Cooking Joe Canadian #CASL

In 2010 I am a happy little frog named Joe Canadian who sits in a nice pan of cool water when bill C-28 begins it’s early progress through the House Of Commons. CASL sounds like a wonderful little piece of legislation to Joe Canadian the happy little frog. It is a law to protect Joe from spammers. It sounds so sweet. The government must have his best interest at heart. Joe does not ask who brings this law to the House. He does not ask how it will affect him. After all, Joe is not a spammer. Joe is a realtor.

Joe happily goes on his way and does not notice when the legislation gets a little more intense on January 1^st, 2014. The water is getting warmer in his little pan of water but he does not know it. It was so gradual and besides now it is quite comfortable. Surely the government is looking after his interests. He continues to do business like he has always done business. He has open houses, he shows houses, he has this nice sheet that he leaves out at the entrance where the guests can sign in and leave their email addresses. Later he will add them to his email list and send them updates about houses going on the market.

Joe learned all about content and adding value at a seminar last year. So his newsletter gives great tips. He shows people how to prepare their existing homes for the market. There are renovation tips. There are home decorating tips. There is information about the best areas in which to live and articles about the best schools. He has been getting great reviews from people who get it. Some even repost it to their social media sites. Joe has been very clever and used a system where he can actually see who opened his emails, who clicked on his articles, and he can measure their interest. Overall it has helped him to increase his sales by 15% last year and he can attribute a few of his latest deals to this process. He is quite happy.

Poor Joe does not know that the water is heating up in his little pan of water and that he is about to get cooked!

The Canadian Anti Spam Legislation is about to steal his hard earned list. Joe Canadian who is a realtor is about to be very effected by something that is way outside of his control. His sister who owns a spa is also about to be effected. His mother-in-law who owns a flower shop is also about to be effected.

CASL puts them all in very hot water indeed. Now they must prove consent. July 1, 2014 the water just went into a boil. The lists that they built from long term customer interaction, and adding value to content are just as “at risk” as the real spammers lists. They are told that they have 36 months to turn that verbal consent into a double opt-in, but what if one unhappy customer, or one devious competitor reports them in the meantime? The onus is on them to prove their innocence. Once they are in court being boiled away to nothing, they will have their chance to prove that they did indeed comply. It will only cost them thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours of lost time, so why should they complain?

Joe found out about this just days before July 1^st. He should have been paying attention of course, so it is his fault. After all, everyone in Canada should watch every piece of legislation going through the House Of Commons daily because one never knows when someone with an agenda wants to boil you. So now Joe will get rid of several really good prospects from his list and comply with the theft of his hard work. He will hire a social media management team to keep compliant in the future. He will take extra insurance on, just in case of lawsuits or fines. One needs to be prepared, and it is only a few thousand extra money a year to do all of this. So Joe Canadian should just accept his fate and his little pan of boiling water and let himself get cooked.

Joe, pick up the phone and call your MP! Organize a protest. Write an article. Do something! You are getting cooked!

Always Loyal2U,

Kerry George

If you want tips on how to deal with CASL see our page at our Loyal2U site. There are also some great articles about this issue on LinkedIn.

The Power Of Passive Income

Life Without Passive Income

Most of us have been taught the 40 – 40 – 40 plan. Work for 40 hours a week, for 40 years and then retire on 40% of our income. How is that working for you?

Some realize the futility of this plan somewhere along the way when it just didn’t produce enough. Some don’t realize it soon enough and end up spending their retirement years working at Walmart. The fact is, that only 3% of the population are retiring in a state of wealth and dignity. So most are not learning their lessons at all.

More and more people are trying other kinds of projects and alternative income sources. Investment strategies can be helpful if you learn and carefully apply the principals. I have personally been reading some of Kevin O’Leary’s books and I think that is making me smarter. J

However, investments do come with risks and many people do lose money from them. Owning a business offers more tax advantages than just working a job, but many people just end up owning their job and call it a business. The best business models are franchises and other ideas where multiplication is possible. Where there is multiplication, or even duplication the opportunity for real profit does exist. One must realize though, there are risks in business. 80% of all businesses fail in the first 5 years. A successful franchise model is costly. One needs between $50,000 and $2,000,000 to just get started. They fail less often, but one needs to have the capital to start. That is an obvious disadvantage for many.

