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🚀 Living A Limitless Life Newsletter

Hey friend 👋,

Welcome to Living a Limitless Life!

Welcome to the 42 new legends who have joined the LALL newsletter since the last edition.

If you haven't subscribed, join 2,700 other brilliant people curious about Living A Limitless Life.

You'll improve your life & biz in 10 minutes by:

• The Three Best 1% Business & Self-Improvement Tips I've Found This Week:
  • Buy knowledge whenever you can
  • Embed fun into your day
  • A daily writing practice will change your life (and business)
• A 4-Minute Read That Could Change Your Life.
  • I Sold My First One-Person Business Within 18 Months Of Starting. Here’s How I Did At 28 Years Old.
• Michael's Weekly Book Club
  • Living Untethered: Beyond The Human Predicament - Michael A. Singer

Today's Sponsor is... ME!

Here's a FREE copy of my short Workbook — The Hidden Secrets To Building A Five-Figure One-Person Business Alongside Your 9-5 Job 🔥 ​ Download it HERE

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The question I am asking myself this week❓

How are your daily actions today building the life you want in five years?

This week's quote that made me think 💬

The Three Best 1% Business & Self-Improvement Tips I've Found This Week:

• Buy knowledge whenever you can - You want the learning without the scars. Learning and growing is painful. The best lessons in business and life don't come easy. So I pay for knowledge whenever I can. It's faster and saves me a lot of pain. Action: Invest in your knowledge through coaching and courses.

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• Embed fun into your day - It doesn't take much either. Whenever I feel stressed or overwhelmed, I'll go outside and kick around a soccer ball. I love soccer. and played it a lot when I was young. So whenever I start to juggle the ball, I can't think about anything else and I'm reminded about my childhood. I also get the benefit of physical movement and sunlight. Win-Win. Action: Embed 30 minutes of fun into your day. Watch your quality of life improve.

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• A daily writing practice will change your life (and business) - Even if it is only for 5-10 minutes a day. Writing is the foundation for everything else. I reuse my long-form writing to post 3-5x per week on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter (X). I'm working on creating a content flywheel to grow my personal brand with less effort over time. Action: Start with 5 minutes per day. A 1 more minute every week until you reach 20 mins per day.

A 4-Minute Read That Could Change Your Life.

Read on: michaellim.co​

Read time: 4 minutes

I Sold My First One-Person Business Within 18 Months Of Starting. Here’s How I Did At 28 Years Old.

I started my one-person consulting business when I was 26.

18 months later, it was acquired for an equity and salary deal.

This sale didn’t make me a millionaire overnight. I couldn’t buy a neon green Lambo to celebrate. But it taught me the fundamentals of starting a profitable business.

Here’s what I did.

1: The riches are in the niches

I didn’t start from zero.

I had been researching and working in a niche that I knew was about to explode. It had been trending for a long time and was only growing. It was a case of when not if.

So I jumped head first into it.

I didn’t get a lot of my initial assumptions right, but my forecast of industry growth was spot on. This meant I only needed to pivot slightly to correct my other assumptions.

Your business doesn’t matter, but your industry growth does.

If you started a growing business in a dying industry you’re fighting against the current.

I had a friend who went into the print magazine business. While they got more market share, overall the business was getting less profitable. Why? The overall industry was in decline.

Focus on industry trajectory, rather than industry position.

2: People back the jockey, not the horse

Everything in business is about relationships.

With the advent of AI, human-to-human relationships have become even more valued. A transaction is nothing more than the manifestation of trust facilitated through money.

People wanted to work with me because:

• I did what I said I was going to do.
• I communicated frequently and often.
• I managed expectations well.

People overvalue technical skills.

There are people more technically gifted than me but are not pleasant to work with. That’s where I win. People don’t want to work with jerks.

Build your technical skills, but invest more in soft skills.

3: Don’t just build a business, build a personal brand too

Everyone’s got a personal brand. Congrats.

The question is whether you are actively building your personal brand, or you’ve been assigned one.

Your personal brand is:

• A magnet for opportunities.
• A digital asset that you own forever.
• Demonstrated value for your ideal clients.

In short, a personal brand is your distribution channel.

The business that acquired me found me through my LinkedIn content. They read my blogs. And then kept tabs on me before approaching me for a subcontractor position.

My content builds trust and intimacy for me 24/7, 365 days a year.

After 3 months of working together, they made the acquisition offer. You have no idea how powerful a personal brand is until you have one.

Build a personal brand, and then build whatever you want.

4: Network like your life depended on it

Because it does.

Surround yourself with mentors, coaches, peers, and potential customers. You can’t achieve anything in business by yourself.

Some quick hacks:

• Learn to DM people in a non-needy way.
• Add value by commenting and sharing their content.
• Provide resources or knowledge that could help them.

Keep adding value to everything they do. Support their work and even buy their stuff. It’s so simple but people only think about themselves.

Your network is a business asset.

A key factor for my business acquisition was the network I would bring into the company and my client list. I had a solid reputation in the sector and the company knew that.

Here’s a cliche:

Your network is your net worth.

5: Solve a big problem

I only start businesses that help companies make more money.

I want the ROI of my service to be crystal clear: if you work with me, you’ll make more money. Guaranteed. If you want to make money, help others make more money.

Stay away from discretionary spending business models.

