|
arduous as that of her parents
and grandparents. They were Latvian immigrants,
displaced by World War II, who traveled halfway
around the globe to
build a new life in an unfamiliar country. That
decision to leave everything behind and endure
whatever hardship came their way made it possible for
their descendants to prosper in a way they never could
have dreamed of. Their courage became a source of
pride and inspiration that has served Ilze well.
|
Ilze's
mother Vizma and grandmother Oma
with young Ilze and her brother Marty |
"I
don’t have a lot of details about their lives before
they emigrated from Latvia because it was a subject
they didn't like talking about," Ilze said.
"However, before my mother, Vizma, passed
away, I sat down with her and got her to discuss some
of her less painful memories."
"Born in Liepaja,
Latvia, she was able to finish four years of high
school before the war and in the 1940’s she and her
mother, (my “Oma”), worked in a Latvian
ammunition factory. One of the stories that my mother
remembered vividly was when my Grandmother, who
worked in the kitchen of the factory, brought home a
single potato that was given to her by the kitchen
boss. The other people living in the apartment made a
big stink - lots of yelling and arguing. They
were jealous that my mother and grandmother had a
potato to eat. Every time I eat a potato I think
of those hard times and appreciate my own life." |
|
|
"My
mother worked in the same factory making ammunition
boxes and both she and my Grandmother lived in that
apartment building until it was bombed out by
enemy shelling. Vizma recalled that when she ran out
of the building she found the one kettle they
used to cook in down the street and it was still in
one piece! Well, that kettle found its way to America
and I remember to this day cooking potatoes and soups
in it."
"From
Latvia, they found their way to Germany to a
Displaced Persons Camp and this is where my mother, at
age 19, met my father, Gunars," Ilze
continued. "He was there with his family along
with thousands of other displaced persons from
all over Eastern Europe. My father saw my mother for
the first time at the food barracks and later they met
at a dance. It seems it was love at first
sight. Both of their families eventually left Hamburg
by boat and arrived in New York City with my
mother and Oma then moving on to Terre Haute,
Indiana because there were jobs waiting for them
there. After working as maids for one year, they moved
back to New York to live in a boarding house owned by
a Latvian. My mother
|
Ilze's
mother Vizma cooking with the kettle
retrieved from her Latvian apartment
building
after it was bombed in World War II. |
|
found housework on Long Island
but got fired soon after because during a rain
storm the windows were left open!" |
While
that was a setback for a young woman struggling to get
by in a foreign country, Vizma's fortunes would soon
change. "Throughout this time she stayed in touch
with Gunars who was in California picking
oranges to make ends meet," Ilze said. "He then moved to Mount Vernon, Ohio where his
family had relocated and eventually both their
families moved to Shaker Heights where Vizma and
Gunars got married. I was born there and
my brother and best friend, Marty, was born one
year later."
Ilze's
parents, Vizma and Gunars Kaulins, starting a new life
in America.
"My
father started his own roofing business and my mother
eventually got a job at the upscale Halle Brothers department
store doing “key punch” data entry. Looking back,
the interesting part was that she was on the cutting
edge of the computer/Internet revolution
without realizing it!," Ilze mused. "My
childhood was a happy one as I had Marty to play with
and as a child life seemed pretty good. We had
lots of family gatherings and joined a Latvian church
where Marty and I learned to speak Latvian, as well as
embrace the “old country” culture."
|
The
family made another short move within northeastern
Ohio to Warrensville Heights where Ilze and
Marty (who accompanies Ilze to many domain conferences
today) spent their school years from kindergarten through
high school. During that time, when Ilze was 10 years
old, a new sister, Rita, was born.
"It was wonderful having a little sister
to play with and take care of," Ilze recalled.
"We are all still close to this very day! I will
always remember that our Grandmother lived with us and
took care of us while our parents went to work. My
grades were average and I never even thought about college.
Financially, it was not an option and I couldn't
wait until school was over so I was lucky just to have
graduated from high school."
Now
that she was out in the real world, Ilze had to figure
out how to make a living. She would prove to be a
quick learner with an aptitude for both early
technology and sales - fields that would remain a
constant in her life right up to today. "When my
mother worked in the key-punch department she insisted
that I learn the same skills," Ilze said.
"She also passed on an early life lesson
telling me "Get your own skills and never
count on a man to support you!” |
Ilze's
high school senior year photo |
"My
first real job, after working at Royal Castle flipping
burgers at 15, was in a part-time school work program
doing programming and data entry for computers!
