The other day, Ronnie and I were talking through a "what if" scenario
about creating and distributing an alcoholic product.
Now, just to give you a spark of inspiration; I had a student who got
involved with my Distribution Profit System earlier this year. He took
interest in my example about how you can take an ordinary product like,
say, vodka, for instance. Then you can put a different "spin" on it
by maybe putting the vodka in skull-shaped bottles and sell them. This
is what one entrepreneur did and he became successful so I used it as
an example in my course materials.
This student of mine by the name of Nick was inspired by this to the
point where he did it. But instead of creating large vodka bottles
that would be sold in a grocery store, for example, he instead decided
to create different types of bottles for different liquors that were
small...like the ones you'd get on an airplane. Well, maybe a tad
bigger than those.
One was...yes, you guessed it: a skull. He has others. One is shaped
like a pistol. Another is shaped like an alien. I only remember those
three from the picture he emailed to me.
Nick sells these through distributors to convenience stores and gas
stations. And he sells them cheap.
The liquor, of course, is no top shelf alcohol. It's the lowest form
of well liquor you can possibly imagine.
And he reported that in the past few months since launching his product,
he's already grossed just over $150,000.
Not bad for an idea he ripped off from me (that I ripped off from
someone else) and basically filling bottles he bought in China with
sh***y well liquor.
My prediction for Nick, provided that he stays on this same track, is
that he'll be pulling in about $700,000 by the end of this year and
grossing over $2 million by the close of 2014.
Go Nick!
So, back to my conversation with Ronnie. He said that if he were to
churn out some type of alcoholic beverage, he'd completely turn his
back on any top shelf liquor. (This was before I told him the Nick
story.) Instead, he'd bottle up and sell the cheapest, most vile
and revolting alcohol he could get and call the product "Gut Rot."
I'm like..."Gut Rot"?!
He said, "Yeah, it's a catchy name. It'll be super cheap and it'll
sell really well in not-so-great neighborhoods. As long as people get
a buzz and it's cheap, they won't care about the name."
Even worse, I actually liked the entire idea and name of the product.
Why?
Because he had a point. As he said during the conversation, it's
a stupid marketing plan to create some expensive $300-per-bottle
liquor where you can only sell to high-end customers when you can
churn out a high volume selling hundreds of thousands of units to
low-end "party" stores, even if you're only making a buck or two
per unit.
Which would you rather have?
Your "clothing line" in every Walmart in America where you're "only"
making about a $1 per shirt or pair of pants that's sold?
Or your "clothing line" in a handful of mom-and-pop boutiques across
the country where you're making about $50 per shirt or pair of pants
that's sold? Except that you're only in about 25 mom-and-pop joints.
Oh, wait...Did I to mention that there are 4,663 Walmarts in the U.S.
and 10,857 Walmarts worldwide?
I'll opt for Walmart all day, folks! And yes, at "only" a buck a crack.
Okay, sure, there are higher end department stores like Macy's and
Nordstrom's but it's getting harder and harder to break through buyers
in these types of stores vs. getting into higher volume stores.
Plus, you actually have to create a higher cost product which is a pain
in the ass.
Instead, service our "get-stuff-cheap" highly consumable Walmart society
by going China, getting a pallet full of stuff, and distributing it here.
And it's just as easy as that, too.
Here are some facts:
1) No matter what, manufacturing is never coming back to the U.S. I
don't care what Obama or anyone else says. We can't make things cheap
enough with the cost of having a warehouse/plant, employees, health
care, insurance, and on and on and on...it's not affordable.
2) The Chinese have anything and everything you could ever want to
sell. What they don't have, they can make for you. And it's all cheap.
3) What the Chinese don't have is the ability to distribute here in
the United States.
And that's where you come in...and make millions in the process.
Now, of course, certain things you absolutely cannot get in China
such as consumables like herbal supplements or anything edible.
(You can still have the packaging manufactured there.)
But everything else? You can have made overseas, bring it over,
throw it into the distribution network, and rake in all the cash you
could ever want.
The other day I had this eye-opening phone consulting session with a
student on "what to do" with his real estate investing business/career.
It seems that there is a fashionable trend these days of my students
roping me into a 30-minute time-wasting phone consulting session just
to have me whip out a crystal ball and act like Dionne Warwick of the
Psychic Friends Network.
You see, nobody seems to know what they want to do with their lives and
yet I'm supposed to be the one to tell them.
And I can't do that.
How am I supposed to know which type of real estate investing you have
a liking for? I'm not you!