We play Cashflow 101 and Millionaire Maker
Every Monday at our office boardroom. Want to come?
Call 403-397-1909

What Is Passive Income?

Passive income is money that comes in residually. You did something that created money and then somehow it continued to come in. Writing a book that has royalties paying out, is one example of passive income. Musicians and artists may have passive income. Owning multiple real estate properties may produce passive income if you are not personally collecting the rents and managing the properties. It is only passive if you are truly not touching it and stoking it and working it to keep it going.

While playing Robert Kiyosaki’s board game Cashflow 101, I had a revelation. Most of what we think is passive income is not. It still requires some work. Most importantly though, one cannot actually get ahead in life without passive income. The fact is, we are still in the rat race of life until our passive income exceeds our expenses. That is different than how we have been trained. We think we will be on easy street when our income exceeds our expenses. That is simply not true. One life disaster can still take us out if we are relying on ANY kind of non-passive income! A job is not secure, no matter how secure that it seems. You are an expense to your company and it is in the interest of the company to reduce or eliminate expenses. The only way to be certain of financial stability is to have diversified PASSIVE income. That is a source of money that is producing more money on it’s own. The best kind is broadly based on more than one source.

Millionaire Maker Board Game

What Can The Average Person Do To Create Passive Income?

You need to think differently than you ever thought before. You need to assess what is truly passive income. I thought I could create passive income in my business by building a franchise model. Not a bad idea, but it takes a lot of time and work to get there. So what could I do to start some immediate passive income at the same time?

I chose to do it with a network marketing activity. It is something I do on the side. A few hours a week in an industry that fits alongside what I already do. So it is not a big stretch for me to accomplish. I looked around for a long time and tried a couple things but then I found one that fit my life. It is one that works with business owners. I own a business referral network, so that made sense to me. I did not have to change the products that I used. I just started getting cash back on my gasoline and groceries and teaching others to do the same while they run their regular businesses. I started showing our business owners how they could get more loyal customers coming to their existing businesses and it has been good for them and for all of us. It is a win/win situation.

Some People Are Afraid Of Passive Income Sources

I had to try several ideas before I found one that worked. Network marketing companies are businesses like any other businesses and some of them fail. 80% of them actually. So some people get discouraged by that because they don’t understand that all business, all investments, and all of life has challenges and failures. I have seen people try a network marketing company, fail, and then never get up again. That is sad. There are more network marketing companies producing millionaires in North America than in other industry that is legal. Someone is making that work. That someone could be you.

Usually it is fear that holds people back. They are afraid of failure. They are afraid of ponzi schemes, even though they are not even sure what a ponzi scheme is. They are afraid of pyramids, even though their government and their church use a pyramid structure, and they are clueless about what a real illegal pyramid would look like. They are afraid of being judged by friends and family who won’t be there to pay the bills when things get tough anyway. They may be afraid of success and sabotage their own efforts. Fear is never a pretty thing and one should not allow it to rule their life. Education overcomes fear. Find out more and get the facts about network marketing.

The fact is network marketing has become a respected industry. My personal opinion and yours is irrelevant. Network marketing is legal. Companies are being endorsed by famous people and legislation has been passed making them viable and credible. People are succeeding at it. It does produce passive income, with usually a low cost affordable investment. It does help wage earning employees get huge tax advantages. It does provide a learning environment for multiplication, entrepreneurship, and healthy relationship management and growth. Anyone who has ever had any success in the industry never wants to go back to anything else. That says a lot.

If you have had your dream stolen, I hope you don’t quit. If you have tried something and failed, I hope you realize that failure is the first step to success. If you are afraid of investing your time and your money into anything new, I hope you will keep looking and learning. Don’t cut yourself off from opportunities because of other people’s opinions. Warren Buffet said no good thing can come from saying “no.” And I would add that there is promise in the word “yes” and there are possibilities in those “yeses.”

Robert Kiyosaki, Darren Weeks, Bill Clinton, and Donald Trump are public supporters of network marketing. You might want to think about that the next time you are considering an opportunity. 

Always Loyal2U,

Kerry George


This is a pretty funny video about someone who is not very open minded.

Life without a passive income is hard. You might want to try life with a passive income.

Loyalty In Today's World

What Does Loyalty Look Like?

