Build a Simple, Profitable Business
One Skill, One System, One Step at a Time

I was retired financial planner, an investment advisor.

I sold our company in the late summer, early fall of 2008. And so, I had to decide did I want to retire which I really was too young in my mind to do that or did I want to go work for someone else doing the same thing I was doing and I decided that was too much stress.

Managing people’s money is very stressful and so I needed to do something else and this whole online thing sort of came up from my sister and I had no idea what it was. The words affiliated marketing, online marketing I didn't have a clue what that was.

I thought it was kind of a big scam actually.

I ended up in a group of people that were doing that kind of thing and it sounded interesting. They were going to get together in Atlanta and so I decided I better show up and meet these people face to face.

There are scam things. And there are sub-scam things meaning that maybe somebody did something that worked but, it was an accident and then they're out there teaching people how to do the thing that they just accidentally were successful with for a short period of time.

And then they’re gone.

Just a flash in the pan.

I’ve been associated with NAMS since January 2009, so we're going on 10 years now. Wow. My how time flies when you're having a good time.

Okay first and foremost are the people that I have met and many of them are really good friends of mine now. And they taught me incredible things.

So, I can't say from an exact dollar amount that I've made because of NAMS but, my entire online business, whether it's building websites, doing e-commerce, doing digital products, it doesn't matter what it is…all of that is attributed to things I learn from NAMS and the relationships I've made at NAMS.

I mean I thought about it again today. I mean there's nothing, nothing that I did once I retired that I can attribute to anyone else. You started it. You're at the pinnacle of that list.

Truly it is. I'm not just making it up. It is true.

I mean the one thing I didn't want to do is do a business related to what I was good at which was taxes and investment advising because I was done with that.

I wanted to do something else that was more fun in my mind.

And so, I tried lots of things. I tried lots of niches. I took lots of courses. And the one thing that was consistent with all the courses I took was finding what I was good at.

I've built a website for every course I took, everything that I tried to go into. And I found that the techy stuff was what I enjoyed doing. And I was good at that.

So, teaching people how to make the techy stuff simpler was also something that I enjoyed doing. I went that direction. So, I built websites for people. I taught people how to build websites.

I created some digital products along those same lines. I got interested in website security from another friend that I met at NAMS and I built some of that into what I was doing.

And then about six years ago listening to another NAMS friend talk about Amazon, that got me interested in going that direction. And so, for the last six years, I've been an Amazon seller, I've taught people how to do it, and that's been very lucrative.

And along with that, I was looking for ways to diversify that online e-commerce business and I got into Shopify and now I'm building some Shopify sites for people. 

For people that are interested, if you don't join the Insiders Club, you'll be very sorry.

It's the best group of people I've ever been associated with online, bar none.

So, before NAMS, my freelance work always had been pretty intermittent. And you know, my website of course, The Edible Terrace, was null in terms of income.

It wasn't even feast or famine. It was like famine, and then, a little bit less famine, and then, more famine, and then maybe a little bit less famine.

There was never a feast in there ever, you know?

It's like, can I buy something better than just the generic can of black beans or can I actually upgrade and buy a decent can of black beans?

We were right on the edge, you know?

We were to the point where my husband and I were having conversations on whether maybe I really should just break down and go get a J-O-B, you know? Which I did not want to do.

The biggest challenge for me, and the whole reason I came to MyNAMS Insiders Club, was because I wanted so much to get my website to make some money. More than just 30 dollars one month.

And Christmas time I did a little bit better because of the Amazon affiliate, but just getting it to make some kind of steady income was important.

So that was my biggest challenge. For a couple of years, I could not budge. I just was stuck, you know? And no matter how many articles I read, how many little programs I tried. And I tried those couple of internships, I just wasn't moving.

I was incredibly frustrated. I was stuck for, well, for two years I was stuck. Maybe a little bit more, two and a half years. And I was incredibly frustrated and just could not, could not find a solution.

And so, my big thing, I've got these darn degrees and I shouldn't be struggling like this, you know? And so that made me feel even worse, you know? It'd be different if I didn't have the education in IT. Maybe I could use that as my excuse as to why I could not make this work to save my life, but I had no excuses or at least I felt like I had no excuses.

