I Retired/Quit My $80k/Yr Job.....Offline FullTime Now!

59 replies
I've been on this forum a little over a year and its been quite a journey for me. Before I get into that let me say that I'm not releasing any WSO free or paid. I could care less about marketing products to you guys as I've notice alot of people who post their success us it to build up a list which is pretty weak but I digress.

Ok so when I started I got into building adsense sites and ranking them and I actually did pretty good and I even posted about my 1st $100 day here http://www.warriorforum.com/adsense-...y-adsense.html as you can also see in that thread I started offline marketing around the same time and made some quick sales when I started but hit a wall of four months with no new clients. Then I discovered a thread on direct mail and sent out 38 regular envelopes with dice in them for Reputation Management and landed a pediatric dentist for $800/month for 3 months. That money fueled my passion for the potential of Offline Marketing.

Right after I closed on that dentist I started my business on a serious note, registering it as a LLC and getting business cards, website and all that stuff together. I bought every damn WSO that came out and really didnt make the kind of money I thought I should be making. I had clients but no real big monthly recurring like that dentist. So I took a leave from work to concentrate on my business in June. I started to focus on mobile and learned how to build my own sites and closed a few clients on mobile.

Here is where my business changed.....I was doing some lead gen on LinkedIn and got a client who invited me to a networking group. I went to their meeting and have been going since....its a group just like BNI but we dont have to pay and meet weekly. It took a couple of months but they all warmed up to me and I got my 1st "big" client after a presentation I did for them on Online Marketing. It was for monthly SEO which I'm pretty good at from my adsense days. got him ranked on the 1st page for like 10 keywords locally and his phone was ringing weekly from his site which had never happened before for him. Well he referred me to 2 other big monthly clients as he absolutely loved what I was doing and I did the same for them. Basically what I'm getting at is.....screw all of these WSO's. The BEST way to get clients is thru good old networking. Since I've joined one of the Chambers in my area and all I do is go to every single event they hold so the prominent members started to recognize me and guess what? Same thing that happened with my networking group happened with the Chamber. I never tried to sell anything, eventually they just came to me. Always saying things like "my website needs to be redesigned" or "Ive always wanted to do SEO or ect ect." What I'm saying is you got to have the balls to go out and be seen. Dont hide behind the email or phone because they HATE that. Think about it....there are hundreds if not thousands of us doing this, calling the same big ticket businesses, or the same ones who dont have a mobile site. But when they see you everyday and actually hear the tidbits of knowledge come out of your mouth, they start to ask you questions. Then you could easily say "Hey just give me your email and I'll send you that info and you also check out my newsletter which has stuff you can do monthly to build your business online."

This is what I've done and I just wanted to share it with you. I recently quit a great paying but stressful job and I love being able to spend time with my family on my own accord now. If anyone has any questions about what I do feel free to ask.
#$80k or yr #fulltime #joboffline #retired or quit
  • Profile picture of the author vndnbrgj
    Originally Posted by BillHus View Post


    The BEST way to get clients is thru good old networking.

    This is speculative and based on your expereince.
    It may be the best for YOU, but the doesn't mean it's the best for everyone.


    Originally Posted by BillHus View Post


    What I'm saying is you got to have the balls to go out and be seen. Dont hide behind the email or phone because they HATE that. Think about it....there are hundreds if not thousands of us doing this, calling the same big ticket businesses, or the same ones who dont have a mobile site.
    Originally Posted by BillHus View Post



    This is ridiculous, pisses me off, and points out your ignorance!
    So, how do you suggest I continue to close 5 figure monthly deals across the country?
    Because all the deals I have are flukes. No one really ever wanted to do business with me because I phoned them.
    Or the other business I have started working with people across the country. I call them up. I don't have time to go visit everyone.
    Don't make assumptions about me, or the size of my balls.
    You have no idea what myself or others on this forum do.
    You just look like a fool!


    Originally Posted by BillHus View Post


    This is what I've done and I just wanted to share it with you. I recently quit a great paying but stressful job and I love being able to spend time with my family on my own accord now. If anyone has any questions about what I do feel free to ask.

    Once again. Your experience.
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    • Profile picture of the author RyanLester
      Originally Posted by vndnbrgj View Post

      This is speculative and based on your expereince.
      It may be the best for YOU, but the doesn't mean it's the best for everyone.

      [/FONT][/SIZE]

      This is ridiculous, pisses me off, and points out your ignorance!
      So, how do you suggest I continue to close 5 figure monthly deals across the country?
      Because all the deals I have are flukes. No one really ever wanted to do business with me because I phoned them.
      Or the other business I have started working with people across the country. I call them up. I don't have time to go visit everyone.
      Don't make assumptions about me, or the size of my balls.
      You have no idea what myself or others on this forum do.
      You just look like a fool!
      [/FONT]


      [SIZE=3]
      Once again. Your experience.
      Hahahahah!!!! This is down right hilarious!

      You don't even have the guts to use your real name on the WF!

      How legit are you?
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    • Originally Posted by vndnbrgj View Post

      This is speculative and based on your expereince.
      It may be the best for YOU, but the doesn't mean it's the best for everyone.

      [/FONT][/SIZE]

      This is ridiculous, pisses me off, and points out your ignorance!
      So, how do you suggest I continue to close 5 figure monthly deals across the country?
      Because all the deals I have are flukes. No one really ever wanted to do business with me because I phoned them.
      Or the other business I have started working with people across the country. I call them up. I don't have time to go visit everyone.
      Don't make assumptions about me, or the size of my balls.
      You have no idea what myself or others on this forum do.
      You just look like a fool!
      [/FONT]

      [SIZE=3]
      Once again. Your experience.
      Some people get so angry (over nothing) that they don't just see red. It comes out of their damn fingertips.

      Thanks for a good laugh tonight. Seriously though, you need to go for a walk and let some of the stress drift away, Man.

