Tim Stoddart

People like to think that other people start their careers with tons of advantages.

In most cases, they don’t.

Every company I’ve ever built started at zero.

My and my wife’s relationship started at zero.

You can’t start anywhere else.

So you might as well make peace with it and show up anyway.

👇

Typical marketing courses give you a couple hours of video and a few PDFs for hundreds of dollars.

Copyblogger Academy gives you 9 content marketing courses, ongoing education, and expert Q&A for just $99.

Hit the “visit my website“ button beneath my bio to learn more.

This hilarious photo has been going around on LinkedIn lately. Wanted to share. But...

I also wanted to remind you to be:

- Kind
- Forgiving
- Communicative

In the workplace and in life.

Try to make people feel good.

We all know we should.

But sometimes we forget.

Make a point of it.

P.S. My newsletter helps you build your company with better content, sales, and mindset. Hit my bio link to read past issues and subscribe.

You become qualified for a job six months after they hire you, not before. Nobody is truly ready on their first day or even their 50th.

You become qualified to sell services as a freelancer after working with a dozen clients, not before. You won’t be truly ready for months.

You become qualified to create content a year after your first post, not before. You won’t feel truly ready till you’ve written hundreds.

You become qualified to run a business after you’ve been doing it for two years, not before. You won’t feel truly ready for a long time.

I’m 13 years into entrepreneurship and own pieces of 10+ companies.

I still feel like I’m just figuring things out one day at a time.

Be unqualified. Try anyway.

That’s the only way to get better.

👇

1. Copyblogger Academy gives you 9 content marketing courses, ongoing education, and expert Q&A for just $99. That’s less than most marketing gurus charge for a couple hours of video and a few PDFs.

2. My partner and I also offer personal brand growth/coaching services starting at $350. Our clients are getting clients, customers, and followers every day. Hit the link in my featured section to apply.

Pick one of those and check it out.

Every day, I get dozens of:

1. Sales pitches
2. People asking for favors
3. People asking for free advice

The DMs and emails I answer almost always are just people being friendly.

If you want to build a network, don't rush to try and get an outcome.

Play the long game.

👇

9 marketing courses. Ongoing education. Expert Q&A.

All for just $99.

That’s what you get inside Copyblogger Academy.

Hit my website link to join us.

You can easily reach $1,000,000/year in 2026.

People stay stuck for one (fixable) reason:

They don’t charge enough.

When you look at the rough math, it’s simple:
- 10 clients @ $8,400
- 9 clients @ $9,300
- 8 clients @ $10,500
- 7 clients @ $12,000
- 6 clients @ $14,000
- 5 clients @ $17,000
- 4 clients @ $25,000
- 3 clients @ $28,000
- 2 clients @ $42,000
- 1 client @ $84,000

Here are 3 ways to charge more (without doing more work):

1. Serve clients to whom your service is worth more.

Say you rank all of these businesses first on Google:
➡️ Bakery ROI = $5,000
➡️ Plastic Surgeon ROI = $500,000
➡️ Enterprise software ROI = $5,000,000

Same work. Same result. Different ROI.

2. Deliver a Premium Experience.

It’s simple. Yet few check all of these boxes:
➡️ Respond quickly
➡️ Deliver on time
➡️ Be pleasant

3. Report on The Right KPIs

Clients won’t churn if they KNOW you make them money.

Most businesses don’t:
➡️ Learn the KPIs that matter to clients
➡️ Set up proper tracking 
➡️ Hold themselves accountable

Do those things, and you have a premium business.

P.S. Not sure how to get your first 10 clients? You can sign up for Copyblogger Academy to swipe the outbound system I used to generate $1,000,000 in sales last year. Hit my bio link to learn how to close your first $1,000,000.

I used this system to do over $10,000,000 in sales. Steal it from me and apply it to any goal:

1. Figure out which tasks move you forward most. For me, that was writing content and doing outreach to clients. Nothing else helped me grow my agency faster.

2. Make those daily non-negotiables. That'll likely mean doing them first before anything else. Force yourself to pull those levers. Every single day. No matter what.

3. Analyze how you're doing them and optimize. Doing the same ineffective thing over and over again won't help. You need to be smart too, not just consistent.

As I said, you can apply this to any goal.

A career builder might do these daily:

- Study and practice their skill
- Networking in their industry
- Apply for new jobs

Even life stuff like fitness can be turned into non-negotiables:

- Walk 8,000 steps
- Eat nutritious breakfast
- Drink 80 ounces of water

Find those primary levers.

Pull them daily.

Stick with it for years.

That's how you win.

P.S. My newsletter helps you build your service business with better content, sales, and mindset. Hit my bio link to read past issues and subscribe.