No Matter How Busy You Are

No matter how busy you are, make sure to find some time over the next two weeks to reflect, think, give and plan.

The week between Christmas and New Year's is the ideal time for this. Try to slow things down. Spend time with the ones you love and care about. Take some time to talk with your spouse and kids about goals and dreams for the next year. Use this as a time to recharge your batteries (and not just by watching TV the entire time), and with excitement, think about a handful of changes or additions you want for your life in the New Year.

I believe you will find the act of reflecting, thinking, dreaming and planning (with your family) to be one of the most important exercises you can do that will positively impact the next 12 months.

And, remember, do not neglect to commit yourself to set this time aside, or you will find that the business of life can and will get in the way.

So, let's all take a moment to gather up the past year of victories and defeats, growing as well as those times of stagnation, and use it to wipe a clean slate and thoughtfully design the next year the way we truly desire it to be.

Surprised Orlando Florida Trip to Universal for Halloween

     We the day started off at the Dallas-Fort Worth Airport and 7:00am with Air Tran going to Orlando Florida. The Airline was on time and boarding was a breeze since all we had was two carry-on bags.  The flight was very smooth until we almost landed. The weather in Orlando was stormy weather and before we landed the pilot said it would be a little ruff until we touched down. The people on the plain were very entertaining towards the end of the flight and even one or two were praying because it was so ruff. Of course we landed safely or you wouldn't be reading this, and hats off to the pilot of United Airlines for dealing so well with the bad weather. It was no worse that a bad roller-coaster in an old theme park.

     After exiting the plain we headed to Advantage to get our rental car, and by the way Advantage is owned by Hertz. The process at Advantage was pretty annoying and they had to do a credit check for me to even get the rental car since I didn’t bring any credit cards with us during the trip. We finally made it through all that and then went to get the car, and the direction the Advantage clerk gave us for the location of our rental was completely wrong. After about 30 minutes of looking we found our vehicle. It was a Black Mitsubishi SUV and it handled very nice in the rain and was pretty good on gas. Getting out of the Orlando International Airport was pretty simple and the Hard Rock Hotel was only about 15 to 20 miles away from the airport.

     When we arrive to the Hard Rock Hotel at Universal we were greeted very well by the staff. The Hard Rock let us check in early at 11:30am instead of 3:00pm. The complete time we were at the Hard Rock the staff was great, they went above and beyond and made our experience staying there very nice. They gave my daughter a coupon for something free from the restaurant and a button to wear in the park because it was here birthday.  While in the Universal Theme Park many employee's was telling our daughter happy birthday, because of the button she had on and we all knew this but it really made her day. Later that evening when the park closed early to get ready for Halloween we came back to the room for a break and the Hard Rock Hotel had a birthday cake waiting for our daughter in our room with a card. Thanks again Hard Rock you truly ROCK. Here is a little secret for you if you’re going to Universal Studio’s on a two day pass. Any of the three hotels that Universal owns, Hard Rock Hotel, Loews Portofino Bay Hotel, and Loews Royal Pacific Resort and your room key is head of line Fast Express Pass and it’s awesome along with park access one hour before it opens, and many other perks. Everyone that is staying in the hotel with you gets a Fast Express Pass. If you don’t like waiting in long lines at the Universal Studios Theme Parks stay at least one night in one of the three hotels on the Universal property and you have a Fast Pass for two days. I guarantee you will have more fun with the Pass than without it.

     Halloween night when the park open back up there was no rain and the 15 haunted house were great. While in the park we all three got our faces painted along with some new friends we met while in line, as you can tell to the right. Throughout the park were scare zones and that was fun along with all the special effects that they put on the buildings. You can see a little bit on a video on our YOUTUBE page, and it's only about six minutes with pictures and video. While there we decided to do this every year instead of doing all the Halloween set up at our home in Texas. We Just had a lot of fun but I recommend being there at least three days for an event as big as the Halloween Horror Nights at Universal. The reason is we went through it really really fast and would have had more fun if we had more time. We were also wore out, so I recommends at least 3 days so you can enjoy all that Universal studios and there Hotels can offer. This was a better gift for our daughter than any present because she will remember this trip years from now. We stayed till midnight and we did it all the haunted houses, and when we returned to the Hard Rock Hotel the beds were great and not because we were tired, the beds actually were very comfortable and we all fell asleep in minutes.

