I believe in angels,
The kind that heaven sends,
I am surrounded by angels,
But I call them friends.
- Anonymous -

"This one step - choosing a goal and sticking to it - changes everything." Scott Reed

See first that the design is wise and just; that ascertained, pursue it resolutely.
William Shakespeare

Sometimes, even when you do everything right...you don't see results. Do Not Quit. Your temptation to quit is greatest right before success.

Develop success from failures. Discouragement and failure are two of the surest stepping stones to success.
Dale Carnegie

"The person who gets the farthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare. The sure-thing boat never gets far from shore."
–Dale Carnegie

"There are those who work all day. Those who dream all day. And those who spend an hour dreaming before setting to work to fulfill those dreams. Go into the third category because there's virtually no competition." -- Steven J Ross

CMA Report Uncovers Disturbing Email Trends

A report from the Canadian Marketing Association uncovered some
very disturbing data regarding peoples opinions and thoughts about
email marketing.

-------------
Did you know:
-------------

1. 97% of people say email that tricks them into opening it is
spam...

2. 93% of people say email from unknown senders is spam...

3. 93% say email with offensive subject matter is spam...

4. 58% say spam includes permitted email that is now arriving too
often!

5. 57% say spam includes permitted email that they now no longer
wish to receive!

6. 38% say anything that tries to sell them something is spam,
regardless who sent it.

--------------------------------
So, what can we learn from this?
--------------------------------

* #1 teaches us NOT to use 'bait and switch' tactics.

* #2 is pretty obvious - build a relationship BEFORE you pitch
someone.

* #3 Says use good taste - I know, subjective, but hey... you have
been warned.

* #4 and #5 deserve special attention. #4 suggests people who are
happy getting your email have a 'frequency' threshold. Send too
much and people respond negatively - again, highly subjective and
depends greatly on the list, the timing, the offer and other social
issues of the time.

* #5 is similar to #4 in that this is a not a question of sending
email to an unwanted recipient, this is now a function of the
recipient changing their mind and not telling you! You end up being
tagged a spammer because they changed their mind - not fair, but
nothing every is... except maybe the Lottery ;)

* And finally, #6 - nearly 4 out of 10 people don't like the idea
of you trying to sell them something - period. Until of course... the
moment they want it. But hey, who said business was easy?

Email may still be the 'killer app' when it comes to on-line
marketing, but these are some very important issues to consider and
I hope you heed the advice above.

'It's always better to light a candle than curse the darkness' - Eleanor Roosevelt

Perseverance is failing 19 times and succeeding the 20th. J. Andrews

What the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve ~ Napoleon Hill

"Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you. Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you." Luke 6:27, 28.

Blessed are those who can give without remembering and take without forgetting.
Elizabeth Bibesco

"If it's never our fault, we can't take responsibility for it."

"Don't ask yourself what the world needs--Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and then go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive." Harold Thurman Whitman

The Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself. ~Benjamin Franklin

“To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that’s all”
- Oscar Wilde

Never mind what others do; do better than yourself, beat your own record from day to day, and you are a success.

-- William J. H. Boetcker

imitations live only in our minds. But if we use our imaginations, our possibilities become limitless. - Jamie Paolinetti

The first recipe of happiness - avoid too lengthy meditations on the past. - Andre Maurois

"People often say that motivation doesn't last. Well neither does bathing - That's why I recommend it daily."
Zig Ziglar

"Abundance consists not alone in material possession,
but in an uncovetous spirit."
- John Selden

"...we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us." Romans 5:3-5

"When you focus on being a blessing, God makes sure that you are always blessed in abundance."
- Joel Osteen

How to Use Facebook Correctly to Build Your Business

by Aaron Rashkin

With the sudden rise in Social Media in the past 12 months, Facebook has become one of the most visited websites online.

it’s now been reported that Facebook gets more visitors every day than even Yahoo.

So with all these people to be-friend on Facebook, the question is, “how do you use Facebook to build your Home Based Business?”

The answer is quite simple.

You make friends first.

Then, you attract followers by providing them good value in the form of thought provoking questions, comments, quotes and dialogue.

You’ll know who your followers are because they will read your status updates and comment on them or let you know that they like what you have to say.

Then, those followers will become a fan of yours, meaning that not only are they your friend and follower, but they will reach out to you and thank you for your contributions to your community and perhaps might even ask you what you do or how they might be able to work with you.

This might even result in a new customer, business partner or both.

This is called Permission Based Marketing and it makes for the best transaction between a seller and a buyer online.

Now, the worst thing you can do on Facebook, is pitch your deal.

Not only will people ignore you, but many will remove you as their friend if they feel that the only reason you are on Facebook is to sell your product or service.

Imagine going to a doctor and before they even ask you any questions, they are writing you a prescription.

Not only didn’t they ask you anything about yourself, but they didn’t even find out if you even have a need for one.

To suggest to someone on Facebook that they should look at your company, product or service is considered rude, pushy, even annoying. This is otherwise known as spam.

Nobody likes to be sold, but everybody loves to buy.

So, brand yourself as a leader first – someone that people will come to know, like and trust.

Then, if people ask you about your business, that’s great. Let them engage you and then you can provide them with more information.

Now, if you contribute to your community on Facebook often, with great value, it’s fine to include a link to your personal blog or hub page or any other Social Media that you’ve created or that has been written or spoken about you.

Just don’t keep posting the same status that reads, “Make a Jilion in a Jiffy” with a link to your website.

Nobody cares about your business opportunity until they see that you are someone they’d even want to work with.

If all you post is business information, your intentions speak loudly on their own and you will alienate yourself.

If you treat your Facebook friends with respect and courtesy and contribute often, chances are that you will attract great people who ask what you do and how they can get more information.

"That some achieve great success, is proof to all that others can achieve it as well."
- Abraham Lincoln

Human history begins with man's act of disobedience which is at the very same time the beginning of his freedom and development of his reason. Erich Fromm

"When you focus on being a blessing, God makes sure that you are always blessed in abundance."
- Joel Osteen

"If you don’t know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else."
- Yogi Berra

The Reverse-Marketing Twitter Checklist: 8 Steps to Marketing Success on Twitter

This article was written by Jeff Machado, an Inbound Marketing Implementation Specialist with Modern Marketing Support, an Internet Marketing Virtual Assistant company.

One of the hardest things about marketing on Twitter is that it doesn't even look like marketing.

In fact, the closer you watch those who have made a success using inbound marketing techniques, you'll see that it seems that they're not doing much of anything at all. Sure, they're talking to people and sharing some great resources, but that can't be marketing ...

But it is marketing - and it's a powerful kind of reverse-marketing. It's relatively easy, it's fun, and it's really effective.

Looking for ways to tap into this almost effortless style of business promotion? Here are eight easy steps you can follow:

1. Choose Topics Outside Your Niche
As hard as it may be to swallow, you are not your niche. A niche is something you have. But it is not who you are. Choose 5 other things you could possibly Tweet about. On my list are cooking, origami, personality tests, colors, and office supplies. Find more opportunities to Tweet and talk about other things than what your business is. Getting people to like you first is a great place to start on Twitter.

2. Define the Personality You Want To Reach
Thanks to David Meerman Scott, we have the concept of buyer persona and a method for applying it to marketing. Thanks to the Myers Briggs Type Indicator, we have a tool for getting inside that buyer persona's mind. It was easy for me to choose ENFPs (Extraverted, Intuitive, Feeling, and Perceiving) as my target market. They're the types who get lots of ideas and are natural entrepreneurs but struggle with things like internet marketing implementation. 4 little letters can give you a lot of potential Tweet ideas.

3. Use the Search Button at Least 3 Times Per Day + Tweet at Least 15 New People
Lots of Twitter help articles will say "Join the conversation!" but if the people you're following don't seem to engage in conversation and only promote themselves or send out quotes for Re-Tweet bait, what are you supposed to do? That's where the search button comes in. Search for something you're interested in. Find someone you'd like to talk to. Then repeat as much as possible. Use your @ function more than anything else. Engage, don't broadcast.

4. Ask 5 Questions on a Daily Basis
Once you start to find more followers, just ask questions. Will they always get answered? No. But did it cost you a ton of money to ask? Absolutely not. You can't take it personally if no one answers the first time around. But if you're focusing on your buyer persona, you get closer to getting inside their mind. You'll know you're asking the right questions when you start to get responses. Easy to do, easy to measure.

