Feb 22

Last night, Rika and I enjoyed “The Sinatra Project” with Michael Feinstein and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra at the Orpheum Theater in Vancouver.

Rika booked this a long time ago since she knows I love Sinatra’s work, and it was a great evening. Feinstein is amazing.

The orchestra was a wonderful -

Joint Venture Analogy

Many people see Joint Ventures as an alternative to other income sources.

They compare brokering Joint Venture’s with real estate investment or MLM or having a job, or running a retail business, whereas Joint Ventures is an all-encompassing, overriding, umbrella philosophy that includes all other income creators. Like the orchestra.

The conductor is the Joint Venture philosophy. Each musician is a different moneymaking activity – a different dollarmaker.

  1. The drummer could be retail,
  2. The saxophonist could be MLM,
  3. The violinist could be real estate – you get it.

The Conductor

Notice that the musicians keep their egos in check. They fit in to the bigger scheme of things. They play when it’s appropriate. The strategist would understand this, and the engineer would liken it to a PERT diagram. As a Joint Venture expert, YOU become the conductor, by:

  • delegating,
  • directing,
  • motivating,
  • organizing,
  • encouraging,
  • creating

you’re the general, as opposed to the broke, self-employed, egotistical salesperson – the soldier.

How Everyone Benefits

Our motto in DollarMakers is “Together, we do amazing things” – it’s a synergistic approach to wealth creation – everybody wins, based on their contribution. Joint Ventures create value. If  a musician refuses to play, shows up late, does a bad job, stops contributing, or let’s his ego get out of hand, he gets fired.

“You can’t serve two orchestras.” Zig Ziglar said, “You can get anything you want out of life, if you help enough other people to get what they want.”

As each musician contributes, produces, hones their skills, and improves, the whole orchestra benefits.

Win/Win Cooperation

The different musicians represent your Joint Venture partners. You are the conductor.

If you’re really smart, you will strive to “keep things in the family” and create “overlap” – Feinstein and the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra is a case in point. Musicians shouldn’t be in competition with each other. The higher their IQ, the more likely people are to understand the value of overlap, loyalty, vested interest, strategy, and philosophy.

The underlying philosophy in the orchestra is the love and understanding of music, and the way an orchestra works. Common goals, and a common philosophy – the real mastermind in action.

Setting High Standards

Finally, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra has very high standards, as does DollarMakers.

Choose your Joint Venture partners very carefully, and cut non-producers and game players loose quickly.

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Feb 17

If you have read Ayn Rand’s prophetic “Atlas Shrugged”, you will know that we are living in turbulent times, and that this book is the capitalist’s guidebook and map, our survival tool.

It puts things into perspective, and helps the reader to see through the illusions, deceptions, and lies fed to us by the collectivist powers that be.

As a capitalist, a producer, and a creator, there is no way one can find common ground with collectivists and mystics – that compromise will kill you as sure as trying to make friends with a rattlesnake will.

The alternative is Galt’s Gulch.

A Speculative Form of Galt’s Gulch

While I don’t recommend a literal Galt’s Gulch, in which the producers in society physically leave the wretched world of parasites and looters that has been subjugated and enslaved by the statist government behind, and form their own

  • lifestyle,
  • governance,
  • and territory,

a figurative, allegorical or speculative form of Galt’s Gulch is, in my opinion, the only way to prosper in a socialist/communist environment.

A Grand Solution

Understanding the dynamics, requirements, benefits, and parameters of Galt’s Gulch as presented by Ms. Rand allows one to formulate the mindset and philosophy that is necessary to emulate such a grand solution metaphorically.

By realizing the implications and consequences of socialist world government, one can avoid the looting of the slackers, the incompetent, and the moochers, financial rape by government and the mystics, and, ultimately, the complete loss of personal freedom.

Creating a personalized, representative Galt’s Gulch means carefully selecting and teaming up with like-minded producers who share one’s:

  • philosophy,
  • ideology,
  • motives,
  • and beliefs,

and operate with the integrity and congruency to be found among some intelligent, rational capitalists.

