Bram and Melanie Smith

Hi,

My name is Bram Smith. I'm an 8-year veteran of Internet marketing and I love the lifestyle the Internet has afforded me, specifically - working from home and spending time with my family.

But how I got to where I am today might surprise you.

The pathway that led me to my current position in life has been full of interesting twists and turns, and my future hasn't always been clear.

As a kid growing up in Plano, Texas, my dream was to be a pilot, either military or commercial. I made good grades in school, but I never really enjoyed it because I didn't understand how what I was learning was going to help me in what I wanted to do.

I took part in many team sports, but excelled in sports and activities where I could push myself to do a little better each time, and where I could measure my success in definite terms.

I believed that what I wanted to do was just inevitably going to happen, simply because I wanted it to happen. As you probably know, things don't always go as you forsee them, and sometimes life requires a change in plans.

My dream of attending the Air Force Academy to become a pilot were shattered by non-perfect eye sight, and my family was not wealthy. We didn't have the money to send me to a $40,000 per year commercial pilot school.

Instead, I decided to attend Texas A&M University on multiple scholarships (I'm an Aggie, like Ryan), and I majored in Aerospace Engineering, the most "closely related" degree to the career and life I actually wanted.

It didn't take me long to realize that engineering was not really "my thing", but through various money making endeavors I started while in school, I realized that really enjoyed marketing and creating businesses that could provide income.

I set out to learn as much as I could on the subject by studying successful people and companies, reading bios's of ultra-wealthy people throughout history, and took a particular interest in companies that created their wealth by doing things differently than everyone else.

I studied people who were visionairies... and I kept my eye on people who seemed to be the visionaires of today. In short, earning money became one of my interests and passions.

As a Sophomore in college, I took a part-time position with an advertising agency that specialized in national radio ad campaigns, and I quickly rose through the ranks of the company, helping our primary client grow their market from just a handful of stores to over 125 locations nationwide.

Within two years, I was named CEO of the agency, and shortly thereafter I decided to "take a break" from college.

That break never quite ended.

Along with three other "twenty-something" students working with me, I was responsible for handling over a million dollars a month in radio advertising, and it was at the agency that I also met the woman who is now my wife, Melanie.

The "don't mix business with your personal life" rule got thrown out the window as soon as I saw her for her first interview, and our relationship played a big part in me wanting to do something with my life that didn't require me to be at a job at any particular time of the day.

It cemented my desire to create "time freedom".

With the growth in popularity of the world wide web, Internet advertising and marketing quickly became a focus of the agency, and in my spare time, I took notice of online "affiliate programs", which were a very new concept at the time.

Back then, there wasn't much competition, and methods of promotion that are today considered big "no-no's", such as bulk email, were perfectly acceptable.

And they worked well, because not many people had discovered that there was a lot of money to be made on the Internet.

It didn't take long for my income from my spare time promotional activities to surpass my income from the agency, and with the untimely death of the agency's owner, I was soon "forced" into home business.

Working from a small two-bedroom apartment (one of those being my office), and armed only with the late Cory Rudl's online marketing course, I had my first six-figure year online through a combination of my own membership web site and by selling related back-end products.

As my personal life progressed and I decided to start a family, I began focusing on ways to make money that didn't require a lot of personal one-on-one selling or sitting in front of my computer all day long.

Continuity type income (such as from monthly subscription sites) and viral marketing became my forte, because I learned that spending my time doing things now that earn me money for a long time to come allowed me to spend more time with my friends and the love of my life.

Recurring, continuity type income also meant that what I was earning would be "predictable", just as if I were getting a weekly paycheck from a "normal" job, so that's what I focused on - eventually promoting some network marketing opportunities in addition to my own businesses.

In early 2005, a Sophomore Texas A&M student named Ryan Wade saw a testimonial I had written for a company I was promoting online. He immediately contacted me and expressed an interest in learning how I was making almost 5-figures per month online.

We met and had lunch, and we tossed ideas back and forth. Even though Ryan was a Construction Science major, it was easy for me to see that his real interest was in marketing -- and that he had some GENIUS creativity.

What he was lacking in technical and Internet marketing knowledge and experience), I had. What I was lacking in "outside-the-box" thinking and organizational skills, he had.

We started working together on ideas and the partnership quickly became very profitable. Through it, we've been able to touch the lives of many people by helping them start or bring their business online.

Over the last couple years, we've realized that our true passion is for helping others reach the level of success they desire and that the network marketing industry offers us the greatest opportunity to do that.

We have also developed a keen sense for finding people who are ready to step out of their "comfort zone" and pursue something truly great, even if it means "unlearning" at lot of what they've been taught.

I recently purchased a home on Canyon Lake, just north of San Antonio, Texas, where I continue to work from a home office or from the rear bench seat of a deck boat my 3-year old son, Jonah, is steering around the lake on any given weekday (with the help of Mom, of course).

We avoid the busy weekends and have instead decided to "play" while most people are at their jobs. You're more likely to catch me online at midnight than you are at 10 in the morning.

Ryan and I decided to launch MentorMeetings.com as a resource to help others that we introduce to our business and also make it available to the people that join THEM in business.

We understand that the only way we can reach the level of income we desire from Genewize is to attract and develop leaders who are ready to take the next step in creating an amazing lifestyle.

It is our goal and intention, to help you find your passion and unwavering drive for success, and to show you how to act on those things so the lifestyle you want for yourself becomes your reality.

I hope you consider MentorMeetings and our GeneMember "sister site" as places to get inspiration, motivation, direction and ideas that will help you create the life you want.

Regardless of your place in life now and how far off it might be from where you want to be, please understand that situations can change FAST when you are open to change and are willing to act.

Consider Ryan and I as part of your "core" mastermind group. We're investing time, energy and money into your dreams, because seeing you reach them is part of ours.

Sincerely,

Bram Smith