If you know how the art industry in a small country where I live works, then you will understand what I mean by that. 

There are no big budgets for artistic films, no big budgets for weird composers like me, and no big budgets for strange new ideas like I had when I was young. 

So I had to self-fund everything with my FREELANCE work I did for many clients. 

I was known as a multimedia guy who could direct, record, shoot photography, do sound design, compose music, create websites, and play drums. 

I was also known for strange audiovisual performances, where I played electronic music live with my MIDI keyboard that was attached to Arkaos and Ableton Live, and which triggered visual and music at the same time. 

Some people liked this avant-garde art (3%), and some people thought I was crazy (97%).

+++

And that was it. 

My life from when I was 18 to 36. 

OMG. 

A full 18 years. 

I will call it my 2nd LIFE.

+++

But, in 2014 (Now comes the 3rd LIFE), I decided to leave my artistic journey as a FREELANCER doing all kinds of stuff for no money, and RETIRE. 

Not retire like you probably understand, but RETIRE from my CREATIVE LIFE. 

And that was a HARD DECISION to make. 

Especially if you are getting ideas for your next projects EVERY DAY.

SO YOU HAVE TO FIND A WAY TO SHUT DOWN YOUR CREATIVE PROCESSOR INSIDE YOUR HEAD. 

That is processing like crazy almost 17 hours per day. 

And which sometimes OVERBURNS so much it starts to AFFECT YOUR REAL LIFE.

+++

And then something happens. 

A gift sent from someone in the sky, who worries about you 24/7. 

In fact, the gift was sent already in 2008 when my first KIDDO was born, but this gift inspired my creativity even more. 

I started to make movies with HIM, and I also took a camera to my MOTHER'S FUNERAL, which I somehow regret. 

But on the other hand, I still think it will be a great FILM one day. 

When I figure out what my MISSION ON THIS PLANET is, so I will not be scared anymore to be CREATIVE and TRANSPARENT 100%.

+++

So what happened in 2014 that pushed me to say no to ART? 

It was a series of events from I guess 2004 that broke my SOUL.

The BIG ONE - Another kid. 

Yes, my wife SANDRA was pregnant with my 2nd kiddo in 2012. 

Besides that, my parents lost the house where I was born. 

Besides that, my MOTHER DIED.

Besides that, my FATHER GOT CANCER now and realized he has just a few more years left.

Besides that, I HAD NO REGULAR JOB and I was BROKE most of the time. 

Besides that, I moved to a small village in the middle of NOWHERE.

+++

Was the guy in the sky creating this for a reason? 

For sure he is. 

Or maybe 'SHE IS'. 

Anyway, now I was helping my mom fight the pain every day. 

Because I am a good guy who can cry if he sees people in pain. 

So I decided to move with my parents and help them as much as possible. 

They helped me on my weird journey till now, now it was my time to give help back. 

As much as I can.

+++

Now all my jobs and clients from my FREELANCER GIGS were far away. 

Remote working was still not there yet. 

For the first 2 years, I didn't have any wifi in my house. 

In fact, it was not possible to get a wire to our new house. 

But we found a solution thanks to my new neighbor. 

Who gave me access to his wifi which was 50 meters away. 

When there was bad weather, wifi was not working. 

So I had to go to his room to check my email. All good days.

+++

So after 2 years in the woods, I decided to kill my creative Buddha inside me and start looking at what I could do from here. 

My first kid was growing like crazy, and when I was not babysitting him, I looked for what I could do online with my skills. 

Freelance platforms like Upwork and Freelancer were not as popular as they are today, and also thinking of it now, it wouldn't be my thing. 

So I started to see how people online are making MONEY. 

At least if I could figure out how I could make a few hundred bucks from my remote village, without me having to drive anywhere, it would be a success for an artist like me. 

So I started to HEAVILY EXPLORE the internet. And the forums, groups, and I guess YouTube. 

Which was not what it is today where you can learn almost anything overnight. One day I found—not sure how—one guy, who was selling a course on how to make money with KINDLE books. 

I still remember his name. He was JAY. I bought his I think $297 course on how to make money with KINDLE BOOKS. 
And then I wrote 5 books by myself in the next 30 days. 

But I missed the main point. His strategy was to hire writers and publish 50 books ASAP, in a niche that is not so crowded. 
And if every book brings a few hundred $$ per month, then 50 books together can be a good passive revenue stream. 
The problem was, that I enjoyed writing books and my writing Buddha inside me said: YOU HAVE A STORY INSIDE. 

But after a few months, I gave up as another OPPORTUNITY came by.

AMAZON FBA. 

My mentor who I was following at that time for KINDLE BUSINESS, started selling physical products on AMAZON.COM. 

And soon his revenue surpassed the KINDLE book business.

So of course he made a training to teach young and hungry entrepreneurs like me, how to make millions online with this business model. 

At that time one course became very famous about AMAZON FBA, but I didn't know that this guy was an affiliate for them. 

So he was getting around $1-2k if he sold just one. And I went fully in. 

Because I believed this guy was successful. 

And he was! 

But not with his AMAZON business, but with his AFFILIATE business.

+++

At that time, I didn't know anything about business. 

It was 2015 and I was still an artist trying to figure out the money game and life balance as a new parent. 

At home I had a lot of pressure with sick parents and issues they had gotten into before. 

They lost all their money and assets due to some 3rd party people and wrong decisions.

So 30+ years of work collapsed in 2 years. 

They lost their house, their company, their pride, their status, and their health.

It is funny how unfair our life can be, if you are not surrounded by the right people.

And my parents were never part of any left or right political side, they were just small town workers, who had dreams to make a better life for them and for close people around them. 

And that sad story took a lot of pressure on my life, which at that time I didn't understand. 

All I knew was, that I had to support my family and make some money. 

We had a lot of loans for our house that we had to build from scratch, as the house I was born in was taken away. 

So we had to find a new place very quickly. 

My girlfriend Sandra (I call her wife now even though we are not married) comes from a different city from where I was born. 

I was born in a small mining town in the center of Slovenia, and she was born in a small more village-type city, two hours away. 

We met at University of Economics in Ljubljana, and we both didn't know why we were there. 

We were both artistic souls and the decision to go to that school was just to have something in life.

So you are not completely uneducated. 

After 2 years I realized I wanted to do movies, so I went to the US for 6 months. 

To study Filmmaking. 

Actually, it was an exchange student program and I was able to go to some place where I wanted. 

I wrote a long letter to around 20 film colleges in the US and only one or two replied back. 

The one who said that I could come, was Rockport College Maine. 

A private kind-of film school, where thousands of photographers and filmmakers were joining summer workshops.

My job at that school was - DISH WASHING. 

Yeah, I could come but I needed to work in the KITCHEN for 3 months. 

After that, I needed to go back home as the program was just 3 months from June to September. 

I believe it was 2001. 

But, what happened there was that I was really good in the kitchen, so the Master Chef helped me to go from dishwasher to cook assistant, and from cook assistant to film student. 

Yes, when they saw how interested I was in filmmaking and how hard working my soul was, they offered me a FREE SCHOLARSHIP for 8 WEEKS.

 
And that was a huge deal for me as this program cost more than $2.5k at that time. 

Now it would be I guess $5k. And this intensive 8 week Filmmaking training, was the reason why I am now writing this letter. 

And why the FOILU project idea started in the first place.

And why I became affected with telling real human stories.

+++

But let's go back to what happened with my AMAZON FBA business. 

Hungry to become a millionaire and then live the life of an artist on some remote island in the middle of nowhere, led me to some terrible decisions in my life.

That pushed me to an even deeper hole I was already in. 

My soul at that time was affected by bad luck, unfair business practices, and unfair opportunities, so I was on a mission to do something crazy. 

I took a loan from my cousin, my wife's mother, and my wife's brother. 

My father was broke and in big debt due to his 'bad luck'. 

That probably triggered my 'bad luck' somehow as well. 

