Stop me if you've heard this one before…
Early in 2014, my professional life was a total mess. Several years earlier I had been through job loss when my company shut down, followed by a bad business investment that ended up crippling me financially. Things weren't looking good.
Looking for answers, and income, I found myself deeply immersed in this new-to-me world of internet marketing. I was a newbie – the latest victim for unscrupulous marketers to dangle all sorts of exciting opportunities, “easy-to-use” and “highly-profitable” business systems, and plenty of “free reports” that would walk me down the path of buying things I now know that I didn't need (but, oh boy, did they look appealing back then). If you've ventured into this world, yourself, then you know how much it can amplify the shiny object syndrome most of us suffer from already.
Fortunately, one spring day that year marked the change my direction and set me on the course I'm on now. And it all happened by accident.
Browsing through YouTube, I happened upon an interview hosted by some guy named David Perdew and his guest who was revealing her process for building an extremely successful business publishing Amazon Kindle books. Unlike much of the hype-filled presentations I had seen to this point, there was a tone of honesty and sincerely here. I seem to even recall one comment during the discussion that this business isn't for everyone, and viewers should consider carefully if it makes sense before investing in what was being offered at the end of the presentation.
These people were real. The presentation was refreshing. And I needed to know more about David Perdew and his business with the peculiar name: NAMS.
Google was a huge help, bringing me to a page where I got an offer to download… you guessed it… “a free report” on passive income. I didn't really know it at the time, but passive income and automation was what had kept me coming back to all this internet marketing stuff. Why? Well in 2009 I became a parent for the first time, and it's been our family's goal to have more time freedom – especially once it was time for our daughter started kindergarten.
So back on the NAMS website, my free report having been accessed, I was being presented with a “special one time offer” to take a $200 passive income course for less than $20. I had seen this “trick” before, and wasn't about to fall for it again, but something about this Perdew guy seemed different. His website displayed signs of an actual community of real people running real businesses all seemingly believing that David Perdew was delivering the goods that so few others actually did.
So I parted with a little more money, and was blown away by what I learned.
As I write this, I've just completed my ninth month as a paying member of the NAMS Insiders Club, a group of individuals from all walks of life and all sorts of businesses who are, together, learning and implementing the essential pillars of online marketing into our businesses. This is no basic stuff, mind you. Over the last nine months, I've created three online courses, written more that I ever did in college, and have been steadily increasing the flow of traffic to my website… leading to more email list signups and more clients.
But that's not the best part.
As a solopreneur, I spend most of my days in my basement in front of my computer. Often I'm having virtual conversation on Facebook or Google Hangouts, but at the end of the day, it's just me, alone in a room filled with empty boxes, our extra kitchen supplies, and retired children's toys. It's not healthy to live like that.
So when the opportunity presented itself to spend a weekend with this community I had grown to care so much about – and had already had such an impact on my life and my business, I jumped on it!
It may have been my first, but it was actually the thirteenth live gathering in Atlanta of the NAMS Workshop. Lucky Thirteen. Three-and-a-half days of intensive learning, nights of implementation up in my hotel room of what I had just learned earlier, and plenty of fun and true relationship building. I walked away from the weekend know four things: a) I had a very clear direction for what to implement in my business to take it to the next level, b) I had already taken action during the workshop to establish partnerships that would help me get where I wanted to go, c) I was undervaluing myself and my services… and prices would be going up, and d) I had already committed myself to be at the Next NAMS Workshop.
To think, it all started as I was lazily browsing on YouTube.
NAMS isn't for everyone. But for those who seek to expand their business by leveraging the vast rename of options online, who thrive when they are part of a supportive and progressive community, and who enjoy giving even more than receiving, you'll find a home in the NAMS community.
Let this be the last shiny object you look at for your business: come join me at the Next NAMS.
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