There are only a few times of the year that really hit me hard and this is one of these times, right around Mother's Day.
My mom passed to the other side...gosh, it's been almost 9 years come late July!
For those of you who don't know the story, my mom died of brain cancer. She had a seizure on February 28th, 2005 and, after a short burst of surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, she quickly spiraled downhill...ended up in hospice care then died late morning on a rainy July 26th of that same year. She was only 52 when she passed away.
I wasn't there when she passed. My brother was there.
My mom was such a giver, even after "the end." She was a donor and wanted to make sure she could still give after her death. The problem with giving organs as a cancer patient is, well...you can't give your organs. But there is one body part they can take. A part of the eye.
Within an hour after my mother's death, they came to take her corneas. Then they took her.
I'd like to think that someone today is seeing the world through my mother's eyes...as it was her last gift she gave. And if they are seeing the world using a parts of her eyes, what they would see is the best in everyone.
Most mothers are givers. And I never realized just how much my mother gave until I had my own daughter. But it's a selfless, giving and endless love that you have for your children. The prospect of giving, from a mother's perspective, is that it's out of pure unconditional love. It's not work or based on obligatory responsibility.
I never considered my mom "smart" when it came to financial matters or business. But it's during the time that I have to recollect my life lessons that I discovered she gave me the very best financial and business education I could have ever hoped for.
For one, my mother was street wise. She grew up in a very abusive household. Her dad died when she was only 13 and then, just after, her mother sunk into a deep depression that included excessive amounts of alcohol consumption. During this time, her mother was in and out of different mental institutions since, back then, this is how psychological problems and alcohol abuse was dealt with at that time.
This left my mother alone to basically grow up on her own with the handful of "brat pack" friends she acquired in junior high and high school. This also made her both street wise as well as able to get along with anyone. Yes, she had this gift where she would and could converse with anyone from a street bum to a multi-billionaire and everyone in between...and people just responded to her.
My mom forced me to become self-reliant, independent, and to listen to my gut pretty early on. No, she didn't neglect me but she did encourage me to work through problems on my own. This would be my first life lesson that would prove to be integral when it came to business and wealth building.
She also taught me how invaluable it was to give. I didn't grow up with a lot. In fact, I grew up pretty poor and didn't realize how poor until I was able to see a different world when I moved to California in junior high school when I got to see how the "other half" lived.
But with as little as we had, she showed me that you always have something to give whether it's a couple of dollars or your time to someone in need. When you give, you're always taken care of. It makes the energy of the "universal wheels" turn in your favor when you give unconditionally and with the true intent on helping someone else while getting absolutely nothing out of the deal and expecting nothing in return.
Another vital lesson she taught me was to always stand up for myself.
I remember being in the 8th grade and this girl -- Nicky Maltabon -- started picking on me the day right before our 2 week Christmas vacation. She essentially ruined my entire vacation because I was worried about whether she'd still keep picking on me after I returned to school in January.
Well, she did keep picking on me until one day I came home crying. My mom told me to kick her ass. Plain and simple. And she said that if I didn't kick her ass, my mom would kick my ass.
So, I went to school and kicked Nicky's ass. In front of at least 30 kids. I remember how hard my knuckles were hitting her head to the point of them cracking.
Not only did I never get picked on again for the rest of junior high by anyone but the news carried over into high school the following year. Nobody messed with me and a few smart-ass boys called me "Sugar Ray" here and there.
My mom was the one who told me to take care of my personal credit. She taught me that people who have good credit have leverage. And she taught me never to over-extend myself. Don't buy things you can't afford.
I see myself passing a lot of my own lessons onto my little girl. I found myself recently telling my daughter that I like the Disney movie Brave because it demonstrates that a woman doesn't need a man to have an awesome successful life of "happily ever after."
Yes, I have different lessons for my own little girl. I think we would like to all aim for making the next generation better in some way...better than how we had it as children.
But it all starts with mom...our entire existence on this planet, good or bad.
So, to all you mommies out there, thank you for everything you are, all the strength it's taken you to get to this point through the roughest patches life has pushed you through, and everything you've been passing onto your little (and sometimes big) kids to, ideally, make our world a better place.
We are looking for distributors for our convenience store and gas station supplement wholesaling business.
Right now we have a handful of students who have been working with us for the past several months. One of our students is making about $30,000 per month in pure profits working as a wholesale distributor for us!
Other students are doing exceptionally well, too, ranging anywhere from $5,000 a month and upwards.
The other day, a student of mine sent me an email about how my competitor (who reads these emails, by the way) suddenly has a course on how to make money on Amazon Kindle.
Interestingly enough, this is after I did my seminar on Aggressive Income Strategies in March where I did a very lengthy and mind-blowing presentation about making a minimum of $20,000 per month on Amazon with KDP Select through the Amazon Kindle program.
(And I also have something else coming out on Kindle soon since I've been doing incredibly well with it writing erotica novellas under an assumed name!)
Hmmmmm...seems like my desperate and pitiful competitor, whose name I'll definitely name in a quick second, is at it again.
And who is it, you may ask? The guy who I thought (or rather hoped) had jumped off a bridge by now since I hadn't heard from him in several years. (And again, he pops up like a bad penny.) In case you don't know who I'm talking to, it's David Lindahl...the loser that sued me back in 2010...or 2011. Don't quite remember when. All I remember is that I kicked his ass. Then he disappeared like a dog with his tail between his legs...like the dog that he is.