Of course, The internet as
we know it didn't even exist at the time but somehow,
with the support of my mother, I became very familiar
with the keyboard and could type and input data like a
maniac," Ilze laughed. Even so, she was
not crazy about the job because she hated sitting at a
desk all day. "I think I missed the “human
element” most of all - not being able to talk and
interact with people. My friends will confirm that
shyness is not a part of my personality!"
Data
entry whiz Ilze Kaulins burns up the keyboard as her
appreciative boss looks on.
"When
I graduated from high school my grandmother gave me
$300 to buy my first car, an ugly brown Rambler,"
Ilze recalled. "I quit my part time computer job
and answered an ad in the newspaper to sell waterless
cookware and “hope chest” items to young, single
women with jobs, living at home. The company put me in
a room with a list of phone numbers, and told me to
“get the appointment!” I made appointments
for the salesmen and then eventually, I was allowed to
go out on my own sales calls."
|
Ilze's
mother Vizma had some
misgivings about her daughter's
career choice but sales turned out
to be a perfect fit for Ilze. |
" Back then, in the
late 60s, almost every girl aspired to “landing that
perfect husband!” Our target market was nurses
because they could afford the very expensive china,
silverware etc. The nurses lived at home with their
parents who had to be present at the “pitch”,
along with co-signing for the sale. My mother thought
I was nuts, and she could never understand how
I could give up a steady job at the key-punch machine,
processing data, in exchange for an unreliable
commission only job. If I did not sell
anything, I did not get a paycheck."
Despite
her mother's misgivings the sales job was right up
Ilze's alley. " I worked morning until late at night
developing my sales skills," Ilze said. " It was very
fulfilling to start from “zero” and create a sale
where none existed. I loved what I was
doing, so I never considered sales hard work.
This is where I developed my fearless “Cold Calling
Skills”. To this day, I am able to contact
anyone, anywhere, and ask for the appointment.
I read books by Napoleon Hill, and Dale Carnegie and
later embraced Tony Robbins. I currently am a
student of the Abraham – Hicks “Law of
Attraction” theory and practice being aware and
thankful every day."
A
good salesperson can sell anything and that is a
skill set that would soon send Ilze on a
new
|
|
journey, far from
her Midwestern home. " I quickly moved
from selling cookware to selling print media,"
Ilze said. "My
first job was for Exit Magazine, an alternative music
and lifestyle publication in Cleveland. After that I
was hired by
Cleveland Magazine in 1975, to set up their Classified
Advertising section. Once that was accomplished, I
decided to move to California for some adventure.
I filled up my new orange Buick with all my
belongings, and drove across country with my CB radio,
chatting all the way. “Breaker 1-9 Copy
that!,” she laughed. " Back then, we did not
have cell phones so, I realize now, I loved
communicating with people, regardless of who they
were, even if they were stuck in a truck!
I had no idea where I was headed, and I realize now
that was the best part. Every day was new,
different and a challenge!," Ilze exclaimed. |
Of
course, as soon as Ilze reached California she did the
same thing every newcomer does - headed to the beach -
but her stay there didn't last long. "I found
out very, very quickly that living in Redondo
Beach
was expensive, and that the real jobs were located in
the city of Los Angeles. So, I ended up moving to the affordable part of
Hollywood and had the best time living in that
run-down apartment building, meeting the most
eccentric people ever! Everyone in Cleveland
thought I was living the glamorous life, but I never
saw any famous people!," Ilze laughed. That is
something that would change too.
|
"I ended up working for some really crazy
companies. One of the guys in my apartment
building worked putting on decals for a company called
BeetleBoards. He got me an interview
and I was
hired as an Operations Manager based on my sales
skills and independent nature. Some Angelenos may
remember seeing decaled Volkswagens running around
town. BeetleBoards would sell advertising
to companies like Brown and Williamson Cigarettes for
Kool, Levis Jeans, and Clairol Shampoo. These
companies would pay Volkswagen Beetle owners every
month to drive around in a decaled car. Drivers would get inspected
monthly |
A
Volkswagen transformed into a
rolling advertisement by BeetleBoards. |
|
at the local Maaco body
shop for a clean and undamaged car and, only if they
passed inspection, would they get a check in the mail. I traveled from
city to city meeting with Maaco paint shops and
recruiting VW Beetle drivers, offering them free paint
jobs for their cars if they promoted various
products. I cringe at the
thought now, promoting cigarette smoking, but back in
the early 70s smoking was still politically
correct," Ilze noted. |
|
|
Above:
Ilze backstage with Bruce Springsteen
(August 1975)
Below:
Ilze with John Travolta at a
Welcome Back Kotter cast party
|
Ilze
next move put her back in the print media
world - this time in Tinseltown - a
place where she often found herself in the
same room with some of those famous people her
friends back in Ohio thought she had been
seeing all along. "After BeetleBoards, I
was hired to sell ads for the LA WEEKLY
newspaper, which continues to be very
successful today. After a stint there, I was
offered a job in Venice Beach to sell
advertising for WET MAGAZINE,
which, at the time, was the coolest and
hippest Lifestyle publication, outside of Andy
Warhol’s Interview. I made
less money, but the perks were
amazing!," Ilze recalled.
