How To Make The Most Of Any New Year

new years resolution

-A brief guide on how to put true resolve behind your New Year’s resolution!

Can you guess what the failure rate for New Year resolutions is?

A New Year’s resolution is a tradition, in which a person just like you and I makes a promise to do an act of goodwill or self-improvement starting New Year’s Day.

We are all too familiar with some of these resolutions, for example:

-Lose a few pounds
-Start exercising
-Improve mental well being
-Improve financial status
-Self-improvement and personal development
-Make new friends
-Find that special person
-Read more
-Travel more, be more adventurous
-Reduce stress
-Make more money, save more money, spend less
-Find a better job
-Be more spiritual, find a connection with your creator
-Give more, volunteer and be more philanthropic
-Call your parents more often
-Grow closer to your spouse and kids
-Buy a pet
-Get more clients and customers
-This list can be as long as you have goals…

With deep religious origins, ancient civilizations were well versed in the practice…

Babylonians made promises to their gods at the start of each year.

The Romans began each year by making promises to the God Janus.

In the Medieval era, knights took the “peacock vow” at the end of the Christmas season each year in order to re-affirm their commitment to chivalry.

But don’t worry …

They also broke promises and quit on their resolutions, just like we do!

It’s been statistically calculated by January 15th, ninety five percent of us break, forget, or quit on our New Year’s resolutions.

But why?

We seemed and felt so confident, sure and optimistic about our decision.

What made us doubt and fall to our knees in despair, defeated?

What made us walk away with such indifference just a few days later?

We’ve all done this, there’s no point in hiding or justifying it.

There’s also no point in re-living it.

I bet you feel the same way…

You want to figure out HOW to beat the odds and put some serious resolve behind your New Year’s resolution.

But why did we fail?

What did we do, or didn’t do…

I think we need to start by asking the right questions!

Most of us when faced with a challenge or goal begin by asking just one question …

And it’s a good question, but it’s also a premature one!

We ask: How DO we do it?

To lose weight, to gain muscle, to make more money, to be more social, to meet more people, to have the life we want

We focus on the “HOW”.

This is the wrong question, at absolutely the worse time!

In the quest for success or achievement of anything, regardless of its scope, you must think strategically first!

Here are the 3 key questions you need to be asking when looking to achieve or succeed at anything:

The “What”
The “Why”
The “Who”

The order will come to you…

What do I want to do? This question is about how to take massive action, set the parameters, figure out the tactics and the mechanics. What rituals and systems need to be in place for you to succeed? This question is about first organizing, and then putting in the work and action that fuels your desire.

Why do I want to achieve this goal? If you don’t have a strong reason to change or achieve “that” something in your life, you’ll quit at the first sign of push back, and believe me, life will push back! So the stronger your reasons to stay in the fight, the better your chances to not only survive but thrive in adversity are. Find a powerful reason, a meaningful “Why” …and look at it every day!

Who do I need to become, or Who do I need to find? In your mind, what do you aspire to be? … and start modeling that behavior even if you haven’t achieved the results you want. Find a role model, a mentor, or a powerful idea and start behaving congruently with that vision and in line with your newly created identity. Or simply find that person and give her the job!

This 3 step formula has helped me achieve things in my life I never thought I could do.

Now I’m teaching to my children, my friends, my clients and to you!

I wish you Happy Holidays and a meaningful, permanent and successful New Year’s resolution!

 

Rock on!

Get the FREE full 7 Step High-Impact Customer Ad Formula and…

Become a Better Marketer

 

 

Please follow and like us:

The Amazing Simple Secret To Attract Meaningful Clients

http://www.dreamstime.com/royalty-free-stock-photography-business-group-row-leader-open-hand-image37707187Aren’t you tired of living in obscurity and neglect? Watching other companies and people swipe the clients and customers you should be getting while you live your life wishing and wanting but never achieving?

I hate that feeling!

But look!  -You have to decide what kind of company you want to be.

I kept it simple, I want to inspire people. I want them to see their business in a brand new way …a better way, and I’m confident I can help!