The best part of all this is, I was with my family and I booked it on my own booking site through my travel business. That is AWESOME and I save money just booking it and I made money booking it through my own site, and now where can you do that. Just click on MY SITE and then click the #2 button and watch the video it's that simple.

While in Washington D.C. on a short trip

     Ok, Lets start from the the moment I landed in Washington D.C. at Ronald Regain International Airport, I went to get my car rental from Enterprise Car Rental. They were awesome with there customer service and they were efficient in getting me checked inn for my vehicle. While waiting in the garage with a gentleman named Rodney. There were no standard vehicle that I was to be getting. Myself and Rodney were talking and I asked him about a SUV that was their. He went a head and upgraded me for the same price as my original agreement. I was very pleased since I'm 6'3", and I know I will enjoy the 2012 Ford Expedition much more than the car I was to get. A little more Gas but well worth asking for. The turn in was just as easy as getting it, thank you Enterprise.
     No I stayed in at a Holiday Inn in College Station in Maryland and the customer service there was great as well. The picture to the right is the front of the Holiday Inn. The room was very nice for the age of the building and the Hotel had a recent upgrade just a couple of years ago. The room was pretty nice the picture blow show it. There was a refrigerator and microwave, with a large desk that could be used as a table for two, and the bed wasn't that bad either.

The hotel had a restaurant that was very reasonable and the food was descent. The hotel also had a nice gym, pool, and laundry room that you could use during your stay. The Holiday Inn was close to shopping and restaurants. I went to a Chevy's Tex Mex restaurant and the food wasn't that great, now being from Texas has kind of spoiled me. I had the chicken and steal taco's winch were decent, however the cheese on top was Parmesan Cheese from a can. The cheese made it bad,  if your a restaurant owner use the real thin instead of a can. It wasn't that bad but bad enough I wouldn't go back. Now that's me and my taste are a little different from most and I'm sure if I tried something else it would have been fine. Now the black beans I had were pretty good only if you like black beans. Another restaurant while I was there was The Jerk Pit and it was Authentic Jamaican Cuisine and boy it was great. It was about a mile from Maryland University and it was AWESOME. I knew it was going to be good as soon as I walked in and could smell all the spices and seasonings, and I was getting real hungry just looking at the menu. I had a coupon that I pulled of my Dream Trips Life web-site before I left for Washington D.C.
The picture to the right is The Jerk Pit Restaurant, and what I liked about it was the environment. Their were people playing domino's in one room and in the other, people were just hanging out with friends. The place was a college hang out and everyone was just having fun with the DJ that was there playing music. I had some shrimp with rice and vegetables and boy I could have ate more. The Pit was mostly carry out but I was able to eat it there  and I just enjoyed the food when it came. It took about 15 to 20 minutes to prepared but worth the wait. The picture below is the the owner and the sign says it all. So if your ever in College Station Maryland you need to stop and get some of The Jerk Pits food, you will thank me.

Juicing, Fruits and Vegetables For My Meals

Ok, for 10 days I had nothing but fruits and vegetables for my meals. The difference was, I was juicing and had absolutely no caffeine. I did this instead of eating and it really wasn't that hard to do. The reason I did this is simple, I wanted to see if it worked and it did. I felt better my blood pressure and sugar levels both dropped. My complexion even looked to be better. I started this because a video I watched was called "Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead" and the information I found at the Gerson Institute ( www.gerson.org ), was pretty amazing and it made more sense than talking with my Doctor. Oh and by the way only about 4 % of the doctors out there were tough nutrition in Medical School. I tried it and I lost 15 pounds and I've decided to continue juicing regularly in stead of eating. pretty much I will eat healthy food but I will supplement my food intake with fruits and vegetables juiced. Here is an example what a meal was for me while juicing.

6 to 7 carrots

3 apples

2 large oranges

1 squash

1/2 cucumber
1 sweet potato

small piece of ginger to taste

The taste reminds me of a V8 Splash. Its really not that bad, however you have the experiment with your taste and some blends will taste worse than dirt. Here is the best remedy for that, add 2 to 3 apples it solves that problem. In 10 days you will find out what you like but you must constantly try new recopies. Go online to fine some, like I did at www.juicerrecipesnow.com or www.harvestessentials.com , just look online and you can find some great ideas for juicing.

This is a picture of the juicer I use from Jack Lalanne, It's less than $100 dollars and it does a pretty good job for starting a juicing regiment.

have fun juicing and Live to Live...

Texting Prospects "Pyramid" Objections...

Well, this is a new one for sure...

Recently, I saw an interesting scenario play out between a network marketing representative and a prospect - it's something I haven't seen happen too often, but I suspect with more distributors communicating with prospects through technology via text messaging and email, it's a scenario that will occur more frequently.

(By the way, if this happens to you frequently you might want to check yourself to see if you're avoiding the phone and staying in your comfort zone with all the texting and emailing instead of actually speaking to your prospects...I'm just saying'...)

Here's how it went down (via test messaging)...

Prospect: "Hey – I forgot what the website was that you wanted me to show my wife, what is it again again?"
Distributor: "www.1234XYZCompany.com"
Prospect: "Okay, thanks. I'm show it to her!
Distributor: "Great! Let me know what your wife thinks when she sees it."
Prospect: "Ok"

...a little time later...

Distributor: "So, did you both watch the presentation?"
Prospect: "Yeah"
Distributor: "Any questions and what did you like about it?"
Prospect: "My wife says it looks like Amway or one of those pyramid things...she's not happy..."

At this point the distributor picked up the phone and tried calling the prospect (something he should have done much earlier in their conversation - specifically, when his prospect sent the first text asking him what the web address was).

But it was to no avail. The prospect was gone. His wife disapproved. It looked like one of those "pyramid things" and they were gone. Prospect lost.

If you've ever had this happen, let me give you some advice right here - don't text message back and forth with your prospects, even if they initiate it.

Texting is NOT for:

- Communicating the main portion of your message with a prospect
- Telling a prospect where to view your presentation online
- Asking them their feedback on what they just watched

If you rely on texting or emailing for those activities, you're just asking for objections to pop up and then it becomes VERY difficult to facilitate handling them.

Networking is a people business - and it's important to understand that texting and the internet are great tools, but they cannot replace the "live" face-to-face interaction that needs to happen to effectively communicate your message about the product or opportunity.

Your NOT doing this in your MLM business?

     What? You heard me! If your not attending and participating in presentations and trainings in your Network Marketing Business then why should your prospect a team. I see this all the time this is a follow the leader business and you must lead by example. Your team is watching you and they will do what you do.
The people that are succeeding in this business lead by example.. One of the top guys in my Network Marketing Company never misses team calls or presentations. He has been with the company for 15 years and doesn’t need to be on the calls in fact his organization would still grow if he didn’t but he leads by example. I believe that is why he is so successful. He knows what it takes to be a great leader in Network Marketing.

Business Organization

First of all it’s the number one thing that will help you. You need to start somewhere in getting organized. I personally stated in my home office with a purchase of a complete new office. Just a desk, filing cabinet, and book shelf and that’s it. You may already have this or even more, but for me that’s all I need. I even went to the extreme to have my files labeled in the same text and even color coded the files. The files are as follow: Green files are for anything that deals with money or finance. Red files are for thing that are personal. Orange files are for medical, Blue files are for career or business, and purple files are for things that I’m interested in. It has taken some time to get where I’m at, but it’s a start in the right direction.

I wanted to start with the office and then move from room to room. I’m downsizing and getting my life in order. I have noticed I’m more efficient since I started. You can also go to YOUTUBE and type in “Home office organization” and a bunch of good stuff will come up. I have even used some of the ideas. However you need to have a plan before you even get started and I can’t stress that enough or you will be in total ciaos from the start, so get a plan first.