Jason’s Story

Welcome to my blog and thank you for stopping by!

Hi there, my name is Jason Bartels and I’m a “Lifestyle Business Coach” in the online home business industry. I’m interested in helping people find what they are truly looking for out of life, and then putting an action plan together to achieve these goals so they can start living their desired lifestyle.

To help people achieve this I created my blog, www.Define-Your-Lifestyle.com which you’ll find valuable information, tips, and strategies on personal development, business development, entrepreneurship, network marketing and online marketing. I also created my training site, www.DYLEntrepreneurInsitute.com which is where I have my online training courses, resources that I currently use, and coaching or consulting services for those that are looking for one on one guidance.

So first, a little about myself…

I grew up in Milwaukee, WI and surrounding areas. After graduating high school in 1992, I moved up to northern Wisconsin where my parents bought a resort. This was quite the shock for me, going from the city to the North-woods. I had no interest in fishing or hunting and I was always a shyer person, so it was difficult for me to meet people. I spent about a year helping around the resort and eventually was hired to work at a concrete and masonry company. I learned the trade very quickly and within five years I was a foreman for this company.

And the entrepreneur spirit comes out…

At age 25, I decided to start my own company, specializing in decorative concrete, fireplaces and stone work. In that year I also built my own house and got married. Needless to say, I was very busy. Over the next several years I worked a ton of hours building my business and doing finishing touches on the house. I had built a great reputation for the quality of work I provided, so my business was doing great. I thought I was living the dream, I was making a good income, buying multiple “toys”, racing snocross, going on several vacations, and hitting the party scene frequently. I figured things where going so good that I decided to expand my business so I could make more money, and that’s also when more headaches came. I got more customers, more employees, and more equipment, but the profit margin went down and so did the quality of work. I was spread too thin.

A shift in my mindset…

Shortly after this time, I picked up a book named Cashflow Quadrant by Robert Kiyosaki, and this book totally changed my way of thinking. I knew I had to do something different because I wasn’t getting the results I wanted. I realized I needed to start building a business where I could get a passive residual income and I new my traditional concrete business was not going to do this for me. The fact remained that my body wouldn’t be able to handle this physically demanding occupation for the rest of my life. I first started looking into buying rental properties, but after buying and owning one I realized it wasn’t for me, so I was definitely LOOKING!

My first introduction to network marketing…

Shortly after my rental property experience I received a call from a friend that invited me to a “meeting”. This was my first exposure to a network marketing company, and I fell in love with the concept. I just wasn’t sure if I could do it because I didn’t want to approach people. I did eventually join with the company and I did everything they told me to do, but I was struggling with it. I loved the people I met, the positive environment, and all the books I discovered (I never use to read before this, but now I love it.) I worked the mlm company for a couple of years and never had huge results, but I learned a ton about leadership and personal development.

And then I lost it all…

At age 32, the economy had taken a turn for the worse and I was in deep financial trouble ($750,000 in debt). So I drastically changed my lifestyle. I started selling everything I could to try to make ends meet and get the debt paid down (all my toys, a rental property, part of the land I owned, and some of the business equipment). In spite of selling much of my stuff, I was still in great debt and ended up dissolving my concrete business. We had an auction to sell most of our stuff and then sold the rest of the equipment to a concrete company in St. Paul, MN. This is the company I eventually went to work for.

We moved to Hudson, WI in July (just on the Wisconsin/Minnesota border), and I went to work as an employee again. This was eating me alive because it went against my entrepreneur spirit, but a cool manifestation story did come out of this (I’ll talk about this later). This whole lifestyle change was really tough on me, I felt like a failure. On top of that, my wife and I were disconnected and were having a hard time making it work. About six months later my wife moved out and we eventually got divorced. Again I felt like I had failed.

Finding myself…

In the next year, I moved to downtown St. Paul. I spent a l spent a great amount of time reflecting on my past and learning a lot about myself. I now realize that what I thought of failures at the time, actually were learning points in my life. EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR A REASON! I look back now and realize how much value I have gotten from those experiences, and how much better of a person it has made me, so I can help others that might be having similar struggles. Some people get stuck in the misery, and use the “poor me” excuse. I’m grateful to have taken risks in my life. Some people have told me I’ve lived more in 35 years than most people do in a lifetime. This may be true, but the point is sometimes you just have to take a step back and reflect on what you’re doing and where you are going. Ask yourself, “If I continue doing what I’m currently doing, am I going to get the results I desire?” If not, Change Something!!! I’m so glad I did.

