Before websites. Before email. Before Google put the entire world’s knowledge at your fingertips. Before cell phones. Before social media. And LOOOONG before AI changed everything.

Back in 1980, real estate guru Robert Allen wrote the book Nothing Down. His audacious claim was:

“Send me to any city in the United States. Take away my wallet. Give me $100 for living expenses. And in 72 hours I’ll buy an excellent piece of real estate using none of my own money.”

Skeptical, the LA Times flew him and a reporter to San Francisco in January 1981. He bought his first property in about 24 hours, ended up buying six houses worth half a million dollars in 72 hours, and handed the reporter back $20 in change.

Could YOU do something like that with ALL of the technology and access you have today? Most STILL couldn’t figure it out, even though EVERY obstacle Robert faced has been removed.

I’m SO grateful that I learned sales when you had to put some real effort into hitting quota. When you had to go OUTSIDE the office and attend trade shows, networking events and canvass businesses by walking in and pitching them to let me talk to the boss – face to face selling. I dialed for dollars, cold calling people out of the white pages to get in-home appointments for a sales rep who had to use a PAPER map to find the home. I stood waiting in a hotel lobby, coffee shop or reception area trying to find a prospect I’d never seen before, with no email confirmation and no cell phone to call.

I learned lead generation marketing using direct mail, which was truly difficult to produce, print and mail, EXPENSIVE and time consuming. You could NOT be casual about your list, offer and message because getting it in front of a prospect required enormous effort and money – and getting someone to fill in a BRC (business reply card) put it in the mail and respond took EFFORT. Even getting someone to fill out a paper form and fax it back presented friction and obstacles you had to compel the prospect to leap over.

I cold-called to book myself to speak for free for dozens of sales-led offices to sell a Tony Robbins seminar, driving to the location, scripting myself for an hour talk, doing the breaking boards exercise with a group of people I didn’t know which was rife with problems, flaws and (gulp) liability when someone would NOT break a board but would break their watch, bracelet or hand in the process, and then STILL have the C.O. Jones to ask for the order.

Today we have weak-minded, easily deterred, impatient and doughy salespeople who think sending spam is prospecting and emailing a proposal is selling, whining about how “difficult it is” to get customers.

I’ve had dozens of people tell me they love my content; that’s because I don’t just ask ChatGPT for an articles. Every Saturday morning I’m searching for news stories, thinking about the previous week’s events and searching for an interesting angle to start from. Then I’m writing it out, letting it sit, going back to edit two or three times. I’m NOT just prompting and accepting whatever comes up. I THINK deeply and put consideration into the messages I write, the topics I promote and the underlying themes that connect me with you, my reader.

I put in the work.

If you’re old enough to remember similar times pre-Internet, you know that people like me and the mentors I had before me prospered without all this technology and “ease.” Joe Girard still holds the Guinness World Record for the most cars sold by an individual salesman using – wait for it – index cards. No CRM. No email. No social media.

Why hasn’t anyone beat him yet?

Because most don’t want to work that hard on getting better. People like me, who prospered and grew a business under far less advantageous conditions had to be very thoughtful and thorough about everything we did, every sales letter I mailed, every prospecting call I made, every IN PERSON meeting I landed.

Compare that to the AI slop being put out today and you’ll see a parallel of trend lines: ease and sloppiness, thoughtless spam and declining results.

If you want to work with someone who has actually done the thing she’s telling you to do — built a real business, run real campaigns, generated real results over 25 years in this industry — I do take on a limited number of consulting clients. No AI-generated advice. No theory. Just what works. Start here.