5. Answer at Least 3 Questions Daily
The fewer questions someone has on their mind, the more at peace they are. Questions, especially ones that don't get answered, are the things that keep us up at night. Though it might seem extreme to say, it's very likely that anytime you answer someone's question via a Tweet, you're helping them sleep better at night.

6. Send Out 10 Useful or Entertaining Links (But Be Sure To Track!) Every Day
While desktop applications like TweetDeck or Twhirl offer convenient URL shortening, they are not necessarily the best. You're missing out on one of the best features of Bit.ly and other URL shortening tools like it: click tracking. This is the simplest way to find out if you're Tweeting things that your Followers actually want to know about. Just sign up for Bit.ly's service and Tweet from there when sharing articles and blog posts.

7. Share at Least One Blog Post, Article, or Video Per Week
There are so many options for connecting your blog posts, articles, videos, and all your content to your social media venues. But self serving promotional content just doesn't cut it. Remember the question theory? Use it to your advantage. Think of the questions your target market (or even better, your buyer persona) has and make sure your content answers those questions. Provide content that makes it easier for that person to sleep at night.

8. Test a Different Landing Page from Your Twitter Profile Weekly
If you're doing everything above, you're getting closer to people being more interested in what you have to offer. What will they find when they visit you? Are they going to know exactly how you're going to help them sleep better at night? If not, you need to create landing pages that express just this. As with all good landing page practices, keep on testing.

So what do you think? Is Twitter about as reverse-marketing as it gets? And what other ways are there to measure your success on Twitter? Let's get the conversation rolling in the comments.

"Expect your every need to be met. Expect the answer to every problem, expect abundance on every level."
- Eileen Caddy

"A man's life consisteth not in the abundance
of the things which he possesseth."
- Luke 12:15

"When you are grateful fear disappears
and abundance appears."
- Anthony Robbins

Sales and Marketing - Different and Powerful

People often confuse the two or assume they are one and the same. They are different and powerful.

You use marketing to bring you qualified prospects and use sales to close the deal and build relationships with people. In other words, the definition of marketing is everything you do to reach and persuade prospects to give you a chance to sell them. Sales is what you do to close the sale and get a signed agreement or contract.

In the world of internet marketing, the marketer drives people to the website, and the sales person is the one who forms a relationship with the prospects and closes the deal.

Good marketers and sales people have one thing in common: they both begin by putting their customers first and developing strong customer relationships.

To be effective at both marketing and sales, you need to identify your target market and understand their needs.

What are their hot buttons and core emotional desires? People buy with their emotions and justify with logic. So before you start rattling off a bunch of features, ask yourself, ""what does it mean to them specifically and how will it benefit them?"

Seven Reasons People Buy
Good marketing and sales start with understanding what your customer wants.
If you know what people want, then you're 90 percent of the way there.
So how do you find out what people want?
Talk to people one-on-one. Listen to the requests they make, the questions they ask and their complaints. Also, look at the information they make public on forums, blogs and other social media. These are a goldmine of information about what people want.

Supplement your research with an understanding of the 7 reasons people buy:
1. Make money
2. Save money
3. Save time
4. Save effort
5. Improve health
6. Increase pleasure
7. Elminate pain

Why Don't People Buy from You?
In most cases, negative emotions are a lot more powerful than positive emotions. Too often, sales focuses on why people should buy from you vs. why people don't buy from you.

There are typically four reasons people won't buy from you.
1. They don't know you
2. They don't want what you're selling
3. They don't want what you're selling more than what they would have to give up to get it
4. They don't believe you

Make their concerns and doubts the focus of your attention first.

This is especially important in network marketing, given how skeptical most people are about this industry.Its funny that most network marketing companies say "we don't sell products we just share information". That helps people who are afraid of sales feel less intimidated by the process. But the truth is that network marketing does involve sales. It also requires marketing.
Be honest, upfront and straightforward with people. Not only will this earn trust, but it will allow you to differentiate yourself. The bigger you make your claims (about your business or product), the more you blend in with everyone else. Tone down your claims and show genuine concern for people's interests. Its a win-win solution.

Expect your every need to be met. Expect the answer to every problem, expect abundance on every level.
Eileen Caddy

Abundance is not something we acquire. It is something we tune into. Wayne Dyer

What was hard to bear is sweet to remember.

Portuguese proverb

"Growth means change and change involves risk, stepping from the known to the unknown."

Ten Keys to Success in Network Marketing

A high percentage of people fail to make a full-time income in network marketing, because they either don't know what to do or aren't willing to do what is necessary to achieve success. In this article, I'm going to eliminate the excuse of not knowing.

Here are ten keys to achieving high success in network marketing:

1. Purpose - you must have a strong "why" for this business, otherwise the negativity from the dreamstealers (those people in your life who will try to save you from the pyramid scam). Are you interested in more time freedom? Extra money every month? Helping other people improve their lives? Financial freedom? A strong purpose will keep you focused and ensure your success in network marketing and all aspects of your life.

2. Goals - you must have written steps that will help you achieve your purpose. Set written goals for the next 5 years, 1 year, monthly, daily. Set goals for # of new contacts, # of retail customers, # of distributors, income, pin levels, etc. Make sure these goals are written. Read them daily.

3. Plan - you must have a written plan for achieving your goals. The great eastern philosopher, Yogi Berra, once said, "if you don't know where you're going, you'll probably end up some place else." In other words, if you don't have a written plan to achieve your goals, you won't!

4. Belief - you must believe in network marketing, your company, the products, the compensation plan, the leadership, the marketing programs, your upline, and yourself. The stronger your belief, the greater your commitment.

5. Commitment - you must be committed to your company for life! Not, "I'll give this a try for 6 months and see how it works." I can guarantee you will fail! You must know that this is the best company, with the best products. You must believe that this opportunity is perfect for yourself and for others. If this is not the case, find another company where it is.

6. Positive Attitude - bad things will happen. The media will cover our industry, and your company negatively at times. Prospects will tell you you're crazy for being a part of one of those pyramid schemes. Even your family will think your nuts! Keep in mind that they are ignorant of the facts. You have the facts! This is a great industry.
It will revolutionize the way products and services are distributed throughout the world. You are a part of the greatest industry in the world and the greatest company in that industry. Be positive about the company, industry, products, upline, downline, etc. It's up to you to spread positive and hope everywhere you go.

7. Lead by Example - people will do what you do, not what you say to do. They will look to you to lead by example.
If things aren't going well, ask yourself this question, "how happy would I be if all my downline worked like me?"
Are you doing what's necessary to be successful? If you aren't, you can't expect your downline to. Keep prospecting and recruiting people. Give your downline leads and placements. Use the company training system and promote it's use to your downline. If you do the right things every day, your downline will do the right things every day, and good things will result.

8. Love People - in our harried world we forget to love people. I'm not talking about romantic love, but rather caring love. Love your sponsor for introducing you to this great company. Love your upline for helping you. Love your downline for committing to you. Love the company for providing these fantastic products and incredible financial opportunity.
Love your prospects, even those who are mean and nasty. In fact love them even more, because they probably need it more.
If you love people, they will love you back. Wow! What a feeling. It turns this from a business into a big loving family full of members who are willing to do anything for you.

9. Daily Action - this is a business, not a hobby. If you invested a half million dollars in a McDonalds franchise would you work it in your spare time - when you didn't have anything else to do - when there weren't any good T.V. shows on? Of course not. You'd be working 15 hours a day to get your money back. You probably didn't invest much to get into your business, but the commitment level should be the same, because the long-term benefits are much greater in network marketing than with McDonalds.
Work your business every day. Plan time into your daily schedule to prospect, contact, follow-up, work with your downline, conduct training meetings for your downline, conduct business briefings, work online, and study. Daily activity will produce daily results, which build into monthly results, which build into yearly results.
Do you know that if you made up a list of everyone you have ever known and started to contact them, you would recruit at least 10% of them without trying very hard. If you become proficient, you would probably close 30% or better. Just think, if you contacted one person every day, 7 days a week, you would contact 365 people each year. At a 10% close ratio you would have 36 new distributors every year. If they also duplicated, you would add another 1296 the second year, 46,656 the third year and so on. That is the power of 1 contact each day.
Plan it into your schedule to call or see one new prospect every day (and I mean every day, not just when you have a spare moment!) and commit to doing that for the next month. You'll be amazed at the results! Then teach your downline to do the same thing.

