Our Story

Hi! My name is Richard Burns and this is My Story

August 31st, 2012 my life, and the life of my incredible, brilliant, patient and loving wife and best friend Patty Burns, changed forever.

But let me start from the beginning and paint a picture for you:

My Situation

Here is my situation as of the day before Valentines Day 2012. I will let Patty tell you exactly how she felt at this time in a later article.

Richard and Patty at Ocean Beach April 2011

For more than 2 decades I was a successful consultant and marketing director and published author in the Home Improvement industry in southern California. Even though I often worked 80 hour weeks, I loved what I did because I helped small contractors go from working out of their pickup or their garage to making $1 million in sales in a year or less and a few contractors to making $1 million per month.

In 2008 I found myself in a bad situation because of something completely outside of my control, the housing market crashed.

In the home improvement industry, homeowners use the equity in their homes to do work on them to improve them. Painting, Stucco, Windows, Roofing, Kitchen and Bathroom Remodeling, and Solar are all home improvements my clients provided. When home prices crashed, very few people had equity in their homes and no one was doing home improvements. All of my clients suffered and some went from a million dollars per month in sales to a million a year or less. It devastated the entire industry and left hundreds of thousands out of work.

In the words of Spencer Johnson, someone had “moved my cheese.”  I was frustrated and ready for a change for the better.

As a result of the stress of losing everything I had worked for for more than 20 years, my health suffered.

So here is out situation as of Valentine’s Day 2012:

• I was 50 years old
• I was 100 lbs overweight. In the photo above in April 2011, I tipped the scales at nearly 290 lbs That photo was taken 8 months after Patty was diagnosed with diabetes in August of 2010.  We had been on diet since August were determined to lose weight. While both of us had lost about 10 lbs, it obviously wasn’t working very well. I couldn’t even walk up a single flight of stairs to our apartment without being out of breath.
• We were living in a 2 bedroom apartment
• We were driving a 6 year old Hyundai and we had just one car in the family.
• For the 1st time in our 10 years of marriage, Patty had to work full time to supplement our income and we were barely making ends meet.
• I couldn’t even afford to buy my wife a Valentine’s Day present.
• I had hit rock bottom and was fed up with the life I was living. I had had enough!

 

That Day I Decided

#1 – I am going to find products that can help my wife and I get our health and ideal weight back.

#2 – I am going to earn enough money to not only pay for those products, but find a way I can live the way I want to live & provide the lifestyle for my wife that she deserves. I was determined to create residual cash flow that would give us the money to do the things we wanted to do (travel, sporting events, time with family and friends) while having the time freedom to do them when WE wanted, not being at the mercy of getting time off from a job or even harder still, taking time away from a business we started.

All of you small business owners out there will understand what I am talking about. You are indispensable/irreplaceable and your business owns you and your time, instead of freeing you to do the things you want.

 

What Happened Then

It’s strange how once you put your intention out there that the universe or God or your higher power, whatever you want to call it, puts what you want and need directly in front of you.

In less than 30 days I met people that represented 4 different companies with products that promised to help us regain our health and ideal weight and make extra income. And I was not even out looking for them. All I had done to that point was sit on my couch surfing the internet looking for a magical cure for being fat and broke.

Even when presented with the products and opportunity I didn’t take advantage of it immediately. I had to do my research. (I wonder how many opportunities pass us by as we make sure all the I’s are dotted and the T’s crossed?)

Well, I spent nearly 9 months researching the products, the industry and the business plans of each. I tried 3 of the 4 products for 3 months each. One got me sick within 2 days so I stopped taking it.

 

The 3 Things That I Found on My Search That Are Necessary for Success

#1 – A proven product with a history of helping people be healthier
Products that are made to a higher standard than most nutritional supplements and that are endorsed by top level athletes, nutritionists and Doctors.

Products that have a compelling story behind them. Stories sell. As Zig Ziglar said “The greatest person that ever lived taught using stories.”

#2 – A company that was at least 5 years old
What I found is that 30% of franchises make it past 5 years, 20% of all businesses make it past 5 years, but less than 2% direct sales and party plan companies make it past 5 years. No start up companies for me.

#3 – A company big enough to have all the growing pains out of the way, but not so big that sales had already plateaued
That meant finding a company big enough to have the infrastructure to be global and to handle double digit growth comfortably. The sweet spot seems to be between $500 – $1 billion per year in sales volume.

 

 

So What Company and Products Did We Finally Choose to Use?

Give us a call at 619-277-6495 and we can talk about what we chose and if its a fit for you.

Or visit Work With Us on this website for more information

Come join us on our adventure!