If you are pitching someone who’s not inspired or doesn’t have enough imagination to be a better version of themselves with your help, then don’t take them as a client, don’t work with them!

What I want to share with you today will GUARANTEE you success IF you stick to just one basic rule.

This super-simple formula will allow you to build exactly the kind of business you dream of -with only the clients you envision working with -and to create the kind of business that will give you the lifestyle you’ve always wanted.

Don’t you want to be in constant demand, be booked months in advanced, and have a waiting list of prospects turning down your competitors because they must see you?

If you like the sound of that, then you must do this:

MAKE YOURSELF WANTED, NEVER NEEDED!

Take a minute to reflect on this, because it’s either going to make total sense to you and hit you like a Mike Tyson right hook, or you won’t get it, and you will stop reading right here while you curse me and my entire family!

By the way…that would be a shame because I know you can make this work. But please do yourself a favor, KEEP READING.

You may say to yourself, but I already do that… I make myself EXTRA-wanted, and I say to you: NO YOU DON’T!

Thinking and wishing are not the same as working and getting results, the results you really, really want!

I don’t mean to come in like a bull in a china shop with this advice, and believe me I want you to make it out like a bandit at whatever you do, but it makes my blood boil when I see incredibly sharp and talented people choosing to work with clients that don’t appreciate them and are totally devoid of inspiration and creativity!

The money is almost always – NOT WORTH IT.

Are you still a doubting Thomas? -Let me prove it by asking you…

Why are you in business, most specifically, why do you offer the services or products you do?

Most people will answer:

Because I’m filling a need in the marketplace, people NEED what I have, I do a great job, I’m priced in the right range, and I’m unique in the way I deliver my product or service!

And this answer is also why most people are getting their ass kicked and on the road to oblivion.

oblivion: [uh-bliv-ee-uh n] – The state of being completely forgotten or unknown. The act or process of dying out; complete annihilation or extinction.

Think about it for a second. Haven’t the most important decisions, and by most important I mean the ones that have affected your life in the most profound way, been made out of wants more so than needs?

Think hard now and give me an honest effort! 🙂

  • Did you want or need to get married?
  • Did you want or need to drive the car of your dreams?
  • Did you want or need kids?
  • Does a woman need or desperately wants to make love to a man she secretly daydreams about?
  • Do you need or want to lose 40 pounds? The fact is that no one that says “I need to lose 40 pounds” actually does it. Only the ones that REALLY FREAKING WANT to change their lives for the better ACTUALLY do it!
  • Do you want or need to summit Everest?
  • Do you want or need to be an Olympian?

Need I go on?

So why don’t you stack the deck in your favor for once!

Everything that ignites a purpose-driven life and the ACTION that precedes is based on deep burning desires, not mere needs!

So I ask you once again.

How do you want the world to relate to you … via deep desire or basic need?

Do you want to be perceived as a mere need, a necessary evil, a reluctant obligation?

Or do you want to be seen as someone who people say:  “This is the guy I want to work with” “This is the company I want to be associated with” “These are the guys that get what I’m about”

I’m done here …anymore talking and I’ll come across as If I’m trying to convince you of inevitability (which is, you are great already! Just show me!), and like my grandfather used to tell me:

Don’t ever try to convince anyone of the inevitable, you’ll look like a jackass!  …Thanks Abuelo!

Oh, and just in case you are wondering how exactly you make yourself Wanted and not Needed, I’ll dive deeper on this topic soon!

Stay sharp and fired up 🙂

Get the FREE full 7 Step High-Impact Customer Ad Formula and…

Become a Better Marketer

 

Please follow and like us:

The 3 Step High-Impact Customer Ad Formula

howtogetstartedhowtogetstarted

nwsroomphghowtogetstarted howtogetstarted

Here’s one big business myth that’s pervasive both in the online and offline worlds:

We just need to get our name out there!

Not true today, it’s never been true, and it will never be true!

Your ad doesn’t need to get your name out, it needs to reel customers in.

Your content marketing and ads work only when they attract a targeted profile or customer you want to engage and sell your product or service to.

