My name is Logan and this is my blog.

Since I'm a teenager, I always dreamed to start online businesses, but school and money always slowed down my journey.

‍

Let me tell you how it went:

I always begin something and meticulously organize every detail behind my laptop. I spend incalculable hours on branding, web design, graphic, video editing, logo creation, forms, social media profiles.

‍

Everything had to be flawless before launch. I was spending months planning and making things perfect so that when times comes to share it with friends, I feel confident enough – my ways to protect things while avoiding rejection and failure.

‍

And when I finally did launch, I had tell friends and family so they could look at my marvelous new, (soon-to-be-unsuccessful) online business. I was unconsciously trying to show that everything was fine, business was "okay" but it was not.

‍

When you give yourself this new entrepreneurial identification, you start to realize people think that’s who you are. This brand-new title accomplish a piece of your new identity goal. You are feeling good about yourself before even getting started, plus you’re less likely to succeed.

‍

Next, when it finally came time with my business partner and I to market our business in the real world, reasoning took over.

‍

Results were not seen immediately, motivation was still there, but I could see my bank account in negative at the end of each week which was really hard.

‍

Now, one thing you must know is that nothing was working BUT I was learning a lot...

‍

And yes I know you heard the quote "you learn more from failures than success" a million of times. But I was tired of it! I got to a point were I had one more shot to start something new before having to go work 5 to 9 because I'd spent all of my student loan money into the business (yes I was in College when it began).

‍

This Web Design Agency allowed me for the first time to see the light. Here are my theories why:

• I learned enough about myself (and from my countless failure projects) to make it work.
• I launched knowing everything was not perfect.
• I went outside my comfort zone, put myself in front of the camera and published an online course.
• I didn’t tell any friends about it until I finally launch the course.

‍

Most bloggers or entrepreneurs who write “About Me” pages focus on how awesome they are and brag about all of their professional accomplishments.

‍

Don’t get me wrong, I do like a successful story.

‍

But even beyond a successful story, I like the story of the person who has almost nothing and then gets it back all together.

‍

So here’s my story – I hope it gives you an idea of who I really am.

‍

1996 - FROM THE NONEXISTENCE TO A REAL LIVE HUMAN BABY

‍

I was born on June 8, 1996, in a small town near Paris, France.

‍

Eager to hit the ground, I was the second newborn son to my amazing parents Valerie and Franck, and we lived in a small town 30 minutes away from Paris.

‍

One of my first memories, and the highlights of my days was when I was around 4 years old playing with my older brother. One on each side of this blue horse and just swinging it as much as possible to the point where one of us will fall (already liking risks).

‍

The 2000s – When I Discovered 2 Passions

‍‍One was motorcross and the second was tennis (two completely different sports I know...)

‍

At the age of 5, I was able to ride my red Piwi Honda QR thanks to my dad who was passionate and racing motocross at the time.

‍

At the same time, I was also starting "tennis" 2 minutes away from my parent's house. I wrote tennis in quotation marks because at that age, it is more about improving coordination than actually playing tennis.

‍

A few years later, I started competing in both sports and I was among the best in France. I was winning races in motocross and winning tournaments in tennis. My brother was doing the exact same thing and was better than me at both (of course...) which motivated me every day because I wanted to be the best (already) but one day everything changed...

‍

2006 - My First Tough Choice

I started getting sponsorships in both sports, tried to balance practices, tournaments, races etc... It was too much driving for my parents and too much for a 10 yo kiddo.

‍

I had to make a choice...

‍

Tricky position when you just won the regional championship in tennis and motocross right?

‍

Well... I chose tennis because it was less stressful for my mom, less mechanic for my dad, and for me, it was "a little bit" less dangerous and more accessible to go practice.

‍

So that's what I did, practice, practice and practice till I got to high school and decided to be home schooled to play even more. I loved the idea of being independent and do the things I truly loved.

‍

At the same time, I was trying to travel as much as I could but I could never afford the big tournaments because tennis is a sports were a very few people will help you. It is a sport where you are on your own with your coach and parents. If you don't have money, you barely have a chance to make it. And even if you have money, you need to be among the top 100 in the world to live from it so at the age of 17 I gave up the idea of aiming for pro.

‍

2016: When A New Adventure Started

That year, I decided to move to the US because an incredible man, my coach, offered me full scholarship to play tennis in a top division II NCAA school and a chance to pursuie an education at the same time.

‍

Moving to Austin, TX allowed me to discover who I really wanted to be and that person had to be an entrepreneur. For me, working for myself was just like I was used to when I was home schooled. I loved the idea of being at home, have my own schedule and do the things I loved.

‍

So I chose to study Entrepreneurship and surround myself with motivated, smart students and successful professors. I had to study harder than anyone during my first year to get used to a new language I did not know at all (English).