Anyway, the loan I took was around $30k total.

The reason why I needed so much money, was because my 3rd product I launched on Amazon started selling very well. 

I was selling some special Edison light bulbs which were becoming extremely popular at that time in the US. 

So I was selling around 100 of them per day and I needed the money for the stock. 

As at that time Christmas and the New Year sales were coming, my mentors told me that I needed 3 months of stock in my US warehouse. 

So I made a calculation. 

100 per day by 90 days, I need 9000 packages of 10-packs. 

Yes, my best-seller was not one bulb, but 10 bulbs in one pack. 

So I needed to buy 90,000 bulbs in China, fill a container and ship it over the sea to a US warehouse. 

Pretty big deal for an artist who still didn't know exactly how this business could be done correctly. 

So I made many mistakes but the biggest thing was, that I did it! I got the money, I bought the bulbs, I shipped it over the sea, and the bulbs arrived on time! 

My sales were getting stronger and I was on the first page of Amazon for my main keyword. 

And when you are on the first page of Amazon, a lot of snakes come to your doors. 

And by snakes I mean sneaky competitors who would do anything to kill you. 

When they spy on you daily with a goal to replicate your success, many of them start to play a dirty game. 

And the game at that time for them was to report to Amazon the copyright on the images. 

But I had my own product images! 

And the loophole was, that Amazon needs a few days to review when this DMCA file was triggered. 

And in that time, your listing goes down. 

And all the ranking disappears in just a few days. 

+++

Now, it gets even better. 

This category I was in (the light bulbs), there are a few big players there. 

Like a few big US electric companies I don't want to mention. 

And when a lot of Chinese sellers and sellers like me come to their battlefield, they start complaining to Amazon. 

And if they are really big clients, Amazon and I guess all other marketplaces or platforms, will do anything for them. 

So in my case, they said: NO MORE EDISON BULBS! THIS CATEGORY IS NOW PROHIBITED. 

THESE BULBS ARE NOT ENERGY EFFICIENT SO NEW US LAW FORBIDS SELLING THEM. 

SO YOU CAN'T SELL THEM ON AMAZON. 

And that was a big kick to myself. 

I started crying as my inventory just hit the Amazon warehouse. 

Which at that time meant (I guess still today), that I would have to move out my inventory from their warehouse in the next 30 days. 

Great! 

+++

I just paid $1k to a US truck driver to pick it up at the ship and drive it to the warehouse. 

Now I would have to pay Amazon to send it somewhere, and the good part is that I don't know where. 

Then I just signed a contract with my cousin who took $10k from the bank (I was unable to get a loan as a freelancer who doesn't have a regular salary), so I would pay him back on a monthly basis. 

Then I got another $10k from my wife's mother who was saving this money for her grandkids (thank God that my kids were also in this fund)... 

Anyway, the life I was living became a living nightmare! But there is a good part.

It took me 1 YEAR to solve this issue and I DID IT. 

And along the way - I LEARNED A TON OF NEW STUFF. 

For example how to create a Shopify website, how to start selling on Deal Sites across the globe, and how to run FACEBOOK ADS. 

And in 2016, there was a completely different game than there is today! 

People who figured out the FACEBOOK ADS, were doing some impressive numbers with their one product or dropshipping sites.

+++

And now I guess you already know what will follow in my story. 

I LEARNED THE GAME OF HOW TO MAKE MONEY WITH FACEBOOK ADS. 

Because I was forced to learn how I could sell my products outside of Amazon. 

But it took me a while... Almost a year! 

And that year I learned something very valuable. 

NO MATTER HOW HARD YOUR LIFE KICKS YOU, YOU CAN STILL FIX IT. 

MAYBE IT WILL TAKE ALL YOUR ENERGY AND TIME, BUT IT'S 100% DOABLE. 

That year (I believe it was 2016), I also learned that I would try to never go back to where I was. 

Because when you are in big debt, when you need to give people money back and you don't have it, you feel very VULNERABLE.

 
You feel like SHIT. 

And I don't want to ever again be in that position.

+++

BUT THE ISSUE IS: 

No loan, no growth. 

Sometimes you just need to loan money so you can support your growth. 

To buy inventory, to hire new staff, to build a new warehouse. 

Sometimes you also need money for ads, as payment processors pay you with a delay. 

But ad platforms like Facebook need your credit card on file. 

So it is a hard game. 

If you are trying to build something but you don't have enough wealthy friends around you. 
Who you can ask for a favor. 

And when you do a mistake like me, for sure you never want to ask them for money anymore. 
At least that's how I feel to this day. 

And that is why I am bootstrapping all my projects. 

Either using my own finances for ads, or doing other types of organic distribution.

+++

But let's talk about that some other time. 

Right now I will give you an update on what happened then. 

I found a guy on Reddit who was openly talking about his successful EBAY business. 

And he built his warehouse near Florida. 

Using it mainly for his products. 

And I asked him - Hey Eric, this thing happened to me. 

Is there a way I can send my bulbs to your warehouse until I figure out how to sell them? 

He said YES and HELPED ME A LOT at that time. 

He also charged me just a small fee for storage and was happy to ship them for me if I got some sales on my own store. 

When I set up my Shopify store and decided to try to sell my bulbs via Facebook ads, I didn't realize that my product is not

something people will buy on social media. 

Most of the bulb sales were driven by search intent on Amazon, eBay, and Google. 

And on Facebook, only products that were looking fresh, unknown, or had amazing features, made incentivized buys. 
So after testing and again losing a lot of money, I realized this would not work for my product. 

But the good thing was, that I saw what was working for others and I tried to replicate it on my store. 

So my MATTEES store was a general store, selling firstly just bulbs, but then soon evolved to all kinds of home decor stuff, gadgets, and lastly motorcycle equipment. 

After testing hundreds of products I realized, that what really worked were the products made for passionate audiences. 
Nurses, Fishermen, Yoga moms, Bikers, Surfers, Drummers, Camping lovers, Survivor niche, etc. 

It was 2016 and Facebook was at an early stage. 

My CPC was low and my CPA was under $10 in the US. 

So when you found a winner, you could bump the budget drastically and the ROAS didn't go down. 

And when I saw that one specific motorcycle trouser was selling like crazy, I went from $20 per day to over $1k per day. 

Again, I was selling hundreds of items per day and the big difference that I learned from my FBA BUSINESS was, that I didn't want to make the same mistake with inventory. 

So I was dropshipping from China and the US. 

Later I found another product that was a helmet for bikers. 

It was cheap and it had no certificates. So I was a little scared what if something happens, but I had to pay my loans back. 
When I got some success with my shop, I opened another one, and then another one. 

I had one for Motorbike lovers, one for a general store where I was testing things, and one for Print on Demand (POD) stuff. 
That business model was also booming so I had to try it. 

It was never as successful as my motorcycle store but it made a few bucks along the way. 

By the end of 2016, I think I made around $1M in revenue but most of that money went to Facebook costs, product costs, VA costs, software costs, bank costs, and some other costs. 

I successfully sold most of my Amazon bulbs via WOOT and GROUPON and some other DEAL SITES in the US, which was another learning lesson for my own 'Entrepreneur's bible'. 

At that time I hired around 5 VAs from the Philippines who helped me to manage my Shopify stores and test new products. 

Most of the stuff I was still doing by myself, but I learned how to manage people and how to quickly get help if needed.

+++

Now 2017 came and then 2018. 

I became really good at Facebook and I enjoyed checking ad statistics every day, and optimizing and scaling campaigns. 

It was still not comparable to music or film creation, but I was making good money without any big physical activity. 

All day I was sitting in my home office that I built on top of my garage next to my house. 

To reduce stress after bad days I went hiking to the forest behind my house or digging the ground near my house.

One day I decided to build a pond and that decision took me on a several year journey that somehow changed my life. 

So every afternoon my hands went dirty as soon as I closed the doors of my home office. 

