10,000 Commission Emails Leads to Death Threats

Not only were there several other gurus on this yacht party, my mentor was there. And I remember being so inspired and I said, I'm going to do everything that I can to master and learn this industry because I want to be where the movers and shakers are. One day, you know, I wake up and I'm looking at my inbox and I'm seeing all these Cha Ching emails. And then I see something that shook me to my core. Hi, my name is Vince Reed.

Hey, what's going on? Vince Reed here. And welcome back to the dm. In the last episode, I dove into some really cool stuff. I talked about the very first commission I made online. I even dove into some of the shady practices of this MLM company that I was a part of way back in the day. So make sure you go back and you check out that episode and also be sure to check out the recap episodes where we have a lot of fun. I get to answer your questions. A lot of times you're probably like, I wish you would have dove deeper into like a specific topic or something that I'm talking about. Well, if you comment below, you never know. On those recap episodes, I sometimes dive into those questions and I share some of the things that I may have forgot to mention in the episode. And with that being said, let's get started.

So one day I wake up, I click on the link in my inbox and there's an email and it says yacht party. And I'm like, what is this all about? So I click on it, it takes me to this video, and I proceed to see every single guru on the Internet, all of the movers and shakers, the people that are making money. And I'm like, man, how cool would it be to be able to hang out with the best marketers in the world and have fun and get to know them? And this was the time when I was really diving in deep to all of my mentors work. And you know, it's weird online because you can have a mentor that you've never met in person, but you feel like you know them because you're watching so much of their content and you're just inspired by their work. So I couldn't wait till the day where I could meet this person. And not only were there several other gurus on this yacht party, my mentor was there and I remember being so inspired and I said, I'm going to do everything that I can to master and learn this industry because. Because I want to be where the movers and Shakers are, I want to be inspired and I want to be inspiring others. And that's just what I set out to do. So I remember I got up, I was watching that video, I was so hyped and I went and I rewatched all the marketing training videos and I just went to work and I made a commitment at that very moment that I was going to just step it up even another notch than I already was at that particular time. You know, at that point I was really transitioning out of working for these companies, these MLM companies, and, you know, doing all this stuff for other people. I was starting to come up with these ideas of some of the other things that I could start to do for myself in terms of products and services that I could control, that I could earn commissions on. But I knew that I had to do something different to start to get the attention of some of these other marketers out there. And that's just what I started to do. That's what I did. So I stepped back and I said to myself, what is the one thing that I could do to get the attention of my mentor? You know, I was like, how could I get on these parties? And I did some research and I realized that the people that were at this particular party had been the top affiliates for some other type of product launch. So, you know, at that time, I was an affiliate for my mentor's system. Now, this system that he had allowed you to create lead capture pages where you can capture leads that had all the training in it, like I mentioned before. But you could also offer this particular tool or product to others and earn commissions very similar to how I earned a commission when I sold that AWeber software, when I earned my first commission. So I said, okay, that's my plan. That's how I'm going to get on the radar. I'm going to literally become the top affiliate for this system. Now when you would log into this system, there was this leaderboard, and the leaderboard listed all of the top sellers for this particular product. And I was nowhere to be seen on this leaderboard. So I remember I set a goal for myself. I said, I, I have to figure out a way to at least place in the leaderboard and that way I could get the attention of my mentor and who knows, maybe I could meet him one day. So I started to implement all of the strategies that I used in that MLM company. And I started to target, essentially buying keywords and I would target people that were out there looking to market and promote their Business. And I would share with them this amazing software which allowed me to build capture pages. And obviously inside there was training as well. These trainings were teaching me all of the skill sets that I was learning to run ads. So I said, what better thing to offer? This was great. So I don't know if you've ever heard the story of the California gold rush. Essentially, the people that made all of the money were the people selling the picks and the shovels and all of the tools to the miners. And that's literally what this tool was. So I went out there and I started to find all of the people that were marketing online, that were promoting different opportunities out there. And I decided to promote this affiliate program. And I literally dominated. I went and I got a list of every single company, every single network marketing company, every single direct sales company, every single affiliate product out there. And I created an individual page. I created an individual ad for each one of those keywords. And I would set up a Google keyword ad to that specific company. So you would see an ad that would say, company A top secrets. And it would say, before you get started with company A, watch this video. That would be the ad. So then I would be on a video and the video would literally say, hey, if you're thinking about getting started with company A, here's a way to not talk to friends and family. Here's a way to generate your own leads. And my strategy that I would always do was walk people back in terms of the process that they just went through, right? So those individuals were searching for company A and company A being the name of that company. And then they would see an ad that spoke to company A. The page spoke to company A. The video spoke to company A. Now I want you to imagine this process for thousands of companies and thousands of keywords. I was literally going crazy. I was like, no one's going to outwork me. I'm going to do this for every single one. And I just dominated. I was generating leads for literally like 20 cents. My list grew and people started joining this system like clockwork. So as I started to hit the leaderboards, I started to wake up to these Cha Ching emails. And it was pretty cool. But everything changed because one day I not only woke up to Cha Ching emails from people joining the system, I woke up to a personal email from the goat, from my mentor, from the person that essentially I would watch these videos of him teaching me marketing strategies and lead generation strategies. The man, the myth legend himself emailed me and basically told me that he was proud of all the work that I was doing and that he was about to launch another product and he wanted me to be a part of it and he wanted me to come to his next event that he was having. And it was just crazy. Immediately I was this nobody, and now I was literally in the radar of my online marketing mentor. So after this happened, something became extremely clear to me. It became clear that I believe anyone can connect with anybody, and it doesn't even matter if you have money or not. You know, there are two ways to get close to anyone, I believe, in the world, and especially if they are a high performer. A person that you know is of influence, a person that's making a lot of money, they essentially want to make more money, right? So time is the most valuable thing to them. So if you can make them money, you don't even have to have money. You can get on their radar. That's how I got on the radar of my mentor. Now, another way to get on their radar is to buy your way in. So you could invest in one on one coaching or a mastermind. And I've seen people connect that way. But I will tell you, you know, as I've been able to grow in my online marketing career, there is a different level of respect for the individuals that earn their way in, but by producing and making money for their mentor. So when people essentially have bought my products and services and make a video revealing the results of what they got by utilizing my strategies, I have to admit, when I see that I have a different level of respect for those individuals versus the ones that just call me, like, hey, Vince, how much for the day? So that is proof that there's two ways in. You can buy your way in or you can produce your way in.