In order to make content marketing and advertising work, you need to know how both relate to each other, and what advertising really is: “Salesmanship in print

Here’s a 3 step high-impact customer ad formula:

Step 1 Make sure your headline is a total problem solver with a unique benefit. Keep it simple and focused on what they want to hear, touch and feel. Do not include your name or company info, nobody cares!

Step 2Do not mention the price. At this point they don’t want to be sold, in fact, NO ONE ever wants to be sold, but we do like to buy stuff don’t we! So appeal to the buyer in them, not the bargain hunter, keep price out of it, price is just a detail, not the deal itself.

Step 3Spend time working on your “Hook”. What is the one thing that YOU know they will react to? I know step 3 and Step 1 seem almost identical but they are not. The “Benefit” the “Offer”, the hook provides.

Everything we do online and offline needs to solve a problem, assuming your product is an awesome solution, just remember no one knows that yet!

They don’t know who you are, so the only way anyone is ever going to find out how awesome you are is by finding your copy more compelling than convincing and raising their hand to find out more.

Get the FREE full 7 Step High-Impact Customer Ad Formula and…

Become a Better Marketer

 

Stay focused :-)

 

Please follow and like us:

The Official Claudio Alegre Father’s Day Gift List

2012-08-04 15.23.43

A great father’s day gift is a combination of simplicity and careful pseudo-thoughtfulness. In the end it only needs to appeal to the lizard brain.

The criteria is simple:

Can I get instant gratification from it, does it temporarily fill the void of a much deeper and unknown desire, and can I and my ego bludgeon someone with it psychologically or physically …it doesn’t really matter which, either one will do!

Anyway hurry!  Because you only have today and tomorrow left to get him what’s on this list!

Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase One – Avengers Assembled – If you are a rabid Marvel fan then here’s where you start. Own the collection, watch with the kids, by yourself, or make it a whole family affair and force your wife to share your fantasies 😉

Survival Life lifetime subscription – A man’s one stop shop to all things survival, outdoors, family protection, tools and survival disaster tips and programs. I spent most of my time in working with businesses in the digital world, Survival Life offers me an awesome pattern interrupt and totally different point of reference and a way to unplug.

The BBQ Briefcase – Impress you brother in law and friends! You will look like you know what you are doing with this BBQ set even if you can’t overcook a burger.

Audio-Technica AT-LP60 turntable – As a product of the 80’s I can’t just turn my back on throwback technology, even though I can’t live without my iphone, soundcloud, Pandora and the other 175 technologies I depend on to fulfill my existence and those of my clients!

Gopro Hero4 Silver – I just think this is freaking cool and I want it!

The 80/20 Individual: How to Build on the 20% of What You do Best – THE 80/20 INDIVIDUAL, Richard Koch reveals the secret of their success: they discovered what they do better than anyone else and rode it for all its worth. Love this concept, grab it! It’ll change his life!

An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth: What Going to Space Taught Me About Ingenuity, Determination, and Being Prepared for Anything – I am now convinced that the most resourceful, smartest, mentally diverse and coolest people in this planet are astronauts! This would be a great gift for father’s day …great inspiration for fixing things around the house, but don’t tell him that when you give it to him, and definitely don’t say it was me!

If some of these don’t find their way to him today or tomorrow, there’s always birthdays and X-mas!

Either way Happy Father’s Day, and give your Dad a big kiss. I know mine’s getting a huge one 🙂

Please follow and like us:

My Top Five Favorite Memorial Day Stories From Around the Web

Memorial Day - Venmark Media

Is remembering better than thanking?

Both are verbs so action is required, but which one would have more meaning for american servicemen and women and their families.

I don’t know, I’m not a soldier. I don’t know what is like to feel the pride of having served or the pain to having lost friends and family as a consequence.

This is my way of remembering, it’s also my way of thanking you.

Here are five posts that not only touched me but educated me on what the meaning of this day represents for so many of us!

