Day 220 – What a great day!

I am in Dallas at one of those conferences I swore I would never go to again. It is for Advocare and it is what they call their Success School. It is a weekend for teaching for distributors put on by the Company. Lots of nuts and bolts of how to run your business in a way that is easily duplicatable and other stuff too, that is just basic business stuff that will be easily transferred to my other projects. Of course I am impressed, how could I not be? The company rented AT&T Stadium, Home of the Dallas Cowboys for the event and they spared no expense.

What they do not tell you about events like this is the emotional aspect. To hear people share their stories is amazing. I love stories and to hear where people came from and where they are now. Normally one would expect at an event like this a focus on material things. In the past with other Direct Marketing companies I have been involved with, that was the case. Not once this weekend have I heard mention of Ferrari’s or ginormous houses and extravagant trips. Instead we heard stories of lives being changed. Stories of people about to lose their houses and people living on the streets. Stories of people that were working three jobs and still did not have enough to save their house. Stories of parents that never got to see their kids because the were just trying to survive. These people are just like the rest of us but, they have been exposed to something greater and they dare to dream. These are people of integrity and I have never been more impressed.

I will share a story of a young couple that joined Advocare in April of 2013. A young couple from Virginia. The man was a youth pastor and the wife a stay at home mom. They were struggling as many pastors are. She had resorted to baking and decorating cakes to help try to pay the bills. They were behind on their house payment and they were getting notices from the IRS. At the same time she had heard of the 24 day challenge and she wanted to lose some weight so she baked and decorated 3 extra cakes to pay for her challenge.

After day 4 she felt so amazing that she started telling everyone about how awesome it was. About that time her husband got sick and accrued about 1200 in medical bills. she figured that at the rate she was going with Advocare she could have the debt paid off by December. Instead she made enough in the next month to write a single check for the bill, paying it off 6 months early. A month later the postman arrived with a letter from the IRS notifying them of seizure of their home. To paraphrase her story, she had been sharing Advocare so much that with check she just got and her bonus, after she tithed there was exactly enough to save their house! God is SO GOOD. I wish I could communicate the power of her story better but you will just have to believe me it was incredible. To me I saw my God provide. The vehicle was unimportant. God simply used what he had to bless this couple. Their heart is in the right place and they have helped a lot of people in the process.

Napoleon Hill says the master Key to Riches is to help others accomplish their dreams and yours will be filled. I cannot help but believe based on what I have seen this weekend that these people have either knowingly or unknowingly stumbled across this secret. Their humility is truly inspiring!

I am sharing this on my personal blog not as a commercial but, as an example of God’s grace and how amazing He is and how He can work through anything.

I am proud to say that I associate with this caliber of people and look forward to see where this will all go in the future. If we find something that helps us and can help others, shouldn’t we share it?

Day 218 – Minds are best when they are open

I am getting ready to leave for Dallas tomorrow morning.

I am leaving on a trip that I never thought I would take. I am going to an Advocare meeting that is a weekend long event. Advocare is a direct Marketing Nutritional company. When we signed up a couple months ago it was just so Amy could sell one of their products at her espresso stand, SPARK.

We were looking at the other products and they talked about the 24 day challenge. It is a weight loss program that I had heard about before and seen some impressive results. By signing up we immediately got a 20% discount so we decided to give the 24 Day Challenge a try. I lost 17 lbs in 24 days and Amy lost 10!

Even though we were not trying to do this business it seemed to happen naturally. People noticed our weight loss and naturally asked questions. By us losing weight and simply telling others how we did it we have created and extra income of about $500 per month without trying or really selling anything.

We have been a part of similar companies. If you have followed my blog you know that we had a history with Amway and a few other companies. They left a taste in our mouth of negativity and I swore that I would never be involved with one again.

I am making an extra $500 per month though. What am I supposed to do? I have not done anything to make this money other than help people get similar results that Amy and I got. So, because I did not want to miss the moonwalking bear I have decided to explore this more and look more closely. I have met and talked to people that have created even more money that comes in every month and they are in the same boat as me. They never thought they would be doing this but the rewards keep coming in.

If you have not clicked on the Hyperlink above on the moon walking bear please do so. We are so focused on what we are doing and what we think is important, that we miss obvious things. In this case the moon walking bear was an opportunity. What could you do with an extra $500 per month? Maybe it will help ends meet. maybe it will help pay off debt. Maybe it will help you take a vacation you have always wanted. Maybe you are like me and will see a much bigger opportunity. If you are reading this I will most likely be talking to you about this more. Will you have an open mind or will you focus on how many passes are being made?

Open minds . . . do you have one?

Day 204 – Take me seriously, I have earned it.

I am a businessman. I have started and run several companies over the last 25 years. I may not have hit a home run yet but, I am still here. I have stayed alive and supported my family. It has not always been flush but we have made it work.

