1K Post: AMA Time

mont7071

mont7071

WF Premium Member
Feb 10, 2009
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Portland, OR USA
Well, it took 6+ years, but I finally got there, Post #1000. In honor of that, an AMA. Unlike some of you chatty bastards, I try to only post on WF when I have something to actually say, but for the next little while, I'll make an exception. Ask Me Anything, if it's within my knowledge (and doesn't give away any business partner's secrets) I'll do my best to answer it.

From owning Health and Beauty offers for the past 14 years, to being an affiliate, to transitioning to owning part of a Network, to running a lawfirm, to merchant processing, my interests run wide. I've made all sorts of mistakes, but I've also made a bit of money in this industry too, so now's your chance to get me to reveal all my sekretz, without paying that sky-high hourly lawyer rate.

Fire away...
 
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Out of everyone you've met inside of these cold, dark, digital mines who do you respect the most and why?
 
Do you invest? If so, stock market, small start ups, or both? If small start ups, how successful has it been for you, and what do you look for in potential investments?

EDIT: No, I'm not looking for an investment.
 
Pheasant said:
Out of everyone you've met inside of these cold, dark, digital mines who do you respect the most and why?
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Oooohh, tough one right out of the gate. I could name 20 people on WF right off the bat that I respect a lot, for a wide variety of reasons, but I'd feel like an ass for not naming the #21 guy on the list.

JV biz partners come to mind, since I never go into business with someone I dont trust to watch my back, so with that in mind Deliguy, Blokblok, aaronklaw, and Grindstone all are definitely on the list due to business relationships. Outside of direct biz partners, I have a lot of respect for people around here that are technically my competitors. Some of my closest confidants around this industry are the guys chasing the same prize. We drink together, we complain about the same problems, and chase the same profits. Anyone that has done business with me, or even "against" me as a friendly competitor, has been a benefit in my life in this industry.
 
eliquid said:
r8, jag, or merc?
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hmmm.. I dont own a Jag, that's Eli ;)

I like the R8 for pure windy-road driving (best suspension), and the drop-top Mercedes for when the sun is out. The Aston Martin is just not tame enough to be a daily driver, so its mostly just a "good weather weekend" drive.
 
How do you structure your day? Obviously you surround yourself with great talent, but I would imagine you still have quite a full plate both on the business and personal/family side.
 
Kiopa_Matt said:
Do you invest? If so, stock market, small start ups, or both? If small start ups, how successful has it been for you, and what do you look for in potential investments?

EDIT: No, I'm not looking for an investment.
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Yes, a lot actually. My background is Finance, and the majority of my net-worth is deployed in the market at any given time. Not much investment in startups/private equity currently , but what I do look for is smaller companies early in their growth cycle that I can add some sort of "benefit" to besides just cash. If I can add expertise or connections in addition to cash, for a long-term equity position, that's what I usually look for. 9/10 times, I pass on deals, but I'm always on the lookout.

On the stock market side, I trade what I know, mostly tech and oil, a lot of ETFs, and some options plays, though nothing too exotic, I'm more of a short-term call option kind of guy. My returns are better than average, but most of my money is professionally managed, and I just manage about 20% of my investment portfolio through a plain-vanilla trading account.
 
What are your thoughts on the future of social (Pinterest, FB, Twitter, etc.) in terms of leveraging them for marketing purposes?

With mobile becoming more and more prevalent in the scene, will we see the major players shift towards mobile marketing and other ad standards starting to be abandoned?
 
mx=headroom said:
How do you structure your day? Obviously you surround yourself with great talent, but I would imagine you still have quite a full plate both on the business and personal/family side.
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It's a constant battle. I use Evernote + GTD (think I actually got that recommendation on WF once upon a time) to try to manage my tasks as best as possible, but I'm still pretty scattered across a lot of different projects at any one time.

I spend a couple hours in the morning at my home office putting out fires and working with my Indian employees, then I head into one of my 2 offices (Law & Innerweb) after rush-hour traffic has cleared out. I'll usually put in a solid 8-10 hours every day at my office, before heading home for the evening, at which point I mostly just deal with email on mobile. I don't have kids or pets, and I don't watch TV, so there isn't too much pulling me away from work that has to be done. I'm kinda ADD, so I get involved in a lot of differing biz projects, so my schedule never really "clears up", I just add more work as i finish one project. I will retire from that life earlier than most, so it doesn't bother me to work like that now, so I can relax later in life.
 
