Day 3 in Lisbon. Yesterday, I ambled to a factory area outside the center, which has been converted into a bunch of restaurants and design shops. As soon as I stepped into this area, a strange feeling swept over me…
I had been here before.
I had been to Lisbon one time before, for two days, seven years ago, back in 2017.
Back then, I still drank alcohol and much of the trip was a blur — either horribly hung over, or drinking more to try to cope with the hangover.
This time, when coming to Lisbon, I tried remembering where I had been and what I had done during those two days back in 2017. I couldn’t remember. But yesterday, I knew at least one thing I had done. I had been to this factory area before.
“And there’s a Mexican restaurant somewhere around here,” I said to myself.
Sure enough, there was a Mexican restaurant right where I suspected it should be. I walked inside. It had a boxing ring right in the middle of it, with a dining table in the middle of the ring, and lucha libre decoration on the walls. I recognized this place. I had eaten here before.
Somehow, out of about 50 million restaurants in Lisbon, I had managed to accidentally stumble into the same restaurant I had been in seven years earlier.
And now for some entirely different news:
Yesterday, I asked my readers what frustration they are currently having.
I got a good number of responses including some unexpected ones:
“… son is now talking about having a PS5 despite only having had a Nintendo Switch for a matter of days.”
“Right now, I’m in Warsaw, and I’m shocked by how nice and kind the girls here are. As a result, I hate the idea of going back to [home town] and trying to date there.”
”My greatest frustration is watching people who have never opened a book in their lives create million-dollar companies.”
On the other hand, many of the reported frustrations were not a surprise. They came from both business owners and copywriters, and were some variant of “I’m looking for more clients or customer or leads.”
Somehow, not very accidentally, by asking this question, I managed to stumble back into the same worry-cloud I had been in seven years earlier, back in 2017, when I was only two years into working as a freelance copywriter.
I managed to make a living from month one of starting to work as a copywriter, back in August 2015.
But it was always a hunt, and there was always a fair chance of going to bed hungry. Not literally — I could always afford food to eat and a place to sleep, and I could even take a trip now and then and waste some money on alcohol.
But I never knew quite how much money I would make by the end of the month. Half the time, it was less than I would have been okay with.
Back then, my interpretation of the problem was the same as the interpretation of a lot of the people who replied to me yesterday.
“I’d like to have more consistent money coming in… so what I need is more good leads… some new source of leads… or maybe an improved way to convert leads I already have.”
Reasonable enough. But wrong, at least in my case.
I realized something only years later, around 2021 or 2022. It’s the only regret I have with regard to my entire copywriting career, and the only thing I would change if i could go back. It’s this:
I spent way too much time looking for new clients and even working with new clients… rather than simply getting more out of the clients I already had.
And that’s my suggestion to you as well.
If you would like to make more consistent money, focus less on looking for more clients or customers. Get more out of the ones you’ve already got.
And if you say there’s nothing more to be had out of them:
You’re creative. That’s why you’re working as an entrepreneur or as a copywriter. So use that creativity.
I guarantee you there are ways, often easy and quick ways, to make new money from old customers or clients. You have everything you need already. It’s just a matter of putting together the pieces.
Of course, if you don’t want to put together the pieces, and if you actually have an email list of previous customers or clients, then write me. Maybe I can put the pieces together for you.