What happens if you are behind the computer too much time, is that your mind can't stop processing data and you need to either drink a beer or do some physical activity to destress yourself and shut down your inner processor.

And beer for me was always the preferred solution, until one point later when I realized that is maybe not such a good solution for a lifetime. 

But I realized that too late, and I'm gonna write that chapter at some other time. 

Right now I am focused on showing you the backstory, of what triggers the FOILU project in my mind. 

Which I think is the most NECESSARY PART if you want to find your HAPPINESS! 

Because not every project no matter how much money you make, will not make you HAPPY. 

AND THAT WAS ANOTHER WISDOM I WISH I WOULD HAVE FIGURED OUT MUCH SOONER. 

I lived 10 years in darkness because I thought that when I had money, I would be happy. 

And I read I don't know how many self-help books (My wife is a self-help book library and all books she reads are in that category, so perfect self-help type of buyer for my general store), and they all said what I am saying now. 

So I guess I was blind or dumb.

I guess this is the same. 

When you are dumb you don't see specific things. 

And if you are blind you do dumb things because you don't see a few steps forward.

+++

Now back to my business. 

I successfully paid back all my debts on time so the bank didn't trigger any additional consequences. 

I successfully paid back loans for my house and helped my father after my mom died. 

I successfully finished the house we and now 2 kids were living in. 

I successfully built my office which is also a music studio, a sauna, and a small fitness room. 

I successfully built my small pond, and then my bigger one, and then my largest (final I hope) one. 

I successfully realized that I am not smart enough to be a big entrepreneur, making millions of dollars. 

But, I also realized that I am not the dumbest entrepreneur who can't solve things when they happen. 

If I recall all my mistakes and terrible decisions I made in my life, I can say that my SCHOOL OF LIFE were the MISTAKES I MADE. 

The only difference that I wish I would do, is that I would HIRE A CONSULTANT to help me see these mistakes sooner. 
But as stubborn as I am, I had to TEST EVERYTHING MYSELF. 

With my OWN MONEY, WHICH WAS THE DUMBEST MISTAKE ANY HUMAN CAN POSSIBLY MAKE. 

And I regret that the most! 

All my mistakes were made out of my pocket, usually with savings of my own money, or money I got from my closest ones. 

If I could change one thing today, is that I would HIRE A COACH or MENTOR way sooner. 

Somebody, who could teach me things that I don't know.

+++

But here is a tricky part. 

To find a really good mentor or a consultant is fucking terrible. 

Because all these mentors who are selling online trainings and courses on how to do this and that, are worthless and they will just take your money. 

And I was guilty so many times. 

Due to my shiny object syndrome and the creative Buddha inside me, who always thought that I would make it no matter what project or field of art. 

But now when I am older and (I hope) smarter, I see the overall picture more clearly. 

Only the person who went through the same shit as you, can teach you steps to avoid next time. 

And if I would find a person who could teach me how to save my Amazon FBA business on time, I maybe wouldn't have had to do it alone as I had to do it. 

Maybe there was another way or another connection somewhere that could help me. But this I will never know, as I didn't find the right mentor. 

Right now what I know, is that I made many mistakes which cost me a lot of money. 

And tears. 

Tears from the people I love the most. 

Because when the people around you feel insecure about what the future for them will be, you as a man, the center of their security, have failed deeply. 

And that will bring tears also to your eyes. 

And to my eyes when I am writing this.

+++

The toughest part for every man to realize is, that if you are unable to provide support for yourself and your family, you are considered a failure. 

A little guy who can't fix his own shit in his head!

+++

And many times I felt like that. Like a guy who can't fix shit in his head. 

I was jumping from project to project. 

From brand to another brand. 

From music to film. From DIY art to DIY pond. 

From building a boat to building a tree house. 

I wanted to do everything by my own hands just to prove to myself, that I am a creative living creature. 

Or maybe just to prove to others that I can do it. 

Or just to kill the noise in my head so I forget about my problems. Issues in my online business that I try to build.

And unhappiness I got myself into because I missed the main GOAL. 

To find something connected to your soul. Something that makes you happy when you wake up in the morning. 

Something that drives you every day to work harder and harder. 

Something that brings smiles to your face when you think of it.

+++

And FOILU is this smile for me. 

A project of my LIFE which I want to be REMEMBERED for. 

If you take everything you have in, I believe you will succeed. 

And I NEVER PUT SO MUCH ENERGY into something, than now to FOILU. 

+++

But before I start talking how FOILU STARTED and how I DEVELOPED the whole platform in JUST ONE MONTH, let me tell you what happened from 2018 to TODAY.

End of 2018 I decided that running my own online business has a lot of downsides. 

The main one was that I needed a lot of capital if you want to scale and if you don't have rich friends or family relatives, it's gonna be hard. 

Maybe this was my limited belief as many guys just like me, succeeded and made big money with their store with no outside capital. 

But those who did it, they were in different MINDSET that I was at that time, so my decision to kill my online business end of 2018 was a good decision for me at that time.

I was tired of constant ups and downs with Facebook ads, I was tired of testing 20 cheap china gadgets every day, just to make one that I could then scale big and it will make all the testing money back. 

I was tired of managing my team especially when the situation wasn't looking good. 

And I was tired living in my home office and working 12+ hours per day while my kids asked to play with them.

My life at that time came to a point, I needed some change so I can see a different picture. 

And maybe to see how others who are better than me are doing things. 

My problem in my business learning self-taught school was also, that till this time I never worked in any real company, where I could learn about teams and processes behind. 

I was always a freelancer working with art collectives and non-profit organizations. 

Which many of them were run on their own systems and terms which were much different than what an online business should be.

In online business you need a clear system, well oiled workflow, hungry buyers, great products, and a good team.

And if you never worked in that kind of environment, it's also hard to see this picture.

So one of my BIG REGRETS now is also a regret that I HAVEN'T DONE AS MANY JOBS AS POSSIBLE IN DIFFERENT BUSINESS ENVIRONMENTS. 

If I could, I would pick 20 businesses and went SHADOWING CEO, OR CMO, OR CFO for at least 1-3 months. 

I know this experience will help me to SUCCEED in any business, profit or nonprofit, at 10x SCALE.

But, as my life took a different turn, I had to learn something I should learn in my twenties, at my forties. 

Now I am going soon in my 50s, so what I know now, is still I guess nothing to what I could know if I would do THESE WORKING EXPERIENCES BEFORE. 

+++

So to cut to the base, I got an offer to work at one local startup that was doing crazy volume of orders everyday. 

They scaled from few people to 150 employees in just 3 years. And they were spending $100k+ per day on Facebook ads.

Selling to 15 countries in EU. 

As this decision came when I needed a change in my life, I opened my arms and said YES. 

Let's see how the BIG GUYS are doing it from the INSIDE.

My main drive to this decision was that I was stuck with my small business. 

I couldn't see what is the next stage. What is on the other side. 

And one more issue was also there that made me sign up a full-time job contract with them. 

Issue that I was losing money for the last few months as I couldn't find my new winning product. 

And my savings account which was before more than $40k thanks to my small business, was going down every day.

When I was near $10k, I had no choice as I said to myself when my Amazon FBA business died, that I will never go completely broke again. 

I will always try to have at least $10k in my pocket, just if something bad happens. 

Maybe your car breaks, maybe someone you love needs money more than you, or maybe you get scammed or robbed. 

There are many ways something goes wrong in your life and if you don't have money to support yourself and your loved ones, you are FUCKED. 

Your happiness LEVEL GOES BELOW ZERO. 

Your INSECURITY LEVEL GOES TO BEYOND 100. 

And your FAMILY STARTS TO BELIEVE YOU ARE WORTHLESS. 

And all that HURTS. 

And kills your PRIDE. 

And brings BAD THOUGHTS to your life. 

Which you then want to KILL with drugs. 

Or alcohol. 

Or weird behavior. 