This is a big reason as to why I have different mentorship groups. This
allows you the opportunity to "try it out" without fully committing your
entire life to it. It allows you to get "real world experience" within
that type of investing to see if it suits you...or not.
And if it doesn't? Go with another group! It's that simple.
The other ongoing trend with my students is that I'm supposed to
"guarantee" their success somehow.
Well...there's a minor problem with that. How am I supposed to
"guarantee" that you'll become successful when there is a chance that
you'll be guided through the entire process (by me) and yet nothing
will be followed through on (by you)?
The only person's success that I can guarantee is my own. That's
because I know what I'm capable of -- not just with the education I've
acquired by being in the real estate investing trenches day in and
day out -- but because I get off my ass every day and actually follow
through with my goals and commitments to myself and other investors.
And if you're anything like me (self-motivated and a self-starter) then
you can guarantee your own success by (1) gaining the education needed,
and (2) following through until you succeed.
It's really no more complicated than that, folks.
There are a multitude of different types of income real estate methods.
Most of what I teach fall into the "passive" income category. However,
there are some aggressive forms such as SFR flipping. Since my last
SFR Mentorship Group started already, there are only groups that are
geared toward passive income.
I have my most successful signature group (Apartment Building Cash Flow)
starting next Wednesday. If you haven't had the opportunity to join this
group, I strongly suggest that you give yourself the gift of becoming a
real live apartment building real estate investor for 8 weeks. This
group is 100% online and you'll be put through the entire process of
exactly how to become an apartment building investor.
But only you can know if this is something you want. I can't tell you
if this is what you should be doing with your life.
I will tell you this: investing in multi-family residential properties
is the best type of investing there is, giving you the most lucrative
cash flows. And by taking this course, you'll be more educated than
many of the doctors, dentists, and lawyers that I consult with on a
weekly basis who are in a "help me" state of mind because they bought
property, didn't do the proper cash flow analysis before they bought,
and now they're consulting with me to figure out what to do.
("Sell that bitch and cut your losses" is usually my standard reply.)
Imagine being smarter than my doctors, dentists, and lawyers who
frequently consult with me because they got involved in real estate
investing half-assed and backwards.
You can do this but only if you believe it's up your alley. And I
can't be the one to tell you if it is or isn't. Only you know that.
There's this Asian guy down the road from my house. His name is Tom
and he owns a little donut shop called Stevenson Donuts. This place
has the best donuts and I swear the guy slips something else into the
coffee that's equivalent to speed.
As I sat there with my daughter one morning as she was chowing down
on her chocolate-covered donut, I was thinking about how profitable
the joint could possibly be. Yes, it's busy almost all the time.
But not "Starbucks" busy or anything remotely close to that.
Here again, we come into a situation where you need a calculator,
pen, and a piece of paper to realize just how "not" worthwhile that
type of business is.
You have to start off with the fixed costs. The overhead on even a
super small 800 square-foot shop is going to cost about $4 a square
foot in my neighborhood. That's $3,200 a month not including the ever-
so-famous "CAM" (common area maintenance) fees, which will run about
50 cents a square foot. So add another $400 a month to that.
The guys that own the place (Tom and Alex), work from 3am when they
get there to about 6pm when they close. It's only Tom and Alex. Once
in awhile, Tom's wife will fill in when one of the 2 dudes are cracking
at the seams and need a break before having a nervous breakdown.
So, no "employees" to speak of. That's good...well, not really. (Who
wants to work 16 hours a day?!)
Initial start-up costs were probably around $15,000 on the super low
side with used equipment including refrigerators, ovens, coffee makers,
etc. Between execution of the lease (first month, last month, and
security deposit matching a month's rent) and equipment, we're already
in $25,000 and we didn't even go shopping for the donut flour yet.
Now we go back into your average sale. Since I've sat in that little
donut shop on an average of 3 days per week before taking my daughter
to school for increments of about 7 to 10 minutes, I began to analyze
the sales going through there.
Yes, sales were a constant flow. You'd get the guy buying a cup of
coffee and that's all. You'd get somebody buying 3 dozen donuts for
a school class birthday party. You'd get everything in between...
usually averaging out to a donut and something to drink (milk, coffee,
juice, Red Bull...etc.)
Between the "bigger" orders (far and few between) and the "coffee only"
guys here and there, I figured their average sale is about $3.50.
Yes, a paltry freaking $3.50.
Mornings are their busiest. This means that there's the late morning
"lull." Then things pick up again around noon when somebody needs a
kick in the ass (i.e. coffee) to survive the rest of the day. Then
another lull. Then the school kids come by to get candy and sodas.
