Dear friend, 

 

Thanks for taking the time to learn a little more about me, and how this agency came about to become one of the most sought after companies in branding & online marketing in the business community. In the last 5 years, I've accomplished milestones I never thought would come to pass. I've also hit rock bottom a few times in the process! Success doesn't come without failure but for me, I don't see them as failures, only opportunities to learn something new!

 

I know everything happens for a reason in my life, and it has proven me right time and time again. It's usually when my wife says "I told you so" after letting my guard down or jumping on another opportunity that just didn't pan out. 

 

I welcome the risk though, I thrive on the opportunity to challenge myself to take my business to new heights. It's the only way to grow. Decisiveness is what creates the difference between winners and losers. I like to push the limits to see what I'm made of. Sometimes, I even surprise myself! It also scares me. It scares me to know I'll risk everything to make sure my family has the security they deserve. The life I've never had. The opportunities I had to discover on my own. 

 

My journey started in 2010. I had just left a secure 6 figure income to build my own dream. My mentor at the time, Gale Oliver, was grooming me to become a leader in the company I was with. The only problem was, I was impatient. I gave that company 2 years of my life, not much in the terms of what others go through, but for me, it was more than enough time to prove my worth. 

 

Long story short, the company was not my calling. It didn't give me a sense of pride after a long day. It didn't make me a better person. It wasn't me. I left that company and decided I was going to stop building someone else's dream and to start to build my own. 

 

Once I had left the company I was at, I knew I wanted to be as far away from that industry as I could, so I focused my efforts in developing something B2B (business to business) since my previous employment was a B2C (business to consumer) type business. It started with a lead generation software I had developed. It allowed me to get thousands of leads online within seconds by industry which I started to sell to businesses that ran call centers. Selling leads got boring so I looked into other industries to tap into. 

 

I originally thought I should get into SEO, but after testing the waters with an Inc. 500 rated company, and seeing that even with a large, well-funded business model, they were still getting, at best, a 50% success rate at what they did. I knew it wasn't for me. Plus, I'm innovative; SEO is a very saturated market so I set out to create something new. 

 

I started to look into this craze called "Social Media" to find my answer, specifically Facebook. Back in 2010, no one was paying attention to Facebook as a viable source for business contacts but I saw something different. I saw a blank canvas waiting to be painted. 

 

Back then, Facebook was very plain. It was still competing with MySpace for market share as well! I knew the potential and set out to pioneer this growing industry. I created an application for Facebook pages that allowed me to use web design. My only experience was a computer basics class I took in high school so my coding skills needed more developing! I turned to my favorite teacher... GOOGLE!

 

I FOUND MY PASSION, design & creating digital works of art! I started building Facebook Websites in 2011 and once it started to take off, I knew I needed to take it to the next level. That's when I opened up my very own sales office, about 2 blocks from Disneyland in Anaheim! I went from a couple clients per month to 100 new clients our 1st month in business with our sales team. Within 6 months, we hit over $100,000 in sales! There was only 1 problem... duplication!

 

I didn't expect that many clients so quickly and our customer support suffered because of it. I needed a way to automate what I was teaching my clients to do. I tried to wear too many hats and it caused my business to have to jump hurdle after hurdle looking to make it work!

 

After a year, I decided to take the business home while I put my wife through beauty school and certifications as a bartender. (Hey, my wife has passions too!) This also let me focus on putting together a lot of automated training, videos, e-books, etc. to help my customers and let me be able to take on more clients per month. We were generating thousands of leads without the ability to take on the new business because of our limitations on support. 

 

After 2 years, I was ready! By that time, I had been able to make a pretty good name for myself in the business community. I was a paid consultant to over 500 brands worldwide at the time while also gaining industry knowledge through workshops, seminars, masterminds, etc.! I was named "One of the Best" by Facebook in 2013 when they hit a million advertisers, featured on Bloomberg Radio, NBC, graduated from CEO Space International, interviewed and feature on many publications as well as sponsoring dozens of events to grow our brand awareness. My training had also become 100% automated and I setup systems of duplication to be able to tackle whatever God put in front of me. 

 

I had also added a few products to our agency to give our client's what they've been asking for. We launched with 1 product, Facebook Websites in 2011, and now we offer a variety of services for branding your business online:

 

- Logo Design / 3D Your Logo

- HD Video Commercials

- Logo Animation Videos

- HTML5 Website Design

- Native Smartphone Mobile Apps

 

I tried as long as I could to keep the business a "work from home" type so I could spend as much time with my family as a stay at home dad. I gave 3 beautiful babies and an incredible wife of 10+ years that keep me driven in whatever I put my mind to. I've completed my family (hopefully) with 2 boys and a baby girl I welcomed in December of 2014. As much as I loved to be a "work from home dad" for my kids, I wasn't able to keep up with the demand my business had developed with my automated lead generation systems. I was only able to follow up with about 10% of the leads that were coming in. I needed a new sales office to handle the growth. 

 

The same week my daughter was born, I got the keys to our new sales office in La Palma, CA. Atop the highest building in the city, I overlook the OC with a clear view to downtown LA! My business has grown leaps and bounds while also knocking me down a time or two along the way to keep me humble. There's no success without struggle and boy have I struggled! There were many times I didn't know where my next meal was coming from, negative balances in the bank account, debt collectors calling.

 

I always looked at these obstacles as tests. Tests of my faith, my endurance, & my passion. To see if this really was what I wanted in life. Every time I got knocked down, I got up twice as fast! That's the way you need to be in business if you want to succeed. I've never been afraid of a challenge and now that I've been through what I've been through, I know I can face anything!

 

Being orphaned at 18 months, adopted and returned 7 times, living a life with abuse and confusion, to finding a way to push through it all and become what I've become, it shows the strength of my fortitude to be everything I was destined to be. I'm going to change the world, one business at time, one person at a time, one child at a time. 

 

Right about the time I started my company, I came across a quote online: "I believe we are all created for greatness, not mediocrity. That we are to live our lives accordingly, striving to be agents of change, as we attempt to leave this world a better place than we found it!"

 

I've lived by that motto every day. I strive to be the greatest in my industry. I'm far from it, but I'm closer than I was yesterday and I'll be closer tomorrow. I look forward to helping you in your business and always remember, you are too blessed to be stressed!

 

- Manny Lopez  |  Founder & CEO  | Call/Text: 929-277-7411  |  manny@customonlinebranding.com