So now it's time to meet the mentor, the goat, the guy that's inspired me, the guy responsible for you even watching this video right now. So he's having this event, it's called the Unstoppable Millionaire. And he's like, I want you to come. And, you know, I'm making some money. So I'm pretty excited. So I buy a VIP ticket because I realized that if I get the VIP ticket, I get to go to some extra meetings and meet all of the other gurus at this one event. So I'm really, really excited about it. There's like this private dinner and it's like VIP like, meetup type of thing going on, and I wanted to be a part of it because I couldn't get that Yacht party out of my head. And I said, maybe this is going to be another one of those type of things, right? So I go to this event and I'm blown away. Like, I'm blown away at the amount of people in the room. I mean, there had to be at least a thousand people. And to me, a thousand people in one place that traveled from all around the world. And it probably was more than that, but it was just a packed house and it was crazy. Now, what was interesting about this event was I was expecting it to be really a marketing event, but it turned out to be more of a personal development event. And a lot of it was really working on, you know, what goes on in between your ears, which prevent a lot of people from getting where they want to be. You know, even starting this particular show. You know, you start from zero, and who knows where we'll be. A lot of people often see the end result of certain things, and they're not willing to withstand all of the growing pains of certain things. So that event, as great as it was, I'm actually glad it wasn't just about marketing because it really got my mindset on point because I was one of those guys where I was like, just teach me what I need to know. What do I need to do to make more money? And whenever I would hear personal development or mindset, I would kind of roll my eyes and. And be like, that's a bunch of rah rah stuff. But trust me, when things hit the fan and you're struggling and you need that extra push and an extra go, you need to be mentally tough. That being the personal development are the things that get you to that next step. So the event was great. Met a lot of, you know, the people that I would see online. But everything changed when I went to this VIP party. So I go into this VIP party and what was crazy about it was they were all of it was all the top affiliates from this system that I was promoting, where I was on the top of the leaderboard, and I was always on the top every single month. So people kind of knew who I was. And it was the first time people would come up to me and they'd be like, oh, you're Vince. They didn't really recognize the face very much because the people buying the product from the videos that I was creating kind of knew me. But the people that would see the leaderboard, the other marketers, they just would see my name. So when I would say my name, they would be like, oh, you're that Guy. And then it was starting to, like, you know, put a face with the name. And that felt really good because all of the work, although all of the late nights, falling asleep, you know, literally head on computer, waking up to, you know, more videos, it let me know that all of that stuff was worth it. And I remember there was this guy that was like, leaning up against the wall. He really wasn't talking to a lot of people. And, you know, I'm kind of the same way at events. I'm pretty much introverted, which is weird. A lot of the high producers that I know are also introverts, but in certain settings they can be, you know, pretty much a lot more outgoing. So when I saw him over leaning up against the wall, I was like, okay, that might be someone I need to go chat with, because he's a lot like me. So I walked over and we immediately hit it off and we start talking and he starts sharing with me some of the products and services that he's about to launch. And he's gonna launch this crazy system, and he thinks it could do millions and millions of dollars. And I'm like, oh, awesome, you know, that sounds cool. Send me some information. And he does. And we continue to keep in touch, you know, after the event. But little do I know that this guy would soon become someone that was a huge inspiration in my life and really is responsible for a lot of the results I have to this day. So when I left this event, I remember going home and I had a few things on my mind. Number one, I remember thinking how a lot of times people will try to protect you out of their own insecurities and fears. Because when I was going to the event, I remember telling some people that I knew, and they, like, were like, oh, you're going to one of those things. They're going to try to sell you some stuff, and it's a scam and this and that. And they did try to sell you some stuff, which they should, because those things are there to make you better. But I think people that do that end up hurting a lot of people and preventing people from