10. Cultivate leaders - find natural leaders in the warm and cold markets. Find leaders in your current networks. You will need to find and cultivate at least 3 leaders in each leg in order to secure them. A group of strong leaders under each leg will enable you to have more independence and eventually result in true walk-away income.

Network marketing is a great business. You have chosen a great company. You are a great person. Follow these 10 steps to further greatness!
Post inspired by Rod Nichols.

There is only one real failure in life that is possible, and that is, not to be true to the best one knows.
John Farrar

He who believes is strong; he who doubts is weak. Strong convictions precede great actions.
Louisa May Alcott

"Do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of."
-Benjamin Franklin

“Being rich is having money; being wealthy is having time” Margaret Bonnano

Whatever may be said in praise of poverty, the fact remains that it is not possible to live a really complete or successful life unless one is rich. Wallace D. Wattles

You can win more friends with your ears than with your mouth.

Successful People Deserve It...

We are all successful. We all deserve what we set out to have in our lives.

But... What do you really want? Do you believe that you deserve it?

1. What do you really want? Clearly define what you want in your life that you don't already have. Maybe you want more time with your family, but what specifically does that mean? It may mean enjoying dinner every night with your family or enjoying weekends together. Clearly define it, so you can aim for your goal.

Time costs money. Therefore, any goal with time in it will cost you money to have it. Be clear on how much money days off with your family will cost you. You will then be able to put a dollar figure on your time and set a real goal.

2. Do you believe you deserve it? This is the point where many people might say, "of course, I deserve it." But without truly believing that more money or more time or whatever can really be yours, you will not get it. In a way, you are striving for a goal that will never be yours because you feel deep inside that you don't deserve it.

Start today with feeling that you deserve it. You can have as much as the next very successfully wealthy person. You are just as deserving to have a life by design, just believe it!

To your success and abundance!

Satisfaction comes from enough action. Jack Canfield

Salespeople Who Engage Customers

by Benson Smith and Tony Rutigliano
Excerpted from Discover Your Sales Strengths (Warner Books, 2003)

How do great sales reps create customer engagement? Gallup’s researchers have identified four emotional dimensions that comprise customer engagement. These dimensions begin with Confidence and move on in order to Integrity, Pride, and Passion. Together, these are the building blocks of customer engagement. Without question, high levels of customer engagement represent a tough benchmark to meet. In the various industries we studied, the number of “fully engaged” customers has ranged from the single digits (around 6% to 8%) to as high as 35% to 40%. Contrast that with the 80% of customers reportedly “satisfied” in these same industries.

In order to assess the level of customer engagement, our researchers first undertook a comprehensive research and development effort in which they tested a series of statements that had been used at various times to indicate the emotional “attachment” felt by a customer. The following eight statements turned out to be the best indicators of the important emotional connection between the customer and a company. Take a moment and imagine that you are one of your company’s customers. Fill in your company’s name in the blank and read each statement.

1. [ _________ ] is a name I can always trust.

2. [ _________ ] always delivers on what it promises.

3. [ _________ ] always treats me fairly.

4. If a problem arises, I can always count on [ _________ ] to reach a fair and satisfactory resolution.

5. I feel proud to be a [ _________ ] customer.

6. [ _________ ] always treats me with respect.

7. [ _________ ] is the perfect company for people like me.

8. I can’t imagine a world without [ _________ ].

How many of your customers would strongly agree to all eight statements? You can see why high levels of customer engagement represent a very tough standard to meet, and why it’s much easier to “satisfy” customers than it is to “fully engage” them.

Customers respond to these statements based on their experiences -- experiences with the product (service) and experiences with people. In some businesses, such as the airline industry, customers may deal with many different people every time they purchase a ticket or fly on a plane. Every time there is contact, engagement can be affected for better or worse. In businesses in which customers deal principally with a single salesperson, however, those salespeople have enormous impact on customer engagement. So, in many industries, customers are really saying, “My salesperson is someone I can always trust,” or “My salesperson always delivers on what he or she promises.”

Building customer engagement is not a “sometimes” thing. Notice that the word “always” appears in five of the eight statements. That’s intentional. Our research has shown that trust has to be there all the time or there is no trust. The same is true of respect, confidence, fair treatment, and the other practices implied by these important statements.

Consistency is clearly important in building customer engagement. Every time we have an interaction with a customer, we are either building engagement or eroding it.

Is this simply a matter of liking the salesperson?

Don’t customers really buy, as the old saying goes, from people they like? The answer to that question is a straightforward yes and no! Having your customers like you is a big advantage, but lots of customers are not looking to become best friends with salespeople. Customer engagement relates to the company and its products and services, and not only to the salesperson. Even if your customers “love” you, they still have to feel strongly engaged in what you’re providing if you want some assurance that they will continue to buy.

Sometimes salespeople make the mistake of trying to be too “friendly” with their customers. Chuck told us, “Customers are different from friends. A friendship is a give-and-take relationship. There is no saying that goes ‘Your friend is always right,’ but every customer is all too familiar with the expression ‘The customer is always right.’”

We don’t mean to say that you can’t be friends with your customers -- you certainly can be. You might even be best friends with them, but customer engagement is different from friendship. Customers can be friendly, but they have a whole different set of expectations compared to people who are your friends just for the sake of friendship. Gallup’s research into this area brings some clarity as to how these very special and unique relationships with customers are built.

Too many people spend money they haven't earned, to buy things they don't want, to impress people they don't like. Will Rogers

Plan for the best, expect it, and it will come. Me.

Just One Sale Away from Life Changing Success

Some days, you might wonder, when will success happen? When will I receive this or that? Believe and it will happen. And it will happen very quickly!

Think about all those who have gone before you, all the other entrepreneurs and marketers and sales people. Did they make their first million in one year? No. Did they have to deal with failure upon failure? Yes, they learned from their failures and moved forward, closer and closer to success.

Then, one day, after working hard attracting sales, prospects, new clients, customers, everything clicked. The sales became consistent. They went from trickling in to 2 a week to 5 a week and then so much more.

All that hard work finally paid off. All because you BELIEVED in yourself and your abilities to attract success.

You are just one sale away from Success. Be Success. Attract Success minded people like you!
Go marketers, sales people, and entrepreneurs - Keep believing!

The life of man is like a game with dice; if you don't get the throw you want, you must show your skill in making the best of the throw you get.
Terence

"Become known as a class act." Jack Canfield, The Success Principles

"Success is a matter of understanding and religiously practicing specific, simple habits that always lead to success." Robert J Ringer

Sales/Marketers - What do you really want?

Sales and marketers and anyone on commission, this is for you. You work for every penny. Therefore, you probably set your goals too. Do your goals only involve money or do you want something money can buy?? For example, your goal might be to make $10,000 next month. The $10,000 represents the amount of money that it would take to buy something or to take some time off, either way you are buying something.

Make the goal something you can feel, or touch, or smell. Make it something that puts a smile on your face. Or something that would put a smile on your spouse's face.

What do you really want? This is your goal. Something really important to you. If it's that important to you, just ask for it. And then work towards it. You will be more likely to get what you want if you first know what you want.

Then.... do these steps to solidify your goal -- what you really want.
1. Write it down
2. Take the time to visualize getting this item, feeling it, smelling it.
3. If you can, test drive it or take a picture of your goal.
4. Tell the person your love about it

Have fun with your goal setting and you will be successful and abundant.

"Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle." Abraham Lincoln

Check out Top 10 Tips for Effective Internet Marketing Websites

Title: Top 10 Tips for Effective Internet Marketing Websites

Link: http://gotaf.socialtwist.com/redirect?l=-767902088808613906511

"When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us." Helen Keller

Marketers/Sales... "All the resources we need are in the mind." Theodore Roosevelt

"Whatever may be said in the praise of poverty, the fact remains that it is not possible to live a really complete or successful life unless one is rich." Wallace D. Wattles

"There is no such thing as a natural born champion"

"I promise you this, if you follow your "true" bliss, treat people with respect, be kind and provide quality services, then you will become successful. And more importantly, you will become a beautiful person."
Chris Dines.

If It's Not the Money, Then WHY Do We Do What We Do?

Your real “WHY” is never the money.

Answering these questions may help you find your “WHY”.
• What does your family mean to you?
• What do you want for your own personal growth?
• What you want to accomplish in your lifetime?
• What scares you to death?
• What would it mean to you to help others change their lives?

