Randal Nelson, a marketing expert, father, and husband, had a very successful career in the corporate world before venturing out to start his own marketing company. Although he continued to find success as a business owner, Randal still felt that he lacked financial security for his retirement years. Once he joined Six Figure Profession, Randal instantly saw benefits in the business that he hadn’t seen with any of his own endeavors. Although only four months in, Randal is already certain that it’s the key to a comfortable retirement. What made an already successful business owner turn to Six Figure Profession for financial security? Here’s Randal’s story.

Life Before Six Figure Profession

Randal, a Montana native, has had an incredibly successful career in sales and marketing. Having started out as a computer systems engineer for the NCR Corporation, he worked his way up the corporate ladder, working in various positions at different companies before becoming Vice President of Marketing for North America for a Kentucky-based printing company.

Although he loved that his career enabled him to travel, Randal and his wife of 28 years, Arlene, decided to raise their daughter Alexandra—who will graduate college this spring with an English Writing degree—closer to both of their families. So they moved to Idaho, where Randal landed a competitive position as the Global Head of Marketing for Syngenta, working there for three years before deciding to start his own business.

Randal enjoyed working on his own terms as a small business owner of several marketing companies, but he still felt that he lacked financial security. “For one of the companies I own, I’ve got a $20,000 a month overhead before I even get started each month. That’s a lot to overcome before you get to profitability. Furthermore, as a small business owner I don’t have a pension plan or anything like that in place. Much of what I do is from a consulting perspective, so my income will stop the day I stop working.”

Realizing that he needed to do something more to secure a retirement fund and avoid working for longer than he wanted, Randal was always on the lookout for other opportunities.

Taking Back Control 

“I was introduced to the business six years ago, but I didn’t really get into Six Figure Profession until I met someone at a local networking event who was very much into the business. I listened to her talk about the team—her excitement was evident. She also shared her vision for the future with me. It was exactly what I didn’t have in any of my other businesses. So I joined the Six Figure Profession family in December.”

Drawing on his marketing background and the support and structure in place at Six Figure Profession, Randal immediately dedicated himself to his new business, and he’s now certain that this is exactly what he and his wife need for their retirement years.

Living Life On His Own Terms

Although he only joined the team four months ago, Randal has already seen success. “I already have a residual income that I can count on.”

His strategy is to set manageable weekly goals, with the knowledge that if he achieves them, he’ll be on track to achieve his long-term goals. “I think it’s more important to focus on the weekly activity. In five to ten years, when I decide I’m no longer excited to run around and do small business marketing, I’ll have Six Figure Profession to fall back on. I believe this is going to afford me the freedom to decide what I want to do each day.”

What are his long-term goals? “My vision for Six Figure Profession is as a retirement plan of sorts. It’s something I can work on while I’m doing my business, so that by the time I retire, I’ll have a sustainable income. It’s like my 401k contribution.”

Randal and Arlene also have a passion for food and travel. “Travel is big for us. That was the reason I took the job as the Global Head of Marketing for Syngenta, so I could travel the world on somebody else’s dime. There are a lot of places I’d like to go back to and I’d like to be able to take my wife. I’m also quite a foodie, so taking a culinary tour of the world would just be fantastic.”

So far, Randal loves being a part of the Six Figure Profession team, particularly enjoying the support of his fellow team members, as well as having a structure already in place. “It’s more than I could have ever hoped for in a team and a support organization. The people are professional and fun. They’re a group of people that, even without the business, I’d still want to be friends with. In the corporate world, you’re forced to work with certain people that you don’t get along well with; with Six Figure Profession, you create your own business and pick who you work with.”

Another thing Randal appreciates is that the team had the structure in place to help him jump start his new business quickly. “What’s also been wonderful about Six Figure Profession is being able to just dive in and not have all of the traditional problems that come with trying to grow a new business hanging over your head.”

Randal knows business, and he knows how rare it is to find such a strong support system for new business endeavors. “I struggled when I first left corporate America and jumped into starting a business. I had to build it entirely from scratch. There were about 18 months where I was developing and building a new business without any money coming in. The Six Figure Profession approach is so much better. You can start learning everything now while you still have your income, and get comfortable with what you’re doing so that the day you decide to switch over and do it full-time, you hit the ground running.”

Randal still runs his marketing businesses—his “day job,” as he calls it—and draws on his professional network and corporate background to drive his success with Six Figure Profession—his “side job.” He explained, “I mostly deal with business people. I think it’s a natural fit. No matter what people are doing, there’s a way for them to link where they’re at today with what Six Figure Profession has to offer—they just have to be creative about how they make the connection.”

Randal’s Advice for Other Business People

“I think the most important thing is to have an open mind,” advised Randal. “Six Figure Profession has a different structure and approach than most business opportunities in the marketplace, so it’s going to look unusual. But the things you hope corporate America will give you… you’ll find all of that with Six Figure Profession. Best of all, you’ll have much more control over it than you did in corporate America.”