But let's back up.

You might remember 2008. The economy was in a shambles. The housing market was in crisis. The US government had to bail out the automotive industry to keep it from collapsing.

And me? Well, I worked in a tiny factory right in the middle of the rust belt, where we were making an alarmingly smaller number of car parts every single month.

That year, I drove to work each morning wondering if that would be the day I'd find the building permanently shuttered and me and my 150 coworkers out of work. I was desperate for other options, but I had two things working against me: First, the economy. There weren't any jobs to be had. Also, I was woefully underqualified for the job I had, so making a move to another employer was out, unless I wanted to take a serious cut in pay.

By that Thanksgiving, I'd turned in my company laptop and traded my cubicle for a corner office—a corner of my basement, that is. I lovingly referred to my new digs as "the dungeon" because it was so dark and damp, but over the years I spent in my dungeon, I helped to build dozens of six- and seven-figure empires for my clients.

I wrote sales pages and designed funnels for product sellers. I created webinars and ran ad campaigns for coaches. I built membership sites and forums; I managed email campaigns and Facebook groups; I even did a little website coding.

Then one Christmas I realized something.