" WET writers were
interviewing the cutting edge artists and musicians of that time, like
the Talking Heads, Bryan Ferry,
Helmut Newton, David Hockney and Deborah
Harry. I
worked Melrose Avenue and the Sunset Strip like it was
my backyard! I wined and dined record company
executives and spent my evenings at the Roxy or
Barrymore’s, “networking”. It was the most
fun time of my life! Hanging with the L.A. crowd
in the late 70s was a dream. I loved going to
the clubs, dancing to the disco beat of Donna Summer
or hanging out backstage with Huey Lewis and his band.
How I got any work done, I will never know!,"
Ilze laughed. " It
was during this time that I met some really nice
people like Bruce Springsteen, Boz Scaggs and
John Travolta. For a midwestern girl, these were
exciting times!"
As
much fun as she was having Ilze eventually
noticed that her bank account wasn't getting
any bigger. "In
1981 I realized that I had to move forward in my
profession and make some real cash," Ilze said.
"The “ah-ha” moment came from
meeting Arlene Kaplan, a female account
executive at one of LA's leading oldies
|
|
radio stations, KRTH
101. Arlene was driving a Cadillac
and sporting some very nice bling. I remember
asking her what the pay was like selling radio
time and what her commission structure was
like. It didn't take a math genius to see that
I was doing the same work selling advertising,
but making less money. A lot less! So the very
next week I enrolled in a Media selling course
offered by UCLA."
|
"All
the teachers were currently employed
by radio and TV stations and this is
where I did my networking and
eventually got a job selling airtime
for KFAC, LA's only Classical
radio station. It was a niche sell,
but this is where I fell in love with
Opera and discovered that I loved to
travel. I became the station’s first
Travel Editor and wrote a daily
Travel segment that aired during the
afternoon drive time. I was invited on
junkets to Europe with other
journalists and remember so clearly
seeing what “first-class” travel
was all about. Five star hotels
and First Class cabins! I knew one day
I would be able to afford to travel in
comfort!," |
Ilze's
KFAC Radio business card |
|
Ilze said
- and her prediction would eventually
come true - but the future she
envisioned would not be in L.A. |
|
"As
exciting as Los Angeles was, it eventually lost its
appeal," Ilze said. "Everyone wanted to be a movie star, or
know a movie star, and that left me with quite a few
empty personal relationships. I wanted to
be back home in Ohio, where Middle America values
still existed and where I could spend more time with
my family. I was lucky enough to be
offered a job by the famous Walter Tiburski,
the guru of famous rock station WMMS Radio in Cleveland.
He had just taken over another radio station, WQAL,
Cleveland’s new easy listening alternative and he
was looking for an Account Executive that could call
on advertising agencies and work with difficult media
buyers."
"I
moved back to Cleveland, took the job, and shortly
after that, with the help of our match-making
siblings, met the Love of my Life, my husband John!
We met on Thanksgiving Day and that day will always
be one of the most important days in my life. A few
years prior to that, my brother Marty had married a beautiful Canadian
girl named Irene and her very handsome brother
was John! It was love at first sight for us when
we met at my parent’s house for Thanksgiving dinner.
Marty and Irene set us up to be the God Parents to
their first son, Alexander. When John and I met
we were both 36 years old. At that time in our
lives we had zero interest in having children but
that is exactly what happened! He proposed two
years later, also on a Thanksgiving, and it didn't take me
long to quit my job and move to the Canada to start a
family. Having children was the best thing
that could have ever happened to us. We are so proud
to have our two children, Gerrit and Natasha in our
lives!"
