Very early in my career, when I was 18 or 19, a large, well-known company invited me to work for them as a territory manager to look after some of the biggest supermarket giants in the country; but, despite their size and reputation, I didn’t agree with their methods of sale, so I wasn’t very popular! This taught me one thing: If you believe in yourself, you need to believe in what you are doing.
Not long after that, back in 1980, videos were the “latest thing”. I’d always maintained an interest in film, having worked as a cinema projectionist and manager as my first job, and realized this was the next “big” idea in film. So I decided to sell the video films – but with the slight problem of a lack of any premises! That was Friday morning. By Friday afternoon I had shop premises, and started the new business soon after. It was the first video shop in Britain. If I hadn’t acted immediately, the idea probably would have stayed just that – like so many others.
Shortly after opening, I had people coming from Manchester, Liverpool and mid-Wales to my shop. I was selling films for a hefty price, and began to realize that the novelty of spending that sort of money on a film (which might only be watched once or twice) would soon wear off. Thinking it through, I realized the next step would be to rent the films. And the business grew. I opened another shop and helped people establish their own shops in the area. The shops are still open to this day, 27 years later. I sold the original store in 2001 to my brothers and they are still running it today. And it is without any doubt the first video shop in the UK. It was also the first to offer free membership, which is something I am quite proud of.
I loved my business, loved the film industry and still do. But the hours were long - opening at 9 in the morning, closing at 9 at night, 7 days a week – and I wanted to do something different … preferably working from home, so I could have a life! I began to consider ways in which work could work for me. I tried several network marketing companies in the mid-80s, but few were successes.
Then I heard from Tom, who had gained great business experience in Australia, and talked about concepts that excited me. We had some discussions and decided that together we could develop a cohesive partnership.
That was the start. Using my organizational skills and Tom’s creativity, we embarked on an exciting road to the establishment of Virtual World Direct.
We launched VWD in April 2002, and its success virtually speaks for itself. But, to make it work, Tom and I needed to develop a way of working that played to our individual strengths. He is a real ideas man, but looks to me to cover the details. As I see it today, Tom comes up with the sparks of inspiration that keep VWD moving forward and I help make it work.
It’s often easy to have a selective memory when it comes to promises. When Tom and I devised this business, we wrote the framework up on a flip chart. And I have kept it to this day. It is like a promise to ourselves. It’s a great habit to have because it helps you to focus on your promises and that means you don’t let anybody down – the core of success in whatever business you’re in.
The principle of my work is to do everything today, nothing tomorrow. That’s especially the case in network marketing. You have to act now. Another thing networking has taught me is that listening to a few key people will usually produce far better insights than an exhaustive but impersonal market study will.
So when we took the idea of uVme to the people who will lead the markets and influence them, they said it will be colossal. Much bigger than even we anticipated.
We can give people the tools and we can give them the opportunity, and believe me, with our new project it is a massive opportunity. If you can wake up and say there is no limit to what you can achieve, and believe it, then VWD can help you make it happen. This is it … it’s all here for you now.
I left school at 16 and became involved in the construction industry. It was hard, hard work and I stuck at it for five years until I broke my arm in a work accident, which wasn’t good news for that career! But it meant I had to look for other things I could do, which was how I was introduced to network marketing. I am sure that I wouldn’t have been content being a plasterer for the rest of my life, but that apparent setback was the very thing that put me on my current path at an early age.
My first experience in network marketing was in 1990, with a company that had great potential to make a lot of money. But in fact I didn’t, for three years – although they did provide an excellent support structure and plenty of self-development. So while I didn’t achieve much financially, I did receive a great deal in terms of my personal education. And that was invaluable.
Some time after, one or two of the people I most admired and respected left the business and started a new one. Following them, and trusting my belief in people, was one of the best decisions I ever made. The new business turned out to be a great success for me; I was 23 and earning lots of money, fuelled by self-belief.
Some years later, the company went out of business and left me with nothing. A familiar story, you may think. I became disillusioned. I had lost a great income and lifestyle and found myself with little to show for it. So would you believe, I went back to what I knew, the construction business; and I started to use the Internet.
I came across a network marketing company which had embraced the Internet, and although the business never really took off (it was perhaps ahead of its time – this was still only the mid-nineties), the concept was great. I knew one thing was certain: the Internet was the future, and had huge potential for the network industry.
I moved to Australia, where I was involved with setting up and running an Internet business, involved in selling wine. It was fun, but it had limitations…
Then one day while in Sydney I saw an advert looking for people to join a lottery syndicate and a light bulb went on in my head. I had a concept of making a lottery syndicate that people could join on the Internet, and suddenly I lost my taste for the wine business.
I needed help and assistance to develop the concepts, and that’s when I contacted Len. I had known Len for some time; he was a successful and a very organized businessperson. Slowly one of those once-in-a-lifetime ideas formed from our discussions.
I met with Len and we drew up the idea on a sheet of flipchart paper. And I reckon, knowing Len, that he still has it filed away somewhere. That was the beginning of VWD. Over the past years we have refined our methods and honed them into a thriving success that has given luxury lifestyles to a lot of people, across 133 countries.
In our search to develop the e-lottery further, we began to see that there were existing markets on the Internet which, combined in our unique way, had unlimited potential. Knowing that the best ideas are often simply a recombination of existing concepts, I came up with the idea for uVme. After a lot of research, we showed the concept to some of our top people around the world – and they were “gob-smacked”.
Today the uVme opportunity is laid out on uVme.biz and is a glimpse into the culmination of two and a half years of work. We are now in the pre-launch stage, a very exciting time for all involved.
Over the last five years, Len and Tom have established a dynamic company that has offices around the world and has attracted some top people to join the corporate team.
uVme is a totally new business, but with one major difference: without the risk of being “new”. There is a company with a solid foundation behind it, with an established support team, marketing team and technical-services team. This team have been working on uVme for over two years. Unlike any other globally successful company, where revenue is kept as profit for a select few, the very nature of our business model means that as we succeed, so does everyone involved, based on their individual efforts. With this proven track record and a visionary understanding of future online marketing trends, we are about to synergize current models of social networking and online gaming/entertainment.
I introduce you to the amazing co-founders of the fantastic uVme, Tom Brodie and Len Fitzgerald!
A lot of uVme members ask Tom and Len questions when they meet them in person — yes, they are not just anonymous figures hiding behind the electronic veil of our computer screens — about where they have come from, how and why they got started with VWD and, most important, where they are going with it…
Guess you’d like to know, too.
Tom and Len knew each other for 8 years prior to setting up VWD. And among many things, one thing they have in common is a success-driven personality.
Tom’s background is 12 years in Sales and Marketing. But in 1995 he was first exposed to the Internet… And that was it!… Tom was hooked!
Without question, the business of the future had arrived… The business Tom wanted to be involved with. In 1999 his career took him to Sydney, Australia, where Tom got more involved in Database Development and Internet Marketing.
Len, on the other hand, had been running a successful business in the video industry for 20 years. In fact, he opened one of the first-ever video rental stores in the UK, in 1984. Tom always knew Len’s business operational know-how and customer service skills were first class!