Growing up Amish in Holmes County Ohio the oldest of 10 children taught me responsibility. I clearly remember when my dad was ordained bishop of our church. Going places with horse and buggy never seemed out of the ordinary because that's all I knew. I never imagined growing up that I'd ever drive a car.
In July of 2006 I married Barbara. She was one of those "Wow" girls the boys all wanted (well quite a few anyway). I felt way under- qualified when we had first met. But marrying the girl of my dreams was the probably the next best thing that ever happened to me. The best thing was becoming Born Again and accepting Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.
Going to school..
I started school at 6 years old at an Amish school. I really enjoyed school for the most part. There was only 1 other boy in my grade and 3 girls. I was usually second in my grade. The whole school had 30 to 40 pupils. At the age of 14 I completed 8th grade and started working at a sawmill where my grandfather worked.
Starting my own Business
I worked at that sawmill for 10 years. The last couple months I had started buying logs and timber and having them cut there at Stutzman Lumber. But they got busy again and so I had to either quit or go on my own. So I went on my own.
At first I just rented a portable mill and then later I bought my own. We cut a lot of Walnut and send it to China. At the time that was a hot market. But buying timber, logging, and running the sawmill took a lot of time. We already had 3 children at that time.
We were looking for more time
And we couldn't seem to find it. Actually what we really wanted without knowing it at the time was a way to get more done in less time. We had 7 employees, but I had to be there and tell them what to do most of the time.
Around that time we got introduced to Network Marketing. I was like most people, very uneducated on the industry. Yes, I even asked if it was a pyramid. But thankfully the guy that got us started believed in what he was doing and we got started. We started working that business very part-time and about a year and half later that company shut down. (My sawmill did too later)
We had some very good mentors
By that time I realized what we had ahold of. The leverage factor that comes with Network Marketing made sense to me. Also the fact that it creates a residual income. Getting paid over and over for the work done one time gave me peace of mind that if something ever happened to me, my wife and kids would still have an income.
So when that company went away, those leaders and mentors started researching and looking for a company they believed would be around for many many years. Within about 3 weeks of looking and visiting companies they had made their choice. We followed them. Looking back now, that was the best thing that could have happened. Less than a year later the owner of that previous company passed on. God had a plan.
We build mostly offline.....until
It was really a challenge to always have a driver lined up to take me places to build my business. But I was hungry for success and I loved helping people, and I now truly had products that we believed in, I had a Whatever it Takes attitude.
Within a few years we had built a team of thousands of customers and distributors.
Back in April of 2015 Barbara and I made the decision to leave the Amish culture. Even though we love a lot of things about the Amish, we are very glad we made that decision.
Doing so allowed us access to a lot more technology and Social Media platforms. (We had some before we left) This fixed the driver problem also. We could now go where we wanted. Our team though was still confined to mostly the United States, Canada. I just knew there was a way to do more.
Going Online....
In the summer of 2015 I was doing a meeting in Northern Indiana. It was a group of ladies in a counseling center. The one lady there asked me a question that ended up totally changing the way we build our business. She asked, "Do you sell a lot Online?" I had to answer NO.
At the time we were getting some leads from Facebook but that's about all. This lady did not join our team that day. She was already fairly successful in another company and she was building mostly online. I was also hearing other success stories of people making a killing online.
But it was still some months later until we really "Got it." Calling our business Home-Based almost seemed misleading. I was on the road a lot. Now don't get me wrong, we realized that with time we wouldn't have to push as hard anymore but we weren't there yet.
We had more time now to spend with the children but we just knew there must be a way to do even more. One day I was reading an email where this guy was promoting this eBook on how to Market online. I thought why not? If it works as good as they say this will work for our business.
Well it did work. Within a few weeks of learning the online system, we had dozens of members joining online (A lot of them in other countries) and many more asking for more information. We soon realized with the way technology is growing, this is the way of doing business in the future. Think about how much shopping is being done online.(A lot)
Some people ask, "Why you so Techy?"
You know growing up Amish, a lot of people have asked me how I learned all this "techy stuff". I've had some great mentors but I've also always been really curious. I soon figured out if there's a button or link and you click on it, something will happen. (Bingo!) So through mentorship and trial & error the iPhone and computer have become some of my favorite biz building tools.
We also realized this is exactly the same system that the professionals are using. People like Tony Robbins, Les Brown, Grant Cardone, and Darren Hardy to name a few........So this works for Network Marketing or anything else you want to sell online. So if you already have a business I hope you will embrace the online system as well. It truly is the business of the future. And of course if you are interested in starting a business, feel free to contact me and we can discuss the options.
If you are wanting to start taking your business online, the eBook I mentioned earlier is called Attraction Marketing Formula. That's where I recommend starting.
