The slowest way to get clients

"The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second-best time is now."

Great advice for trees, but not for lead generation.

And here's why....

In 1990, James, a broke and unknown 28-year-old comic living in LA, decided to write a cheque to himself for $10 million.

He hand-wrote "for acting services rendered" on the memo line and post-dated it five years ahead to Thanksgiving 1995.

James put the cheque in his wallet, where it deteriorated over time. But he never lost possession of it.

This wannabe actor struggled from year to year, cheque in pocket, striving to make the money he had committed to pay himself five years hence, but without luck.

Struggling wasn't new to James. He'd been only 12 when his dad had lost his accounting job and, with it, the family home.

James, his parents and three older siblings ended up living in a van for a while, and they all took low-paid jobs as security guards and janitors to make ends meet.

James had to work eight hours a day in a factory after school and went from being, as he later put it, "a straight-A student to not wanting to know anybody's name, and not wanting to make a friend."

The poverty lasted for years.

James also worried about losing his parents because they were heavy smokers. It distressed him so much that he would lock himself in the bathroom crying while his parents banged on the door, begging him to come out.

James compensated for the dark times with humour.

At 15, he got his first stand-up gig at Toronto's Yuk Yuk's club. His dad drove him there, and he wore a yellow suit his mother had made.

He bombed in his debut.

But his father kept encouraging him. And so, a few years later, James dropped out of school and moved to Hollywood to seek his big break.

It was ten years later that the still-struggling James wrote himself that $10m cheque.

After four years, with the cheque still in his pocket, James's dad died. The year was 1994.

James took the cheque from his wallet and placed it into his dad's coffin at the funeral, to thank him for believing in his dream.

One year later, at 32 years old, James (or Jim Carrey as he is better known) landed his first major film role.

The movie was Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. It was followed by The Mask.

Then, just before Thanksgiving 1995 – the date he'd written on that discarded cheque – Carrey found out he was going to make $10 million for a film called Dumb and Dumber.

Since then, his movies have gone on to gross over a billion dollars.

Jim Carrey's story is incredible – not just because he made it, but because of how long he had to wait for his breakthrough.

For years, he kept working, kept grinding, without any real proof that success was coming.

He had to trust that all the effort he was putting in behind the scenes – his "invisible work" – would eventually pay off.

And that reminds me of something I see all the time in the world of solo business marketing.

A lot of coaches, consultants, and course creators think SEO is the best way to generate leads because, in theory, it's "free."

Just optimise your website, write some blogs, and one day – maybe in six months, maybe in a year – Google will start sending you clients on autopilot.

Sounds great, right?

Except here's what actually happens:

• You spend months tweaking your website, trying to rank for keywords, and waiting for Google to notice you

• Meanwhile, competitors who started yesterday with Google Ads are already booking discovery calls and client consultations

• And by the time you realise SEO is taking way longer than expected, you've already lost months of momentum

Now, don't get me wrong – SEO has its place. But it's a long game.

It's Jim Carrey before Ace Ventura. You can put in all the invisible work, but there's no guarantee it'll pay off anytime soon.

In fact, as many other budding experts discover the hard way, there's actually no guarantee it will pay off at all.

Google Ads, on the other hand, is like getting cast in your first blockbuster right now.

Instead of waiting for Google to maybe rank you months down the line, you show up at the top of search results today, exactly when people are looking for the services you offer.

So, the real question is:

Do you want to wait for clients... or do you want to start attracting them now?

Of course, if SEO is already working for you and bringing in all the leads you need, that's great – stick with it.

But if you're tired of waiting, or if you're realising that months (or years) could go by before you see real results, it might be worth trying something faster.

Something that doesn't rely on Google's ever-changing algorithm or the desperate hope that your blog posts will somehow outrank giant established websites.

Something that puts you in front of ready-to-go clients immediately – without all the guesswork.

Here are three simple steps to start getting results quickly with Google Ads:

1. Identify exactly who you're trying to reach 
   Start by getting crystal clear on your ideal client - their specific problems, desires, and search behaviours. What exact phrases would they type when looking for someone like you?

2. Create a simple, focused landing page 
   Don't send Google Ads traffic to your homepage. Create a dedicated landing page that addresses one specific problem and offers one clear solution. Remove all distractions and focus on conversion.

3. Start small and measure everything 
   Begin with a modest daily budget (£10-20) targeting just 3-5 highly specific keywords. Track which ones convert and gradually expand from there. This minimises risk while you learn what works.

The beauty of this approach is that you'll know within days, not months, whether your message is resonating with your ideal clients. And if it's not working, you can adjust quickly rather than waiting months to discover your SEO strategy isn't performing.

Remember Jim Carrey's persistence, but also remember that he had to wait years for his breakthrough. In today's fast-moving business world, you don’t need to wait because you can test, learn, and succeed much more quickly.

All the best,
David.

PS - if you want to know a bit more about the differences between SEO and Google Ads, check out this blog post I wrote a while ago.