I am going to say some things here that some people are not going to like. I am sure they will send me comments about how their circumstances are different. This is a huge subject and I am not sure I can do it justice in a few paragraphs, but it is a topic that has been of great interest to me for a long time.

Dogs are Loyal2U
even when you are undeserving
of loyalty...

To me it seems to be a funny world when people don’t know what loyalty looks like. I think it used to be more common. When a person got married 100 years ago, they usually stayed married to the same person for the rest of their lives. It took a death or a disaster of some kind to make people deviate from their marital course. I have read stories from the Victorian era about men who cheated on their wives and they used the rational that they were protecting their wives from the burden of additional child bearing or the suffering of sex. I am not saying they were right, but even when they cheated they had more loyalty than we see nowadays.

When I was a Pastor I did a lot of reading about a movement in Columbia and Argentina where hundreds of thousands of people were joining a church group. The common motivating factor was loyalty to a leader. Several evangelists here in Canada tried to adopt the model to bring on growth and overall it failed miserably. What was missing? Loyalty. The average Canadian would say they are loyal but in reality they don’t even understand the concept. Somewhere along the road we learned from McDonalds that things can be thrown away. We stopped valuing stuff and we also stopped valuing people. Relationships could be replaced. Leadership became a dirty word and people were afraid of domination. We forgot how to be loyal in a positive way.

Loyalty is faithfulness or a devotion to a person, country, group, or cause. Sounds simple enough but in practice, not so easy. These days we question everything. Questioning is not such a bad thing, it helps us to understand, but it has come to the point where many are rebellious against every form of authority. Sure we all want to be free, but even in freedom somebody with authority is keeping the peace. Without any loyalty to a cause, or a system, or a leader, there is anarchy. There is nothing to hold the fabric of society together any more.

If we can’t tell how loyalty looks in relationships or in a cause then we certainly don’t know it in business either. Once I had a businessman invite me to talk about the kinds of social media marketing that my company Loyal2U does. We had a good conversation for over an hour and he invited me back later in the week saying that he would like to add our services to his offering and white label it. He suggested a partnership of sorts where we would each profit from the enterprise. On the next visit to his office however, I overheard him telling a client that his company would use our marketing technique and he offered it to them for a third of our price. There was a flyer on his desk with the language taken right from our website. My impression of this man was that he is a snake oil salesman. The main flaw being: He lacks loyalty.

Another gentlemen asked me for coffee one day and then wanted to know how business was going. He asked a few questions and then told me about the real reason for his inquiry. He wanted me to forfeit all of my hard work and my relationships to join him with a competitor. I have watched that individual jump from job to job, and business opportunity to business opportunity many times over the last few years. What is the real problem? He lacks loyalty.

If you have ever taken part in training with a good network marketing company they usually try to train people on loyalty. They tell their members not to poach the recruits of other members. They teach the members to honor each other and to say good things about one another, and to lift up the leadership. It is a funny thing that this needs to be taught, but it does. I was at a meeting with a reputable company only months ago when a friend that I was with noticed a mutual acquaintance of ours came in with another person we did not know. She leaned over to me and said, “Kerry, you should go get that gal on your team before they sign up with that guy.” I was shocked. I told her that would be really improper, but the point is it smarts of a lack of loyalty. If I had done that, I would be teaching everyone who seen it that poaching is fine. It is not fine. It is without integrity. It smarts of a lack of loyalty.

What Does A Lack Of Loyalty Look Like?

• You don’t like the discomfort of living with others so you can all work together to gain a better lifestyle or buy new homes for each family member. This is something we see immigrants doing, but we would never do. 
• Your young adult child is selling vacuum cleaners and you buy a vacuum cleaner from a stranger at the door instead of supporting your own child.
• Your grown child has financial struggles and needs a hand but you let them land on the street even though you are in a position to help.
• Your brother opens a gas station and you drive across town to avoid buying there.
• Your sister-in-law joins a multi-level business and you take great joy in stealing her dream by telling her how she is going to fail. No matter what she sells, you would buy it anywhere but from her.
• Talking about someone that you are supposed to love in a negative way when they are not present, or even when they are present. That is not only a lack of devotion but spiteful as well.
• No desire to look after the needs of one’s child, mother, brother, sister or relative. No pre-planning for the future.
• You have no respect for your manager at work and go over their head to tell on them. You are an adult tattle tail…

Have you ever watched the Godfather? I am not saying we should cut the heads off of horses or shoot people who disagree with us, but the Godfather had one thing right. He was loyal to a fault. He taught his family to be loyal to each other and to have each other’s back. They could count on one another to be in their corner, even when they were wrong and no matter what the cost was. They didn’t throw each other under the bus to avoid personal repercussions and they all ate together regularly even when there were family tensions.