A Formula for Success

With the understanding gleaned from Ayn Rand’s work and my experience of life and business, along with a realization of the way the world is moving, I started DollarMakers as a type of “filter” to find people who fit the Galt’s Gulch model.

Far from being a conspiracy theorist or alarmist, I am a realist and an Objectivist, and practical common-sense that is free from the mind-numbing poison of collectivism and mysticism dictates that I create a Galt’s Gulch, since success occurs when preparation meets opportunity, and forewarned is forearmed.

Having seen what has happened in Africa, Europe, the United Kingdom, and now America, the proverbial writing is one the wall.

Feb 15

Years ago, I was chopping wood for a barbeque. I wore sandals, and stupidly supported the wood with my foot.

Bang!

I chopped right into the tip of my front toe. The only thing that prevented me from cleaving the entire toe in half and limping for the rest of my life was my sandal.

Idiot.

At the emergency room, they injected directly into the quarter-inch wound before sewing it up. Ouch!

I no longer chop in the direction of my feet.

A New Respect Gained

I was preparing for a camping trip to Ponta Do Ouro in Mozambique in the summer of 1972. (Don’t go there now, unless you like the idea of landmines – you might lose more than a toe…) As I packed my VW minibus camper, I carried my snub-nosed .38 Astra Special revolver on a sleeping cushion. As I stepped up into the back door, the loaded gun slipped off the pillow, hit the bus’s floor, and went off.

Since the windows and other doors were closed and a bullet was definitely fired, it can only have passed between me and the inside of the one door – a very small space – a close miss, if ever there was one.

Stupid.

I learned an important lesson and gained a renewed respect for guns.

Limit Risk and Costs

I have met more conmen, shysters, and outright thieves in the past twelve years than I ever thought possible.

And with governments fast going the way of outright socialism and banks and the taxman collaborating to put the squeeze on business owners, we live in an increasingly  dangerous business world. It’s time to grow up and realize that we are at risk, and that we need to limit our risk.

Avoid it All Together

When I tell people to do business with no cost and no risk, I mean it.

I know a fellow with a giant ego and a small IQ who regularly sought to differ with me on this point. I have seen him lose a lot of money, since he doesn’t understand how to avoid risk and cost. If he did, he wouldn’t lose so much money in his harebrained schemes, or work with thieves.

Knowing how business works, and understanding the odds, the risks, and the fact that there are a few dishonest people around, makes it necessary, if one wishes to get rich, to avoid risk and costs.

It’s Easier Than it Seems

  1. Use leverage and existing resources instead of paying for new ones. Work strategically and don’t rely on any one source of income.
  2. Pay for results, not promises.
  3. Be VERY careful whom you associate / do business with. Remember that people can change for the worst – easily and quickly, so be prepared for that.
  4. When you smell a rat, RUN. Cut bait. Delete. Immediately.
  5. Test people in many ways to make sure they are still loyal and honest. Be a detective.
  6. Don’t disclose the identities of your Joint Venture partners.
  7. Triangulate deals – don’t sell your own products and services.
  8. Align yourself with people who share your philosophy – don’t link up with mystics, socialists, environmentalists, or reverse racists.
  9. Don’t trust government or work with government or their agents.
  10. Operate with no overhead – lean and mean. Expect the best and prepare for the worst. Spread your income and diversify.

Joint Ventures allow one to operate as above, and the older and wiser I get, the more I appreciate the power and sophistication offered by the Joint Venture systems I use.

If you’re carrying a gun, make sure it’s not pointed at you.

Feb 12

Ayn Rand wrote,

“All work is an act of philosophy.”

For innovators, produces, and creators, our work is our lives – our businesses are simply an extension off our philosophies and values.

We take our work very seriously, and we take full responsibility for being the best we can be. We don’t do it for other people – we do it for ourselves.