Enjoy 🙂

Memorial Day 2015: The Real Story Behind the Holiday

I’m a Veteran and I Hate Happy Memorial Day, Here’s why

As Memorial Day Observations Decline in Popularity, Powerful Lessons Remain

A Day To Be With Family and Remember

The General Who Apologized To The Dead Soldiers

 

Please follow and like us:

Do You Focus On Client’s Negatives or Positive Solutions During a Presentation?

Positive Solutions Focus - Claudio Alegre

“If you’re pitching your product to corporates, should you highlight their negatives, such as bad reviews on TripAdvisor for a travel company, or focus on positive solutions in order to explain true product benefits?”

This was an actual question on Quora.com I bumped into this morning. I thought it was a terrific question by the way, one that will come up time and time again if you make presentations to sell your products or services.

Here’s my answer –

[ I would approach it from a general viewpoint, yet addressing the issue:

“…one of the many special benefits this “widget” provides is reducing the customer service calls turn-around-time. A huge and usually justified source of customer discontent in over 90% of companies in your industry. This is currently costing your peers over 1 Billion in repeat business. Whomever can fix this issue the fastest, will most likely emerge as the market leader”

I usually stay away from indirectly blaming or pointing sticky fingers to the very people I’m trying to sell my services to.

Beside, many times the real issue is not what they think it is anyway. Usually the issue they tell you they are having is a symptom of the real problem. So if they bring up their pseudo-problems to the table, sure address them in the same way, but be empathetic in your approach and believable in your solution regardless.

When you focus on commonalities, benefits and solutions you can bring your point across in a more constructive and in a “let’s-get-you-in-front-of-the-pack” kind of way. ]

What would your approach be?

Would you focus on positive solutions to make a sale or would you point out defects and weak links to sell such solutions?

 

Please follow and like us:

What You Accept, You Get

I’m a big Dan Kennedy student, I read his stuff, buy his programs and promote his products any chance I get.

Why? Simple, his Marketing philosophy and money making marketing strategies WORK!

Lately when I’ve talk to entrepreneurs not familiar with Kennedy Style Marketing, whether they are a client of mine or not already, I point them in this direction. It’s amazing how easier it is to talk marketing strategy with someone who has this kind of home-field advantage.

That’s why I want to share one of my favorite articles from him with you …here it goes!

What You Accept, You Get

Here’s a secret I’ve discovered about millionaire and multi-millionaire entrepreneurs: they want what they do and their companies do to be right. Not 80% right. Not 90% right. Right, period. They are, therefore, very much disliked by a lot of people, and if they are “big” enough, by the media. Jobs. Bezos. Trump. Working for them, many ex-employees say, was hell. But maybe it was being incompetent in their employ that was hell.

Winning isn’t just a statistic on a spreadsheet or a bank account balance. It is the customer, Mrs. Matilda Smith, in Rockford, Illinois, getting what she asked for on her pizza or the right product in the delivered package or a human answering her call in fewer than four rings. Customer appreciation is not a once a year sale or an automated thank you e-mail. It is an authentic attitude, top-down, permeated throughout an organization, actually occurring – and measured, policed and enforced – every day. I don’t care how big your company, if you don’t actually care about the people, the individuals, giving you money, they will drift off in search of a place where they feel valued and appreciated. 

Another secret about rich entrepreneurs: they don’t just seek success. They HATE failure.

They often react to it violently. Martha Stewart was known to drop into a K-Mart store, find her branded goods sloppily stocked and throw the entire inventory from shelves onto the floor. Eisner instantly fired a group of Disney Park employees caught not smiling. Walt had a fit over one’s lousy delivery of The Jungle Cruise script. I saw Trump tear an empty towel dispenser from a restroom wall in a Trump hotel and throw it 20 yards down a hall.

These people are said to terrorize their employees, their associates, their vendors. But how calmly should you accept failure?  Should you “stay calm and carry on”? Only if you want more of the failure you calmly accept. If your blood doesn’t boil and offenders see fire shoot from your eyeballs, your lesser response will be taken as permission. If there is failure and new training, new controls, new supervision is not installed as remedy, the “let’s TRY and do better” will be taken as permission.