      Of course, that's just my experience...
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  • Profile picture of the author FreeMeal
    lol, Wow! you're angry. Red comic sans and everything!
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  • Profile picture of the author RiskTaker
    Hater Alert .... I didnt see him mention you by the name, but as FreeMeal said wooo!
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  • Profile picture of the author big steve
    Thanks for sharing what's worked for you and your experience OP..as for the angry bloke don't take it personal mate..just chill..llol
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    • Profile picture of the author greenyeti
      Thanks for sharing you experiences.

      Offline marketing is looking more and more interesting to me.
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  • Profile picture of the author iwillbeontop
    I believe in different strokes for different folks.... But with that said I agree with you post 100%!!
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  • Profile picture of the author BillHus
    To clarify to any other marketer out there closing "5 figure monthly deals across the country" obviously this isnt directed towards you, if I was closing all kinds of 5 figure deals across the country I sure wouldn't get offended by a thread on WF. Try to invest some of your money in Tai Chi or Yoga. Anyways I'm speaking to the hundreds of members I see posting here all the time about striking out with cold calls, emails and whatever other method is the flavor of the day. Some FB software that finds you thousands of leads in 5 mins......skip that and get some real world experience and it will help in all other areas, especially cold calling.
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    • Profile picture of the author NeXtReview
      Originally Posted by BillHus View Post

      To clarify to any other marketer out there closing "5 figure monthly deals across the country" obviously this isnt directed towards you, if I was closing all kinds of 5 figure deals across the country I sure wouldn't get offended by a thread on WF. Try to invest some of your money in Tai Chi or Yoga. Anyways I'm speaking to the hundreds of members I see posting here all the time about striking out with cold calls, emails and whatever other method is the flavor of the day. Some FB software that finds you thousands of leads in 5 mins......skip that and get some real world experience and it will help in all other areas, especially cold calling.
      Well OP, it seems that if it was a size contest between you and Mr.Red over who had the bigger balls and the bigger heart, you'd win by about the length of a leg
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    • Profile picture of the author AndrewCavanagh
      Originally Posted by BillHus View Post

      I'm speaking to the hundreds of members I see posting here all the time about striking out with cold calls, emails and whatever other method is the flavor of the day.
      Lol that's most of them.

      I remember the main advice in the first "Offline Gold" thread was to
      go and talk to business owners face to face.

      It's amazing how many people immediately started making money
      when they did that.

      And that really hasn't changed.

      Small to medium sized business owners like to know who they're doing
      business with.

      There are ways to open communications by email and mail and direct
      mail and to build communications that way and obviously to get hired.

      But if you want to go from zero to getting hired quickly nothing really
      beats that face to face contact.

      Kindest regards,
      Andrew Cavanagh
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  • Profile picture of the author socialbacklink
    Originally Posted by BillHus View Post


    Here is where my business changed.....I was doing some lead gen on LinkedIn and got a client who invited me to a networking group. I went to their meeting and have been going since....its a group just like BNI but we dont have to pay and meet weekly. It took a couple of months but they all warmed up to me and I got my 1st "big" client after a presentation I did for them on Online Marketing. It was for monthly SEO which I'm pretty good at from my adsense days. got him ranked on the 1st page for like 10 keywords locally and his phone was ringing weekly from his site which had never happened before for him. Well he referred me to 2 other big monthly clients as he absolutely loved what I was doing and I did the same for them. Basically what I'm getting at is.....screw all of these WSO's. The BEST way to get clients is thru good old networking. Since I've joined one of the Chambers in my area and all I do is go to every single event they hold so the prominent members started to recognize me and guess what? Same thing that happened with my networking group happened with the Chamber. I never tried to sell anything, eventually they just came to me. Always saying things like "my website needs to be redesigned" or "Ive always wanted to do SEO or ect ect." What I'm saying is you got to have the balls to go out and be seen. Dont hide behind the email or phone because they HATE that. Think about it....there are hundreds if not thousands of us doing this, calling the same big ticket businesses, or the same ones who dont have a mobile site. But when they see you everyday and actually hear the tidbits of knowledge come out of your mouth, they start to ask you questions. Then you could easily say "Hey just give me your email and I'll send you that info and you also check out my newsletter which has stuff you can do monthly to build your business online."
    Good for you man. The main thing is taking action. It's about getting your name out there. Word of mouth is literally the best form of advertising. Doing those Chamber and network group presentations are huge. You can kill it doing those. That's the thing really...All of those work weather it's PPC, Direct Mail, Networking, Cold Call, etc. You just have to be persistent and learn from your mistakes. Once you get something working just rinse and repeat.
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  • Profile picture of the author zoro
    Well done Bill, appreciate you posting your experinces here. As with anything, the main thing is to take action, dosn't matter so much how, but do what you're comfortable with and somtimes incorporate other's ideas into your marketing plan.
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    • Profile picture of the author BillHus
      Originally Posted by zoro View Post

      Well done Bill, appreciate you posting your experinces here. As with anything, the main thing is to take action, dosn't matter so much how, but do what you're comfortable with and somtimes incorporate other's ideas into your marketing plan.
      That pretty much sums up what I was saying. Its easy in theory but no matter what you do you have to continually & consistently put yourself out there. I'm working on doing a monthly direct mail campaign now using the 6.5x11 postcards. EDDM is pretty nice and I found a way to target almost all businesses. I just pulled up a ton of routes in a radius around me and picked out the ones that were all or 90% business. Its a bitch driving to 7 or 8 post offices but I'm hoping it pays off.
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      • Profile picture of the author MikeGibson
        Originally Posted by BillHus View Post

        Its a bitch driving to 7 or 8 post offices but I'm hoping it pays off.
        Don't know how far you're driving...but did you know that you can mail your EDDM postcards (I use flat rate priority mail) to post offices along with your payment? Of course, that would only be cost effective when you factor in time and distance, etc.
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        • Profile picture of the author RimaNaj2011
          People here are so quick to attack others. he's posting his experience, which is great. Everyone has their own methods, there's no one way to do something. It's all about taking action.
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      • Profile picture of the author tinknocker
        Originally Posted by BillHus View Post

        I've been on this forum a little over a year and its been quite a journey for me. Before I get into that let me say that I'm not releasing any WSO free or paid. I could care less about marketing products to you guys as I've notice alot of people who post their success us it to build up a list which is pretty weak but I digress.

