• What gets you bounding out of bed before the alarm clock goes off?  On a cold, rainy Monday morning, after 4 hours of sleep and jetlagged into last year?
• What compels you to work deep into the night?
• What drives you to go the extra thousand miles?
• What sets you apart from the herd of mediocre also-rans?

Your Vision.

What Separates the Masterful from the Mediocre

Successful people are prepared to do what unsuccessful people are not prepared to do. And the reason why they are prepared to - no - obsessed with doing it, is their purpose and their vision. Without a vision for your future, life is dull, boring, frustrating, repetitive, meaningless. Woodrow Wilson said,

“No man that does not see visions will ever realize any high hope or undertake any high enterprise.”

Dream or Drudgery

“Without a vision, the people perish” Proverbs 29 vs18. Vision gives us focus, endurance, courage, passion and purpose. Dreams determine destiny. Imagination determines aspiration. We have a choice, every minute of every day – we can focus on the problem or the purpose, the dream or the drudgery.

People who flit aimlessly from one thing to another simply haven’t discovered their purpose. They are without a vision; rudderless ships, destined to end up on the rocks. They are guaranteeing regret in their old age, when they no longer have the youth and energy to attempt great things. Two sad words will haunt them: “If only…”

Transcend Limitations & Mistakes

Peter Drucker said:

“The better a man is, the more mistakes he will make, for the more new things he will try in the pursuit of his vision.”

Visionaries are bulletproof. They don’t fear making mistakes. They eagerly embrace every new opportunity to make their dreams come true. They live in faith, not fear. Anais Nin said:

“We don’t see things as they are; we see them as we are.”

We become our vision. The greater the vision, the greater we become. Patanjali said:

“When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bounds: Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction and you find yourself in a new, great and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.”

What if you don’t yet have a clearly defined vision?

Easy. Find someone who does, and hitch your wagon to their star until you’re ready. You will be infused with joy, peace and a new perspective on life.

Have You Been Behaving Like a Baboon?

Most businesses are like African baboons – these furry fellows race through the cornfields, picking corn and stuffing it under their arm. As fast as they stuff the corn under their arm, it falls out the back, but they keep on picking and stuffing! By the time they get to the edge of the cornfield, they are carrying one corncob and they’ve left a trail of corn on the ground. This is how many entrepreneurs handle customers. They’re so busy getting new ones that they neglect and lose their existing customers out the back door. Attrition spirals out of control and yet they continue to spend more money on finding new customers.

Invest in Your People

We know it’s far more affordable to resell existing customers than to get new ones. We know that it’s better to retain our customers and to encourage referrals through added value service than to spend a lot of money finding new customers. So why don’t we act accordingly?

Why don’t we spend 80% of our marketing budget on our EXISTING customers?

Invest in your people and they will bring you a lot of new ones. Building strong relationships with the customers you have will:

• increase loyalty
• reduce attrition
• increase transaction values
• lengthen customer lifespan.

Why not put a program together to REACTIVATE inactive customers?

It’s much easier than trying to buy new ones.

A happy customer is good – an elated customer is better.

By redirecting our marketing dollars to our loyal clients and creating unprecedented added and unexpected value, we can engender massive reciprocity in the form of referrals and goodwill. But only strategists will understand this. Tacticians, those “instant gratification” types, will never understand this. A satisfied customer might stay with you, but an inspired and enthusiastic customer will bring her friends, family and associates. You can buy a lot more new customers than advertising with:

• A surprise party
• An unexpected gift
• A personal phone call
• A complimentary dinner

Use Joint Ventures to add value at no cost to you. Partner with other businesses to increase the value to offer and to differentiate yourself from the competition. Put yourself in your clients’ shoes and take the time to find ways to make their lives easier and more comfortable. Look after what you have and they will look after you.

Sales Tip

Act in your customer’s best interest. Reward referrals generously. Don’t skimp on packaging. Create referral systems that make the customer happy. Protect your customers; they’re hard enough to get and they can be worth their weight in gold.

