In Search Of Heroes Spreads Good News About Everyday, Real-Life Heroes Who Deserve Recognition For Their Good Works

Ralph Zuranski: Hi this is Ralph Zuranski I’m on the phone with Willie Crawford. He’s one of the pioneers, really one of the true pioneers in the Internet Industry and has done so many things it’s hard to catalog what he’s done, where he’s been, who he knows. But for someone that has overcome tremendous difficulties in his life Willie is truly a phenomenal example of what a hero is and how to become a hero.

How are you doing today, Willie?

Willie Crawford: I’m doing great Ralph.

Ralph Zuranski: Could you perhaps explain to the people that are listening a little bit about your life and how you got to the position where you’re at now as one of the leaders in the internet industry.

Willie Crawford: Absolutely. I was in the military, I don’t know ten years ago, fifteen years ago and after college I knew I wanted to start my own business. But I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, so I went into the military for what I thought was going to be just a few years but I ended up spending a career in the military.

While I was in the military, I discovered the internet I was in a job in Hawaii where I was allowed to surf the internet, and I discovered that there’s a whole world of opportunity out there. And so I started an online business.

The first person I stumbled upon was Jim Daniel’s and I started reading his newsletter, liked it, and subscribed to about a 100 others.

I printed all these newsletters out and I was an air crew member and when I was out flying around I was reading these printed out copies of newsletters, and seen what all these people had to say, all these people and this was 96 or so.

In late 96 or early 97 I was reading what all these people had to say and they were teaching me how to start and online business. And so what I did was I went ahead and I started a business. I started a business teaching people how to make money on the internet before I really had learned how to do it myself really.

Which is not a good thing to do. It is a good thing to do if you can find the nuggets, if you can find what actually works and share, that with people, which is an ability I have now. But what I do is I teach people how to start businesses on the internet.

And I have this passion for making sure people know the truth and that they know what really works as far as starting a business. So I give my role is life I guess, as sharing with them what really works as far as starting a business on the internet and building your dream.

I don’t believe in toying with people’s dreams. I know that there are people who spend their last couple of dollars you know to buy a course or a product and set up a website and try to get started on the internet.

And I did that back in late 96 early 97 I was told you need to find a niche, to follow a passion. I knew nothing, so I set up a site with a cooking site. People told me I needed to write a cookbook and they’d buy it so I did and they did and it makes I don’t know probably $300,000.00 a year this year from just a simple cookbook I did in Microsoft Word.

You know just a list of recipes, write them out. No pictures in the first edition, the second edition I had few more pictures, the third edition a few more pictures. And it took off from there.

I was online on discussion forums and things like that talking about marketing. People noticed me and all of a sudden I was sucked into the arena of internet marketing speaker.

The very first seminar I ever attended I spoke at. That was Bob Silver’s seminar down in the Florida Keys in 2002, December 2002.

And so I’ve been a guru if you will from the beginning. But it’s my ability to sift through all the fluff and see what really works.

I have a background my college degree is in economics but I grew up on farm extremely poor on welfare most of my youth. I was in the eleventh grade before I even met the guidance counselor at school who noticed my grades were fairly decent. But noticed also that nobody in my neighborhood went to college.

And so she discussed college with me. I looked at three colleges. I applied to all three that I thought were interesting and they all accepted me.

I went to the only one that I ever visited, which was North Carolina State University, which was near the… which was the one that hosted the state fair every year. It was like near the fair grounds and so it was the only one I had ever even seen the campus of. I went there and got a degree in economics, and went into the military for twenty years.

And then traveled the world and after that decided I wanted to start my own business. And some of my passion and what I do is that I teach people how to start their own online business. And I point out to them you know all the booby traps along the way.