Awesome To Meet You Here – I’m Davin Montrose
Have you ever wanted to TAKE BACK control of YOUR OWN life, and build
the future of your dreams, instead of doing it for someone else?
Turning over a leaf in 2024 – I realized I needed to re-invent my story, life, and outcome once again. (Many ‘yikes moments’, WTF’s over and over, and all that shit haunted me – but it was time for Mega-HUGE change my friend…
It was time to WAKE THIS DUDE UP and GET IN ACTION again!)
You see, for the last 3 or 4 years … I’ve had a series of back issues and other health related stuff come to light. The back issues (Degenerative Spine Disease), along with 3 necessary hernia surgeries – often left me un-able to sit at my Laptop to get sh*t done. To say it damn near broke my spirit would be putting it lightly.
BUT BUT– I’m happy to say 2024 is here, and for the most part … the bad crap seems to be behind me. Knock on wood … Yay!
So let’s get moving 🙂
My story with this whole Digital Age – Online Entrepreneurship thing is somewhat unique… no question about that.
Though… I’ve always been happy providing my Email Copy/Sequences, Pre-Sell/Salespage Copy, and Website Creation/Automation services for clients the last 11 years as a Freelancer, in the beginning things were a little different for me.
I’ve got a total of 17 years of skin in this game now, having started back in 2007. My earlier years included … building my own 30K+ email subscriber base, being an Affiliate Manager/JV Co-ordinator for several top names, and much more.
A lot has changed through the years, as you’ll learn more about below.
Mistakes made? Yep!
Learn something through it all? Hell yeah!
There was just something I absolutely NEEDED to get back to. It’s been a lingering feeling, and NOW is THE TIME.
Read on…
Cool enough though. It’s because of all this past experience that I’ll be able to help YOU, saving you crap loads of pain, anguish, and ferocious self-torture. Fact is, I’m totally looking forward to it. 🙂
Wow, where to start? Perhaps the best way would be…
The Back To College At 32 Story
After having spent the first 14 years of my adult life playing drums in bands as a full time road musician, I mustered up the courage to go back to College.
At 32 years of age, it was a tough decision but I knew I needed something better for the future. Long story short, I was sick and tired of always being away from my loved ones and living out of a suitcase (city to city – town to town, the next club or Hotel – yeah, all that stuff is true. The so-called life, right?).
I will admit it’s quite exciting when you’re in your early 20’s, but it starts to wear on a person after a while. Especially when all you truly want to do is go home – that type of life can become quite lonely actually.
Sure enough, I pulled the college thingy off though. I walked away from it with IT Certifications for A+ (Computer Technician), and the Microsoft Certified Professional titles of MCSA, MCSE, & MCDBA.
Working For ‘The Man’ After College?
At first after college, I began working with a few of the local computer shops as a Technician, and in time this eventually led to contract network administration work.
We were taking care of several Canadian bank chains computer networks throughout the East and West Kootenays in BC, Canada. We’d get work for the Royal Banks of Canada, Scotiabank, CIBC etc., and in time we were also handling the POS systems for places like Wal-mart and Shoppers Drug Mart.
Guess what else came with this type of work though? As you might have guessed – Yeppers, sure enough… travel, hotels, and being away from home again.
So after all of that longing to get off of the road which got my butt back to college in the first place, I more-less found myself in the exact same situation… only worse. I didn’t care for type of work I was doing, and it’s like we were being treated like pieces of meat by these bigger corporate companies we’d be hired by. Nope, it wasn’t my cup of tea at all.
Hell, at least playing drums professionally in bands had a few more perks! (Shhh, I’ll never tell… hahahaha)
Enter 2007 – The Journey Into Online Marketing
In early 2007, I’d stumbled across a young woman named Holly Mann who was making some pretty great money with online marketing. She’d been experiencing several 10k months, and the whole idea really peaked my interest.
At the time, she had an extremely popular book called Honest Riches. I decided to make the purchase and it’s then when I’d caught this whole online marketing bug. Within my first 18 months or so, I had also built my own 30,000+ email subscriber base, and was doing pretty damn good too.
Crazy enough, I also became Holly’s administrator of her forum, and in time we’d even become business partners for a few projects too. The friendship that Holly and I cultivated back in those days, opened up some good doors for both of us. I’m very grateful for the experience to this day.
It helped me to be noticed by several “big time” online marketers (both from that era & presently) – Todd Gross, Paul Lynch, Tim Brockelhurst, Rob Toth (Dan Kennedy’s Affiliate Manager), Tahir Shah, Mark Acutt, Alex Jeffreys, Charles Kirkland, Kevin Riley, and a few more.
