Last week, an amazing thing happened as a result of my blog post "Sometimes, It's Harder to Give Than it is to Receive".
On Thursday of last week I was contacted by The Glenn Beck Program and asked to come on the show for this week’s LIVE studio audience on Thursday at 5pm EST to tell my story. So far this entire experience has made me think of what Glenn talked about in his book "The 7: Seven Wonders That Will Change Your Life" . You have to look for the signs that appear in everyday life and how he put it, "follow the breadcrumbs" that are placed in your path.
The past few years have been chock full of following breadcrumbs, and until this week I wasn't sure where they were leading. Now I know; to the doorstep of Glenn Beck and to the destiny that I was placed on this earth for. It is a story of “e4” and Entrepreneurship. Here are my breadcrumbs that I have been following . . .
My story begins in failure and depression . . . but ends in triumph.
I have always been an entrepreneur, in my heart and in my soul. I remember having conversations with my dad about different ideas growing up and him telling me stories with a longing look in his eyes about the ideas and the different ventures that he tried and that unfortunately, never took off. One of these stories involved a snow sled that my father and a friend, designed and had manufactured. I found a stack of them in the basement and wanted to take one out and slide down the hill in my backyard. It was then that I learned that the sled was so poorly designed that even on a 45 degree angle the thing just wouldn’t slide. I remember the pained look on his face when he found me trying to use it in the backyard and watching the same thing happen to me as had happened to him while demoing it in the snow. But I digress . . .
My story really begins about 8 years ago after I moved back to Los Angeles from Tucson, AZ to take care of family. It was then that I got my insurance license and started selling Long Term Care insurance in Orange County. My first failure out here was that I was a HORRIBLE insurance salesman. The one thing that I was really good at though, was Networking. I use to go to all the breakfast and lunch meetings in Orange County. I belonged to 2 Chamber of Commerce and even had my own handpicked networking coffee group that I started with the people I had met from the other groups. It never helped me at all selling insurance, but it helped me sell myself and it also taught me how to listen to the business owners around me and what their problems and challenges were in the businesses they were in. Here is what I learned. They ALL were networking because other more traditional forms of advertising their business were just too expensive. It was the RARE person I met that was able to afford $1000 plus a month for a Yellow Pages ad and those that could were struggling paying that monthly bill (even though most said that they got business from the ad). Networking was also a way for them to get in front of their potential customers, utilize their 30 second elevator speech to describe their business and have the potential for these same people to refer business to them. The trouble that they had came down to what they call in Advertising, the rule of 8, or it generally takes about 8 times in front of a person for any type of advertising to work. It was definitely a long term commitment and for some of them (depending on the business) those breakfast and lunch costs started adding up pretty quickly.
It was at this point where I thought to myself, “Self. There has to be a better way”. So I decided to build my own online “Business Directory” that incorporated ALL the different aspects of a Yellow Pages, Chamber of Commerce and a Networking meeting and put it into an online format. Businesses would be able to control their pages with their own username and login, they would be able to upload their audio commercials, photos, PPT presentations, have a Bio with Ratings and Testimonials from their clients and would even be able to “list” all the other small businesses that they referred to, and if those businesses referred back it would show up on their page also. It was called “The Platinum Business Network”.
It was a great idea. Everyone said so. Still, it FAILED. It failed MISERABLY. For 4 plus years I invested my life into it. My web designer and the programmers never got it quite right and never got it working properly and unfortunately I was marketing it the whole time at my meetings and events (in fact there is still a YouTube video of me at a trade show with my booth at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CiG5s7apuk). This wasn’t my web designers fault. It was mine. It was more about ME and MY business than it was about building something to help my fellow entrepreneurs. It is no wonder that it was a colossal failure. After the 4 years, I ran out of money, told my web designers to stop working and I quit. I never stopped paying for the servers though out of sheer stubbornness. It remained alive even though in essence, it was dead.
I quit. I failed. I lost and I was a loser. I became a Security Guard working the graveyard shift at a local resort. But I did what I had to do to bring in a paycheck and contribute to my family, even if it was only enough to pay a couple of bills. At the time, I thought I had lost a lot (pride, dignity, etc.) but at least I didn’t lose my house.
Working the graveyard shift also gave me the ability to do one other thing. Get home from work; go to sleep and then wake up in time to watch the Glenn Beck Show. That was when I started getting my self-respect back. I had afternoons to go to Tea Party rallies and participate. I wasn’t able to do a whole lot, but I started to pay closer attention to the things around me. I started to read and educate myself. I’ll never forget when I brought “American History in Black and White” by David Barton into work and one of my black security guard friends asked me what I was reading. I told him and let him borrow the book when I was done. As you can guess, I got the same reaction that Glenn did from the people that work on his show. He was “pissed” and couldn’t believe he had never learned any of this before. Another convert. I went through it all. The education, Founders Fridays (WINNING!), 8/28 on the webcast, 9/12 project, 40 day challenge, Faith Hope and Charity, The Seven Wonders, and then, “e4”.
I watched those shows about “e4” and I remembered how you said that it was the “entrepreneurs” and small business people that were going to save this country. I remember standing in front of the TV and cheering you on. Then you said that it was up to “ME”. I had to stand up and take control. I had to be the “entrepreneur”. I HAD TO HELP SAVE THE COUNTRY.
I thought about my website.
In hindsight, I should have known that The Platinum Business Network was going to fail. At the time I was thinking more about myself and the money I would make than how it would help other people.
But where The Platinum Business Network would fail, BizClicker.com would succeed and thrive!
This time, I would do it right. This time it would be about helping businesses. I called my web designer and said, “We are going to rebuild the website. I can’t pay you but let me tell you my plan and I would like you to be a part of it. We are going to rebuild it and all businesses and customers are going to be able to have it for free. Don’t worry about making money right now because somehow I know everything will work out”. I don’t know why but he said yes.
I talked at the beginning about signs and following bread crumbs. This past Tuesday, 5/10 was our re-launch date. We rebuilt it better than ever with the addition of full integration to Facebook with tutorials for businesses on how they can create their own Facebook Business pages and integrate them into our website. We were going to launch it and see what happened, and then I got a message from the Glenn Beck Program.
After coming down off my high, I immediately thought of “e4”, “Entrepreneurship” and Glenn’s plans for the future. I pictured him just like he described before 8/28 when he found that he was going to have to put out more money for the event. Down on his knees asking God what more he could do and to send him some kind of sign or help. I pictured him doing the same thing as he was making his plans for the future. Him saying, “I don’t know how I’m going to accomplish this but I know you will send the answers my way. I thought, “I am being sent his way”. I thought that this could be the “Freedom Connector” for entrepreneurs and small businesses around the country. I said to myself, somehow, this was meant to be.
At that point I decided that BizClickr.com was meant to help Glenn and his “e4” project and that I would put it at his disposal to utilize in any way that he could. I might not be able to mention any of this on today’s show, but somehow I know that everything will work out the way it is supposed to.
So I say for all of Glenn’s listeners who are Entrepreneurs and business owners that BizClickr.com is for you. It is a resource for you to communicate and advertise you business at NO COST. It is time for the Entrepreneur to help mend the injuries that have been done to our economy and country.
It is time to revive entrepreneurship in this country. All businesses will receive free advertising and customers will not have to pay for viewing the information. All they have to do is sign up.
The website is: www.bizclickr.com and the Facebook page for integration is www.facebook.com/bizclickr .
I truly believe that this is where my breadcrumbs have led me to and because of Glenn Beck’s “e4” Project and Entrepreneurship our country will begin to turn around and start heading in the right direction.
Fellow Entrepreneurs: It’s up to us.