Starting a new company…

During this time of reflection I started my company named Define Your Lifestyle LLC, which purpose is to educate, inspire, and empower people to live their desired lifestyle. The reason I started this company is because I wanted to teach people about having a clear business strategy when starting a business. I had learned the hard way from my experiences. When I started my concrete company, I did it to make more money. I had the skills to do it but went in blindly with no plan, other than to borrow money from the bank and work my but off. Over time I was unhappy because it wasn’t lining up with my true values and passions. That’s why I decided this time around to do it differently.

Going online with network marketing…

Eventually I was introduced to a different Network Marketing company that was based around travel. I was really excited about this because travel is one of the things I really enjoyed in life and it ties right in with the company I founded. I started out really strong with the network marketing company from all the excitement, but ended up not getting much for results again, building it the traditional way.

This is when I turned to the internet to look for ways to market online and came across The Renegade Network Marketer ebook, which talked about building a network marketing (mlm) company online. Eventually this led me to the Renegade Professional, which teaches (through video tutorials) how to market online using attraction marketing. This is how I learned about building a presence online and attracting people to me, instead of chasing people the traditional way. I didn’t focus on the network marketing company at all, I focused on building a business around me. I owe a big thanks to Ann Sieg and Mike Klingler for guiding me down the right path.

Then he falls in love…

Then I met and fell in love with Jennifer, who has four wonderful children. I was hooked, so I kind of put my business on the side for the time being. I spent a good year focusing on building a strong foundation for our relationship. I have never been as close and connected to someone in my life, and I am so grateful that fate has brought us together. Sometimes you don’t realize that things can get any better until they appear, and then you just know. Life just keeps getting better.

Back to business…

Over time I decided to get focused on my business and I joined Coaching Cognition, because I figured it would be a great asset to help me with what I wanted to accomplish. I also hired Mike Wilson for some coaching sessions, to help me get clear about my business. Just a little hint here: hiring a coach is one of the most helpful things I have done to help bring clarity in my life and business. Definitely find and hire a coach to help you along your journey.

As I moved forward I continued to learn a ton about building a business online. I bought many different training courses and eventually came to a point where I was making my own products. This was unbelievable, because a couple of years before this I barely new how to send an email.My first product I made is a 40 minute e-dvd: “7 Marketing Stategies Every Entrepreneur Needs” which is a free product I give away. After making this product I discovered I really liked teaching some of the techie stuff, which was once a challenge for me. So I made another training course: “WordPress Blogging For Beginners” which helps people set up a self hosted, search engine optimized WP blog.

A change in perspective…

As I was making products and deciding about marketing my mlm, I came to the decision to find a different travel company that was a bigger ticket item. I figured if I’m going to spend all this time setting up marketing funnels to have a network marketing company as a back end product, why not make a big commission verses a couple hundred dollar commission. It just started to all make sense, so I looked around and switched to Global Resorts Network, which Mike Wilson and Ann Sieg had just joined with Mark Hoverson. I finally felt I was in the right spot as far as a company, because I was tied in with some big leaders who where strictly focused with online marketing.

A new vision…

My goal was to have something set up to teach the new people that decided to partner with me in business, so I started the DYL Entrepreneur Institute. This is where I’ll have all of my free and paid training courses. I plan is to have a training course put together to help people get really focused and to truly know why they’re starting a business before they dive in head first.

Mike Klingler’s Marketing Funnel Mastery  has really helped with some of my business ideals. It just helps so much to lay it all out and go through the whole process several times. By doing this, it’s lead me to some new ideals to tie everything I’m working on together. I think it’s so important to do what Mike’s teaching, it’s exactly what I wanted to get across to  people when I decided to start Define Your Lifestyle LLC. “If You Don’t Know Where You’re Going, How Do You Expect To Get There”

What’s going on now…

My newest project I’m working on, “Lifestyle Business Formula”, is going to be several different products packaged into one. This will be available by specific products, a whole package and membership to DYL Entrepreneur Institute, or free to those whole become a business partner with me in GRN. I’m really excited about all the possibilities this will provide for my new clients and business partners.

I hope this helped you get to know me a little. Let me know if there’s anything I can help you with.

To a prosperous future,

Jason Bartels

LIVE YOUR DREAMS TODAY!