        Ok so when I started I got into building adsense sites and ranking them and I actually did pretty good and I even posted about my 1st $100 day here http://www.warriorforum.com/adsense-...y-adsense.html as you can also see in that thread I started offline marketing around the same time and made some quick sales when I started but hit a wall of four months with no new clients. Then I discovered a thread on direct mail and sent out 38 regular envelopes with dice in them for Reputation Management and landed a pediatric dentist for $800/month for 3 months. That money fueled my passion for the potential of Offline Marketing.

        Right after I closed on that dentist I started my business on a serious note, registering it as a LLC and getting business cards, website and all that stuff together. I bought every damn WSO that came out and really didnt make the kind of money I thought I should be making. I had clients but no real big monthly recurring like that dentist. So I took a leave from work to concentrate on my business in June. I started to focus on mobile and learned how to build my own sites and closed a few clients on mobile.

        Here is where my business changed.....I was doing some lead gen on LinkedIn and got a client who invited me to a networking group. I went to their meeting and have been going since....its a group just like BNI but we dont have to pay and meet weekly. It took a couple of months but they all warmed up to me and I got my 1st "big" client after a presentation I did for them on Online Marketing. It was for monthly SEO which I'm pretty good at from my adsense days. got him ranked on the 1st page for like 10 keywords locally and his phone was ringing weekly from his site which had never happened before for him. Well he referred me to 2 other big monthly clients as he absolutely loved what I was doing and I did the same for them. Basically what I'm getting at is.....screw all of these WSO's. The BEST way to get clients is thru good old networking. Since I've joined one of the Chambers in my area and all I do is go to every single event they hold so the prominent members started to recognize me and guess what? Same thing that happened with my networking group happened with the Chamber. I never tried to sell anything, eventually they just came to me. Always saying things like "my website needs to be redesigned" or "Ive always wanted to do SEO or ect ect." What I'm saying is you got to have the balls to go out and be seen. Dont hide behind the email or phone because they HATE that. Think about it....there are hundreds if not thousands of us doing this, calling the same big ticket businesses, or the same ones who dont have a mobile site. But when they see you everyday and actually hear the tidbits of knowledge come out of your mouth, they start to ask you questions. Then you could easily say "Hey just give me your email and I'll send you that info and you also check out my newsletter which has stuff you can do monthly to build your business online."

        This is what I've done and I just wanted to share it with you. I recently quit a great paying but stressful job and I love being able to spend time with my family on my own accord now. If anyone has any questions about what I do feel free to ask.
        Originally Posted by BillHus View Post

        That pretty much sums up what I was saying. Its easy in theory but no matter what you do you have to continually & consistently put yourself out there. I'm working on doing a monthly direct mail campaign now using the 6.5x11 postcards. EDDM is pretty nice and I found a way to target almost all businesses. I just pulled up a ton of routes in a radius around me and picked out the ones that were all or 90% business. Its a bitch driving to 7 or 8 post offices but I'm hoping it pays off.






        Congratulations!

        Thanks for the insight to what you've done and sought of blueprint.
        I'm just getting started with this same idea with a local online biz servicing offline biz in my area. I've seen a lot of opportunity where their online presence isn't good for many of them (opportunity).

        I've got a good advantage in this area because I use to have a brick & mortar biz for many years and don't mind making cold calls and dropping by local business and talking face to face.

        I'm in the process of getting my biz registered and searching for a small office now. I know I don't really need one but I want it this way for professionalism.

        I'm putting together some presentation packages and putting the final touches on my business plan.

        Thanks for sharing.
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  • Profile picture of the author kbrady
    Thanks for sharing Bill. Your experience is motivating and holds some good advice. Others of course may have different experiences but I value your sharing.
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  • Profile picture of the author Adoniz
    Good read. All the best for your future ventures.
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  • Profile picture of the author Jeff Schuman
    Absolutely great post Bill. I had an old boss in my offline sales job that used to say that people buy from people. Even as the Internet became more of a way of marketing he always felt that you needed to be cultivating relationships in person all of the time. This really does work, especially in offline marketing, just like you point out.
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    • Profile picture of the author AndrewCavanagh
      Originally Posted by Jeff Schuman View Post

      Absolutely great post Bill. I had an old boss in my offline sales job that used to say that people buy from people. Even as the Internet became more of a way of marketing he always felt that you needed to be cultivating relationships in person all of the time. This really does work, especially in offline marketing, just like you point out.

      I love this post.

      Methods of communication like:
      the telegram
      the telephone
      the internet

      change and evolve and they should be used as a way to multiply
      your ability to build relationships with people.

      THE most valuable asset you have in business is the relationships of
      trust you build with your clients.

      If you EVER forget that you're in real trouble.

      Kindest regards,
      Andrew Cavanagh
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  • Profile picture of the author erikeightsix
    Starting out i do agree with you 100% good old networking is the best way to go about getting started. I built my personal training business solely through networking.