A writer must write, a painter has to paint, and a dancer is compelled to dance, since what they do is an expression of their minds. Entrepreneurs are also artists. Musicians create symphonies; business owners create businesses.

Producers Vs Parasites

I have heard from many people that they have been told by other workers not to work too hard and embarrass their slothful co-workers.

I have witnessed utility workers and government laborers slacking off to stretch the work to earn more money. They take no pride in their work, have low self-esteem, and little or no self-respect. These people accept the terms. They are basically paid slaves, moochers, who will take the most possible and give the very least acceptable.

A producer would walk off the job.

A World Where We No Longer Exist

The History Channel has a fascinating show called, “Life After People” – it predicts what would happen to the world if all the people suddenly disappeared. It investigates consequences from pets, to zoos, to wild animals, to nuclear waste. Very mind-expanding.

In her life-changing book, Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand predicts what would happen if the

  • prime movers,
  • producers,
  • and innovators

Left the world to the

  • parasites,
  • mystics,
  • looters
  • and politicians.

Why Read “Atlas Shrugged”?

So that we can recognize creeping collectivism and socialism, avoid it, and protect ourselves from being flung onto the sacrificial altar by those incompetents and leeches who would rule us and steal our creations. This is the Big Brother of the future:

“from each according to his ability, to each according to his need”. One can avoid a thief only when one identifies a thief.

A Cause and Effect

Without those who build and invent, produce and innovate, the world would collapse. Look at the “new” South Africa – the new government decided that the maintenance of power plants, mines, and other major components of the country’s infrastructure didn’t need to be fixed, maintained, or improved. The resulting rolling black-outs and the descent into statism is evident for all to see.

Cuba is another simple example. When Russia withdrew her funding, they had to run to new milch cows. While the Socialist Cuban government decries capitalism, it is itself using Capitalism to make money from wealthy Capitalist tourists.

People live in hovels that they call houses, just above the poverty line – after all, what do they NEED? They don’t NEED swimming pools and smart cars… And medical doctors work as waiters in the state-owned hotels in order to make more money.

“From each according to his ABILITY”?

It simply doesn’t work.

Learn to Be an Aware Thinker and Rationalist

The Western world has been and is being programmed for massive socialism, and because it doesn’t truly understand the implications, it sits like the frog in a pot of water on a stove – the water increases in there slowly until the frog boils to death.

Liberals flirt with the naughty boy of socialism, playing with the tiger until they get eaten alive. They elect leaders who will imprison them.

We who are the thinkers and the rationalists have to be aware of what is going on in this new world order.

We have to be able to identify the slave owners and witchdoctors who demand our self-sacrifice in order to avoid them. Atlas needs to know when and how to shrug.

Jan 29

Too many people have jumped aboard the Mediocrity Train and caught the viral Excusiologist Flu that came sweeping in with the recession.

Everything gets blamed on the recession, from halitosis and hiccups to oversleeping and body odor. People make excuses for lethargy, low sales, their dogs’ fleas, and failing to stop at traffic lights.

ENOUGH!

Contrary to what the media is feeding you, not everyone is suffering during this recession. And YOU don’t have to, either.

Moving Towards Success

How does one move from the apathetic, comatose, paralyzed, unconscious state of suspended animation so common to the sheeple, to one of frenzied, happy success?

How do we become like those bold and audacious, excited, and unstoppable winners?

What will it take to shift from being baffled and bewildered to fierce and fiery, irresistible and irrepressible? Is it even possible to become a manic money missile?

Taking Action

People make changes when the pain of staying where we are exceeds the pain of change.

We take action when we truly believe that we can achieve our exciting goals, and that peak is, indeed, attainable. And the more action we take, the easier it gets!

Here are a few simple steps that will make it easier for you to break the chains of frustration and limitation and enjoy the abundance that is available to all of us through Joint Ventures:

1.   Belief:

Build your belief with an authentic action plan and surround yourself with winners and achievers. And know WHY you insist on nothing less than success. Paul J. Meyer said,

“Whatever you vividly imagine, ardently desire, sincerely believe, and enthusiastically act upon, must inevitably come to pass.”

