Whatever happened to Mike Rodman of the Marketing Forum?

Hey Everyone!

How is everyone? Great I hope and healthy & prosperous too.

It has been awhile since I was last here and I started thinking about where I first met many of you.

It was the "Marketing Forum".

Some of you like Dien Rice, Gordon Alexander, Michael Ross, Dennis Bevers, Jim Straw, Don Alm, Jason Hatchett, Vondre' Whaley, Ron Ruiz and others from that era I have seen here over the years on SowPub.

This made me stop to think of some of the other's that I have not heard from or about in a few years.

Does anyone know whatever happened to Mike Rodman? The last I heard was when he put "Gone to play for the Summer!" on the Marketing Forum and then he was gone.

Also ... has anyone heard from Brent "The Winner" Whinfield, Boyd Stone, or Andy Frain?

I had heard Brent had some health problems at one time and I haven't heard from him since.

Martin Buckley I spoke to not long ago and he had moved away from the Internet life for a while.

If I am not mistaken Rooster would stop in from time-to-time.

I know as in other areas of life we all move on and sometimes in different directions to pursue other interests. I was just curious if anyone had any knowledge of what has been going on with Mike, Brent, Boyd & Andy since it has been so long since I've heard anything.

As for me, well I have gone through a few changes as well but I still enjoy working with local business owners helping them find their marketing and advertising solutions.

Talk with you soon.

Randy,

Thanks for asking.

I think Mike got fed up with the online marketing niche - and - offline concentrated on his insurance selling - remember, he sold insurance to car yards.

Last I heard Boyd had written a horror novel. Hadn't heard anything other than that, though.

Andy... was doing something with his Mining Local Gold but that site is defunct as is AndyFrain.net - which his SellMoreSites redirects to. Leaving just his Customer Memo thing www.customermemo.com as still working. BUT, whether emails sent get anywhere I do not know.

Michael Ross

[MMacGillivray]

A quick update about Rooster - posted on the Friendsinbusiness.com forum in 2007

"Not sure if anyone is interested or not but Rooster (George Gee) went to be with his Lord on March 25, 2007. I know he was a member of this board for years and was loved by some and hated by some, but loyal just the same. His illness prevented him for participating lately but he did read the posts when he was up to it. "

That was a note to MaaMaw from his widow.

Best
Margaret

[GordonJ]

Originally Posted by Randy

Hey Everyone!

How is everyone? Great I hope and healthy & prosperous too.


I know as in other areas of life we all move on and sometimes in different directions to pursue other interests. As for me, well I have gone through a few changes as well but I still enjoy working with local business owners helping them find their marketing and advertising solutions.

Talk with you soon.

Hey Randy,

Thanks for bringing up those days gone bye. I sold one of my first products online at the old Dave Bancroft forum. SowPub is now in it's ninth year, small, steady and chugging along like the little train that could.

Which brings me to my once again retirement post. Let's see, I think I've retired from online at least 4 or 5 times, maybe more, HA!. Like a bad penny I keep coming back.

But, at the end of this month, as I wrap up a few projects, tie up loose ends, and begin my fade out; I'm going to go BACK to MY FUTURE. With a tip of the hat to Michael J. Fox.

Back to 1996. In a very weird Deja Vu sort of way, since I have just wrapped up and not renewed my contract with Ben Suarez and SCI, I am about to go back to 1996.

In 1996 I was just finishing off my contract with SCI as a writer for the NPGS UPDATE HOTLINE, an Entrepreneurial Newsletter published by Ben Suarez. I quit running my ads for my HOTSHEETS in what was then called the "circular pubs" or "inner circle", those small monthly newsletters for the "mailorder" business. My most popular HOTSHEET at that time was the I'M BUYING and also the SQUARE ONE WORKSHOPS as was seen in many of the those circulars.

I had come on line and was smitten with the new technology. And I've been online (mostly) ever since, with a retirement announcement about every couple of years or so. I'm like the kid's jack-in-box, I get pushed down and stay there until suddenly I pop back up.

OK. So anyhow, this month I'm wrapping things up. I just made a committment to Dien Rice to write for the SeedZine, which we've decided, due to personal and health reasons to publish twice a month instead of our planned on twice a week. Other than that, and a few of the auto pilot sites I've set up and don't have to do anything with...I too will follow the footsteps of those mentioned, who have seemingly faded from our Internet view.