"After
we moved to Canada in 1989, I immediately got
pregnant with Gerrit and 16 months later Natasha joined him. We had the perfect
family and those years of being a Mom were the best
ever! Still, leaving Cleveland and moving to
Quebec was certainly a culture shock. I
had no friends and we lived in the country. There was
no Starbucks on the corner to hang out
|
Ilze
& John's Wedding Day |
|
in and my best
friends were the bears and raccoons that
populated the backyard," Ilze laughed. Of
course, as we all know, the only constant in
life is change and Ilze's life was about to
change yet again - and this change would lead
her right into the domain world.
Ilze
& John with their children Gerrit &
Natasha |
"By the time the
kids were old enough for school, I was certainly ready to
look for a job," Ilze said. "As I look back I will never
forget my phone call to my neighbor, JoAnne, asking to
borrow her typewriter so I could prepare my resume.
It was after she stopped laughing hysterically that she told me
typewriters no longer existed and that I
had to use a data word processor. Yikes!
A lot had happened in ten years. I took a
course at the local community college on how to use
Excel and Word and very quickly found out that
NO ONE
was interested in hiring me. I had no experience
in the Canadian marketplace, and I was over 50. OK,
Plan B. I decided to start a company
designing websites and that is when I realized I
needed ONE domain. Just One." Ilze
didn't know that domain are like potato chips - no one
can eat just one!
|
" I contacted
Internic, a registrar owned my Momentous and
Rob Hall,
which was based here in Ottawa. I was told on
the phone that I had to wait to register a .CA
domain
until November 1. This was only a few days away
and this date represented the first release of .CA
domains
to the public. Until this date, the .CA was free
to business owners - provided they could meet certain
provincial requirements," Ilze said. " Canada was getting into
the domain business, spearheaded by CIRA (Canadian
Internet Registration Association). The timing
of all of this can only be called Kismet and I was on
the path to being the first and only woman to own and
manage one of the most valuable .CA domain portfolios in
Canada. Who would have guessed that fifteen years
later, the prestigious T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference would
honor me with their first and only “Women in
Domaining Award!”
"In the
days approaching the .CA release, hundreds of people were
queuing up to grab a premium domain," Ilze
recalled. " In domain jargon, it was the first
drop for the .CA. Up
here in Canada, they call it TBR (To Be released).
I had no idea what a Premium domain was. All I
knew was that I needed only one domain for my new
website. Since I was not sure if I would get the
domain name I wanted, I applied for 10 names at
$100 per registration, figuring I
should get one or two. The people at Internic
told me that if I “grabbed” all 10 names, I could
return the domains I did not want and get my money
back. Internic was charging everyone for
all the TBR domains up front to prevent "cyber
squatting”. At the time, I was |
Ilze
receiving T.R.A.F.F.I.C. Women
in Domaining Award (Nov. 1, 2014) |
|
not familiar with the
term but I see now it made
absolutely no sense. It was the Wild West
up here. The Registrars, along with CIRA, were
just making up the rules as they went along.
Of course, I got all the domains I registered because
they were of no value to anyone but me - that is they
were not
commercially sellable, like say, cars.ca or trucks.ca." |
|
|
"I
registered domains like Web101.ca, WebVision.ca,
WebDoctor.ca, and WebProgramming.ca. Of
course, I was stuck with paying for all 10 domains and I
was not happy with the $1,000 expenditure that
appeared on my husband’s credit card. For days I called Internic asking for the
refund that
they promised me, but to no avail. It was during
this time that Loans.com was sold in the U.S. for
$3 million to Bank of America. My husband
suggested that I just keep the domains and sell them.
When I tried to find a website to list them on, all
that existed were U.S. sites, like Afternic, and the
.CA did not have much chance of being noticed, much
less sold. |
|
It was at that point that I decided to
create my own
website to showcase these lowly 10 domains. Of
course I had to have more than 10 domains to list, so
I decided to hand register approximately 60 more
.CA
domains. With John’s credit cards, and most
importantly, his emotional support, I started to
populate my website with, what I thought were sellable
.CA domains," Ilze said. |
Though
it was never what she intended, Ilze suddenly found
herself in the domain business - a business she didn't
yet know enough about. "
There were domainers in Canada, like Peter Maxymych,
Frank Schilling and Jason Chapnik, who already knew the
domain system and were experts at registering the
premium one-word generics," she noted. " Maxymych would later
sell part of his portfolio to Yellow Pages Canada for
a whopping $ 2.5 million and we all know how
successful Frank Schilling is and continues to be.