That’s why I’m not interested (right now) in starting businesses that sell food, clothing, beauty products, or even tech. These are the first things to be cut or reduced when times get tough.

Marry big money problems.

6: I created my own monopoly.

Don’t be someone, be the only one.

I stacked all my unique skills and experiences and created an offer I could only fulfill. I developed a deep technical skill, but supplemented it with:

• Marketing
• Business Development
• Content Writing
• Personal Branding

I was the only social procurement consultant who could offer these services as a package. This put a premium on my pricing and the value I could provide.

Don’t copy the business, copy the principles. Business models come and go.

But these business principles endure over time:

1. Pick a growing industry.
2. Focus on building deep relationships.
3. Build your personal brand and distribution channel.
4. Network, network, and network.
5. Solve big money problems.
6. Create your own monopoly.

Good luck.

Michael's Weekly Book Club 📚

My Book of the Week was...

This is book #8 of the year.

Living Untethered: Beyond The Human Predicament - Michael A. Singer

I'm a huge fan of Michael Singer.

The first book I read 'The Surrender Experiment' is one of the only books I've had a strong emotional reaction to. I couldn't stop reading it. Since then, I've read a few other of his books and have enjoyed the storytelling and accessibility to spirituality.

I would have preferred more storytelling in this book.

But I still got some valuable lessons about letting go of resistance, being present, and the value of morning and evening meditation. But if you're going to start with any Michael Singer book, I would recommend The Surrender Experiment.

Rating: 7.5/10

You should read this if you're.... feeling overwhelmed, anxious, or disconnected.

Key ideas:

👉 Learning 1: Life reflects your internal state - There is no good or bad. There are just events that happen that we give meaning to. If you have a positive internal environment anything you do in life will be beautiful. But if you have a mess inside, you'll just be trying to use these outer situations to make yourself okay.

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👉 Learning 2: Surrendering is not giving up on life - It's about not allowing external events to dictate your internal condition. Surrender is the act of letting go instead of resisting or pushing blockages away. At some point, you realize that you have the option to free yourself at any time.

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👉 Learning 3: If you don't resolve your past, you'll repeat it - I've seen people spend their whole lives recreating their past. The mind isn't dumb, but it only knows what it has experienced. It uses this data to recreate a mental model of the world. If you don't create new experiences, or rewrite old ones, you'll repeat the story of your life.

Best quotes by Michael A. Singer

💬 "The foundational choice in life is either constantly control life to compensate for our blockages or devote our lives to getting rid of our blockages"

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💬 "There are no problems; there are just learning experiences. No matter what happens, you are becoming greater"

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💬 "These moments are just what happens to be happening at this particular time and place in the universe where you happen to be standing. None of it is personal"

How to apply these ideas:

💡 It is easier to change yourself than to change the world - Rather than avoid your emotional triggers, remove the triggers altogether. Do the inner work to resolve whatever you've stored inside yourself. Remember: If there is no enemy within, there can be no enemy on the outside.

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💡 15 minutes of mindfulness a day could change your life - We spend most (if not all) of our day moving from distraction to distraction. From task to task. We never really stop and think. I've started to embed an evening meditation and reflection practice. I don't focus on anything else but breathing and trying to remain present.

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💡At any moment, at any age in life, you can decide to liberate yourself - It's never too late and it is always accessible to you. You can achieve internal freedom when you decide. You don't need any qualifications, or anyone's permission. You can just decide to be free and you will be.

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You can buy the book ​HERE​ (No, this isn't an affiliate link...yet).

Writing Tip Of The Week:

I’ve made OVER $16,048 (USD) writing on Medium.com

Here are the 6 writing tips I wish I had known earlier:

1️⃣ 𝐎𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫 𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞𝐫𝐬, 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐯𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐬.

People read ONLY to solve their problems and nothing else.

Don’t treat your writing like a personal diary.

Offer transformations, not just solutions.

2️⃣ 𝐌𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐤 𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠

Humans are wired for storytelling.

You have unique experiences and stories to tell from your life.

So tell them.

3️⃣ 𝐁𝐞 𝐜𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐫, 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐜𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫.

Use simple words.

Short sentences.

Dotpoints.

4️⃣ 𝐔𝐬𝐞 𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧

Lean into how you feel.

Use anger, frustration, sadness, and desperation in your writing.

Emotion is the only thing that AI can’t automate.

5️⃣ 𝐁𝐞 𝐯𝐮𝐥𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞.

Talk from your scars, not your wounds.

Give yourself time to heal.

But use your vulnerability to connect with your audience.

People relate to mistakes, not perfection.

6️⃣ 𝐓𝐚𝐥𝐤 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐤𝐞𝐭𝐬

Eternal markets = health, wealth, or relationships.

These are problems that humans will grapple with their whole life.

• How can I make more money? (wealth)
• How can I live longer with a higher quality of life? (health)
• How can I have more meaningful connections with people (relationships)

Link everything you write about back to one of these markets.

Don’t know how? Read the first sentence of this post.

P.S. - Here's a 50% DISCOUNT code for ​[NOTION SWIPE FILE] The 42 Article Headlines That Made Me More Than $16,048 and 459,000+ Views On Medium (Steal Them)​. Apply 'LALL50' at checkout

I'll see you next week!

Michael ✌️

P.S - You can also find me here:

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113 Cherry St, Seattle, WA 92768
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