I grew up in the Chicago suburbs until my parents split. Their split was ugly and hard for myself and my triplet brothers and sister (2 boys and a girl). My Mom remarried a few days after the divorce was finalized and we all moved to Wisconsin.
The area we moved to was 90 minutes from Chicago, so we didn’t go that far. It felt like a million miles away from home though. People were very different and it was a huge adjustment.
Once I hit my teenage years, I became enthralled with gangster rap music. This also got me to a point where I was enthralled with gangs. I began causing trouble with the local “wannabes” in our tiny town. Eventually, I realized how silly they were and began hanging out with the hardcore gangster crowd.
A few years later, I wasn’t just a gang member. I was a gang leader. This was also when I joined the Army Reserves (quite the combo).
I was the kid in High School that walked the mile run with a cigarette in my mouth, so running a few miles every other day tore my ankles apart. I kept rolling my ankles, but didn’t want to “whine”, so I kept running while in massive pain. Eventually, I fell over and had trouble getting up.
My drill sergeants knew I wasn’t a baby, so they sent me up to the doctor. X-rays showed nothing, so I started the long journey of proving that I was actually hurt.
Over time, it became obvious that I had a real problem. I couldn’t run more than 100 yards without having to stop. I was able to just barely qualify to leave basic training and go onto my job training.
When I got there, I tried to run and made it about 50 feet before I had to stop. After the initial screaming from my instructors, they realized I was seriously hurt. I started going to physical therapy while learning how to do my military job.
When graduation time came, I hadn’t passed a fitness test. If I couldn’t pass, I couldn’t go home.
It took an extra 9 days to get me an authorization to do a 2.5 mile walk instead of the 2 mile run. I passed the first time and celebrated my 21st birthday that night by going to the bowling alley and legally buying myself a beer. I had planned out my training to be home in time for my birthday, but had to celebrate it by myself in a military barracks after everyone else had already moved on.
When I finished training, I went home in immense pain. My Army unit refused to get me into a Doctor, so I refused to show up for my monthly drills. I found out a few years later that they had been waiting for my medical records which were still at a military hospital near where I went through my training.
One year later, I went back. I had originally signed up with the Army to serve my country and wanted to fulfill my obligation. By disappearing, I’d lost every single one of the benefits I’d gotten when signing up. No G.I. bill. No student loan repayment.
Shortly after I went back, I began suffering from even greater, generic pain. My doctors had no idea what was wrong with me. After years of testing, they finally figured out that I have Fibromyalgia.
My first born child arrived when I was 24 and I realized that it was time to let the gang crap go. I retired and sent all of my thug friends on to build real lives for themselves.
The Department of Veterans Affairs sent me to college to be rehabilitated, as my experience was in retail management and I couldn’t stand on my feet for 50+ hours per week.
I went back to school for Psychology. They gave us $1000 per month for my wife, myself and my 2 kids (1 more was on the way) to live on. I turned to my wife one day and said to her “Honey, we can’t live like this anymore. I’m going to look around on the internet to see if I can find something I can sell to make us some extra money”.
I started my business by opening an Ebay Store and went into a coma shortly after due to receiving the entire set of military vaccinations 3.5 times (that’s a LONG story). 10 days after the coma started my wife brought my (then) 6 month old son to see me. I remember opening my eyes and locking stares with my son. I awoke from my coma the next day.
I came home paralyzed, but had $1000 profit sitting in my Paypal account. That was the end of me working for anyone but myself. I love being home with my kids and being able to get up from my desk whenever I feel like it. The freedom that comes from working for yourself can’t be beaten by any job on earth.
When I got home, I dove into my internet business face first. I was still in a wheelchair and couldn’t do much, so all I did was stare at my computer screen while trying to figure out how to get as many sales as I could.
Since 2006, I’ve become a best selling author, released dozens of training programs, written sales letters that have produced millions of dollars in sales, and helped thousands of internet entrepreneurs get more customers from the web.
A few years ago, my wife of 13 years and I decided it would be best for everyone involved if we went our separate ways. Divorce was much harder than figuring out this internet stuff.
I looked in the mirror one day and realized that I didn’t recognize the man I saw. I was fat, complacent, and not even close to the man that I thought I was. Divorce gave me a reason to look inwards, micro analyze all of my faults, and want to be a better person.
Instead of stopping at “wanting“, I sat down and created a plan to fix the problems I’d allowed to take control of my life. I knew how to stop being fat. I understood how to be the father my kids deserved. I had everything I needed to be the person I thought I was, I simply wasn’t taking the actions required to make it happen.
Since then, I’ve lost 40 pounds, spend a lot more time with my family, and have made major positive changes to my personal life.
The single best thing you can do for yourself and those you love is to create plans of action and act upon those plans. Dreaming does nothing without action.
When it comes to internet business, I have a view of the internet similar to what happened when Neo first saw into the Matrix. I’ve spent thousands of hours seeking a deeper understanding of how the web works and why people do the things they do online.
My university training in the fields of Psychology and Marketing gave me enough to start on this journey, but no university on the planet can prepare you for what it takes when you have to market your own products and services online.
It took blood, sweat, and tears to sell my products over the years and thousands of hours of testing, practice, and failures to see what actually works. It took even longer to get what works actually working for me.
There are experts out there that are better than me at certain forms of driving traffic to a website, but there is no marketer on earth that has the level of knowledge and understanding of how to reach a majority of your audience the way I do.
Most importantly, I’m very good at showing you how to get it done.
No matter what hyped up sales copy may suggest, there is no “one way” of reaching your audience that will gain their attention. If it existed, either myself or my friends would have found it and would be using it exclusively.
I promise you that those of us that are really making the internet work for us are not relying on any single source of traffic in our businesses.
The secret is to build systems and have them work together to amplify the amount of people you reach, impact, and (in the end) transform into customers.
Yet, your systems can look completely different from most other internet entrepreneurs.
You need the help of someone that can help you envision, create, and build those systems. The ones that utilize your company’s strengths and get past the glaring weaknesses.
I’m the guy that can help you do that.
There are 3 things you must understand about me:
- I have legitimate experience when it comes to driving traffic because it’s what I do.
- I don’t do “fluff” or “filler”. All you can expect to hear from me is the truth.
- I am accessible and available to my clients and customers because I choose to be. I will always help you.
Test me out, you’ll see the results that most promise and few can honestly deliver. You can contact me by using the info on this page.
Kevin Barham
That’s an incredibly inspiring story Ross.
Thanks for sharing.
Henry Daniels
That is really a great story Ross especially to me, it is really inspiring a lot.
Les
Thank you for sharing, Ross. What an incredible story. Did you know in the bible scripture: Romans 8:28 it says: And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
God blessed you with through that ugly situation and you followed through on that blessing with your changed heart so you are now blessing your family and everyone else you touch. I am looking forward to learning from you.
God works in mysterious ways. All glory to God.
God bless you and your family,
Les
Andrew
Brilliant story Ross, thank you for sharing this with us. I think sometimes we all need to take a step back and take a real good look at ourselves before we can change and move one. I am really excited to find you and I hope that I can start to absorb some of your expertise as I am building a website and would very much like to turn it into a full time occupation. I’m pleased that you have achieved success within this business as it goes to show that it is possible. Sometimes when I’m working on my website I wonder if its all worth it and if I will eventually achieve the success that I aim for. Perhaps with your help I will.