What Does Loyalty In Business Look Like?

I have a couple of businesses so let me explain what loyalty looks like to me from that perspective. Loyal2U is a marketing company. So if have a client we are a defender of that brand. We write content for the business as though we are them. We try to understand their heart, their values and their culture and we create the message accordingly. We make sure the client sees the content and signs off on it before it goes live. We watch the responses on social media and report back promptly with both negative and positive comments. We make your clients more Loyal2U so they buy again and again.

The CIBN is a chain of networking referral clubs and we also offer educational events and mastermind sessions. We do business with the people who do business with us. People contact us every week wanting us to promote them for free. They don’t want to pay us for a membership and they have no loyalty to any member of our clubs. We on the other hand look for ways to add value to our members lives and businesses. We work tirelessly to add programs that are of benefit to our members. If we need a service we get it from one of our members. If we need a product we look at our members first. We give leads and referrals. We teach our members how to give leads and referrals. We try every day to create win/win situations and build strong and valuable relationships. We are loyal to our members and sponsors and we encourage them to be loyal to each other as well.

So is loyalty important in your business? Is it important to you in your life? What does that look like to you?

Sincerely and always,

Loyal2U

Kerry

Resolutions Or Goals?

My son asked me the other day if I had any New Year Resolutions this year. I responded that I don`t make resolutions. I make goals. I write them down and then I track my progress and I get things done. I may not accomplish every goal but I do seem to get more things finished than many people.

A resolution is a firm decision to do or not to do something. Shouldn`t every decision be resolute? Why bother making a decision if you are going to be wishy-washy about it?

Make A Decision

If I decide I am driving across town I do it. If I decide I will no longer smoke, I quit smoking. Why complicate the matter? A few years ago I did quit smoking. I was physically addicted so it was not an easy decision. I knew I needed to make the decision for a while, and I put it off because I knew it would be difficult. Once I decided though there was no changing my mind. Why waste time changing my mind? Addiction just meant it would take a few tries. I decided, therefore it was a done deal. I worked on it until I succeeded. That is what one does when they make a decision.

When I was in my early twenties I had a fantastic mentor named Russ.  He told me that people would follow me if I was resolute in my decisions. If I could not convince myself that I had the answer and continually changed my mind, why would anyone follow that? Why should they?

There is statement of wisdom that comes from the book of James in the Bible. It says that a double-minded man will receive NOTHING from God. Why? Because he can’t even decide what to ask? He can’t decide what he wants. He can’t decide what to work on. One day he is planning to buy a business. The next day he wants to move to another city. Then he thinks about getting a job, but first he will knit some slippers. Nothing gets done. He goes from one little task to another, perhaps completing a few things so he deceives himself that he is getting somewhere. No resolution in decision making brings nothing to fruition. This person can’t bless himself with anything finished, never mind have God bless him.

Resolution, Goals And Wasting Time

Firstly let your “yes” be a “yes” and your “no” be a “no.” Be resolute in that. You will get more done and others will at least know where you stand and then they can decide if they want to get on the wagon with you or not.

Secondly set goals that you actually intend on working on.

Recently I had Murielle Clements a very good life coach give me a consultation. It was amazing. She nailed the areas of life that I needed to work on and it was really a very productive time. I realized that I needed work in my family life, my relationships, my career, my finances and my health. However, I also realized that there was no way I could work on all of those things at once. I like to work on one thing at a time when it comes to self-improvement. So I picked one thing. One thing I will work on this year. There are other times when I can work on other things. She loved that I knew that. Most people think they can do it all at once, and most people are no better at all at once than I am.