Now he just copies me what I do because he's been reduced to a pitiful slug. Even worse, he doesn't actually make money with Amazon Kindle. Sure, his books are converted to Kindle but by taking a look at his ridiculously priced Kindle books, I can tell 2 things: (1) he doesn't sell many books at that price point since he violates all of the rules of Amazon publishing (because his publishers have listed the Kindle books and he had nothing to do with them, making him an "expert" on exactly nothing regarding Kindle), and (2) he understand KDP Select. (More about that on another day.)
I've also had a slew of emails in the past couple of weeks since I told everyone I was closing the doors in the upcoming months between December and January. You all even "outed" me to the very employee (Jeanine) who opened my eyes to this final decision with her entitlement tirade about her hourly pay when you guys started calling my office and actually telling her that I'm shutting the place down. (No, she didn't know...and she certainly didn't know she was the culprit behind it all. Now she does. Thanks, guys!)
Anyway, you guys and gals are asking me (and some of you are actually panicking) about my shutting the office down!
(You guys are soooo cute!) :-)
So, here's the deal, since it's evident that I wasn't clear about what's happening here.
I'm done having employees and overhead and the rest of the headaches that come along with having a business.
And what type of "guru" would I be to keep teaching you guys about making Aggressive Income, shoveling all your cash into Passive Income Assets, and retiring in 36 months if I didn't walk the talk?
Oh wait! I'd be just like David Lindahl, wouldn't I? (LOL!)
And that, my friend, is not what I'll ever become!
In the very beginning of my teaching career, I had a handful of students (who are still with me, by the way) who anticipated "great" things for me. Apparently many of them had this idea in their heads that I was going to become the next Robert Kiyosaki. You know, the Rich Dad, Poor Dad guy?
And I made it very clear from the beginning. I don't want to stand next to "them" and become one of "them."
What did that mean?
Most of those gurus are full of sh**. They don't practice what they preach and they certainly don't do what they tell other people to do. And I absolutely refuse to even stand in the same category as they do simply because people will automatically assume that I'm on the same snake-oil-salesman-level that they are.
But mostly it's because I simply didn't have time to be the full-fledged "guru" that those other guys are. I actually go out, do real estate, have other businesses (for Aggressive Income), and only have a tiny bit of time for the "guru" thing.
Furthermore, even though I've been offered book deals by major New York publishers and have already been afforded the opportunity to become "one of them," I've turned down these publishers time and time again simply because I don't want to become the female poster child of financial freedom. Instead, I'd rather focus on teaching the few of you (who are serious about this) what I know, let you become successful, and we both then move on our merry little ways.
But over the past couple of years, my life and teachings have become contradictory. Since I started teaching my students Aggressive Income Strategies around this time in 2012, I've been showing my students how to not have overhead and not have employees and not have the stress of a regular business while enjoying the benefits of stuffing $20,000 or more per month in pure profits right into your pocket.
Yet I have the stress and obligations of overhead.
In the beginning, it was enjoyable. I had a mission. I needed to train people to become financially proficient and self-sufficient so the minor frustrations here and there of having a business didn't bother me. I was built to do it, having so many businesses for so many years. People management comes easy to me. And the minor frustrations I can bulldoze over, for many people, would be viewed (and felt) as insurmountable obstacles that would give them an instant one-way ticket into the loony bin.
But then something happened a little more than a year ago...
I had a powerful "shift."
At first I thought it was a "mid-life" crisis. Just a bit early. I figured since I had a hard life and always figured things out much earlier than most people, maybe I was going through the mid-life crisis thing earlier than most people do. This would explain the BMW thing and me carving up my body with a mural of tattoos on my back. (Yes, my entire back is all tattooed up.)
Then recently I figured it out. I figured out what was happening when I watched a video called The Shift by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer. (You can watch the video on YouTube.com by searching for it...and have at least 2 hours available to watch it front to back without distractions. Highly recommended video! Here's the link: http://youtu.be/Yo_UA2l9ZkY)
I realized that I was going through The Shift and that it was time I did something about it.
Each one of us only has a certain number of days on this planet. And life is too short doing stuff you can't stand.
That applies to you, too!
And me, too!
It applies to everyone.
Now, many of you know that I've been "fake" retiring since last year. It wasn't really a false alarm but rather me mentally and emotionally preparing myself for the "real deal" that I knew was eminent in my future. (I just didn't know when it would happen, exactly.) Just when I was ready to step out of the spotlight, I'd freak out. I didn't want to let go of my students, my staff, my office, and what had become my "life."
Then the situation with Jeanine happened a couple of weeks ago that made me realize that this whole situation has become like an old snake skin that I've shed last year but that I've been too stubborn to want to let go.
Now it's time to let go.
So, let's clarify what's happening so that there are no misunderstandings:
1) I'm moving my successful distribution business to the outskirts of Detroit, Michigan where Ronnie will operate the business (and I won't be operating it anymore).
2) Instead of closing down my office/warehouse in the preliminary set time frame of December/January...I decided to shut it down by Halloween. And I'm pushing to move it up another month to make it September 30, 2014. By August, my warehouse will be empty since I already have a "Pod" being delivered the second week of the month for all warehouse "stuff" to fill it for it's final destination in Michigan.
