How Camilo Lost A $9,000/Mo Client And Bounced Back To Collect $25,000 3 Months Later

No way. Okay, so August this year, literally like three months ago, you lose a $9,000 a month client to now being in November and having done around 25 or more than $25,000 worth of new business revenue from your clients. Dude, that's. That's huge. I'm thinking from last year. So you accomplished that really quick. What's going on, guys? Andre Hakel Jr. Here from client Ascension. Back with another student spotlight interview with my dude, Camila. How we doing, brother?

Doing great, bro. Thank you for having me.

Of course. Thanks for coming on, dude. So you got an incredible story. I actually am sitting here not knowing most of it, and so I'm really excited to dive in and hear all about your transformation from Client Ascension and coming to the event in Tampa, which was a blast. We'll get into all of that. But just to hook the audience and you joined the program and I'm not sure the timeline of everything, but you had lost your largest agency client, which was paying you $9,000 a month. One single client paying you $9,000AMONTH. Most people watching this probably don't even have $9,000 a month worth of clients, even if they have nine clients or five clients. And so for one client to pay that much money and then all of a sudden leave, it's a scary thought. And so where did you go from there? Where are you at today? And let's fill in the audience on the entire story for today's interview.

Yeah, bro, super excited. So, yeah, I lost an enterprise client. We were doing ad creators for them. We had, we worked in for them for like three years or so. I got them through my personal brand. I was doing editing videos on YouTube, on tutorials and behind the scenes content or making ads. And yeah, dude, August, I lost a 9k a month client. I got a message, the worst message of my life, saying, hey, our company's having issues. We're going to have to get rid of all of our agencies. At the time, I was also getting coached by Mario, the mindset coach. We get into that. So actually, if it was a different time, probably before Client Ascension, I probably would have had a terrible time. But I saw it as an opportunity for a challenge. And fast forward, we're in November now, the 22nd of November, and I Cash collected $25,000 in new revenue from 10 clients in the space of August, September, October, November. Was that three and a half, three and a half months? Because the end of August.

Wow, wow. Huge transformation, dude. So from August last year, losing a $9,000 a month client to November this year. Now is this year August this year?

Yeah.

Dude, no way. Okay, so August this year, literally like three months ago, you lose a $9,000 a month client to now being in November and having done around 25 or more than $25,000 worth of new business revenue from your clients. Dude, that's. That's huge. I'm thinking from last year. So you accomplished that really quick.

Yeah, it's as. I can't wait to get into it because a lot of it was mindset and a lot of it was thanks to all the coaches in Client Ascension. And also going to the event changed a lot in my head. So.

Yeah, so let's start here. And I've done a lot of these. And one of the trends seems to be that when people join Client Ascension, they lose to business or they lose clients, like right away. And it has nothing to do with the program, obviously. It's just like the timing. And this is actually like a biblical concept. It's disruption follows intention. So usually when you make a big decision or set out to do something, you're immediately tested. Right? So like when you join Client Ascension, that's not an easy decision or a light decision because it's a big investment monetarily, right in time and all that sort of stuff. So you make that investment and then, boom, you're faced with adversity or a test, which in your case is losing your largest enterprise client. Where do you go from there? Because most people, like you said, even you yourself, if you're in a different state of mind, would have probably quit. So how do you overcome that?