Take your time in answering these questions. You will find your reason why you do what you do, why you really want to do if you are not doing it, and how you really want to have some "fun."

Family: For most, family is the reason why they work from home, create additional income sources, work overtime, get more jobs or less work and spend less. We all want to be with family more and to have fun with them more. All this requires more money!

Personal Growth: If we are not learning, we have stopped living. Most of us want to continue learning and growing into better people. Maybe we want to learn more about our hobby or something scientific or how to help others. We always want to learn more! This requires time and time is actually something we buy or it buys us... With greater earnings, we can decide how we spend our time and with less, we have to work overtime.

Accomplishment: What would you really like to accomplish in this life? This takes a deep contemplation and meditation or maybe you already know it. Usually, it's something you are really passionate about. A huge accomplishment takes time, which is earned through money... yet another reason to have more money!

Fear: What are you really scarred about? Maybe you are currently living out your worst nightmare, working long hours and spending little time at home. Or creating huge debt. Maybe you are scarred to do something different than your friends and family? Maybe you are scarred to speak to someone, who seems bigger than you. We all have fears. It's all normal. It's what you do with them that really counts. If they paralyze you, then you stop growing and living to the fullest. Just face the fear and you will overcome!

Helping others means a lot!! Doesn't it feel great to help others?! To show others a better life or way of having fun or something else. Just visualize for a moment what you would do to help someone, write it down and act on it. Helping people takes time too and time is money. By creating more money, you will create more time to enjoy helping others!!

By now, you probably figured out your "WHY." Now take some action on your why and have an abundant life!

"Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful."

Albert Schweitzer.

"Laughter is the corrective force which prevents us from becoming cranks." Henri Bergson.

The Ultimate Success Formula for Business Professionals and Us Normal Folks

The ultimate success formula: Action.... Feedback.... Correction

Everyone makes mistakes. Business people, non business people, in regular lives make mistakes. It's what you do with mistakes that's most important. You can choose to be upset with your mistake and not try again. Or you could understand what happened and learn from the mistake.

Remember, it's a mis-take. You can change that! You can hit the ball this time, hit it far into the outfield. We all miss sometimes. Do we admit it? Do we understand why we miss something? Go ahead, admit your mistakes - it's ok!

This is how business professionals, marketers, sales professionals get real results and still make plenty of mistakes.

This is the ultimate success formula: Action... Feedback... Correction.
1. Take action now. Don't put it off, just do it.
2. Feedback: Understand and learn what happened from your mistakes and successes.
3. Correction: Take corrections after mistakes and make it better and better.

Use the ultimate success formula. You will find success today and always.

"Sincere forgiveness isn't colored with expectations that the other person apologize or change. Don't worry whether or not they finally understand you. Love them and release them. Life feeds back truth to people in its own way and time-just like it does for you and me."

Sara Paddison.

Power is the ability to do good things for others.
Brooke Astor

The major block to compassion is the judgment in our minds. Judgment is the mind's primary tool of separation.

Diane Berke.

"People with goals succeed because they know where they are going... It's as simple as that."
Earl Nightingale.

"The road to happiness lies in two simple principles; find what it is that interests you and that you can do well, and when you find it put your whole soul into it - every bit of energy and ambition and Natural ability you have."

John D. Rockefeller.

Business Choices... Getting Ready to Get Ready Syndrome

"Each moment offers of the choice of whether to separate or join. That is the only choice we have faced before and the only choice we will ever face. Unfortunately, we do not remember the pain of separation or the bliss of joining." Everyday Wisdom.

When you first had the idea of starting a business, you had an incredible burning "Why" desire. You knew exactly what you wanted to earn and what you would do with the money. You were excited of the prospect of you being the boss for a change.

Then, you searched and searched. Finally, you found the right business and products to fit you. You jumped in, very excited and started working. Or did you? Did you get to work right away or did you start by learning and learning and learning....? Also called: "getting ready to get ready."

"Getting Ready to Get Ready"

This is when you learn all you can, make many projects, and in the end, take no action. You might know it all but haven't used any of the information you learned or worked on.

Get rid of your "Getting ready to get ready" attitude with remembering why you joined or started your business in the first place.

• Get back in touch with your Why: Why you got started in your business in the first place. Write it down, visualize, get emotional, get back in touch.
• Remember that failure was never an option and isn't now!
• Take one small step away from getting ready. Just take one action today, don't put it off another day longer.
• Visualize your success and take more and more action. More action is fun!

Use your "joining" energy today, take action on your business, your home business or job, and be the most abundant action driven person!

"Each moment offers of the choice of whether to separate or join. That is the only choice we have faced before and the only choice we will ever face. Unfortunately, we do not remember the pain of separation or the bliss of joining."

Everyday Wisdom.

"What you always do before you make a decision is consult. The best public policy is made when you are listening to people who are going to be impacted. Then, once policy is determined, you call on them to help you sell it." Elizabeth Dole.

"Let go of the idea that you're a body that's destined to die, and instead seek an awareness of your immortal self. Affirm: I am eternal, and that means that I showed up here from the infinitude of spiritual intention to fulfill a destiny that I must act on." Wayne Dyer.

How to Create a Simple Abundance Mentality

We all deserve abundance. Do you believe that? Just think, if you were to have plenty of money, you would choose how simple your life would be. You would choose the simple things in life or choose to "do it all," thus complicating life. Rather than achieving it all and complicating life from having plenty of money, let's look at the simple life, from achieving the simple abundance mentality.

This simple life would allow you to do what you want, when you want. Work when you want, employ partners or outsource. Vacation when and where you want. Give your kids all that you want to give them, without complicating their lives. And allow you to relax after a nice lunch date with a friend. Going out as you want, but not every night. That's achieving simple abundance.

Anyone can achieve simple abundance, it only takes daily practice and the right mentality. Here are some steps to achieving a simple abundance mentality that will lead you to your simple abundance:

1. Define what your simple abundant life would look and feel like.
2. Visualize this daily.
3. Write it down and repeat it daily.
4. Write down your actions that will lead to your abundance.
5. Mastermind with someone who is already there, a mentor.
6. Most important!!! Take action each and every day, keeping in mind that you are reaching for your simple abundant life. Not a special car or status symbol, but a simple and abundant lifestyle.

Each day, you will act as if you already have the simple abundant life. You will carry the simple abundance mentality with you as you take action on the tasks that will get you there. Start today and you will find yourself in a newly designed life sooner than later!

"When I was young, I used to admire intelligent people; as I grow older, I admire kind people."


Abraham Joshua Heschel.

"Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough."

Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Winners Win... Losers Lose

Winners vs. Losers

The Winner is always part of the answer; The Loser is always part of the problem.

The Winner is always has a program; The Loser always has an excuse.

The Winner says, “Let me do it for you”; The Loser says, “That is not my job.”

The Winner sees an answer for every problem; The Loser sees a problem for every answer.

The Winner says,” It may be difficult but it is possible”; The Loser says,” It may be possible but it is too difficult.”

When a Winner makes a mistake and says,” I was wrong”; When a Loser makes a mistake and says,” It wasn’t my fault.”

A Winner makes commitments; A Loser makes promises.

Winners have dreams; Losers have schemes.

Winners say,” I must do something”; Losers say, “Something must be done.”

Winners are a part of the team; Losers are apart from the team.

Winners see the gain; Losers see the pain.

Winners see possibilities; Losers see problems.

Winners believe in win/win; Losers believe for them to win someone has to lose.

Winners see the potential; Losers see the past.

Winners are like a thermostat; Losers are like thermometers.

Winners choose what they say; Losers say what they choose.

Winners use hard arguments but soft words; Losers use soft arguments but hard words.

Winners stand firm on values but compromise on petty things; Losers stand firm on petty things but compromise on values.

Winners follow the philosophy of empathy: “Don’t do to others what you would, not want them to do to you”; Losers follow the philosophy, “Do it to others before they do it to you.”

Winners make it happen; Losers let it happen.

Author Unknown.

"Vision is not enough, it must be combined with venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps, we must step up the stairs." Vaclav Havel.

