An Empty Vender Yields No Cash!

A few years ago, during a very bad snowstorm, I knew that I had to go out and do some work on my vending machines. I had started the business, Skootdad Vending and Refreshments, in the early part of 2008. My girlfriend had just passed away from Ovarian Cancer, and when I got back to my work office in Colorado after the funeral in New York I was told that I had to choose someone from my department to be let go. When I began my employment with the company in 2004, the department I inherited was rife with deadwood. There were people who did not really do a day’s work, there were people who had a problem with authority; there were people who thought they were the smartest people on the planet. Over time, I was able to craft and build a department from the ground up as the original people left the company. By 2008, I had built a department that was one of the best functioning and creative production/manufacturing teams in publishing. I have no qualms about saying this outright.

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When you have spent four years building a department and making it a professional and well synchronized unit akin to a Swiss watch, it is very difficult when told to choose someone because they have to be kicked out. And this is a recurring problem with this particular company. There is no focus, there is no innovation, and the end result is that every few years people get cut out. Unfortunately, the people who make the decisions are never the ones to get cut out.

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You understand what I’m telling you about where I was working? The company was not a long-term career investment. I decided that it was time to look elsewhere and start building something from the ground up. I would always say to people when they asked me about the late hours that I spent working on these vending machines: an empty vendor yields no cash! This is the perspective for any businessman:   cash-flow is king. If you do not have cash coming in, then you are not running your business correctly. I wanted to make sure that my customers were always able to make purchases from my machines. It all comes down to customer service in a one-on-one situation. I personally am not there, but my robot needs to work correctly to push the candy out to the waiting customer. If this part of the process does not work correctly, I have failed in my duty as the vending facilitator.

If you have empty cells without product for the augurs to push out, you are wasting valuable time because your business is based on choice. Once the choices become confined, the sales will begin to diminish. Could this be what your business looks like? Could this be a new revelation on how you should approach business and look at the transmission of goods to customers and clients? Everything comes down to maintaining that trust with the people who buy from your vending machine. I have to say one more time: an empty vendor yields no cash.

For more information, click here— > http://bit.ly/workwithDon   <— Click here

Here is my contact information:

Connect with me!

Twitter:  @thebookkahuna

Empower Network Blog:  http://thebookkahuna.net/

Blog: https://thebookkahuna.wordpress.com/

Website:  http://thebookkahuna.com/

YouTube Channel:  https://www.youtube.com/user/TheSkootdad

E-book:  The Electronic/Digital Revolution in Book Publishing

The Business Batting Cage!

If anyone knows anything about me it’s that I am a baseball fan. And if you dig deeper under the veneer you will immediately know that being a baseball fan for me is completely intertwined with being a New York Yankee fan. Baseball is a game of constant repetition. The plays are practiced over and over ad infinitum until the players can actually perform the various plays in their sleep. As in business, baseball has its mentors and coaches that take the players through the various drills and scenarios. The one coach who is valued more than the others is the hitting coach.

Great hitters have an ingrained talent. An average hitter can have games of greatness, but will never be a great hitter over the long haul. In the early 1980s when George Brett hit .390, he said the baseball looked as big as a beach ball every time it was thrown at him. He could swat the ball wherever he wanted at will. Not every player is a George Brett, or a Tony Gwynn, or even a Derek Jeter, but a hitting coach can enhance the talents that a player has and make that player have flashes of brilliance every once in a while.

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I just got off the Empower Network Monday night call. The person who was the master of ceremonies for this evening was Aaron Rashkin. The more I hear the stories of the people involved in this particular company, the more I wonder how could all of these people band together and have so many similar experiences in their past? Again, Aaron went through incredible amounts of failure before achieving the financial success that he enjoys today. Thinking upon this gratitude for achievement would not be as great if there had not been a level of hardship to overcome. The obstacles become anathema to the story and the story becomes the selling tool to give others hope that a Dickensian rise from rags is possible for anyone who takes the tools and applies the system. The most important thing that I got from tonight’s phone call was not the actual story itself, but the story behind the story. The story behind the story can be put in a very short phraseology: Leave your ego at the door! If you cannot harness all of the internal doubts and contradictions that could possibly make you deviate from what you’re being told by your mentors and coaches within the Empower Network you will lose out.