    Cheers on your success
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  • Profile picture of the author BillHus
    Well I haven't been here often but my business is still going really good. My wife quit her job in Feb and she's a fulltime mom now. I hired my 1st fulltime employee a few weeks ago and I also have 2 commission based contractors keeping the funnel moving. I ended up joining 2 more networking groups, LBN and BNI and I've gotten almost 2 dozen clients from them.....great investment. I also attend the quarterly Networking After Work events and I've met some cool business people there, if you have those in your area you should check them out. Another great boost for my business was setting up free test campaigns for local churches and other non profits. Fundraising directors also have tons of connections with local businesses so they're literally a referral goldmine. Honestly I work more now than I did at my job but its much more gratifying...hopefully I can hire a few more people and not have to do so much. Advice: Build duplicatable systems that anyone can figure out. That's what I'm working on and maybe in a few years I can move into the leadership/speaker world.
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    • Profile picture of the author hardyfella
      good stuff Bill, well done. Can you give us some more info on the test campaigns for churches etc? Is this test campaigns for services that you normally offer?

      thanks
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      • Profile picture of the author BillHus
        Originally Posted by hardyfella View Post

        good stuff Bill, well done. Can you give us some more info on the test campaigns for churches etc? Is this test campaigns for services that you normally offer?

        thanks
        My apologies, that was a typo. I meant text campaigns. What I do is just give them a free text message account through my system based on Lime Cellular. I give them a few thousand free texts a month and 5-10 keywords. They use them for things like general membership news, choir practice reminders, other department meetings reminders and things like that. My benefit is that they basically rant and rave about my business to other businesses as there isnt a Pastor out here who isnt tied deeply to his local community so you could build a business alone just thru them honestly.

        The money I could have charged, its treated like a donation of sorts as you can write it off as a donation to a non profit at FULL service value. Believe me when I say its a great way to add expenses to your business without actually spending real money. I mean 2000 text messages a month to a church will cost me $20/month for a service I normally charge $200/month for. This is basically how you put more money in your own pocket vs Uncle Sam's. Its standard corporate stuff that ALL major corporations do and its perfectly legal.

        I'm also a member of my local Chamber and I hold bi-weekly webinars showing business owners how to use social media and various other online systems & techniques. The thing about it is I'm 100% transparent because 95% of the business owners out here dont have the time to do ANY of the stuff we do so teaching them just makes you look great and builds the trust needed to get you hired. I bought tons of WSO's and I can show you guys a screenshot of my warriorplus account and though some had their uses, the mass majority are rotting on my hard drive. It wasnt until I did my 1st 10 minute presentation in my networking group that I started getting some real traction in offline. It wasnt some fancy lead getting software or some "new" way of getting someone to read and respond to your email. It was me getting in front of people and showing them that I knew what the hell I was talking about.

        Now let me clarify before someone decides to flame me again. If cold calling, emailing or any other system brings you the big bucks. Thats great as I dont discredit them at all. I got my 1st client from direct mail and my 1st few mobile websites I did were from cold calls so those things do work. I'm talking bang for buck here. My wife made several hundred cold calls to get me a handfull of appts, which thankfully I converted almost all into sales. I've sent hundreds upon hundreds of emails....some bulk and canned, some very personal and direct. I got a few meetings and a few sales also. But one 10 minute presentation got me 4 new monthly SEO clients and that turned my life around. This is just my story and I wanted to share it with everyone here as this was the site that got me started in this biz. Anyways I have a couple of meetings this morning so I gotta run. If you have any questions about what I do specifically just ask or shoot me a PM. I'll check back here periodically if I remember lol.
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        • Profile picture of the author DaniMc
          Originally Posted by BillHus View Post

          The money I could have charged, its treated like a donation of sorts as you can write it off as a donation to a non profit at FULL service value. Believe me when I say its a great way to add expenses to your business without actually spending real money. I mean 2000 text messages a month to a church will cost me $20/month for a service I normally charge $200/month for. This is basically how you put more money in your own pocket vs Uncle Sam's. Its standard corporate stuff that ALL major corporations do and its perfectly legal.
          That's a great idea but you might want to check your accounting laws. You can write off what your service actually cost you. If you could write off what they WOULD have paid, you could just pick any number you want. Why not $2k a month?

          I would advise everyone to talk to a tax attorney before writing off services to non-profits.

          Not bashing your idea, it is awesome and your success is commendable.
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          • Profile picture of the author tagr79
            Hi Bill,

            Thanks for sharing your experience. I've launched my local business online marketing company last month offering SEO (local + organic) as my main service but I'm not too confident to promote the service yet as the site isn't ranking on first page of Google yet, as it's a new site and I only started working on it last month. I'm thinking of building its ranking first before going out there to have the credibility but it may take sometime and I needed to get started with clients to be able to bring in some income. What's your take on this?
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        • Profile picture of the author hardyfella
          Originally Posted by BillHus View Post

          My apologies, that was a typo. I meant text campaigns. What I do is just give them a free text message account through my system based on Lime Cellular. I give them a few thousand free texts a month and 5-10 keywords. They use them for things like general membership news, choir practice reminders, other department meetings reminders and things like that. My benefit is that they basically rant and rave about my business to other businesses as there isnt a Pastor out here who isnt tied deeply to his local community so you could build a business alone just thru them honestly.

          The money I could have charged, its treated like a donation of sorts as you can write it off as a donation to a non profit at FULL service value. Believe me when I say its a great way to add expenses to your business without actually spending real money. I mean 2000 text messages a month to a church will cost me $20/month for a service I normally charge $200/month for. This is basically how you put more money in your own pocket vs Uncle Sam's. Its standard corporate stuff that ALL major corporations do and its perfectly legal.

          I'm also a member of my local Chamber and I hold bi-weekly webinars showing business owners how to use social media and various other online systems & techniques. The thing about it is I'm 100% transparent because 95% of the business owners out here dont have the time to do ANY of the stuff we do so teaching them just makes you look great and builds the trust needed to get you hired. I bought tons of WSO's and I can show you guys a screenshot of my warriorplus account and though some had their uses, the mass majority are rotting on my hard drive. It wasnt until I did my 1st 10 minute presentation in my networking group that I started getting some real traction in offline. It wasnt some fancy lead getting software or some "new" way of getting someone to read and respond to your email. It was me getting in front of people and showing them that I knew what the hell I was talking about.

