It’s about 2013, and there’s a drug dealer in my affiliate network. He stands out for three reasons. One, the drug dealer thing. And two, he has a daughter, 2 or 3 years old. And third, he’s never done internet marketing before and he is failing hard at it.
Me, at at this time, I’ve recently accomplished my second, 7 figure exit with businesses I created in the ad space – Not too bad for a college drop out – and now I’m running this affiliate network.
Anyhow, I have a conversation with the drug dealer, and he reveals to me that he wants to stop dealing because he feels he can’t look his daughter in the eye anymore. And he wants a better answer to the question, “Daddy what do you do for a living?” But to stop dealing, he needs internet marketing to pay his bills. And no matter how hard he’s working at it, he isn’t making money. And he’s feeling really defeated.
I really want to see if I can help this guy turn his life around. I like helping people in the ad space and I give a lot of time. (My friends have a joke about me. They say I’m too nice, I’m too trusting, I’m too giving – because I’m canadian).
So any how, I take a special interest in him and I train him on the how every little step of the way. But mostly I help keep him stay motivated and not give up. Sometimes I talk to him for hours a night so that he won’t quit. After almost half a year, he’s still not able to cover his bills and I’m saying things to him like, “You can’t tell your daughter you gave up on this. He’s a hard worker, and he sticks, and keeps at it – smart dude. And at one point he makes a $1000 in a week.
Soon, he crosses a threshold where he’s making a $1,000 a day! And he ends up by the end of the year doing 7 figures and becoming my top Affiliate. Honestly, this was really personally fulfilling to me. I really put a lot of time in to help him because he didn’t know if he could succeed at the time, but I did. I knew he could succeed LONG before he did.
Sometimes that’s what I think is a big way I serve people… I’ve been a lot of people’s belief before they have it in themselves. It’s funny, but helping people believe in themselves is a more memorable paycheck than a 7 figure exit.
But there’s more to the story about me and this guy.
This guy actually goes on to be one of the top affiliate marketers in the world. I won’t name him for obvious reasons. But after I sold my affiliate network, and I started a FB group about media buying and it did really well, exploded and people were asking me for help, and I was spending hours and hours a day for five years putting in tons of time giving back to people in the space – and doing one on one consulting but the problem was I was helping only one person at a time.
Anyhow, I run into the guy that was formerly dealing drugs, now dealing clicks, at a conference at a time when I was looking for a way to leverage my ability to help more people. And he tells me about a mastermind format that he’s using. And it instantly clicked that that’s what i should be doing so i could help so many more people at a time! I’m learning from him now!
Anyhow, I wanted to launch a mastermind right away so I just dove head first into it. I rented an airbnb, i used paper to draw on – not projector. I just jerry rigged together the first event, – there were 10 people at it – and it went incredible and showed me the format I wanted to use next to really help people succeed in the ad space!
I’ve always want the Internet Marketing space to be a place where everyone operates from a willingness to help people even when they’re struggling. So I do as much as I can to help foster that. Every couple days I get people that tell me I changed their life, help them put food on their table for their families. And that really drives me. And I’ve learned, what you put out there, comes back to you.