Since they have nothing else but donuts, there's nothing to sell to
really profit big from the lunch crowd and certainly nothing for the
dinner crowd.
I figured they average about 125 sales per day including during the
times (i.e. the summer months) when they have to take a beating on
sales due to school being out. This will give them around $440 in
sales per day or $13,200 per month.
They may make more, maybe up to $15,000 a month. But I really can't
see them grossing more than that.
Take away rent, supplies, insurance, and inventory, you have about
$10,000 left. Between Tom and Alex, they can split it, getting
$5,000 each.
For being slaves, basically.
I figure they each work about 70 to 75 hours a week and bring in
approximately $17 an hour for working drop-dead hours.
And we haven't even talked about getting their money back from their
initial $25,000 outlay yet.
Have I "boggled" your mind yet?
(That was the point!)
Here's a basic rule for you that you should tell yourself anytime you
are considering any entrepreneurial pursuit...
Rule #1: Retail Sucks!!
Well, there is Walmart, after all. But you don't want to be a Sam
Walton who, coincidentally on his deathbed said, "I blew it!"
Meaning, he failed because he was all about work and never about
spending time with his family.
Unfortunately, he didn't come to realize it until is was way too late.
But, screw Sam Walton. Because that's not going to be you.
You're not going to be another Tom and Alex donut shop operator either.
How?
Because you already understand the power of massive financial leverage
through distribution. It's like multi-level marketing except that
it's not sucky like multi-level marketing.
And if you don't know what multi-level marketing is, it's those super
lame "opportunities" where you sell product like Herbalife and Amway
to all your friends and family (until they move and change their
telephone numbers to avoid you) where you essentially "use" a large'
"network" of people to move product, and they you get a "commission"
from the sale of these products.
What sucks about this opportunity is that you're moving your product
through people who don't give a sh** about the product or being
entrepreneurs. They aren't serious business owners. They just want
to jump on some get-rich-quick bandwagon. Once they (quickly) realize
they're not getting rich fast, they jump off the bandwagon about as
fast as they jumped on in the first place.
Getting non-entrepreneurs and non-business owners to "move" product
is about as smart and efficient as laying your life on the line for a
group full of attendees at a Weight Watchers meeting to each lose
10 pounds in the next month and then actually stick with the program
for the next 10 years. Not gonna happen!
Instead, why sell somebody else's product through a Ponzi Scheme?
Using the 100% unmotivated deadbeat get-rich-quick crowd as your sole
means to success?
Pretty freakin' stupid success "plan," don't you think?
The wealthiest self-made millionaires are those who created a simple
product, duplicated it, injected it into the massive distribution
market which is composed of a sea of dedicated, serious, and successful
business people (and not fly-by-nights), and count the cash that starts
to roll in.
Today I got to waste approximately 50% of my day at the San Fernando
Courthouse in a mediation room with my ex-husband who, I'm now convinced,
is losing more and more brain cells each time the guy takes a breath.
(That may actually be true since he's a heavy smoker.)
Now you're probably wondering why, after being divorced for 2 1/2 years,
I'm stuck having to "mediate" anything.
It was a custody thing ordered by the judge. So there we sat, mediating
exactly nothing.
Did you ever have that moment of clarity when you can look at someone and
think to yourself..."Damn, dude, you really f***** up your entire life"?
I had that moment today.
It was either during or after my ex-husband's lengthy (and stupid)
explanation as to why he thought it was a "good idea" to have custody
of my daughter during work days when he can wake her up at 4:30am
when he leaves for work, drop her off at his ditzy mother's house,
and make it her responsibility to then take my daughter to school at
8am...completely bypassing my ability as her mother to fully take care
of her and get her to school on time without waking her up early and
shuffling her around in the wee hours of the morning.
And just about the time when the mediator stared at him with this
look of "why the hell would you want to do all that?"
I was thinking..."If only this idiot would choose to make things easier
for himself." (Sometimes you want to shake people and say, "Why the
hell are you so freakin' stupid?")
If you remember, I told you about how he was offered a house (and a
nice one at that) free and clear (mortgage-free) house in Michigan,
even on a lake if he wanted that too. He was offered extended support
payments and basically a worry-free life as long as he wanted to move.
And yet he chose not to go and instead concoct a variety of nonsense
hair-brain "versions" about how life could or should work, none of
which applies to anyone living in the real world.
Having dealt with more than a handful of people who seemingly and
maliciously are sabotaging their own life, it got me thinking about
everyone else who seem to have a decent logic-based head on their
shoulders.
People like you, for instance.