There are places where incompetence as failure has dire and instant consequences. The jailer who forgets to lock the inmate’s cell or misses the razor blade in the body search may wind up quickly dead. It’s a fine object lesson for other jailers. The cruise ship captain who is busy texting  and gets into too-shallow water and capsizes and sinks the whole thing, and injures and drowns passengers, goes to prison. As it should be.

Creating dire and instant consequences for incompetence and failure is a good thing in any and every business. I’ve told of Chuck Sekeres’ “3 strikes and you’re out” for his in-bound telemarketers: three calls in a row without a set appointment, you’re out. Next batter up. No quarterly performance evaluations. Don’t even wait to be told. After 3, get up and slink out. Minute by minute. Drop three passes in a game, butt on bench. If possible, traded.  Fail at managing the V.A., the IRS and Benghazi, shouldn’t three strikes be enough?  They tried to impeach Clinton over one intern. I used the word RUTHLESS in my book title “No BS Management of People and Profits” because, damn it, we desperately need a lot more ruthlessness in a lot more places. In homes, in neighborhoods, in small businesses, in big companies, in government. You can start with you.

So what did you think? They don’t call him “The Professor of Harsh Reality” for nothing right?

So here’s a little gift from Dan and I!

NOTE: To receive $633.91 of free money-making marketing and sales information from Dan Kennedy and GKIC simply click the link below.

Get Your Gift Here!  

Here’s a little background on Dan in case you’ve never heard of him,

DAN S. KENNEDY is a serial, multi-millionaire entrepreneur; highly paid and sought after marketing and business strategist; advisor to countless first-generation, from-scratch multi-millionaire and 7-figure income entrepreneurs and professionals; and, in his personal practice, one of the very highest paid direct-response copywriters in America. As a speaker, he has delivered over 2,000 compensated presentations, appearing repeatedly on programs with the likes of Donald Trump, Gene Simmons (KISS), Debbi Fields (Mrs. Fields Cookies), and many other celebrity-entrepreneurs, for former U.S. Presidents and other world leaders, and other leading business speakers like Zig Ziglar, Brian Tracy and Tom Hopkins, often addressing audiences of 1,000 to 10,000 and up.  His popular books have been favorably recognized by Forbes, Business Week, Inc. and Entrepreneur Magazine. His NO B.S. MARKETING LETTER, one of the business newsletters published for Members of GKIC Insider’s Circle, is the largest paid subscription newsletter in its genre in the world.

Remember guys I am promoting this program, if you do decide to follow through with it I will get paid a small commission. This is the way I look at it:

  • I don’t promote things I haven’t used and bought myself
  • I don’t promote things that don’t work
  • You are always GUARANTEED to benefit!
  • I’m creating win-win-win scenarios
  • and I always vet my sources

In the meantime enjoy your FREE gift and stay focused my friends!

Please follow and like us:

Get People to Buy From You Over and Over Again In 3 Easy Steps, Even When They Say No The First Time!

sales techniques

Sales Techniques that Work in Real Life!

So you are probably thinking, you need to be persistent, pesty, pushy and get across salesy in order to come away with what the title of this post implies.

But it’s actually the opposite… By the way an important distinction I’d like to make in relation to this topic before we get into it is the following:

In “Sales Techniques That Work!, Not getting a response and getting a “No” or “Not Interested” are two totally different reactions from prospects or existing clients.

The thing is many times we interpret “not getting a response” as a “No”.

Don’t do that!

There could me many reasons why someone is not responsive to you for example, they lack time, they might be assuming you are way above their budget, they haven’t seen your ad or email invite, they are too busy to engage with you at the moment, or maybe you haven’t communicated your offer effectively, who knows!

Whatever the reason, don’t assume their answer is “No”, until you hear it.

But even if “No” is their answer, well that’s what this post is all about …Here we go!

Here’s Step #1

Understand these sales techniques first and save yourself a lot of anguish and self-doubt:

Most everyone says NO the first time, and if they don’t say it they think it!

No one likes to be sold, but almost everyone loves to buy stuff they want!

