About MichaelB

Hi, My Name is Michael Belba…

But all my friends call me MichaelB and so can you. You see, Belba is the hardest 5 letter name in the world for people to get right… it comes out Belda, Delba, Belva, and every other mispronunciation you could imagine. Frankly, I became real tired explaining it to people – “It’s like Melba Toast with a B”… so MichaelB it is and has been for a long time.

So, a little bit about me.

I live in, and have been a resident of Kennewick, WA since 1960.

I’ve been in sales and marketing for my lifetime… entirely.

I started out as a fresh faced kid in Real Estate acquiring my Real Estate Broker’s license at the remarkably young age of 23, which means I was first licensed as a Realtor at 21.

So I listed, sold and managed in that venue until I was 31. At that time, we had wonderful Jimmy Carter as President, and as a result had wonderful interest rates of 21% and inflation to the moon. There was lots of creative selling going on then, but the stagnant economy and housing just weren’t getting along, so I decided to do something different and became a stockbroker. I figured out it would be easier selling high yielding 20% bonds to people rather than trying to qualify them for a mortgage at the same rate.

I had an incredible love for that business, but it is a tough one. One thing I learned, people value money more than their health. The Big Crash of 1987 was quite a dismal time for me, not just because everyone was losing money, but because people were either shooting stockbrokers in their offices or stockbrokers were shooting themselves in their offices. Seriously, there were a rash of murders and we had to have armed guards at our office, and then one morning I was notified one of my best friends had killed himself at his desk. Our phones were so busy that all calls couldn’t be answered even though we were at the office 14 hours a day – and I actually had clients coming to my house unexpectedly late at night. It was actually, a very bad time – similar to what is happening now – but worse because it all happened in a single day. I hung around a couple more years after that, but my love for the business, my passion for it, had died.

I took a position as a marketing director in a technology company and for 5 years had the time of my life. I travelled about 250,000 miles a year – road warrior big time – in my duties and was gone more than I was home, which was fine with me as I was now single (another problem caused by Mr. Stockmarket). Again, this was an immensely enjoyable position and where I whetted my teeth on learning real marketing, which is completely different than sales. Related yes, but different.

I first saw the internet in 1995 and immediately grasped the significance of it… an epiphany moment you might say. It wasn’t as if I hadn’t used email on my job as a Corporate Director of Marketing… but when I saw Netscape and browsed the internet for the first time… KAPOW!

It was wondrous to me.

I started an Internet Marketing company 1 month later called Vision Quest Internet Marketing. This was before the days of any HTML books and about all you had for learning material was the Netscape website.

But learn I did – and I became very good.

In fact, I won over 200 awards for design, had several cool sites of the day, appeared in NetGuide magazine and other wondrous things. I guess you could say I am one of the early “Pioneers”. I came up in the days of real visionaries. Men like Jim Barksdale and the guy that started it all, Marc Andreesson, of Netscape Communications.

When I came online there were 30 million people – I still remember the “wonder” of it all the day we hit a 100 million, and now, my goodness, a billion people online and more coming everyday.

I am shocked today that “Gurus” are talking about autoresponders like it’s something magical. I built one of the first free autoresponder sites on the internet, www.sendfree.com, way back in 1998. The site is still the same as I designed it. Should you look, you must remember that in those days we were surfing at 640 x 480 – so forgive the background repeat…I’ll have to mention that to the owners, DEMC.

It was fun, magical, fast paced and everything was cool and then Bill Gates waltzed in and ruined everything with his Evil Empire. I laugh when people call him a visionary. The internet went right over Bill Gates’ head. He didn’t get it for a long time. He didn’t think it was anything but a toy. He didn’t foresee squat, but it didn’t take him long to ruin the party once he saw there was money involved. I still remember the hell I went through during the browser wars between Netscape and Microsoft. Other than an operating system, I refuse to use anything Microsoft to this day. I hate IE, and use Open Office which is better than Bill’s stuff anyday.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I grew disenchanted with the internet in 2000 and left to start a different company. The internet at that time seemed stagnant to me. Most people were still on a 56K modem at best and I was impatient. There were so many cool applications coming online but you just couldn’t use them – flash for instance. We had a BIG problem called connectivity – in other words, there was a hell of a lot of fiber optic cable to be laid before the internet could ever get to what I had always envisioned it being.

You see, I always envisioned a time when the internet, and your website, could be the equivalent of having your own multi-media communications channel, and now, that time is here!

Never before has such a powerful multi-channeled tool for communication existed that so few people know how to utilize to explode their business and profits. That’s why I’m here, to show you the way to power up your online marketing like never before.

Anyway, enough about me, at this point I would like to introduce Nancy to you.

”Little Girl” as she is affectionately known (she is all of 5’2″) is my left and right hand “Diva Goddess”. She is an organizational genius and the Queen of Stuff.

When and if I need something, she amazingly knows what and where it is. Invaluable does not BEGIN to describe her. Nancy has been involved in technology her entire working career, beginning in inside sales and then field sales, progressing up the ladder into the Product Management and Marketing areas. Additionally, she spent several years in the Materials and Manufacturing arena working for a Venture Capital start-up. She is an exceptionally bright lady and brings an organizational skill set as well as a wealth of knowledge that perfectly complements me.

That about wraps it up for now… but be sure to check back often… much awaits you!

This is MichaelB and NancyC wishing you the best.

Remember, it’s not the sword that wins the battle, but the heart of the Warrior wielding it – don’t let anyone steal your dream and fight the good fight – I am here to help you. Stay tuned!

MichaelB

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