Click here to join Team Kahuna on the Empower Network:  http://bit.ly/workwithDon

As with baseball, the core commitments are the batting tee for future success. If you can take those core commitments and use them without fail, the road to a successful business will be wide open. You’ll be riding in the HOV lane to final success. I know that at times I have a problem with listening to instructions that deviate from the various aspects that I think are correct. I have circumvented all of those feelings and subverted them as well just to make sure that I catch every nuance of what my team leaders are saying. They are the ones who made $250,000 in the last 18 months, and I want to be one of the ones who make $1 million by next year. That is what the Empower Network instills in those who take up the challenge to build their own piece of success with a home-based business.

Click here now for more Empower Information:  http://bit.ly/workwithDon

Speed Blogging!

I just finished another module in the $15K formula for the Empower Network and wanted to get this blog post completed as quickly as possible. Now Chris Record had some incredibly interesting pieces of the puzzle for building an SEO blogging platform that Google will eventually find and rank. The problem with blogging all the time is that if you take an inordinately long time to write a blog post you are defeating the purpose of getting the content out to the mainstream while sacrificing the backup functions. Those backup functions would entail more about getting eyes on the prize and filling your email funnel.

For more information about blogging in the Empower Network click here NOW:  http://bit.ly/workwithDon

From what I can see, there are three great reasons to make sure that you do speed blogging to create your blogs and have them completed within a 20 minute time frame. Another proponent of the speed blogging concept was Jim Edwards when he proposed using an egg-timer set at 25 minutes to finalize the post.

Three Reasons

1. Completing your blog posts in a quick and positive fashion keeps your thought process clean and clear and the final product will be one that shows an incredible focus without meandering.

2. Once you have used your 20 minute time frame to write your blog post, the rest of the time should be used with finding different avenues to market and boost visibility of that particular blog post. As Chris has made abundantly clear, using the Empower Network as your blogging platform already gives you a system that is being seen by Google continuously. This webinar was from 2012, and the Empower Network was at number 10 on the list of websites in the United States for traffic, but at this time I would say this information is probably out of date and we’re probably more like number four or number five. Use the tools you have at your command and don’t try to reinvent the wheel. That was probably the most important point that I got from Chris Record’s presentation.

3. Always be willing to reach out to others to write guest posts for their blogs and have them write guest posts for your blog. The back links you can create will have a geometrical increase in eyeballs on your posts. In the end that’s all that matters, people seeing your blog post, reading what you have to say, and being interested in your particular point of view on any given subject matter.

The best way to learn is by having a mentor and touchstone who knows the material from the start.  Click here for more information on Blogging and the Empower Network:  http://bit.ly/workwithDon

I’m inserting a YouTube video in which Chris Record is discussing the blogging experience through the Empower Network. I am well aware that this particular YouTube video has a good number of views, and this should go hand-in-hand with one of the nuggets from the webinar about using viral multimedia on trending issues to boost viewership and also SEO ranking. I think this will be an interesting experiment to see how this blog post fares with all the information from this particular webinar module interposed with a YouTube video from Chris himself. I cannot believe how much am learning from these modules and again it just goes to prove the old adage: I blog therefore I am.

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An Interview with Author John Higgs!

Whether flood, fire, terrorist or home invasion, John Higgs gives the scoop on why being prepared for dangerous situations is always preferable to letting things slide.

Dealing With Danger:  Be Prepared, Aware and Decisive

An interview with John Higgs!

Click here now for more publishing information, don’t get left behind…

http://bit.ly/workwithDon

 

 

 

Self-Realization Time Travel! #GETTOCHARLOTTE

Did you ever wonder if there’s a part of your mind that can take you on a trip through time?

Did you ever think that you could hover over your body and see yourself in the future after certain goals and events had taken place and come to a successful conclusion?

Now that I’m involved with the Empower Network, I started diligently going through all of the modules and especially those in the $15K formula.

