Day 1 trying the 9x12 Postcard Side Hustle - $5000 this month??

Auto-generated from the video, lightly formatted. Expect a few typos.

This is day one of the 9 by12 method and I'm going to take you on my journey of what I'm doing today. My name is Jose Morales and I'm doing the 9 by12 method. I came across the method I don't know maybe like a couple years ago but I've been in the restaurant industry for a little over 20 years and I didn't have time to do anything with that. I dealt with a lot of franchises and I did take some of the learnings from the 9 by12 method in the sense of the EDDDM part and I would sometimes coach uh franchises on doing EDDDM on their own although I knew that there was this 9 by12 method but couldn't really talk to them about that. And this morning I'm out here going to do a run, probably do a 5k run to get the day started.

And I'm going to take you on my journey what I'm going to be doing today, which is firing off emails. And I have a meeting today at 1:30 with someone that I met at a networking event. So going to go talk to him. And it's not going to be about selling to him cuz I he's not going to be an ideal client for that. But it's more about connecting with him and seeing, okay, what does he have?

anybody in his network that could possibly be a good fit and vice versa. But anyway, after all those years of not being able to do anything with the 9x12 again, I think I think it's been like maybe two years now. I'm like full on and doing the 9 by12 method. So again, I'm going to be taking you through my journey for today and for the next few days as well. But let's go ahead and start off the day by doing this uh 5K run.

Monday through Friday, I have an accountability call that I jump on where I talk about my personal goal, my business goal. So, I'm going to go ahead and jump on that real quick. Jose or Sena, go ahead. All right, I I can go. Yeah.

Uh personal was to do a 5K run. So, I did that this morning so I can get off my to-do list. And then professional, I'm meeting up with somebody that I met at a networking event. So, just going to go and spend about probably like an hour with him and just network some more and see if he has anybody in his network that could possibly be a good fit for what I'm doing. Awesome.

Awesome. Awesome. So, the call is usually pretty short. I just go over today's goals, which for the for business and personal, and that's pretty much it. And then we just go and execute on that.

You don't really have to go overboard. As you can see, I only had basically one personal goal and one business goal. But that doesn't mean that those are the only two things that I'm going to tackle today. That's just kind of a starting point just to build a foundation of this is what I have to get done today. So, obviously meeting up with the person that I met at the networking event is pretty critical.

And just to give you an idea here, so I've only been to I think three networking events and I have this many business cards already. Now I have this this database where I can sit there and follow up with them. I I'm still new to the whole networking thing and I have to continue to follow up with all these people here to continue to build that relationship. And that's why I'm going to be meeting with the person that I'm meeting with today. And then I also have to schedule a few more meetings to meet again continue to develop relationships with these people cuz not everyone on this here is an ideal client.

However, they possibly have people that they know in the community that would be a good fit. So, it's important to look to see if there's any networking events in your area. I happened to come across one that was on Facebook and then that's how I started. So, I went to one and that was before I even had business cards. I didn't have no flyer.

I didn't have anything. It was just the idea of I'm going to do this 9 by12. I'm going to go all all in. That one was a paid one. It was I think it was $10.

And I'm just like, well, let me go ahead and go to it. And I went to that and you know I basically walked in with an idea of the 9x12 method. And the the funny thing is that I had ordered samples and when I was leaving my house I did notice that there was a package at my front door. It was raining out and I was already running a little behind and this was going to be in the downtown area and I live a little bit aways from the downtown area. So I didn't even stop to look at the package.

So, I went to the networking event. Got to meet a lot of awesome people and the people there, they were interested in the idea. They thought the idea was pretty neat. But again, I didn't have anything to leave behind or anything. You know, I was just telling them that, you know, this was brand new and I was just launching it.

I didn't even have my LLC yet or anything. But when I got back home, I grabbed that package. It was the samples. So, if I would have just stopped and went and grabbed those samples, I would have been able to walk into that networking event with something in my hand to be able to show people. But that definitely helped me because at that point yet, I hadn't gone and visited any businesses yet and I hadn't fired off any emails yet.

