Everyone has a story...
here's mine
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By a sad twist the primary owners wife was diagnosed with Cancer and he sold his interest to his partners, a group of attorney's. Not knowing anything about the food service industry (Like I really did) I was promoted to Operations Manager over this 5 shop chain. Needing immediate marketing help we hired a Public Relations firm out of Atlanta. When it was time for the work to begin this PR Firm sent this skinny, five foot tall, twenty-something, Ally McBeal
look-a-like to do the heavy lifting.
I always thought Ally McBeal was cute so I quit the yogurt business, moved to Atlanta and after a brief courtship married the skinny PR girl. Newly married I needed a better paying job, but without any education to speak of my options were limited. Desperate I took the only job I could find, as an assistant manager of a cafeteria. After months of 80 hour weeks and earning a meager wage, I was fed up and decided to try sales. My entry into sales was selling vinyl siding for straight comission. I made a some decent money, but more importantly was beginning to learn how to sell and market myself.
In the late 1980's, armed with the dillusional cockiness all rookie sales people have I became a stock broker. Of course this was after failing the stock broker test more than once. (In the eighties stock brokers were glorified telemarketers. Brokerage firms would hire anyone with the gaul to dial the phone 200 times a day - no education required - just pass the broker test - called the Series 7)
- and here's where the trouble began!
I was young, under-educated and definately underfunded. I received what little money I was getting paid only once a month. (First month as a broker I made $150) At night I would park my car at Church down the street to keep it from being repossessed. The next morning I would drop my wife off at the train station for work because we could't afford the dollar to park her car. On three occasions the Sherriff showed at my door at 3 am to serve me with papers from all the debts I was behind on. Our electricty was turned off twice in nine months. I couldn't even afford the garbage collection so I would put trash in my car and dump it in some company's garbage dumpster at night
- talk about humiliating!
The first toy box my first daughter had was a large cardboard box of diapers that I painted, attached rope handles to and painted her name on it. I even had to borrow the money to buy the diapers. Eventually I was reduced to delivering phone books in my spare time so I could feed my family. I would drive around with my 3 month old daughter wedged into the car between the bundles of books and we delivered the books together.
That first toy box 17 years later
I could go on but you get the point!
Frustrated, scared and broke I had to find answers and fast. I then did the smartest thing I could at that time. I got a library card. For the next couple of years I lived in that library and read everything I could find on sales, marketing and cheap ways to advertise since I had to find my own clients and had just enough money to eat.
One day I stumbled upon a book on publicity. Since my wife worked for a small public relations firm, I immediately sought her advice. She taught me how to write a simple press release. For the next several weeks I sent releases to every newspaper in my area. Although I did get some response, it was spotty at best. But it I saw a glimmer of what could be. So I dedicated what spare time I did have to learning all I could about working with the media.
I met with and interviewed reporters. I wined (more like coffeed) editors and producers. I read everything I could on publicity, marketing, sales, and psychology - yes psychology.
I not only wanted to learn the how of sales - I wanted to know the why - what makes people buy?
I continued to court the press. I was getting better at the media game. I was getting more and more coverage. Emboldened, I started a small sales company with a friend in Atlanta GA. Our original $4000 start-up capital generated over 1 million dollars in sales in our first year. I continued my practice of releasing news, any news, to the media. I would brainstorm reasons to alert the media. Sometimes releasing "news" items that were so un-newsworthy they must of thought me nuts. (I once got a paper to print that I had changed a web site URL that was not even online from a dot com to a dot net, geez!)
Within 3 years my primary business went from employing four sales people to eighty in Atlanta alone. We eventually opened 5 other offices in Georgia and Tennessee and funded the start of 7 more.
The business and my exposure was growing fast. I was getting results I never though possible. Then came another business, then a book called, Mastering the Uncommon Common Sense. Over time small mentions in newsapers turned into feature stories. Feature stories became television and radio interviews. My businesses put me in the company of some sharp marketers and I paid careful attention.
I began to experiment with other cost free marketing strategies. Some worked, some did not. (Won't elaborate here but some that worked the best where just plain idiotic - psychology, remember) A decade after arriving in Georgia I became home sick so I sold my interest in my businesses and moved back to Alabama with the skinny PR girl and our children. Back home I started another sales company. I introduced myself to the local media - and was on my way - again!
Over the years my results and ability to get the media excited caught the attention of business owners and corporate executives and I was being asked to share my strategies both in private consultations and public seminars. As demand for my time and business building strategies grew I started yet another business - teaching business owners and association executives how to harness the power of the media to get publicity to promote any product, service, company or cause.
Twenty some-odd years later I'm still a high school drop-out...
...but a highly paid one. I regularly speak and conduct both public and private seminars for some of the countries largest corporations, business associations, Chambers of Commerce and trade organizations. My publicity and marketing strategies have helped dozens of firms and thousands of people acheive extraordinary results by exploiting the media's insatiable appetite for information. My ideas have been featured in numerous magazines, business journals, chamber publications, newsletters, and newspapers across the US and Canada. I have also written numerous articles on sales, marketing and publicity for many of the same publications
I'm frequently interviewed on radio, television and for pod casts. My ideas are scattered across the internet on University sponsored business training sites, Ezines, Blogs, Vlogs, business training sites and on countless syndication feeds.
I also hosted the popular weekly business talk radio program THE SUCCESS RADIO NETWORK Where I interviewed such business experts as Zig Ziglar, Tom Hopkins, Mark V. Hansen, Jack Canfield, Harvey McKay, Jeffery Gitomer, Danielle Kennedy, even Oliver North, race driver Janet Guthrie and dozens more.
Today I still have no High School Diploma. My credentials are my results. Unlike others that teach this information I lived it! And still use it today. I invite you to roam this site to find out more about me and please visit the
What People are Saying page to read what others (Even the media) have to say about my ideas and marketing strategies.
Best Wishes,
Michael
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