Mike Dooley didn't know what he was going to do. He quit his job at Price Waterhouse. He left the company, his security, and his home. He went to Orlando and sat there, lost, confused, waiting for direction. None came.
Meanwhile, his brother was making some money from royalties on a few t-shirts he had designed. So Mike, his brother, and later their mother, went into the T-shirt business. They called their business TUT, for Totally Unique T-shirts. Everyone from Disney to Macy's bought and sold them. Within ten years they sold more than one million shirts. Life was good.
As the market began to change, and major buyers began to make their own T-shirts, the family decided to stop business. The artistic brother began a career as an actor and improv comic. The enterprising mother, who had already written two books, began a full-time career as a writer. Mike decided to buy out the family business --- which by that time had come to be known as "Totally Unique Thoughts" --- and run it himself.
"Our most popular T-shirts had always been the ones with inspiring or spiritual sayings written on them," Mike told me over the phone one day. "So I decided to offer a Monday Morning Motivator by E-Mail to our loyal list of followers."
The Monday memos were usually poems. And his small band of followers at the time amounted to 1,000 names. Instead of writing to these people with an opening that said, "Dear loyal T-shirt customer...," Mike decided on a more unique approach.
"I created an Adventure's Club and invited them to be a member for the sum of only $36 a year," Mike explained. "They would get weekly and even daily messages from me, all of an inspiring, motivational and/or spiritual nature."
Did it work?
"No. Almost no one paid for it. So I naturally decided to offer it for free, knowing I would somehow figure out how to make money from it down the road."
Mike's Monday Morning Memos caught on. People loved the inspiring weekly poetry. Eventually he gathered the courage to add his own insightful commentaries that would accompany each poem. His subscriber base grew to 3,000 names.
"About this time I had a friend of mine who was making $15,000 every month from banner ads on his e-cards," says Mike.
"So I put all my energy into making free e-cards that people could sponsor click-through ads on. I used the old T-shirt art I had and added some commentary to make the e-cards unique."
But that didn't work out, either.
"Within six months advertisers quit taking ads on e-cards. My friend stopped making $15,000 a month. I never made more than $100 from my e-cards. But I'm still glad I did them."
Why is he glad?
"They have become a viral marketing campaign," Mike explains. "People send them to others and suddenly my website is known to potentially millions of people. Those e-cards are still a popular feature on my website."
Around this time --- in 2001 --- Mike decided to take the biggest leap of faith of all.
"I recorded 12 audiotapes, packaged them, and called them Infinite Possibilities: The Art of Living Your Dreams. They are a combination of my weekly e-memos, old talks I had given, and entirely fresh material."
That tape set became a turning point for Mike's online business.
"People would get an e-card from someone, see a link at the bottom for my tapes, and make an impulse buy right then and there."
Mike sells 40 to 60 tape sets every month, at a retail price of $125 for either cassettes or CDs.
While he's never asked for a single testimonial for his tapes, he has at this point collected an overwhelming amount of them.
Here are three quick ones:
"Riveting. Inspiring. Even miraculous. Rarely have I heard such wisdom, such mind-stretching beauty, such practical inspiration and proven advice."
"I was blown away! I squealed with delight!"
"I'm listening to the tapes repeatedly... EXCELLENT material, endless new perspectives, spin-offs...your words have set me in motion!"
While Mike has added a daily e-memo to his weekly ones, he has never advertised, done any publicity, or implemented any marketing. His tape sales come from word-of-mouth sharing. His database is currently 5,000 hot names, and growing. He plans to use pay-for-click services to build his database. Next he'll focus on his affiliate program, which he just added to his site.
In short, Mike went from a company drop-out with no mission to a man with a giant mission. And he uses the Internet as his primary vehicle to help people go for their dreams. His main marketing tool is his "Enlightenment-by-E-mail" daily and weekly inspiring messages, which continue to be free.
What's his advice for building a successful business and making your own TUT---totally unique thoughts---come true?
"As clearly as possible define the end result of what you want in emotional terms," he advises. "Get into that emotion now, even before you start working for the dream or even quitting your job. Having the end result firmly in mind now will help you weather any setbacks that may occur later."
"And don't worry about how you will get to that end result," he adds. "There are a million ways to achieve fame or wealth, or whatever you want. Don't tie the hands of the universe by thinking it has to come in one certain way. The universe has 'Infinite Possibilities' at its beck and call. Trust it."
Finally, I asked Mike if he would offer a "totally unique thought" specifically for you, the reader of this book. Here's what he sent:
"Success in the world, business or otherwise, is far more a function of how well you engage the Universe and its magic, than it is of how well you manipulate the time and space around you. This is every tycoon's secret - whether they know it or not.
"Your job is NOT to out-maneuver the competition, to play into the hands of future clients and customers, or to reinvent the wheel. Your job is to define your dream, to imagine the end result, and to move with your hunches and instincts - that's it. The rest will automatically and effortlessly fall into place...a brilliant marketing strategy, the best "location," the "clutch" idea, and perfect timing between them. The Universe is ALIVE in the unseen, and active in all of your affairs. Learn how to use it."
And here's another very relevant quote from Mike:
"GIVING tells the Universe that you believe YOU are provided for. For even as you empty your purse you fear not, demonstrating faith that you will remain whole, that your coffers will be replenished, and that your love for whomever you gave, is what's most important. Verily, as you believe these things to be true, you will experience such truths, and abundance shall be showered upon you as if the heavens had opened up."
You'll note that a large degree of Mike's success came from giving --- he gave away (and still gives away) e-cards, and he still writes and gives away his inspiring daily and weekly memos.
Total sales, plus speaking fees, and revenues from new books in the mill (Notes from the Universe, Totally Unique Thoughts, More Reminders Of Life's Everyday Magic, etc,) should top $250,000 this year, and Mike projects $1,000,000 in 2004!
Mike says, "None of this would have happened if I hadn't offered all my mailings, and club membership for free, though at the time I had no idea of where it would take me, nor of how I would eventually profit. It just felt right, people were grateful, and I was loving my 'job.'
"Sometimes the Universe doesn't always respond in kind, or by throwing dollars at you, but instead, it returns to you confidence, dreams, and inspiration...which is even better than bucks, because it's like learning to fish (as opposed to being given a fish). You then know how to go get more."
Most of us shall face the choice of "Turn right or left", but before your made decision, you don't know which one is correct, inevitably you will think it over and over even can't go asleep till early in the morning but turn your body on bed, my friends, don't consider those useless things, just go as you like, do your favourite way and to be yourself, you are the only one no body can compare, just look around your friends, many of them have become millionaires by their own way, may be you want immitate them, you may get successed or you may completely fail, by my own experience and others, 80% of them shall fail, don't you understand? you can be rich only by your way. Believe me!