Management Tip

Teach your team to listen and to go the extra mile. When I go into Safeway and ask where the bathroom is, the employee will walk me to the bathroom. When I go to the competition, the employee points in the direction on the bathroom. Big difference. A nice bag with a pretty bow and a big smile, a follow-up telephone call and even a thank you note can generate a massive return on investment. Get creative and set the example.

You talk to yourself at a rate of 600 words a minute. Even when you’re talking to yourself out loud, you’re talking with yourself internally as well. You’re constantly evaluating your circumstances and choices, based on your frame of reference and conditioning.

Choosing a New Program

Many of the confusions we jump to are automatic; conditioned responses based on past experiences which were often painful. So, many of the choices that we make are guaranteed to keep us in a negative loop, unless we consciously and actively stop the downward cycle and interrupt the negative pattern. Here’s a proven and simple way to do just that.

Asking Better Questions

Have you noticed that you always answer your own questions, and that the question determines the answer? And that we act on those answers?

• If you ask yourself, “Why am I so stupid?” You’ll get an answer that confirms that you are stupid, by telling you why you are stupid.
• If you ask, “Why do I have to work so hard?” you’ll trigger the same, negative response to confirm and support a negative belief or paradigm.
• “Why can’t I get out of debt?” will elicit an automatic, programmed response that will keep you in debt.

Break Free with This Recipe

The way to break free and escape this trap is to consciously and purposefully construct and ask questions that are designed to break the mold of pessimism and failure in any area of your life. In order to break disempowering habits, one fast way is to constantly ask yourself the right questions.

Write down the questions and be sure to ask yourself these questions (out loud, if possible) at least seven times every day. Try these for a start:

1. How can I double my income?
2. What is great about my life?
3. What do I like, respect and admire about the person I just met?
4. How can I add more value to the products and services I sell?
5. What am I grateful for?
6. How can I do more in less time?
7. What am I happy about? What is great about this situation?
8. Why do I have so much energy and joy?
9. How can I joint venture with others to make my dreams come true in a fraction of the time?
10. What can I do to increase the happiness and comfort of those I work with / my vendors / my family?
11. What did I learn today that will help me for the rest of my life?
12. Why am I such a great person? Why do people like and respect me?

Tips to Manage Your Mind

Tailor your questions to overcome mental and emotional challenges in your life. Focus on good things, solutions and events that you’re grateful for. Focus on what you want, not on what you don’t want. Create vivid mental pictures of your goals. Manage your mind and thoughts and everything else in your life will improve. Most of all, mix with Eagles instead of turkeys – Eagles will help you, support you and encourage you. Want to know where to find them?  Check out the  DollarMakers Joint Venture Forum at www.jvwisdom.com.

I know it’s hard for some of us to ask, especially self-sufficient, proud, responsible, disciplined and hard working entrepreneurs. We don’t want to take advantage, we’re afraid of being made a fool of, afraid of rejection, and so on. But the fact is, things only happen when we make them happen. And that usually involves asking people to do something.

The Beggar Who Understood Averages

I talked with a beggar on the street once. I was interested to know if he felt bad when people didn’t give him money. He answered, “No, siree! I don’t feel bad if they ignore me or don’t give me money – THEY feel bad! I just keep on askin’, askin’, askin’, and the Law of Averages kicks in. I can predict pretty accurately how much money I will make on any given day, as long as I keep askin’. And the more I ask, the more I git!” Salespeople know this – it’s a Numbers Game – ratios are real. Statistics are real. It’s a game. Ask ten people and you might get something. Ask a thousand people and you most certainly will!

How many opportunities have we lost in life, simply because we didn’t ask? What’s the worst that can happen? They can say, “No.”

Invite Others to Participate

Together, we can do amazing things – but we need to invite others to participate in our Joint Venture programs in order to achieve the maximum results, and that involves asking. And it’s absolutely amazing what people will do, if you simply ask them to!

How to Get More

Set up your Joint Ventures in such a way that YOU ask many people and that you have a system to ask many more. And the more you ask for, the more you’re likely to get. Be confident, plan your strategy well and ASK. By all means ask. Ask many people. Ask for more. “You have not, because you ask not”, is true.