I already know some things about you. You are bright, sharp, and you
obviously want something different in your life. The life you have
right now isn't working. And you've been looking for something different
to do for some time now.
You just don't know how to get there yet.
Unlike my ex-husband who is living in some type of alternative reality,
far from having any sort of focus needed to get anywhere worthwhile,
you at least have a solid idea of where you want to go but you may not
know exactly how to get there.
And that's okay.
The hardest part, I've noticed, is figuring out where you want to go
and being focused enough to know exactly what you want.
If you haven't figured that out yet then you've got some work to do.
The other thing to understand is that you can't do something just for
the money. If you'll do anything just to make a lot of money then
become a porn star or drug dealer or something...if it's all about
just the money.
I have been working with students for years and have discovered that
only the ones that are passionate about real estate actually make it
in this business of real estate investing. Those who are doing it
just for the money never buy anything or end up getting involved in a
disaster of a deal that cause them to lose everything.
A lot has been happening on a universal level. To everyone. (So it's
not just you that's been soul searching.) People want to start living
on purpose doing something meaningful yet profitable. Life is a drag
if you're working on somebody else's dream while living an empty life
of endless alarm clock punching, traffic jams, office politics, fear of
the pink slip, boss bullsh** and everything else you may have come to
hate that's part of your everyday life, just know that it can change
whenever you're ready for it to change.
At the snap of your fingers, in fact.
For years I talked about how I wanted to get in shape. Yet I never
decided to make the change or commit to the process.
Until this past April, that is.
I decided...time to get on with the fitness program I've been chattering
about for years now. Time to make that roll-over annual year-to-year
same New Year's Resolution a reality.
I stopped freakin' talking about it and started doing it.
And believe it or not, right now I'm in near-top shape and I pulled it
off in less than 3 months.
So, I went from years and years of "talking" about it to instantly
"doing" something about it, thus giving me a near-instant result.
Another example...
I wrote the first act of my screenplay this past Saturday. That's
just over 25 pages of my script. And I did it by working on it most
of the day.
And this is after "talking" about it for years, making plans, making
excuses, telling myself it'll be too hard or that I'm out of practice.
Then I sat my ass down and did it. I muted the chatter and pounded
away at the screenplay...and put down a record number of pages because
I chose to shut the talking up and start getting down to action.
I think with all the external and internal chatter, we create obstacles
that simply aren't there. We create demons that don't exist. And we
incapacitate ourselves.
This is why my "stupid" students do well and my "smart" students are
miserable failures. The stupid ones are like fearless puppies. They
go out into the world, not considering the "dangers," and end up
quickly wading through the learning process to ultimately end up
successes.
My smart students (those with college degrees especially) overthink
the hell out of everything. They talk to others, talk to themselves,
and basically talk their way out of any good deal, plan, business, or
anything else that would enable them to move forward.
Which category do you fall into?
Time to sh** or get off the pot. And you decide if and when that will
be. You decide if you're going to do it or not.
We're running out of time on so many different levels. Yes, the
economy is recovering and you need to position yourself well right now
if you're going to gain the maximum profit benefit that these next
few years can offer to you.
But on a higher level, it seems that the universe is working at a faster
pace to "wrap things up" on some level (and I don't know what that is)
and there will probably be 2 types of people: the kings and the drones.
You're a trained drone. You're a slave for somebody else's dream.
Time to become the king (or queen) you deserve to be...and that requires
"breaking out" of your current life, thinking, and everything you
believe your entire life is about or made of.
I can't make you "decide" then "commit" to the process. Only you can
do that part.
What I can do is guide you to different opportunities and allow you to
determine which is most suitable for you.
And maybe it's nothing that I can offer you. Maybe you really want to
be a wrestling champ and...well, I can't help you out with that.
What I can help you out with are 2 different angles:
1) Passive income
2) Aggressive income
Passive income is best obtained through multi-family and commercial
real estate.
Aggressive income can be obtained a variety of different ways as I've
covered previously with my New Wealth Ninja stuff.
Now that I'm turning 39...I'm "older" and "wiser" now. It's really
pointless to stop kidding yourself with "plans" and "dreams" if you're
never going to get off your ass to start doing something about it.
The other day I was going out to get a sandwich for lunch and I noticed
this new business going into this retail strip center right next to
Subway.
The sign on the front said..."Coming Soon: Milkshake Mania!"
Oh brother!
Another store that's going to bite the dust after being open for 2 months.
And if only people would do a very simple financial analysis before they
even think of starting a business so lame and unprofitable.
What is the financial analysis?
