Today we speak with one of our Champions graduates, Chris Dinham. Chris doesn’t do things by half – he went from quitting his job to working online full-time in just 9 months!
We caught up with Chris to hear more of his story, and to see how he made a complete career change, transitioning from PAYG into building an award winning digital agency and website portfolio. He also shares some great advice for people looking to do the same.
CLICK ON THE VIDEO BELOW to hear how Chris quit his job in just 9 months…
Liz Raad: Hi there. We’ve just had a beautiful lunch and have been catching up with one of our awesome graduates Chris Dinham. It’s amazing what he’s achieved, and I wanted to share that with you guys. So, a very big welcome Chris!
Chris, since graduating Champions, you’ve had a pretty amazing journey. To start with – before you came on to the Champions program, where were you at?
Chris’s background – working in the mines of WA
Chris: So, I’m from Western Australia. And, I started really early on as an exploration driller in the mines. We would drive out into the middle of nowhere in big, heavy, rigid trucks, and no internet. And if we did have internet, it was slow dial-up. So, when I first came on with the EBusiness Institute, I was actually in offshore oil and gas at the time.
Liz: That’s FIFO, isn’t it? (Fly-in, fly-out worker.) Which means you’re doing a lot of big hours out on the rigs, and then having time off, a month-off, month-on? Was that what you were doing?
Chris: Exactly, month-on, month-off. But, it’s a month on a rig in the middle of nowhere. And there’s a funny story I always tell about this.
How to build your online business when working 12-hour shifts
I would do night shift. And every now and then, I would run in and do a bit of updating to WordPress. And then I’d run out and do a bit of maintenance for about half an hour. And just as I’d come back in (say half an hour later), it would slowly just finish loading. So then I’d add a little bit more content on WordPress, and so on. It was a painful process!
Liz: That is commitment, I’m impressed. Now, were you technical at all? Did you start out with any tech knowledge?
Chris Started Online With No Technical Knowledge…
Chris: Not at all really, to be honest. I had no clue what WordPress was, how a website was built, or anything like that. I was interested about being online.
I think what really got me over the line was that I had an injury to my shoulder. And I was just looking for something to do to keep me busy during the time I had surgery. That’s when I came across this web site flipping program.
Liz: Awesome, what a cool way to spend that time!
Chris’s Transition to full-time online entrepreneur…
So, this has changed your life. The eBusiness Champions program that you’ve done, just while you’re recovering from a shoulder injury. Tell us about your life now? Have you quit your job?
Chris: Yes, so now I run Summit Web full-time. I quit my job around nine months into your course. Maybe it was a little too early at the time to do that!
But I started that up just by myself, and then we slowly just built up. Now, there’s five staff locally in Perth, and obviously we have a large number of outsourcers as well.
Liz: That’s a decent-sized agency. You’re going from zero to five employees and an outsource team, within a couple of years. I’m very impressed.
Chris: Thank you, it’s been fun. We’ve had ups and downs, but it’s been an amazing process.
Liz: And there’s still big things on the cards to come, too. So the growth has not stopped there.
Chris: Yes, and in the last Champions Bootcamp, I’ve already done my next 90-day plan.
Liz: You’ve just gone through this process, and it’s an interesting journey, isn’t it?
You’ve gone from being paid for your work (being paid an hourly rate, or being paid regularly for your work), to having a more entrepreneurial-style business, which is a different way of working.
Building a portfolio of websites for long-term income
And you’re building up your portfolio of passive websites too, aren’t you?
Chris: Yes, I actually started out with you (eBusiness Institute courses) more on learning how to build affiliate websites while I was offshore. And then I morphed into more of an agency model. And recently I’m getting back to focusing more on passive affiliate websites.
In saying that, I still focus on both, because agency life is good. As you teach at the eBusiness Institute – the agency is a quick cash strategy, even as a beginner, so it can help you quit your job quicker. But then working on affiliates is where you can get that large pay-out that we’re all working towards.
The moment everything changed – Chris’s shift in mindset
But one of the main things I’ve found, especially from FIFO (from being on the mines), is I had the mindset change. It was a mindset shift when I was transferring over to this type of work. People asked, “why are you doing that?”. So, it was difficult for me to make that change because there was negativity all around me.
I never wanted to be an entrepreneur, but when I made that change, it just clicked for me. And all of a sudden, I was just really enjoying it. Getting out there, talking to people, talking to business owners, understanding what makes them tick. Really – as soon as I did that, I was gone.
Liz: Awesome, that sounds like us. Matt and I did the same thing. Once we were in business, we were hooked. It’s a world of opportunity. You can go anywhere and do anything.
An online business has so many exciting opportunities…
Chris: Exactly. And there’s so many opportunities – monetary opportunities, lifestyle opportunities, and they come in all different forms. Knowing that you could talk to someone tomorrow and go down a completely different track is exciting to me!
Liz: Now that you’ve been through this journey, what’s your advice for someone about to take that step and thinking, “Do I do this?”, “Could I actually do this?”, “Is this possible for me?”.
What would be your advice?
Chris’s Advice If You Want To Quit Your 9-5 Job…
Chris: I believe 100% the system works. It really does. But my advice would be to just keep chipping away at it – every single day.
In the mines, I would work 12-hour shifts. But, in between those shifts – if I just did 15 minutes, or 30 minutes on my WordPress site, then that was just enough to update a paragraph etc. And I just kept doing that. Eventually that work pays off, just like “Matt Raad’s Exponential Curve”.
“But it’s those consistent, small steps that really got me through” – Chris Dinham
It just eventually started working, and I got more and more motivated. But it’s those consistent, small steps that really got me through.
Liz: It doesn’t have to be a massive, scary change. It was those little steps, that got you to a place where you could quit your job, and completely change your lifestyle.
Creating a daily routine to build your online business
Chris: And for me, it was just about routine. Just, sitting down and being like, “Okay, I can do it Monday Tuesday Wednesday”, and “I’m just going to do 30 minutes here”. I’m not going to overload myself. Instead I just stick to the routine.
It’s like going to the gym. The more you do it, the more fun it becomes! So, the more I chipped away at my websites, the more passionate I got about it. And now here we are!
Liz: Which is fantastic. Well, thank you so much for joining us, and it was really inspirational to hear about your journey to becoming a full time online entrepreneur.
What we love about Chris is that motivation, that drive. He just kept going and taking little steps, every day, which added up to something really big in the end and which has now put him on the path to earning a full-time income online.
And the fact that he took the huge step of quitting a highly paid job and completely re-training into a digital career and being so incredibly successful at it in such a short amount of time! Well done Chris!
And if you want to learn how to quit your 9-5 job and /or re-train into a digital career like Chris, why not contact us here at the eBusiness Institute to find out what training courses may suit you best.