2.   Specifics:

Measurable, specific amounts and steps, like road signs along the way, are essential.

Your action plan is your Success GPS.

3.   Time:

By what exact date will you commit to achieving this specific goal?

Commit yourself publicly – put yourself on the line, so that there is a consequence to non-performance.

4.   Leverage on Yourself:

Be aware of the consequences on failing to achieve your goals. Remind yourself of the pain and suffering that comes with failure!

5.   Training and Support:

The more you learn, the more you will earn. DollarMakers provides superb training and support through our Membership, events, training, seminars, conference calls, and online information.

6.   Monitoring:

Monitor your progress daily. Adjust, tweak, and realign yourself like a guided missile. Confront issues, don’t get side-tracked, and only work with winners.

Communicate regularly with your team.

7.   Motivation:

Control your input and self-talk.

Only expose your mind to positive input that is aligned with your goals, values and beliefs.

Kick the losers and parasites out of your life, and design your information flow carefully. The best way to predict the future is to create it – your success won’t happen by accident.

8.   Celebration:

Celebrate small successes along the way. This builds self-esteem and belief and reinforces your commitment and self-confidence.

Jan 25

Entrepreneurs, more accurately termed “Solopreneurs”, often believe that they are an island, that they must accomplish everything on their own with their own resources.

These Solopreneurs think that they are maximizing their chance of survival and profitability.

They are totally WRONG.

Two Kinds of Business

Consider what Michael Gerber says in his world-famous book The E-Myth: Revisited

“Picture the typical entrepreneur and Herculean pictures come to mind: a man or woman standing alone, wind-blown against the elements, bravely defying insurmountable odds, climbing sheer faces of treacherous rock–all to realize the dream of creating a business of one’s own. The legend reeks of nobility, of lofty, extra-human efforts, of a prodigious commitment to larger-than-life ideals. Well, while there are such people, my experience tells me they are rare.” – Michael Gerber

I agree with Micheal Gerber that this image is absolutely absurd!

As long as you are a solopreneur, working on every facet of your business, you will be your business’ number one problem!!! As Gerber explains in his book, there are 2 kinds of businesses:

1) People-depedent businesses

2) Systems-dependent businesses

How do you know which one you are? Well, simply ask yourself this:

“If I (or anyone else in my company) were to leave my business for 6 months, would the business still exist when I came back?”

If you answer YES, then you have a systems-dependent business.

If NO, then you likely have a person-dependent business.

A System-Depentent Business

So what IS a systems-dependent business?

Consider this:

McDonald’s can deliver the exact same promise – the exact same food and customer experience – whether you are in Edmonton, Toronto, New York, or Kalamazoo. And it’s delivered by disinterested, teenage kids – some of the least qualified employees on the continent. And they do this BILLIONS of times every single year, at thousands and thousands of locations from sea-to-sea.

…and yet you can’t ever deliver that level of consistency to one set of customers of your one business, located in only one city or town. What’s the difference?

The difference is SYSTEMS. Your business depends on you (people-dependent) while McDonald’s depends on systems – the people can be swapped in and out.

On Your Own?

I will now ask you: why is it that you are taking care of making sales calls, balancing the books, dealing with inventory, answering calls, cooking, cleaning, and doing all of this ON YOUR OWN?

The true entrepreneur sets up a system, then delegates it.

Once that’s taken care of, then they create a system for another area of their business, and delegate that out. And they do this with every area of their business until they ARE able to walk away for 6 months or more.

Refocusing – The More Important Things

And the funny thing is that it is often the mundane, monotonous, pressing / urgent, and repetitive tasks that distract an aspiring entrepreneur from actually doing the “big-picture” items that will actually take their business to the next level.

