Clarity or Confusion, that has been a huge question that I have spent the last month and a half trying to answer.  After our extremely successful Exponential Wealth Conference, K and I took the month of May off to just slow down and evaluate our business(es), our life directions, our clients, and ultimately if the various projects we were involved with were able to pass one question…Clarity or Confusion?

(Ok, we have also been questioning on a business level if our projects, JV’s, etc were actually making Profit vs. Time but more on that in a few days)

Let me ask you a question, have you ever been involved in a project where you go to meeting after meeting yet have no true results?  You may feel AWESOME afterwards, but in hindsight nothing was really accomplished nor did you actually get anything bountiful out of the meeting?  That is a form of confusion.  That is bad.

I see this ALL the time with folks who are involved in real estate (Trust me, Real Estate is by far not alone in folks spreading confusion to steal your dollars!  But it is dear to my heart, so it frustrates me immensely!).  You see I’m going to let you in on a secret…

There are a LOT of dishonest people in Real Estate who look to PREY upon your HOPES and DREAMS…all for a price, of course.

Now don’t get me wrong by any means, there are also a LOT of great, honest people out there who are interested in helping folks realize their dreams…and guess what, they will charge you a price for that knowledge.

So how are you suppose to know the difference?

Well there are a couple of ways…

1. Trust your gut instincts or intuition.

If the promises of wealth and success sound too good to be true…they probably are!

2. Get references. (Not Testimonials!)

This one is tough…if you ask the person for a reference, they will either give you a selection of names/numbers of people they know will only speak highly of them, OR they will simply give you a bunch of testimonials.

The truth about a lot of testimonials are that they are

a: written by the person who they are refering to…ie the speaker/mentor/coach (and sometimes but not always signed off by the person)

b: very old and technically outdated (some speakers/presenters use testimonials years old

c: Totally fake…works of fiction…aka Not Real.

The best testimonials are video testimonials…but even these are often questionable due to the simple fact that many are given right after an event when people are excited, hopeful, and fully confused (of course they are gonna talk highly about the course, right?) OR and this one is a bit more insidious…the video testimonials are paid actors.

3.  Trust your Supporters.

Trust those who support you in your endeavors.  Before paying out thousands of dollars on this program or another, ask your supporters what they think.  Often this will cause you to pause, relax (come off the sales pitch emotional high), and allow your intelligence come into the decision making process.  Also by having to “sell” your supporters on the program, you will essentially have to point out the true benefits to yourself (often it is during this process that I most often talk myself out of buying a product!)

4.  Ask your coach or mentor.

A coach or mentor is your best asset.  Hopefully you have aligned yourself with a person of integrity who has your best interest in mind (there are coach’s and mentors who fit the confusion bill above so beware!).  Many of the benefits of mentor are the same as those of number 3.  The difference is you are paying this person for their unbiased  knowledge and experience, so they are often the best source to go to.

So what does this all mean?  At the end of the day you must realize that in any industry or facet of life there are people out there who have your best interest in mind and there are folks out there who have their own best interest in mind.  I can’t teach you how to determine the difference, but hopefully you will trust your instincts and it won’t cost you a lot of money or cause you a lot of trouble.

Until next time, keep on moving forward!

Want to know what upsets me.  Well, a lot of things really, but seriously it’s when people get taken advantage of.  When predatory “experts” prey upon people’s hopes.  Honestly I am not talking about any specific guru out there in this instance, yet I continuously hear the horror stories of people putting their trust in “Gurus” who have the solution for a price making every promise they can under the sun to make the sale…then coming up short (often way WAY short).

Now I used to be one of those types who might have followed the P.T. Barnum approach to business (”A sucker born every day…”) but not anymore.  There are a LOT of people going through rough times right now.  Rough times often equates to people in search of hope, willing to spend their last dollars or even worse sacrifice paying their bills in hope that they might get rich as the “Guru” promises.

Needless to say, I have been very quiet.  Just watching.  Working on some new projects with people who share the same views that I do that will help guide people to true success, and not necessarily at a huge hit to their wallets.

One such project is the Exponential Wealth Conference that I have been working on for some time now with Capt. Pete Gauthier.  It all started when I was sitting in one of his seminars and listened to the questions being asked.  While a lot of them were all about wholeselling real estate, I would are to say that just as many if not more were based on a lack of understanding by the students of basic Negotiations.

After his seminar, while driving him to his Jeep, I mentioned my observations to Pete and he whole heartedly agreed.  It was then that we both decided that we needed to do a “Back to Basics Negotiations Course”.  While perhaps not the sexiest topic, it is actually a skill set that will result in huge profits in any endeavor you may have.  From negotiating the purchase of a house to the negotiation of getting out of spring cleaning (not that I would ever do that…seriously), it is the art of negotiation that will carry you far in almost every aspect of your business and life.

