Growing up on a poultry farm near Pittsburgh, PA, and being the oldest of 5 boys, I understood strong family values, hard work and the spirit of competition.

I had the good fortune of attending one of the best medical schools in the nation—University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and participated in one of the first residency programs in family practice in Indianapolis, Indiana. I even got to ride in the emergency vehicle for the Indy 500!

Following my residency, I serviced our country as a medical officer in the USAF, stationed in Sacramento. That’s what brought my former wife and me to California. My “old” residency buddy, Joe, brought me to Santa Rosa in 1973 to start our family practice of medicine. Our practice grew rapidly into a large and thriving business.

A few years later I found myself a single dad, raising a son and daughter and running a large medical practice. I was the dad carrying the huge “mobile” phone at my son’s Little League games—always trying to be there for my kids and still available to take call from my patients.

Liking to live life on the edge, I was always “up” for challenges. Some of the things I’ve accomplished are earning a commercial pilots license, sky diving, snow skiing, including helicopter skiing in Canada, water skiing, sailing and mountain bicycling. My current wife and I even have a tandem mountain bike—talk about an “exercise” in communication! We even took ballroom dance lessons —one of the scariest adventures I’ve undertaken!

Speaking of my current wife, Ellen, we met at a Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce event 25 years ago. I got my PhD in “networking” at that event. When we married, we each brought 2 teenaged children to our family. We called our home, the house of raging hormones! Not only did we all survive, but now our adult children remain the best of friends with each other. They each have developed successful careers, married great spouses and produced 7 grandchildren for us to spoil.

Even though my medical practice was very successful, I was looking for other ventures that would give me time freedom, leveraged income and residual income.

Over 10 years ago, Ellen and I learned about Pre Paid Legal Services, a NYSE company that was on its way to fixing a broken legal system. Recently Pre Paid Legal Services changed it's branding and name to LegalShield. To us this was obviously a high quality service that we all needed and a smart business with unlimited possibilities. The business was something we could start on the side as a “Plan B” to diversify our income.

It took one year on a part time basis to develop significant income to allow us to change careers. I left my medical practice and Ellen resigned from her position in the wine industry. This decision freed us up to develop and build our international LegalShield business and have free time to devote to our growing family.

Presently we have a LegalShield marketing force of agents throughout USA and Canada. LegalShield is a top NYSE Company (PPD) that, over the last 38 years, has developed a unique legal system throughout all 50 states and 4 provinces of Canada.

We provide legal services for families, business owners, employee benefits, truck drivers, and more through a membership which costs less than a cup of coffee per day. This is a very high powered and user friendly service.

Through a partnership with Kroll Background America, the largest risk management company in the world, we also offer identity theft protection and restoration—a service that no other company can offer.

As a Certified Identity Theft Risk Management Specialist, I am often invited to speak to organizations about the problem of identity theft. I also work with companies to help them start the compliance of securing information in the workplace as mandated by the federal government.

For information on how our services work and how you might add this as a source of income, go to www.larrygilbert.biz.

For information in regard to identity theft, you can click here to see a video.

For information on our diversified legal plans, go to www.ellengall.com. I can be reached at 707-484-4188 or via email at drlarrygilbert@aol.com.