+++

So I promised myself in 2016, that I will never go down below $10k in my savings. 

If I come near, I will have to find a job and kill my business. 

So I did. 

Exactly this. 

I said goodbye to my Filipino VAs which some of them were super loyal to me.

It was hard goodbye for me but what can you do. 

Sometimes all the things you love you have to give away to make a new opportunity.

And this new opportunity that opened for me, brought new opportunities. 

And then new, and new, and then FOILU. 

WHICH IS MY LATEST AND THE BIGGEST OPPORTUNITY SO FAR. 

Will it last? 

It will last only if I will have the RIGHT MINDSET and the RIGHT PEOPLE around me.

It will last only if I will make THE RIGHT PRODUCT around it, which will INSPIRE MILLIONS OF PEOPLE. 

It will last only if I will PUT ALL MY WISDOM AND ENERGY INTO IT. 

And right now, I believe that I can do it. 

That I am old enough that I can build something AMAZING. 

SOMETHING I WILL BE REMEMBERED FOR. 

SOMETHING THAT WILL BRING SMILE ON MY FACE EVERY MORNING I WILL WAKE UP. 

+++

And this feeling is all I need to live the HAPPY LIFE. 

I don't want to work shitty jobs with people they don't respect me. 

I want to work with smart people who were there where I was. 

Who can support me, help me, and teach me how to go where I want to come. 

So if any of you who are reading this can help me see the BIGGER PICTURE, the bigger picture of FOILU, please contact me.

Right now my picture is this: I WANT TO BUILD THE BIGGEST CROWD-SOURCED FILM STUDIO IN THE WORLD. 

IT HAS NO PHYSICAL LOCATION (yes no inventory) SO IT HAS UNLIMITED POTENTIAL. 

The PLATFORM I BUILT TO SUPPORT IT, IS MADE FOR HUGE SCALE. 

SO I CAN SUPPORT HUNDREDS OF PROJECTS FROM CREATIVE PEOPLE AND BUSINESSES. 

FOILU HAS A SIMPLE GOAL - TO MAKE STORYTELLING SIMPLE AND EFFECTIVE. 

+++

Now when I tell you more about what I am building, let me tell you few more insights of my story. 

So you'll understand where I come from and where we are all going. 

I believe that ANY EVENT FROM THE PAST THAT TRIGGERS YOUR HAPPY EMOTIONS, it is a potential winner for your BUSINESS. 

I know this might be little hard to understand, but if you've read my story to this point, you saw that FOILU PROJECT was triggered by my happy emotion that was created while I was participating in my 8-WEEK FILMMAKING WORKSHOP in Maine back in 2001.

I felt amazing at that time as this was my first trip to United States. 

And United States had always a big impression on me as I saw it as the unlimited land of opportunity. 

I come from an ex-communist country called Yugoslavia, which then in 1991 broke apart. 

Several civil wars split this big country below Italy, Austria, and Hungary, into six smaller countries such as Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Kosovo and Vojvodina. 

Slovenia where I was born was the first one who asked for independence. 

Our 10 day civil war and the victory on June 25 of 1991, it is hard to remember for me.

I was in my early teens and love was spreading all around my life from different corners. 

My mom said we need to hide in our basement when airplanes dropped by. 

But I was a kid of punk culture in our high school, so I said FUCK IT. 

I will not hide. 

I will rather go to nature and smoke a joint. 

My friends with whom I was also skateboarding and snowboarding with, had all these crazy ideas. 
To be different and to not do what others tell you. 

We were young rebels who started to fight the local authority. 

And who never said yes to local norms or what was considered to be normal.

If I try to see back now how this punk and skate culture shaped my personal beliefs, it was clear that not all the good came out of this time. 

For sure I got a lot of DIY mentality and creativity, but also I thought I need to fight on every corner of my life. 

I didn't trust nobody and I rather spent my own money to try a new thing, than to give money to someone to teach me. 

Maybe I was just scared to ask for help, as in my teens time you never asked for help! You went out and figured this out. 

Same was with skateboarding, and same was when we started punk-rock band. 

You went out and found a way to learn a new trick, or record a song, or find a gig. 

And it was a system that worked for us.

For me I replicated this system in all my music and film production. 

I always rather locked myself into my studio and recorded all music by myself, than go to some studio and pay money to someone to do it for me. (ok, except mastering) 

I always rather go on the street and find actors on the street for my new movie, than to ask film institution who were always terrible in Slovenia to get money. Better and faster way for me was - JUST DO IT. 

+++

And why I am telling you all this. 

Because I believe that everything that happens in your childhood, has some reflection to either your happiness, or either how you are doing things. 

And in my way, some things and events triggered either the wrong or the right decisions. 

So it is really important to UNDERSTAND them and SORT them correctly.

In my example things that happened in my teens, triggered my DIY MENTALITY. 

So in adult life all the things I tried to achieve I try to achieve them by myself. 

What hasn't maybe been the right approach. 

I would get to specific point much faster and cheaper, if sometimes I would ask for help. 

But, it is never too late to LEARN NEW THINGS. 

Today when I am writing this letter to you, I am learning many things. 

And maybe showing you a way how you can do it too.

If you know what is KILLING your POTENTIAL and what is making it POWERFUL, all you need to do is simply realize it. 

And when the situation comes, you need to pick the right one. 

So you can become STRONGER, HEALTHIER, AND WISER. 

+++

Imagine there was a place, where you can ask people to tell you all these things?

Imagine there was a place, where these memories can become alive again? 

Imagine there was a place, where you can recall all these things? 

FOILU is not just a FILMMAKING STUDIO.

It is a DIGITAL ARCHIVE for your thoughts, emotions, and events. 

And when specific emotion triggers your brain in the right way, you get AN IDEA. 

Then all you have to do, is to bring this IDEA TO LIFE. 

And today with all the technology we have, that is becoming very simple.

For example the Beta version of FOILU STUDIO, I built in one month. 

Thanks to artificial intelligence. 

And special tools that make us who are not super-good programmers and developers, amazing programmers and developers. 

But I went one step further, before I even started to program FOILU, I asked AI to help me with my business idea.

And for few days I had an ongoing conversation that helped me shape my idea into a million dollar business.

Now here is a trick that you need to know! 

With AI, building million dollar business is super-easy. 

Executing it, maybe not so easy. 

But, very doable. 

I want you to just remember this. 

As probably you too are gonna be pumped about something as I am with FOILU. 

Do I want to make it a million dollar business? 

It would be COOL FOR SURE, but this is not my only INTENTION. 

My only intention right now is to build a platform that can HELP YOU to find these missing EMOTIONS, those happy TRIGGERS, and those awesome MEMORIES. 

BECAUSE WHEN YOU WILL FIND THEM, THEN THE 'RIGHT IDEA' WILL COME TOWARDS YOU. 

YOU WILL NO LONGER HAVE TO TEST THOUSANDS OF IDEAS BECAUSE YOU WILL KNOW YOU HAVE THE RIGHT IDEA.

+++

If you will read my story on, you will see that in the past I tried to launch dozens of projects. 

Most of them were not successful, because they didn't have that ingredient I am PREACHING YOU ABOUT. 

The ingredient that TRIGGERS HAPPY EMOTIONS. 

When I look back, being creative, surrounded with creative people, listening to creative stories of success, of failure, of to never give up, is the thing that POWERS ME.

I still REMEMBER while I was in Maine, that every FRIDAY there was a one hour lecture where different filmmakers, photographers, designers, sound artists, film workers, and others, came and shared their stories. 

Stories of how they succeeded in something or how they felt. 

The intimacy of that event and transparent storytelling, was the INGREDIENT that filled me with JOY and WISDOM. 
And those events stayed with me FOR LIFE. 

In my MEMORY, there were still these TALKS, these STORIES, these EVENTS.

So when I got the IDEA for FOILU, the main trigger behind the STUDIO I am building in our PLATFORM, is to recreate these EVENTS. 