3) I have a handful of very highly lucrative Aggressive Income Businesses that include (a) an Internet business, (b) a direct mail order business, (c) making money on eBay/Amazon, and (d) with Amazon Kindle. These operate on autopilot and bring in anywhere from $30,000 to $50,000 per month, pure profit cash in my pocket (that's on auto-pilot) with very low overhead obligations that include nothing more than website hosting, domain registering, a post office box fee, and an answering service. It's stress free and that's what I need right now.
4) I have a slew of income properties that are managed by proficient management companies; I'm about to start picking up many more apartment buildings in Michigan that have a mind-blowing cash flow.
5) I'll continue with Global Success on a very minimal basis. I still want to teach and provide profitable information to my students but there won't be an office you can call. You'll have email access and all courses will go to download. (This will be cheaper for you, by the way.) And I'll be able to offer you bigger discounts on everything since I won't have to support the traditional Global Success overhead.
While I'm sitting at my office managing staff and overhead, I've found lately that I don't even have the energy to facilitate these property deals. And our last little "window" is going to close by mid-2015. I'm not missing that window because I'm too busy checking student emails.
When there is too much on your plate, you have to eliminate the sh** that is wasting your time so that you can focus on the sh** that is worth it to you. It's called the 80/20 Principle. This is a true concept outlining that 20% of your "work" yields 80% of your results.
Everything else...you have to ditch before it eats you alive.
Last week I saw this guy driving around my cul-de-sac in a white truck with a freezer on the back. He saw me standing outside and stopped to dish out the sales pitch of how he had top quality meat on his truck at lower-than-wholesale prices.
Not a good pitch to someone who is mostly a vegetarian. (I only eat fish once in awhile and that's the limit on my "meat" intake.)
But I will tell you this...
I have a soft spot in my heart for hustlers. Especially this guy who was up there in age. Here it was, nearly sunset and nearing 8pm and this guy is still out selling meat from the back of a truck.
At first I told him no...that is until he hit my neighbor up across the street (you know, the jealous one?) and she sharply told him "No!"
So, right in front of her, I had to say, "Well, what kind of meat do you have? I'm having a big BBQ party in my backyard next weekend. I could probably use some meat."
I got the sales pitch right then and there like he was selling a Sham-Wow or Oxiclean. Of course, he almost lost me in one part of the pitch.
Mind you, it wouldn't be the part where you have to wonder..."How safe or good is meat from the back of a truck?"
But it was the part of the sales pitch he had to slip in where he said this:
"I'm doing this now because I used to be an accountant and all the work dried up since the economy went to hell. Now I have to do this."
What the %$&* kind of sales pitch is that? And how easy would it have been to completely leave that part out?
First of all, nobody has to do anything unless somebody else has a loaded gun pointed at your head and the alternative to not doing something means your brains will end up blown out on the nearest wall of proximity to you.
Second of all, in case anyone hasn't noticed, the economy has been ramping up (slowly but surely) in a noticeable fashion for even your Average Joe to notice by at least late 2012 or, if you are especially dense, you would have noticed sometime last year that things are getting better...even if it is very nominal.
And lastly, we live in a country of great opportunity. Unfortunately, it seems that those who are foreign to our great land of opportunity are the only ones who seem to notice that the opportunity is not only still here but it's even greater now than it was decades ago when their parents and grandparents talked about our amazing country with streets paved in bricks of gold.
So, as I'm staring at this old white guy who is making excuses, yelling at myself inside my head to not say anything, and wondering if I should bother going through with my off-the-back-of-a-truck meat purchase, I made an immediate mental note to make sure I remind my students something very important: Money is everywhere; money is easy to make...but you have to actually do something to sell something that everybody wants to the public.
Now, apparently this concept was foreign to this guy who is essentially a salesman in the rawest door-to-door form. But I couldn't help but to think of how much more money he would be making it he wasn't working for a company in Orange County schlepping theirmeat almost 90 minutes north where I live, door to door, when he could be claiming 100% of the profits for himself if he was selling meat he bought wholesale from a local butcher.
I found out he sold only $500 in meat that day but his normal days are between $1,000 and $1,200 per day. Not bad for having no overhead if you were operating your own wholesale business out of yourown truck. I'm guessing his profits would be a minimum of 50% but probably more in the area of about 65%.
But...he was too busy telling himself (and everyone else) the daily lie that he has to do this "low-life" type of job just to "get by" because "all the work dried up."
The only things that dried up were his will to exist in a profitable marketplace along side of, perhaps, his brain cells from so many years of negative and disparaging thinking patterns.
So, what is Business 101?
The first step (which may not be all that obvious) is to actually see the opportunity right in front of your eyes. That's right. Peel yourself from American Idol for one freaking minute and consider how much money is just "floating around" out there, whizzing by your ears so fast that you can't even see it or hear it. Yes, since most of our currency is "in the air," passing through you at viper speed through wireless networks, money actually moves past you in mid-air!
Amazing!
Now you have to stop and catch some of it!!
One of my most powerful methods I teach is by cashing in with my Distribution Profit Income Strategies. This falls on the Aggressive Income side of the spectrum and helps a whole hell of a lot when you want to rake in huge amounts of dough to put down on some Passive Income retirement vehicles, such as apartment building real estate.
So far, since I've been teaching my Distribution Profit System Strategies since the fall of 2012, I've had some of my students do the following:
Become a part-time distributor/jobber for our product (and a few other c-store product manufacturers) and now makes $30,000 a month with no overhead.
Create an invention from scratch that was molded last fall and was just accepted into every Bed, Bath, & Beyond in the country, set to launch in their stores everywhere this summer.