Well, I'll kind of tell you the state of mind I was before. So I joined Client Ascension in December, so I'm almost in there for a year. And January, February, March, I was trying to figure out VSLs, cold email offers, etc. And things were just really not working for me. I was overthinking everything. I wasn't taking as much action. I wasn't producing as much as I thought. And I can't lie, I was a little bit complacent because I was like, oh, I got this 9k a month client. You know, I'm paying CA. My profit margins weren't that great as well, so I was a little bit worried about income. But at the time I was like, okay, I have this cushy background, that's fine. But I wasn't getting new clients and I had an issue with sales. You know, I had some calls and my sales wasn't really Good. So I was getting roasted by David. Fast forward to having done all the work, having looked inside by my mindset, by people like Mario, having spoken to people about like you about managing teams and operations and everybody. When I lost that client, I had no choice. It's like burning the boats if you know the concept. I had no choice. I remember that same day I opened up a Gamma doc. I put something called code Red and I was like, this is all the exact steps that I'm going to take. I opened up the CEO dashboard, which I was kind of like using, but not really using. I was like, I'm going to use this dashboard every single day. I set automations and forms that I will fill out every day to make sure that I would do it. And it was make content, send cold emails, send code DMS, do dream 100. I just cooked every single day and made sure the first two hours of the day I did that. Lo and behold, the content got some referrals, the cold emails got booked calls. I was running some ads to some code, to some paid products because I was like, I'm going to do everything just all at once. And that was probably the most fun I ever had running the business. And it was also scary because I was now hopping on more calls. But I quickly got rid of the fear of sales calls. I'm not the best at closing still. I still struggle a lot. But I was able to close two 3 5K deals back to back. And that's when I was like, oh wow, this is, I'm now feeling abundance. Like I'm not feeling that scarcity that I was feeling before where I was not. Things weren't really working and it was money leaving, not a lot of money coming in. So yeah, that's kind of the big change that happens.

And it's like you pointed out when you got rid of that safety net, right? Because that little safety net was what was keeping you complacent. Because you're like, well, if this doesn't work out, I have this, which is the, the 9K a month client. And as soon as you lose it, there's two perspectives you can have. It's like either that was the worst day of my life, that was the worst message I've ever received. Which maybe at the time that's how you felt. But fast forward to now, it sounds like that was actually the best thing that happened for you because by that happening it essentially was like the leap of faith that it was like the push of faith. Like you didn't make the leap. But you just got pushed into it and had to figure it out. And if it weren't for that being forced upon you, you probably would have never entered into that phase. And that phase, like you said, was creating that code red list of everything you need to do the CEO dashboard, making sure you're disciplined, and updating it consistently. So it ended up being the best thing that ever happened to you. Right. Like, losing your biggest client for $9,000 a month was the best thing that ever happened for you and for your business. Which sounds crazy, but that is, like, facts based on what you're telling me.

Yeah, 100%. I'm super grateful for that. And, you know, it was great to work with these guys, but it was easy work. And I thought, you know, this is God testing me, because I also have a editing community. I teach editors how to get clients. And I was kind of like, in between agency and community, doing both. But then it's like, oh, wait, you're teaching these people how to get clients. Like, are you, Like, God was probably looking at me like, let's see if.

You can get some clients, bro.

Go get some clients yourself, bro. Like, let's get a little bit uncomfortable. And that was probably the biggest blessing I could have got.

Awesome, bro. I love that, man. So maybe talk a little bit on this, because, yeah, obviously, looking back at it now, okay, biggest blessing. It helped your business in the long run. But, like, losing a client like that, no one's ever really sitting there celebrating. There had to be a moment of, let's just call it darkness. And like you said, a former version of yourself probably would have been swallowed up by that and quit ultimately. So how did having not just a community like client ascension, but expert coaches like Mario and David and myself and so many others help you stay in the game and keep the, you know, the faith essentially, to continue with this journey.

Yeah. So at the beginning of being inclined ascension, my mindset was very much like, oh, I. Like, I don't know. I don't know anything. Right. Very much in a scarcity place. And I remember I was really scared to ask questions. I don't want to get something wrong. Sort of pride and ego involved because I thought, oh, I'm on this high horse of I have this client. And then speaking to. For example, speaking to you, I learned a lot about managing teams, and I realized, oh, actually, I am. People aren't working for me. I'm working for them. I'm trying to bring them opportunities. So I'm like, okay, well, I have to be a better leader. Okay, cool. So what does a leader do? They take people through journeys. And then I was like, okay, I want to be a better leader. So I got to speak to Mario as well, who's a mindset coach. And then I realized, Mario, oh, I have all these issues that are stopping me from, you know, like, trusting myself, believing in myself, and all these dark thoughts that I was having. And having the community was very powerful for me because I found the journey of entrepreneurship extremely lonely. I've made 300 YouTube videos, 12 million views on YouTube. Yeah. I still feel lonely all the time. And I would get comments every day. When I get a video, get 500,000 views, you get all these comments or people saying nice stuff, but I still felt like, you know. Yeah, exactly. Whereas when you're. When you're joining these communities and then you speak to people and they. There's not even any small talks. Not like, oh, what do you do? It's like, oh, yeah, so like, what's your offer? And then you go, oh, that's cool. Whatever. You do this, you just. You feel like you're cut from the same cloth.