Where people ACROSS THE GLOBE, can share their VOICES on different topics around their LIFE, BUSINESS, INTIMACY, PARENTING, PASSION, and more. 

FOILU platform was built with one intention - to BRING STORIES together from famous and not famous people under one ROOF. 

Where you then can simply watch them and get INSPIRED. And when you get INSPIRED, IDEAS come towards you. And that is the goal. 

+++

When you will become member of FOILU, you will see that we also have MEMBERS DIRECTORY. 

Main idea behind it is, that when we see a video of specific human, we can check if this human is also maybe providing COACHING or any other SERVICES we might need. 

For example if we see a video of somebody talking about how he or she overcame specific struggle, and you are a victim of that struggle too for the last 10 years, wouldn't it be cool to connect with this PERSON? 

You can solve this issue much faster if you discuss it with someone who was already there where you are right now. 
And who is now already maybe there where you want to be at. 

And that is the main reason of our MEMBERS DIRECTORY. 

Plus, it gives FOILU unfair advantage, as there is nothing similar on this planet. 

+++

Now let me take you back to 2018 when I got this first job as a media buyer for Facebook, and what happened after I killed my online business. 

The job was OK but I struggled with my ego-centric 20-year old wanna be BOSS executive of our team. 

For sure now I respect him and he grew into a great paid media consultant, but then the synergy in our team because of him was just not right. 

And I experienced one more situation like that in my further company I worked with in Lithuania. 

Which was even crazier story, as it did 220M EUR in 2022.

Now, when you are working so long as a freelancer or then as an entrepreneur, many of us will probably have some hard time with people who are trying to control our work. 

These managers in tech and other companies (now I know as I worked in few), need to control people, setup workflows, and report to executives. 

So they have a lot of pressure on their chests and if they are not trained to manage people and remove stress after their job is done, they will have issues. 

And the pressure comes out either in yelling to co-workers, or giving unrealistic goals to achieve, or just bullying with stupid examples.

I've seen all but the biggest part that was the reason when I had enough, was a 'hardness' of these leaders. 

I was raised in different time and my biggest value in life today is to treat people nice. 

To be friendly, down to earth, co-operative, transparent. 

But all this was not seen in my first and later 2nd manager who I worked for. 

When I took a free workshop for leaders in 2022 when I was already working in Lithuania for KiloHealth, the most famous tech startup in Lithuania, I realized that again maybe my belief here is not doing me any good in business world.
In business world, leaders of specific teams need to be 'soulless'. 

Maybe the word is not right, but what I want to say, is that they are expected to be not 'too friendly' with co-workers. 
They need to show authority and they need to lead the team towards the victory. 

My 1 on 1 coach for this leadership training, taught me a great lesson as she clearly saw that I need to develop more thick skin if I want to stay in tech world and become a good leader.

So she introduced a character for me, which was the AIRPLANE PILOT. 

She said that I need to pretend that everything is OK even when the big turbulence comes and all cabin crew and passengers are afraid that they will die. 

You need to be CALM and lead the plane to LAND SAFELY. 

NO MATTER HOW BAD THE ACTUAL SITUATION IS. 

You don't need to tell them the whole story if it is not helping the BIGGER GOAL. 

And in businesses there is a lot of these turbulences and if you are not trained to solve them THE FAST AND CALM WAY, you will not be considered as a GOOD LEADER. 

And that message stayed with me till this day, and as I AM MORE AND MORE GROWING into now the leader of FOILU TEAM, I know that this is the most valuable asset I need to keep if I want to bring company to where I want to bring it. 

+++

Although I am still not super experienced in this field as I don't have a lot of experience, I know that to be a good leader, you need to still respect people no matter what rollercoaster your company is in. 

In my examples the problem was, that these younger leaders didn't have any experience in leading people, and also weren't mature enough to understand main human individual needs and what makes them happy, productive, and good co-workers.
But I am not blaming anyone, because I was acting shitty many times either. 

When I should have kept my mouth closed, I openly shared my views which many times weren't necessary. 

I was too open about my thoughts and feelings, as I thought all people should act the same way as me.

 
I believed that all people on this planet are good and should be friends too long. 

Now when I am getting older and older, I see things differently. And I am still not sure if this is a good way or bad. 

I guess it depends on the job you are doing and the people you are doing business with. 

In the tech startup and business world I was part of, this was not a good thing.

But in the FOILU TEAM and the PARTNERS I WORK WITH, I want to make this a priority.

Transparency I think is crucial in todays time. 

I don't want to work with people who lie, are not honest, don't have an opinion about if something is good or bad, or are lazy just because they don't love their jobs. 

I want to work with people who respect me as who I am, and where I come from. 

For sure I made thousands of mistakes on my growth journey, and maybe music for people who don't know me is terrible, and films that I made in my past are not cinematic masterpieces. 

But what I want you to know, is that I put ALL MY HEART into it. 

And THAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT INGREDIENT. 

Because when your HEART is in the right thing, then THE MIRACLE happens. 

+++

Ok, now I guess you know enough of me. 

After this job as media buyer in 2018, I joined a small boutique performance agency that was led by a guy who was born in Australia, lived in South Africa, but had roots in GREECE. 

His name was Dimitri and I worked with more than 50 different clients from 2019-2022. 

I helped them to scale their online business with Facebook, Pinterest, Google, Twitter, Native campaigns. 

For some I've spent just $1k per day, and for some I've spent $30k on a daily basis. 

My biggest achievement that we 'media buyers' like to say, was that I helped one client to earn ONE MILLION DOLLARS IN ONE DAY.

 
And that was a big thing for me at that time. 

I can happily say, that this client made $2.5M in 4 DAYS. 

Thanks to his great brand, customers all over the globe, and my humble skills in advertising.

When agency said that they will close the doors in 2022, I was pretty disappointed. 

Team I was part of was very cool, most of the clients I worked with were also pretty cool, and the best part was, that during COVID time I had a safe job and my family was happy as I brought home pretty solid check every month. 

+++

But then things started to go even better. When agency closed the doors, I said that I will enjoy my summer vacation and not do anything for the next 3 months. 

But then I saw an ad for a job at KiloHealth, in some private Facebook group. 

What kept my attention was that this company was ranking as the 2nd fastest growing startup in Europe. 

And that from the pictures of their offices, I saw this might be the great next step in my career. 

So I applied and honestly said that I don't need a job, but that I am interested just because I think they look cool. 

Bad from me, but my hiring manager liked my honesty and after 4 more interviews I was hired as a TEAM LEAD for paid media.

In fact, just before I started working there, their team went for their first team building to Tenerife in Spain. 

A great spot with black volcano beaches and all-inclusive hotel with 5 stars with pool and everything. 

Idea was that this is just for their team, but then not sure why, they decided to buy me a plane ticket and invite me with them. 
I just came from the GREECE trip where we had a team-building goodbye party with my previous agency I was working with, so I just grabbed almost unopened suitcase and jumped on the plane.

First impression with team was great, there were all nice but little different. 

Till that time, I haven't been many times to northern part of Europe, so I knew almost nothing about Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. 

But during our trip there, I realized there is something interesting in their culture. 

It is hard to explain to people who were never in Vilnius, but after my time there several times, now I understand this type of human much better. 

They look cold, but they are not. 

They are super nice, helpful, but sometimes weird. 

Their traditional food is not for me, their history is dark, even more dark than ours.

We are around 2M in population, and we are both hard in tech startups scene. 

Not like silicon valley, but right after on 3rd or 4th place. 

So who is 2nd? 

Hm... China? 

Or are they first? 

Everlasting fight who's gonna first land on the Moon. 

But Russia is also strong. 

But in other way. 

So better not go there. 

Especially now, when they are still fighting Ukraine. 

And Lithuania is very close. 

And that's why they are so afraid again. 

Like in their past. 

When everybody wanted to take their land. 

