Robert Plank Retires!
I mentioned this in passing in a couple of blog posts recently, but after meeting Joe Lavery in Orlando, he had no idea I'm now doing internet marketing full time, so here it is:
I Quit My Day Job on March 25, 2009!
I should have quit a year ago, or even sooner. The only things holding me back were: health insurance (my self-employed plan is now $125/month), money reserve (I have enough to last me a couple years), and pissing off the people who trained me (which was a stupid reason anyway).
March 26, 2009: Immediately after quitting my day job, I stepped on a plane to Dallas, Texas for AM 2.0 to meet Armand Morin, Ryan Deiss, Ray Edwards, Ryan Healy, and Mary Wilhite for the first time ever.
I was totally ready to tell Armand that I quit my day job so I could attend as Jeanette Cates's guest, but the only interaction we got to have was him yelling at me for pricing my stuff too low. At least I got to tell Ryan Deiss that fact, even though I'm not sure he knows who I am.
The next two weeks after returning included knocking out as many points as possible for Armand's AM 2.0 Platinum 100-point checklist, launching our most profitable webinar ever ($17,000 on the launch), and updating Action PopUp, WordPress Crusher, 47 Hour Report, creating Split Genie, and running a couple webinars with Ryan Healy and Derek Franklin.
April 17, 2009: Back on the road... flew out to Austin, Texas for Eric Louviere's MemberSnap seminar after super-programmer Henry Fuentes invited me. I brought my business partner Jason Fladlien along, especially because Marlon Sanders had been e-mailing us but liked him way better, so I figured the three of us could hang out.
We sat in the seminar a grand total of 25 minutes all weekend, and talked with Marlon most of the time. He taught me most of what I know now about "branding" (yuck) and positioning and basically made me paranoid about everything going on with internet marketing.
April 23, 2009: Mass Control 2.0! I only had a couple of days to stay at home before waking up early Thursday morning and heading south on California Highway 99 through Fresno, Bakersfield, Los Angeles, and finally to San Diego, California... six hour drive from Turlock.
I wasn't registered for the conference so I made sure to stay far, far away from that conference room. I chilled with Lance Tamashiro most of the weekend, and got to meet David Risley (who confused Frank Kern for Kid Rock), met Jason Moffatt for about ten seconds (who was busy macking on some chick), met Alex Jeffries (who I'd never heard of but he was a big hero of Lance's), Ryan Wade (ViralTweets), Joe Lavery (long time customer) and who could forget Dale Maxwell the colon cleanser.
April 29, 2009: Time to co-host my own workshop at the Impact 100 event in Orlando, Florida. Through a strange twist of fate I stayed at the same hotel I stayed at ten years ago when I was in high school for the Future Business Leaders of America. Jason Fladlien, Mary Wilhite and I hosted the "Niche Riches for Beginners" workshop.
Jason talked about the niche selection system, Mary presented on webinars, I dissected list building and traffic, Jason explained copywriting, I talked about product creation and basically got in everyone's face and made sure all 16 participants gave me their name, phone number, webinar topic, and time and date they were going to present that webinar. We presented from 9AM to 5PM (with breaks).
Joe Lavery was there again, so was Charlie Fry from the Video Sales Tactics class... he flew out from Philadelphia just to see us which I thought was cool. All theparticipants in that class were AWESOME... and the three of us had so much fun that we are hosting another workshop, the "Action Seminar" in Dallas, at the end of May:
Dallas Embassy Suites
4650 W Airport Fwy
Irving, TX 75062Friday, May 29, 2009 from 9AM-5PM (Workshop)
Saturday, May 30, 2009 (Networking Breakfast)
I'll have more info about that later including where you can register. It will only cost $97 to attend and we'll have Jeanette Cates (the Tech Tamer) and Marc Harty (PR Traffic) onboard as guest speakers.
That's what I've been up to for the past month and a half since I retired from my day job: four seminars in a month.
I heard once that if you quit your job, the LAST thing you should do is immediately sit in front of your television set... either get a new job or go on vacation, so I went on vacation.
But now for the more important question: how do I manage my time now that I don't have the day job to hold me down? How do I make sure I get enough accomplished, still have enough free time, and don't goof off with my newfound free time? I've already got that covered, and I'm ready to explain my day to day system to you for free, but I need something from you first:
- Ten comments under this blog post.
- Ten tweets about this post (Twitter icon is on the bottom of the post)
Once I those those two things from you guys, I'll spill the beans about exactly how I manage my time and how I maintain my business day to day. Thanks guys! Leave your comment below...
Filed in: Personal
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As always, interesting to follow your blog and see how you’re doing. You are doing a great job and I enjoy your products. The Blog Invasion system was AWESOME with you and Lance cooperating.
Keep up the good work. We look forward to your spilling the beans when your two requests have been fulfilled. 🙂
Congrats on quitting your day job. That was a bold move and will inspire many.