Yeah.

And then you go, wow, there's actually other people like me. And then when you meet them in person and you just hit things off and, you know, you feel like you have this almost like this brother and sisterhood of all these people who are in the same journey, you feel, wow, there's other people also with this. So you also feel a little bit empowered.

So connected. Absolutely. And it's a lot different than YouTube because you're interacting. Right. And it's not this frame of, like, people are watching you. It's like you're on the same journey, this same platform as all these other students in the program, and you can just relate on so many levels. So actually, yeah, if you don't mind, talk a little bit about the in person experience. Right. Because one thing we do at Client Ascension is it's all online. There's weekly calls on Zoom. There's slack. People connect over phone calls and texts and whatever outside of the community. But we also do a yearly event in Tampa and people come in from all over the world. Like, you came in from the uk we had guys come in from Denmark and Australia and South Africa, all over for this event. And it was cool just to see the community together. My favorite part about the events is every time we do it and at any moment during the event, I look up and kind of scan the room. Everyone's in conversation. Every time I look Around. And that's the coolest thing to me, because I've been to events where, like, no one's talking. They're all on their phones. It's really awkward. It's very transactional. It's like people are exchanging business cards. Right. But that's not at all the vibe you get at a client ascension event. Client ascension event is like a bunch of boys just getting together on, like a bachelor trip almost. It's just like a bunch of friends ever knows each other even though they've never met. Right. You're meeting all these guys for the first time, but you feel like you already know them. So talk about what that experience was like for you.

Yeah, for me, I felt. Because I actually. I went to university. I did four years, master degree. It felt like I was at university again with friends, colleagues in the same, you know, engineering course. Right. We all. We all just talk about stuff. There's jokes that we have, inside jokes. For me, I got the VIP event. So the reason I got the VIP event is because I wanted more time with the coaches themselves and ask specific questions. And that was incredibly valuable. The sales group, the mindset, and your.

Own was the mindset, leadership operations.

Yeah, that was very powerful for me. And you also get to see in those vip, very intimate days what other people are going through. And so you're learning these lessons all at the same time. And that was very valuable. Also, the guest speakers were great. Nick Varaj was insane. And then at the actual event, when there's more people and some people are not even inclined, Ascension, you really see the power of it. You see how it's a community, but it's also like, I don't want to say a cult. I say it's a movement, right? It's like. It's like you're. It's a movement of people who want to elevate people to build good businesses and get good clients. And I really enjoyed it. I made a lot of friends. I learned that I'm not as shy as I thought I was in these. In these things. Because usually when you go to networking event, it's like a lot of pressure.

I used to always call myself an introvert. And then I get on stage and speak in front of 100 people, and it's like, I can't do that in any other environment other than client attention, because I'm talking to my friends, and I don't feel like I'm on a different level than anyone else. It's like we're all here together. It's almost like we all run one big company together.

Exactly, exactly. Yeah. You feel like you've already made like, and you meet your friends, like you vibe with a lot of people that same values. And then you meet other guys and like, hey, this guy does Christmas lights or this guy has a Legion agency, like all these other guys here. It's really fun.

Yeah, it's a blast, dude. But that, that explanation is great. And yeah, cult, you know, that's a word that gets a bad rap. And we are not a cult. But really all it means is strong culture. Right? That's what the word comes from. That's like one of the, the core focuses of client attention is culture. And one of the ways people describe us, funny enough, it's like we're like the Nelk boys of entrepreneurship and online business. And that is one of the most accurate descriptions and, and we embody that, we love that, we like to have a good time. We're all, you know, pretty young for the most part. So yeah, those events are a blast. We'll keep doing them. But those events are not what they're like without the day to day happenings throughout the community in Slack and on the weekly coaching calls. So take us a little bit more on the business side of things in terms of like, you mentioned cold email, you mentioned Dream 100, you mentioned content marketing, you mentioned sales calls and processes. What were some things you implemented that you learned from the program that helped you sign some of these clients?