I'll be publishing HARD copy HOTSHEETS, and moving to FL, and working the Four Hour Work Week that Tim Ferriss wrote about in his book by that title. It was the lifestyle I had in 1996.

The reason for my latest retirement is simple. I had a heart attack last Sept. and its been a difficult recovery. My daughter took me to the ER after I had been complaining for days about stomach pains. The triage nurse hooked me up to an EKG machine, and 10 minutes later I was on the operating table where they put 3 stents in.

They told my daughter that I had the "widow maker" type of heart attack, the kind that killed Tim Russert of NBC News, and the doctors said if I had not come in that day, I would have been dead by dinner time.

Sobering stuff.

While in ICU recovery, I read Tim Ferriss' book, the Four Hour Work Week and realized that WAS the lifestyle I had in 1996, BEFORE I got fully engaged with the Internet. I thought that I was in pretty good health and shape, having "licked" my diabetes, on a good diet and exercise regimen...I guess I didn't factor in the STRESS of deadlines and working and email and etc. etc.

So I've made the decision NOT to renew my contracts with SCI and other people, to go back to a low stress, fly low collect the dough lifestyle, away from the Internet and closer to the beach.

I won't be gone, just far less active. I'll write for the SeedZine and keep my badge as the "bad cop" of SowPub who would rather delete and ask questions later than to give the spammers the benefit of the doubt...and to keep the board clean...

But I'm not going forth wtth any programs, I've done my part and I'm off to sandy beaches, fishing from the pier, and doing email once a week.

There are cycles in all of our lives, we've shared a journey online which has been FUN, frustrating, fantastic and at times frenzied (I'll be practicing my alliteration at the beach, where I hear, Sally sells sea shells; we'll see about that)...

So Randy, you've given me a good opening here. And that is to say a somewhat GoodBye (again)...only this time I'm NOT leaving, only cutting down the amount of time I have to give to the Internet.

I WILL be working on my REAL, mailed via USPS, stuffed in an envelope HOTSHEETS, just as I did in 1996.

So, I am going BACK to MY FUTURE at the end of the month.

I'll answer questions and finish up my business here til then, and I'll be a regular contributor to the SeedZine.

Thanks for your time, attention and comaraderie for these many years.

Gordon Jay Alexander

Good for you, Gordon. Take care of YOU first. We all tend to think we're indispensable to this or that then when something happens, we see that people get along okay one way or the other.

Be careful of those spiders down there in Florida...remember what happened before. Stay healthy as you can be.

Good luck with your back to the future.

Sandi Bowman

[GordonJ]

Originally Posted by Sandi Bowman

Good for you, Gordon. Take care of YOU first. We all tend to think we're indispensable to this or that then when something happens, we see that people get along okay one way or the other.

Be careful of those spiders down there in Florida...remember what happened before. Stay healthy as you can be.

Good luck with your back to the future.

Sandi Bowman

Sandi,

I have to look at the scar on my right arm to remember the spiders...this past December, my kid got the old "stingray" bite at the beach...so, I'll be very careful, mainly by staying out of the local nudist colonies HA!...

As you well know, when your health fails, everthing goes in the crapper with it. YOU take care of yourself Sandi. I am now, Job ONE.

Thanks Sandi,

Gordon Jay Alexander

Gordon,

Wow! ... Many of us knew of your Diabetes... The Spider incident... But Now we know you're a Cat with 9 lives...

Thankfully you've got the Good guys and a few Angels watching over you...

Great decision... Glad to hear you that you're finally Headed for a Nice warm climate to start Enjoying life...

Exactly what convinced and Got me to the island and the Good ol' Pacific ocean... Working 24/7/365 is just Not worth burning yourself out for anymore...

Hopefully you have a couple innovative business plans in place to Continue atleast a few of those recent business idea projects that you've been quietly Hinting on...

Bottom line... If you have your Health, you have Everything... Health is Wealth as they say... Almost...

Of course Growing a few little Green Money making trees along the way Definitely helps in the Health and Wealth department...