At work or in business we need to set goals. In our personal lives we may be able to focus on one other area, but do one at a time. It makes your goals more achievable. You can’t train for a marathon, audition for The Voice, be a CEO of a start-up company, and be the dart champion at the local pub. So many people try to do all of that AND run 4 kids to soccer, volley ball, ballet, art lessons, and piano. What are you thinking? The kids will be more successful too if you teach them this. Pick one thing at a time and set goals with that one thing.

It is a waste of time to make resolutions and to make goals if I have no intention of changing. What is the point of writing my goals down if I am going to put them into my desk drawer and hide them away? Why say that my resolution is to lose weight if I know I am not going to make time to go to the gym right now? That is just a waste of time and money if I buy a membership and some diet shakes. I have zero intention of following through.

Ask yourself if you are serious and if it is even a feasible goal right now? Will it fit into your life to make the necessary changes? Would it be better to wait until spring when a brisk morning walk is a more likely exercise that will get completed?

Setting Goals Is An Easy Thing To Do

Setting goals is not rocket science. Just write them down. Keep them in front of you. Look at them often. It is actually like using a grocery list when you go shopping. Keep it simple.

Make a 1 year goal and then break that into 90 day chunks. So now what do you have to do in the next quarter to prepare you for success in the bigger picture of one year? Make a To Do List.

Use a journal. Write at the beginning of the journal “This year I am going to be a better ____________.” Every time you have a thought about it write it in the journal. Write your goals in there. Record a few lines out of a book that you are reading about that subject. Keep that journal handy. When you go to a course on the area that you need to improve, use that journal to keep notes. Ask your mentor questions about that area of life and write their answers in your journal. Use it all year. You will be surprised how much you change and how much closer you get to your bigger goal.

Get others to hold you accountable. Use a system for your business like Manifast to keep everything together and get it all done in stages, or join the CIBN MasterMind Level so you can get the help that you need to move forward at brainstorming sessions.

Failing At Goal Setting

Everyone fails at goal setting. Get over it. Stop beating yourself up for failure. So what!

Anyone who has never failed, has never tried anything worthwhile.

Why are people so afraid of failure? Why are they afraid to try? Why are they afraid to write goals down because it may be embarrassing if someone sees their failure? Why are they afraid that others will mock their goals? Why would you even care what someone else thinks?

I pay my bills. NOBODY ELSE. Who pays your bills? So why would you care what their opinion is? You have to look at you in the mirror every day. You are not competing with anyone but your own previous performance. You are not obligated to react to another person’s judgement of you. Their opinion is irrelevant. Most of them don’t care anyway, we just “think” they have an opinion. In reality we don’t even occur to them. We did not make the list of important things for them to interfere with today. We were not even in their thoughts. Our own vanity makes us think they are focused on us and our own fear keeps us paralyzed. (I know I am pretty harsh, but it is true, isn't it?)

Fear is faith in reverse. It tells you that everything bad will happen. It is irrational. It stunts your growth and binds you from succeeding. Get over it. Put one foot in front of the other. Write your goals down. Break them into nice bite-sized pieces and get going. One step at a time. You will fail. You will succeed. You will fail some more. Then you will learn and you will succeed some more. Two steps forward, and one step back. Over and over again until you winning more than you are losing.

Start Today

Get out your pen. Don’t just make a resolution. Make some goals.

Always Loyal2U,

Kerry George

Be Fair

The Problem With Fairness

When one of my three children comes to me and says, “My brother got an ice cream I want one too,” like any mother I would like to be fair and give them an ice cream. But what if there is no more ice cream? What if all of the ice cream stores went out of business last night? What if the child did not eat their supper? What if the child asking for the ice cream just punched his brother and provoked a fight?

There are any number of reasons why it may not be the right thing, or the convenient thing or the best thing to give this child ice cream right now. If I have raised my child with the expectation that fairness will prevail I have now set myself up for failure as a parent and I have set up my child for failure in life.

Life Is Not Fair

I believe it is an important life lesson to teach my children that life is not fair. No savior is coming on a white horse to save them from the realities that they face. People get sick and there is nothing fair about it. People die. Pets die. Sometimes another child gets the ice cream, and you don’t get any. You may lose a contest to someone who did not deserve to win.  Life is not fair. Get over it.

You will recover faster and live better if you expect things to be mostly unfair. If you choose to live life with a positive attitude but do not expect others to reciprocate you will be better off. This is an attitude that allows you to continue to have peace in a world full of unrest and injustices. We can’t control the world or the people in it. We can’t make people be fair. We can only control our own attitude.