When you sell your time, you sell your life. You might as well be a slave or a mercenary – or an employee.

You cannot get rich selling time unless you’re very highly qualified or a rock star or film star. That’s why most consultants and coaches experience peaks and valleys - “chicken or feathers” – their income is seasonal and they work harder and harder for less and less.

Make A Money Machine Instead

When I meet with my Joint Venture Forum Members, I always tell them that they should have each Joint Venture they consider fit within the following parameters:

“No time, no risk, no cost, win/win.”

That doesn’t mean a Joint Venture won’t take time to set it up, or a little expense up front – it simply means that ideally, the JV should run like a money machine, without your presence or time. The idea is to utilize and leverage underutilized resources and create links as a broker would. You get paid a percentage of resulting business. You link supply with demand and piggy back distribution and advertising.

How Much Is Your Freedom Worth?

The average consultant or employee (a consultant is simply an employee with many bosses) doesn’t realize that his hourly rate is not what he actually earns. When you look at your real profit, you should also consider what your freedom is worth to you.

• Are you free to do what you like, when you like?
• Are you free to go skiing or hiking when the weather permits, or when a boss permits?
• Are you really like a child in a classroom who has to ask permission to go to the little boys’ room?
• How much is time with your family worth to you? What will you sell it for?
• Do you really want to have a boss decide whether or not you’re allowed to take your wife on holiday or go fishing with your friends?
• How old are you, anyway?

Maybe it’s time for your personal Independence Day.

Fire Your Boss

Other peoples’ time, money, resources, equipment, expertise and access is freely available to smart JV experts. We don’t have money problems; we have thinking problems. Let us understand that we don’t have to sell our time. Fire that boss, once and for all. Fire your consulting and training clients like I did. They don’t deserve you. You family and loved ones deserve you.

One phone call can earn a good JV broker more than the average employee earns in a month or more. Attend our Joint Venture Broker Bootcamp and find out how you can have all the time and money you want.  Contact Us to attend one yourself.

Which are you right now?

I worked with a real estate company to help them increase sales and saw the “tortoise and the hare” fable come to life right before my eyes. One of the salespeople (the tortoise) was slow, not highly skilled, not a great communicator and she had a long commute to work, which cut into her flexibility. But she was steady, consistent, reliable, very enthusiastic and totally focused and committed to reaching her goals. Some of the other “hare” salespeople tended to be highly skilled and polished, but they were often erratic and unfocused. They worked in fits and starts. They got side-tracked. The tortoise beat them every single month. The results I see a salesperson accomplishing are in direct proportion to his or her consistency and focus.

The “Magic” Formula

The formula for Momentum is p=mv where p is momentum, m is mass and v is velocity. If we were to translate that into sales, momentum would be branding and results, m would be the amount of effort, action and focus and v would be enthusiasm and belief or:

Your Brand’s Momentum = Your effort, action and focus + Your enthusiasm and belief

It’s the Accumulation of Great Action

Branding and momentum is not achieved overnight. It takes consistent sowing and nurturing to build a brand, whether that brand is you, your website, your product or your business. Imagine someone pushing a car up a hill. As they push, they gain momentum and it gets easier. If they stop and let go of the car, it starts rolling back down the hill! Momentum is a vector. That simply means that momentum is a quantity that has a magnitude, or size, and a direction.

Are you headed in the best direction?

Some businesses have momentum in the wrong direction, and they require a turn-around expert to deal with them. We need to be sure that our efforts are taking us in the right direction and we need to know why we want to move in that direction.

Use this Reality Check

• It’s good to stand back and take along, hard look at your business.
• Re-evaluate your goals.
• Look at your activity.  Is it building momentum and the branding you want?
• Are your sure you’re creating the right image?
• Most of all, focus and consistency should be built into all your systems.

As Michael Gerber tells us in the E Myth, work ON your business, not IN it. And continually adjust and improve upon every aspect of it. Concentrated effort and persistence is the mark of a winner. Once you gain positive momentum in the right direction, make sure you continue to feed the fire, and the sky’s the limit.