          Now let me clarify before someone decides to flame me again. If cold calling, emailing or any other system brings you the big bucks. Thats great as I dont discredit them at all. I got my 1st client from direct mail and my 1st few mobile websites I did were from cold calls so those things do work. I'm talking bang for buck here. My wife made several hundred cold calls to get me a handfull of appts, which thankfully I converted almost all into sales. I've sent hundreds upon hundreds of emails....some bulk and canned, some very personal and direct. I got a few meetings and a few sales also. But one 10 minute presentation got me 4 new monthly SEO clients and that turned my life around. This is just my story and I wanted to share it with everyone here as this was the site that got me started in this biz. Anyways I have a couple of meetings this morning so I gotta run. If you have any questions about what I do specifically just ask or shoot me a PM. I'll check back here periodically if I remember lol.
          I thought it might have been sms! I can see how this is working with local churches and it could with charities.
          Your last comment about getting front of people is exactly right.....you can then speak to them directly and show how this stuff can put more money in the till.
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          • Profile picture of the author BillHus
            Originally Posted by Dan McCoy View Post

            That's a great idea but you might want to check your accounting laws. You can write off what your service actually cost you. If you could write off what they WOULD have paid, you could just pick any number you want. Why not $2k a month?

            I would advise everyone to talk to a tax attorney before writing off services to non-profits.

            Not bashing your idea, it is awesome and your success is commendable.
            No you're right Dan and I posted in haste, so I apologize to anyone I may have mislead. I have my company setup in a way that allows me to do this and you should ALWAYS consult with a CPA and/or tax attorney when doing business.

            Originally Posted by tagr79 View Post

            Hi Bill,

            Thanks for sharing your experience. I've launched my local business online marketing company last month offering SEO (local + organic) as my main service but I'm not too confident to promote the service yet as the site isn't ranking on first page of Google yet, as it's a new site and I only started working on it last month. I'm thinking of building its ranking first before going out there to have the credibility but it may take sometime and I needed to get started with clients to be able to bring in some income. What's your take on this?

            Honestly my site only ranks for 1 keyword and its for mobile marketing in my state. I didnt even have a business site when I got my 1st client and it sucked up until Feb of this year when I started reinvesting back into my business. By the way it was custom designed by the WF's own Ricky Leyva of Pixel Graffiti. I got myself credibility by ranking a ton of videos for random terms like "city plumber", "video marketing city state", "roofer city" and on and on. I probably have two dozen videos in #1-#3 spots that I show off. I make them using files from videohive + adobe after effects or animoto which I have a sweet way of getting a plus account for free.

            Ok 1st you need to register for a free account on animoto then go to this link once logged in Animoto - Make & Share Beautiful Videos Online and you should see your referral link. The last 8 characters is your promo code. Go to retailmenot.com and post that code and title it "20% off Subscription".....I did that and got 92 months of Plus and 4 months of Pro.

            Use the above tip and make a few vids, I literally ranked a video to #1 an hour before a webinar I held for some local business owners and it blew their mind! Check out what I did by googling "video marketing canton mi", I literally recorded myself searching for the same term, showed that I didnt rank for it and then did that same search live on the webinar and was #1. That couldve went totally wrong for me but I'm very confident in my video ranking skills. Those who check the video will hear my real name lol, also you will be able to see my current website for my business for those who are interested. Nothing special but gets the information out.

            All I can tell you is to get out and just do it. Overcome your fears and reservations. Look I'm a 6'2" black guy with 18 tats who grew up in Detroit and now I'm good buddies with a couple of my older more conservative clients. So if I can overcome racial stereotypes and uneasiness by just showing these business owners that "I know my sh*t" you can too.
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            • Profile picture of the author donza
              I believe that's one of the best pieces of marketing I have ever seen,
              Brilliant!
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  • There's no doubt in my mind meeting up with folks personally on a regular basis, if you can manage it, will work wonders for you once they get to know you and come over to your side for a question of two about what you do and how you might be able to help them.

    I like the fact you shared your personal experience and how pleased you are to have left that very stressful $80K / year job.

    Thanks for the insight.
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  • Profile picture of the author kevin Hislop
    Hi Bill,

    Thanks for sharing your story, it has inspired me.... but that is just my opinion

    Speak soon
    Kev
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  • Profile picture of the author MontrealSEO
    Ah the dice trick, you must know taktical from BHW

    That's awesome it's working out for you - keep it up man.

    Let the haters hate...you can't hear it from where you are
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    • Profile picture of the author BillHus
      Originally Posted by donza View Post

      I believe that's one of the best pieces of marketing I have ever seen,
      Brilliant!
      I've also done that the day before meetings with clients, I'd rank for a "niche + city + zip code" and 90% of the time I'm on page 1 within an hour and always by the time I go to my appointment. Youtube has instant authority on Google.

      Originally Posted by kevin Hislop View Post

      Hi Bill,

      Thanks for sharing your story, it has inspired me.... but that is just my opinion

      Speak soon
      Kev
      Thanks, thats all my goal in this is. Its plenty of money to made out here, literally every single person on this forum could build a million dollar business and we not even scratch the surface of the needs of all the small businesses out here.

      Originally Posted by MontrealSEO View Post

      Ah the dice trick, you must know taktical from BHW

      That's awesome it's working out for you - keep it up man.

      Let the haters hate...you can't hear it from where you are
      Yup I havent been there in quite some time but that thread he made and the materials he provided for FREE I might add, really helped me get started. There's a few really great marketers here that add a lot of value to the community.
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      • Profile picture of the author DJVan
        I love a guy who is willing to give out free advice, without pumping up his latest WSO with a 97.00 OTO need to make it work. Plenty of us have bought many worthless WSO's that have less good info than this thread.