I have created products and got them to market. I have had employees and paid taxes and contributed to the economy. I still find myself trying to justify to people that what I do is serious.

It seems that people judge what I do on my results. Results in some people’s mind is more than is reasonable. So basically if I am not a millionaire or whatever I am not taken seriously. Well I am putting everyone on notice. I am successful! I have been working for myself without a job for over two years. I have the same struggles as anyone else with a job. I have trouble paying my bills sometimes but we manage. I do this without a job but, working for myself. Why is that so frowned upon? Because I work for myself I seem to be held to a different standard than others. I wonder why that is.

I am tired of apologizing for doing what I do. I work for myself. I am a smart person and have a list of accomplishments that is very well respected in business circles. I run 4 companies and have attained a level of success in all four that are notable.

Recently I started another business and I hate to admit that I have been a bit ashamed about it. Amy and I signed up for Advocare about 2 months ago. Advocare is a direct Marketing company with health and nutrition products. We started as customers just looking to lose some weight and get healthier. After participating in the 24 Day Challenge we decided that this was something we needed to share.

As a business professional I looked at the opportunity and I could not find anything negative about the company so we jumped in. In two months we have generated an additional income of about $500 per month.

I know people have some pretty strong preconceived notions about these kind of companies but. if they had my experience or an open mind they could see what I see. This is a real company with awesome products and a real opportunity. I cannot believe that someone like Drew Brees or Rich Froning would attach themselves to a company or opportunity that is a scam. Advocare just built a $30 million training facility for the New Orleans Saints, they have a NASCAR team and a Professional Soccer team. This is a company that pays $0.61 of every dollar back to their distributors.

Where the rubber meets the road is in my story. I lost 17 pounds in 24 days on their products and I have generated an extra $500 per month by just sharing my results and story. If that is wrong in other peoples mind, I have to say that I think they are the ones who are wrong.

We have been so conditioned that we are supposed to get a job and work our asses off for someone else that we have forgotten that the American dream and in fact capitalism is what has made this country great.

I for one will keep on keepin on in ALL of my endeavors including Advocare. I challenge you to really open you mind and look at the facts. If you have questions ask someone. Ask me. What if there was actually something more? What if there was a way for you to actually make all those dreams come true? Wouldn’t you actually like to know the truth?

Day 198 – Friends, old and new!

What a great day!

I spent a great day moving forward and working on my purpose. It is really awesome to be able to share things with people that make a difference in peoples lives.

I met with an old friend from the fire service and got to meet his wife and beautiful little blonde daughter. They live on a farm in Snohomish and have ducks and chickens and goats! A farm is definitely a fun place to visit but I am not the guy to be able to handle all of the craziness that comes with that!

Had great meeting with Jesse, our new intern and talked about the future and came up with some broad planning strokes for Eve’s Apple Pie. 100 new placements by the end of the year and three new states! Look out Eve’s Moonshine is on the move!

Tonight I was able  to have some new friends come over and help Amy and I share our Advocare experience with some new people. It is so weird that we have been able to create a new business in just 2 months that is generating an extra $400- $500 bucks a month without really even trying. We literally just joined Advocare to do the 24 day challenge and get healthy. We did that and gained so much more.  Energy, fitness and extra cash in the pocket is a pretty good deal for $79.

Tomorrow we get to have dinner with one of our oldest friends visiting from Arizona. Life is pretty good right now and by the looks of things, it is only getting better!

Day 113 – Just what I was looking for, another business!

I guess I needed one more thing to do! You know what they say about all your eggs.

So last week Amy told me she wanted to sign up as Advocare distributors so she could sell some of the products at her espresso stand. I told her that would be a good idea and we could enjoy the products ourselves at a wholesale cost.

I saw Advocare first about a year ago when a friend of mine posted this 24 day challenge thing on his Facebook page. I was seriously impressed with his results! Over the last year I have come across other friends that have done the challenge and checked into it a little bit. I discovered it was a network marketing company and that was about it.

When Amy told me she wanted to sign up I had severe flashbacks to my Amway days in my early 20’s. Meetings and tapes and product pick-up and prospecting, my head was spinning. She told me she had scheduled a meeting with a girl from our church and I had to lay down the law. . . riiiiiiight.

I told her that it made sense to sell the products at her stand and I had always wanted to try the 24 day Challenge and check out some of the other products. Then I proceeded to tell her how we do not have time to do this as a business and I would not want to be a part of any rah rah stuff that normally comes with any network marketing company. I really hope those are not my famous last words.

I do see an opportunity to get healthy and get into better shape. If we have friends that see that and want to talk to us about how we are doing it then great. I will be happy to share. Who knows, we may be able to even supplement our income a bit with just a couple hours every week. It is just another poker in the fire and another resource for multiple streams of residual income.

So there you have it, I guess we didn’t think we had enough to do so . . . let’s add another business. Why not?!