We live in a democracy and most of our laws and legal systems are designed for fairness, but sometimes they don’t work. Sometimes they are not fair. Sometimes the bad guys win. There are other countries where the laws are not based on fairness at all. They may be based on bribery or the ability to fight back or simply stay out of the way. There is nothing that guarantees fairness and the sooner we learn that the better off we are.

Keeping Score

Why do we try to keep score? Isn’t it because we want to manage some sort of control? If I do one right thing to you then that is one point. If this is a game or a war we can keep score to see who wins. Or perhaps we want to keep score to be sure there is equality. Control gives us an unbalanced view of equality. I do something for you, now I feel there is a debt to be paid. You owe me the same amount of credit. How do relationships grow when partners keep score? I made the bed but you didn’t take out the garbage so you don’t love me as much as I love you. Relationships don’t work when someone is keeping score. When I give 50% and you give 50% we are both only half into it. A good relationship happens when both partners give 110% always, but real life happens. People can’t always do that. Sickness, work, life and stress happens. If we are not keeping score love will still grow during times of deficit but if we always need it to be balanced and fair we are going to be really disappointed with life.

The idea of ultimate fairness breeds a sense of entitlement. I was a good person and now I am owed something because I was good. Shouldn’t we be good anyway? Isn’t goodness something that comes from within? Do we need to be rewarded for every good deed?

The world is full of people. Some do bad things without any provocation. Others are good people who do bad deeds due to a moment of weakness. Then there are the Mother Theresa’s of the world who do good without reward or recognition. We tend to remember the very bad and the very good. The very bad are too notorious to miss but why do we remember the very good? Isn’t it because they did not keep score? They gave of their life without a need for reciprocation and eventually someone noticed. There were many more who were never noticed. They did not do all of those good things to count on a big scoreboard. They did it because they were good and fair and they brought justice to the world around them. They added justice as a value to the people in their circle of influence and they did not rank or tally a score.

Living Without Expectations

Although I would love to see everything be fair in the world and I would love to make everything fair in my home and in my life, I am too realistic to believe that is going to happen. So I live life without that expectations of fairness. I have given up my sense of entitlement for fairness and it is incredibly freeing. Understanding that there is no balance makes life very balanced indeed. One does not need to live on an emotional rollercoaster. This philosophy removes anger from life. If we expect that hurting people hurt others and that they will react unfairly we no longer need to feel that we were singled out. We now realize that scorpions bite people because they are scorpions. We did nothing to deserve it. Life is unfair and there are scorpions who bite people.

Being Fair In An Unjust World

We can demand justice but that rarely works. Unjust people exist at every level of power in our lives. Kicking against the shins of authority never brings positive change. The better plan is to be a just person and work to become the person in authority. That is where one can implement change. Unfortunately a plan of delayed gratification takes more time than our sense of entitlement will often endure. Timing is everything. Timing wins the day, but it may not be the day you had imagined. It took many years for the Berlin Wall to come down and it may take many years for your unfair wall to crumble as well.

Think of how many oppressed peoples had to work for decades or centuries for change. Apartheid was wrong for as long as it existed. It didn’t change because someone decided one day that it was unjust. It was known to be unjust but changing it took the efforts of many and it happened when the timing was right. Nelson Mandela was in jail for 27 years unfairly, and his release did not mean that it was all over and justice would come swiftly. Today there are still major problems in South Africa long after Apartheid came to an end. There are injustices there now against the white minority and there are dozens of other races in conflict continuously. Changing the laws and making them more fair for some also made them less fair for others. The unfair ripple effects from the old way of doing things works against the plans to make things more fair today.

What Is Fair?

There is no such thing as equal balance. It may happen for a season as a government realigns or a new ideal comes to power but it does not take long for something to end unfairly in our human existence.

The fact is you can demand justice or you can live in a just way. You be fair. That is all we can do as individuals as situations warrant it. We can only change ourselves.

Pick your battles. Some you can bring change to right away and if that is possible it is a worthy endeavor. There are those battles however, that suck up your life and bring no change. Choose wisely where you will expend your energy. Sometimes you need to bring together a team of people to implement the change you desire. Sometimes you need to plan things out and take your time. Sometimes you need to let that dog lay quiet for a while and come back to it later when you have a bigger stick, and you have a chance to make a change.