And that's why they support Ukraine with all their hearts.
+++
Now as you can see, I have a special relationship with Lithuania. 

I love it! 

But there is a twist. 

My manager who brought me into Kilo Health, was just... Different? 

The conversation we had about, yes, she acted many times the same as my first manager. 

Not knowing how to lead the plane in turbulent times. 

But it's not again all her fault. 

Usually for the strong turbulence there is a reason why it happens. 

Many times but not always. In our case, there was a strong reason, and for which I was invited to join the team.

The reason was that their app conversion rate was sinking for the past 6 months. 

And due to Facebook ads changes, they couldn't find the reason why their sales were going down. 

They thought that experienced guy like me can solve their sinking ship, but they forgot that for sinking ship to survive there must be more than one person. 

It needs to be a collective effort either to fix the hole in the boat somehow, or jump out and swim together to the nearest island. 
If there is one somewhere near.

But as in our case hole was too big and as the team leader couldn't see that one person can't fix the whole, this ship sank to the bottom. 

But, the good thing was, that I jumped out early when it hit the bottom of the ocean. 

So I could swim out pretty safely, but some people not so well. 

At least from what I heard.

SO WHAT DID I LEARN HERE? 

I learned again that my leader was forced from another leader to fix the hole. 

And that another leader was forced by a ship company, who was then forced from an investor. 

So a lot of force again, and poor my leader cracked in front of my eyes. 

Even though that she tried to be nice all the time with me as I was little older, I saw sad look in her eyes when she realized I am not the one who can save the sinking ship.

I said to her many times, the conversion rate of their funnel and ads on the frontend, are two synced parties. 

And if you are trying to fix just one, the results can not be there where you want them to be. 

There are always two sides to fix. Front and the back. 

Another thing I learned there was that the pressure in these big companies is not friendly for managers and leaders. 

These big companies have many times outside investors as otherwise they can not grow so fast. 

So these outside investors need reports and clear picture what is happening with their money.

If one of their flagships is sinking, then their revenue from that ship is not what they were pitched it will be. 

So the pressure from investors goes to the Founders, from Founders, to CEOs, from CEOs to CMOs, from CMOs to people like me. 

And the loop goes then to specialists, seniors, juniors, and so on. 

Even though the whole ship looks like it is from steel, if one small part starts to rust, the whole ship has an issue. 

So the pressure of sinking is too big, and that's why there is so much panic about it. 

Which many people don't understand, until they experience it.

And my experience was pleasant but at the same time scary. 

As once you are in this big boat, you see you are just a part of the machine that doesn't care about you and your goals. 

All they care is about the price of fuel and the mechanics who can repair the parts at fast speed. 

+++

Now my story didn't end here. 

After I quit here, I believe it was somewhere in 2023, I got invitation to join another company from Lithuania. 

This time it was not so SaaS or ecom oriented, but more like a media company. 

It was called BoredPanda and probably you've seen one of their viral articles on your social media feed. 

Their website gets billions of views every year and their content machine that produces so much content is outstanding.

What caught my attention when I was invited to join, was the behind the scenes view into how they are doing this. 

How they are generating so much content and what is the process behind it. 

As when you're working online you don't see all, but from the Slack you quickly understand how many great processes you need to build something of this size. 

And then again how many great leaders in each department you need, to bring the right fuel to this machine.

My job here was to help them with paid traffic to some affiliate partnership. 

This was an experimental project and I knew from the beginning, that if this will not work my job here is finished.

So after several analyses I did at the beginning, I knew that this one will be a tough nut to crack. 

Especially with the recent astronomical costs in Facebook (Now Meta) advertising. 

Their business model just can't be profitable with paid media, because affiliate revenue is too low.

But I decided anyway to join and try, even if it will last for a short time. 

My leader this time was super cool, and complete difference from my past two leaders I was talking about before. 

She gave me complete independence and whole team felt no big pressure from her. 

In this way I think we were more productive and work at least for me, felt more healthy. 

We had a different system for tracking results and also task delegation, which for me was little confusing, especially because it was hard to see actual results in one panel. 

But overall, it was great experience for me that lasted little over a year.

When we realized that this project will not work and that paid media and my services don't make sense anymore, we split apart with no hard feelings. 

It was 2025. I believe Q2. 

+++

My side-hustle that I was doing while I started to see that also this ship (job) can sink, was a simple website directory for freelancers and businesses who need help fast. 

I was always pretty good with WordPress, Click Funnels, and Shopify. 

So I started to develop few things on my own. 

Then I saw some new tool that I didn't know before. And another tool. 

And at the same time, I started using AI a lot. 

And I also joined one Mastermind on AI by long-time guy who I know from ecom area in 2015.

More and more I started to see the power of AI, and more and more opportunities started to rise on top of the online sea. 
So I started to heavily discuss my mission on this planet with AI. 

First just for fun, then more and more seriously. 

One thing kept coming back to me, and that was PASSION. 

I tried to find a project that will bring HUNGER in my eyes, but I couldn't find it. 

AI is telling me whatever I asked, but that was not the answer I was looking for. 

I knew I had to look deeper, to find my PURPOSE IN LIFE.

+++

In the last 3 years, ok now is June 2025, I've tried to find something to do for myself. 

Something that can support me and my family, so I don't need to ask for another job. 

The problem was, that all side-hustle projects I started, failed. 

Either because you need a lot of your own money to test things in paid media, or because my product idea was not something special. 

Maybe it was special to me as my creative Buddha inside me thinks all my things are special, but now after knowing him so long, I know that many times he is wrong.

Many times he is wrong as same as AI can be wrong. 

He listens to your ideas and these ideas come from things you see online. 

If the idea is not real, he will have hard time to say to you if you want to go after it or not. 

And because all the ideas today have no true meaning behind, most of them are made instantly just to make quick revenue, many of them fail. 

Just as all my quick side-hustle projects I wanted to build in the last 2 years.

I tried to create my own digital training, showing you how you can build a website with AI. 

Then I tried a one product ecommerce site, selling beauty products. 

Then I tried to sell my own gummy supplements, red therapy products. 

Then I did an affiliate newsletter, a lead gen B2B business, and finally a dating membership site. 

From all of them the most revenue brought a dating membership site, but bringing members into the app was too expensive for cold traffic. 

So I decided to stop it, although it is bringing me around $1k per month on autopilot. 

+++

Then I was thinking again. 

And again. 

And trying to figure out why anything I started in the last 2 years doesn't work. 

Then one day it hit me. 

PASSION = HAPPINESS. 

Again this PASSION. 

I tried to calculate with AI how happy I would be in next 10 years, if any of my project I started will succeed. 

The only success metric I put in was the MONEY. 

But no MATTER how much money I put in, the SUCCESS number was still the same. 

Even if I put that this project will bring me 10 millions, I didn't feel any happiness. 

Because there was no PASSION inside my projects.

+++

So I started thinking more.

 
What do I really like to do, even though I will not make any money? 

It was STORYTELLING. 

From my teenage years, I still remember that my IMAGINATION was pretty wild. 

And that I have crazy DREAMS always. 

And that I can write pretty fast and invent STORIES ON THE FLY. 

And that I enjoy writing STORIES. 

DIARIES. 

NOVELS. 

LETTERS. 

FILMS. 

IDEAS. 

In fact, while I was working at Kilo Health, my co-workers gave me a title at one party "MATEJ - THE GREATEST STORYTELLER" on our team.

+++

Now I slowly understand why.

I can come up with a lot of ideas QUICKLY.

And in my notebooks I have thousands of IDEAS FOR MOVIES. 

Four SOUND PROJECTS. For BINAURAL ADVENTURES. 

And so much more. 

+++ 

When I joined the best masterclass of my life ($5k but was worth $20k), by the one and only Ron Lynch who is the famous direct-response copywriter behind GoPro and several other TV commercials that did $4B+ in sales, I realized that I have this gift when I write.

