My Story: The Night I Decided

Where I Started

I grew up in a one-parent home, and we didn't have much. I want to be clear about this: I never went hungry. But there were plenty of times I wanted something the other kids had, and the answer was no. Nobody was being unkind. We just couldn't afford it.

When you grow up like that, you learn early what it feels like to go without. You learn not to ask. You learn to act like it doesn't matter, even when it does.

I carried that feeling with me for a long time. And when I had children of my own, I knew I wanted more for them than I'd had.

The Night at the Hospital

By 1991, I was married with three young children. I was doing medical transcription at our local hospital, and I worked second shift. That was the only shift that worked with the kids. It also meant I was gone in the evenings, right when family life happens: dinner, homework, baths, bedtime.

We were working hard and still coming up short. There never seemed to be enough. Not enough money. Not enough time. Not enough of me to go around. I was tired, and I knew my kids were getting whatever was left of me at the end of a shift.

One night, a coworker started complaining about her housekeeper. I sat there listening to her, and something in me gave way. Here I was, working nights while my husband worked two jobs, and we were still figuring out how to stretch every paycheck, and she was frustrated with the person who cleaned her house.

I still can't fully explain what happened in that moment. I only know the feeling was so strong that, decades later, I can put myself right back in that room. I knew, without any doubt, that this was not how the rest of my life was going to go.

The Spiral Notebook

I went home that night and started researching every way I could find to make money from home. There was no Googling it back then. I had to dig.

Not long after, I sat in my car with a spiral notebook and wrote down what I wanted. Goals for the next year, and goals further out. Not vague wishes. Specific things, with numbers. The house I wanted was on that list.

Then I made a decision. I would not stop until I reached them.

$40 and a Spare Bedroom

My first business started with $40 in my checking account. It was a mail order business, and I ran it out of the spare bedroom of our very ordinary house.

Here's how it worked. I built a working relationship with the owner of a business magazine. I bought leads from them and resold those leads to their members for ten times what I paid. Alongside that, I wrote and sold a monthly newsletter called Direct Response News.

That little business grew large, right there in that spare room. Eventually I sold it to my partner.

Building, Selling, and Starting Again

A few years later, the transcription work I had once done for the hospital became my own company. It started in that same spare bedroom. Then it outgrew the house. We moved to a local office, and shortly after that to a much nicer one. We went digital in 2000, and I grew it into the largest transcription service in my state. A few years later, I sold it to a large national service.

After that sale, I took a few years off to be with my family.

In between all of this, I kept going. I started businesses. I bought businesses. I sold businesses. Several of them became million-dollar businesses, and a couple went well past that. Some were started before the Internet, and some after. Those are two very different worlds, and I learned to work in both.

Some things worked. Some didn't. Every single one taught me something. The bottom line is, I learned so much.

Million Dollar Marketer, and My Mom

Eventually I started putting what I'd learned into courses, and that became Million Dollar Marketer. It was a website where I taught new business owners the marketing techniques they needed to find customers and grow.

Then life asked something else of me. My mom was 90 and needed full-time care, so I stopped and took care of her. I've never regretted that for one minute.

Where I Am Now

After my mom passed, I decided to go back to work as a business strategist. Today I'm the Chief Strategy Officer at an Inc. 5000 company, and I do consulting on the side for small businesses.

Why I Built WAHMN

Over the years, so many people have asked me how I did it. How did you start? How did you work from home with three kids? How do I get out of the job I'm in?

WAHMN is my answer. I've taken everything I've learned over a lifetime, before the Internet and after, along with all the questions people have asked me, and put it into articles and guides that I hope truly help you. My goal is simple: to help you start your own business and build a better life for yourself and your family.

The House on My Vision Board

Once I was working from home, one of the success authors I was reading at the time talked about making a vision board. So I researched how to make one, and I put a picture of this house on it. About five years later, it was ours. It was the house of my dreams at the time. (If you'd like to learn how to make your own vision board, just let me know.)

We lived here for a few years, and then we upgraded again, to a home in the countryside on acreage. Since then, we've downsized to the original home we built back when my transcription business was bringing in more money every month.

This October, my husband and I celebrate 50 years together, 46 of them married. Life still throws us a curveball every now and then. But in all the ways that matter, our life is what I pictured for us that night.

Building WAHMN is a dream I've wanted to do before I retire for good. I want it to be my legacy.

I've learned so much over the years, and I don't want all of it to end with me. I want to pass it on to people who really, really want to change their lives.

If you're willing to jump in and try, even when you're scared, this is for you. If you've tried before and it didn't work, and you're ready to get back up and try again, this is for you. If you know, the way I knew that night at the hospital, that living below your potential is not how the rest of your life is going to go, this is for you.

I won't promise you it will be easy or fast. There will be hard days and mistakes along the way. The people who make it are not the ones who never fail. They are the ones who refuse to give up.

If that sounds like you, come on in. My hope is that I can help each one of you reach your dreams, too.

I started with $40, a spare bedroom, and a spiral notebook. If I can do it, so can you.

So join us today, and let's start working toward everything you've ever wanted to do.

— Margery