Even more impressive is that you succeeded in avoiding what many of the top marketers suffer right after they quit their day jobs: (temporary) loss of focus.
Giving four seminars in the month after you quit gives you momentum. Very cool.
I recently bought your Time Management On Crack course and it is AWESOME! Great information presented in a laid back style. I find the lack of polish refreshing.
Thanks to that course and Fast Food Copywriting I have made my very first video and have written a number of articles – and have sharpened my focus significantly.
My favorite part is the emphasis on getting the product to market as quickly as possible. Add polish later if that products sells.
Great stuff, Robert!
You are on the fastlane to the top!
Learning, teaching and most important DOING.
Always something new and interesting in your post.
Keep it going!
Alex
P.D. See you at Blog Invasion Webinar…
nice move. i am interested to see where things go from here – probably fewer product launches, but bigger, higher-priced products?
Ntz ntz ntz …
Robert, what have you done ?
You shoulnd’t have quit your day-job. Now you MUST become a multi-millionaire in next 12 monyhs or else …
Congrat’s Robert on your retirement.
I have 23 income streams which pay; daily, weekly and some monthly. Most are on 100% autopilot.
I have been semi-retired for almost 2-years (since age 38) but now with everything going on in the World I have decided to step it up and create some new income streams.
Thanks for all of your sales tools, they make my job so much easier.
J.R.
that’s cool you quit your job on my birthday: march 25th.
–Corey Lewis
easytechvideos.com
Hey Robert,
I’ve purchased many of your products, and I’m looking forward to see what you’ll do in the future.
I quit my job as well. I’ve been self-employed since February 1, 2008. That date was actually about three months later than I had planned, but I was able to get my employer to keep paying my benefits for the extra time if I worked part-time for the extra three months.
It was a good transition time, and I’ll never go back to being an employee.
For others who want to do the same, imitate Robert and take massive action! You want to fail fast so you can find out what works… what unique niche areas exist where you personally can provide massive value.
– Darrel Hawes
Hey Robert, interesting post and congrulations on quitting your day job. Never give up on your goal, I quit mines a while back too because of I.M.
Terrance Charles
http://www.twitter.com/TerranceCharles
Congrats on kicking the 9-5 habit. Good luck with your new life as a full-time IMer and wish you more success than you already have.
I was under the impression your day job WAS Internet Marketing and the other thing was just a hobby. 😉
Best regards,
Archie
Hi Robert, good for you that you have quit your day job. You are taking a risk , but I guess you waited to have something good going with I.M. befor you did it. Best of luck for the future. Hopefully, I will quit mine too!!
Jo
Hey Robert,
I agree you are selling your knowledge to cheap (except for when you sell it to me 🙂 ) but it great to see you out of the rat race so you can develop some more kick ass stuff!
Good for you, I quit my day job last September, and I still get excited with every sale still even the low price 7.99.
Hi Robert…
That’s great! I looking forward to quitting my day job in a year or so…hopefully before.
Best!
Dan
That’s Great Robert! Congratulation your retirement! Hope asap I’ll join you.. LOL
Semmy
Hey Robert,
Congrats on quitting your job! I got the sales page theme package a while back and LOVE it!
Great product.
Two questions for you-
1) Is there a fix for using the Action PopUp script with featured content gallery? (when I installed the action pop up the fcg stopped working).
2) Any plans on doing an event in the Bay Area?
Thanks for all the great info. & products.
Kim
Hi Robert,
I quit my job * (Just Over Broke!) same time as you did, totally liberating!
My question to you is this, with your skills and talent, why did you think you needed to have a *JOB* in the first place?
PHP on Crack! really said it all. I disagreed at the time, but really and honestly, you can teach an old dog new tricks !.
Thank You.
Congratulations on going “Full Time IM”!!
LD
Hi Robert,
I met you and Jason at the AM 2.0 meeting in Dallas. You were a legend then and say you are more of one now. Congratulations on pulling the trigger and making the leap of faith! I’m working on gathering up the courage to one day do that myself.
I’m loving the Action PopUp scripts and look forward to putting some more of your products and services to work.
Keep us posted on your success!
Chris
Hey Robert ,
I know that you only asked for 10 comments. However , I want to take this time and say congrats on your success.
You deserve it my friend.
Take care ,
Jason
Hey, Robert – I am glad I caught you in Orlando, FL after your “retirement” – I can’t wait to see what else you have in “store” for us!
Congratulations Robert… I guess this means you’ll be releasing two products per day now.
And while I have your attention… why the hell did you upload that video from Orlando???
Not cool bro.
Not cool.
Joe
Hah Joe, it’s a great video and it shows nerds can go to internet marketing events and still have fun at karaoke bars…
I should post that video as a separate blog post and get 50 tweets for it before I continue posting 🙂
You are one my favorite guru on PHP programming. You are the best.
Robert,
Sincerest congratulations on the retirement. I am sure that your time is spent doing anything but gardening!!
I wish you every success in the future and wish to emulate your achievements in the future myself.
Kevin