Last updated: 8/2008

Who Is Terry Telford?
by Terry Telford :)

Terry Telford

I come from the marketing and advertising world. In 1991, I graduated with honours from the Advertising Program at Loyalist College in Belleville, Ontario, Canada. Immediately after graduating I started my own advertising agency with a partner. 6 months later, I sold the agency to my partner and moved to the "big city" - Toronto.

Love what you do and you'll never work
another day in your life

But things were a lot different than I expected. Landing a good job in a big advertising agency turned out to be like looking for a needle in a haystack. Competition was fierce and the job market was quickly drying up.

To pay the bills, I took whatever jobs I could find. I sold vacuum cleaners, shampoo and soap, drove a delivery truck, and eventually ended up managing a paint warehouse. Although they weren't glamorous jobs, they were full of enriching experiences.

I learned the psychology of sales

Along the way, I bought a small mail order company and started experimenting with direct mail campaigns. I worked through the typical learning curve and made all the mistakes in the book. I paid too much for advertising, mailed to cheap junk mail lists and used a good deal of time and money learning the ropes.

What to say
What not to say
How to make the sale
Luckily, I learned from my experiences. I was able to turn my learning curve into a positive learning experience and profited greatly from my trials and tribulations.

In 2001, I hopped onto the internet with the hopes of expanding my mail order business. At first glance it seemed pretty simple. There were Free For All (FFA) sites where I could advertise to millions of people, free. Classified ad sites would run ads for $5 or $10, or the big expensive ones were $20 a month.

To put that into perspective, I was spending $600-$1000 a month offline on classified ads, so $20 a month was like hitting the jackpot.

The upside of online marketing was, it cost next to nothing. But the downside was, I was getting very little response. I spent a lot of time experimenting with ways to advertise effectively online. I tried everything and anything.

All in all, it took 3 years online before I actually had a profitable online business and not just a hobby.
Since my humble beginnings in 2001, I've had the privilege of interviewing and working with an amazing group of people. They include, Anik Singal, Brian Garvin, Carlos Garcia, Dan Lok, Daniel Hardt, Darryl Graham, David Gendron, David Vallieres, Eva Browne-Patterson, Hani Banna, Ian Herculson, James Jackson, Jay Ireland, Jeff Sands, Jeremy Gislason, Joe Rubino, John Di Lemme, John Taylor, Josh Peak, Kacper Postawski, Kelly Robbins, Ken McArthur, Kidino, Laurence Baker, Lee Schissler , Marc Brown, Marc Gamble, Marc Goldman, Mike Filsaime , Perry Marshall, Phil Chapman, Richard Austin, Richard Butler, Rosalind Gardner, Russell Brunsun, Simon Hodgkinson, Stephanie Frank, Tellman Knudson, Terry Levine, Tom Olson, Ty Cohen, and Willie Crawford.

You can find out more about these entrepreneurs in The Business Professional and in Your Marketing Journal