        Thanks, thats all my goal in this is. Its plenty of money to made out here, literally every single person on this forum could build a million dollar business and we not even scratch the surface of the needs of all the small businesses out here.



        Yup I havent been there in quite some time but that thread he made and the materials he provided for FREE I might add, really helped me get started. There's a few really great marketers here that add a lot of value to the community.[/QUOTE]
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  • Profile picture of the author oceola
    lol!
    great !
    good luck!
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  • Profile picture of the author marvink1
    Hi Bill thanks for your advise, l'm going to start sending my direct Mails tomorrow.
    I have no excuse to wait already Ranking Google keyword Google Plus Optimization national and other keywords from my Website .
    Thanks again and don't mind the Haters !!!!
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  • Profile picture of the author webcosmo
    Thank you for sharing your experience with us, Bill, it`s motivating and is a good advice, even though it`s not applicable to every business and others may have different opinions.
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  • Profile picture of the author JSL Publishing
    That's cool, I'm so inspired I'm working on it too. Thanks for sharing..


    Originally Posted by BillHus View Post

    I've been on this forum a little over a year and its been quite a journey for me. Before I get into that let me say that I'm not releasing any WSO free or paid. I could care less about marketing products to you guys as I've notice alot of people who post their success us it to build up a list which is pretty weak but I digress.

    Ok so when I started I got into building adsense sites and ranking them and I actually did pretty good and I even posted about my 1st $100 day here http://www.warriorforum.com/adsense-...y-adsense.html as you can also see in that thread I started offline marketing around the same time and made some quick sales when I started but hit a wall of four months with no new clients. Then I discovered a thread on direct mail and sent out 38 regular envelopes with dice in them for Reputation Management and landed a pediatric dentist for $800/month for 3 months. That money fueled my passion for the potential of Offline Marketing.

    Right after I closed on that dentist I started my business on a serious note, registering it as a LLC and getting business cards, website and all that stuff together. I bought every damn WSO that came out and really didnt make the kind of money I thought I should be making. I had clients but no real big monthly recurring like that dentist. So I took a leave from work to concentrate on my business in June. I started to focus on mobile and learned how to build my own sites and closed a few clients on mobile.

    Here is where my business changed.....I was doing some lead gen on LinkedIn and got a client who invited me to a networking group. I went to their meeting and have been going since....its a group just like BNI but we dont have to pay and meet weekly. It took a couple of months but they all warmed up to me and I got my 1st "big" client after a presentation I did for them on Online Marketing. It was for monthly SEO which I'm pretty good at from my adsense days. got him ranked on the 1st page for like 10 keywords locally and his phone was ringing weekly from his site which had never happened before for him. Well he referred me to 2 other big monthly clients as he absolutely loved what I was doing and I did the same for them. Basically what I'm getting at is.....screw all of these WSO's. The BEST way to get clients is thru good old networking. Since I've joined one of the Chambers in my area and all I do is go to every single event they hold so the prominent members started to recognize me and guess what? Same thing that happened with my networking group happened with the Chamber. I never tried to sell anything, eventually they just came to me. Always saying things like "my website needs to be redesigned" or "Ive always wanted to do SEO or ect ect." What I'm saying is you got to have the balls to go out and be seen. Dont hide behind the email or phone because they HATE that. Think about it....there are hundreds if not thousands of us doing this, calling the same big ticket businesses, or the same ones who dont have a mobile site. But when they see you everyday and actually hear the tidbits of knowledge come out of your mouth, they start to ask you questions. Then you could easily say "Hey just give me your email and I'll send you that info and you also check out my newsletter which has stuff you can do monthly to build your business online."

    This is what I've done and I just wanted to share it with you. I recently quit a great paying but stressful job and I love being able to spend time with my family on my own accord now. If anyone has any questions about what I do feel free to ask.
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  • Profile picture of the author mikeac
    Congratulations Man, Im getting ready to launch my offline marketing business in my city and this has gave me so much motivation! I like when you said to forget all these WSO's and just go out there and be seen! So true, its all about networking and relationships!

    Just one question about the webinars, how do you get prospective clients on them to begin with? Do you send out postcards, hand out flies, etc? Looking forward to your response!
    To your success
    Mike
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  • Profile picture of the author BillHus
    Whats up Mike,

    Thanks for the words man I appreciate it. As far as the webinars are concerned, I did 3 separate things to fill them and you can do 1 or all. I joined a free networking group and after about a month or two of weekly meetings I asked them if they would like to learn about things like FB, twitter and other social media. Of course they said yes so I put together a powerpoint and got a free trial with GTW....my 1st "class" only had 8 people on it. After that I joined my local chamber and immediately sent out an email to all the members whose emails I could gather. I introduced myself and let them know I had bi-weekly classes on social media and other marketing tactics for free. That got me another 20+ signups on my next webinar. Lastly I created some local deal fanpages on FB and paid about $100 in ads each getting anywhere from 500-2000+ fans on each page and I started promoting the webinars on those pages also. Now I regularly get 50+ people on my "classes" and I usually get about 10 emails from business owners each time. Those people who contact me are placed in my funnel and depending on the business they have (some are network marketers) I close a good number of them for a service.

    Its quite a process if you dont have a system in place to automate some of this stuff and I've just been learning as I go. I sent you a pm also
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    • Profile picture of the author tonylogan
      Congratulations! Take action is the key. SEO is still an open market. Most of small biz owners don't even know what is.