Formulate a new (yet effective) hang-over shot that was launched earlier this year and is reporting gross sales of $22,000 a month since February.
Create a line of skin care products that are manufactured in France that are being sold through high-end spas in the southwestern region of the United States, making my student an average net profit of about $11,000 per month...and growing rapidly since its launch last summer!
Private label a weight loss supplement that is being sold in the Vitamin Shoppe nationwide, making this student about $40,000 a month!
And anyone can accomplish this if they want to!
If you want to watch tv, watch the show Shark Tank. This is the stuff I do with my distribution company. We create a product and sell it wholesale to warehouses nationwide. And we're making a killing doing it!
I decided that, since I'm going to be shutting down my office/warehouse very soon (and the selected date has been brought forward from December 31st to Halloween...and will probably be pushed forward again to September 30th...and yes, that's 2014), I'm trying to get my students on board with the most profitable Aggressive and Passive Income Strategies out there before my teaching days are over.
I recommend you guys and gals learn what you can like some of my other students have (who are making anywhere from $20,000 to $85,000 per month in pure profits) from my Aggressive Income Strategies.
P.S. I told Lea that I'll be shutting down the office/warehouse by the end of the year and gave her my preliminary end-date as September 30th (or as late as Halloween) but gave her the option to keep working with me as an assistant...or to retire. Lea is choosing to retire when I close my office here in California. So, if you guys and gals who routinely call my office actually talk to Lea, enjoy your last days being able to talk to her because she's going to retire out completely this fall!
I think we all get to the point when we know something is over, done, finished!
Here are some indicating factors of when you're completely through with something:
1) Every time you look at your spouse or significant other, you feel like either (a) belting him/her in the head with the first sizeable blunt object you can get your hands on, or (b) puking into the nearest garbage can or other workable containment device.
2) Each time you get on the freeway to go to work, you think about pulling out the speaker wire to your sound system to use to strangle yourself to death before you get there or hope you have a massive heart attack in the parking lot before you have to get out of the car.
3) Instead of another rep or workout class in XYZ Gym or one more round with the Zumba Wumba instructor with the thick accent you suddenly find that you'd be "okay" with being (or turning into) a 500-lb. fat ass drooling slob with cottage cheese thighs that puts the craters of the moon to shame.
4) Just the thought of spend another moment [fill in the blank] makes the prospect of jumping off of a building or a very high mountain seem like a much more desirable choice...without even putting a fraction of a thought into choosing the latter.
If you're feeling this way about any part of your life at all, it's time for a change. Dragging it out for another few days, weeks, or months (or the worst possible scenario...years) is just hurting yourself and everyone else involved.
And, most devastatingly, it's crushing your soul and spirit all at the same time.
What to do...
Listen, I happen to be sharing something with you right now. We're both in the same "boat," so to speak.
Most of my students have a variety of different "normal life" challenges they have to deal with which runs the gamut with what we all (unfortunately) have to experience by being alive on the earthly plane of existence.
Just because I do well financially doesn't make me exempt from having to deal with stuff.
A couple of days ago I gave you an honest blow-by-blow account of what's going on with my office/warehouse situation here in Valencia, California where I run the daily operations of Global Success.
And as I sit here typing out this email, I am contemplating whether I'll actually show up here for the rest of the week...or not. After all, I can accomplish much more at home when I'm not being suffocated with the neediness of my staff and the immense overhead I've collected here over the years.
This is the only facet of my business that doesn't match with the stuff I teach my students. You see, I had an interesting trade-off to consider years ago. If I was going to share success strategies with people on a larger scale, it was going to require some sacrifices, including taking on the responsibility of an office and staff. Again. And I made that sacrifice because, back then, it seemed like a good idea. I had the energy for it. I was committed. And I was ready to take on the world.
As we age, learn, grow, and emerge as new people, our needs change. Our perspective changes. Our requirements to continue to grow, learn, and change is altered as we move along. And things that were a "good idea" months or years ago suddenly seem like they're not meshing with your "new" requirements as a growing/evolving spirit. That means they've got to go!
If you're one of those people where you know damn well that it's time to move forward but you don't know what to do, listen up. You can't keep talking yourself into schlepping yourself to that job each day if you're so sick of it that you instantly start dry heaving when you think about it. Same goes for marriages, relationships, and other "things" you find yourself doing that you can't stand doing anymore.
Years ago I got this Nightingale-Conant audio set called "Jump and the Net Will Appear." While I remember absolutelynothing about what the audio set was about, I always remembered the title. In fact, it's the only Nightingale-Conant course title I can recall on any subject.
If you think about the concept: Jump and the Net Will Appear!
What an empowering concept!
Part of jumping includes making a concrete decision that you know you won't back down on only because you can't "go back" to the prospect of living in "status quo" anymore. You just can't; otherwise your soul will shrivel up and die before the end of the summer...and you know it.
Over the years, the biggest obstacle for success that my students have had to battle is their lack of belief in themselves. They start the process of working the very basic step-by-step action plan that I set up for them and, at some point -- whether they're on the first step or the very last step -- they'll talk themselves out of success. And they don't go through with it.
But the really cool thing about being in the position where you are absolutely sick of the way your life is...it puts you in the mind set of saying to yourself, "F*** it! Let's do this sh** because what's the worst that can happen? I may actually get the life I want finally?!"
And then you do it! Without fear. Without man-made obstacles. Without the devil on your shoulder talking you out of it.
Just a clearpath to victory in the shortest amount of time possible.
