Our Story
Hi, We’re Greg and Fiona, Digital Entrepreneurs, Published Authors and The Laptop Lifestyle Experts
Thanks for finding out more about us. We look forward to serving you.
In 2009, we made the transformational decision to move away from the traditional life path our parents had anticipated for us – that is to go to school, get an education and a career for life, work hard, pay off the mortgage, and finally see the world in our retirement. There's MANY things broken with that plan – it only took us 25 years of dedicated corporate service, being chained to a desk, unfulfilled, dispassionate, and underappreciated, to finally draw that conclusion – we're slow learners lol.
The fact is… we wanted freedom and flexibility now. We didn't want to wait to retirement to start living life on our terms.
So, we started from scratch to re-skill, re-educate, and re-invent ourselves in all aspects of online business as there’s never been a better time in history for solo entrepreneurs to blossom in business. The internet is a relatively new phenomenon which offers an unprecedented opportunity to be your own boss – it’s open 24/7/365 and has no barrier to entry whatsoever.
After a ton of perseverance, self-belief, and consistent application of what we learned, we're now absolutely blessed to be Living A Laptop Lifestyle. That means, we work where we choose, and when we choose. Most importantly, we no longer exchange our time for money, so we have unlimited scale of our income, which was never possible as corporate professionals.
We're IN LOVE with our stress-free lifestyle.
And, we love it only took us roughly 18 months to engineer – but that was back in 2009 – so much has changed since, to make it even easier now.
Our blog here is to freely share fundamental tips, golden nuggets, and practical advice which works today, to implement right now.
Plus, we’re here to help transition your thinking from that of an Employee to that of an Entrepreneur.
If you understand the internet provides the perfect opportunity to work when you want and where you want, Click Here To Enter Your Best Email Address and we’ll send you the same multi-part video training series that got us started ????
The Big Question is:
How badly would you love to live a laptop lifestyle and enjoy the freedom and flexibility, but avoid the mistakes and pitfalls most people make starting out? Our mission is to help people achieve exactly that – when they invest time, effort and energy. It's one reason why we wrote our triple award-winning, best-selling, book: Living A Laptop Lifestyle.
A lot of newcomers we've coached, think they have issues around technical stuff, their age, or limited time. All that worry and fear is totally unnecessary. Because the reality is:
- technical stuff – being able to copy and paste, send an email, and search Google and Youtube for answers, are the base skills needed to get started. The skillset to learn is more about human psychology, why we buy, and how to add value to others.
- age – there's no age barrier to entry. What’s needed is a winning mindset, a willingness to learn, and a burning desire to succeed. People learn new skills all the time – this is simply another one of them.
- time – 10-15 hours a week is sufficient time. Really! So, no telly, listen to training on the go, get up and hour earlier – that sort of thing.
But First – a word of introduction…
Who are we? We’re expat Kiwi’s, with a home in Central London, but we travel the world for much of the year with our laptops, ‘working' wherever we have an internet connection.
We once were a Chartered Accountant and a Project Developer, earning significant six figure salaries, doing stressful jobs, sticking with the careers we’d studied long and hard for. We didn't even know what ‘entrepreneurial' meant let alone know how to think that way.
However, we'd become bored and unfulfilled with our careers – fed up of being controlled by our bosses – robotically going through our days/weeks/months – stupidly thinking we were tied to our careers purely because we'd invest so much time and money getting our degrees and qualifications – waiting for…
Longing for what?
Retirement?
So… then… we could follow our passion for travel?
We eventually figured that's completely bonkers? Isn't it?
What Drives You to Get Out of Bed each Morning?
For us… it's travel.
We get a big kick out of experiencing other cultures/languages/foods.
We crave pure adventure instead of lying on sun beds in resort hotels turning lobster pink in the hope of getting a holiday tan in a week.
At one point in time, we had stamps from all seven continents in our passports!
We’re not armchair tourists, so need to fund our passion for travel – which drove us to become successful referral marketers.
But we haven’t always been digital marketers, we've never EVER had any sales training, AND we started out later than most.
Our metamorphosis unfurled when we globe-trotted for three months back in 2009. We were in Bangkok, on the last night of a wonderful adventure through Canada, Japan, Borneo, New Zealand and Thailand. We stayed in a gorgeous hotel with a luxurious rooftop restaurant and were preparing to celebrate the end of our amazing trip before returning home to a significant salaried position in London…
… but then – the world, as we knew it, IMPLODED.
Fiona got a call from her employer. The news was BAD –> don’t turn up for work on Monday as we’ve had to make some budget cuts and we’re letting you go!
Pure Pain
That was a bombshell. Nine years of busting her ass, 60+ hour weeks, endless meetings, stroppy managers, under-appreciation, relentless stress, office politics, constant professional development, tiresome commute . . . ALL GONE in one phone call.
Redundant! Laid Off.
No warning. No thanks. No leaving party.
Tears flooded. Tissues mopped. Tantrums ensued.
It was gut-wrenching to be dispensed of like that, thrown out like the trash, without a second thought.
We felt . . . HOLLOW!
… in no mood to celebrate the last night of our fabulous three-month vacation.
As if to commiserate, the monsoons arrived that day – rain lashed down, and washed away life as we knew it. Gourmet rooftop dining, soaring above the twinkling Bangkok nightlife, was no longer an option.
To complicate matters, Greg had resigned from his job before travelling because he couldn't get the leave approved, but mostly because he was sick and tired of the corporate rat race – particularly:
- constant restructuring
- enforced reporting to over-rated consultants
- endlessly pointless meetings
- inhuman commute
- paltry bi-annual pay increases
Plus… it seemed the prime opportunity for a career break. Or a strategic re-think.