It was just let me go and we'll say pitch the idea and then see if I could get anybody that would be interested in wanting to learn more or possibly even sign them up right there. even though I had no way to collect payment or anything like that. So, what I would recommend is going to Facebook, looking up at the events, type in networking, and there's typically going to be quite a bit of networking events. So, when I went to this one, uh, one of the people that I met, he was talking to me about how he goes to all these networking events throughout the week and he said that I should look into that and find other other events to go to. And you know, and honestly, at that moment, I hadn't even thought about, you know, looking for any more events.

The only reason why I came across this event, it just happened to pop up on my newsfeed. I wasn't actually searching for it. When I got back home, I got on Facebook and actually went to the events tab and then started searching for networking events and then I found another one. I signed up for that one. Went over there.

This time I still didn't have business cards at that time, but I did have one of the flyer sheets that somebody in the group or I think actually it it might be the flyer that Mitch made and I did that and I took that with me so that I at least would have something because I believe this networking event was maybe a few days after that first one that I went to. So, I still didn't have everything that I needed, but I was taking action because I needed to get this idea out there and tried to see if I could get anybody that would sign up, but I didn't get anybody to sign up. But right there, set up a meeting with another person. He does automations for businesses. So, we scheduled a time to meet obviously for for the postcard.

He's not an ideal client per se, but we met up and then he was talking to me about, you know, his automation platform and all that, which which was great. Obviously, I'm in the beginning phases, so automations isn't something that I wouldn't say that it wouldn't benefit me. Obviously, it would, but with only or so so far right now, I've only have sold one slot, and I can talk about that here a little bit more, but uh with only selling one slot, you know, it's right now is not the time for me to sit there and get all these softwares. However, he did say, "Hey, that he uses this this uh program to kind of help him track some of his tasks and whatnot." So, he said he would uh send that over to me so I could or he would create a free account for me so I could have a place to start, you know, putting in my my contacts and and all that.

So, almost like a CRM, not necessarily a CRM. So, I was just like, "Okay, that's that's cool." So, so I got that set up and that's what I'm using currently right now to, you know, basically for my for my pipeline and it's working out pretty good for me right now. As time goes on, as this evolves, then I will probably have to then evolve into a different software, possibly the 9x12 software that's the CRM out there. But again, right now, I'm not in that position to sit there and have that software.

And you know, speaking to that point since I was well, I'm still starting. You know, I didn't have a website either. I do have a website now. I just went ahead and and made one because somebody had asked me what was my website. So, I went ahead and just spent one one night creating that.

So, now I have the website. Then I ordered the business cards. I put a QR code on there as well. So, now I have the business cards. now have my information packet that I was that I'm using when I go out and visit uh businesses and I because of the community that Mitch put together and there's other 9 by12 people on there.

Uh everyone is always pitching great ideas and that is where then I saw that there somebody was talking about like an information packet and somebody said this is what I have. So then I just took some of those ideas and I think if I remember correctly, somebody even put like their template that we could all use. So I just downloaded that and modified it to fit what I'm doing to modify where I'm at and put my packet together. So now when I go visit businesses, I can leave a packet behind with my business card, all that information as well. So now they have the website, the email address, right?

So I have a professional email address that I'm using that's tied to my domain name. But before I had that, I had created an email address that I was given everybody in the in the beginning. But now I look like super professional, super super legit. So the main takeaway here is if you haven't started your 9x12 journey and you're wanting to go ahead and do it, don't sit there and wait till you have your website, you have your business card and all that. Like I said, I just jumped right in and I didn't have any of it.

And little by little I added a piece a piece piece and now I have everything. So I want to say I started it was like officially started. Well kind of officially when I actually went to the networking event and was just like okay I'm going to do this 9x12 thing. It was I want to say it was like the last week of April is when I started and I I happened to stumble across the interview that Mitch uh was on where he was then talking about what you know his story and where he talked about how he put this community together and that's how I came across Mitch. So I went ahead and jumped in.

I thought it was an awesome idea cuz it's just like okay uh this would be perfect. So I jumped on there and you know there he already had quite a bit of people that were in the group and you know the the discussion I mean it's very active. There's a lot of people that are always chiming in with you know here's what they did here's this here's a success. Uh so that's always helps you know keep me motivated cuz there's times where you know where I'm having those struggles where I wouldn't say nothing's happening but you know the sales aren't aren't taking place. And I think it was the first week of May is when I actually then created the LLC and got that set up.