I can go deep into other characters even if I don't know them.

Or by simply looking at them for a few minutes.

How they talk, how they walk, how they are dressed, etc.

I also realized that I have thousands of ideas in my head, but they will probably never be executed.

Because either they SUCK, or are hard to CREATE, or are IMPOSSIBLE for me to even start them by MYSELF. 

So when I started another discussion with AI, I realized more and more how PASSION and HAPPINESS are connected. 

And how I need to start looking at ideas with PASSION SATISFACTION FACTOR as a main metric. 

+++ 

So when I did another sheet and put all my projects in, I realized none of them came even to LEVEL 2 out of 5. 

So it was clear that I was looking on the wrong side of my scale. 

To build something SUSTAINING, something that can LAST 10-20 YEARS, you need to have a BIG PASSION for it. 
Otherwise it will become boring for you and your business will fail. 

And when your business fails, you will be stressed. 

And when you're stressed, your family will be stressed. And when you're all going to be stressed, your life will become miserable.

+++ 

So all you have to do is find YOUR PASSION first. 

Our passion is always locked in our CHILDHOOD MEMORIES. So go back into the past and see what EVENT or HABIT triggered a GOOD VIBE in you. 

Then see how much of that you are doing now. 

+++ 

Ok, many of you will say: EASIER SAID THAN DONE. 

I know. And that is not the point here. 

I am just trying to show you how much PASSION is related to the SUCCESS OF PROJECT you are doing. 

And how much PASSION is related to overall HAPPINESS OF YOUR LIFE. 

I am not trying to tell you how you can now change your life with understanding your passion. 

Maybe the one you were doing about 30 years ago is not possible due to your age or health condition. 

Maybe one that you did a few years ago is not possible due to your financial situation. 

I am just trying to explain that this PASSION ingredient that you will find in your next project will be crucial for the overall success of your project. 

+++ 

Ok Matej, but what does this have to do with FOILU? 

OK, I'm glad you asked. 

But I am also scared that maybe you skipped half of MY STORY. 

+++ 

I will tell you how this FOILU STARTED and what was the IDEA BEHIND. 

And why NOW I BELIEVE I FOUND A RECIPE for my success.

But YOUR SUCCESS IS NOT THERE yet? 

Yes I know it's not there yet for YOU, but for ME it is already A SUCCESS. 

BECAUSE ME AND YOU HAVE DIFFERENT METRICS FOR SUCCESS. 

+++

Do you get it? 

Your metric is MONEY, and mine is PASSION. 

If you work 8 hours a day and make $200 per day, how successful are you 1 - 5? 

For somebody it will be 5, for somebody 1. 

Same is with PASSION. 

If you have only a bad hour in your day, how would you rate your success 1 - 5? 

For some it will be 5, for some again 1. 

Depends on what you are doing. 

My HAPPINESS rate when I do stuff related to FOILU PROJECT is much higher than when I do other project stuff. 

So more likely I will have better SUCCESS with it. 

And because I believe FOILU project can become also a VERY SUCCESSFUL project financially, I put all eggs in this basket. 

But don't you know, it is never a good idea to put all eggs in one basket! 

Yes, I know. 

But here things are different. 

These are project IDEAS. 

Not real businesses. 

These ideas need to be validated first. 

And validation needs to be achieved fast. 

Usually in the first 1-3 months. 

So for me it makes sense to put all the eggs in this basket for the next 1-3 months. 

So I can build quick and test MVP asap. 

+++ 

Ok, got it. 

You are now testing the MVP. 

Yes, I built an MVP in 1 month. 

The whole website, the platform, the directory, the strategy, the email flow, the challenge, the branding, the 10 year plan, the movie library, and the story for my book. 

OK this one wasn't planned but it might help the success of my project. 

And I realized just now that I really like to think out loud when I write.

Again.

+++ 

So what was the trigger for FOILU IDEA? 

Yes, I almost forgot. 

One day I was scrolling through my Facebook feed. 

And I see a long post from my old friend/lover. 

She attached a picture of our big Olympic pool in our city, for which our city was famous in the nineties. 

But most importantly was that this pool was a beautiful open pool, with big jumping area, terrace, and bar where crazy parties were happening. 

I was connected to that pool as I was a swimmer during my primary school, so my first crush happened in that pool. 

Also in that area, a lot of kids spent summers in this pool, as they didn't have money to travel to some tourist destinations. 

There was also a different story of this pool I remembered. 

When I was a little older, me and my friends who were skateboarders, we jumped over the fence during the night and went skateboarding inside. 

This usually happened when the pool was already closed in late October, November, December, and sometimes before they filled it with water again in March, April, and May. 

So many times we jumped over the fence, but the guard was inside and he started to scream at us, so we had to run. 
But it was still fun, those things. 

When you remember now, they were innocent and silly. 

And there was another point in that story. In the post, the girl revealed what those summers meant to her, and I immediately connected because I remembered in my muscles all those memories. 

The story kept going when the girl started talking about all these good times and how the old scene was different in our city and how all these old bars were different during the summer and how we went to the club and concerts and all this weird stuff that you like to do when you are young. 

Then she awakened other feelings in me when she started talking about the different subculture scenes in our small city where there were skateboarders, then there were punkers, then there were us - heavy metals and rockers, and the guys who were just always dressed nice. 

All these kept memories in my head, and I started to understand how different this time was and how I'm still missing some of those vibes wherever I go. 

After I read this article, I responded to her that this would be a great idea for a movie if she has a screenplay or something, that I could write a screenplay or I don't know, we could just start to make fun of all these good times. 

And then when the night came I was thinking in my bed about how good it would be if there was a website or something where we can store all these funny moments from specific area era or from specific event or from specific people that we like or something and that we can easily upload and just watch all this material in one place. 

And how good it would be if we could invite other friends to share those moments, to share those pictures, videos, or to share those stories, and if we can collectively upload this content together and make a movie together. 

I started to see so many different events and ideas of how this would benefit people - people who lived at specific locations or at specific periods or who were connected through specific subcultures or who were connected through specific people or music groups or film artists, and so on. 

There are so many passions that collect people together, and they are all separated by a specific time or specific location. 
It would be extremely cool if we could have all these different kinds of groups or channels where we could collect those digital memories. 

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And then step two was that the next day I was still so much into this movie project that I started a discussion with ChatGPT. 
For the first time, I was using voice recording, so I was alone with the kids at home, my wife was somewhere traveling, and I had two hours when my kids were watching a movie or playing video games that I could just ask whatever I wanted about this movie, without any big goals in mind - "what will happen." 

Then something big came out of this discussion that completely changed my mind and how I was seeing myself and what my passion is. 

During this discussion with ChatGPT, I realized how I enjoy these kinds of conversations, how I enjoy working on stories that happened at some time or at some location, how I enjoy thinking about the ideas of all kinds of different projects, and how I am still connected to those times, to those happy events, and to those people who were there with me when I was in specific periods of my life. 

Those connections that happen when you're in high school or after in university last a lifetime. But many of them fail because you don't have connection constantly, because you move away from your city where you were born or your job is different than their jobs. 

But some connections with friends you went to high school or university with are still much stronger than the friendship connections you build later in life. 

And because of all these connections you have more passion and more happiness with those connections. 
And this is what I believe is the most powerful ingredient in everything you are doing in life. 

If you find this passion you were connected to once, you know that this passion comes from the deep side of your body, from your heart, and that is connected on a different level than anything else that you started just because of the money or just because you have to do it. 

Because of these connections or these moments you made once in life, you can completely change your life if you start to understand what is happening behind it and what is the trigger that inspired them. 

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When I did a big conversation with AI, I realized that I'm onto something that really sparked my imagination and really made me feel something inside. 

So I started to ask more questions about the platform that I'm thinking about and how I could store information from different projects and how I can invite people in to share their moments and so on. 

And soon I realized that I have an idea for a big platform much bigger than a platform just for my movie. 