Canada has so many successful domainers that I was
fortunate that they all embraced me and many helped
mentor me. Adam Dicker’s DNForum is based in
Canada and was a serious tool for me when it came to
communicating with other domainers."
|
Ilze
at the 2012 T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
East Conference at Fort Lauderdale
Beach, Florida. |
"I ended
up dropping all of the domains that I had originally
registered that initial day and replaced them with
true key-word generics. I realized I could not
afford to hand-register hundreds of domains just to
make my website more commercially appealing, so I
reached out to numerous Canadian domainers and
offered to list their domains on my website for free.
I put in a “French” link and became long-time
friends with Fernand Camire, who showed me the value
of an acronym. After an “acronym
lesson”, I asked one of my Registrars to run a
program and parse out all the unregistered 3-
letter acronyms ending in the letter i, c, e, s, a,
and l. I hand-registered over
500 in one fell swoop and later started to go after
all the 2-letter domains I could get my hands on.
I contacted every owner of a 2-letter name and offered to
buy them. I ended up collecting some very nice
domains, like HI.ca, AD.ca, FB.ca, Ma.ca VP.ca and
XM.ca. Currently I own close to 80 LL.ca
domains."
"
During this time I also registered several hundred
Travel related domains, like CubaTravel.ca,
HawaiiTravel.ca, and MexicoTravel.ca. However, when I
tried to sell these domains to the Travel industry, no
one was interested. I had a huge renewal bill coming
up and not one single domain sale!
This is
when I met one of the most influential people in my
domain career - Chris Stewart. He contacted
me after receiving one of my sales letters, and
suggested I get in touch with Ron Sheridan from
Domain
Sponsor in Los Angeles and find out about their PPC
(pay per click) program," Ilze said.
"After
uploading my entire portfolio to Domain |
|
Sponsor, I started to see
real-time pennies start to accumulate in my
PPC
account. My husband and I were so excited to see
that there was another way to earn money from my
domain portfolio. It was the beginning of
a very lucrative business for me. In
addition to earning money on my own domains, I signed
up every Canadian domainer I could find and received
a referral commission on their PPC earnings.
As PPC grew as a business, my paychecks increased to
the point where selling domains took a back seat.
I started to focus on registering domains that would
generate traffic. I worked with Clickbank and
TrafficZ and Skenzo, making the most out of this
opportunity. Of course, the PPC
business has since collapsed, but I still receive a
nice paycheck every month. Thankfully, I still own
many of my original generic domains.
Stupidly, I dropped many of them, when I saw they had
no PPC traffic. Oh well, live and learn!" |
|
While Ilze now
had a very profitable business, one thing was
still missing - the social interaction that
has always been such an important part of her
life. " I felt very isolated. At the time the only person I could discuss my business
with was my husband," Ilze said. "But then I
read in one of the blogs about a domain
conference, called T.R.A.F.F.I.C., run by
Rick Schwartz and Howard and Barbara
Neu. So I attended my
first domain conference at the Hyatt in New
York |
|
City in June
2007.
I did not know a single person, but by the end of the
conference, I had made many friends and I was awed by
the caliber of investors that I had only read about in
the blogs. I was hooked and
invited my brother Marty to join me at the next
conference in Florida. We had so much fun
attending the seminars, bidding at the auctions and
getting to know some of the nicest people in the
world!"
"It was during this time that
I started to add the .com to my portfolio. Previously, I had only purchased
.CA domains and some .biz and .info
which turned out to be a
disaster for me as an investment.
Marty became an integral part of my domain business as he
has an in-depth financial and Investment background.
Marty and I started Baltic Internet Marketing Inc. in
2008 and |
Ilze
with brother and business partner Marty |
|
have added some nice domains to our
portfolio, such as Banks.ca and ChickenRecipes.com.
Although Marty has his hands full managing his Real
Estate Investment properties he still finds time to
stay involved in our Domain investments," Ilze
noted.
|
|
|
|
While hundreds of
new gTLDs have arrived on the scene in
the past year Ilze isn't convinced she needs
to expand her focus beyond .com and .CA.
"The .CA seems to still be growing, according to the statistics at www.CIRA.ca.
To date, there are well over 2 million .CA
names registered," Ilze noted.
"And I think the
.com is here to stay. I have yet to see a single
New TLD being branded. Google might have bought
abc.xyz, but if you go onto the street and ask the
regular guy who will eventually own a website, thus
needing a domain name, I doubt if he will say he wants
a .xyz!"
"In Canada, he will want a
.CA, and, if
he can register it, also the .com. I have gone
thru the .biz, .info, .mobi, etc, and I have been
reminded of what I have always known - people do
not
like change. They know and understand the .com
and the .com will rule for a long time to come.