Build a SYSTEM for these mundane, monotonous, and repetitive tasks, and DELEGATE. Then get re-focused on the MOST IMPORTANT things…

  • building your business,
  • learning new skills,
  • ideas,
  • and strategies,
  • and maybe even spend more time with your
    • kids,
    • spouse,
    • family,
    • and friends.

And What if You Don’t Own a Business?

Well, in your family life you likely DO have many mundane, repetitive tasks that take time away from being with your family.

  • Perhaps processing application forms for a charity you volunteer for.
  • Perhaps calling all of your relatives for the forthcoming family reunion.
  • Perhaps it’s really a pain for you to balance the family cheque book at the end of the month.
  • Or maybe it’s a hassle to always be coordinating the parents for Johnny’s soccer team.

Any of these items could be systemized and delegated.

So Many Routine and Mundane Tasks…

  1. WHAT IF you could get someone else to do any or all of this?
  2. Would that make you extremely happy?
  3. Would that give you more time to be with your family, kids, and friends?
  4. Would your life experience be better if you just didn’t have to deal with any of that boring, productivity-killing, repetitive brain-freeze?

Well, having your own Virtual Assistant (VA) may or may not be a fit for you. To find out if and how a VA would help you in your specific circumstance, contact Tina at 1-877-977-4776, or Info@SaveTimeBoostProfits.com to get a FREE 30-minute consultation.

Jan 22

Here are some real life illustrations for you:

Fake Leads

•   A long time ago, I attended a business networking meeting where only one person from every industry is allowed, (big red flag) and everyone is under pressure to give our leads / referrals every week. They actually COUNT the leads, and nobody gets a commission! Anyway, I received a LOT of fake leads, because people were too gutless to admit they didn’t have any leads to give out, and they feared losing their place in this group of broke, desperate, self-employed salespeople.

No Intention of Ever Co-operating

•   I asked someone to send out an e-mail to their database to promote one of my events a few years back. I “salted” their database (entered it anonymously, using a fake name and e-mail address) and the e-mails were never sent out. They didn‘t want to tell me that they never intended sending it out.

People Who Can’t Say “No”

•   People promise to show up at places, do things, make calls, promote stuff, attend meetings – and they never do – they offer weak, transparent excuses, because they can’t say “No”.

Sounds familiar, does it?

In our gutless, politically correct world of passive aggressive, anal-retentive, wanna-be entrepreneurs, it’s hard to find people who don’t fear “rejection” by simply saying, “NO.”

(It’s even harder to find people who actually do what they say before their laziness and stupidity overcomes them, but I digress).

So What’s the One Fear?

The one fear that will sabotage your business life more than most others is the fear of saying, “NO.”

You don’t have to explain and say, “NO – I don’t want to deal with you. BECAUSE

  • I don’t like you”
  • I don’t trust you”
  • Your offer is ludicrous and one-sided”
  • You’re an idiot”
  • You’re cheap”
  • You dress like a second-hand car salesman cum trailer park manager”
  • You stink of tobacco…”

Just say, “No, thanks, this is not for me – I don’t see a fit.”

Instead of wasting your time trying to make losers happy and justifying things, instead of trying to be popular with wankers.

Just, say, “NO.” You don’t have to explain.

The Frog Prince Analogy

You have to kiss a lot of frogs to find a prince. You can’t marry every frog because you’re afraid of “rejection”.

The more selective you are, the more distinct your criteria for accepting business offers is, the more sophisticated your approach, and the more successful you are, and the better known you are, the more offers you will have to reject, so get used to it.

So far, we have rejected 24 applications to our $20,000 DollarMakers Certified Business Mentor Training program, which meant we turned down and rejected $480,000 in sales. We are very proud of that. Few people would do that. But we see the big picture.

If the fit isn’t right, we say, “NO.” And everybody wins, because we’re honest.