Each one of us has a fire in our heart for something. It's our goal in life to find it and to keep it lit.-Mary Lou Retton

"FAITH is the starting point of all accumulation of riches!
FAITH is the basis of all "miracles" and all mysteries which cannot be analyzed by the rules of science.
FAITH is the only known antidote for FAILURE.
FAITH is the element, the "chemical" which when mixed with prayer gives one direct communication with Infinite Intelligence.
FAITH is the element which transforms the ordinary "vibration of thought" created by the finite human mind, into its spiritual equivalent.
FAITH is the only agency through which the cosmic force of Infinite Intelligence can be harnessed and used by humanity."

Napoleon Hill.

"Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all."

Dale Carnegie.

"People who hurt you are just hurting your ego.... but they can never bring down your true self." Cole Morrison.

"The coveter obtusely questions his mentor's spirituality in light of the mentor's ownership of a luxurious home and exotic sports car.

The mentor (Barry G.) replies with a laugh and says. "Oh, these are not mine; they belong to God. I just get to use them today."

The coveter smirks with a silent skepticism.
He just doesn't get it. (yet)"

Ed M.

Stuck?? Change your approach...

So many things to do but none of them seems to be any good. That is the feeling of being "stuck." Something is just not working and yet, you are doing all the right things. But here's the catch, there is always more to do!! And there may even be a better way to approach the issue, the marketing, life or whatever.

Here's what to do when you are stuck:

• Ask, ask. Ask and mastermind with someone who has similar interests and especially, someone who is an expert in the field. You definitely don't want to mastermind with someone who is also stuck, as you may sadden each other.
• Read personal development. You will find plenty of ideas there if you are open to them. It always opens a stuck mind. Be sure to make it a daily habit and great things will result.
• Write down all the ways to do something, to reach your goals. Then pick one or two. Do them only. But do the things that you haven't done. That's the hard part. Isn't it easy to do the things you are accustomed to??? And yet, you are stuck because you may be doing the same thing over and over and getting the same results... definition of insanity.

Welcome comments to become "unstuck" and very, very abundant. Enjoy the process!

"Sometimes people get the mistaken notion that spirituality is a separate department of life, the penthouse of existence. But rightly understood, it is a vital awareness that pervades all realms of our being." David Steindl-Rast.

"When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds; 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. Patanjali.

Is Fear Stopping You from Success?

Are you afraid of calling someone for fear of what they might say?
Are you afraid of starting or continuing in a business?
Are you afraid of the next step of anything, a relationship, an athletic event, a business?

If so, you are letting you fear get the best of you and you are not living the fullest and being the most successful you can be. Something is stopping you and that is your mind telling your body not to do something. To freeze. To stop. To stay stuck. This is a terrible place to be.

Fear stands for False Expectations Appearing Real.

How do you overcome your fears? Here's some steps to overcoming your simplest to most difficult fears:

• What is the worst that can happen to you if you do what you are fearful of? Be clear, what is really that bad. And you will find, it's not that bad at all!
• Remember, life continues after you conquer your fear, no matter what happens.
• You are in charge of your destiny, not someone else.
• Just do it! You will find that you will grow from the experience and will be able to handle tougher problems as they present themselves.
• If you don't do it, then what? You will remain stuck, non successful in some area of your life, and so on. So... you might as well deal with your fear and just do it!
• Remember, when you fall down, you get back up. Be proactive and success, take action now!

"As the fletcher whittles and makes straight his arrows, so the master directs his straying thoughts." Buddha.

"When you are through changing, your are through." ~ Bruce Barton

"Everything that happens to you is part of the plan for your awakening, including those challenging events that force you to shift out of your inertia and self-limiting behaviour patterns. Everyday Wisdom.

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You must do the thing which you think you cannot do. --Eleanor Roosevelt

Slavery Vs. Freedom... An Everyday Choice by Lesley Pelkey

I came across by one of my favorite teachers Dr. Wayne Dyer.

"Freedom means you are unobstructed from living your life as you choose. Anything less would be slavery."

Everyday is a choice that will take you one step closer to experiencing freedom of your soul or keep you enslaved in the past trapped in limitation by fear and doubt. We were all born into the same world with the same opportunities. It is your destined birthright to live a life filled with love, joy, happiness, freedom, peace, and abundance. As a young child you can probably remember having a great sense of this, but somewhere along the way fell wayside into the illusion of fear, doubt, and limitations. The truth is we are all natural born creators of happiness, hopes, and dreams. The declaration of independence was a gradual and painful process, but it required those alive at time to be brave, willing, and believe it was possible.

It doesn't matter what aspect of your life comes to mind when you read this. The bottom line you are a slave to fear, doubt, and limitation unless you are willing to be brave and choose differently.

So here it is... the choice is yours.

Are you ready to be brave? Are you willing to do what it takes? Do you believe it is possible? Most importantly, do you trust and believe in yourself?

Or

Will you remain a slave and suffer at the hands of your self imposed limitations? I once heard someone say, "Keep doing what you've always done and you'll keep getting what you've always got."

Everyday and each moment is a choice. Choose wisely my friends.... Much Love and Many Blessings, Lesley

"Freedom means you are unobstructed from living your life as you choose. Anything less would be slavery." Dr. Wayne Dyer

"The creative process is a process of surrender, not control." Julia Cameron.

Wisdom of the Ages

ONE: Give People more than they expect and do it cheerfully.

TWO: Marry a man/woman you love to talk to. As you get older, their conversational skills will be as important as any other.

THREE: Don't believe all you hear, spend all you have or sleep all you want.

FOUR: When you say, 'I love you,' mean it.

FIVE: When you say, 'I'm sorry,' look the person in the eye.

SIX: Be engaged at least six months before you get married.

SEVEN: Believe in love at first sight.

"You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty. M. Gandhi.

"Every decision you make in life is important, because the decisions you make in life, dictate the life you lead." ~ Giovanna Garcia

"Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. I hope someday you'll join us, and the world will live as one." John Lennon.

"Don't ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go do that. Because what the world needs are people who have come alive." Terry Grundy.

Recipe for NO EXCUSES

Do you have a big dream but don't pursue it? Do you know what to do, but don't start?

It's time to stop the excuses and make your dreams come true! To be successful, take responsibility and get rid of all your excuses. Understand that you can do anything you want, if you really want it, if you are really driven and have a drive and desire!

Here's your recipe for NO EXCUSES:
1. Write down all your reasons or excuses that you can come up with. Take your time, make it long and detailed. It may sound like a gripe session or may even sound like whining. It has to be done! Do it!
2. Write down all the reasons why you can next to your excuses. Think of your drive and desire, your big reason why you want something so badly.
3. Write down your action points. Be specific. Think small and big action points. Take the big points and break them down so that there won't be any excuses. Excuses can easily happen when we have too much too do, and an action too big to fathom to do.

Take action and be abundant.
4. Put the action points in a calendar, now. Don't wait. Set up your success schedule and you will find success soon.

"Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear." Ambrose Redmoon

"Winners are not those who never fail, but those who never quit."

"Everything changes and dies. Nothing stays the same. Accept this and your life will flow with inner peace and joy." Chris.

Lessons from the Great Eagle

Eagles symbolizes greatness; traditionally Eagles are associated with nobility, authority, pride, fierceness, freedom and courage. We love and respect these special birds of prey. The question is what can we learn from the Eagles?

An Eagle with his prey.
The 7 principles of An Eagle.

PRINCIPLE 1
Eagles fly alone at high altitude and not with sparrows or other small birds. No other bird can goes to the height of the eagle. Stay away from sparrows and ravens.
Eagles fly with Eagles.

PRINCIPLE 2
Eagles have strong vision. They have the ability to focus on something up to five kilometers away. When an eagle sites his prey, he narrows his focus on it and set out to get it. No matter the obstacles, the eagle will not move his focus from the prey until he grabs it.
Have a vision and remain focused no matter what the obstacle and you will succeed.

PRINCIPLE 3
Eagles do not eat dead things. They feed only on fresh prey. Vultures eat dead animals, but eagles will not.
Be very selected with what you read and listen to. Do you only research.

PRINCIPLE 4
Eagles love the storm. When clouds gather, the eagles get excited. The eagle uses the wings of the storm to rise and is pushed up higher. Once it finds the wing of the storm, the eagle stops flapping and uses the pressure of the raging storm to soar the clouds and glide. This gives the eagle an opportunity to rest its wings. In the meantime all the other birds hide in the leaves and branches of the trees. We can use the storms of our lives (obstacles, trouble, etc) to rise to greater heights.
Achievers relish challenges and use them profitably.