When you're ready, it'll happen. When you're so sick of the way things are, you'll just do it. You'll finally do the things you've dreams but were too afraid to follow through with.
So, congratulate yourself if there is any aspect of your life that you've found you can no longer tolerate anymore. In fact, drink a beer or glass of wine right now and toast yourself for finally getting to the I-can't-take-it-anymore stage.
For tomorrow will be a new day...a day in which you can start making all of your dreams come true.
Most of my students have challenges with work, their business, or making money in general. So, for that, I'm going to help you close that gap to finally getting that financial freedom...and as early as the end of this year if you play your cards right.
Yes, that's right. You'll be able to tell your fat ass boss to shove it up his ass once and for all because you, my friend, will be raking in at least $10,000 to $12,000 per month in net cash flow from your multifamily properties.
Listen to it while you're drinking your beer or glass of wine and toasting yourself and toasting your new future because tomorrow is the beginning of your New Life!
This is one of the reasons why I tell all of my students who are working their Aggressive Income Strategies (via a home-based business, preferably) to avoid having a staff (employees) at all costs for several reasons:
#1: Different personalities = different results of what you'll get from work ethic to personality "meshes" (or clashes). And to find someone that perfectly "blends" while sustaining an acceptable work ethic is equivalent to finding a single person out of a 10,000,000 prospective employee haystack. Most of the time you'll find these people eating away at the clock while they chat endlessly about their weekends (either the past weekend, the upcoming weekend, or both) or texting their friends/family...all on your dime, of course. And if you do happen to get someone who is actually working on the clock, you'll be lucky that they aren't screwing something up.
#2: Liability. This is a strong work that indicates a variety of things from wondering if your employee will rip you off (now or later...and how little or how much) to a potential lawsuit for a variety of things (from wrongful termination to Worker's Comp to something out in left field like sexual harassment). The other liability factors fall into the not-doing-their-job-correctly category which can result in a customer getting hurt in some way (physically or financially), which you sustain the liability for. Or, even worse, hurting the integrity and reputation of the company you've worked so hard to build for years.
#3: Cost. To have an employee extends beyond what you actually pay them by the hour. A lot of people (who haven't had a business) don't realize that an employee costs a lot more. (And we're not speaking of the "liability" issues as discussed above.) Not only do you have to pay by the hour (whether they're actually working...or not) but you have to pay for Worker's Comp insurance, unemployment, and health insurance. So, add about 25% of what you pay them and you'll get a more accurate assessment of what you're actually paying them. This means that you're actually paying a $15/hour employee about $18.75/hour.
#4: Entitlement demands. This is when your employee feels that he or she automatically deserves more money just because they've been there longer. Forget about the fact that they never bothered to increase or bolster their personal skills such as taking a class in keyboarding (to type faster) or the newest Microsoft Office Suite or Quickbooks...or to improve their skills in any other capacity that I could potentially use to enhance my business. No. Just because they were sitting their dead ass in a chair longer than, say, someone else (i.e. a newer employee coming in) must mean that they are entitled to a raise. After all, we're Americans. We're automatically entitled to "stuff" and more money just because...just freakingbecause, I guess!
And my conflict with one of my staffers fell squarely into Item #4 above.
You see, I've had this one employee who started about 8 months ago. So, no, she hasn't been here for even a year. Yet suddenly, she felt she needed a raise. Fine. On Monday, I upped her an additional $1 an hour.
Fast forward to Wednesday...yes, this past Wednesday which was merely 2 days after the issued $1-per-hour raise, when this very same employee literally blows up at me for hiring an additional person who I will be starting at $2-per-hour more than what she's making.
Forget about the fact that this person has many more usable skills that I readily need to operate and expand my business to the capacity I'd like it to be at; these skills include being very apt with Quickbooks, tying much faster, and knowing all of the Microsoft Office Suiteprograms with great aptitude. (All of these things far surpass those skills of the complaining, self-entitled employee I'm speaking of.) Also, this new employee will be helping me build website and doing other online marketing that I need done, not to mention some of the "personal assistant" stuff that's been thrown to the wayside since I had to get rid of Cindy almost 3 years ago.
This whole nonsense about bringing in someone new "from the street," which she kept bitching about, makes about as much sense as someone working as a janitor for 21 years for the same company bitching that the newly hired CEO is making $500,000 per year more than he is.
Uh...let me break it down: different skills + different job description = different pay.
Seems pretty obvious to me...and probably to you. But it wasn't to her.
Then it made me realize..."Monica, what the hell are you doing?"
All of you know that I'm in my "shut down mode" right now. My "I Quit" date was December 31, 2013. My "shut down" period was to extend to my 40th birthday which is this coming June 14th.
But I have one other little complication that's bringing me to having to wait until December 31, 2014 for my real "I Quit" date. And that is the lease on my office/warehouse space here in Valencia, California.
I don't like backing out of contractual agreements or doing the midnight-move-out plan where I stiff someone on an arrangement I made with them. (I believe that brings in bad karma and negative energy that I just don't want right now.) So, as I continue cutting back mentorship groups, consulting, and other things that have been taking up a lot of my time, I realize that I've already been in "shut down mode" since the lateral part of last year.
I've also found myself focusing on the things that are truly important to me including writing and real estate investing.
Then, I asked myself a question. "Why do I need an office, overhead, and a staff when I could lose all of the above and double my monthly profits?"
Yes, it's a rhetorical question because the answer is prettyfreakingobvious.