Tell the Truth

Think of it this way:

“I am not in business to make other people happy, to build their egos, to be accepted and feel important, or to become popular. I am not here to please other people. I am in business to make the maximum amount of net profit with the least cost, risk, time, and effort, and I only work with people whom I like, trust, and respect. I don’t have to do anything, and I will tell the truth.”

Fearlessly, audaciously, courageously, tell the truth.

Your self-respect will increase as you discipline yourself to be honest, and, as a result, you will make more money, because we earn money in direct proportion to our self-esteem.

How can you even look at yourself in the mirror when you’re controlled by the whims and opinions of others, keeping up with the Joneses, and trying to impress losers?

Realize this: NOBODY CARES. Get real and get honest; say “NO.”

Consider What is Important

Here’s the good news:
It’s more important to be respected than to be liked.

People know that I don’t give a damn whether they like me or not, and I refuse to conform to this climate of slimy, politically correct, dishonest, back-stabbing hypocrisy.

I don’t care if the truth offends people or if they’re uncomfortable. And people know that they can trust me because of my approach.

The more selective and direct I become, the more money I make. It works. Try it. Thicken your skin.

Instead of “Got Milk?” how about, “Got GUTS?”

Jan 18

I’m not talking about sales training (most sales trainers can’t sell for the life of them), closing techniques, product knowledge, dress and grooming, sales material, or pricing.

I’m talking about the one thing that ultimately separates the

  • Masters from the mongrels,
  • the Eagles from the ducks,
  • the Champions from the chumps,
  • and the Closers from the creeps.

I’m talking about the difference between getting rich and getting by, and that difference is created by BELIEF.

Believing in Yourself

When you truly believe in yourself and your product or service, it shows.

You become

  • self-confident,
  • strong,
  • relentless,
  • audacious,
  • and unstoppable.

You become a

  • straight talking,
  • proud walking,
  • King of the Kool Kat Klan.

You have pep in your step and a glide in your stride when you believe.

When you’re absolutely certain and focused,

  • you’re circulating and percolating,
  • making the contacts and writing the contracts,
  • and moving and grooving.

The One That Makes The Sale

Believers don’t doubt for a single second that they will make the sale.

They don’t apologize or agonize – they have that killer instinct that makes them close like a bear trap on a sickly kitten. They are the steel fist in the iron glove, the warriors, the closers.

If you’ve seen the movie, Glengarry Glenross, you’ll know what I’m talking about.

When two people are belly to belly, one is always selling. You’re either buying your prospect’s lies and excuses, or you’re selling, baby.

And the one that is convicted at the deepest level is the one that will make the sale. That’s just the way it is.

Believers Win Big

You can’t fake belief – people instinctively recognize if you’re a poser or a Player.

And you can’t be a part-time Champion.

You can, perhaps, fool a few fools at a time, but

in the long run, the believers win big.

Immersed, Convinced, and Convicted – 24/7/365

True believers are

  • totally immersed, convinced, and convicted – 24/7/365.
  • They are passionate about what they do.
  • They eat, sleep, and drink their product.
  • They are a “product of the product”; you can’t drive Hyundai and sell Lexus.

You can’t sell what you’re not, and people buy YOU before they buy what you’re selling, because, ultimately, you’re selling yourself.

Part-time, sideline, half-time clock watchers are never sales champions.

You can’t serve two masters. People won’t by from timid, tentative, trembling types –

they buy from people who are absolutely uncompromising in their belief.

True believers are not

  • rough,
  • disrespectful boorish,
  • or loud.
  • They don’t
  • talk over others,
  • pressurize,
  • or hard close, because they don’t have to.

Their power is in their belief, and they attract sales like a powerful magnet. If people are not buying from you, it has nothing to do with your product or service, the pricing, the competition, the weather, the holidays, the recession, demons, or your skanky ex-wife.

The reason why people are not buying from you is because you don’t BELIEVE in yourself and your product enough.

So stop whining and start winning. Stop making excuses and start making money!

Get yourself some serious belief and watch your closing ratios soar like an F18.

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