’d been living in. At one point before that place, we were a couple of days from having to sleep in our cars because we didn’t have a place to live.
But that’s another story for another time.
Fortunately, I was able to move into my Grandma’s house in Lake Elsinore, California.
Thank you, Jesus, for my amazing family!
Then I became a janitor…
After being unemployed for about 6 months and living off my savings, I finally landed a part-time job as a Christian K-12 School Janitor.
I never thought that I would become a Janitor. I’d always thought highly of myself because up until that point I’d always been so successful at all the things I’d done.
I was good at school. I was good at sports. I was good at singing. I was even good at World of Warcraft!
At that time, I never thought that I’d be the one to take a Janitorial position. At first, a small part of me thought that I was better than that…
But God humbled me.
The week I got my first paycheck was the same week I completely ran out of money in my savings.
I was broke.
And God provided for me through that job.
Talk about a blessing!
Now when I look back, I can clearly see all the ways God was working in my life but at the time I felt afraid that I would be stuck at that job forever.
I was working with people who had been working as a Janitor for longer than I’d been alive.
And even though I was blessed to be there, I didn’t want to stay there.
I felt like I’d been called for more and I was afraid that the calling was a lie and that I was just another dreamer.
I felt like a failure and thought to myself, “Is this what my life is going to be like?”
That question stirred me to look for answers.
Then I got serious about personal growth and development…
While working at the school as a Janitor, I started to go back and watch videos from an online course I had purchased.
It was one of the first major investments I made in myself outside of college.
The course was about starting a consulting business.
The course itself wasn’t cheap. I had to go into credit card debt to buy it.
But, I was convinced it would give me the skills I needed to get out of my situation and start working towards living the life I wanted.
The life of creativity, freedom, and family.
After, going through the course, I started to implement pieces here and there.
I eventually told one of my friends from high school what I was up to and he referred me my first paying client.
I was nervous but excited!
I would rush home from a night of cleaning toilets to sit and learn about Facebook Ads, Funnels and Market Research.
Things were starting to look up.
The discovery that changed everything for me…
I wish I could tell you that I crushed it for that client and he went on to become a millionaire…
But that wasn’t the case.
I created a website for him and started running Facebook Ads with some, but not much, success.
I was just learning as I went. I was totally a rookie but what mattered was that I took action.
And I learned something during that time that I will never lose.
I learned the power of will and choice.
If I’m honest, it’s a battle I still fight today; knowing I have the power to choose to take action or I have the power to give excuses. We all have that same power.
During that time as a janitor with a paying Facebook Ads client, I choose to stop looking at life as something that happens TO me and start looking at life as something that happens FOR me.
I’m sure a famous personal success speaker has said something like that before… but what if we all saw our life that way?
What if we choose to assume positive intent and look for the good before looking for the bad?
It’s a harder way to live because it doesn’t come naturally to most of us, but I think it’s also a more fulfilling, productive, and positive way to live.
Opportunities are where you look for them…
I was having a blast learning about Facebook Ads and Funnels, but I knew I needed more experience.
I wanted to get a job in my field, so I choose to put myself out there on one of those job finder websites.
I still remember being on my laptop, learning from one of my courses, when I received an email from someone at a company called Pulse Marketing.
I probably have the record for the fastest response to an outreach email because it hit my inbox and I responded within the same minute.
A couple of months later I was hired on as a Project Coordinator and eventually shifted roles to their Digital Media Specialist, managing social media and large budgets of digital ad spend for multiple clients.
Conclusion…
There are so many more stories I have to share that have taught me great lessons.
In case you were wondering, I did go back to school to finish my degree and make my mom proud. Graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, Cum Laude. Not bad, eh?
Today, I manage thousands p/m in ad spend for my own private clients. I left the agency after 2 years of service and growth to follow my passion for education and helping people.
Looking back, I can see how God placed me in situations and with people that made a significant impact on my journey. I rightly have to thank Him for all he’s done for me in my life so far. There’s no doubt, I wouldn’t be where I am today without God.
What you can expect from me and this blog…
So, if you’ve read this far, or just skimmed through (that’s okay, too 😉 ), all I have to say is thank you!
Now, what can you expect from me and Scaling.co moving forward?
I want to create content that is helpful for YOU and your business RIGHT NOW. The focus of this blog and Scaling.co, in general, is to help entrepreneurs grow and scale businesses online.
For now, my goal is to publish at least one value-packed piece of content each week. Consistency is key, and I don’t want to get burnt out too quickly, so if you have any blogging or general content creation tips please share them below!
Is this blog for you?
Are you an entrepreneur who has a business or brand you want to grow and scale online while remaining profitable?
Perfect! My goal is to create resources that are helpful to you and your struggles. Stay tuned and follow me on our social channels!
Alright! That’s it for this one.
What’d you think of my first post? What’s your story? Let me know in the comments!
Cheers,
Peter
P.S. Thank you for reading this! I’d love to have you join our community of like-minded individuals, all on a journey to master and profitably implement digital marketing strategies to grow brands and businesses online, fast.