Very simple:
1) Add up all the monthly "fixed" costs to run the business including
rent, employees, insurance, utilities, inventory, etc. Say it'll run
you $10,000 on the very low, very simple side of this equation. (The
reality is that the expenses will be more than $10,000 a month.)
2) Figure out the "average" product cost. For a milkshake, I can't
imagine demanding more than $4 for each one they sell. But, since we're
in California where people spend more money, say each sale is worth $5.
3) Now...how many freakin' $5 shakes do you have to get to cover your
$10,000 a month? (In case you don't have a calculator, that's 2,000
milkshakes you have to sell every month or about 67 per day.)
And is selling 67 milkshakes a day realistic???
Uh...no! Not by a longshot.
And that's just to break even, folks. If you want to profit about
$10,000 a month, you'd have to sell 134 milkshakes a day or 4,000 a
month.
Sorry but I'd rather sit at home and sell sh** on eBay for $10,000 a
month working 2 hours a day rather than holding up a counter in a boring
milkshake shop for 12 hours a day, 7 days a week.
I am flabbergasted by the amount of times I see some little yogurt
or donut or some other low-end money-making shop go in (and out) of
business because I guess not many people have access to a pad of paper,
a pencil, and a calculator these days.
(I'm in the process of talking my 17-year-old step-son out of the prospect
of opening up a retail bike shop by making him do the exact calculations
that I outlined above.)
The unfortunate truth is that many of these small business owners can't
afford to hire staff so they're stuck with "hold up the counters" of the
place for all of their (long) business hours, netting themselves either
nothing or less than minimum wage per hour.
Doesn't make working for someone seem like a bad deal after all, does
it?
Except working for someone or making a costly mistake opening up a retail
store aren't your only money-making choices.
Most people think very small when it comes to making money. When they
finally up the ante on themselves and try to think like an entrepreneur,
the best they can come up with is some retail store idea.
Do you have any idea what it costs to open any type of retail store?
A lot.
A lot more than any other type of business because your rent is much
higher, you need equipment (for food establishments) and inventory.
And it ain't cheap!
So...why this would be the first entrepreneurial choice is beyond me!
We're talking about the possibility of raking in millions a year...in
your pocket.
I watch it religiously and I suggest you start watching it too. (It's on Friday nights.)
What is the Shark Tank?
It is composed of 5 multi-millionaires and multi-billionaires.
Average Joes walk in there and "pitch" their business idea to see if one of the sharks will invest in their business for a certain percentage of the company.
The majority of the sharks have made their millions (and billions, in some cases) by one "type" of business strategy: product distribution.
Further, the majority of the business ideas that come through are about putting new products out into the multi-billion-dollar retail consumer marketplace...through wholesalers and distributors, mostly.
Think about it: "Big" products are in thousands of retail stores throughout the country and even throughout the world. They're not sold via a single online "store" that some mom-and-pop home-based company operates. They're not sold door-to-door. They're sold through a massive wholesale movement that ultimately gets these products on retail store shelves and in the homes of end-users or consumers.
This applies to Big Boys like Coke or Pepsi, RJ Reynolds, and even 5-Hour Energy Shot.
Imagine coming up with a low-cost simple consumer item, creating a multi-million-dollar company starting from a few thousand dollars (or less), and "selling out" to a Big Boy corporation for tens of millions of dollars in just a few years from now.
That's how multi-millionaires are made.
As you profit from your company (with monthly aggressive cash flow), you shovel your extra funds into passive income real estate so that when you don't want to work anymore in a few years, you have passive income coming in to sustain the lifestyle you desire.
That's how multi-millionaires remain multi-millionaires.
As I get closer and closer to the end of this year, I'm sharing more and more of my intimate money-making secrets as I'm making money with those precise strategies myself. And I'm choosing to share something out of this world with you.
Would you believe you could make a lot of money if you were selling something at $50 a pop?
What if you were selling 1,000 units a month? Times 2 different products?
And what if I told you that you'd never even have to touch any of these units including never receiving a shipment or pallet of these wiz-bangs nor would you have to ship any of them out to anyone either?
Dream come true, right? Or "bullsh**" is what you're really probably thinking...!
Except everything I'm telling you is 1000% true.
Even more exciting, this is only one of the many opportunities for Aggressive Income Strategies on Steroids that I'll be presenting in Los Angeles on September 27th and 28th.
What's Aggressive Income Strategies on Steroids? Not "regular" Aggressive Income as I've taught before with my New Wealth Ninja techniques or with my real estate Aggressive Income secrets on SFR flipping.
This is like nothing I've ever presented before...yet it's something that I've personally been doing for the past couple of years and have really exploded with it about 9 months ago.
