Last year, I paid Chris Orzechowski a chunky sum to help me grow my freelance business.
As part of his HyperGrowth coaching program, I’d get an email from him every week with 3 questions:
- What were your wins from this week?
- What’s ONE thing you’re going to do next week to grow your business?
- Anything you need help with?
Before we get into my learnings, I recently updated my eBook on email automations called Eight Figure Flows.
It has 15 email automations you need to make passive revenue from your email list.
Each automation also comes with a specific segment, content framework, and examples from leading DTC brands.
It’s totally worth the price ($0) if you ask me.
Grab your free copy on 15 email automations here.
Anyway, here are 5 things I learned from Chris after working with him for 12 months:
1. Your email list is your biggest asset
It took me 1.5 years of freelancing to start my own email list.
If I started today, it would be the first thing I’d do.
Here’s why…
Your email list is one of the few marketing assets you truly own.
Your SEO rankings can go to zero after an algorithm change.
Your Meta ads account can get shut down.
TikTok can get banned in your country.
But let’s say you woke up one day, and all these things happened at once…
As long as you have your email list, you can figure out a way to market to these people, and keep the engine running.
Now, to be clear…
I’m NOT telling you to stop doing SEO, or turn off your ads (that’s a really stupid thing to do).
What I’m telling you is that you need to convert that traffic to your email list at all costs.
Because then the power of retargeting comes into play, which costs next to nothing.
2. Every brand needs a mission
In his book, the MOAT, Chris talks about the core principles of a successful ecommerce business.
One of the things he mentions is mission.
(And no we’re not talking about planting a tree for every sale you make, which is greenwashing btw 😉 )
I’m talking about getting emotional buy-in from people.
Truth is, in 2026, there’s probably a dozen other brands selling the exact same thing you are.
So how do you actually stand out and convince people to go through the inconvenience of buying from you (especially at a higher price)?
By standing for a cause bigger than just “making money.”
It’s the only way you build a loyal group of fans who want to keep buying from you.
Because whenever someone buys from you, they’re subconsciously also saying “yes” to these questions:
“Do I want to be associated with this brand?”
“Does this brand fit my value system?”
“If I was hanging out with my friends, and they found out I’m using this brand, would I be proud of it?”
You need to let your customers know what you’re about, so you can start catering to their lifestyles, aspirations, and the type of people they’re striving to be.
It’s psychographics over demographics, at the end of the day.
3. Go after whale customers
This is another takeaway from Chris which has helped me deliver tons of value to my clients.
When you do a bit of digging around your customer base, you’ll notice something:
Some people spend $100 over a lifetime.
Some people spend $10,000.
The former people, called whale customers, are those with the biggest lifetime value.
It costs the same to acquire them, but they generate TONS of more revenue over time.
You need to set up your marketing strategy to attract whale customers.
You do this by analyzing your Shopify sales data, and understanding their shopping behavior e.g. what do whales buy first, what do they buy second, third, etc.
You also need to figure out where these whale customers are, so you can effectively target them with the right offers.
A mistake a lot of brands make here is that they assume product X attracts the big boiz, so they set up their Meta ads around one product.
What ends up happening is that once you pop the hood, and run a cohort report, you realize it’s actually product Y that’s been bringing in those whale customers all along.
If you want to read more about this, I recommend reading Drew Sanocki’s post on this on LinkedIn.
4. Most of us are marketing midwits
It’s better to be dumb and ignorant than to be of average intelligence and think you’re a genius.
Why is that?
It’s because the latter overcomplicates nearly everything.
The bellcurve meme captures this perfectly:
Running an online business is SUPER simple:
- Get traffic
- Convert them to your email list
- Sell them your products/services
Yet, there are a million hustle culture bros on Twitter and Linkedin trying to convince you if you don’t have a gazillion Claude Cowork bots working in the background, you’re somehow left behind.
You’re not.
The most progress I’ve made is by figuring out the 80/20, and sticking to the non-negotiables.
My non-negotiables are writing this newsletter every week, building relationships with other list owners, and posting content on social media.
That’s it.
5. There’s a 1000 you’s but only 1 of me
The last learning is probably my favorite one for freelancers/service providers, and it’s something that Chris instilled in me since day one.
You tell people how to treat you.
When I first started freelancing, I’d take on every client I possibly could.
Some were good clients, most of them were really shitty.
I’m not kidding when I say that my first client was writing a homepage for a UK agency for $100.
$100!
So the idea of saying “no” to potential clients, let alone charging them 50x the price was really uncomfortable.
It still is uncomfortable, especially when it seems like a cool project.
But the reality is this…
There are thousands of businesses out there who could use your services, but there’s only one of you.
Every time you let someone haggle over your price, you’re selling yourself short.
Every time you let someone disrespect your time, you’re selling yourself short.
If you work with someone, it should be on YOUR terms.
You set the rules.
Robert Greene wrote a whole damn law on it (34).
Maxwell Maltz has a book on self-perception called Psycho-Cybernetics which I highly recommend to any freelancer.
Anyway, my fingers are getting tired of typing, and the weather is kinda nice, so I’m gonna go and set up some OpenClaw bots so I never have to write another newsletter in my life enjoy the rest of my Friday.
If you need help setting up email automations, you can apply to work with me here.