[Warning] – We are assuming that what you have to offer ACTUALLY solves a problem and helps people! If you suck there’s no marketing strategy or sales technique that can help you.

Start by genuinely having a conversation about the things causing them the most pain at the moment. Then IF and only IF you can help, position your solution naturally and without pressure.

Don’t try to sell an aspirin to someone who doesn’t have a headache –if you can’t help offer support and point them to someone in your network of friends and associates who can.

Remember these easy sales techniques when you hear “No” or “Not Interested”

  • Don’t take No(s) personally
  • Find out what they are really saying NO to!
  • Reposition your offer, idea or hook in mid-flight if you have to
  • Don’t go for the sale, go for conversation!
  • Scale the process and get micro-commitments

Here’s Step #2

Once is never enough… you need to show genuine and unwavering consistency!

You MUST have a strategic and consistent value-based follow up…

What does that mean? Most sales professionals and service oriented entrepreneurs do not have a follow up strategy or specific sales techniques. Your follow up needs to have 3 essential elements:

  • Follow up with genuine concern“last time we spoke you were wrestling with the issue of [ blank], is that still the case?”
  • Have a value-based offer/solution“…thinking about our conversation recently it occurred to me this might help, Are you familiar with [blank]?
  • Have a calendar mindset“…on that topic I’m hosting a webinar on this day [blank]” or “I have some ideas that I think might help you, do you have 10 minutes for a Skype chat tomorrow at 1 pm?

You can word these anyway it fits you.

And finally Step #3

In Sales Success this one is a total mind shift in terms of approach, it might take you a while, but once you get it you just left orbit!

You don’t make a sale to get a client, you get a client in order to make a sale!

Most sales professionals actually think and want to make money on their first encounter. This is a big mistake!

When it comes to building serious loyalty and goodwill, in essence build a strong customer or client base, you need to give away your best stuff at cost!

Listen to me! –YOUR BEST AT COST!

This achieves success in 3 critical areas of your business:

  • Authority – you establish yourself as an expert
  • Build trust – an essential virtue in long term business relationships
  • Grow you list – a critical component of the longevity and strength of your business is how large your list is and your relationship with it!

Those willing to spend the most on acquiring and building their list will come out on top every time!

I seriously hope you put these techniques to work right away!

It’s simple, make a list of pending follow ups, new contacts and sleepy referrals, and craft your approach following these 3 easy steps!

Take care and stay focused!

Download This Post In PDF Format!

 

Please follow and like us:

The Mindset Required To Successfuly Start a Smart Home Business While Still Working Your Day Job

success mindsetIf you knew absolutely nothing about the Outdoors and you decided to go camping in the wilderness for three straight weeks, what would you need to take with you?

Most people start a venture like that thinking about the tools, I need to have all the tools and the latest camping shiny objects because let’s face it, tools are important when outdoors, without tools you can die! But let’s talk about the sequence, the mindset and process you should have to prepare for such event… right?

Not too long ago I took a 15 day course (Paid!) on how to set up a web based business from A-Z. I did it in 5 days. Now I know how to do that already, that’s my business, but if that’s the case why did I take that course? I knew 90% of that stuff already! To some people that would be a total waste of time and money right?

Not to me… and here’s why:

1. You Must Always Be Working On Your Craft… Going back to basics and working on them is what professionals do. Watch Tiger Woods hit the range and swing at 1000 balls after every round. Watch Michael Phelps repeat endless sets of boring and trivial drills specific to each stroke day after day. Watch Rafa Nadal work out. How many times does he practice the same swing, and tell me if you are willing to do that in your profession to stay on top of your game.

The truth is, most people don’t and then they wonder why they can’t elevate their game, work with people they want to work with, at the hours the prefer to and make the money they want!

In this particular case I was about to embark on a totally new different Industry and I needed to know how what I knew applied to to it… so a refresher it’s always a great way to get in the right mindset. But also a refresher course taught by someone with better results than me.

Always work on the basics of your craft as taught by mentors and leaders in your profession in order to elevate your game!