Dream 100 was very big. I kind of knew what Dream 100 was, but seeing it from Eamon in the content space and seeing it from Evan Siech, like getting those two perspectives were very important. It's kind of like giving almost without expectation and given very, very highly. For me, it was also, to be honest, the most value I ever got was in the sales training from David and the offers from Fazio. Mainly because I think communicating what you do and how it's valuable to somebody is very important. And that trickles down to the cold email scripts. It goes down to the content that you do, the introductions you have with people. All of that starts at like, can you explain what you do and show that it's valuable to somebody? Load the technical stuff when it came to the code, email setups, what it is, I see like an instruction manual for running a company. You don't always check things, but you would go to the contents page and be like, okay, I need an issue with this. Let me go to this. Let me watch the module. Okay, I have questions. Let Me go to the call and you know, at the beginning I was going to as many calls as I could and then at some point you just get over filled with information that you just got to act.

Exactly that. That's it. And so what is that structure you created to take action on so many ideas and things you're being told to do? Right. You mentioned the CEO dashboard. You mentioned having a doc that was essentially titled like Red Alert, code Red. Like what did the day to day look like? How do you actually implement as much as you did? Because, because when you said the transformation, my mind goes to like last August to now November. And you're like no, no, no, no, this August, which was like yesterday. And so how did you get something done in such a short period of time?

Yeah, so I said the first three hours of the day were all the high leverage tasks that will make sure that I would meet everything in the CEO dashboard. It's like a game, right? So it's like do as many challenges and quests that you can every day. So called email. I had it set up but I hadn't really had good success with it because of the messaging. So I locked in a lot on getting the right messaging and sending those out and then doing the follow ups. Then I got somebody to help me with the inbox management. Then it was making the content. So I filmed the content and I'm lucky I have the editors that I can pay to help. But I would film content one day and I would Write tweets and LinkedIn posts the next day. Wednesday was always my manual outreach day. So it will be sending messages in communities, in DMS and stuff. So every day was like the day for this. So I knew that, okay, Wednesdays I'm going to send messages, Tuesdays I'm filming content for example. So it was just only doing that stuff, like I had no choice. And then the rest of the day it was like fulfillment or business stuff because I really found at the beginning I was like on Slack and I wasn't really doing anything and I didn't at the end of the day I'd feel like all this time has gone past, but nothing productive happened. Like no calls were booked, no follow ups were made, there was no contact with prospects and I'm wondering why I don't have any calls booked. Right. So yeah, it was just doing everything and I actually really enjoyed it and I'm still doing a lot of it. Like Wednesdays I still write content, Mondays I feel videos.

That's awesome. That's awesome. So it's really just being disciplined with your schedule and how much you're getting done within a short period of time. Because really, if you zoom out and look at it, it sounds like you weren't like, you know, working 12 hour days, at least for these action items. Specifically, you were fitting them into, like, the first two hours of a day.

I actually worked less. Generally. Yeah, no, generally I feel like I work less. But you know why? Because this. I'm getting back into mindset stuff. But at the beginning of the year, I was like, to my girlfriend, I was like, no, I gotta grind, hustle. Like, I. I don't want to be a disappointment to my family. Like, my parents came from the Colombia. I need to make sure I pay them back. And there's all this negative energy surrounding that. So then my relationship would struggle, my family relationship would struggle. Then when I was like, okay, cool, I finish at seven, I'm gonna hang out with my girlfriend. I'm gonna spend two days with my parents every week. Then I'm like, cool. I feel energized throughout the day. And then I mean that. I don't have to work against a lot of friction because my. I felt like, okay, at seven, I finish and I get to chill. So why not just make these first few hours of the day very productive?

I love that, bro. I love that. It's so good because it works. And you hear it all the time when we say, I'm careful about, like, talking about mindset and promoting mindset, because I like to just, like, leave that for the program. Once they're already in, they don't even know it's there. And then they experience it and they're like, whoa, right? I didn't even sign up for this. But this is actually the best part. So, yeah, it's such an underrated element of client attention. And even at this year's event, it's one of the categories we doubled down on.

