Hit $10k in 5 months after leaving my $120k job

This isn't a glamorous MRR post, but this is a huge deal for me. I'm writing this for the people who left their jobs to build something of their own.

My saasup.agency just hit a milestone that, a part of me, thought would not happen. I left my cushy job at Dentsu (big marketing firm) 5 months ago to build something of my own.

No surprise, it was harder than I thought. So crossing $10k is a big deal.

Here's the thing - at Dentsu, I was tired of being just another cog in the corporate wheel, doing strategy work for big brands that would replace me within minutes. I wanted to work with startups and small businesses. My best creative strategy work was for Fintech startups (it's a published case study on WARC by Ascential).

Amongst many challenges, my biggest ones were that "marketing agency" had become almost a dirty word thanks to bad actors, and with AI tools everywhere, potential clients kept wondering "why not just use ChatGPT?".

But I knew AI can't build authentic brands or truly understand audience nuances (at least not yet). And my LinkedIn, past work credentials and published case studies spoke to my credibility.

So I focused on proving value: took free projects for reviews, offered first-time client discounts, and even offered my advice and opinions to founders for free on a discovery call.

After 3-4 months of this "boring" groundwork, things started clicking. I've got no blog, but I write on Medium. My website gets consistent traffic, discovery calls are regular, and I'm working with some cool founders who value marketing strategy.

For the people who left their jobs recently, hang in there - the early months are all about building trust and proving your worth. Take the hits, keep learning, keep improving and try to remind yourself that results are incremental. The money will eventually follows when you're consistent and focus on truly helping people.