Interested in starting your own entrepreneurial journey but unsure what to expect? Then read up on our interview with Mikkel Frogh, Founder of The Mental Captain ApS, located in Skovshoved, Hovedstaden, Denmark.

What's your business, and who are your customers?

I have an online consulting business as a mental trainer & performance coach for young, newly chosen entrepreneurs. Primarily most of our clients are engaged in online marketing and coaching. Typically, they are young men between the age of 17-30 who lack clarity, confidence, sales skills, self-mastery, time mastery, etc.

Tell us about yourself

Originally I'm trained as a navigator on ships. After I finished my 4 years of education, I realized that I wasn't in my right element out on the ocean alone on the bridge navigating the ship. That realisation encouraged me to initiate my journey towards my biggest dream of having an online business, which I could take with me out in the big world. In July 2020, I quit my job and moved back to my teenage room at my father's house and invested €20,000 (all my savings) in mentoring, books, workshops, seminars, and online courses, in order to cut my own learning curve and learn from someone who's ahead of me in life. During my first six months as a business owner, I was frustrated and confused, and I almost went bankrupt, despite total isolation, deep study, and personal renewal. But on 20th February 2021, I sold my first coaching program for €2,500. Shortly after, I was consistently making between 12-20k a month and producing amazing results with my clients.

What really motivates me is the difference I am creating in a lot of young upcoming entrepreneur's life. To shine my light on a young vulnerable ambitious person and somehow transform this insecure young man into a confident action-taker who converts outreaches to meetings and meetings into new customers and new customers into new abilities.

What's your biggest accomplishment as a business owner?

My biggest accomplishment as a business owner is reaching 1,000,000 million DKK (€150K) in my first full year as a mental trainer & performance coach, with only pure organic strategy. In the meantime, I managed to gather 51 five-star recommendations on Trustpilot from my customers.

Furthermore, I would say that I learned and built everything myself... My website, copywriting, online training course, and pictures. My coaching program, my marketing, my sales... All skills and abilities which I had absolutely no experience in when I quit my job on the ship.

What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a business owner?

For me, the hardest thing that comes with being a business owner is to master my own time and plan and organize, and in general, to learn how to work "smart" instead of always working "hard." So for me 100%, my biggest challenge is structure, organizing, planning, and scheduling. In the beginning, the hardest thing was the "constant pressure" I was living under as a new coach, with no social proof and no client results, despite an exclusive high-ticket offer. But I have learned to deal with the pressure by accepting as long as I do my best, I can't do it better.

What are the top tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a business today?

  1. Pick a niche that is easy to target and has a big pain; they can't solve where you somehow have a personal reference to the audience (they want to be like you).
  2. Learn to let go of the fear of rejection and fear of failure and start taking massive action by connecting, interacting, and encouraging your ideal customers (niche) to take an innocent talk with you and create your irresistible offer, which solves the niche's pain.
  3. Learn to master selling and see selling as an act of love where you're actually "helping" people. You are selfish if you can solve a person's biggest pain and you don't even try to get the person's attention by messaging or outreaching on your social media.
  4. Motivate and inspire yourself every morning and evening by connecting to your dreams, and stay laser-focused throughout the day.

Where can people find you and your business?

Website: https://www.thementalcaptain.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mikkellillelund
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thementalcaptain/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikkel-frogh-5723a117a/

If you like what you've read here and have your own story as a solo or small business entrepreneur that you'd like to share, then please answer these interview questions. We'd love to feature your journey on these pages.

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