      Keep us informed about your progress. Thanks
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  • Profile picture of the author battleweb
    Billhus, thanks for the post, I've found some of your insight helpful.
    Signature
    If you find my post helpful, please be sure to click the Thanks button and let me know.
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  • Profile picture of the author jmharris48
    I am glad you found something that you love and that really works for you! That doesn't mean it is for everybody, but as long as you love doing what you do, then keep on keeping on!
    Signature

    100% FREE System Generates $395/Day
    http://fastcashsystem.vze.com

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  • Profile picture of the author 9999
    Great thread with lots of useful info.
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  • Profile picture of the author abelamorales
    Good for you dude! This is awesome!
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    • Profile picture of the author MaxxC
      Well done BillHus !!

      Thanks for sharing your experiences in the real offline marketing world.
      In reality, action is the process of transforming concept into actuality, and plans into results.
      One day soon, I must summon the courage to copy some of your strategies and make some money
      - and I need some money.

      Where did you learn your killer YouTube SEO tactics? Do share,
      and please keep us posted on the progress of your EDDM campaign
      - I assume you did it for yourself, and not for a client.

      Cheers.
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  • Profile picture of the author Bsperling
    Thanks for sharing your experiences as its great to hear whats working for some people.

    I certainly believe that Offline marketing is a great tool to grow your business as is online marketing.
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  • Profile picture of the author AndrewCavanagh
    Originally Posted by BillHus View Post

    screw all of these WSO's. The BEST way to get clients is thru good old networking. What I'm saying is you got to have the balls to go out and be seen.
    For the majority of people this is GREAT advice.

    It's not necessarily even about getting clients when you're starting
    out.

    Just getting in a situation where you're face to face with business
    owners, talking to them and getting to know them and their problems
    is a huge education for anyone who hasn't done that before.

    It's also relatively low pressure.

    You can just go along say hi to people ask questions and listen.

    You don't have to make a presentation or pick up a phone or do
    anything that requires a whole lot of skill.

    But you will be developing the most important skills you need if
    you want to get hired as a consultant.

    I can tell you from teaching thousands of people how to sell their
    services to offline businesses that business networking meetings
    in their various forms is one of the key ways that help a good
    percentage of people to start making a good income.

    Kindest regards,
    Andrew Cavanagh
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  • Profile picture of the author Andy Lemos
    your experience is soo inspirational!!!
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  • Profile picture of the author Abiel Jiqna
    Hey bro great advice man.

    How did you rank the videos so fast. Outside of title,tags etc do you anything else to get a video ranking fast.
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  • Profile picture of the author BillHus
    Hey everyone, sorry I dont come as much as I'd like but I'm always busy with this business. So theres been a few questions and I'll try to answer as best I can.

    Update on my business: Well BNI has been a true blessing in disguise. I heard some bad things about how strict they are and stuff that would discourage most people. They have an attendance policy so if you're working a day job still, it probably isnt the correct fit for you. You can only be absent 3 times per 6-month rotation which runs from May - October & November - April I believe. You can also have a sub come but it has the same 3 times per 6-month stipulation so the attendance policy is no different than most jobs. Theres a reason for this and it makes sense.....if you're not there not only do you tie up a category but it looks bad when visitors come.

    Anyways you wanna hear the good stuff right? Ok I had to do some training that BNI provides that was GREAT! Afterwards the very people in my chapter started wanting to meet with me for what they call One-2-One's, a basic meeting but again very structured. I've gotten 3 clients that are members of my chapter....one plumber even fired his SEO guy because he strictly prefers to work with only BNI members if he can. I do lead generation for him. I've also gotten 7 referrals and so far that I've closed 4 clients including a dealership which was worth $9,500 setup and $6,000/month alone! The takeaway is that I've been building personal relationships over the last 3 months with these people and they don't mind referring me to other people that trust them. I actually left my other group and I'm only in BNI now as my other group had some leadership bickering issues and a lot of members left so the referrals dried up. I still have a good relationship with most of the former members though. All in all 84% of my revenue this year has come directly or indirectly from my networking groups as I've also gotten referrals from referrals. I've also noticed that marketers aren't really in all the BNI chapters. I know of at least 6 chapters within 15 miles of me that don't have any Online Marketers....only web designers.

    Look at it like this....I've seen front end products here or elsewhere that promote some $10 or less "technique" then there's some "training" webinar that says that the "REAL" system is only $297 - $597 and that offer is only good for 72 hours or some bullsh*t like that. Or the smart ones who go straight to the webinar and fake that same scarcity when the truth is that they will promote that same exact system to every marketer who has a decent list size and response rate. I've seen webinars promoted to a dozen lists like the same system is new and exclusive to them. $400 gets you in BNI and I guarantee you make that back in a month unless you're untrustworthy. Let me get off my soapbox....my apologies. I will say I respect those promoters work ethic....they make the big bucks for a reason cause if it was that easy we all would be promoting products to a 50k list.

    I had a few questions in regards to how I rank videos, so here is my EXACT strategy.....
    in all honesty 90% of the local terms will rank overnight doing this but not all. Some will need a few fiverr gigs to get that extra boost.

    1. Create video using the software/platform of your choice.
    2. Name video using Keyword #1 - ex.......LasVegasPlumber.mp4
    3. Upload to YT, as video is processing name title "Keyword #1 | Keyword #2 or Phone #
    4. 1st line of description I put Keyword#1 then website (if applicable), I usually add about 300-500 words of unique content also (spin if you are doing multiple related videos)
    5. I put 4 keywords in the tags...main plus related
    6. Under advanced settings I change the Geo modifier to the location I'm targeting

    Thats about it, I'm sure there's a dozen other slightly different ways but its all the same to me. Whatever floats your boat, just do it and you should get results. I have dozens of videos that rank on page 1 and most were overnight for free though a couple I did have to buy fiver gigs for.
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    • Profile picture of the author sodomojo
      So what have you brought in both up front and then monthly recurring this year from BNI?