KennyPowers said:
What parts of a lawfirm did you run? and How'd you get into that?
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I started my first "Internet" business when I was in law school actually. It took off pretty quick, so when I graduated from lawschool/MBA I already had some seed money, so I realized maybe I should try doing this full-time rather than going out and getting the standard 9-5 corporate job.

I was pretty successful in my first year of doing IM full-time after I graduated, but I also had the education and biz experience that made me decide to "found" a lawfirm on the side. I found guys I trusted, invested the money, and ran the business side of it, and it's been a great experience. The bulk of my income doesn't come from the practice of law, and sometimes it's a bit of a distraction from doing things that would be more profitable uses of my time, but I wouldn't trade it for anything, it's a company I'm proud of that does a lot of really good work. We just celebrated the 10-year anniversary, something most law firms never get to.
 
I recently started my own health supplement after being an affiliate for some time.

I'm curious, based on your experience with owning health & beauty offers, where did you find the most success in terms of advertising platforms?
 
Once upon a time, a very long time ago you gave me some advice that I still remember till this day. I didn't always use it, but I still remember it and try to fall back on it when things pop up. I have nothing to ask, but I want do thank you for that piece of wisdom, I never thanked you for it. In the end you were right.​
 
CCarter said:
Once upon a time, a very long time ago you gave me some advice that I still remember till this day. I didn't always use it, but I still remember it and try to fall back on it when things pop up. I have nothing to ask, but I want do thank you for that piece of wisdom, I never thanked you for it. In the end you were right.​
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Vaguebook is that way --------->

In all seriousness though, thank you as well for all you have provided to this community.
 
Do you plan to retire(by this I mean work less than 20 hrs a week regularly) with in the next few years? If the answer is no is that because you'd like to still save up more money or because you simply love the game to much and don't know what else you'd want to do with your time?

I noticed you said 14 years in health/beauty niche, wow! So you started in IM out of college in 2001? What was your biggest traffic source that year? I don't even know of any besides Yahoo/AOL.
 
Is is true that Blokblok is indeed one of them there homosexuals?

Okay no seriously...

I've known you for four years and we've done a pretty significant amount of business over the past few years. You've indirectly taught me an unbelievable amount about this industry and I'd consider you to be one of the guys I both respect and look up to in this industry. Okay, enough sucking your cock...

As someone who is finally getting into the advertiser side in a fairly obscure skin niche, what would you say is the single biggest obstacle a new advertise will face: processing, scaling, FTC bullshit?
 
Kiopa_Matt said:
What was the most challenging hurdle you've ever had to jump in your life?
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hmm., probably a toss-up between A) No real technical background, and B) No real "mentor" in the early days.

I grew up in a really small farming town, when I went to college I had never even used email. I learned enough about computers in college to get by, but it wasn't something that was a big interest of mine. Eventually I ended up working for HP to put myself through school, so I was good at "regular people" computer stuff, but I've never learned to code, don't know any graphic design, etc. Even today, I rely on employees or vendors for all but the simplest technical stuff. I can crop a photo and FTP into a website to copy/paste a line of HTML, anything past that i"m still pretty reliant on others to do the dirty work.

The lack of a mentor is a double-edged sword, it was probably as much a benefit as a liability. I did a whole lot of shit the hard way, because I never had anyone to say "hey dummy, there's a better way to do that". I never got to cut corners because I had to figure out everything on my own, but I probably also missed some scaling opportunities because I relied on sheer effort more than being able to skip some of the mistakes I made early on. Even now, as busy as I am, I usually try to help people out if I can give them some knowledge that will let them skip by some of the grunt work that wastes a lot of time or ultimately isn't productive.
 
mont7071 said:
B) No real "mentor" in the early days.
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Aye, this is probably one of my biggest regrets in life. Well, there's a couple that come before it, but this is one of them.

Back when I was 20 / 21, almost any multi-millionaire would have loved to have me as their apprentice. Successful, solid & legit business, bringing in great cash, etc. But nope, I never took the initiative to source a mentor. Huge regret on my end, but shit happens, life goes on.

Anyway, awesome of you to do the AMA! Can't wait to see what else comes up.
 
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