And to be honest with you, I don't even have my my bank account set up yet. I do have the LLC and I do have my EIN number, but I just haven't gone over to the bank yet to get that set up. So, that's another task that I got to tackle. But right now, I'm not worried about it. The one business that did sign up with me, they wrote out a check.

So, I just still have the check. I wouldn't say that I'm not in a hurry to go cash it, but you know, I told him that it was going to, you know, be a little bit because I'm still working on getting more people on the card. On the card, I do need to follow up with him just to let him know that I'm still uh working on it. But what I have done is on my Facebook page, I I'll I'll say, "Hey, you know, I already have this business locked in and I've tagged him tagged his business on it so that he knows that I'm actively doing things to try to get people onto this onto this card." And the way that I was able to sign him up was I was going business to business talking to business owners and you know everyone likes the idea but I just wasn't getting any actual bites of like yeah sign me up.

This was my last stop of the day. Was almost not even going to go there cuz I was already getting you know burnt out cuz it's just like I was out there all day and I hadn't signed anybody. So I walked in there and talked to the owner and he's just like okay let's sit down. Let's talk about it. and we sat down, we talked about it.

I I showed him everything and he's and he's like, and this is a restaurant, so he's like, "Well, I got two restaurants." So, he ended up choosing the double slot. So, so that was a a big win, right? So, he did the double slot cuz he wanted to make sure that he had enough space to put both of his restaurants on there, which was pretty great. The other thing that I you know obviously I asked for referrals say by any chance do you know any other business owners that you feel would be interested in this or you know or that you could put me in contact with.

Unfortunately he didn't have anybody else. The other thing that I did was there's two other restaurant owners that I know and this is how I kind of started. So I talked to them about putting them on there for free. So basically I was for them I'm just doing like the little the little slot. But this way when I was going into businesses, I was talking to them about, you know, hey, I already have this restaurant.

I already have this restaurant on it. Now, when I go visit places, I say, "Hey, I have this, you know, this restaurant, this restaurant, and this restaurant. And because I have these restaurants on there, it's going to make this postcard sticky, and it's going to be able to keep your business inside the home longer because of these restaurants that are on there." You know, that's part of the pitch that I say in addition to other other things as as well. But I feel like by giving those two spaces would be great.

Now here's another thing too that allowed me to have the confidence to go business to business was you know the the networking event definitely helped out because when I was talking to people like nobody like everyone thought it was a great idea. So that was a good confidence builder uh even though I didn't sign anybody. So did that and one of my friends he works for a roofing company. He goes out and you know does the free roof inspections and all that. Uh, so I was just like, "Hey, can I tag along with you?"

And I can't remember if this was like before the before I fully went into the 9 by12 or not. I can't remember to be honest with you, but but I was just like, you know, you know, I just wanted to go check it out and get on some roofs. So, went with him to do that. And then part of what he was doing was going door to door, knocking on doors and asking people if they would like to do a free roof inspection. Obviously, you know, there's more to it than that.

So then I was just like, "Hey, let me go do some of those." So he basically walked me through the process of of the roofing process and educated me on it. And then I went out and started knocking on doors, trying to get people to schedule a free roof inspection so that he could come over there and do that. So with those two things, it allowed me to be able to go into the businesses. Now, I will say the very first one that I went to was was was Rocky and it was a chiropractor.

And when I first walked in, I I'm like stumbling through my through my words, right? Because I'm like trying to figure out how to how to even approach it. And the chiropractor, you know, he told me that he did something years and years ago, but right now he's just works off of it's all referral based. He doesn't do any advertising. But he he loved the idea though.

But one of his concerns, objectives was that or not objectives, objections was that hey, how do I know that this is actually going to be delivered? He said that when he did something in many years ago that he had paid for it and it never it never got delivered. Because of that, he tends to not really want to do anything related to any direct mail, especially if he's not the one that's going to actually be the one that to do it. So I w So I explained everything to him and make sure that he understood that I was local and that I would provide proof and all of that, but I wasn't able to seal the deal there. I do plan on visiting him once I get this card filled out and it's mailed off.