‍

This did not stop me from starting my first business experience with my best friend and (still to this day) business partner. We were both sharing the same entrepreneurial mindset and were eager for success.

‍

Every day we were learning, researching and working hard trying to grow our Instagram to become an influencer (in a specific niche) and get money from shootouts, build a online store etc... We grew to 20K followers in a few months but realized that we were making almost no money out of it after 6 months so we gave up on it. Therefore, one of the main things we took out of it was that we learned so many tricks to grow organically on Instagram that we knew were going to be helpful for any other business we will be launching next.

‍

Right after this first experience, we decided to get a mentor who helped us launch a drop-shipping eCommerce business. I started by building the website, and learned a lot of different strategies to find the rare products that we would be selling in mass. My partner was in charge of all the marketing and communication part and I was in charge of all the design aspect of the company as well as the Instagram.

‍

A few months go, and we still don't see the break-even point coming near. We kept on working hard as I was still trying to balance school and represent it playing tennis traveling everywhere.

‍

6 months after the company was created, I was really struggling to pay rent as I was investing all of my money into the business and my school.

‍

Until my buddy and I had a moment of reflection on our future and asked ourself...

‍

"Are we really passionate about the business model we are having? Are we proud of what we are selling? And is it something we see ourselves doing for the next 5 years even if things pick up?"

‍

The answer was "not really" to all of the above. The reason why we were doing it was because my partner and I thought we could make a lot of money out of it. And I still believe we could have if we would have consecrated 100% of our time into the business, write a sh** ton of blogs, find the Winning product that would have allow us to have a really successful eCommerce store.

‍

But no! We needed something different BUT this time I could not financially afford another failure. I was taking all my money from my student loan and running out of it with approximately 3 more years left...

‍

August 20th, 2018: From Being Broke To Being Independent

To this day, a lot of things changed because my business partner, another good friend of ours, and I decided to meet and start a lead generation service agency. We knew everyone's skills, so the role each would have in the agency.

‍

For my part, it was web design, graphic design, video editing.

‍

Now, as you might know already (or not), your first client does not come a few weeks after starting an agency. There are so many little pieces you need to think about and put together to get started and begin reaching out to clients.

‍

Which made me in a more uncomfortable financial position (again)... I started seeing negative numbers in my bank account at the end of the next 3 months.

‍

Until the agency got its first client... !!!!

‍

But that was not enough for any of us obviously because of the split (3 people + the agency).

‍

We knew this business will be working. We were a young team with strong skills at every position. It was just a matter of time.

‍

Now, as a designer in a lead generation service, I was in a tricky position as you can probably guess because...

‍

I did not have unlimited work to do for it... I needed more so my best friend (and business partner) took a step back and asked me the right question....

‍

"What is it that you truly loved doing for the past 3 years, and can see yourself working on every day for the next 5-10 years?"

‍

My answer was as simple as "Web Design".

‍

My First Paying Client

So we started offering web design to our clients through the agency, and "touché"... soon enough, my partner negotiated a $2500 deal for a website.

‍

My first thought was, "I'm gonna go ahead and do it on Wordpress because I've built 5 other sites on that platform. It's gonna be easy with a template and page-builder".

‍

I spent days trying to find the perfect template, the best page builder in 2018, look for the colors that go together, preparing a form for the client with all the elements and info I needed...

‍

Once I did all of it, I started working on the website itself and a few weeks after, I delivered the site to the client.

‍

I got him on the phone, he told me that the website was great, I showed him how to edit things on his website and we hang up.

‍

Easy, but not that easy...

‍

A few weeks later, I asked for a testimonial and it turned out that he did not like the website at all afterward... Why did he not tell me that on the phone? I have no clue but on the testimonial, he clearly said that the website was too basics, and that he could have done it on its own...

‍

Let me tell you... I was not feeling good AT ALL reading it.

‍

I was extremely frustrated because I felt like I did not have much freedom in terms of design with what Wordpress, Elementor, and the theme were offering...

‍

From that day, I promise myself it would be the first and last bad review I get from a work I do.

‍

I needed the best tool and once I found it, I reached back to that same client and offer him a new deal...

‍

If you are super curious about how it turned out, you can find the end of the story in this blog post.

‍

I WANT TO TAKE A SHORT MOMENT AND TELL YOU HOW THANKFUL TO YOU FOR BEING ON THIS PAGE.

If you made all the way here, I sincerely appreciate the time you took to read this and you have to know that I deeply value every connection I make from this blog.

‍

I’m here for you as both a web designer/blogger guide and as a friend. I try to return every email and want to hear your story – both the good and the bad.

‍

I want to provide a supportive community where new web designers, young entrepreneurs can collaborate, provide encouragement, and work smarter.

‍

Thank you for reading.

‍

‍

Last Updated on May 25th, 2020