My Background

In 2010 I discovered a wonderful world of online marketing. Like many off us I had tried some MLMs. I joined Amway back in the '80s and was a member of Melaleuca for several years. I was not a person that enjoyed recruiting family and friends into dubious endeavors.

I was laid off and looking for something I really enjoyed. I have tried many things in the past. My passion when I graduated high school was to become a vet. My grades weren't good enough to get into vet school but I did find an animal husbandry program that provided me with a great education about birds. My advisor was bonkers about birds. While there I even was able to learn falconry. We trained a pair of Red Tailed Hawks to hunt from our hands. The premise was to get this pair to breed in captivity something that we were unable to achieve with Red Tails but were able to get to happen with Sparrow Hawks (American Kestrel).

I transferred to another school and learned about Ocean Engineering, then finally settled back home and completed an Electrical Engineering degree. Not my first choice but in my travels I realized that automation was an up and coming field. My heart wasn't in it though.

Fast forward through 2 kids and many dogs, I found myself a skilled trainer and finally started to work with a seeing eye raising group. (Like Guiding Eyes for the Blind). Within a few months I was promoted to Puppy Boot Camp. The pups that needed extra attention came to my house for remedial work.

Now that you know my background why the heck would I join WA.

As an automation engineer, we had projects. Our timeline was set not by the work that needed to be done but by the promises made by the sales department. There was never enough time allotted to get the work done on a regular 40 hour workweek. Engineers were salaried so it doesn't cost the company any more to have us work 50,60,70 hours to get the job done. Work life balance doesn't exist for most of the people in this field. Burn out is common. I reached that point.

WA is a way to redirect my talents, decrease stress and still make enough to get by.

What Has WA done for me

When I started, I had never created a site. WordPress was still in it's infancy.

My first site was for the main trainer where I ended up training dogs on a volunteer basis. The original site was unusable and built in html. I converted it to WordPress. Not a small task for a newbie.

With each site that I have put together, I learned a bit more. Eventually I was confident enough to work for paying clients. I have done several sites now for others. For some, I'm on a maintenance retainer and now need to do very little to keep them up to date and adjust the sites as they need. I'm the go to guy.

Through the training here at WA I am now in business for myself.

I have some affiliate sites and often my clients allow me to add my affiliate links to their sites.

I have learned to write for the web and have an idea about how Copywriting works.

I never will stop learning.

As an addendum to my website work, I have picked up a camera again. Way back in the '70s I was taking some great photos and developing them (remember film?) Now, with a fine lense and the information scraped from my early years, I'm putting the images to work for my clients. Having fun in the process and using a part of my brain that had been asleep for 20 years.

Overall these last 6 years with WA have been an amazing journey. I will continue to grow with this community.

I couldn't have done this

Without WA I would have been lost in a sea of scams and partial truth. Having a place where you can go and know that the information is legitimate is a huge benefit. There is so much trash on the internet that sorting the good from the bad takes years.

Kyle, Carson and Jay have been hugely helpful with everything I do.

I couldn't have gotten as far as I have without their help.

Kudos WA