What does it take to be considered really “good” when it comes to online marketing? When do you know you have cracked the nut of your niche market and can have others call upon you to do their marketing for them? I have gone through this metamorphosis myself in the recent years. I stumbled along this journey somewhat reluctantly but along the way I discovered many secrets.



New York Dreams Reduced To Dust

After losing my career in 911, New York City, I found myself in a weird position in life. It appeared that in all my adventures I had acquired too much experience in the job market. Others deemed that I was too expensive and too experienced to stay in it. I had quite a roster of clients on my resume by this stage of my life. These included Capital Records, Oprah Winfrey, WWF, Coca Cola, Citibank, Arthur Andersen, and a whole plethora of dot com companies from Chicago to New York City.

911 had brought on a lot of change in my industry. I had some other reasons for leaving New York and I made the trek back to my home state of Michigan. When I got there I had a very strange welcome. Michigan had a very distinct answer to all of this great work experience and that message as clear. The job market gave me the finger and told me to “get lost”.

As an Art Director, who worked for many of the top advertising firms in the industry, I had two choices. I could either take Michigan's advice and curl up in a ball and die. That is to say I could still do online marketing on the cheap and become a commodity with all the charm of your local street beggar or I could become brilliant. I decided to do the latter because I was never ever very good at being poor and I was always up for a great street fight.

Dusting myself off and laughing at the locals I decided to get as many mentors as I could afford. In fact, I blew a fortune on these types and I sought them out in the most unlikely places. I found amazing minds all across the globe and gladly shelled out thousands to keep them under my employ. I found astounding copywriters who brought in 4000% response rates. I found online marketers who were running 35% ROI campaigns with little or no effort. I had to seek high and low to find the most incredible minds around the world.

My Mentors Show Up On Time

There is an old saying that says, “When the student is ready – the teachers will appear” and that is precisely what happened. Course I had to do a bit of seeking out. In a few short months this had really paid off nicely. I had acquired the help of such amazing minds as Dan Kennedy, (Master Marketer and Millionaire Maker), Corey Rudl and Derek Ghel, (Internet Marketing Center), Mark Joyner, (New Zealand), Orange Beetle – Alan Forrest Smith, (London, England UK), Brett McFall, (Australia) and jumped in the front row seat to local mastermind groups which I actually found on the Internet.

I went through a lot of books during this time. In fact I was spending over $100 dollars a week just on business books. That may not sound like very much to you. But the difference is that I actually read these books they were not for show and tell. I absorbed them like a sponge. I read everything I could get my hands on starting with the classics like, “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill and this lead to modern day classics like, “The No BS Kick Ass Sales Guide” by Dan Kennedy which totally changed my life and how I looked at sales. I got all the sales writing books I could get by Maria Volossos, Bob Bly and John Caples. These books began to build every week and I had to put them in boxes. I didn't let the clutter bother me too much as I needed more and more information to make things happen in my business.

Because the web was changing faster than I could speak I needed to be well rounded on everything. I got books on digital film making so I could keep up with the Web 2.0 innovations online. I needed equipment too so I ran out and got the best HD cameras I could afford. Along with this came lights, green screens, tripods and sound gear.

As you can imagine in a few months I had a ton of material. I actually had a tall industrial kitchen pot rack I purchased from, “Bath and Beyond” just to hold all of my books. The number of all these learning materials now numbered somewhere in the 700's. Not only could I speak the language of marketing fluently I was using the techniques I had acquired to get new sales and customers.

I wrote my own sales offers and my own sales letters and mailed them out to clueless CEO's and got work. In fact, I took my company from zero dollars to $340k on the average. I was amazed at the differences between the two cultures of Michigan and New York City and here is what I found.

New York Mindset Vs Michigan's Collapsed Economy

Michigan prides itself on a work ethic where it exchanges time for money. They view this as “working hard” or “hard working”. I have another view on this where I say it's, “hardly working”. The other thing I can tell you is that Michigan has a lot of traditional industry. It prides itself on things it can pull out of the ground and sell to the public. They are resistant to change and are incredibly stubborn when it comes to emerging technology.

New York on the other hand embraces technology and a great amount of businesses there are run on ideas. These are technology based companies that also move money from one place to another. They actually work their businesses online and interact with customer bases right online. This is a very powerful difference between the two states of economy. Since they are always moving forward they are able to attract a lot of international money and stay strong. It has a very powerful and different dynamic.

Now the question becomes what do I do with all of this? My company had spiraled out of control in a very good way. You see, now I was in California, Florida, Michigan, Canada, New York City, South Carolina, Connecticut in just a few months. I had actually become an International company in less than a year. There is a lot of powerful new energies flowing through my company which is something I never expected. I owe it all to being diligent and to seeking out mentors.

Tying It All Together

After I built this company from scratch I had a real problem on my hands. I had all of these books and materials that got me through a lot of rough times in my life. I still relied on them and wouldn't dream of throwing them out or selling them. An opportunity came along where I could share them with the rest of my Dan Kennedy Coaching Group in Brighton, Michigan.

And today that is where they are – all 700+ of them. They take up the entire wall in a marketing resource library where they can be used to inspire and build up another potential budding entrepreneur. These books are an amazing testimony to what just one single person can do. With these books I was able to break down the barricades of corporate America and limited means of income. I have used theses assets to propel me levels upon levels of mediocrity and low minded thinking. These tools have enabled me to build a successful International company within a very short amount of time, (roughly 18 months).

My advice for anyone looking to become their own boss is to seek out mentors. It is the quickest way to achieve what you want out of life. You will need to find people who have already done the things that you want to do. I have found mentors in just about every area of my life where I needed help including financial, copywriting, marketing, online marketing, strategic business planning and spiritual help and guidance. They are out there and you can find them under many names including, life coaching, business coaching, spiritual guides and gurus.