So the time has come for the IM Remarkable competition to conclude. It's been a fun ride and I'd like to take this opportunity to personally thank Howie Schwartz for organizing this event!
It's people like Howie that truly get my admiration. Yeah, sure, it's his business and this is how he makes his money, but it's the leaders that emerge from us all that truly take the spotlight. Every one of us is a leader... we just let it emerge when it is required. Howie is no exception. The right man at the right time!
This event has been a very important one for me in many ways, and I'll do my best to get it out in this note. Despite the fact that I juggled multiple niche projects and never really followed the expected format of the event / challenge, I did follow the real life aspect of it for myself and how it fits into my own world. It will be hard to compare my journey with others because of my past experiences dabbling in online marketing, as well as the different route I choose to take, involving launching businesses instead of dominating a niche topic using Mass Control techniques.
Now, time to get serious a bit with my back story and how it ties into my quest online. You see, I come from a very poverty oriented background, living in a welfare oriented province in Canada called Newfoundland. It is a place that developed on it's fishing industry so basically the main resource and export of the province was fish. That was until the fishery died / was abused, and things got rocky here.
Jobs were hard to come by (I'm talking 16 years ago now mind you) so I knew I had to be different. I initially began really working in the landscaping industry and that financed me into college where I majored in computer science / programming.
It was a tough ride but I knew computers were the future and stuck to my guns. I graduated knowing I had a full time position waiting for me with a multi-billion dollar a year corporation in Ottawa, Canada @ Newbridge / Alcatel Networks (who build networking mainframes, internet backbone, etc) with a very handsome salary.
I had over 100 personal clients from around the world, maintained the quality and statistical datamart for the manufacturing floor's data (in which million dollar decisions were made), programmed software and applications, and was riding the gravy train in stock options.
However, a difficult time was approaching, and everything I knew around me was about to collapse. My youngest of two sister's had committed suicide close to the 911 timeframe and my entire life descended into a black nightmare. She was a light worker who had helped 1000s of people, and at the time, was doing her university dissertation on Rape Crisis at Oisie University in Toronto, Canada. My family fell apart.
I was the closest with my sister so it tore deep into me yet I was the one who had to be the strongest for my family. The youngest but only son. My parents aged 20 years over night.
It was only a 3 week break I got from work to mourn, attending and giving spontaneous eulogies at 2 funerals (one in Toronto and one in Newfoundland for my parents), then going back to Ottawa to work again only to require another week for just myself. I never cried so hard in all my life.
I lasted about 1 more year in corporate life.... no longer caring about the structure and demands anymore. I was very familiar with the emerging .com world and was already studying from great marketers like Marlon Sanders, Corey Rudl, Armand Morin, et al.
I spent all of my savings and lay off package backpacking South East Asia and starting two of my own companies. One is Spinning Blue Planet, which is still powerful. The other was a film production company... my true passion. Spinning Blue Planet became my stage to the world to make a difference and at the time I launched it's first product, The Groove, which altered the perceptions of several thousand people! Joe Vitale was contacted to help me promote it but that was when his wife died and he also went into mourning, thus I was faced with the task of trying to get my word out to the world in any way I could. I resorted to self publishing and direct marketing.
However, during this time frame I was scammed out of $5000 by a consulting firm called "Professional Marketing Group" who assured me many things but scammed many people out of millions of dollars and kept changing their company name to hide from us and the law. I had also racked up much credit card debt in ebusiness marketing materials and courses, software costs, travel, and going through independent film production hell at the wrong time with the wrong people. A film project that grew too big too fast for what I could afford.
$26,000 later in debt across 3 credit cards, I lost everything to avoid going bankrupt. Bye-bye home, girlfriend, and stability in many ways. Because my ebusiness and film production companies relied heavily on credit cards, both businesses fell flat and I went offline for a year. The Groove would forever be the great revolutionary book that rose fast then dissappeared, only to be somewhat mutilated 2 years later by a movie called "The Secret", which still was only 1/10 of The Groove.
Another stab in the heart but it didn't stop me. For 4 years I worked on how to build an ebusiness without the need for credit cards (back then you needed them badly, not like today!) and l'o and behold, things started to come back together. Blogs and social media were becoming the in thing, and I had philosophized about that years before.
I was in and out of "jobs" for a few years, and never fitting into them, but was always a great employee. My heart was never into anything else but delivering my messages to the world, via art and philosophies, so in and out of working from home I would keep going.... scraping by each month in debt payments and trying to live... buy food.... pay rent. I lost my car and have been riding around on a bus now for over a year. I also had to give my two cats away, crashed several computers losing so much data it gives me shivers each time I recall such nightmares.
Today, things look very promising for me, with several businesses growing (still not profitable, but it is all coming together slowly but surely). I have been interviewed on radio programs, have screenplays in production, made over 120 paintings, many of which had sold, always consulting and coaching clients in many industries, and working on dozens of projects.
Very soon I will have a great success with one of them which will finally make me financially independent away from relying on other people. BTW... I am doing all of this while back living with my parents again. They like having me around and their support has kept me from living off of the streets! The community is slow and not too supportive but it is peaceful here.
I thank people like Howie Schwartz because he understands the under dog, but also because he is a leader, motivator, and someone who knows the power of the internet for helping us all.
I have been doing this IM Remarkable challenge now for years.... competing with my circumstances..... so you better believe not much will change after this event.
Thanks again, Sir Howie.... it has been an honor getting to know you exist over the past couple of weeks. I thank you for reminding me this stuff is fun, rewarding, and there are people out there who actually care about others while making their cash. :)
Bravo!
My love and blessings to everyone reading this. Shine on!
Chris Darroch Biggs
http://www.twitter.com/chrisdbiggs
http://www.spinning-blue-planet.com
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