You have to appreciate the fact that I give bona-fide techniques and strategies that apply to today's economic conditions that you can use to get immediate cash flow.
And yes, our economy has shifted again.
Here's what you're up against now:
High competition with wealthy investors who are snatching up all of your residential income properties out there including apartment buildings, mobile home parks, and single-family residences. There's barely any passive income property inventory left. Sellers aren't doing much seller financing since there are way too many investors out there who have the cash to buy their property...so why work with someone who needs seller financing?
Things have changed...again.
If you're going to compete in the real estate marketplace, you need cash. And fast! Why? Because all the inventory is being eaten up left and right by wealthy well-funded investors, even as I write this email.
The good news is that we're on the ride up to a super hot economy. And you're about to cash in...big time! All you need is a hot product and a means to market it.
Our economy is ramping up for what will be equivalent to the Roaring 20s. Or even better. And if all you have is a job or some small service business, you're not going to cash in. In fact, you'll be missing out on all the money.
I have a way for you to cash in since it'll be almost criminal if you enter into our New Economy without a means of collecting on the huge windfall that's coming up quick.
Since I'm stepping out of training by the end of this year, I'm giving my students a lasting legacy of as much valuable money-making information I possibly can based on my own experience.
Many of you know about the other company I have that's fairly new yet has become extremely successful selling a very low-cost, simple line of products.
And I'm finally ready to reveal the exact step-by-step details to show you how you can do the same thing.
No, this is not New Wealth Ninja stuff. This is way beyond that. New Wealth Ninja has limited my students to "max out" at about $20,000 a month in income. This is Aggressive Income on Steroids. You're looking at around $100,000 a month or more in income by following my simple step-by-step business action plan.
I was watching the news last night and they had a veteran talk about what it was like being a POW in the Korean War. I was amazed at how positive this guy's outlook on life is and what incredible energy he had emitting from his being.
He had said something very poignant yet simple when referring to the severe circumstances he had to survive being a prisoner for more than a handful of years in the worst of conditions:
"Yesterday's but a memory; tomorrow's but a vision."
Pretty intense if you think about it, isn't it?
I thought about it a great deal after he had said it. I even wrote it down.
To me, it means that no matter where you are in life right now, none of your past really makes a difference at all. Each day, you can choose to start from scratch and turn over a new leaf, if you will, because the past is nothing more than a memory and means nothing else.
The future is a vision...and really nothing more; that is, unless you actually do something more than just dream about having a different future.
It's not enough to merely wish you had something different. It's required to inject strong intensions in changing your life along with implementing some type of viable action plan to pull it off.
Am I reading too much into his simple words?
I don't think so.
You can choose to let go of bad things that have happened in the past including failures, rejections, and anything else that didn't work out as planned in your life. And you can let go of all this at any time by simply focusing on a new vision for how you'd like your future to become.
Turning to your future, it's nothing more than how you envision it. A vision, of course, is nothing by itself without a plan and action to go along with it. But the powerful thing about the future is that it truly can be whatever you want it to be.
Two things you need to figure out right now:
1) What "bad things" of your past do you need to let go of right now?
Something strange happened to me yesterday on Mother's Day...
My dad called me to wish me a Happy Mother's Day.
But he sounded...different. More uplifted. More positive!
Just to be clear, my dad is disconnected from most everything I do in my life including the work that I do with my students. And I've learned a very important lesson many years ago that you can't force your beliefs down other people's throats -- even if they are family -- if they're not ready to better their lives.
This is why both my dad and brother live their lives in the "trenches" both in mindset (where it starts) and physically (where your thoughts ultimately manifest).
Strangely, my dad's mindset was different when I talked to him yesterday.
Remember, I had his front teeth fixed. One day after that dental appointment (which was a couple of weeks ago now), he called me to thank me profusely for paying for the entire dental procedure and then went on and on about how such a seemingly small improvement really makes a difference in self-esteem and ultimately how you project yourself out into the world.
Which I already knew. Which is why I wanted to have his teeth fixed in the first place. ("Way ahead of you, dad, on that one..." is what I was thinking.)
When you're not swimming in the "mud hole" of life, you get the benefit of seeing what's going on with others and how/why their lives aren't working. Some things you can help change (like teeth for better self-esteem, for instance). Other things you cannot change (like entire mindsets and belief systems, for instance).
When I saw my dad letting himself go like that, I knew there was something devastatingly wrong with his mindset and he was in a free fall downward spiral at that point. And I felt I could do something very small to make a significant shift.
And I did.
