I’ve always seen myself as a solopreneur who loves marketing.
But I fell into the freelancer trap. I made the first critical mistake: I sold my hours, not my outcomes.
I was basically an employee who wrote his own invoices. The mission was simple: “I need customers.” My real job was to just call people.
“You can do what you want in between,” he’d say, “but you have to call.”
He wanted the “quick fix.” I wanted to build his entire future.
My “red light” was flashing every single day. My attempts to build a proper system (a real offer, an email sequence, a plan) were met with resistance. It wasn’t just “too much work.” He was scared. Scared to put something on the line. Scared to move if one of the offers I created actually worked.
So I just… called. Into the void.
He was too cheap to pay for a list. I had to build it myself. It took ages. I wrote the script. But with no offer, it was just a pleasant way to get a ton of “nos.”
I was burning my integrity and my motivation with every call.
And I was trapped. 90% of my income was tied to this one customer. I had no time to build my own sanctuary. I had no time to find other customers. This wasn’t a cubicle. It was a prison I’d built with my own hands.
We finally agreed to part ways. But he pulled me back in. He asked for two more months. He said he’d “look after me,” that he had two other customers I could help, and he’d pay.
So I worked. I got busy. I built what we should have built from the start.
The pay never came.
The “other customers” weren’t fiction. But the deals were. He’d “sold” me to them as a cheap lease, lecturing them about what they needed (just like he’d lectured me with his ChatGPT wisdom). But they’d never actually agreed to anything. It was all in his head.
His plan never worked out, and he never told me. While I was building and asking “Is this okay? Do you like the results?” he’d say “Looks good. Nice results.” He got my invoices but never acted on them.
Then, in the third month when the second invoice was due, I confronted him.
That’s when the truth came out. He “felt” I didn’t do a good job. He pulled out a spreadsheet of my call hours to “prove” it.
My expertise, my systems, my strategy… all reduced to minutes on the phone.
My funds were dry. I was desperate. And he knew it. He used it against me.
I had to make a deal: I’d work a fourth month, finishing the project I’d started, just to get paid for one. I keep my promises, even when it hurts.
(And I learned: never start serious work without at least 50% upfront.)
I finished that 4th month from hell. I was finally free.
During those brutal months, I’d scrambled and found 5 prospects. Good ones. Enthusiastic. Ecstatic to work with me.
One needed his website rebuilt to make Google love him again. Another wanted to partner on social media content for hotels (he’d handle photos and film, I’d handle writing and posting). A third invited me to join his restaurant marketing business to handle analysis and strategy. The fourth agreed to let me build out his customer acquisition funnel with emails and webinars. The fifth wanted an email series to convert more website visitors.
Real projects. Real outcomes. Real expertise combined with operational execution.
I reached out to start…
…and every single one of them vanished.
They all had contact with me, but things “changed.” Projects went “on ice.” Things weren’t “working as they thought.” They were “too busy” with their old stuff because it worked and kept them busy.
That was it. The “dry summer.” The final, brutal lesson.
The “easy” money? The “freelancer” trap? That is the real rigged game.
That “dry summer” was the best thing that could have happened. It taught me everything:
- Offer projects and sell outcomes, not hours.
- Don’t assume anything. Clear things before you start.
- Never compromise your values, your ethos, or your standards.
I was done being a tactician for hire. I was done building on sand. I decided to build the sanctuary.
My Sovereign Sanctuary isn’t a theory. It’s the blueprint I’m building because of that dry summer. It’s the sanctuary for “like-minded people” who are also done with the “fast & easy” and want to build something real.
The journey starts with the Manifesto on the homepage.
If it resonates, you’re in the right place.
Welcome.
—Markus