2. ( Most Important!) Doing #1 Keeps Me Centered On The WHY, Not The HOW… Here’s a big secret on why most people completely screw up worthwhile goals and ventures even before they start!

Ready? …Most people believe they have to know the HOW before they make a decision and take action, when in reality what they need is a real strong purpose behind it, the WHY. So because they don’t have a clear Why they take forever, if at all, to take ACTION while hiding and wasting precious time on figuring out the HOW.

99% of reasons why people don’t get off their butt to do what they’ve always wanted and as a result live the live they’ve always dreamed of is because they think they have to know HOW to do it before making a die-hard  DECISION to actually do it! – If you make a decision it’s done! You’ve decided and not anything or anyone it’s going to dissuade you. Now you breakdown the HOW- and get to work, but it’s going to get DONE! The decision has been made.

This is the biggest mental trap to prosperity and success our species suffers from, it’s endemic and hereditary, and it’s the #1 cause of broken dreams World Wide!

See whatever HOW you choose, it’s going to be a tough ride no matter what …the HOW won’t help you to stay the course. Only the WHY can help you do that.

So before starting your home-based business in search of financial independence, deciding to do a channel swim, lose 50 pounds, or go into early retirement, figure out the WHY and have a clear vision why you are doing it …so that when things get tough, and they will, you are not the first one to QUIT while blaming everything and everyone but yourself.

Quitters forget their WHY and blame the HOW …Winners never forget WHY they are doing what their doing, and they figure out the HOW as they charge ahead.

If you have a strong PURPOSE and a powerful WHY you can stay in the fight as long as a takes, nothing and I mean nothing that gets thrown at you will be powerful enough to derail you and change your destiny, which is to be anything you want and deserve to BE!

Cheers 🙂

 

 

Please follow and like us:

Why New College Grads MUST Build a Lifestyle Business Way Before Landing Their Dream Job

Think about that word for a second Dream Job… maybe is just me, but the word “job” should never be anywhere near the worddream jobdream

What does that even mean?

Go back for a second, when you were a bit younger and less indoctrinated… remember how you felt when thinking about the things you wanted to with your life, the dreams you had, the things that really made you smile and get up in the morning all pumped up… or better yet, not having gone to bed at all!

Does the word “Job” fit anywhere around that vision?

Yet you do a Google search for the word “dream job” and you get this:

About 730,000,000 results (0.65 seconds)

No one that’s happy living their dream and making amazing amounts of money at it sees it as a job!

So what do you say –should we start changing the way we think about doing the things everyone else is doing and getting nowhere?

So now that we’ve cleared that up I wanted to accomplish a few things here:

  • share some hard data regarding the job market out there for newly minted grads,
  • what the numbers really mean, and
  • what I would do with that info if I was graduating college in 2014.

Then bring it all together in order to deliver to you what the title of the post promises… deal?

Let’s start with defining what is a lifestyle business is:

A lifestyle business is how you choose to spend your most precious asset –time, while generating a desired income amount.

In other words you fit your work to your lifestyle, not your lifestyle to your work.

You can see the dilemma in choosing how you spend your time while working for someone else right!

It’s a very common narrative, you start with a vague notion of what you like, figure out how much it pays, find out how long you have to study and how much is going to cost you.

Sometimes is not even your idea to study a specific career, sometimes the idea was seeded by your parents, teachers, friends, a movie, who knows!

If you are in your early to mid twenties you don’t have to figure it all out right now… don’t let anyone put that kind of pressure on you!

Give yourself the time to explore and learn about the things you are good at vs. the things you are great at.

But while figuring all that out always focus on cracking the “how do I make a living code”

Your chosen career or business MUST lead to these 8 outcomes:

  • Live life on your terms
  • Above average or unlimited income
  • Financial freedom
  • Your own business
  • More spare time
  • Personal growth and development
  • Helping others
  • Freedom from debts

If your choice doesn’t lead to every single one of these 8 benefits, then is back to the drawing board.

