I have been building successful businesses for close to 20 years. Over the past 5 years I have built www.label-land.com from scratch, into a very profitable online label company. The purpose of this last venture was to set the stage to become a business consultant.
As much fun as I have creating my own businesses, I find than I experience greater joy when I can help others get what they want.
To this end I have set a goal to help 20 people achieve a greater level of success in 2008.
Though not limited to it, I have decided to suggest a Direct Marketing business as the platform for this project. The reason for this is that, when you look beyond the negative stigma created by poor marketers, you see a very practical and useful system.
What DM businesses offer is a fully functioning back end. All you have to do is market the product and they do the rest; Automated order taking, billing, shipping, customer service, accounting, etc.

Often when people are introduced with an “Opportunity” they are told how easy it will be, only a few hours a week, no cold calling necessary. It business terms we call this “A Load of Doo Doo (I don’t use fowl language)”

Here is the reality…

If you want to succeed you will have to;

* Work - Expect to work on your success a minimum of 15-20 hrs/week
* You will have to speak to potential customers. - Not necessarily people you know
* You will have to invest money - I will show you how to keep your investment small.
* You will have to think outside the box.
* You will have to expect setbacks.
* Have Fun.
* Be a team player.
* Be willing to share.
* Did I mention WORK.

Over the next 2 weeks we will begin to get things under way.

In the meantime you can look at the DM project that I am currently working on at www.agel.com

and sign up for a free E-book “The 7 Lies of Network Marketing.”
The e-book page is very infomercial style. Look past it and use your thinking cap to take out the wisdom.

To Your Success,

Rob
email: robmoshe (at) gmail (dot) com

Desire+Educated Action = Success

Jim is watching the news this morning, and he hears how a company is being bought out at $18/share. Later in the day his friend Eric brings up the same news, happily telling Jim how he had bought $10,000 of that share when 5 years ago when it was $0.55. Jim does some quick math in his head, and almost falls over when he realized that in the past five years his friend made $317,000 on that $10,000 investment.
For the next few days Jim can’t stop thinking about the investment. He also wants to have that kind of success. A few days later, Jim signs up with an online broker, and gets ready to begin his successful trading career.

Jim does a search for penny stocks on oil companies (he heard that Oil is big), he notices that one had gone up 10 cents to 50 cents in the past month. Jim feels this could be the one and buys $10,000, and begins to dream about all the things he will buy with the big windfall. A month later the stock is up another 20 cents, Jim is thrilled he has made $4000, his dream is coming true. A few days later the stock starts moving down, Jim is not worried, he know that there are ups and downs, ‘it will come back’. After a month the stock is down to 40 cents, Jim has lost $2000, but stays in the stock, because he wants to ‘get back his losses’. Three years later the stock is still hovering around 40 cents, and unfortunately for Jim, he never sold and never invested any more.

In that same time period Eric had two more big trades, and all Jim could think to himself was that Eric has such good luck.

What was Jim’s mistake? Was Eric really just lucky?

Though Jim and Eric had similar backgrounds; Grew up in the same town, live in the same area, both engineers, Jim was missing something that Eric had. When Eric decided to start investing, he realized that he needed information. How to analyze stocks, when to get in/out, how to get in/out, how much to invest, etc.
Realizing this Eric signed up for a basic investment training course, a four evening course, outlining a basic understanding of how the markets work and basic analysis of stocks that cost around $1200.00. After the course he did about six months of paper trading(no money) and only then prepared for his first trade. Over the the next two and half years Eric took two more advanced trading courses, also about $1200.00. With continual practice and guidance from his teachers, Eric was able to realize some increadible gains in the stock market.

Eric wasn’t lucky, he was intelligent. He realized that in order to succeed you need the right information.

Desire is great, but without the proper information and education you are just spinning your wheels.

The incredible thing is that education is abundant and inexpensive, you can often find courses tailored to your needs for $250-$1000 per course. Less than $4/day. Heck I spend more than that on my daily Latte.

The other important factor to be aware about is that education is not an expense, it’s an INVESTMENT.

Anytime you spend money on something that will bring you a return greater than what you spent that is called a good investment.

The best investment in your future would be to begin a “wealth” education fund for yourself. Take out a jar, or set up another account and put $50-$100 per month in. Decide what interests you; stocks, real estate, coaching, jewelry making, woodworking. Find some courses in your area of interest, and whenever you have sufficient funds in your account take the course.

Desire+Educated Action = Success

Oh Yeah, the title of the post.
A person can take a specialized course at a college or poly-technical university for around $5000 and make an average salary of $30,000. People like Eric raise the bar, so can you…

I went to a two hour real estate presentation today. I had gone more with the intention to do some networking, than to learn about the business. The presenter was very powerful, and even though I was more interested in his presentation style than in the course that was being marketed, by the end of the presentation I found myself wanting to take the course. It required a conscious effort not to sign up. The information was useful and the program was sound. I didn’t sign up for the course for two reasons, one because I decided to wait a day to see if the desire remained after the energetic presentation, and two because although I would benefit from the course, it was not in-line with my current focus.

Driving home I was reflecting on the times when I get super energized about something - A great book, movie, speaker, or even a powerful conversation - and how I often want to absorb myself further into the source of that feeling.

An example is watching a martial arts movie. Back in 91 I saw this great action movie “Perfect Weapon”, the actor Jeff Speakman is a master in Kempo Karate. The movie was awesome, and for days after I was practicing the moves and looking into martial arts classes. Ultimately the high would dissipate and the martial arts interest would die (never got past orange belt), until the next movie.

Back to the reflecting.
What if when we feel energized because of an experience, instead of trying to absorb your self further into something that will most likely not sustain your interest, why not use that energy and focus it on working towards one of your goals, or working on your business or relationship?

The idea is something that Napoleon Hill refers to as Sex Transmutation. Hill contends that the most successful men of his time had an intelligent woman behind them, that knew how to focus their desire/energy towards success.

Maybe next time when you see a great action movie, instead of looking to take up kung foo fighting, try writing that post, working on your business, or making those cold calls (the prospect will be affected by your energy). You might be surprised at the successful outcome.

If you have had any experience with this idea, I would appreciate you sharing it with us.

KiiiiiiYa

What do Will Smith, Luciano Pavarotti, Dr. Phil McGraw, Tiger Woods and CEO’s at Time Warner all have in common?

They have all had personal coaches.

Not only before they became famous, but also since they have risen to the tops in their fields.

What do they know that we don’t?
Why would they hire someone that hasn’t achieved their level off success, to help them become and stay at their best?

With a new year comes reflection.

What we did.
What we didn’t.
What we knew we could have, if we would have just done…. <- This is where coaching comes in.

At the heart of coaching are three steps.

1. Insight and Issues
A coach helps you to develop clarity of your values, goals, passion, and purpose. It is a deep explorations into who you are and what you want to achieve. Through this insight you become aware of what you want to work on in order to be your best.

2. Choice and Commitment.
With a goal in mind the coach helps you draw from within the best steps that are required to achieve your goal. With the the big picture in mind the coach reaffirms your commitment to seeing the goal through.

3. Action and Accountability.
Most gloals cannot be reached in a single step. There are often many steps in the process of goal achievement. Your coach helps you to decide on the first steps, and hold you accountable, and ensures that you stay on track.