Which brings up the subject of "Rehirement" and "free-tirement" which just might offer a few passing through a little food for thought and a few ideas too...
http://www.sowpub.com/forum/showthre...+free-tirement

In case a few here just happen to be interested in Mike Rodman's marketing forum from a few years back...

Still operating on income Autopilot... Definitely a few Excellent hidden Gems throughout their Archives too...
http://www.network54.com/Forum/166590/

Phil

Hello Randy (and the 'ole Sowpub Gang),
I appreciate your best wishes and prayers.
Thanks Dien for the heads up on this thread.

I'm feeling much better after having died...
literally.

That sounds unbelievable, so let me hasten to
explain.

As many of you know, a few years ago after
my annual physical, my doctor turned to me
and said, "Brent, you have a big heart." I
said, "Thank you very much."

But he was actually referring to an enlargement
of my ticker.

That was the beginning of a downward slide
in health hell. This was about fours years ago.

My condition deterioted to something called
Congestive Heart Failure (it's the same malady
that killed James Brown, "The Hardest
Working Man is Show Business.")

Then things worsened to a horror called Atrial
Fibrillation, which is irregular heart beats. My
heart beats are all over the place, up, down,
sideways...

So my cardiologist sliced open my chest and
inserted a little computer inside my upper chest,
close to the left shoulder.

I love showing off the resulting large bump
under my skin, and getting people (sometimes
even strangers) to rub it. Sometimes it gets
itchy!

Anyways...

One night around midnight, I was having a romantic
moment with my wife when all of a sudden, I got
dizzy and fell into a faint. Later, my wife said that I
was out cold for around twenty seconds or so.

I firmly believe I had died.

All I knew was, I awoke to a loud BAM from
inside my chest. The electric shock from my
Implanted Cardiac Device was so strong, it
literally lifted me up a few inches off the bed.

It felt like a mule had kicked me...with both
hind legs. Funny, but I immediately felt better
afterwards.

Nooo, I didn't see any brightly coloured lights,
or hear any strange music, or see any babies
fluttering about with tiny wings. Though I
knew that I was dead.

(I have difficulty saying that with a
straight face. Ha!)

My wife immediately dialled 911, and an
ambulance whisked me off to Emerge'.
They gave me the once over, and after
seventeen of the longest hours of my
life, they kicked me out.

They told me that ICD unit did its job. It literally
saved my life. It cost twenty G's which the
Canadian governemt paid for...thank God for free
Canadian medicare.

Today, I feel strong. As long as I stay away
from sodium (salt is like poison to me), exercise,
and get plenty of rest, I'll be fine.

I've also been busy marketing (it's in my blood)
to the "deaf" niche.

So now you know what's been happening to
me since I last visited Sowpub. I should have
written sooner. I'm sorry. I promise not to
stay away so long again.

God loves you.
Brent.

WOW!!! Thank you everyone for getting back with me. It was great to see that most are still around somewhere doing our thing.

Gordon and Brent, even though you have gone through some health challenges it is great to know that you are doing better and that you are choosing to take care of yourselves.

After I went through a stroke in 2005 it slowed me down a bit and my eysight was challenged a bit. Doctors said I would never see again but I just smiled knowing they only practiced medicine but I know who my Healer is and I never doubted I would see again. It's not perfect mind you but I am truly blessed. My energy never got back up to where it was and frankly I feel like I could sleep just about anytime and anywhere but I have to make me stay active or I feel like I would just waste away.

I thank each of you for replying to my curiosity and questions. I have always enjoyed the comaraderie that we have all enjoyed through the years and even though some of us are perhaps not as active here as we once were ... I look forward to many more years of enjoying wisdom from some of the best entreprenuerial minds and the wisdom that come forth from each of you.

Thank you each and everyone for the role you have played and continue to play in making this an incredible forum.

May God continue to richly bless each of you and your families!

[GordonJ]

Originally Posted by BrentWhinfield

So now you know what's been happening to
me since I last visited Sowpub. I should have
written sooner. I'm sorry. I promise not to
stay away so long again.

Brent.

Brent, The WINNER...

Glad to hear you've been able to overcome your health problems and are still in the game. Keep us posted, will ya? I see a day when many of use will have these personal difribs implanted...and it may work in tandem with any other, uh, implants us Geezers get too. HA!

Thanks for taking the time and giving us the "Rest of the Story".

Gordon Alexander