having moments like I had. And those are moments of inspiration, moments of clarity. And the clarity that I had was the fact that I needed my own product. You know, when I was promoting, you know, the MLM company, you know, I escaped disaster. They did their deal, and who knows if I would have kept going down that path, you know, I could have been caught up in all of that. And I had seen some success selling affiliate products from my Very first commission to obviously selling my mentor's system. That was great, but I'm only getting a percentage of a percentage. And. And then when I'm in that VIP party and I see, you know, another top producer talking about a system and, you know, something that he's creating his own product and how he feels it's going to make millions of dollars, I'm like, I got to go create my own product. And I remember thinking to myself, man, I want to teach people what I'm learning. I feel like what I'm learning is a skill set that can pay me for the rest of my life. I knew at that moment, as long as there were businesses in the world, there was always going to be a need for lead generation and marketing. I believed that I was developing and mastering a skill set that was going to pay me forever. And so far in my life that's held up to be true. So I was like, okay, what can I call it and what will this product be and how am I going to create it? Back then, there weren't all these tools that there are today where you can create products and you can create software and do all these things like you can today. Back then it was extremely difficult. So I remember I went on Google and I did some research to try to find someone to help me create my own system, like the system that my mentor was essentially, you know, selling and what I was, you know, offering as a top affiliate. But I wanted to be a little bit different. I took some of the ideas from that social network that pays you, and then I talked about from that MLM company. I was like, what if I could have this kind of social network that pays you? Also like to have some Internet marketing training in there and kind of combine some of all those things that I liked into one. And I came up with this crazy name that stood for Internet Share. And the name of the company was netdivi, right, the Internet. And Divi. Divvy Up Share is how I came up with the name. So I came up with this product called netdivi. It was this social kind of community with digital marketing training. And it was a disaster. It was a disaster. So I found some developers to help me. It took way too long. It was extremely buggy. I had no idea of how to create, you know, structure and a process and a funnel. You know, one of the things that was great about, you know, my mentor's funnel and why he made so much money was it was a $49 a month system in terms of, you know, all of the training that I was getting, I was only paying, you know, 50 bucks a month. But there was like one on one coaching that you could purchase. There was a group mastermind, there was all these other things that I couldn't afford, so I never purchased them. I just really was just focused on the training and I would promote that and I didn't really buy the other stuff, so I wasn't aware of them. So when I created my company, NetDivvy, I had training and it took off like crazy. They had a free trial and then you could get to like the paid level which was like 27 bucks or 50 bucks a month. And what was crazy about it was immediately we got like 10,000 users. The problem was most of them were free users, right? So they were joining another free account. And I had a lot of training, as much training as I was getting in my mentor system, in fact more that people could get for free. So everyone got it for free and very few people were upgrading to the next level. And I didn't have any back end. So even though I had this awesome community that loved me and I kept seeing these Cha Ching emails because the way the system would work is I would get a Cha Ching email even when people would join for free. And I didn't have the knowledge or the skill set to understand, process it and understand a funnel and back in to actually make it profitable. If I would have known what I know today, those 10,000 real customers that had to put a credit card in to even get their free account, I could have easily had different upsells and offered other stuff and probably made millions of millions of dollars a lot faster. But it was a learning lesson and hopefully by you hearing that story, you have your process in place and understand that you have to have a backend when it comes to systems. So, you know, netdivi was great. I was able to, you know, start making some money, bring in a lot of people, but I wasn't making a lot of money from the system at all. I think we, at one point, I think the highest we had was like 150 paying users, but they would be in and out. I think they quickly realized that they could just get as much information for free versus the paid account. So that was a great learning lesson.