I kept hanging onto this office because of fear. Fear of letting go. Fear of not making the right decision. Fear of what my employees would do without a job here.
And now the fear is gone. It took a blow up with an employee for me to realize that my days of running the shop are long over.
Now, the problem for me has always been how important my students are to me. This is why I keep training. Then I realized..."What the hell do I need an office and employees for to keep training and teaching my students?"
I don't need an office/warehouse and the stress of dealing with a staff to continue giving you guys and gals the information you need to continue building wealth.
With that said, I've decided that I'll be shutting down my office/warehouse this coming December/January (when my lease ends). My other company (Brie Labs) will be moving to its new home in Detroit, Michigan. I have a warehouse and a kick-ass office manager lined up (who I personally won't be managing). (I've even more recently considered shutting everything down on September 30th, 2014 while paying off the remainder of my lease until the end of the year as an effort shorten the misery of this huge overhead burden just a little more.)
And I haven't been this f****** excited in a very long time!!!
What does that mean for my awesome students?
I've decided to carry on with my trainings and information to keep you on track with what you need to do to build wealth with both Aggressive and Passive Income Strategies but I'll be doing this on a smaller scale.
Truth be told, I can't live without my students. You guys and gals give me a purpose and meaning for being here on this planet. I enjoy showing people how to build wealth. I really get a kick out of helping people change their lives.
And I never want that to end. Period.
But, because of the stress of having the overhead I have (staff, warehouse, etc.), it's been bleeding my energy dry and zapping all of my enthusiasm to do the things I really want to do with my students. The moment the energy-zapping stuff disappears, I'll be able to give you the enthusiasm, energy, and even more kick-ass strategies to drive you to the financial future you've always wanted for yourself.
So, this is a benefit to both of us. This change will benefit me and you.
With this change, I'll be able to offer more free videos, reports, audio seminars, and mini-courses as well as super low-priced (yet high quality) information products for you to continue on your path of building both Aggressive and Passive Income.
And I can't wait to be able to do the things I've wanted to do for my students without any of the office politics and the stress that I've been going through for the past several years with Global Success.
So, what do you get to learn from all this?
As I mentioned many times before: start a business and/or do your real estate investing activities without having your own employees and without having overhead. Period.
And the only way that I know how to pull this off is through a highly successful Aggressive Income home-based business and Passive Income real estate investing, preferably with multifamily properties.
There's something I want you to listen to in reference to the Passive Income side...
It's amazing what you discover as you trek along in this journey we call a "lifetime on earth." While most of this journey can seem frustrating, once you get the hang of a couple of "secret techniques" to alter your future, you can understand how to maneuver a better life experience for yourself.
One of the most powerful strategies I've learned...then learned again recently is the power of letting go.
Many of you know that I went through a painful divorce recently. It was not a marriage I wanted to let go of at all. In fact, it's the only divorce that I didn't want. But I felt that I had to get out of the situation before it consumed me emotionally. So, off to divorce court I went.
And it was the fastest divorce I ever had. Six months went by like a long weekend at the beach.
Then it was over. Just like that. And I thought that I'd feel better.
Except I didn't. I felt the same sense of sadness that I had felt all along.
(Hey, I know I'm an expert when it comes to making money but I'm still working on mastering this relationship thing. We all have sh** we need to learn...otherwise, why are we still here?)
Then I realized something. And this something didn't make me happy either.
You see, I realized that I was the problem all along. I was creating obstacles that weren't there. I was seeing things the way I wanted to see them. And it was easy for me to point the finger at everyone else analyzing what was wrong with their decisions (or lack thereof) but I never stopped to look at myself and how I was the problem.
Now, let me outline something magical that happened the moment I was able to just throw in the towel and let it all go.
Yes, that's right. I literally threw in the towel. I gave up on the marriage. I gave up on the business we had together. I walked away from all of it. In my mind, it was time to move on.
The moment I truly let it all go was the moment that everything started working out. The obstacles and walls I created in the situation suddenly dissolved. Instead of me being a part of swimming in a muddy pond where I couldn't see what was going on as I was helplessly thrashing about, I suddenly became someone that was looking over the situation as if I was in a tree overhead with no emotional attachment or confusion about the situation. I saw everything completely clearly for the first time in almost 4 years.
And when you can see a situation as if you're just someone observing, two critical things happen:
1) You find immediate solutions that you failed to see before.
2) Since you're not emotionally intertwined in the situation, your obstacles begin to melt away immediately.
When you get "on top" of a situation rather than being distraughtly intertwined in the problem/issue, everything changes. And it changes instantly.
Unfortunately, moving from the perspective of being "in" the problem vs. "on top" of the problem is purely a mental shift that sometimes takes years to occur.
But it doesn't have to.
I did one single thing to make this shift that I could have done in a day instead of waiting for it to "happen" over the course of almost 4 years.
What was that "single thing"?
No, it wasn't just letting go...although that was part of it.
The single thing was taking a step back. That's right. I took a huge step back. (Of course, you have to let go of the emotional attachment of the situation by not caring what happens anymore in order to effectively step back.)
Taking a step back requires you to take a mental and emotional "vacation." This can mean going up into the mountains or taking a trip to the beach, even for a day. Commit to notthinking about the "problem/issue" you have at hand and focus only on yourself, how you'd like your life to be like, and how you'd like to feel. Or just try to think about nothing. That's even better.
