First of all, thank you MLSP! I’m extremely grateful and honored. I’m very proud to be a part of this amazing community which is like family to me now. MLSP and this community has been life changing for me and I can’t wait to see what the future has in store for me!
I remember the day when I logged into MLSP for the first time and the Member of The Month section caught my eye right away. It was Staci Hall, I read her story and could relate to so much of what she was saying. I told myself, I’m going to be The Member of The Month one day! I just never thought it would happen so fast…I’m still in shock!
To be completely honest, prior to joining MLSP I’ve had my fair share of success with online marketing doing affiliate stuff years ago. I thought I was going to jump right into network marketing and make a killing. Boy was I wrong and quickly realized how little I actually knew.
I was born with the entrepreneurial gene. As far back as I can remember, I was always getting into some type of business opportunity. Working 40+ hours a week and having a boss was just not for me. When I was in high school I was always fascinated with computers and the internet. I taught myself how to program computer applications by decompiling different programs and studying the code. Not long after found myself searching for ways to make money online.
It was around 1999 that I first came across online marketing. I took my knowledge of computer programming and would code programs that worked with AOL and collect screen names from chat rooms to build email lists as well as mass e-mailers to send out my offers. I did very well for a young high school kid and found myself trying to explain to my parents how I was producing these big checks I was receiving in the mail.
My mother at the time was working with a real estate company and I overheard a conversation she had with my aunt how the mortgage rates were the lowest they’ve ever been in 40 years. To this day, I still don’t know how the idea popped in my head but it did. I wanted to come up with a way to capitalize on what was going on in the marketplace. I jumped on the computer and started searching for big online mortgage companies.
I spent days doing this until I met a guy who liked my vision and what I wanted to do and he offered to pay me up to $75 dollars per lead. He gave me all the criteria and I started making websites with forms for people who wanted to refinance their mortgages. I reached out to a friend of mine who was also big into affiliate marketing and we came up with the idea to start a program where people could sign up as an affiliate and advertise our different websites and offer them $10-$25 per lead depending on the volume they produced.
We invested $980 to build the back office to track affiliate stats and connect our websites to software that would verify the leads and send them to the mortgage company in real time. After our first month we had 65 affiliates, generated hundreds of leads a day and grossed just over $50,000. We were absolutely crushing it and I was making more money than I knew what to do with it. As a young kid I wasn’t exactly responsible with the money I was earning to say the least.
It didn’t take long for the mortgage rates to shoot back up. Our numbers dropped significantly and we were losing affiliates left and right. We added other things for affiliates to promote but nothing was sticking. It wasn’t long after when things started to crash that I discovered my partner was making shady deals on the side. We parted ways and that was the end.
I was living in a new condo, I had a brand new car, credit cards were maxed out, most of my money was gone and bills were piling up. I was hooked on the fast life, fast cars, fast money and I needed to come up with a way to start paying for everything and FAST. That is when I made a decision that would change the course of my life forever.
Living in the city a lot of people I had grown up with were involved in selling drugs. Getting a 9 to 5 job was out of the question and I needed a way to make fast money so I could afford the expensive lifestyle I had gotten a taste of. I was on the verge of losing everything and that’s when I reached out to someone I knew that trusted me and we became partners. Just like that I was now a drug dealer. I told myself I would just make enough money to catch up on my bills and to get ahead. Needless to say, I didn’t stick to the plan.
In September 2001, my father passed away from kidney failure. It was the first time I had lost someone very close to me and I was completely lost. In the following two months I lost my grandfather and 2 of my best friends. I was an absolute mess. I started to isolate myself from everyone and didn’t want to talk to anyone. I started drinking a lot and self medicating to numb the feelings. I took the easy way out and buried my emotional issues instead of dealing with them. It didn’t take long before I came my best customer.
My substance abuse problem took control of my life and ran the show. I did a very good job at hiding it and making sure external things looked like nothing was wrong. Then the opiate boom hit Boston and everything changed. I was heavily involved with selling OxyContin which became my drug of choice.
My life became completely unmanageable. I had lost my house, my car, my dignity, self respect and hope. It felt like everything happened so fast and like I was living in hell on earth. It wasn’t long before I graduated from OxyContin pills to shooting heroin. Everyone knew what was going on because now things didn’t look to good on the outside. My family and friends were in shock and couldn’t believe where my life had gone. I was jobless, broke, homeless and now in trouble with the law.
