It All Started With Tacos…
All of my life I can’t remember a time that I didn’t love tacos.
It all started with Taco Bell as a kid. Well actually it started in the womb of my mother…
My mom loved Taco Bell and the entire time she was pregnant with me she craved three things…
1. Taco Bell
2. Reese Cups
3. Mountain Dew
Now I gave up a 6 a day Mountain Dew addiction more than 10 years ago, and my sophisticated palate has no room for Taco Bell any longer (that’s a lie 😂 ), but tacos and Reese Cups are still things that I crave.
I dream about tacos! I wake up in the morning wanting tacos! I talk about tacos all the time!
I’m truly addicted…
From the womb to adulthood tacos have been a part of my life.
A true obsession…
Years later at the age of 19 I got hooked on another obsession…
Marketing!
I was wandering around wondering what to do with my life when I saw an ad in the back of a magazine for an opportunity where I could get paid $1 for every envelope I “stuffed” and mailed. I figured I could do at least 1,000 of these a day.
The ad asked that I mail $1 and a SASE (self addressed stamped envelope) to the address in the ad to get started.
I did and eagerly anticipated the arrival of my new job.
Needless to say this was an envelope stuffing scam!
You send in your $1 and the SASE and the person replies with you with instructions showing you to place the same ad they did, and you will start getting $1 bills and SASE in the mail that you will in turn mail the same instructions in the provided SASE.
Well, I saw it was BS, but I saw an opportunity. I could make $1 and show others this opportunity.
So, I placed a few ads in some opportunity magazines, and I actually started getting envelopes with $1 and SASE in them.
It wasn’t a lot, but I was WAY more than breaking even, so I continued doing this.
Here’s what happened…
Other “opportunists” saw my address and started adding me to opportunity seeker mailing lists (I’m talking snail mail for you youngins) and I started getting all kinds of “junk mail”.
Side Note: Now I don’t believe in “junk mail”. It’s gold to me… As a child my mom gave me a big cowboy boot box to play with and I filled the thing with junk mail and loved going through it and looking at all the ads. Publishers Clearing House stamps were my favorite. I couldn’t even read, but this junk mail got me excited!
Again… you youngins are probably like WTH is this lady talking about. Just let me have my “glory days” ok?
There were so many different money-making opportunities out there and I started seeing them all.
Before I knew it I was in all kinds of “money-making programs”, and I was getting hit with all kinds of advertisements.
This led me to my first business…
I started designing ads and running ads for others in these programs. I got so big that I had “dealers” (affiliates in today’s speak) who sold my services for me for a percentage of the payments. These “dealers” would advertise for me, get the orders for ad designs or advertising orders, keep half the money, and then send me the order to be fulfilled with the other half of the money.
Through the mail this was done… Yes… The USPS!
I ran this business from the time I was 19 until I was 24…
When I was 24, I had already been on the Internet since I was 14 and during those years, I learned to design websites. The first website I ever built was for my boyfriend (at the time) and I. It was AWFUL! A jumping frog across the top, and silly graphics expressing my “puppy love”. I really wish that was still online. 😂
Anyway… As the Internet evolved, I started seeing opportunities to make money online.
I thought to myself what if I could take what I’m doing offline and do it online?
Postage was skyrocketing at the time, so I figured I could save money and reach more people online.
So, I took my business online, and then things took a turn…
I started seeing people creating and launching ebooks. They were making thousands and thousands of dollars doing it.
At the time my little offline business was making about $60,000 a year and while that’s not too shabby (for the time and the area I lived had an average yearly income of under $12,000 a year) I wanted MORE.
So, I hit the forums and started looking at what others were talking about. I needed a subject for the first ebook I was going to create and launch.
A hot topic at the time was “joint ventures”…
So, I started copying and pasting answers from experts on this subject into a Word document. I then went to these experts and asked them if I could take their answers and include them in my ebook about joint ventures. Of course, they all said YES! They knew having their name in a product would bring them clout.