How can you make the world a more just place to live in today? That is fair. Pick a battle you can win and give it a fair try. Be fair to yourself.

Always Loyal2U,

Kerry George

 

My Own Reality

You may think that you are in a unique situation but everyone has something working against them.  No one has a license for failure. There are no excuses that are good enough to quit. We have bills that pile up. We have sickness and trauma. We have spouses that don’t understand or children that require time. We have relatives who are unsupportive and parents who don’t believe in us. We have had situations that did not work out and relationships that failed. We have been told that we can’t do it and that it isn’t worth it. We have jobs that are too demanding. We may have clients that want everything and yet want to pay for nothing. Get over it. Life is like that.

In our mind we have the freedom to accept whatever life throws at us as the facts or we can make the choice to decide to live in our own reality. I choose a reality of my own making.

In my reality I am already wealthy. I live in a big home. I actually know how big. I look at pictures of it. I drive a nice black Mercedes Benz. I have the respect of my children. I eat what I want to eat and I don’t worry about the price of the meal. I order drinks according to what I desire, not according to my budget. I buy things when I want them and I travel where I want to go. I think happy thoughts and enjoy my family. That is my reality inside of my head no matter what is going on all around me.

I live in the world with the rest of you, but I don’t eat the garbage that others try to feed me. I don’t hear them when they say that I won’t make it. I don’t panic when that bill is due. I don’t fret even when all hope seems to be lost. I know that I can’t afford to freak out. I know that I will get what I think about most, so even if things are not seeming to work out I continue to take authority over my thoughts and focus them on what I want instead of on what I have or even worse, what I don’t have.

In my reality things work out. In my reality money is not an issue. In my reality things that I need and want come easily to me. I allow myself to feel like a professional. I tell myself that success surrounds me. I place myself in the presence of movers and shakers and I encourage myself to fit in there. I look for ways to be of benefit to others without expecting anything in return. There is no judgement in my reality. There is no sense of entitlement. I expect nothing, yet I understand that everything that I want and need is already mine. There is nothing to prove to anyone. I have all of the authority that I need. It has already been given to me. I don’t need to work it up, or demand things, or control the situation. It already is what it is, and it is mine.

When things don’t work in my favour I don’t need to whine and fret. Life is like that and sometimes it needs to be informed of my reality. I have a good sense of delayed gratification. I know that it is coming. Sometimes the world needs to catch up with my reality. I have patience while I wait for it.

You may think I am a dreamer and that I need to wake up. You may think that I am deceived. I really don't care what you think. You don't pay my bills. You don't take care of my family. You may think your reality would help me but unless you are where I want to be, your reality would be very harmful to the success of my future. Therefore I chose my own reality. I hope you have the strength to resist reality and make up one that is better so you can be successful too. I hope you get around others who will empower you to create a more favorable reality.

My finances have dramatically increased over the last couple of years and I am positioned now for radical success. Life is good. I am glad that have created my own reality and that I am no longer caught up in the facts that keep others in bondage to disaster and discouragement.

I like my reality. It works for me. I am happy and content on a good day and on a bad day.

How is your reality working for you?


Always Loyal2U,

Kerry George

Who Is In Control Of The Sale?

There are subtle aspects and techniques used in sales and in presentations that are rarely discussed. We assume that some people are just good in front of a crowd but in reality these are skills that can be learned and practiced until they become second nature.

It seems that it was 100 years ago when I learned these things but in reality it was only a quarter of a century ago. I was 18 and I was in sales. I had a mentor Russ, who was part of a dynamic business group that took an interest in developing young people to their full potential. He spent many hours training me on the small, subtle responses that a prospect reflects and that I would not have noticed without his guidance.

The World According To Russ Baldwin

As far as I know Russ never wrote a book, but Russ read many books. He was an ongoing wealth of resources always challenging me to read another biography, another self-help book, another book about business. He instilled in me a love of reading and for the kind of reading that would make a difference in my life. He asked about what I was reading. He had me stand in front of groups of people and promote the latest good book. He showed me how to find bite-sized nuggets of wisdom which now in this age of information overload has become a defining skill for increasing knowledge.