PRINCIPLE 5
The Eagle tests before it trusts. When a female eagle meets a male and they want to mate, she flies down to earth with the male pursuing her and she picks a twig. She flies back into the air with the male pursuing her.
Once she has reached a height high enough for her, she lets the twig fall to the ground and watches it as it falls. The male chases after the twig. The faster it falls, the faster he chases it. He has to catch it before it falls to the ground. He then brings it back to the female eagle.
The female eagle grabs the twig and flies to a higher altitude and then drops the twig for the male to chase. This goes on for hours, with the height increasing until the female eagle is assured that the male eagle has mastered the art of catching the twig which shows commitment. Then and only then, will she allow him to mate with her.

Whether in private life or in business, one should test commitment of people intended for partnership.

PRINCIPLE 6
Eagles prepare for training. When about to lay eggs, the female and male eagle identify a place very high on a cliff where no predators can reach; the male flies to earth and picks thorns and lays them on the crevice of the cliff, then flies to earth again to collect twigs which he lays in the intended nest. He flies back to earth picks thorns and lays them on top of the twigs. He flies back to earth and picks soft grass to cover the thorns, and then flies back to pick rugs to put on the grass. When this first layering is complete the male eagle runs back to earth and picks more thorns, lays them on the nest; runs back to get grass and rugs and lays them on top of the thorns, then plucks his feathers to complete the nest.
The thorns on the outside of the nest protect it from possible intruders. Both male and female eagles participate in raising the eagle family. She lays the eggs and protects them; he builds the nest and hunts. During the time of training the young ones to fly, the mother eagle throws the eaglets out of the nest and because they are scared, they jump into the nest again.
Next, she throws them out and then takes off the soft layers of the nest, leaving the thorns bare. When the scared eaglets jump into the nest again, they are pricked by thorns. Shrieking and bleeding they jump out again this time wondering why the mother and father who love them so much are torturing them. Next, mother eagle pushes them off the cliff into the air.
As they shriek in fear, father eagle flies out and picks them up on his back before they fall, and brings them back to the cliff. This goes on for some time until they start flapping their wings. They get excited at this newfound knowledge that they can fly and not fall at such a fast rate.
The father and mother eagle supports them with their wings. The preparation of the nest teaches us to prepare for changes; the preparation for the family teaches us that active participation of both partners leads to success.
The being pricked by the thorns tells us that sometimes being too comfortable where we are may result into our not experiencing life, not progressing and not learning at all. The thorns of life come to teach us that we need to grow, get out of the nest and love on. We may not know it but the seemingly comfortable and safe haven may have thorns.

The people who love us do not let us languish in sloth but push us hard to grow and prosper. Even in their seemingly bad actions they have good intentions for us.

PRINCIPLE 7
Eagles rejuvenate. When the Eagle grows old, his feathers become weak and cannot take him as fast as he should. When he feels weak and about to die, he retires to a place far away in the rocks. While there, he plucks out every feather on his body until he is completely bare. He stays in this hiding place until he has grown new feathers, then he can come out.
We occasionally need to shed off old habits & items that burden us without adding to our lives.
By Dr. Myles Monroe (Edited)
Be abundant!

"You just have to do your own thing, no matter what anyone says. It's your life." ~ Ethan Embry

"If you get up one more time than you fall, you will make it through." Chinese proverb.

"Gratitude is an attitude that hooks us up to our source of supply. And the more grateful you are, the closer you become to your maker, to the architect of the universe, to the spiritual core of your being. It's a phenomenal lesson." Bob Proctor.

How to Answer: "What's This all About?"

When talking with someone about what you do - your home business, do you ever get asked the question, "So what’s this all about?"

Have you been trained to have an answer already made up?

Are you sure you know what it is that your lead is really asking? The answer is almost certainly no, you don’t! And any assumption on your part will reduce any ground you may have gained so far in your communication. What someone says and what they are really asking is many times quite different. If you do reply with a stock phrase or what you think may be the correct answer and you are wrong – your lead most likely won’t tell you! They will just leave you in the dark!

Why? Because at this point they aren't thinking they should have been clearer with their question. What they’re thinking is, that you are not listening to them! And that you’re sounding like someone who is more interested in your own agenda of trying to sell something.
Think about your own experience. How many times have you asked a question and had someone misinterpret it’s meaning? How did you feel about that person?

Let's get back to the question "So what’s this all about?" This question could mean a variety of things such as:

What do I have to do?
What does the company do?
What is the company all about?
What do you do?

So how do you find out what they are really meaning? Simply ask! And here's a suggestion as to how to do that.
"Just so I can be sure to answer your question precisely, when you say 'What’s this all about'… what do you mean by that?"
Help them a little to define what it is that is being asked. Feedback to be sure that you understand what it is that they are asking. You’ll then get a more precise picture and the dialogue will continue to flow without interruption.

Then just allow the dialogue to flow, a simple conversation with honesty and integrity, showcasing what's in it for them. They will get it or not... and if they don't, it wasn't meant to be, so move on. Be abundant always!

"In a world filled with hate, we must still dare to hope. In a world filled with anger, we must still dare to comfort. In a world filled with despair, we must still dare to dream. And in a world filled with distrust, we must still dare to believe." Michael Jackson.

Dream Big - Get Big Goals

Dream Big... Go ahead and enjoy armchair traveling to exotic places, time freedom to do what you want, when you want and so much more!

Your long term success in any endeavor starts with a dream and thus, a goal. The dream can be big or small, so you might as well put your energy towards a big dream - DREAM BIG!

What is your dream? Write down your dream, visualize it, enjoy it, tell people about it. Have fun with your dream. Take pictures of your dream if you can, go test drive your dream car. Physically involve yourself in the dream as much as possible. This will make it more real to you and allow you better visualization, and ultimately, help you attain your dream. Some of the "craziest" and biggest dreams have actually produced actors, comedians, and big businesses.

You have got to start somewhere and sometime. Start today in dreaming big!

"When I hear somebody sigh, "Life is hard," I am always tempted to ask, "Compared to what?" Sydney J. Harris.

If Success Was Easy Everyone Would Do It... Change your thoughts

Here is a great article on "Change Your Thoughts."
If Success was Easy Everyone Would do it!! Here it is: Click.

"I doubt that the imagination can be suppressed. If you truly eradicated it in a child, he would grow up to be an eggplant." Ursula K. Le Guin.

"A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step." Chinese Proverb.

"Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore." ~ Andre Gide

"In complete darkness we are all the same, it is only our knowledge and wisdom that separates us, don't let your eyes deceive you."

Janet Jackson.

Receive Abundance in the Midst of Economic Unrest

You can become very abundant and wealthy during these times of economic uncertainty. So, don't let the media and many naysayers around you get you down. You are in charge of your destiny and your abundant mindset. You can make money and lots of it at all times. This is actually a great time to make money in very nontraditional ways.

Pour some daily abundant thinking into your life:
1. Affirmations: Think of an abundant word or something that you are on the path to attaining, and repeat it, contemplate it.
2. Media Fast: The media will get you down if you listen and take in too much of it. Get rid of most of it.
3. Think abundant: There is more than enough money in the world. Try to count the leaves on the trees, trees in a forest... you will discover that the world is abundant.
4. Write down specific measurable goals and read them daily. You will get there.
5. Read or listen to personal development books/Cd's/DVDs. You will find your mind changing to much more abundant, thus staying on the path of your intention.

Most importantly, surround yourself with abundant thinkers and an abundant masterminding community. Enjoy abundance today and everyday!!

"The whole idea of compassion is based on a keen awareness of the interdependence of all these living beings, which are all part of one another, and all involved in one another." Thomas Merton.

"FEAR = Forgetting Everything's All Right!" Mickey Bush.

Is there an Easy Way to Success?

Nope. We all want success, right? Big dreams, big ideas. Get started and then drop the ball, get lazy and find that you are making excuses for not reaching your dream.

If you really want to be successful, you have to realize that success is not easy. There are many obstacles along the way. This includes: family, business, time constraints, money and so many more excuses or obstacles that can easily divert our attention from accomplishing our dreams.

There is no easy way to success. It takes work and work is usually not easy, but it can be fun. You can have a fun outlook on everything you do. It can be a game to you. You can use every step to your success as a small celebration. It can be fun but not easy.