Because I know that to develop that kind of platform you need a lot of money and you need great developers. 

I never built anything before by myself, so it was just something impossible to make it real. 

But then I started asking more. 

I started asking how a guy like me could build something like this, what would be the website, who are maybe my competitors now, what kind of movies he thinks I should start making, and all kinds of these weird questions. 

Then I started asking ChatGPT about the business model and what kind of business model this could be. 

For example, "I don't have much money to put into advertising," or "I would like to make this amount of money per month in the next year," or "I would like to sell this at one point when I am ready to retire for $10 million." 

All these questions I asked ChatGPT, and we were just doing the conversation like you would do with some specific expert in business consulting. 

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When I asked him to design a website for this project, so I can get my idea more clear, more amazing ideas came to my mind. 
Then I asked for the logo idea, and after a few tweaks, we had a logo. 

Then I asked for the poster of my first movie, and after a few tweaks, I got a poster. Then I asked for the FAQ section on my website, and I told him exactly what this would be. 

He gave me the FAQ section. 

After a few chats, I built a complete website just by myself talking into the phone and him doing the stuff I said needed to be done. 

As a side note, I have some experience with this. 

I have some design experience. 

I have some website experience. I know exactly what needs to be on the website to be good converting and engaging and looking good. 

So I had some advantage. 

But I think today anyone can build a website in just a few minutes. 

I'm not saying the whole website, but maybe just the idea of the design and just the idea of what the workflow will be or just the idea for the funnel or email sequence. 

You have all these tools now and you can do it right from your phone if you are a little creative and if you know or have an idea of what you want to build. 

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Now, after that night, I was so pumped that I felt in my gut that this is something that I want to do in the next chapter of my life. 
Before I go completely broke or before I start looking for another opportunity or job, I'm going to do this no matter what. 

I will give myself three months. 

I will try to make a prototype, an MVP in three months, and then I will see if this is something that people are interested to be part of, or if the idea is just a boring idea of some guy in some space who was just connected to some emotions and now he thinks that everybody else on this planet has a specific connection to those old-time, good-old-time emotions like he has. 

The next morning, I jumped up (I think it was 6 a.m.) and went to my office to start developing this website.

I was just doing whatever we discussed last night with ChatGPT. 

I was just putting this into the website to look real, and I also bought a domain because the last night we also discussed several options about the domain name. 

He suggested several domains to me, I think around ten different ideas. 

How I found Foilu was just unbelievable. 

When I went to Google I tried to see what other random 5-letter domains were maybe still available. 

And surprisingly in my second random search I saw this Foilu. 

Then I asked ChatGPT what he thinks about Foilu. 

I liked the name immediately, and he also said that this is a great name because it's not connected to some emotion or time-specific project but it is an open name that can be used perfectly for what I want to do. 

After he said that this is a great name, I closed the phone and I ran to my office. 

I think in 30 seconds, I bought the domain and the rest was history. 

Domain was registered. 

The next morning, I connected it to the website and I think in two hours, I built the whole website, connected the domain and the page was live. 

I didn't put my whole life into it yet. 

I just put a logo on the main page and I wrote "coming soon", but that was just a start. From the idea to the website, I think with the help of GPT, I needed two days. 

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Now the next part was this platform for all my projects. 

I remembered that one friend was telling me about this Vibe Coding, and at that time, I didn't know what Vbie Coding was.

 
He told me all the good news about this special tool that can build whatever you say in seconds. 

So I decided to test this tool just to see what it can do. 

After two hours, this tool completely blew my mind. 

I started to see the start of my platform, and it looked awesome. 

Then some issues started to happen. 

As I saw that this tool is not good at all the things that I will need in my platform, especially membership was the issue. 

After a few tweaks, the whole platform started to collapse.

I had to go back and rewind the changes, starting from the beginning. 

Then I did a second section and a third section for uploading the images and videos. 

After that, I did the link section, and then I did this and that, and this whole production kind of way of this platform took me to a completely different level of my craft that before I was not even aware that it was in me and that I could build it. 

After I saw more and more the potential of this project, I had to switch the complete platform to make it more global and at the same time more localized. 

This meant I had again a lot of issues to solve, but I was enjoying it so much because I was talking with AI all day and it was programming whatever I told it to do in seconds. 

So changes were seen pretty fast, and most of the changes (of course) had to be improved, but after a few improvements, the change was done correctly. 

I quickly learned how working with these tools is what Vibe coding is and how it is changing the world of online websites. 

As more and more people will be able to build their own things, the things will be just crazy good and crazy impressive. 

Everybody can be so creative by building with these tools. 

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Now I will not say that I built a platform very quickly, as it took me more than a few days. 

Actually, it took me more than four weeks, I believe, because the idea of my project was constantly changing and as I saw more options, what I can do alone with this tool and what my project actually can become one day.

During that time, I also noticed a big upgrade in my tool as more and more tasks that I gave to the AI developer were completed faster and with fewer corrections. 

I would say that this tool became really smart during the end of my project development and is still getting better and better every day. 

Now, at this moment, I'm still not completely done, I'm still not there where I want to be, but I think I am near where the MVP can go live and where I can start showing people what I've built and start getting their reactions. 

Right now I made around 20 ideas for my first movie, and I made the posters for the movies, the concept, the story, the questions. I'm thinking about three more movies that I can include in this first launch. 

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Then I was also thinking about what my launch will be, and I came to the idea that it would be very cool if I can do a 30-day film challenge. 

Everybody who joins my newsletter will get every day an invitation to be part of a new movie every day. 

It will be just like you are watching Netflix, but in Foilu, you are the main star of those movies. 

Before you get access to those projects, the project needs to get 50 or more submissions. 

The project will open when we get 50 submissions, not before. 

My plan right now is to invite people in so they go through the whole 30-day sequence and send this to 500 or 1000 people to see the reactions and see how many people will submit to movies and maybe see how many of them will become supporters of these projects. 

Because the second value of my Foilu project is not just that this is a platform that gives you options to save your digital memories, but at the same time is a platform for opportunities that happen with new people across the globe. 

For that part of the business, I had to build a new directory where all these opportunities and jobs and connections will be present. 

As I told you before, in the last two years, I built a few side projects where I tried to create a directory where freelancers and businesses can connect and I also created a dating kind of directory where people can just invite each other to a coffee if they live in the same city or if they have the same interests. 

As I saw that this directory, especially for dating, was very helpful to people and was very much my best performing project, I said that maybe the Foilu platform directory is a good place to continue this directory in a slightly different format. 

I switched the theme, I made a few more groups inside, and I added a field for sponsors and businesses who can help us make this platform more successful. 

When we grow, we would need money to get help and to buy additional digital space for our projects. 

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My story here will end. 

I don't know what will happen next, but I have a good feeling that something amazing is about to happen. 

I tried to build around of my own projects, and none of them felt more connected to who I am than this project. 

I believe this project might be the next chapter of my life, and I'm inviting everybody who came here to take their time to read through all my story, to join my newsletter.

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There I will reveal all the information about the Foilu project:

What we are doing, how we are doing it, who are becoming our sponsors, and where the project is going. 

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For now, I'll say a deep thanks from the bottom of my heart for reading this and believing in Foilu.

Foilu is my 3rd kid and I am putting all my soul into it.

If you have a tip, shortcut, or something else you want to discuss, hit my email and send me some love.

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The world of solo-entrepreneurs is getting huge, and the opportunities for strategic partnerships are even bigger.

If you have an idea, don't be afraid to execute it!

If you think I can help you, hit me up.

Same goes for advanced media buying strategies, tactics, funnels, vibe-coding, etc.

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Our world became an amazing place thanks to AI and people who are using it the 'smart' way.

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Have a good day and I hope one day we see each other on the Foilu platform or at some live event across the globe.

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Live in peace and all good to you and your loved ones.

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Matej Ocepek - Creator of Foilu