Twenty years from now,

so throw off the bow line,
sail away from the safe harbor,
catch the trade winds in your sails.
Explore. Dream. Discover.
Because that what life is about.

–Mark Twain

I love quotes. When I saw this one on Thursday, I thought I would use it to encourage other people to follow their dreams, whether that dream was a starting a career in voice-over, learning to speak French, adopting a dog, visiting a foreign country or bungee-jumping off a bridge. We all have special gifts, talents and skills. No one sees the world the same way, and we’re all here for a purpose.

I think part of my purpose is to help people.

On Thursday, though, I was just thinking about my voice-over business and, more particularly, my web site. Thursday is the day that Drew and I attended an internet marketing seminar. The seminar was more of a pressured sales pitch than we thought it would be.

Mark Twain’s quote was used in the introduction to get people thinking about the kind of lifestyle they would lead if they were free of financial worry, which, according to StoresOnline.com, the presenting company, they obviously could be if they would start marketing products on the Internet today. I doubt Mark Twain ever meant that he thought people should part with their hard-earned money at 18% interest in order to buy a company’s package of 6 web sites!

We knew before we went that StoresOnline would be hawking its products, but we also knew that we weren’t going to buy anything. We only went so we could pick up tips from the panel of 11 internet marketing experts who were supposed to speak with us but never did as a group. (We later learned their role was meet with us individually to sell us the web site package.) In other words, we were going to help ourselves. I now see that I missed a huge opportunity to help other people, and I regret that I didn’t take it.

Since we weren’t going to buy anything, we didn’t do any research on StoresOnline prior to attending the event. We didn’t know that the company keeps changing its name, has been sued countless times around the world due to its shady business practices and has been the subject of TV investigative reports.

However, we did know while we were sitting there that:

• The first hour was a complete waste of time as StoresOnline got right into their sales pitch. I told Drew we were burning daylight, and we would leave if they didn’t provide some real content soon.
• We were uncomfortably cold; the temperature became noticeably colder — to the point of being frigid — when the supposed current client began speaking. They couldn’t risk anyone falling asleep! I did tell one of the “consultants” that I was aware of their little ploy to drop the temperature, and there was no reason it had to be 60 degrees. He denied it was in their control.
• No breaks were given.
• The “training” was not organized like a true class with objectives, summaries and time for questions. They would not entertain any questions during the presentations!
• The constant push for 6 web sites was extremely odd. It’s enough work to get one site up and running and fully optimized before you tackle a second one. SIX?
• We’re getting far better monthly web hosting prices than the special workshop price that we were quoted.
• If someone orders a product from a web site and has a problem, they will go back to the web site for resolution. They don’t expect to work with a third-party like the actual supplier (drop-shipper) directly.
• Companies who have special today-only offers and finance people ready to show how you can take advantage of those incredible offers are only there to take your money.
• If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!

I saw people filling out their finance forms, and I heard the credit card machine. I don’t know how much of that activity was from audience shills who were paid from the company to make it appear to real participants like people were eagerly signing up for these offers. From looking at the crowd, we observed that many people seemed to be in the 50-65 age range, while others seemed to have physical issues that would make at-home incomes very enticing.

As a voice-over artist, my profession is based on giving a voice to people who either can’t or won’t speak for themselves. Someone provides their words to me in the form of a script, but I always have to bring out the author’s meaning to the intended audience. During my years in corporate America, I would speak up when no one else would. My gift is my voice, and I regret that it was quiet during this seminar.