      I'm contemplating joining, just when I went to a initial meeting it felt too much MLM and too much pressure to get everyone else referrals. It was as if you didn't get referrals, you wouldn't get anything and you'd be looked down upon and blackballed like Jose Canseco lol.

      Originally Posted by BillHus View Post

      Hey everyone, sorry I dont come as much as I'd like but I'm always busy with this business. So theres been a few questions and I'll try to answer as best I can.

      Update on my business: Well BNI has been a true blessing in disguise. I heard some bad things about how strict they are and stuff that would discourage most people. They have an attendance policy so if you're working a day job still, it probably isnt the correct fit for you. You can only be absent 3 times per 6-month rotation which runs from May - October & November - April I believe. You can also have a sub come but it has the same 3 times per 6-month stipulation so the attendance policy is no different than most jobs. Theres a reason for this and it makes sense.....if you're not there not only do you tie up a category but it looks bad when visitors come.

      Anyways you wanna hear the good stuff right? Ok I had to do some training that BNI provides that was GREAT! Afterwards the very people in my chapter started wanting to meet with me for what they call One-2-One's, a basic meeting but again very structured. I've gotten 3 clients that are members of my chapter....one plumber even fired his SEO guy because he strictly prefers to work with only BNI members if he can. I do lead generation for him. I've also gotten 7 referrals and so far that I've closed 4 clients including a dealership which was worth $9,500 setup and $6,000/month alone! The takeaway is that I've been building personal relationships over the last 3 months with these people and they don't mind referring me to other people that trust them. I actually left my other group and I'm only in BNI now as my other group had some leadership bickering issues and a lot of members left so the referrals dried up. I still have a good relationship with most of the former members though. All in all 84% of my revenue this year has come directly or indirectly from my networking groups as I've also gotten referrals from referrals. I've also noticed that marketers aren't really in all the BNI chapters. I know of at least 6 chapters within 15 miles of me that don't have any Online Marketers....only web designers.

      Look at it like this....I've seen front end products here or elsewhere that promote some $10 or less "technique" then there's some "training" webinar that says that the "REAL" system is only $297 - $597 and that offer is only good for 72 hours or some bullsh*t like that. Or the smart ones who go straight to the webinar and fake that same scarcity when the truth is that they will promote that same exact system to every marketer who has a decent list size and response rate. I've seen webinars promoted to a dozen lists like the same system is new and exclusive to them. $400 gets you in BNI and I guarantee you make that back in a month unless you're untrustworthy. Let me get off my soapbox....my apologies. I will say I respect those promoters work ethic....they make the big bucks for a reason cause if it was that easy we all would be promoting products to a 50k list.

      I had a few questions in regards to how I rank videos, so here is my EXACT strategy.....
      in all honesty 90% of the local terms will rank overnight doing this but not all. Some will need a few fiverr gigs to get that extra boost.

      1. Create video using the software/platform of your choice.
      2. Name video using Keyword #1 - ex.......LasVegasPlumber.mp4
      3. Upload to YT, as video is processing name title "Keyword #1 | Keyword #2 or Phone #
      4. 1st line of description I put Keyword#1 then website (if applicable), I usually add about 300-500 words of unique content also (spin if you are doing multiple related videos)
      5. I put 4 keywords in the tags...main plus related
      6. Under advanced settings I change the Geo modifier to the location I'm targeting

      Thats about it, I'm sure there's a dozen other slightly different ways but its all the same to me. Whatever floats your boat, just do it and you should get results. I have dozens of videos that rank on page 1 and most were overnight for free though a couple I did have to buy fiver gigs for.
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      • Profile picture of the author BillHus
        Originally Posted by sodomojo View Post

        So what have you brought in both up front and then monthly recurring this year from BNI?

        I'm contemplating joining, just when I went to a initial meeting it felt too much MLM and too much pressure to get everyone else referrals. It was as if you didn't get referrals, you wouldn't get anything and you'd be looked down upon and blackballed like Jose Canseco lol.

        No not all of the revenue I've brought in is from BNI, I am in more than one referral group so that is combined though most is from BNI. Also I did a postcard campaign + press release earlier this year and that worked out really well for me. All in all its been a pretty good 1st half when I add all of my efforts together.

        You have to do a few things before jumping into a BNI group....#1 is make sure you feel comfortable with the group when you visit. If you dont feel welcome and that they are more of a family unit then it may not be a good fit. Every BNI chapter isnt created equal....I just happen to be in one of the Top 15 chapters in my state. As far as referrals, seriously you can pass referrals in your sleep once you go thru the advanced portions of training and start to have One 2 One meetings with individual members. When I 1st got there I couldnt pass many because honestly I didnt know anyone and wasnt comfortable with them and they felt the same about me but as I BUILT RELATIONSHIPS with these people we became close and thats when it all clicked. Trust me you will be thinking of referrals in the weirdest of situations. Plus the mantra "Givers Gain" always holds true.
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  • Profile picture of the author Matt Lee
    Nice work bro! Congrats on your success. I have the same mindset of not hiding behind a website and phone number. Being active in your community and having a presence will generate the BEST leads you'll get.
    Signature
    "One of the Most Successful Offline WSO's Ever!
    Get More High $$$ Clients with this Small Business Marketing PLR Magazine
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  • Profile picture of the author pingsters
    Banned
    Wow,that's great of of you.
    Thank you for sharing the success story.It is so informative
    Cheers!
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  • Profile picture of the author Amanda786
    Hi
    I guess we are lucky you shared good stuff; but don't get aggressive, sometimes in life we all face such situations really don't consider it a big deal.
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    • Profile picture of the author BillHus
      Originally Posted by Amanda786 View Post

      Hi
      I guess we are lucky you shared good stuff; but don't get aggressive, sometimes in life we all face such situations really don't consider it a big deal.
      What do you mean by "dont get aggressive"? I think something is missing in the sentence that follows so I dont understand what you mean.
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