Ron Barajas’s ASM Story Will Warm Your Heart

On July 30, we invited a group of Amazing Selling Machine members to our Austin office for feedback on our course and to share their experiences and stories. Melissa Tothero, our Director of E-Learning, spoke with Ron Barajas, and we guarantee you will be touched by his story.

Ron: My name’s Ron Barajas. I come out of the oil and gas business. I am a third generation Exxon employee. My family had over 100 years of service with the company, and I worked for them for 30 years and then I left them to become an independent consultant in the oil and gas business. I spent five years traveling the world, implementing different types of products, mostly in the IT business. When I saw this opportunity, I figured, well, I am semi-retired, and I figured I wanted to keep my type of lifestyle that I was experiencing with the IT consultancy. I found this as a way for me to continue that. At this point, I’ve found that this is the business that I’ll continue on for as long as I can.

Melissa: Wonderful. How did you get started with ASM?

Ron: Since I came out of the IT field, I knew that I wanted to build some type of business in the internet marketing field. I saw, okay, here’s the way that it’s described; a step-by-step process where I can basically learn and progress through. It certainly was exactly what was described in the marketing tools.

Melissa: Fantastic. Tell us a little bit about the progression of your building your business.

Ron: Well, it took me about three or four months to source my product, and I did source it out of China. I actually ended up helping develop a different version of the product. That’s why it took me longer. I was seeing other people that were getting their products up within weeks of the module three where they weren’t waiting. They were continuing on and getting their products. It took me about four or five months, but once I did, once I got my samples, I started to actually have some focus groups where I pulled in some family and friends and they tested the product. They were like, “Hey, I think this is a good product.”

Then, at that point, I said, “I’m going to make the leap,” and I made the investment on buying the products and having them developed and sent to Amazon.

Melissa: Then what happened after that? How did it grow? How long ago was that, by the way?

Ron: Actually, it was in June of 2013 and then my product was ready in September, and it was right in time for the Christmas holiday.

Melissa:  Oh, good timing.

Ron:  It was great timing, and I was able to get a really great start with Black Friday and the holidays. I sold out of my product in early January. That’s when I knew that I had a good product at that point. Yeah.

Melissa: That was exciting?

Ron:  It was very exciting.

Melissa: How has your life changed since you started this business?

Ron: Well, I’m making extra money even though I’m still investing it back into building the business, but I certainly feel more confident that I have a future that I can carry on for many, many more years basically.

Melissa: That’s really great. Have any of your family members been a part of this with you or helping you with this?

Ron: Well, actually I’m building this for my kids.

Melissa: I so get that, Ron. I love that. Are you teaching them?

Ron: I’m teaching them. I see the way that our country is right now. For instance, my children, I paid for their college, but …Now it’s just you’ve got so many kids that are tied up with debt. Especially since they both went to go get their master’s degree. Which I wasn’t able to pay for that, but I paid for their college. With the government the way, they have less than 1% interest, so a lot of young kids, they don’t have the opportunity that I had when I was their age.

Melissa: Yeah. That’s kind of interesting, isn’t it? You wouldn’t think it would be that way, but now you’re kind of teaching your children to be entrepreneurial, to recognize that potential.

Ron: Yeah. They’re saying, “Well, Dad, can you teach me how to do this?” I can see where this is going to be something that they can pick up and I’ll be able to pass on to them.

Melissa: Isn’t that just the most rewarding thing as a parent? I get that. You’re teaching them how to fish again.

Ron: Yeah. It’s been good. I mean, it’s something that I’ve been … I’ve owned different business over the past, but it wasn’t something that I could pass onto them. This is something that they’re all computer literate. They all understand the marketing that it takes, and they can see where this is something that they can progress.

Why are you starting or building your business? Can you relate to Ron?s passion for his children?s future? Let us know in the comments!