My Sales & Marketing History

As a youngster I would catch crabs and starfish down at the pier and sell them to unsuspecting tourists who were ignorant of the fact that the starfish would be stinking so badly within a few days that they would probably end up being thrown away. I suppose that was one of my first sales experiences. In college I worked as a waiter for one semester and learned to hawk appetizers and desserts, but it wasn't until I took a position selling knives that I really learned what sales was about.

Would you like to buy a crab?

"Knife Salesman"

For a year I peddled Cutco Cutlery as a Vector Marketing sales representative. While some of the techniques were somewhat questionable, I can honestly say the training and experience was top notch and would prove to be invaluable to my future career. After pitching the knives to my friends and family I branched out and sold them on a referral basis through in-home demonstrations, quickly excelling to the rank of Field Sales Manager. Fortunately the knives are truly of superior quality, so I don't have to worry about running into my former customers who plunked down $700 for a set of them.

Would you like to buy a knife?

"Telemarketing Guru"

After the esteemed position of "knife salesman", I graduated to the acclaimed job of "telemarketing manager" for the Fort Collins newspaper. That's right, I was responsible for the people who called you during dinner and told you why you need the local news delivered to your front door each morning. And yes, it was I you spoke to, when you asked for their supervisor so you could express a few choice words of your own. Needless to say, it was a tremendous experience. After about two years, 14,000 subscription sales, and a whole lot of skin thickening, I moved on to what I will forever view as the epitome of all sales jobs: a mobile home salesman.

"Mobile Home Salesman"

If you know much about the industry, you are aware that mobile home salesmen are ranked about three notches lower than used-car salesmen on the "sleaze meter" and probably just one notch above drug dealers and thieves. Selling mobile homes while maintaining my values was a challenge, but I can honestly say I did my best to do just that. There were times when I questioned the integrity of sitting down with a customer and signing them up for a 17% interest loan on depreciating single wide that they would be stuck in for the rest of their lives. Fortunately, I was able to see some changes in the industry and help my company begin to improve the reputation and practices of the business. I sold over 100 homes and achieved over $2 million in personal sales up until the time I was able to quit my day job and work from home on a full time basis.

"Online Marketer"

After five years of trial and error I found my groove on the web. I experienced some success on eBay, selling anything from baseball cards to silverware, twice becoming a Powerseller and gaining over 1000 positive feedbacks. I have a website available to show you the keys to eBay success (see my free advice page).

Then I took a $40 web hosting account and multiplied it into nearly $200k of annual revenue. I built and sold two successful web hosting businesses. I've written an ecourse to help anyone who is interested in starting a web hosting business (see my advice page for more info).

It wasn't until I learned the secrets of affiliate marketing that I really understood the power of the web. I then focused on creating an online affiliate marketing "mini empire". I'm not going to bore you with the details, but essentially I finally figured out how to effectively market products and services on the web (see the advice page for more info).

I developed dozens of "mini-sites" which promote products and services, and earn income for me while I'm sleeping. It's an excellent deal because it allows me to work from home while spending a significant amount of time with my family, working on the ministry, and doing the other things I love to do.