Yeah.

With having Jeremy Newsom there and with Mario's keynote and really just the overall theme, like Nick Verge's keynote was it was very like, faith based, mindset based. But those are the things that give you perspective shifts and new frameworks to apply to the actual work you're doing to realize, like, yeah, I actually don't need to, you know, grind and hustle for 12 hours every single day. Most people just do that as coke because they actually don't know the strategic initiatives to focus on. So a lot of people sit on their desk and they kind of like switch between tabs all day and, like, answer slack messages as they come. I work 12 hours a day and it's like, oh, you sat at your computer for 12 hours, but you didn't really work.

Yeah, you know, so it all snowballs because then, you know, when I'm making more content about ads and what I do, then referrals come in a lot better. If I get a client a result, then I can use that for the code, email, scripts, and it all just. All just works. I also this. Oh, yeah, I sort of did the YouTube channel, and I have a big YouTube channel. I made a new YouTube channel for ads. I don't even have 200 subscribers and I got two book calls from it. And it's like, just do stuff. Just make the things that are going to get you closer, at least give you more luck to get those results.

That's it. That's it. Well, dude, I love it. It sounds like, you know, you've used client attention in a big way to grow your business, but also just to have, you know, even personal development, which is a huge focus, because whatever you decide to do from here, whether it's continue with this agency or start multiple businesses in your future, you'll be able to use this foundation in this way of thinking to ensure more and more success as time goes on, which is exciting. Any last key takeaways, golden nuggets, or things you want to share with the audience?

I would say anybody that joins any program or asks for a mentor. One of the biggest fears is asking questions like, to not appear, like, you don't know something, or you kind of have this voice in your head saying, oh, just research it yourself. And you almost find that anytime you push through that and you ask a question, you end up getting a whole lot more. So I would say don't be afraid to ask questions.

And you build a closer relationship with the coaches and, like, the core people of that community. It's a weird mindset because it's very counterproductive. It's like you don't want to ask questions because you want to, like, be cool with all of the coaches thinking, like, if you don't bother them, then they'll like you more. And it's like, no, they actually just don't know you. And it's like when I'm at events and even on my coaching calls, like, I gravitate towards the people that show up consistently and ask questions consistently. And more importantly than just asking the question, because I think the fear is like, if you're the annoying kid that just Asks a bunch of questions. That's only annoying when you ask questions and don't do anything about it. If you ask a bunch of questions, you get great answers and then you show up next week with no updates or like not having done what we told you to do, then, yeah, that's gonna probably piss some coaches off. Rightfully so. But if you're asking a question with the full intention to actually implement and try what they're telling you and then coming back next week and updating you on like, hey, Andre, you know, I tried that hiring strategy or I tried that end of day type form for my team member and it helped. Like, now I don't have to micromanage or actually I didn't get any applications. What would you recommend changing? And like, that's what I look forward to. That's what I enjoy as a coach is like actual progress rather than like, no one's speaking up on a call because they feel like they want to be seen as an expert knowing everything. None of those students ever get ahead and they eventually drop off. And so don't be on either extreme. Right. So if you're ask questions, but also make sure you're ready to implement the answers that you're receiving. 100 and that's, I mean, that's just kind of stating the obvious, but it needs to be said.

Yeah. So awesome, brother.

Yeah, dude. Well, thank you, Camila, for the time, for sharing your story, for just being a big part of this community. Because what I always say is like, this community, it's. Yeah, we built it from the ground up. We have a great team, we have great coaches, but it's the students that contribute to the culture and shape the culture. So thank you for being one of those, you know, really core students that does continue to shape the client ascension culture. And I'm just excited to continue to watch you grow and hopefully see you at another one of our events soon.

Appreciate that, brother. Thank you so much.

As a last question, actually, where can the audience find you? I always say, if someone's watching this in their inclined attention, just shoot Camellio DM in Slack. But outside of that, where can they follow you on social media?

So on Twitter, Cami Cs, C A M I C E S and on YouTube Cammies Ad Lab, those top two places I post the most content.

Awesome, bro.

Thank you, brother.

Thank you again. Appreciate you, bro. Keep crushing. All right, Peace.

Thanks. Peace.