If you know a Doctor, Lawyer, Engineer, Businessman, Teacher, Dentist, Chiropractor, Firefighter, Insurance agent, Financial Planner… ask them:

Are you covered on all these 8 points as far as having a fulfilling life through your profession?

If the answer is no, then… Why?

Don’t press them too hard for an answer, you don’t want to upset anyone, just make them think.

You need to build a Lifestyle Business because is the “Normal State of Existence” …not the “Common State of Existence” you are seeing from most of the people you know!

Here’s a secret hack on how to REALLY know if you’re a stepping to your purpose in life…

Ask yourself this question:

If time and money weren’t a consideration, would you be doing the same thing you are doing today or plan on doing in the near future?

If the answer is a resounding YES… then you are there, now scale it and keep learning!

If the answer is NO… then you are simply trading your time for money and making someone else’s purpose or dream come true.

But listen, don’t worry if at the onset this thinking doesn’t sit well with you… I get it and it’s normal. It should feel a bit awkward.

That’s because even though your generation is much more progressive than mine from a personal freedom and lifestyle perspective, you haven’t been trained to think like an entrepreneur.

Check this out, here are the College degrees with the highest starting salaries:

In 2013, only 29.3% had landed jobs prior to graduation. NACE also follows up post-graduation with a survey that asks recent grads whether they have landed a job. In 2011, the last year it compiled figures, NACE reported that 59% of grads had found jobs 6-8 months after graduation, meaning more than 40% were unemployed. This year that figure may be higher. In April, the Associated Press reported data it had gathered from government sources showing that 53.6% of the class of 2012 were jobless or underemployed 10 months after graduation. -source

Now I’ve never been good at math, but if it’s any consolation, the only Majors that showed positive growth are in the areas of business and technology.

But even then, any business that’s growing at only 2.30% a year is simply stagnant!

How can you possibly have a fulfilling life by earning $55,100 a year at a job where you work 40-50 hours a week, and only growing at a 2.3% pace?

How do you get out of that hole 5 years into it?

Is that the future you envisioned?

I’m guessing you feel just as dumbfounded and in some way bamboozled by an educational system and a life philosophy that does not prepare to be financially independent, on the contrary.

In my opinion, college should teach you how to learn, and how to apply that process to anything you decide to do. It shouldn’t be about get to an imaginary finish line, called a degree where you get a piece of paper which you spent 100K on that says you took the necessary credits to be X… Now go find someone that puts a price tag on your value and gives you permission to go on vacation.

I know you know there’s something not right here…

By the way I went to College. I was pre-med and took just about every science and elective available. I graduated with a Bachelor Degree, minored in Biology, BA in Liberal Arts after deciding not to pursue a Medical Degree. Best decision yet!

So I can speak with relative authority about the actual use of a traditional education. But I did learn how to learn, by reading books that were actually not in the curriculum… go figure!

But don’t go on a blame path… bureaucracies do what they do and so must you. Blaze your own trail!

If I was entering college in 2014 I would do exactly what we are teaching our 3 boys?

  • Be an independent thinker and a lifelong learner…
  • Go to College or continue on to University for the experience if you choose to do so.
  • Regardless, here are Mom and Dad’s and Grandparent’s personal life story of hardship all the way to success and abundance.
  • Here are the books you MUST read soon! Give them access to my kindle library.
  • Travel and teach them real life success and failure scenarios.
  • A promise is an unpaid debt, don’t make them lightly.
  • Healthy body, sharper mind!
  • Start a business NOW!
  • When you’ve left everything in the journey and you must leave it all… faith will carry you the rest of the way!
  • Teach them to fail elegantly and parley their successes.
  • Relationships come first, everything else second. Dump excess weight.
  • Crack the money code first, then step up to your purpose.
  • Don’t ever trade your time for money. If you must think of it as a transitional phase.
  • Find a girl that thinks she’s pretty, even if she’s not, and marry her! (…Dad got lucky. She thought it and she is)
  • Teach your kids the same things

Better stop here… or I’ll end up writing a book.

Hope you found this interesting and applicable… gotta take Aaron to swimming practice, see you out there 🙂

 

Please follow and like us: