I just finished reading ‘The Magic’ by Rhonda Byrne.
She is the author of ‘The Secret’ and The Power’. All
3 books is an easy read, but I like this one the best.

In this book, she gives you steps on how to improve
your life. Doing these steps you can improve your health,
wealth, and relationships.

Each chapter is broken down into days. Day one you are
to write down 10 things you are grateful for. Day two
there is another step and so on. It is a 28 day cycle.

My wife, mom and I are going to do all the steps in the
book and see how our lives change. By the way, the steps
are so easy, too.

Let me know if you have read the book. If you have practiced
the steps let me know if it has changed your live as well.

It has been a while since I have done a blog. It has also
been a while since I have read some blogs, too.

I have to say I have missed it. Things have been crazy
around here.

Anyway, I am back and ready to dive in. I may need some
help getting focused, so if you have any suggestions or
advice please post it. I would love to hear from you.

Thanks,

I took some time away from my blog and everything else
I am involved in to build a website for me and my brother.
I thought it would give me time to recharge, too.

Well I started on this website, and I figured out real
quick I was going to have to learn some code to build it.
I am using the WordPress platform…because I love WordPress,
but I still needed to learn code.

The website I am building is an auction website like Ebay.
I found two great themes: WordPress Auction Theme and AuctionPress.

The themes  do most of what I want, but there are things
I want to expand on. I wanted to change certain taxonomies.
I wanted to add different drop down windows and more custom
fields.

I tried lots of plug-ins, but they didn’t work the way I
want the website to work. So, then I started searching
online how to do it on my own. Nothing was real clear to
me. I decided to go to Books-a-Million. I found 4 or 5
books on PHP, WordPress, CSS, html.

I sat in the store for a couple of hours looking through
each book. I finally decided on one. After I got home,
I started studying.

Even though, our website is still a work in progress, I can
finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I am really enjoying learning how to change my theme. I am
learning how to develop them, and I have a lot of respect for
the guys and gals that develop themes and plugins, already.

Anyway, let me explain a couple of problems I was having on
the site. I have a Location taxonomy. I added all the states.
I wanted a drop down menu for every state, but I wasn’t able to
make it happen. I also wanted the length of each post to be 7
days unless feature was checked for 30 automatically.

Now, like I said it is still a work in progress. I have never
dealt with code before, so it might take a while to finish, but
what a journey.

So much for recharging.  I have been working on this day and night.

I would love to hear from you, especially if you know code. Even if
you don’t, I still would love to hear your opinions.

PS. The links on this page are my affiliate links. I do make a small commission if you decide to purchase one of the themes.

In my last post, I wrote about some of the network marketing businesses
I have been in.  This post is a continuation.

I left off by telling you I knew I wanted to work online, but I didn’t know
where I was going to start.  But one day while watching TV, I saw Jeff Paul
Internet Marketing Secrets and ordered it. After reading the books, he called
and I paid for his coaching program.  I didn’t learn that much, but I was so
eager to learn more.

I was online everyday, looking and searching for something.  I was
approached by many different people, that’s when I joined Success University. 
I loved Success University.  It was all about personal development.  I had already
started reading personal development books and this was the business for me.

When I found out that Success University was selling out to World Ventures,
a travel company, I was so disappointed.  I quit.

You see, while I was in Success University, I joined two companies that promoted travel: 
Your Travel Biz and Traverus.  I realized early that I was not passionate about travel,
so I quit.

Prosperity Cast Network was like a dream come true.  I found good people to work with,
and I was loving life.  Val Smyth promised so much and I thought this would be the
business for me.  I guess I don’t have to tell you, after investing a couple of grand
the business was gone.  I couldn’t get into my back office.  I couldn’t get my money
back or nothing.  Try to contact Val Smyth by phone, email, and even tried to find his
address…no luck.

Val was also the creator of Mentors in Motion. This program was supposed to be like a
starter program into PCN, but of course Val disappeared and that business was gone too.

I lost lots of money trusting him.  Words to the wise.  Be careful if you are in business
with him.  Google his name and talk to others that have been burned by him.  That being
said…I think everyone deserves a second chance.  He could have learned his lesson,
just be careful.

Global Domains International is a great business.  When I joined, I wasn’t passionate
about it either and I thought the internet was saturated with it.  I have to say,
GDI is still around and that shows it is a good company, even though it is not for me.

Well the next company really took my money and ran…iLearning Global.  I love the
concept of this company.  It was a lot like Success University.  I am all about personal
development.  I just knew this was going to be my pathway to success.

I think I was in iLearning Global for about 2 months (just getting my feet wet) when
they decided to take the network marketing part of it away from it’s affiliates.  I was
so disappointed.  Here was another company that I was passionate about that truly let
me down.

I am going to stop here for now.  I will continue in my next post.  If I keep on you
will be like when is it going to end.

Anyway, I know some of you have been through similar experiences.  I would love to
hear about them.

How many network marketing companies have you joined?

I watched a interview with Brain Tracy who stated that most people join 25 MLM’s before they find the company that suits them.  After watching the interview, my wife asked me,  “How many network marketing companies have you been in?”  I had no idea.

So, she grabbed a notebook, and I started naming companies.  Let me go ahead and list them.

·    Amway
·    Equinox
·    Excel
·    World Marketing Alliance
·    Success University
·    World Ventures
·    Prosperity Cast Network
·    Mentors In Motion
·    Your Travel Biz
·    Traverus
·    Send Out Cards
·    Global Domains International
·    iLearning Global
·    Local Ad Link
·    Vemma
·    Global Information Network
·    Take Shape For Life
·    Global Virtual Opportunities
·    GVO Conference
·    Global NPN
·    Shaklee
·    7 Minute Workout
·    IWowwe
·    Fortune High Tech Marketing

That’s a lot of companies.  I know what you are thinking…Jaden is a business opportunity jumper.  I guess you could be right, but I wouldn’t change a thing.

In the early years with Amway, Equinox, Excel, and World Trade Alliance (now, known as World Financial Group, Inc.), I thought I was going to make big bucks.  I had my upline lie to me left and right and I bought right into his lies.

I wasn’t sure about writing down the names of my family and friends.  I kept thinking, it would be a lot easier if I was already making money.  I just couldn’t get past that mentality at that time.
In Equinox, before they went under, there was a guy I went to school with supposedly made millions in the company.  He was in their big star book and everything.  So I knew I was going to make money too.

Anyway, I was not cut out to talk to people on my own.  I had low self-esteem.  My up-lines were not turning me on to good books.  In fact, I wasn’t told to read books back then.  Just buy the company’s cassettes and listen to them.   Except a lady in Equinox that wasn’t in my upline, told me to buy ‘How To Win And Influence Friends’.  I did and that was the start of my book collection.

Well, I gave up on network marketing then, even though I told my family and friends network marketing is the best business to be in.  You can actually become financially independent if you can do it.

When I was asked why wasn’t I doing it, I said because I am no good at talking to people.  I didn’t realize then you could learn and grow from books and become the person you want to become.

Anyway, I decided to learn internet marketing.  I wanted to do business online.  I wasn’t sure what I was going to do, but I knew I wanted to work online.

In my next post, I will explain how I got started in internet network marketing and talk about a couple more businesses.

How many companies have you joined?  Did you make any money?  Did you have regrets?

If you are like me it is hard to stay focused. You know you need to do certain things everyday, but something always distracts you. Okay, I am speaking from experience. I don’t really know if this happens to anyone else.

Too Many Irons In the Fire

How many businesses are you promoting? Well I was trying to promote 4. One day, I decided that maybe I need to down size.

It took me a few days of soul searching to figure out which one I was most passionate about. I dropped 3 of my businesses and finally I can start promoting the one I love.  I will say, if I believe in having more than one income stream, but for now I am going to start with one.

Now with the right amount of Irons in the Fire…what do I do now?

I have all this knowledge in my head swimming around, but cannot find a way out. A productive way out, that is. I know I need traffic. I know I need to build relationships. I know I need to build a list.

What to do? What to do? What to do? I was really letting myself get overwhelmed. Then one day, my friend and mentor Kevin DeRoo (Kevin is a really great guy.  That’s his mug shot on the left) started asking me what are you doing to promote your business? I told him really nothing, because I couldn’t get started. I just needed a boost I guess, I don’t know.

Anyway, we got on a conference call and he got me started in the right direction. I know what I needed to get done, and I was actually doing it with excitement. I finally felt like I was getting things accomplished.

So What Happened?

I let life get in the way. Things came up like always, but I let my focus slip away, instead of rearranging my schedule. I just lost focus.

But I didn’t ride that train long. I contacted Kevin. Just talking to him helped me find my focus, again.

So if you get anything out of this post, communicate with a mentor, friend or business partner. Things in life will try to throw you off course, but having someone who has been down the road you are on can really help.

In closing, I would like to say that all mentors need mentors. If you want to mentor someone you have to have a mentor yourself. Successful people are always learning and growing, and when you stop learning and growing you are failing.

So find a mentor or mentors, and learn, grow and succeed. Take what you learn and pass it on to others. I am a mentor and love the feeling of helping others succeed.  It is a great feeling.

I would love to hear from you. Who are your mentors? Do you communicate with them daily, weekly or monthly?

This post is going to be about a discussion my wife
and I had just a couple of weeks ago.

First of all, let me tell you how this all began. A
guy approached my wife at work about a network marketing
company. He wanted her on his team, because she is
always in a great mood, and she is always making people smile.

I have been in many network marketing companies, so I
went with her to the meeting. I told her that it was a
MLM he was going to tell her about, even though he made it sound different.

Anyway, while at the meeting she got real excited. He
set up right. He had other money-makers in the company
there. I let her make the decision about joining. I didn’t
want to join another company, because I have my own online
business that I promote. I told her I would be supportive either way.

She decided to join. We found out that one of the top
money earners was going to be in Dillon, SC in a couple
of weeks. Of all places, this guy was coming to Dillon…that
is our hometown, so we decided to drive to see him.

It takes about 1.5 hours to get to Dillon, so that gave
us time to talk. I asked her what would she do even if,
she didn’t get paid for it, but you didn’t have to worry about money either?

She told me she wanted to be a Life Coach. She wants to
help as many people feel the way she feels. “BUT… I don’t
know how to go about it,” she said.

Well, we started brainstorming. After an hour of
brainstorming, she knew exactly what she wanted to do.

So, I had to ask, “Are you passionate about this network
marketing company?” She said, “No, I was trying to make
myself be passionate. I jumped in because of all the
excited people who were around at the meeting, but it is not what I want to do.”

So as fast as she signed up, she quit. Here is the way
we see it. It took her joining that company for her to
work through whatever it was to find her true passion.

Now she has her goals set. She knows that she will
accomplish her dreams, now because she is passionate
about what it is she wants to do.

Do you know your true passion? Leave me a comment below,
telling me what you are truly passionate about.

Have a Fabulous Day,

I was reading a post by Wes Wyatt yesterday, and it made me start thinking. He wrote about Don Lapre allegedly committing suicide. He went on to say that Don was the one who sparked his entrepreneurial spirit.

I have to say Don Lapre did the same for me. His program was the first program I ordered. I had so many dreams to work from home many years ago. (I just want to say, I don’t agree with the things he done.)

I do not regret buying his program, even though I did not make any money. In fact, I do not regret buying any programs, courses or books that claimed where going to show me how to make money from home.

How many programs, courses, and books have you bought? I couldn’t begin to list all of them I bought, but here are a few.

I bought some program that had to do with liquidation. I can’t even remember the name of it. I ordered it all it excited to find out it was a scam. Anyway, I ordered another one that was going to teach me how to help people by showing them mistakes on their phone, medical and other bills. Needless to say, I didn’t find many mistakes.

Later on, I bought a course on how to make Ebay Secrets. I was really excited about this one. I went out to storage unit auctions. I bought many storage units that people defaulted on. I was time consuming, packing everything up, unpacking it and then sorting through everything. I sold a few things, but when I averaged everything up, I was getting paid about 50 cents an hour.

The day came when I knew I was going to make the big bucks…I purchased Jeff Paul’s Internet Millions. When I received my books and audios. I was glued to them.

After about a week, I got a call from Jeff’s staff. The guy on the phone said, “ To make the big money on the internet, you need to take Jeff’s extensive course. It will be one on one with your personal online coach that will teach you everything.” So I pulled out my credit card and paid $3500. I couldn’t wait.

I was taught how to use their system to build a website. It was a product site full of clickbank products. Yes one website with over 20 clickbank products on music.

I was not taught about autoresponders, branding, SEO or marketing. I was paying out around $50 for them to host my site. Like I said, it was their platform. I didn’t have a cpanel or anything. In fact, they owned everything. I didn’t know how to purchase my own domain name at the time. So really it was not my site at all.

Do I regret buying that course? No, I did learn a few things of not to do. As long as I learn, I have no regrets.

Not too long ago, I bought one more off of an infomercial. It was Kevin Trudeau’s “Your Wish Is Your Command”. I love the cd set. It is something everyone needs to listen to. I think the price is to high on the infomercial. You can find it cheaper elsewhere, but the material on that cd set is absolutely great.