Once you return back to your life, you will probably see the situation from a different perspective. Especially if you decided to walk away from it...and throw in the towel. This disconnects you from the emotional involvement and opens your world up to new possibilities.
So, back to me being the problem: I was the entire problem. I was holding onto emotions that only became a part of my reality because I told myself they had to be part of my reality. It didn't help that other people told me that I should be feeling a certain way about my situation which, coincidentally, I was fine with until people flooded me with their useless opinions.
Disappointment, stress, anger, anxiety and depression come from one thing and one thing only: your reality doesn't match what you think your reality should be. However, if you believed that your reality matches what you think your reality should be, that means you're happy and content.
My problem was that my reality wasn't matching what I though my reality should be (i.e. my husband should live in the same household as me vs. living in another state) when, at an earlier time, I was completely fine with it. I allowed a number of people to convince me that my marriage was "wrong" and "abnormal" which shifted my thoughts about it, thus making me unhappy based on my reality not matching my altered view of what I thought my reality should be.
It took me filing for divorce, going through the painful process, and having the divorce finalized for me to understand that I was the problem.
And then I was reminded of the power of letting go. Once I threw in the towel on everything, I was instantly put "on top" of the situation (without any emotional attachment) and not only have a renewed energy toward everything but I also was flooded with new solutions to me dilemma.
But most powerful of all, blocks that were there that I had no control over suddenly melted away. Things I could not get to work, things I could not get people to agree to, and different solutions I tried putting in place without success suddenly worked like gangbusters! Like magic!!
When you push too hard in any direction, especially to the point of excessive frustration and tears, you will have a hell of a time making anything work and you won't keep your sanity either. It also means that something is wrong or that the timing is off.
And it means you need to take a step back, relax, and let it go.
When you do, magic will happen in ways that you'll never imagine. Not only will you have this sense of peace beyond anything you've ever experienced but all the obstacles that were there will suddenly melt away or you'll be shown the true path you were supposed to be on all along.
No, I'm not talking about Slim Shady...although I'm a huge Eminem fan. (Already got tickets in August for the Eminem Rose Bowl concert.)
I have a student who has given himself the nickname of Slim. I've never met the guy in person so I don't know why he has the name. He could be skinny (hence, "slim") or a total fatso (hence, wanting to be slim) or maybe he just eats a lot of Slim Jims.
I had a phone consulting session with him the other day. And this would be one of those situations where I could clearly see that the guy was his own worst enemy.
If you ever want to know the definition of someone who is constantly seeing the glass half empty, this would be Slim. In fact, he'd even see a half empty glass as totally empty, even if it had something in it. You see, he's "trained" himself to see no opportunity...anywhere!
What Slim needs is a dose of sitting in a concentration camp for about 3 months and then, maybe when he gets out (if he's still alive), he'd finally see that the world around him isincredibly abundant with opportunity. Opportunity is everywhere, especially if you live in the United States.
One benefit of being foreign to the United States is that many people who come here can fully appreciate the opportunity. When you see the opportunity, you can start creating ways to take advantage of the opportunities that are available.
But...when you don't see any opportunity, you don't recognize the endless opportunities available in your own personal life.
Here's when you know that you're not living your life to the fullest potential:
1) You know something in your life "isn't quite right" but you're not 100% sure what's wrong.
2) You are broke and sick of being that way but you've certainly been trying different way to make money; unfortunately you haven't been succeeding.
3) You don't have enough time, knowledge, money, patience, [fill in the blank] and you wish you had more.
4) You have dreams but you believe the ship has passed you by...or never came in to begin with. Perhaps you've lied to yourself and said that you're "too old" to bother doing anything about your dreams and you've given up.
5) You're depressed and/or life is weighing "heavily" on you.
I'm certain that at least one of the above applies directly to you. This means you're not where you want to be.
Did you know that it's a fairly quick and simple process to not only get on the right path in life but to reach your dreams within a reasonably quick time frame?
In fact, most goals/dreams can be reached by the end of this year!
Yes, you read that correctly.
By this time next year, you could be thinking to yourself, "What a difference a year makes. I never imagined I'd have/be [fill in the blank(s)] and I can hardly believe that I am!"
What's holding you back?
I can tell you right now that you're not thinking correctly. You're not seeing things the way you should. And you're not focusing in the directions you really want to go in.
Time to change all that.
On Wednesday, I have a very special Mentorship Group starting. It's called the Change Your Life Mentorship Group. It's 6 weeks long and is conducted 100% online. As long as you have a computer and Internet connection, you'll be able to take part in this life changing group.
This is my first Change Your Life Mentorship Group and it's the one I'm the most excited about because I'll be showing you my exact strategies I've used for my own life that has taken me from dead broke to a multi-millionaire within only an 18-month time frame.
And it can easily do the same for you.
Listen to my integral and life-changing audio seminar at www.monicamain.com/change_your_life_mentorship!
If you're to the point where you're just fed up and you know you need a change, this is the group for you.
I've been making a personal observation of people around me. When they complain about not being able to "get ahead" or wonder why the seas aren't parting for them, it's because they're getting in their own way.
It's almost impossible to see anything about your own life when you're swimming in the muddy waters, trying to keep your head just far enough above to not drown. However, when it comes to other people's lives, this is when it becomes obvious what they're doing "wrong" when it comes to not succeeding in ways that they talk about wanting to succeed.
There are a few different reasons why you're not where you want to be in life:
1) You're not specific enough about where you want to be so...how the hell do you expect to get there if you don't know where "there" really is?