Because when I talked to him last night, he was like a new person. He was positive, uplifted, had new goals, and seemed like the "old dad" I knew years ago.
He was also talking to me about "attraction" and how it all works...by first changing your state of mind and what you focus on.
"Hmmm, dad, I didn't know that! Tell me more!" (I had to let him keep talking so he could stay on his train of new thought!)
He was telling me about his discoveries with wealth attraction, that he had been working on some techniques he picked up from some website, and he was already noticing a huge shift and change in his life because of it.
And within just one week he was already seeing new opportunities he could participate in to further change his life.
What a difference a couple of weeks, a new set of front teeth, and a complete mind shift makes when you consciously decide that it's time to get out of the "muck" of life and experience the life you really want.
Do you even realize what type of mud hole pond you're swimming in right now?
Did you know that some of your conscious (and subconscious) choices are actually hurting you?
Did you know that being stubborn and inflexible about things you "think" you want is actually giving you a life that...well, just plain sucks?
Here's an example for you:
My ex-husband was offered (by me) a house in Michigan in a nice area. This house was to be bought in 100% cash. He would be solely on title. Furthermore, his BMW payments would continue to be made and he would also get somewhere around $4,000 in support payments monthly until my daughter is 18. That's another 13 years!!
What was Option B?
Getting absolutely nothing. That's right. Option B was to get none of the above including no more support payments if he chose to stay here in California.
He chose Option B. He ended up losing his BMW and he couldn't afford to pay for his rented townhouse anymore so he moved in with his mom last fall. He took a $12/hour job where his daily commute is an hour out and an hour back.
Option A is off the table. However, I've presented Option A again to him last summer. He still said no. He consciously chose to struggle.
Now, you are probably looking at the situation going..."What the hell is wrong with that dude??" I know. Everybody says that. Everybody says they would have taken Option A. Everybody, of course, except my ex-husband.
What is his ulterior motive? I don't know. Being stubborn. Making a "point." Making sure I don't get what I want. Who knows?!
Let's give you another example of this clear and obvious self-sabotage:
Ronnie's ex-girlfriend (and the mother of his 3 kids) is basically a struggling waitress with 3 jobs. She was offered the same thing here in California. She was offered a house, a car, and a job (since she was so "worried" about the job). She would have no rent to pay. No car payment. And she'd have an income. (Unlike my ex, she actually wants to earn her money and I respect that which is why a job was offered.)
She refused.
Currently she's homeless. She bounces between an aunt's couch and a male friend's couch back and forth like a Ping-Pong ball. She has no residence of her own.
And yet she still refuses to take my offer.
Now, you're probably thinking I'm making this all up. I guarantee that I'm not making any of this up. This is the reason that I live in California, Ronnie lives in Michigan and we see each other periodically throughout the year. Neither ex will take an offer. Both would rather suffer consciously and subconsciously for the remainder of their lifetimes.
And that's exactly what will happen to both.
I see what both of their lives will be like in 10, 15, 20...until the end of their lifetimes on this planet. I can clearly see their "mud hole" that their swimming in. They will literally have their same exact life that they have now in a decade from now.
And that's pretty sad, isn't it? Especially since they were given literally a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity (that neither really deserved to begin with).
You're probably thinking that if you were either one of them, you'd take the offer...right? Everything who is "clear headed" about the situation and can see it from above all says the same thing.
But they can't see the situation from the inside of their mud hole.
Now, you have to think about yourself for one minute. What things are you not seeing from inside your mud hole? What things would someone else say you had an opportunity to do or atalent to become that you could follow through with and yet you're not or haven't been?
The first step to have the successful life you deserve is to figure out: (1) what you don't want, and (2) what you do want. Simple, isn't it?
Yet why are you not living the life you truly want to live?? Why aren't you making the type of money you really want to be making??
It's time to change all of that!
I've created The Magic Course which will help you with all of your missing pieces in your life.
To listen to an incredible audio seminar, to go www.monicamain.com/magic_course and I'll explain to you how this can change your life within a matter of mere weeks!
If you're tired of doing all the work and seeing no results, this is exactly what you've been missing!
He's sort of been in a downward spiral for the past couple of years, even going so far as to embezzle money from me.
And that broke my heart.
I found that, for my own sake, I had to completely disconnect from him over the summer of 2011 and ever since then I've had very little contact with him.
Then this past January or February (don't remember which), I went down to Orange County with Ronnie and met my dad at my favorite Chinese place in Laguna Beach called Mandarin King. (If you live around Laguna Beach or ever visit, you can't miss visiting that restaurant!)