What is wrong with me that I can't figure out this monetization thing, you know? It's just ... ugh.

What I didn't understand until you and Jen was that, this is not about my computer skills. I mean that's a part, right? But there's a much bigger picture there that I just wasn't seeing because my eyes hadn't been opened to that. It's like changing out my eyeglasses, you know?

You and Jen were so good right at the beginning when I started stalking you both.

You and Jen opened my eyes up to list building, and all these nuances that go into building a list like, you need a landing page that people will actually be attracted to because of the psychology behind creating that landing page…

There are 450,000 steps to make that work. And it's not just stumbling over a couple of little brick steps out in the yard. It's very, very specific, fine-tuned. And then lots and lots of experimentation.

And if you two weren't so transparent about not just your successes but also your failures, then we could all be very discouraged by how difficult this is. And when I do get discouraged, I have to set myself apart a little bit and then say, yes, but remember what David said, and remember what Jen said.

Like it's really helpful when you tell me how many times it took me to get this right, and your very specific in numbers. Okay, if David can do this 25 times, then I can do this 23 more times, you know?

I joined the Insiders Club in January of last year. And I joined because I was at just absolutely at my wit's end.

I had been hunting around for months for some kind of a coaching program. But there were a lot of issues. I was running into what I felt like were these internal roadblocks with the coaching programs I found.

First, most of the people that were running them, I just didn't like them.

I don't know why - I can't tell you why I didn't.

They just didn't sit right with me. So I was going through trying to find one. And then the ones that seemed okay to me, well they were, you know, $5,000 a month or $35,000 to join. And there's no way, you know?

And then I got the email about the 2-week special which was great because it allowed me to step in with my little toe. That gave me a chance then to really see what the program was like and whether I thought you guys would work for what I'm trying to do.

And here was the other thing that you do that I couldn't find. Your Insiders Mastermind calls.

Right away, I noticed that you would let us ask you questions that pertain to us. And that was huge because the other problem I was running into was, most of these other programs didn't have any semblance of personalization.

And I knew I was going to need that.

I knew that no matter how many of these blanket programs I had tried, all of them were failing me.

Your age helped because it made me trust you. I thought, well he's been around for a while, he's had the program for a while. And I feel like I could look up to you and respect you.

And then, of course, Jen is so personable, especially on the Mastermind calls.

And then what I also liked was your relationship with each other. She could complete your sentences and you could complete hers.

So, I think it was the knowledge and then ...

Oh, and then also the group of course. The group's incredible. As soon as I joined and introduced myself, people like Kat come in and Art comes in and introduce themselves and say anything we can do to help. And they mean it, that's the wonderful part. You know, it's not just lip service.

My results have been great.

So, I have added more than 840 people to my mailing list.

That's enormous because I had been stuck on 5 for two years. I couldn't get past my 5, no matter what I tried.

And then I also have my products with entire funnels that are established behind the eBook. That's enormous. Everything from the landing page, to the thank you page, to the email series.

This whole entire little package that, in reality, if it turned into this huge money maker, I could pick that up and I could actually sell that. And that would never have occurred to me ever in a million years if you and Jen didn't talk about that.

So also, of course being part of the Insiders Club has gotten me a ton of web work. That was very sporadic in the past.

So, Jen mentioning me on a fairly regular basis in the Insiders Club calls has been a huge blessing, besides the fact that I'm now working with you guys on your new websites as well.

All of that's just been amazing. And frankly, it transformed my Christmas. Having all of the website business just transformed my Christmas this year. I was able to buy my kids Christmas presents. 

I improved my list from 5 to more than 840 in six months. And then my four products with a landing page, email funnels, all of that, were finished in a 10-month period,

I was able to get those four products up and out into the market, and then advertising them in various and assorted ways. Pinterest, Facebook ads, et cetera. My exit pops-

You know, before the Insiders Club, I was really at a point where I was questioning whether this was a really just wrong road for me to go down.

But now, I wake up in the morning and I'm excited. And I think, cool, I have a direction to go in and this can work, and I have a support system in NAMS. And I have all of the courses that you guys offer. So if I feel like I'm stuck someplace, it's a guarantee there's a course on it someplace out there that I can at very least peruse and figure it out, you know?