Russ taught me that “readers are leaders.” I completely bought into that and it has become a mantra of my own. I have to this day fed my own education and sought out the information that I needed to become credible with my peers and in industries and businesses where I did not have formal training. Russ showed me that I would set my own fate by the information that I fed my brain and that if I succeeded in leadership it would be because I had become something worthy of being followed.

The One Who Asks The Questions Is In Charge

Critical thinking is a good skill to have but thinking on one’s feet is often what keeps us in the lead. Have you ever been part of a conversation where you were trying to lead someone’s decision and they stumped you with a question? In sales we call these objections, and the unseasoned salesperson can become discouraged by a question that disarms them. The reality is however, that a question shows interest and it is even the first step in the buying process. How you answer the question is what determines if you are a professional or a novice.

A professional is never threatened by a question. It is a good sign to get a question. However, the expert realizes that he who asks the questions is in charge. This person has just taken ownership of the conversation and you are now in the position where you must defend with an answer. But do you defend? Have you tried that? How did that work out? Usually becoming defensive just causes a greater loss of control of the conversation. So a better response is always to ask another question and to regain control of the conversation.

I was in a presentation where a young leader was describing the advantages of doing business with his company. He did a good job. His powerpoint was well done. Everything looked good until he made the mistake of opening up the floor for questions. It was an open invitation for disaster and I cringed in anticipation even before the inevitable stream of negative began. He was going to allow and even encourage questions that would redirect the conversation away from the answers he was alluding to.

The first question came from a poverty-minded, negative, domineering person who immediately took control of the conversation and the room. She put him on the spot with a question that could be easily answered and in fact it should have been answered before he even allowed questions. So mistake number 1 was not answering the obvious objections that were sure to come. Mistake number 2 was letting her go on and on, and mistake number 3 was answering that drivel instead of asking a question in return. In fact, one simple question that interrupted her early in her diatribe would have ended the debate. He should have politely stopped her in a pause and asked just one question. He could have said, “That is a really good question, may I ask what you do for a living?”

In this case that would have been the perfect question because not only would any question take control back this particular person was unemployed and that would have immediately showed the room full of business people that this was not a credible person and by association then the question is not a credible question. Then any answer he may give to the question is simply out of being gracious and offered in a good spirited way of encouraging her and others who may have the same question.

While that may have been a great question for this situation, any question would work. Asking a question shows interest. It allows for positive interaction. It redirects any animosity and changes the course of the conversation. It flushes chunks of negative away. It puts the speaker back in charge of the room.

Out On A Sales Call

 
When I was out on sales calls with Russ back in my early twenties he showed me how to arrange the seating when sitting with a couple. They should be side by side so they are close and comfortable with the sales person across the table. If the salesperson is in the middle between them, then they are able to send each other negative signals and read each other’s body language in a way that is a detriment to the sale. She sees him cross his arms and perceives he is uncomfortable so she responds by showing disinterest. Or he sees her looking tense or rolling her eyes so he decides he is not interested before hearing any of the facts. If they are side by side they are both looking forward and making their judgements based on the presentation and on the subject matter that they are learning about. They can ask questions as they come up but they are real and legitimate questions out of sincere curiosity instead of out of manipulation by how they think their partner might be feeling.

These are simple techniques that keep the control of the sale in the hands of the salesperson. People will have questions and comments. That is natural and not a threat to a competent salesperson who understands the value of their product or service. It is not necessary to control the people, it is necessary to control the direction of the conversation. You are there to sell. You are not there to waste their time or yours. They let you into their life with the expectation that you had something of value to offer, so controlling your time and offering the item of value is the best practice.

Know what you can control and what you cannot. There are so many things you cannot control. You can’t control the dog that is barking. You can’t control the mother-in-law from dropping by. You can’t control the triggers that they have in their life from some past trauma or even another salesperson. You can control the number of people that you talk to, and you can determine how many you need to see to make your goals. Once you know that number you are free to be yourself, build relationships and bring value to your potential customers. You can control yourself. You make a decision to become a better you and control your growth and your expertise. You control your own learning to become a better salesperson. That is what truly allows you to control the sale!

Always Loyal2U,

Kerry George

 

 

 

 

Watch for our sales accountability training sessions offered on the CIBN website.