Road to $1M ARR day 27/60: -$25K in ARR and somehow i'm smiling

going upmarket with conviction and focus.

Day 27 of the $1M ARR sprint.

Lost a client today. After 6 months, our collaboration ended. -$25K in ARR.

No contract meant they could leave anytime. And after 6 months of solid work, that’s exactly what happened.

But this story isn’t about the loss.

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We closed them on our old entry offer: content ghostwriting and LinkedIn ads only.

That offer doesn’t exist anymore.

Today’s entry point involves all 3 layers: content, ads, and outreach.

Then we scale within that offer based on all the GTM playbooks we implement.

What made this collaboration interesting was the extra mile i went. Multiple 1 to 1 sessions with one of their co-founders about GTM direction.

Creative flows i enjoyed thinking and designing such as daily automated lead magnets based on something unique their ICP desperately wanted.

A podcast with an angle nobody in their industry had touched yet.

But here’s where it got messy.

Within the budget constraints, i couldn’t fully own what we built.

Too many ideas. Automation setups. Ways to accelerate their closing. All would’ve pushed us into losing money.

So i took shortcuts. Gave them SOPs and guidance for no extra money but they had to set the flows themselves.

Which isn’t how it should be done. My role is to enforce “MUST” does to get ROI. That’s why people come to me and pay us.

Which means being super clear about best practices and what’s not a way to operate.

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This is exactly why we’re going upmarket.

i only want to sell painkillers, not vitamins. And the way we build our painkiller GTM flows? Expensive. Worth it. But expensive.

Clients don’t want five agencies or 3 mid full-time employees. They want one partner who owns the entire GTM motion.

That requires budget to execute properly.

This lesson is worth more than the $25K we lost.

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Had another call today. Existing customer. 12 minutes.

Happy client, some new implementations to discuss. But within those 12 minutes, i uncovered gold.

Remember that upsell we talked about 2-3 weeks ago that didn’t go through? His head of GTM blocked it. Today he shared the exact objection.

And i know exactly how to prove that objection isn’t accurate.

Time to close that upsell.

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Building a business isn’t about holding onto every dollar. It’s about recognizing which dollars are worth fighting for.

The client we lost today needed something we couldn’t deliver within their constraints.

Better to part ways than compromise our standards or lose money trying. And when you deliver at 100% you part ways in the best possible terms.

Thank you M. for the nice words you sent “Super happy about our collab. you’re the kind of guy who never backs down from a challenge and has the kind of communicative energy that fuels crazy actions. i’m sure we’ll find a way to work again soon together!!”

One door closes. Another’s about to open all within an 8hour range lmfao.

My dopamine baseline will be so f***** at the end of this challenge haha i’ll need a detox for at least 24hours (see here you can recognize the workaholic in me).

ARR: $681K → Target: $1M | Days remaining: 33

See you tomorrow 👊

ps: sending this at 11:30 pm ET :))

O.

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accidentally built a million ARR GTM agency by refusing to spray & pray. now racing to $1M just to prove cold emails gurus wrong.

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