There were 11 different people featured in my ebook and once it was done I went to each of them and asked if they would promote it with their affiliate link.
All but one said yes, and within 2 weeks I had made $37,000 with that little product.
Needless to say my days of designing print ads and doing advertising for offline opportunity programs was OVER.
Now I have a post called the $37,000 Story on one of my other blogs, but let me tell you. That $37,000 saved me and my family.
During my business transition we got behind on bills. We were about to lose our house, vehicle, utilities were about to be cut off, and that ebook saved the day.
Now, I’ve gone on to launch hundreds more products since 2004, and now have a thriving online business in many different niches with many types of products, but it all got started with that ebook. (Joint Venture Seeker)
Okay so where do tacos come into play in all of this?
Well, I basically took the two things I’m obsessed with and married them together…
Tacos and Marketing, baby!
Now, I was never a big Facebook user until about 5 years ago (2017). I would post updates here and there (I got my Facebook account in like 2009), but that’s about it. As Facebook really took off, I started seeing more and more of my “tribe” on Facebook.
Facebook went from just my friends and family to mostly my clients, customers, and colleagues. I started posting more and more about my life and what I was doing in my business.
Eating tacos was a huge part of my life, so of course I was posting about that all the time, and my tribe was LOVING it!
Before I knew it I was being tagged in everything taco related on Facebook. People were sharing their tacos on my Facebook timeline. It was crazy! I became the Taco Queen of Facebook very quickly and it was never my intention.
In 2018 I started posting on Facebook every Tuesday (Taco Tuesday) with all of my “taco finds”, what tacos I had eaten that week, and everything everyone else had tagged me in or posted on my time line on Facebook.
That quickly snowballed and now I have a folder completed devoted to my taco stuff and the taco stuff that gets sent to me on Facebook. You can see it by clicking here.
I have met so many great people online, I’ve had so many opportunities come to me, and I’ve gotten so much recognition because of my love of tacos, so it only makes sense that I birth this project…
TacoBoutMarketing.com
I’ll be using this site to of course to talk about tacos a little, but the main thing here will be me showcasing the brilliants minds (that sleep eat and breath marketing like I do) I work with online. We are going to cover every marketing topic out there and talk all about starting and growing an online business, AND of course we’re going to talk about TACOS!
Now I’ve tried to keep this story as short as possible, and there’s a million stories within this story, but I just wanted to quickly share my story with you for a few reasons…
1. When you’re building your business find SOMETHING to be known for. Do NOT be afraid to share who you are. Your tribe will find YOU!
2. If I can create a successful online business, then so can you. Go after your freedom and fuel it with the money you’ll make from an online business. Let this site be the foundation of your education. GO AFTER YOUR FREEDOM!
3. I want you to know that here at TacoBoutMarketing.com you are supported and loved in your journey and I’m working hard to bring you the best of everything you need to know on your journey.
One last thing…
I have to give a big thanks to my mom who started ALL of this.
She started by having a Taco Bell addiction (she was a bean burrito and taco salad kind of girl) that turned into MY taco addiction, she birthed me, and then raised me to know that there was nothing in this world I couldn’t do.
When I quit college at 19 and came back home to her, she asked me…
“Sister, (that’s what she called me) what are you going to do with your life now?” I told her I was going to start my own business. She smiled at me and said… “That sounds amazing! I know you’ll do well with it.”
Without even myself knowing what I was going to do she KNEW I was going to do well with it. She believed in me like no one else and still to this day that’s true.
I lost my mom in 2012 (she was only 52) and although it took some time to be a functioning human being after that because of her… I am the Liz Tomey that you all know and love, so if you could just take a second and thank me with here it would mean the world to me.
Let’s all throw up a “Thanks, mom!”
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THANKS, MOM!
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Okay… Let’s go Taco Bout Marketing…