Well, wouldn’t you know it…by the time Pete and I were done creating this one day Negotiation Training it had become a complete three day conference that is all about being a true business.  I’m very excited as this is one of the few conferences that is all about BUSINESS, from real estate investing to online businesses to franchises to traditional businesses, this conference has something for all Entrepreneurs new and seasoned.

Most importantly to me and to Pete is that this conference is not a “Pitch Fest”.  There will be opportunities to buy products etc, but honestly the three days are going to be FILLED with CONTENT.  Anyone who has been through one of Pete’s or my classes knows that we provide pure content, and we are requiring all of our experts to do the same.

This is going to be a break through weekend for a LOT of folks, hopefully we will see you there.

Have no fear…a newsletter is in the works…and I have a great article on Detox Diets…or as a good friend of mine, Jonathon Ross, likes to say “Friends don’t let Friends Detox”

-dan

The title kind of says it all.  I realized today, well yesterday, that the month of March is not very friendly.  Essentially, as per my post from last week White Death 2009, we had snow at the beginning of the week yet by the weekend we had near 80 degree weather.  Crazy Maryland weather!

But that’s not why the month of March has been a flurry of activity.  No, it’s because I realized yesterday that billing for our phone service hasn’t been done (our assistant who does that has been on holiday).  Why did it take so long to notice? Well I have been working on updating my course “Basic Training: Affiliate Profits and YOU!” for my event on March 15th (yes that is a shameless plug).

Tie in the writing of the course, preparation for the HUGE event that Pete Gauthier and I are running in April (The Exponential Wealth Conference is coming! More info will be coming soon I promise!), meeting with clients, cycling in near 80 degree weather, setting up Affiliate Programs for local gurus, supporting friends opening their local clubs, writing my book on Living in Balance, and making sure that we have everything ready for Sunday.  And I didn’t even go into monitoring the various businesses that K and I have.  Oh, and putting together this month’s Newsletter

Don’t get me wrong.  I am not whining, no actually I’m tickled pink and running at full speed right now.  I am totally elated with the way things are traveling!  While I do want to slow down to take time to enjoy the nice weather and start riding with my buddy Ernest (feels like an eternity since we rode together…), I know those days are coming.

Anywho, I just wanted to let all my readers know that I haven’t forgotten you, nor have I forgotten your Newsletter (it’s in the works, but may be a bit late this month).  I have a lot of exciting things moving forward right now that I will be sharing with everyone…just not right now

Hopefully I will be seeing some of you (not all of you as seating is limited) at my event!

Dan

I have to say that while I have lived here in the Greater Washington DC area for just about 13 years, I am still AMAZED at the reaction this region has to snow.  Having grown up in Michigan, I can remember growing up praying that school MIGHT be cancelled due to snow…key word there, might.  It took nearly a blizzard to have school cancelled (and if I had grown up in the upper peninsula even that wouldn’t have cancelled school).

Yet here, in the DC area…the sheer threat of snow sends parents and government decision makers into a frenzy of cancellations.  But that’s not all that happens, the threat of snow also sends the mobs into the grocery stores to stock up on three items…milk, eggs, and bread.  We used to joke that Marylanders just loved their French Toast.  I could understand bottled water, toilet paper, and canned food…right?  Yet that is not the case here.  I used to joke with my coworkers that it was a myth, until my first winter and the threat of snow was imminent.  It took one trip to the local grocery store to see that the supply of milk, eggs, and bread was depleted.  The myth was true.  I was mystified.

Now for those of you who don’t live in this area, it may seem like I’m making fun…and I am, yet the truth is the locals all know it’s funny too.  One year there was a scratch off lotto ticket called the complete shopping list, or Maryland shoppers list or something like that.  Everyone here had a good laugh, and then the first snow rushed out to get their French Toast supplies.

The title of this article is a joke that K and I have based on a Family Guy episode I think, it’s been quite a while.  With the imminent threat of snow, the local News channels were filled with “March Roars in Like a Lion!” and “White Death 2009!”…ok not really but they clearly had nothing else to report on since within a 30 minute news show, they covered weather for 28 minutes.  I mean they even had commentary from the Governor of Maryland about the weather and what he was going to do about it!  I can’t make this up…

Last night we got nearly a foot of snow.  Every school in the region was closed, the government was probably closed,  and most businesses were empty…along with all the French Toast supplies!  Ask me how I know.  Like I said, I have lived here for almost 13 years now…and I like my French Toast too!

To all my Maryland/DC/Virginia readers, be safe and enjoy the snow!  In two days it’s gonna be 40 degrees again.

I was recently talking with K about a conversation I had with a group of Entrepreneurs concerning how I have so many businesses.  When I say tell people that I have nine businesses I often get looks of disbelief, awe, and shock.  They simply can not understand how I have any free time to do anything, let alone have coaching clients, business clients, family time, and cycling time.  Yet I always give them that knowing smile and say one word: Automation.

In my world of being a recovering control freak, analytic, and perfectionist I realized that I needed to get my businesses automated so that I could simply check in on them from time to time and make sure that they were still rocking and rolling.  When the business is built around more…