“I do not think there is any other quality so essential to success of any kind as the quality of perseverance. It overcomes almost everything, even nature.”
– John D. Rockefeller

Are you experiencing a difficult time and perhaps considering giving up? The key to real, lasting success is Perseverance.

The Hallmark of Eagles

Champions win because perseverance is part of who they are, and it is reflected in every aspect of their lives. It separates the men from the boys. It is based on a strong foundation of self discipline. Eagles will never tell you, “I’ll TRY”. They don’t make excuses. They make it happen. Samuel Johnson said:

“If your determination is fixed, I do not counsel you to despair. Few things are impossible to diligence and skill. Great works are performed not by strength, but perseverance.”

Look at the lives of successful people and you will find a steel will; a steel fist in a velvet glove. They know the secret to success is to persist and persevere. These people don’t doubt their own ability and they expect to win.

Be an Unstoppable Force

“If you want to get somewhere you have to know where you want to go and how to get there. Then never, never, never give up.”

- Norman Vincent Peale

When you decide that nothing and nobody is going get between you and your goals, you have already won! It has to happen in your head and your heart and deep down in your gut before you will take the necessary action and get the results you want.

There are two people in your life:

1. Those who will encourage you, challenge you and inspire you, and
2. Those who will discourage, depress, sabotage and undermine you.

Get rid of the latter. Remove them from your life. They are poison. They usually hide behind “I care about you”, smiles and “tact”, but believe me, they are hell bent on your failure.

The former, on the other hand, will stand by you, support you and remind you when you slack off. Seek them out. They are headed in the same direction that you are. Team up with them – Joint Venture with them. They don’t even consider the possibility of failure, and neither should you.

Insist on Winning

Napoleon Hill said:

“Persistence is to the character of man as carbon is to steel.”

Demand that of yourself. Insist on winning. Do not give in to greed, sloth, attachment or fear. Be resolute and firm. Do not take “No” for an answer, and you will join the Eagles who always end up winning. They may be bloodied and scarred from battle, but they are the victors. Don’t quit – you deserve to win!

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

– Thomas Edison

“Many people have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification, but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.”

- Helen Keller

Do you know this person?

• He rises without hitting the snooze button.
• She works without complaining.
• He works longer and harder than anyone else.
• He always delivers on time.
• She gets there before anyone else.
• He cares little about the opinions of others.
• She consistently raises his own standards and expectations.
• He is not cowered or frightened by his circumstances – he is in control of his environment and his mind.

If you know such a person, they are living on purpose. They have a Magnificent Obsession.

“But there is suffering in life, and there are defeats. No one can avoid them. But it’s better to lose some of the battles in the struggles for your dreams than to be defeated without ever knowing what you’re fighting for.”

- Paulo Coelho

Living on Purpose

People with a very specific and definite purpose are not easily phased or thrown off course. They are utterly reliable and focused. They do not make excuses. Their lives are meaningful. They know who they are and they don’t need anyone else’s permission, endorsement or acknowledgement – only their own.

“The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly; it is dearness only that gives everything its value. I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.”

- Thomas Paine

He knew whereof he spoke. Purpose driven people pay the price of success gladly. They are warriors.

Are You an Eagle or a Chicken?

Unstoppable people are Eagles – they have goals and objectives and they are self reliant. They concur with Ayn Rand’s definition of Freedom: “To ask for nothing, to expect nothing, to depend on nothing.” And Freedom is usually their highest value. They enjoy strong self esteem and confidently pioneer new frontiers, never doubting their own ability. They don’t know how to turn tail, quit or compromise. It’s foreign to them. Eagles expect to win.

Someone with a purpose will know unprecedented peace, power and profit when they discover their own Magnificent Obsession and give themselves permission to win at all costs. They are strengthened by detours, obstructions and the mindless, seething masses. They see beyond the ordinary. They rise majestically above the quicksand of Collectivism and compromise.

Do you see this person in the mirror every morning? You can, you know.