There is no easy button, if there was, everyone would be pushing it!! Success can be achieved through many challenges, work, masterminding, and finally, much happiness when it all works out the way you planned.

Start today and never stop on your path to success. The easiest part of becoming successful is to keep going, keep pushing, and never take your eye off your goal!

"You don't have to be great to get started, but you have to get started to be great." ~ Les Brown

"With the past, I have nothing to do; nor with the future. I live now." Ralph Waldo Emerson.

"We can do anything we want as long as we stick to it long enough." Helen Keller.

Top 50 Home Based Businesses - Money Magazine

Check out this magazine article about the Top 50 Home-Based businesses on page 14. Here's the online version.

Teacher, Teacher, What do you see - I see a Way to Change My Income Permanently

Teachers, don't you love the book "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?" At this time of year, you may be looking for a way to make money on the side. Maybe you are updating your resume, like 65% of the population. Maybe you are dreaming while sunbathing on the beach or by the pool, wouldn't it be nice if.....

Fortunately, there is an answer for the summer for teachers, as well as many others. Teaching fitness has it's ups and downs, and during the summer, plenty of breaks. Like you, I started thinking, there's got to be a better way. And there is. And it's year round.

Teachers, feel free to comment and visit the company site.

"Compassion, forgiveness, these are the real, ultimate sources of power for peace and success in life." Tenzin Gyatso, The 14th Dalai Lama.

Reality of 2 hour Blocks of Concentrated Time - It can be done!

Anything is possible, just keep telling yourself that and it will be your reality. This is the reality of a two hour block of time: It goes quick! It feels like a marathon at times! And yes, it can be discouraging not to have more time.

Here's what I do to make the most of a 2 hour block of time:
1. Plan what you will do - to the T.
2. Be excited about your plan and that will help you carry out the plan with energy!
3. Don't be discouraged at the smallness of the time slot, instead, be grateful for the time slot in the first place!
4. Be sure that personal development is in accomplished in the day, preferably right before the block of time. This way your mind will be in the right place.
5. The secret of Coffee!! Wow, didn't realize it was that powerful for me! If you need it to lift your spirits do it. Remember that this day cannot be recreated and coffee might help you use your day more effectively - well worth it!
6. Do work with partners and a mastermind group. They could help you on a larger scale, thus getting more done! Watch my video as an example.

I welcome your comments and suggestions as to how you use your time slot effectively.

"Love is what we are born with. Fear is what we learn. The spiritual journey is the unlearning of fear and predudices and the acceptance of love back into our hearts. Love is the essential reality and our purpose on earth. To be consciously aware of it, to experience love in ourselves and others, is the meaning of life. Meaning does not lie in things. Meaning lies in us." Marianne Williamson.

Law of Attraction - Desire Statement of Ideal Financial Situation

This desire statement of the ideal financial situation was created through the book, Law of Attraction by Michael Losier. Enjoy and join me on the path.

I am in the process of attracting all that I need to do, know or have to attract my ideal financial situation.

I love knowing that my ideal financial situation allows me to have and enjoy anything that I desire to bring more joy and freedom to my life.

I love how it feels when I see my savings account gets bigger and bigger while enjoying abundance and charity giving.

I am enjoying the feeling of abundance as sales come in consistently. I enjoy watching others enjoy the same abundance, also making consistent sales from their inner motivation and application of skills.

I love knowing that my ideal financial situation brings me comfort and knowledge that I can vacation and travel anytime and anywhere I want, enjoy dates whenever, and give my Lucas all the experiences we want. This makes me feel free and great.

I'm excited at the thought of easily contracting out home improvement expenses, enjoying our beautiful home from professional and quick beautiful improvements.

I love seeing myself enjoy the fruits of my labor, as I enjoy investing money, playing with our extra money, and showing people a better life.

The Law of Attraction is unfolding and orchestrating all that needs to happen to bring me to my desire.

"Promise me you'll always remember: You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think." A. A. Milne.

"Being is not only beyond but also deep within every form as its innermost invisible and indestructible essence. This means that it is accessible to you now as your own deepest
self, your true nature. But don't seek to grasp it with your mind. Don't try to understand it. You can know it only when the mind is still.

When you are present, when your attention is fully and itensely in the Now, Being can be felt, but it can never be understood mentally. To regain awareness of Being and to abide in that state
of "feeling-realization" is enlightenment."

Eckhart Tolle.

"The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind." William James.

Two Wolves

One evening, an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said: "My son, the battle is between 'two wolves' inside us all.

One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith.

The grandson thought about it for a minute, and then asked his grandfather: "Which wolf wins?"

The old Cherokee simply replied: "the one you feed."

Author Unknown

"The great majority of us are required to live a life of constant duplicity. Your health is bound to be affected if, day after day, you say the opposite of what you feel, if you grovel before what you dislike, and rejoice at what brings you nothing but misfortune." Boris Pasternak.

Prayer will Save You Money

Pray and you will save money on supposed "good ideas." Try it, be silent, meditate, ask for the answer to your questions before you plunk down more money on the next "good idea." There are so many business opportunities and so many opportunities for others to take your money for advertising. Pray on it, think on it, ask for answers.

Here's how to get your best answers and you will save money!!
1. Get totally clear of any other thoughts. How is this possible?? Think, how do you get your best thinking done? Is it in the shower, running, walking, laying down? Find you best way and relax into it. You will find you mind racing at first but then allow it to settle down and become clear. The answer to your big question will come - but may not be right away.
2. Don't force the answer. Ask the question and then let the answer flow into your mind. It may not come right away or even on the same day. It may take a couple days or more to enter your mind. Don't be impatient and don't be on a deadline. If it's meant to be, you will get the answer as to your next move, before you spend more money on "good ideas."
3. Pray and talk about it with others. But allow the answer to flow into your mind. Don't be too influenced by others. People love to give their opinions, but the best answer is from God or the Universe. It will come to you!
4. Be open and in the receiving mode. The answer to your biggest questions comes to you that way.

When you find the answer, you will find you will also save money. Each business idea takes money, normally. It's best to think it through, asking for divine guidance, and receive the answer.

"With courage you will dare to take risks, have the strength to be compassionate, and the wisdom to be humble. Courage is the foundation of integrity." Keshavan Nair.

"People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they can't find them, make them." G.B. Shaw.

The Five P's of Social Media--Where Do You Start?

By Guest Author Lon Safko

Everyone asks me, "Now that I'm getting a better idea of what social media is, How do I actually apply it? Where do I start?" Start with these, The Five P's of Social Media. The Five P's are; Profiles, Propagate, Produce, Participate, and Progress.

The first of the Five P's are Profiles. There are basically two types of Profiles, your personal profile or your company profile and a group profile. Personal profiles can be; Lon Safko in LinkedIn, in FaceBook, in MySpace, in Flickr. An example of a group can be Social Media, The Social Media Bible, or Innovative Thinking.

Go fill out and lock in your name, company name, and group names in every social networking site you can think of as soon as possible. If you've got a particular subject matter that you can think of that you or your company is going to participate in, make sure you get that group name so that you can have control over it.

The importance of filling out your profiles right now, is to make sure that you lock in your names under that profile before someone else gets it and precludes you from doing that forever. We're beginning to find cyber squatters. These are people who are going out and taking people's and company's names, claiming ownership and then trying to sell them back to you or your company later.

The second P is Propagate. That means that after you've created your accounts and filled in your profiles in Flickr, PodBean, or YouTube, you need to begin to propagate those accounts. You've got photographs, you've got company photographs, you've got product photographs, service photographs, you've got customer photographs, you've got video and you probably have audio files.

Get out there and get all of your digital files collected and get them uploaded to these websites. If you want to win the game you have to play. You've got to be able to participate by propagating all of these sites. You need to be there when your customers and more importantly, your prospects are there looking for you (or, better yet, your competitors).

The third P is Produce. If you don't have a lot of content, or if you just want to add new content, then create it, produce it! It's really not that hard. Your computer, more than likely, has a built in microphone and free sound editing software (if not, go get Audacity [http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ ], a free audio recording and editing software). You can create podcasts like I did for my book, The Social Media Bible. The creation of this content is essentially 100% free. For the book, I created 48 audio interviews that if played back-to-back would run for 24 continuous hours. Click here to listen: http://www.thesocialmediabible.com/the-experts/

The best part of all this is there is no associated cost. Just sit down, get familiarized with it, practice it a few times, and start talking. The most important thing is--if you're going to produce video or audio, or even text in a blog format--remembering to include a strong "What's in it for me?" message for the consumer of your information.