Selling drugs was the only way I could afford to keep up with my habit. Eventually it all caught up with me and I was arrested for possession with intent to distribute a class A substance. Getting arrested was probably one of the best things that ever happened to me because it saved my life. Sitting in jail I had a long time to reflect and do some serious soul searching. I kept to myself, read books and took advantage of the counseling and programs the jail offered.
Upon my release I was sent to a halfway house for 6 months as one of the requirements of my probation. I did a lot of work on myself and started to addressing all of the things I kept buried for a long time. I knew in order to make an external change I needed to make an internal change first.
I got a full time job doing construction working 6-7 days a week and long hours. It was very humbling but I knew this wasn’t what I wanted to be doing. I also had a very big WHY now because my girlfriend and I had found out that we were having a baby girl! The stakes were a lot higher now and I wanted to be able to not only provide for my family but be with them as well. I didn’t want to do tough physical labor and come home exhausted everyday and not be able to spend time with my family. That’s when I had a friend introduce me to network marketing.
I was hooked! She was a top earner in the company she was with and primarily did offline methods of promoting. I had no clue what I was doing and what she was teaching me just didn’t work for me. I was not a huge fan of the home parties or hotel meetings and I ended up leaving that company after a few months and making no money. I knew there was a lot of money to be made in network marketing, I loved the business model and I knew there had to be a better way. That’s when I turned to the internet.
I joined a new company and I tried applying methods I used for affiliate marketing and I had a little success but far from the results I was promised by my upline. No one was sticking and I struggled to achieve the results I was looking for. I still had a lot limiting beliefs, lacked feelings of self worth and feared other people’s opinions but I wanted to make this work so bad!
I had reached out to a friend of mine I met on WealthyAffiliate and he told me about MyLeadSystemPRO and said that’s where I needed to go. I decided to check it out and I remember watching the presentation and reading every word on the MLSP website full of excitement and saying to myself…this is it!
I joined that night and it was the best decision I’ve ever made! I knew I was in the right place especially being a big believer of the Law of Attraction! I made a decision to stop selling myself short and acknowledged I do have greatness in me! I was ready to go work even if that meant doing uncomfortable things so I could give my girlfriend and daughter the best life I possibly can. My vision was much bigger and stronger than my fears.
That shift in thinking catapulted me into taking massive action. I started following the blueprint, watching the training videos, set up my account and went to work. I did every single webinar, I listened to every single morning wake up call, I wrote out my goals, I scheduled my on board coaching call and most importantly I got plugged into this amazing community of likeminded entrepreneurs. From day 1 I knew I found my home and I went hard and I didn’t stop!
I started reaching out to a lot of the leaders like Kay, Erin, Jelena, Michelle and connected with them because they all had what I wanted. I’m so grateful for all the leaders here, I’ve met so many awesome people in this community which truly is the heart and soul of MLSP! I’m forever grateful for MLSP because it not only gave me my confidence back and a way to provide for my family but it also gave me my life back!
As I’m writing this, I just ranked up to L3 in MLSP, I’ve ranked up 3 times in my primary company, I’m on the top of leaderboards, I’m coaching people and providing value, I’m earning a full time income working part time from Home and none of this would have been possibly without the guidance, training, tools and community here at MLSP! The exciting part is, I know I’m just getting started!
I still have a hard time comprehending where my life was and where I am now and I think it’s a true example of working hard, never giving up and believing! You need to have vision and believe in yourself.
I recently saw a quote from Ray Higdon that really stood out to me, he said, “You either succeed or you quit. It’s not failure. It’s just you either quit too soon or you succeed because you hung around”.
When it comes down to it, YOU have ultimate control of what happens in your life. Never give up and keep your WHY up front and it will smash through any fears you may have. It’s crazy how much your life can change in a short period of time if you’re willing to do the work. If you truly want to succeed it takes patience, persistence and consistency.
There is NO LIMIT to how successful you can be, you just need to make the decision and take action!
Bet on yourself!
From the bottom of my heart thanks you MLSP!
-Danny Reardon
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