At the end of his training, he asks you to join his Global Information Network. I joined it for $1000 and a $150 a month, and I ended up quitting. I like the company, but I had to cut out a few things to be able to move to the coast. (Mine and my wife’s dream) When I did quit, I was told that I could not join back unless I paid $250,000. Yeah, you read it right. $250,000. I realized then, this company is not something I want to do. But since then I have received letters asking me to rejoin for the $1000. I am not joining.

As you can see, I have made mistakes even before there was internet. I also have made many mistakes online, too.

My goal is to help people not do the same. In my next post, I am going to reveal some of my mistakes online. Afterwards, I want to share a few steps I think will help you prevent the same mistakes I have made.

What mistakes have you made? How much money have you wasted? Please share with them with me in the comments area.

I look forward hearing from you.

I have written articles on setting goals in the past, but after reading a chapter in Jack Canfield’s book ‘The Success Principles’ on goal setting I wanted to add what else I have learned.

When setting goals you need to make sure that you unleash the power of the subconscious mind.  To unleash your power of the subconscious mind, you have to meet two criteria. You goal has to be measurable to you and to anybody else, and you must put a time limit.

I will lose 25 pounds is not powerful. But I will lose 25 pounds by 2:00 pm on November 20th, 2011 is very powerful.

Be very specific as you can about your goals…include make, model, color, year, weight, size, dollars, and other details.  If you set vague goals expect vague results.

Write your goals out like you are writing a detail work order.  For example, Christi wants a house on the Intracoastal Waterway.  She knows the color of the house.  She can tell you what each
room looks like from the color of the walls to the furniture and view from the porch.  She wrote this goal down and she
takes time to imagine living there, which is the next thing you need to do.

An exercise that Christi and I use is writing down a typical day in our life.  We get into a meditation state, then we imagine our goals are accomplished and what it would be like.  We start writing whatever comes to mind.

We keep writing until our train of thought ends or something interrupts us.  When we read over them, we can’t believe the
details that we added.  Each time, we do this exercise we know we are getting closer and closer to achieving our goals.

Try this exercise, it is actually fun.  Let me make another point.  Physically writing your goals down with a pen and paper
unleashes more power of your subconscious mind.  So, close the laptop and start writing.  You can always type it later if you want.

Let me give you an example of a couple of my goals.  I am going to lose 6 pounds of fat and gain 4 pounds of muscle by 5:00 pm, November 15th, 2011.  I am going to own a brand new 2012 Ford F150 4 door white with grey interior by 12:00pm, July 1st, 2012.

Do you set goals?  Let me know your technique and tell me how it works for you.  Can your goals be measured by someone else?  Just like my goal of losing 6 pounds, anybody that sees my Body Mass Index results will know if I lost 6 pounds and gain 6 pounds of muscle.

I would love to hear from you.  Leave me your comments below.

So you want to lose weight…

You want to lose weight because you are tired of being tired. You want to lose weight because you want to look better. You want to lose weight because you want to find a mate.

No matter the reason, you are determined this time. So how are you going to do it?

The fitness industry is a multi-billion dollar failure. You are taught so much crap that isn’t true. Think about it. If you are taught how to lose the weight and keep it off without it being so hard, what would the fitness industry be worth then?

What should you do first if you want to lose weight?

The first thing you should do is start a resistance (weight) training program. Why? Because it takes 100 calories to feed each pound of muscle per day, so if you grow more muscle the calories you are eating will feed your muscles and not be stored as fat.

I know you think you will look like a bodybuilder. Not hardly. You can control how you look by changing repetitions and sets, more on that in another article.

Remember you don’t have to spend 3 hours a day in the gym to grow muscle. You can do this working out 7 minutes a day 3 times a week. You just need to start your body moving.

One other thing I want to say about the fitness industry

One other thing the fitness industry makes you think is you have to do cardio to lose weight. Not true. Cardio does burn calories like other activities you do, but it is not a must to lose weight.

I used to think that if I didn’t do cardio I would not lose weight. Well I have been losing weight and I have not done any cardio in 4 months.

Just so you understand, my heart gets a good workout, because of the way I do my resistance training, again more on that in another article.

People who start a resistance-training program seem to make better choices when it comes to eating. I know I do. I also indulge in things I love, but I do it in moderation. I do not deprive myself of anything I want. I don’t say I am on a diet whatsoever.

So if you want to lose weight start building some muscle, and you will see the weight drop off. The calories you are eating will be redistributed to feed the muscle and you fat will shrink.

Let me know if you have any questions. I am starting another 30-day challenge to see how much muscle I can build. If you want to join and be an accountability partner just leave me a comment below.