For the same reasons that you began reading this, you want to know about how to get started with social media. You want good take-aways in exchange for the time you spend reading this. If you don't come away with good usable suggestions, you won't come back. There has to be a strong, what's in it for me--WII-FM message. Your take away is that you are going to, just by giving me a few minutes of your time, understand how to begin to implement social media.
So make sure that when you're creating your video, or you're creating your audio, or even writing your blog, that there's going to be a strong, "What's in it for me--message" for your customers. Give them a reason to keep watching, listening, or reading your content.

The fourth P is Participate. Participate means that you need to get out and actually participate in other people's content and in their blogs. Begin commenting, but don't just jump in and comment. After speaking with Robert Scoble and Chris Heuer from The Social Media Club, one of the things that kept coming out in all these interviews were, that you can't just jump into the conversation. You need to listen. You need to understand. You need to participate.

It's like going to a party or a networking event. You walk into a party and there are little groups around the room that are all participating in their own conversations. For you to walk up to any group and just say, "Hi, my name is Lon, and I sell and consult..." and interrupt everybody would be completely inappropriate. Proper etiquette would dictate that you walk up to the group, you listen to the conversation for a while, you wait until to you have something of value to add, then you simply add that value by commenting. Whether is at a party, a networking event, or on someone's blog, video sharing site, or on their photograph sharing site, it always works the same.

Participate first, and remember, if you're not participating you're not in the game, and you cannot win.

The fifth and final P is Progress. The old saying goes, "You cannot manage what you don't measure," so be sure you measure and manage your progress. Measuring means, how many views has your video gotten on YouTube? How many downloads were there of your podcast? How many views of your Flickr photographs? How many comments are coming in on your blogs? How many Google Alerts are you getting where other people are linking to or talking about your website?

These are ways that you can manage your progress, but you have to measure it in order to manage it. It's really simple to get out there, and almost all of these tools are absolutely free; like Google Alerts are really valuable! Albert Einstein once defined "insanity" as doing the same thing the same way and expecting different results. That's really true. When you get out there and you're looking at your progress, and which videos are being viewed the most, and which blogs are being linked to the most, it's got to give you an idea of what your customers, your prospects, and your followers are most interested in.

It's really simple. The videos that aren't getting any views, well stop it. The ones that are, simply do more of those. The same thing goes for your blog. If posts aren't getting traffic stop writing those kinds of posts and try something else. So get out there. I want you to complete your profiles, create your groups. Propagate your accounts with good content, produce good meaningful "What's in it for me content," whether it's just a simple photograph, an audio file, or a video. Participate in the conversation. Comment on people's blogs and, of course, measure your progress.

Do these five tasks and you will be on your way to successful social media marketing.

Read more of Lon Safko's Social Media Bible blog [http://www.thesocialmediabible.com/the-experts/ ]
Lon Safko [ http://www.lonsafko.com/] is the co-author of The Social Media Bible: Tactics, Tools, and Strategies For Business Success [http://www.thesocialmediabible.com/]. He is also an innovator and professional speaker with over 20 years of experience in entrepreneurship, marketing, sales, strategic partnering, speaking, training, writing, and e-commerce. He is the founder of eight successful companies, including Paper Models, Inc.
Click here [http://www.lonsafko.com/FastCompany/Commandment_Ball.pdf] for your free Fast Company The Social Media Bible Ten Commandment Ball. Just print, cut, glue, and be inspired!

"Growth means change and change involves risk, stepping from the known to the unknown."

"No person was ever honored for what he received. Honor has been the reward for what he gave." Calvin Coolidge.

"Success always comes when preparation meets opportunity."

Free Internet Classifieds

These sites are free for your to use in your marketing of your business. Lots of specifics to use right away, and that's the best time to do things - now!

Take these steps:
Step 1. Before you post an ad on any Internet classified ad site be sure to open up a New email account just for posting, marketers lurk these sites for what they call "good leads". You will get a ton of junk mail.
Step 2. Go to the links at the bottom of this page and start putting yourself out there, do one row at a time, them come back another day and do another another row. Set up 1 campaign per row to track which block of ads you are getting responses from. If you find a site that has high traffic by checking them up against www.alexa.com then pay money to the site to get a better spot or do a banner on their site. At that point as you are paying for the ad it is okay to set up a unique campaign for that site.
Step 3. Use a sample ad - these ads are proven to work. But learn to create your own, your own compelling ad copy from your own story and own vision.

Answers to your anticipated questions:

Which categories so you want to advertise?
Help wanted Sales
Businesses for Sale
Income Opportunities
MLM
Network Marketing
Business Opportunities
Any you can get in, it's FREE

Where to find good newspapers to advertise in:
http://www.newspaperlinks.com/
www.50states.com/news
http://www.newspapers.com/
http://www.phonebook.superpages.com/

Should I go the Free route or pay for an ad? Free ads are okay but I would go for a Paid Banner or something similar.
Always do research of of any site your are going to pay for by checking the rank on http://www.alexa.com/ Remember, lower Alexa ranking is best. Too high is not good, not many people will see your ad. But there is so much more about Alexa to tell you!

What should I include in the ad?
Just use one of the 3 liners sample ads or be creative. Find what moves you and what you might click on. Be in the right mindset to create compelling ad copy.

Here's some ads that worked in the past. Caveat: they've worked in the past, might be worn out. Suggest you become creative, use odd numbers for dollar figures, use your positive abundant mindset and so much more. For now....

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FIRE YOUR BOSS: Learn to earn $250K/yr working from home PT. http://www.websimplemoney.com/ -------------------------------
Are U tired of making someone else rich? Earn what you're REALLY worth! A $350K+ 1st yr potl. http://www.websimplemoney.com/
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A Proven Money Maker!!! 6-Figure Potential From Home. http://www.websimplemoney.com/
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A Real Opportunity: 100x More Powerful Than MLM If serious, http://www.websimplemoney.com/
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AN INCREDIBLE OPPORTUNITY.Learn to Earn $100K+/year wrkg from home P/T. http://www.websimplemoney.com/
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BE YOUR OWN BOSS: A $250K-500KPot'l. http://www.websimplemoney.com/
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No Commute! Learn to Earn $10K+/Month from Home. http://www.websimplemoney.com/
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A Realistic $10K/month pot'l income working from home. http://www.websimplemoney.com/ -----------------------------
No Commute! Learn to Earn $10K+/Month from Home. http://www.websimplemoney.com/
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Are U $$ Motivated? 100x More Powerful Than MLM! IF Serious http://www.websimplemoney.com/

Sites to Utilize!
Most of these are FREE so once you find a good one with a lot of traffic you may want to try a paid ad or banner on their site.
Ad An Ad Ad Post Ad Sort Ad Toad Ad Trader Ad Zooks Adoos Affari.to Annonz Uk
Astrofonix At The Beach Austrailian Classifieds Australia Free Classifieds
Back Page Band Name Beat Your Price Big Classified Biz Place Bizz Wizz Buy And Sell BuySell
C-Ville Call Harry Canada Classify Chicago Ads City Everything City News City Weekly
Classified Club Classifieds Central Classifieds For Free Classifieds.ozfreeonline.com
Cmather Com Corner County Ads Cracker Ads AU Craigs List Croatian-advertiser
DB Ads DC Registry Domestic Sale Durham Central
E-Page Emoment Ezilion
Find It Classifieds Free Ad Forum Free Classified Ad Free Classifieds Freeclassifiedads.com
Friday Ad Fyndall
Graand
Highland Classifieds
InetGiant.com Infowaft.com Inpa
Kijiji Toronto Kingdom Classifieds Koljan Kona Web
Live Deal London Classifieds Loot
Mexico Classified Ads Mis Trade My Classified Central My Town Ads
Nabaza NJ Ads Norfolk Bro Ads.com North Bay
OBO Ads OLX Online Classified Club Online Classifieds Ontario Ads
Oodle
PC Man Press Mania
QTH
Recycler.com Resource Mecca
Singapore Classifieds Snip Lit Spread Spectrum Scene Super Ads
T&E The Ad Net
UAE Ads UK Ads UK Ads UK Classifieds UK Classifieds US Net Ads USFreeads
Viva Street
Yahoo YardSaleNet.net
ZamZata Zipeee