I was asked to be a featured expert in a product called The Future Of Info Marketing released by Glazer-Kennedy (Dan Kennedy’s main training company) – SIDENOTE: (as Davin Ogden – Yes, I use a Pen type of Name now (Davin Montrose) – Could it be it’s my middle name? … hahahaha. That’s the musician in me I guess).
Crap, I was even sub-contracted out to Russell Brunson to book his Ad-Swaps a time or two as well (via Paul Lynch).
In a nutshell – some of them hired me to work on their teams behind the scenes.
However, as great as all this seemed back then… I should have seen the danger coming.
Danger Zone – The Nosedive Back Into Employee Mindset
As with most things there’s Pros and Cons, and this was no different.
While I was flattered and excited to be working with a few of the more prominent names in the online marketing space from those days, it came with some perks and a few drawbacks too. I figured I’d learn a lot from a couple of them, and sure enough I did. I had the “tech-savvy” know how for putting together some fairly sophisticated automation systems for these guys (due to my computer experience in the past – I picked up that kind of stuff quite quickly) … and it’s what I did for several of them.
However, my time was eaten up so much, that eventually my own business I’d built for myself dwindled away into oblivion until it was too late to save it. 🙁
Shit man, before you know it I was right back to where I’d started from. I was a glorified employee relying on them for my paycheck. Isn’t that the way of it though sometimes… ya know?
Yikes – back to square one!
Well not quite. I have been providing client services through all of these years, but what I’m talking about is…
The 30K+ email list? Gone – crickets, it stood neglected for so long. It had been a few years actually, and it simply couldn’t be revived.
The Blog & Social Media followers? Again dried up, the same – crickets. It became painfully obvious that I might as well start from complete scratch again.
On the positive here my friend. That’s exactly why were here. Yay…!
PLUS – If there is one thing I’ve learned inside and out, it’s that I know how to build and implement effective life changing Kick-Ass semi-automated systems, which YOU will learn about right here. Be prepared and get dialed in. 🙂
The Triggers, The Climb, & The Re-Invention Period
So what triggered this need and/or passion to build my own brand and Affiliate Marketing Home-biz up again from the ground floor, and from complete scratch again?
Well, apart from the health issues – there were two quite traumatic episodes that happened which totally started to change the trajectory of my thinking.
I wanted to accomplish FAR MORE with this life that each of us have here. We only live on this planet once, right?
Not to get morbid on you here, but it was the deaths of two very close people to me that had a profound impact on me.
The first one is the passing of my Father. After having conquered 3 separate bouts of cancer, sadly a little while back, his 4th and final bout finally took him from us.
My Father was a retired RCMP Officer and one of the kindest and most amazing people I’ve ever known. Sure he had his quirks just like any of us do, but he had so many great qualities about him, there is no question I was very lucky that I had him as my Dad. His belief and encouragement in others for going after what they wanted was truly inspiring.
After he passed, it really set me to thinking about how I wanted to achieve more with life, and to take better care of my Mother in the coming years. There’s a lot more to this story, but perhaps I’ll save that for another time.
I’ll never know why cancer decided to pick on him so much, but in the end it was brain cancer that he finally succumbed to. I loved him so much, and I’ll always be immensely grateful for him.
The second was the passing of one of my closest friend’s, Tim. He had been renting a separate building on our property from us. We call it “The Studio” and he lived there for 3 years. Our friendship goes far back, and I’d known him since I was 19.
Each morning I would go out there to check on him, and unfortunately, I was the person who found him ‘deceased’ –
face planted into the floor. I still see him laying there each time I go into the place he lived.
On the positive… this whole experience lit a fire under my butt to get the absolute most that we can out of this life. It made me want to become the best version of myself while I still have time (hopefully many years), and to help others (YOU) to do the same.
It reminded me of a scene from one of my favorite movies “The Shawshank Redemption”. I’ve included the excerpt in the video below for you.
It’s hard to say how an experience like finding one of your best friends dead will effect you, until it happens to you first-hand.
However, I’ve decided to use it as a wake up call and to turn the whole experience into a positive. Sound cool? I’m hoping you’ll join me on this adventure and journey as each of us strives for more, and look forward to knowing you better!
I wish to bring YOU value, and to inspire you and other “peeps” so that you too no longer need to be “shackled” down by the typical 9 to 5, shift work, long commutes, or be dependent on a so-called boss who is calling most of the “shots” in your life.
It’s About ‘Freedom’ and … It’s Time To Claim Yours HERE!
Thank-you very much for visiting me here, and I hope to have you as a loyal reader. It’s great to meet you my New Friend.
Oh, and please remember. If you feel you might like to begin building a “laptop lifestyle” biz of your own, please FEEL FREE to reach out at any time. I’m here for you. We’d love to help out, and get you started too!
“Always Rooting For The UnderDog…”
**Davin Montrose** – ‘Uncle Dav’