Then I going to do my rounds and go back to some of these places that I had already visited. be like, "Hey, just wanted to come back and show you this is the the card that was just sent out and see if I can kind of get them back in or or increase their interest to maybe have them actually sign up uh for this particular card." With some of these business that I visited, I I've had phone conversations with them, but just again just haven't closed the deal yet. So, now we're sitting at what, like the end of June. So, my initial goal was to get the first card out mid to late June.

and that's not happening. I still only have the the one double slot that's that's sold. Anyhow, but back to the roofing thing. So, with that, what I'm doing there is I'm going to create a free ad space. I'm going to I'm going to say for myself.

So, I'm going to put the the roofing the roofing ad on there. Again, it's got to be a small one for free roof inspections. And then so the plan there is then to funnel leads to me and then that way I can give those leads to my friend and then I get you know some some commission off of that. So double dipping if you will, right? So that's kind of my plan there and that's why I haven't pitched that to other roofing companies cuz it's just like well I might as well do do something for myself in addition to you know the ad space that I'm selling.

Right. So what I'm going to do now is I'm going to add more emails to my database right here. I came across some magazines. I'm going to go through those magazines and look at the advertisers. And then I'm going to go to their website or maybe their Facebook page and look for their email address, phone number, and all that so I can add it to to here.

And then once I have that compiled, then I'll start firing off some some emails. I just got an interesting email. So basically someone that I met at a networking event, they sent me an email. He's working on this idea to connect local businesses, uh, high school athletes and schools in in a kind of creative way. The part that involves me is by using a 9x12 postcards to help advertise a new barbecue meal.

And one of the restaurants employee that one of the restaurant employees create creates or created. And the postcards would go out to local families with a special code that tracks orders. And when enough people order the meal, the restaurant will officially add it to their menu. So that sounds pretty cool, right? To their menu.

And looks like looks like a pretty cool part here is that it supports the employee, the local farmers who provide the ingredients, and even the high school because they get a percentage from the promotion. It's looks like it's going to be a fun example of how local businesses can work together basically, right, to grow the neighborhood economy. So, I'm going to reach out to him and just try to get some more details on that. But looks like I would be presenting in front of the group, which would be great, right? So, I can continue to get the name out there, get the business out there, get the word out there of what I'm doing and Okay, cool.

So, I'm going to keep working on building that list so that I can fire off some emails. But, just wanted to say that real quick. That was pretty pretty cool email that I got. Okay, so I'm going to go meet up with the guy from the networking event. So, talk to him for probably about an hour or so and then uh I'll come back.

All right. So, I'm going to go in here and meet up with the networking event guy. So, let's check it out. Wrapped up the meeting with the networking event guy and he's the one that actually runs the group. Uh we had great conversation.

and he owns a marketing agency, a digital marketing agency that does SEO, Google guarantee, Google ads, website, builds websites, uh does Facebook, Instagram and and whatnot. So, so we talked shop, right? Uh we talked about all all that stuff and then, you know, also talked about what I'm doing and he's going to put me in contact with some of his clients that would be ideal people for the postcard. Uh super nice guy. It was a great conversation.

So again, if you're not doing any network marketing, I would or not network marketing, going to network events. I strongly recommend that you go to those, look them up. Again, the way that I did it, I just came across one that was on Facebook. Wasn't even thinking about it, but now that I'm aware of it, I am actively going to the events page and do and searching for networking and I'm trying to go to those events whenever I can. And again, like I said, I had nothing in the beginning, the very first time that I went to a networking event, you know, just felt way out of place.

Felt like imposttor syndrome, if you've ever heard of that, cuz here I am going into this event with these business owners and here I am with nothing. Uh, so I I I felt like an impostor going in there, but it it all worked out. Everyone was super nice. It make made contact there. So again, I highly recommend that you guys do that.

But I'm gonna go ahead and wrap it up. Hopefully you guys enjoyed the video. And on the next video, you know, it's just going to continue. We're going to keep looking up some email addresses, right, and phone numbers to continue to build that that list so that I can continue to fire off some emails. Uh probably the other thing that I'll probably do as well is then look up to see what pops up on Facebook that businesses that pop up on Facebook that I can then add them to the list as well so that I have that database so I can continue to fire off those emails, text messages, and I I really need to buckle down and start the the phone call.

So maybe I'll do some of that uh here in the next few days as well. So, all right. Hopefully you guys enjoyed it and I'll see you guys on the next