So we were both out of work together. F*ck! What do we do now? Sharp intake of breath… (gulp)!
Pause. Calm. Consider.
*** Should you ever find yourself in similar circumstances as us, our advice is: see the positive – seize the chance for change – get resourceful.
The next move…
We’d been married for 23 years then, and had explored much of the world together, so wondered if we could work together? But doing what? We didn’t have any skills outside of our careers!
Fiona wasn't about to become trapped in another stressful corporate cell, working her butt off, only to pad someone else’s wallet! That's lunacy. Right?
So, our Digital Marketing journey began – when we chose to re-educate, re-invent, and re-skill ourselves.
We trialled or invested in four different ventures/businesses (some simultaneously), with the following outcomes:
[1] We invested in our first business at a live ‘pitch-fest' type event. It involved building automated cookie cutter websites. In the live demonstration, the salesman created a website, and showed how it started making money immediately – right in front of our eyes. Unbelievable!
We signed up on the spot and followed the step-by-step instructions to the ‘T' over the following 4 months – and generated a measly $24 in revenue.
When we questioned whether the cookie-cutter websites actually worked, we were told we needed to buy more automated websites, because the more we had the more money we'd make! Yeah, Right.
The penny finally dropped! We hadn't considered the salesman was a crook and when he show-cased the product at the live event, he'd had an ‘assistant' at the back of the room buying his stuff – to ‘simulate' live sales!
We might've been tricked by a talented conman, but the reality was, we should've done our research before investing.
[2] Our second venture involved stocking and selling physical DVDs offline. We quickly learned it was a major hassle handling physical stock, and kept us geographically tied.
That experience helped us understand we wanted a business which placed emphasis on lifestyle first – and not the other way around.
We trialled that business for the wrong reasons – we jumped in too soon simply because we were becoming desperate to find any solution – not necessarily the perfect solution.
[3] Enterprise number 3 involved the low-skilled pass-time of clicking banner ads to build advertising profit shares. This transpired to be a ponzi scheme that, not surprisingly, went bust.
That experience taught us: if something seems too good to be true – it is! We also learned the power of paying by credit card, so you have the bank fraud claim scheme as a backstop.
Failure!
These three failures make us appear gullible – certainly naïve – but we’ve always taken calculated risks and have made many successful investments in things like forestry, windfarms, shares/stocks and forex.
Also, the experience was valuable as it helped us define exactly what features we did want from a business.
A tasty new recipe
Every cloud has a silver lining. Cliche – but true.
In November 2010, we were fortunate to meet a man who guided us through the mire of information in the world of digital marketing. He'd pioneered the proven online business model, using the simplest ethical marketing strategies, and founded the education platform, Six Figure Mentors, to teach people like us how to leverage it.
[4] This was the start of our fourth and current business…
It was like being pulled out of quick sand – the relief was instant as we made immediate progress. We learned the legitimate skill of how to market any digital product online, which changed our lives in ways we'd never ever imagined!
We'd finally found the Holy Grail: being able to earn a sustainable ‘passive' income from anywhere in the world, working smart, not hard.
Imagine the freedom of being able to live large wherever you go, and work whenever you want, when you have an internet connection.
That proven business model was transformational for us, has all the following features:
- The ability to work when you want, where you want and with who you want
- A highly-automated business, so it still works when you’re not
- Multiple income streams so if one dries up your business keeps flowing
- Realistic investment starting out, instead of hundreds of thousands required for a franchise
- The ability to run with low or no employees and low overheads compared to a traditional business
- Something enjoyable, fun and fulfilling that truly helps your customers
With this exact same business model, we've now coached and trained over 1,000 people 1-2-1 AND have clocked up well over 5,000 hours of experience teaching people like you exactly how to implement this proven business model.
Most people
Most people think they've got no experience, they're not technical, and haven’t run a business before? We didn't have any of those skills when we started and 99% of our students don't either, so this is something anyone can learn.
We had no idea how to do this stuff when we started, so yes – it does take some hard work and learning, but nothing worth having is ever free and easy.
So the recipe for success is very simple. Learn a business models that’s made money for others, then implement it until you create a sustainable income from it too.
But above all, take action instead of just learning about it.
FOCUS = Follow One Course Until Successful – is our motto!
FOCUS, a passion for travel, and a burning desire to succeed, led us to living a digital life.
In the third quarter of 2011, we wrote Living a Laptop Lifestyle, as we want to share the highs and lows of our online education and development. It was published in March 2012, and refreshed and updated in September 2016.
What does it take?
Being a successful digital marketer means being authentic, honest, and a wee bit vulnerable – as well as delivering massive value to customers.
Nothing tricky there.
We've been fortunate to win sales competitions (without ever having had any sales training), been privileged to have helped hundreds of others secure their financial future, and grateful to have opened people’s eyes to the fact they don't have to work in a 9-5 job for the rest of their lives.
We’re absolutely loving our journey and our freedom, and have met many wonderful, supportive, helpful people on the way.
To Recap:
All you need is a proven leverage oriented business model, a supportive community or mastermind group to hold you accountable, and consistent focus.
If you have a desire to master the skill of digital marketing, you can get started today way faster than you think, and way faster than it took us, even if you have no prior experience, and have never run a business before.
Alternatively, for those with an existing business, gaining an in-depth understanding of effective online marketing will safeguard future growth and profitability.
Mastering the skill of digital marketing, is like having insurance to protect yourself from financial instability, redundancy, and feeling stuck.
You’ll also have more time to do the things you love.
Because Your Lifestyle Matters
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