Of course, as our kids grow older and |
|
become decision
makers and end-users there is always the possibility
of more extensions being used. My crystal Ball only
goes one decade at a time," Ilze laughed.
|
The
main reason Ilze doesn't place even bigger bets on her
preferred extensions is that bargains are getting
harder to come by. "Investment opportunities are becoming more expensive
for the average Canadian investor. I have
stopped doing the TBR Drops because the bidding prices
are just too high, with not enough profit to justify
holding on to a domain, waiting for it to sell,"
she said. "I am lucky that I have a huge portfolio of sellable
acronyms and generics that pay the bills. Although I
will be spending my time selling .CA domains, I am
still always looking for that .com gem!'
|
Looking ahead
Ilze has reason to be optimistic about the
future of her business especially since she
added a new partner last year. "
My son Gerrit was bit by the domain bug when he
attended his first T.R.A.F.F.I.C. conference at the
Bellagio in Las Vegas in May 2014," Ilze
confirmed. " He was
embraced immediately by the domain community and
especially after meeting Barbara and Howard, he felt
like he was “home”.
"He reads all the blogs,
especially DNJournal.com. He particularly enjoys the
conversations at Domain Sherpa and the
interesting conversation over at DomainGang!
I think he probably knows more about the state
of the domain industry today than I do! He is
pretty busy as he is in the process of building his
brokerage business, while still managing the sales at www.ExcellentDomains.ca
and finishing his Marketing/Computer Science degree at
McGill University." |
Ilze
and her son Gerrit at the T.R.A.F.F.I.C.
Las Vegas Conference in May 2014. |
Ilze's
daughter has also gotten involved and husband John has
remained her rock. "Natasha, who
currently attends Carleton University and is a player
on the Women’s basketball team is involved
with the accounting aspect of my company and
helps manage the day to day operations when I am
out of town. I credit my husband, John with
supporting me financially and emotionally when I
started this business. When he finds time to get
away from his Horse Farm, and his Real Estate
business, he is always the first person to talk about
our domain business. When he can, he makes a rare
appearance at one of the Domain Conferences. He
plans on attending the Neu family's new show, THE
Domain Conference, in Fort Lauderdale this
month (September 2015). Because
Gerrit and Natasha are both interested in the Domain
Business, I plan on working with them on the
Brokerage/Sales aspect. I have collected enough
domains to keep everyone busy selling! It is
reassuring to me to know that my business will pass on
to my children when I cross over to the other side."
The
family that works and plays together, stays
together! John, Gerrit, Ilze and Natasha
While
the domain business may have seemed like an unlikely
place for Ilze to land, looking back, she thinks that
in a way, it all makes sense. "Historically, I have always
looked for the challenge and this was certainly the
greatest challenge to date. To think that a
person could purchase a domain for under $100
and sell it for thousands and to think that
person was going to be me was also crazy but I
believed if anyone could do it, I certainly could,"
Ilze said. "I worked around the clock collecting domains. In
Canada, the drops were at midnight every day for
many years. I would spend endless hours going
over domains, setting up auctions and then bidding on
them, sometimes, bidding more than our family could
really afford. I had no idea what I was getting
into. Yes, the concept was “out there” but
it was an exciting challenge," Ilze said.
"As the years
went by and I was earning money from sales and PPC, I
became very excited about discovering the “Domaining
Community." For five years, the only person I
could really talk to about domains was my husband.
No one else understood what I was doing. Knowing
I could finally meet with people that did the same
thing I did was so exciting. I would say,
bar none, the most important benefit to me personally
have been the wonderful people I have met. The
domaining industry changes, as all industries do, but
The people remain the same. I know when I go to
any domain conference or gathering I will have lots of
laughs and the people there are genuine. My
first friend (although she probably does not know it)
was Barbara Neu. When I arrived at my first
domain conference in New York City, she was there to welcome me
and make me feel like a million dollars, as did her husband
Howard and son Ray. She
manages to do that to everyone, even to this
day!"
(L
to R): Barbara Neu, Ilze Kaulins-Plascakz, Marty
Kaulins and Howard Neu
at the 2011 T.R.A.F.F.I.C. East Conference at Fort
Lauderdale Beach, Florida.
"I understand exactly how Gerrit
felt when he attended his first conference two years
ago," Ilze concluded. "Outsiders might think we are a bit
“clicky”, but they are wrong. We are family
and I am so
lucky to have so many friends in this
business.
I know that when I see these people I get a huge hug
and that they are my friends. There is no agenda. Just
a pure love for being alive and being a part of
something very special!"
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