Although I have been marketing online (and offline) since 1999, Steemit is my first foray into any blockchain or cryptocurrency. Hat tip to michaelx for introducing me to this avenue to share and participate.
A little about me...
I'm 46 and live just north of Atlanta, GA. I have included my "official bio" below, but here's some stuff most people don't get to hear:
The Early Years
I grew up in a relatively poor household in South Carolina, and what I was determined to do more than anything else as a child was to be my own Santa Claus. To be able to enjoy things that improved my quality of life in an environment where there couldn't be taken away, because I had given the gifts to myself.
I always seemed to "think different" than anyone around me, so my folks really didn't have the tools to deal with me. Maybe you have experienced something similar.
I got in trouble in church for asking too many questions. And in school. And at home. So I dove deep into books to seek the answers for myself. There was no Internet back then. I got to be known as "the quiet kid" or "the shy kid".
I wasn't shy. And I was only quiet because I got shut down by so many people repeatedly who couldn't answer my questions.
Yep, there was some damage there, and I made up my mind to get out of that little town and start exploring the world (and finding REAL answers) as quickly as possible...
The Military
I had signed up in the US Air Force on the delayed enlistment program when I was 17, so when I turned 18 and graduated from high school I high-tailed it outta that little town en route to Basic Training at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas.
My MOS was 493x0, better known as Technical Control. That later became 3c2x0 a couple of years before my Honorable Discharge.
I got lucky in my assignments in that 90%+ of the folks in my career field were working on antiquated patch panel technology. My first base was Barksdale, and we were considered a "Model Base", which meant we got new technology 2-5 years before the rest of the Air Force even saw it.
That's where I learned computer networking and infrastructure design. I was a Cisco-certified engineer (CCNA then CCIE) and helped develop the plan to take the first military phone system from the old "spin cans" and patch panels into a digital telephone switch.
I developed training plans for my career field, and when I went to Korea for my short assignment I took those training plans with me, trained my new office, and helped install the first networking system on Osan Air Base.
From there, I wrapped up my decade of military service at Charleston AFB in South Carolina (where the picture below was taken).
The plans I made at 17 to get into a career path that would be innovative and cutting edge paid off, as I decided to separate from the Air Force, after 10 years of service, and move into leveraging my skills to start climbing the corporate ladder.
The Corporate Years
My first civilian job doubled my military pay immediately. Then within a year I doubled it again when I started working for Bank of America in the Network Performance division.
We were the people who kept the network running smooth. We had tools and probes deployed all across the country, and whenever there was a blip we figured out what caused it and deployed teams to fix it.
Eventually my team would be outsourced to EDS when BofA decided it wanted to focus on being a Bank, and wanted to get out of the business of managing a complete technology division.
By this time, I was the VP in charge of my global team. Our first client was BofA, since we all knew the infrastructure. We were threatened with being layed off, because EDS "already had a team who did what we did" but luckily I had a plan to help avoid that.
Long story short, my team became the team in charge because we, simply, were at minimum 5+ years ahead of where the EDS legacy team was. Our SOP's were better. Our technology was better. Our systems were better. By this time I already had my own business on the side, so I mapped out a plan to get EDS 300 new clients using our service and announced to my boss that at that point I would resign my position, appointing my right-hand as my successor.
It took just under 3 years for this to happen. I resigned my senior management position with EDS in August 2007. When my boss called me 2 weeks later to ask if I had changed my mind, I sent him this screenshot and he knew I would never be returning to corporate. (Although over the years they have tried multiple times to recruit me back.)
Now I want to be clear, this isn't to beat my chest - certainly I see several folks here doing better than this on a daily basis - but, can you imaging my boss seeing a Paypal screenshot 2 weeks after I leave my "well-paying senior corporate gig" of me making more in only 2 weeks than I made in a month with EDS?
He was beside himself and it was a hilarious conversation. If I recall he asked me for a job... LOL
Entrepreneur and Beyond
What I didn't mention earlier is I started my exploration into having my own online business in 1999, and as a newbie took the same route most new people take - via MLM and other direct selling companies.
So my treading new ground as an entrepreneur overlapped my corporate career for about 8 years.
My first big success came in 2001 when I heard Diane Sawyer talking about these little miniature radio control cars and how "if anyone can get a supply of these they would likely be the next beanie baby".
They didn't quite get that popular, but I did find a supply in China and I did become the largest distributor of those little rc cars on the east coast.
Long story short, I took 500 dollars of money I "borrowed" from my kid's Christmas fund and turned that into 5000 dollars within a day of my site going live. It just continued to grow from there. I couldn't keep up with demand so I created a "distributorship" to spread the love to some of my loyal customers who had expressed interest in selling the cars. Eventually I sold the business to one of my distributors.
Anyway, after the mini rc cars took off (I called them Mini Racers) I had several other large successes and, by the time I quit corporate in 2007, I was traveling the world speaking on stages in front of hundreds and thousands of people.
Sidenote: The cool part was by 2004 I could have easily walked away from my corporate career because my own income was easily meeting or exceeding the money I was being paid by EDS. But I had a goal to "reach 300 clients", I was having a blast doing both, and so I stuck with both.
2007-2010 were my first "Golden Years" monetarily, and I was absolutely living my childhood dream of being my own Santa Claus.
In 2008 I started playing bigger and began helping people grow their businesses faster through creating what I call Repeat Profit Systems, which included both online and offline components and as such I called the entire process "Hybrid Marketing".
And that's what I still do today. I create Repeat Profit Systems that continue to produce revenue on (almost) auto-pilot for years to come. I do this for myself and for private clients.
My "official" bio would go something like this:
Lee Collins is a direct marketer, copywriter, author, and an in-demand business strategist who believes in thinking differently to solve business challenges. An expert on leveraging systems and processes to enhance profits, Lee has held senior leadership positions in 3 major US corporations and his unique approach to problem solving has proven effective in 42 different industries.
Lee has built 4 successful businesses while helping his students, clients and strategic partners create just north of $300 Million in product sales across a wide variety of 40+ markets – from online infopreneurs to lawyers to deck builders to tattoo shops to Fortune 500 companies and everything in between.
Today Lee enjoys working with highly qualified clients help to grow their companies faster with Repeat Profit Systems, consulting with 7-figure+ businesses, helping expand the reach of 501(c)3 organizations, while also mentoring a select group of private coaching students.
When Lee isn’t busy growing companies, he enjoys his free time practicing martial arts, camping, writing, building cigar box guitars, playing Native American flute and pursuing spiritual studies.
Thank you for the opportunity to challenge myself to play even bigger, and for giving me the space to introduce myself. Please feel free to connect with me.
Lee Collins
http://lee-collins.com
http://facebook.com/leecollins
https://www.linkedin.com/in/leecollins1
PS: I am not an "Internet Marketer".