2) You're "too busy" to focus on the things that will get you to where you want to be in life. Life keeps getting in the way and "one day" when you have time, you'll get around to doing the things you know you have to do to reach those dream goals.
3) You're waiting around for the magic genie, Santa Claus, or some other mythical creature to magically make the life you want appear without any work on your part.
Or...maybe you don't know what the heck you want but you know what type of life you have now simply isn't working out or making you happy at all.
I have thousands of students. Many go on to be extremely successful in both real estate investing as well as using my Aggressive Income Strategies.
Then there are others who completely fail.
And it's not for the lack of trying either.
One day it dawned on me why these people fail. I realized why some people hit their success out of the ballpark right away while others fail with one project after another until they finally give up.
A lot of people always ask me the same question which goes something like this: "Monica, where should I start out first?"
My answer used to be this: "Start fixing/rebuilding personal credit and start building business credit. Then decide if you want to start an Aggressive Income Business to get revenue for down payments on cash flow real estate. Then decide which types of properties you'll be investing in and where in the country you'll be investing."
Now the answer is different. It goes like this: "You have to develop a 'warrior-like' focus knowing exactly what you want and how you'll get there before you decide to move forward with anything otherwise anything you do to work toward 'success' will fail."
It may seem obvious but it's not. You have to know precisely where you want to be and within what timeline you'll get there before you'll be ready to start moving forward in any direction.
What if you don't know exactly what you want? Time to figure that out. Now!
What if you are someone who has been aiming toward certain goals and have been trying to get there but you've been failing? Something is "off kilter" that has to be shifted.
What if you "sort of" know what you want but you've found yourself sitting around not committing or doing anything about your goals? Maybe it's time to sh** or get off the pot!
The reason we've entered into this lifetime is to experience as much in life as we can. And I don't know how to do that without being able to do the things I want to do. What helps me do the things I want to do is making a lot of money. Without money, I can't experience what I want to experience. Maybe you've noticed that you need to have money to experience those things in life you want to experience, too.
If you have been unfocused or trying different businesses (or investing) that hasn't worked, it's because you need to be set in the right focused direction. This is the first step toward reaching any and every goal you could possibly imagine.
I have a very special Change Your Life Mentorship Group. It's a 6-week 100% online group that will give you that "mind shift" you've probably been waiting decades for. This is my newest and most exciting group because it will set you straight and on your way to ultimate success and well-being within only a month and a half.
Here's the link to listen to my totally awesome audio seminar that talks all about the group:
Last night I was sitting in my Jacuzzi, watching an incredible sunset and feeling so damn lucky about how I've been able to mold my life for myself.
Yes, you read that correctly. I "molded" my life. Anyone can mold the life they want with a few simple steps.
If you think it's hard to create a home-based business that generates $20,000 per month in your pocket, think again. It's more difficult getting up to an alarm clock each morning, dragging yourself against your will out of bed, and sitting on a freeway...just to get to the job that sucks.
And I'm not even talking about the trials and tribulations -- the pure misery -- of what you have to go through after you get there. But I'll be that's pretty miserable and sickening too.
Then, when your work day is over, you shuffle to your car in a semi-trance wondering if it can ever get any better than this while dreaming about the ever elusive weekend. Because we all know the weekend never lasts.
Ah, yes. This is one of those weekends, in fact. Because it's Sunday. And many of you are already starting to feel that repulsive bile feeling in the pit of your stomach because you have to start that crappy miserable week all over again.
Poor you. And I'm only saying "poor you" because you've specifically and consciously chosen to do nothing about it...yet it's very simple to change your mind about living your miserable lifestyle. Yes, you can change it. Right now. Today, in fact!
Another thing I was thinking about while lounging in the hot tub: my "big decision" that I've been toiling with over the past couple of years.
Should I keep my staff and my warehouse with all the ridiculous overhead? Or should I ditch it all, make more money, stay at home more, and pursue some of the other stuff I've been wanting to do for decades now.
I'm sure you think that's a no-brainer, right? Except I happen to like my staff and I happen to like "going somewhere" everyday for a specified time frame. I tend to be more productive when I'm not at home.
But one thing I reminded myself which made me ecstatically happy:
I could, at any given time, take one of my businesses that I already have in place to pull in a cool $50,000 per month in my pocket. And
I could run it myself without any staff or overhead.
By the way, this one business I'm talking about was started during the time (last year) when I was creative additional "case studies" for my book that's coming out soon. (Ah, yes. The book. Where is that freaking book already anyway?? Tune in for more details in April...or so.)
My point: these $20,000-per-month home-based business strategies are so easy to do that you can start them at the same time as having a full-time job or business. And they generally "take off" within 30 to 90 days after putting them together, depending on which of the super easy strategies you decide to put together.
As you know, I recently completed my 2-day Underground Secret Event for Aggressive Income Business Strategies in Los Angeles. It was last weekend. And it was a phenomenal event...definitely one of my Top 3 Events of All Time for sure!
This is where I go into detail about specific home-based businesses for Aggressive Income that anyone can start and do successfully.
Anyone!
If you don't do something else other than living paycheck to paycheck, you're nevergoing to get anywhere in life. You'll never have the money to invest, to put money into a retirement account, to save for your children's education, or to take a vacation once in awhile just to "recharge" yourself. You'll remain on a rat infested treadmill thinking you're getting ahead while wishing the entire time that you'd drop dead just to end your misery.
Why live like that anymore when you don't have to?