And for many of you who read all my emails, you know what happened that night. I noticed my dad's teeth were broken. And we're not talking about just any teeth. They were his front teeth!
And this bothered me quite a bit!
How can anyone function in business with broken front teeth??
I fought paying for his dental requirements until I finally caved a couple of weeks ago. I've found that sometimes you have to break your own rules when it becomes clear that you're being inflexible.
People walk their own paths as they lead their own lives. They select their destiny based on a set of choices given to them in the beginning, middle, and even the end of their lives.
And he's chosen, for some reason, to have little contact with me and my daughter.
So what?
Apparently he thinks that there are more important things to attend to. Or maybe he's never learned to fully appreciate family. Or maybe he thinks he's being an attentive parent and grandparent.
Or maybe he doesn't even think at all.
Who knows and who cares?! It's not for me to figure out.
I enjoy giving. I always have. And I believe that's one of the reasons I'm as successful as I've been in my lifetime. Giving really does tie you into receiving when it comes to the universe.
And no, it's not just about giving to a church or other religious organization. Giving/tithing is disguised in many different ways.
It can be giving money to a bum on a street corner because he's down on his luck.
It can be giving to your child's school so they can afford new computers to further all of the children's educational quest in that school or classroom.
It can even be giving to a family member who literally has nowhere else to turn.
When the universe gives back is only when the giving comes from a specific state of mind. Did you give because you felt like you had to give and now you feel remorseful for doing so? Because if that's the case, you've given from the wrong place in your heart.
But if you give because you truly want to help and you expect absolutely nothing in return, that's the place you should be giving from.
The guy who is pissed off and throwing money into the church tithing basket because he feels obligated isn't giving from the right place and he's no better off a "giver" just because he's giving in a church.
So, you have to be careful in how you give no matter where you are giving and to whom.
Giving is one of the ways to get the universe to automatically open doors for you. It's always worked for me. It can work for you, too.
Years ago, a good friend of mine (who is no longer a friend), used to reprimand me for giving to bums on street corners. He would always moan about how they all used the money for drugs or alcohol and that I'm just funding their abuse.
One day, I was in my car in a fast food drive-through. My friend was with me in the passenger side. All of a sudden, while I was in the drive-through, a guy came up to my window asking for money. He had some lengthy story about how he needed the money for food for himself and his family. I didn't care what the story was because I always gave. He got $20 from me.
My friend started bitching at me immediately saying that the guy was on his way to go buy liquor at some store down the street. I didn't care. It's not my job to regulate what people do with the funds I give to them because the place in which I gave the funds is always pure.
The guy who had just taken the $20 from me ended up going into the fast food place next door (an El Pollo Loco), buying a huge bag of food, and bringing it out to his family which was composed of his wife and 2 small kids waiting for him in a car.
Not only did my heart swell with joy for helping this family out but I was also able to say..."Told ya so!"
Did I make a difference? For that meal that evening for that family I did.
And this is when you get the universe to open up for you.
Consider it like the Butterfly Effect. If you know anything about the Butterfly Effect, you'd know that there is this theory that a butterfly could land on a flower in South America somewhere, flap its wings, and eventually that "movement" throughout the world can cause a massive hurricane in Africa, or some other such place far away.
Not only do I believe...but I absolutely know, without a doubt, that the same thing happens when you give unconditionally.
That same theory of the Butterfly Effect happens when you give; the benefit of that giving will ripple through the universe. If anything is "blocked" for you, that ripple will quickly start shaking things loose like an earthquake.
Of course, you know all this right?
But what about the stuff you don't know about getting what you want by using the universe to work for you?
Like how to "command" the universe do stuff for you and get you the things you want in life.
Or how there are "attraction" secrets that books and DVDs like The Secret won't ever tell you about. (Probably because they don't even know about these strategies.)
The basic problem with many of these "wealth attraction" new-age types of books, courses, and DVDs out there is that they don't tell you the reality of what it takes to manifest what you want in the real world, especially the business world.
They talk about "visualizing" and "affirming."
But did you know that neither one works at all? In fact, did you know that it actually does the opposite of manifesting?
Even worse, many of these sources of "attracting" won't give you 100% of the elements needed to get what you want in life. They'll talk about a small portion of what you need then leave out the most critical parts.
It's like outlining to someone how to build a house but leaving out the part about pouring the concrete foundation, wiring it for electricity, and putting on a roof. Without any of those 3 elements, you won't have a functioning home regardless of how well you do the rest of the stuff.
And this is what I talk about in The Magic Course...my latest release.
For more about it, go to www.monicamain.com/magic_course.
In the very least, go there and listen to my 10-minute audio seminar.