To get to the important stuff first I want to say that I am happily married to Karen. We met in 1984 here in Guernsey where we still live. I was a bit of surf bum yet managed to hold down a job in the family furniture shop. Karen was working in a local Trust Company. She was and is very family orientated which has been great for me. My own parents both passed on when I was in my early 20’s, so being around Karen’s family is great.
Fast Foward 25 years
and we have two great offspring. Jack is 19 and now doing well at University studying Media and Ellie is 14 and starting her GCSE’s.
After meeting Karen I moved on from the family business to find something I could call my own. Back then I had issues eating away at me, I was working 6 days a week in a retail store doing very early starts and finishing late, I was giving my time and life in return for not much reward and wanted to be out on the ocean following my passion for surfing and windsurfing.
I needed to find a better balance.
There was no online marketing then and although I looked at Network Marketing, the idea of hassling friends and relatives left me cold.
I started my first business
which was a carpet and upholstery cleaning franchise. The idea was to build a client bank of referred and repeat customers and i ended up with hundreds of names and addresses.
By now i was able to go surfing whenever the surf was up and I had a pretty good business. My list was valuable but at the time my passion was the ocean and when I saw the chance to own
my own surf shop
I jumped at it. What a tremendous time the next 5 years were, living the life and being totally immersed in my passion. I was President of the Windsurfing Club, ran all the competitions and captained our team at the Island Games where we came away with the gold medal. As well as the shop I had a windsurfing school on the beach.
By now I could never imagine being employed again and with the arrival of first born Jack I started to look for other business opportunities.
I had to get serious
and support a family, pay the mortgage and be a grown up. Now while the shop was great and made money, property prices were racing ahead and I needed a more serious income. I had collected another few hundred names and address at this time from my surf shop customers in exchange for discounts on certain products and armed with this and my list from the carpet cleaning days I entered the world of Financial Services. I was so naive I attended my first interview wearing shorts and a t-shirt; I guess the branch manager saw value in my list. I trained and eventually qualified to give advice as a self employed tied Financial Advisor under the umbrella of Allied Dunbar. They provided all the offices and support staff, all I had to do was bring new business in, and I had the surf shop running smoothly in the background.
I told everyone on my list
what I was doing and those that wanted to talk business did so. I never pushed or hassled anyone on my list and still felt very uncomfortable chasing prospects or cold calling.
During this period, Golf became a new passion and combined with my new career I played loads of golf at home and on my travels all over Europe. I became Captain of my Golf Club in 2000 and had a great term of office. My Captains Day was an outdoor BBQ with a live band and dressdown code. Not exactly tradition, but it’s remembered by many as a cracker.
Well the business came in, and we went on to develop a range of mortgage products with local Banks and became the first mortgage broker in town. People loved the idea, and although in those days we received no fees from the Banks, we did use the opportunity to up sell with our core products of Life insurance and Investment and pension planning.
Eventually I sold the surf business to a fellow enthusiast and went on to form and partner in a new Financial Services Business of Independent Financial Advisors, which went on to merge with a rival firm and eventually we sold to a multi national firm and for a short time I stayed on as an employee. Great firm, great people, but no, not for me.
I was not ready to become an employee again
after so many years in control. The business had totally changed from my days at Allied Dunbar where all I had to do was bring in new business and service my clients. Now, there is a much needed but massive regulatory burden which along with other issues has led to the role of the Financial Advisor becoming one of report writing, admin and office bound time trading. (That’s how I felt, no offence to happy Financial Advisors:).
So I resigned
and looked to start another business and went to the internet to find the answers. Well, what I found excited me no end and here I am today, taking back control and loving it.
Now, the opportunities I represent are Your Net Biz and Primo Vacations and more importantly I have achieved my objective and become an internet marketer. I have also wasted money and time on a load of junk programmes which promised the earth but did not deliver. The internet is full of scammers who don’t care about you and just want your money. Harsh, but unfortunately true.
I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve done, but I’m hungry for more. I am still uncomfortable cold calling and in fact have vowed never to do any. Thanks to the methods I have learned from the best mentors and coaches in this business, I will never have to.
I have learned this is a business that only works when knowledge is passed on through good mentorship and
sharing knowledge freely
My wish and desire for the future is to help as many people as possible to get where they want to be.