So I'm making money, but not a lot of it, you know, enough to, you know, have some nice things, but not enough to really scale. Right. I'm not anywhere near to making millions and millions of dollars at this point quite yet. And the thing that was keeping me going was the amount of feedback that I was getting from the community, the amount of people that were getting results, the amount of testimonials of people that were learning these strategies and going out there and building businesses. And, you know, that still, to this day, is worth more than any amount of money that anybody could pay me. Seeing people get real results. And I was just so, you know, inspired and, you know, so alive. I would go on these walks like I still do each and every morning, and I would take these deep breaths. I would look up into the sky, and I would just feel so grateful that I had all these people learning from me. And it was cool. And one day, you know, I wake up and I'm looking at my inbox, and I'm seeing all these cha ching emails, and then I see something that shook me to my core. And I just. I'm like, what the heck is this? And it's this email, and it's, you know, a person that's using netdivi. He's a free member, and he proceeds to threaten my life. He proceeds to make several videos that are extremely disturbing. And I remember being shook. It was so bad that, you know, this one individual had me contemplating shutting the whole thing down because he was that crazy. He began to stalk me on, you know, videos that I release on YouTube. He began to stalk me on every single email that I would send out to the list. He would reply back with these crazy, disturbing messages. And he took me to this place where I remember early on in my career when I made, like, some early YouTube videos, and when I was doing those webinars for that MLM company, you know, there were so many people on those webinars, you know, you only. You don't know what you don't know. And in my mind, I was, you know, sharing with a lot of people, and a lot of people were starting to know me. So I made this video on YouTube where I kind of referenced to, like, all the people that know me. And this guy goes, nobody knows you. You don't have any subscribers. Like, he just starts, like, trolling me before trolling was even a thing on this video. And I almost quit digital marketing right there. Like, I had no experience with negative feedback. I was trying to give value in that video. And this guy, like, literally starts trolling. This guy not only is a member of my community, he's threatening my life and trolling everywhere, and I'm trying to help him. And I remember thinking to myself, man, I don't know about this. And Then I talked to another person who was doing really well online, and he said, you know what? You should be happy someone's doing that. I'm like, what? How should I be happy that someone's threatening my life? He's like, number one, if people aren't trolling you, if people aren't being negative, if people aren't doing this type of stuff, then that means that you aren't trying hard enough to reach a market. He said, you know, that's part of life. Unfortunately, the greatest people in the world sometimes get persecuted, get trolled, get attacked. It's the way that it is. He said, what that tells me is that you're actually doing something. And I remember thinking to myself, man, how can I get more people to actually do that? And I remember to start to push the envelope a little bit further, I started to push a little bit harder. And now when I don't get anybody doing something bad, I think to myself, man, I need to go a little bit harder. And that's just a simple mindset tweak that you can have and understand that you cannot allow anybody to stop your progress. You can't allow anybody to stop you from getting to your goals. It's all about making it happen. It's all about having confidence and understanding that there are people out there that have problems. And as long as you have the solutions, it's your moral obligation to share it with them.

So after the death threats, things were a little crazy, but I kept going. I kept pushing. And then I got a call from the guy that I met in the VIP party. He calls me up and he shares with me some information that changed my life.

I hope you enjoyed that episode. It's been a lot of fun creating them. The feedback has been absolutely amazing. Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss the next one. And until then, I'll see you on the Internet later, Sam.