A Proud Daddy

I am lucky enough to be the father of the most beautiful girl on the planet. My number one priority above all else is to be the best Dad that I can possibly be to my daughter Cyan.

Suite Rules To Live By

• Ask Questions (Question Everything)
• Do What You Love, Not What You’re Told To Love
• Non-Conformity Is Critical (especially in today’s world)
• What You Contribute Is More Valuable Than What You Acquire

Entrepreneur

Ultimately, I’m an entrepreneur at heart. I thrive on creating small businesses from scratch (especially passive income projects), but I also have this odd habit of selling everything I build. You can read more about that in the section below (how I got here). It’s like building the foundation is the exciting part for me and then new ideas outshine the old ones (a.k.a. I get bored). I used to worry about it, but now I just embrace it while setting aside a couple projects that I’m just not allowed to sell! lol

Hmm…where do I start?

Besides my insane fascination with M&Ms and my mildly debilitating addiction to coffee (hmmm… wonder if that could be fueling the ADD?), I’m a pretty regular guy.

Well until the day my daughter was born, anyway. Once I was blessed with the most beautiful baby girl on earth, I did a complete 180 from “pretty regular” to “regularly astonished” by the amount of love and fierce fatherly instincts one tiny little person could squeeze from my mildly blackened heart (And I say that with the utmost respect for black hearts everywhere).

First, let me tell you a bit more about my background. I started out with young and idealistic dreams of being a rock star. I even went so far as to drop out of high school (with one semester left lol) to play in a band and sing rock songs to the masses. Unfortunately it appears “being a rock star” is a bright idea pursued by many, and I soon realized that little scenario wasn’t going to pan out as well as I’d hoped.

So.

Me being me, I decided to wing it. I bought a computer with zero knowledge or experience in how to use it, and in 1997 started buying and selling collectibles on Ebay. Fortunately, Ebay wasn’t nearly as competitive as trying to be a rock star, and by 1999 I was running a full time business that was bringing in a nice chunk of change (well, a lot nicer than my previous job, working the streets of Toronto as a bicycle courier in minus 40 weather).

By that time I’d come to the conclusion I really needed a website of my own if I was going to “go pro”. So again- me being me, I decided to wing it and learn how to build one myself. That turned out to be a pretty good move, despite the recurring HTML nightmare I now suffer from, and quickly morphed into a brisk website design business.

Web design led me down a merry little path to mayhem by introducing me to the adult industry and the money to be made in the adult industry. (Hey I did say my heart was mildly blackened.) Obviously doing design work for an adult entertainment company instead of the local hardware store is much more lucrative, so… I couldn’t exactly turn it down!

But as I did design work for them, I was still living with the spirit of a true entrepreneur; constantly learning and evolving as time went on. The more I learned, the more I realized that instead of making a one-off paycheck by creating these adult sites for others, I could simply begin to create my own affiliate network of sites and promote adult memberships myself.

So from 2003-2007 that’s exactly what I did.

Then along came 2007 and my “re-awakening” to all that is pure and good, with the birth of my beautiful little girl, Cyan. Since I really didn’t want to lock her out of my home office, and my ADD nature found me already bored with the adult industry, I cashed out and sold my whole network.

Daddy was going mainstream.

I decided to take a hiatus and learn a thing or two about mainstream marketing from a “newbie” stand point… even though I wasn’t technically “new” to the game. There are of course some major differences, but luckily a few similarities too that served me well in my quest to go “legit”.

I decided some action was in order.

I started buying up small sites for sale to build a new mainstream network, but happened onto a website marketplace. I realized I could sell these sites I was buying up for a lot more than what I paid for them, and decided to follow my gut and go for it. While it wasn’t quite the direction I’d planned on, I’m nothing if not adaptable.

I listed one site I paid $300 for and ended up flipping it for $2400. Sweet. I was hooked. In a short time, I had sales under my belt that ranged from several hundred bucks to 5 figures and thought to myself “hmm…maybe website flipping is a viable business”.

I started out flipping small sites, and soon built a business around website flipping, mostly with new blogs, IM products, etc that I could churn out fairly quickly, but with very high profit margins.

That endeavour then turned into leveraging the sites I was flipping for even more money, by diving into the PLR business. Pretty much the same process, except now I was selling PLR licenses for a site instead of selling exclusive rights to one buyer. I’m a fan of working smarter rather than harder, so it worked for me.

Of course I dabbled in building the infamous set and forget niche sites that stomped their less-SEO’d competition into the ground to create a passive income. But like I said, I get bored easily so I usually ended up flipping them too (mental reminder – don’t sell all your sites Jay).

Call it the entrepreneur’s flipper’s curse!

Fast forward to today, and I’m still pretty immersed in creating niche sites and passive income products. It’s sorta like my “home”. Only now, I consistently remind myself not to sell them (that damn flipper’s curse still haunts me!)

I still have ups and downs like everyone, but I’m living a life I love and I’m privileged enough to earn a living doing while doing it, and every second that passes is a second I get to watch my beautiful baby girl blossom and grow, which keeps me motivated to excel.

Admittedly she’s growing at a rate faster than I’m entirely comfortable with but… what can you do? Time marches on.

In the mean time, life is good, and I’d like to share what I know, what I do, and what I continue to learn with you so we can prosper and live the Suite life together.

Scroll back to the top and add me to your social profiles, I’d love to share biz tips with ya! :)

Cheers

J.