In the first module in the $15K formula, Dave Wood lays out some of the steps that it takes to get your mind to focus on where you need to be. The first thing he had us do was to specifically build a goal structure based on a three-month timeframe. In 90 days your goal or goals should be accomplished based on what you were experiencing in self-realization. The complete set of goals should be a stretch of your resolve and experience base, but they should be attainable nonetheless. If you follow his step-by-step instructions on getting your goals to align with a self-realization technique, then the fun begins.

In this module, Dave had us imagine we are three months ahead of the date we are at today. In this time travel we are now thinking how easy it was to complete the goals that we had set for ourselves three months before. We are thinking about a vacation to celebrate and also feeling the sunlight coming through the window, smelling a nice pot of coffee ready to drink, touching the keyboard as I’m going into my back office to see how many commissions came in today. All of the senses have to be involved in this exercise. I now understand what he’s doing. If you can get your entire group of senses attuned to the successes that will occur on one specific day and also have a snapshot mind’s-eye image at the same time, this is just mind-boggling. I have used this technique in methodology and know that I will continue to use it going forward in this business.

Why does this self-realization, self-hypnosis work for anyone who tries it? The answer would lie in the fact that the people who are actually doing this visualization so greatly outnumber those who won’t or don’t that the success rate of those who actually perform this ritual should be staggering in comparison with those who do not.

Dave Wood is not your ordinary CEO. He’s not a guy in a suit and tie, wearing Bruno Mali shoes, but he is a guy who knows how to motivate and push the right buttons in his company structure to make things happen and happen in a big way. Does self-realization time travel work for everyone? I do not know the answer to this question, but I do know that one of the ones who is going to make it work for him is writing this blog post. Thank you for giving us such a great tool to use in envisioning our success and  building our financial freedom.  We owe you one Dave Wood!

Here is my contact information:

Connect with me!

Twitter:  @thebookkahuna

Empower Network Blog:  http://thebookkahuna.net/

Blog: https://thebookkahuna.wordpress.com/

Website:  http://thebookkahuna.com/

YouTube Channel:  https://www.youtube.com/user/TheSkootdad

E-book:  The Electronic/Digital Revolution in Book Publishing

 

From Loss Comes Resolve!

 

Yesterday I had to go online and do some shopping. I have never had to buy this product before, I did not know where to go and I really did not know what I was looking for. It’s a product that everyone at some point in time will need to purchase, but will probably be in the same boat that I am and be completely clueless as to where to go or what to do to make this purchase. Now when I say everyone will eventually have to make this purchase, it’s a pretty good possibility that everyone will have to make this purchase at some point during their lifetime. It was probably one of the most painful shopping ventures I’ve ever had to make.

Last night I purchased an urn for Susan’s ashes.

The sentence above is one that I never ever wanted to write or hear myself utter. Unfortunately, there is no escaping this reality. We were together for roughly 6 ½ to 7 years, and the last 10 months were pretty rocky. I know I’m only supposed to discuss my story when I am successful, but getting to a successful outcome without including the human aspects of my story would be counterproductive.

Why My Story?

After going through a very intensive Masters program in Publishing, my company chose to lay me off after 8 ½ years of dedicated service. This took place in February 2013. With the economy the way it was and is and job prospects the way they were and still are, my meager severance and retirement quickly started to run out.  Susan had been my fiancée for roughly 4 ½ years, and my inability to find employment or get to a point where I was getting an influx of payment somehow had a detrimental effect on our relationship and split us apart. I will regret this for the rest of my life. I will regret that I let other people evaluate my worth and value in the workplace.  I will always regret that I was not there for her as I had been on other occasions in the past.  I will regret forever that we do not get to grow old together.  I will see myself age and become more infirmed as the years go by, but Susan will always be 43 years-old, a sad statement for someone who loved and had a zest for life.

Change to Grow and Prosper!

This is one of those times in my life when I am being kicked in the ass and being told by the universe and God in particular, make your own way in this world through the sweat of your brow and innovation of your brain. No one owes you anything and no one is about to help you and that is why you must continuously find ways to reinvent yourself in an entrepreneurial way. Sitting back and waiting for the government to do anything to help is a recipe for disaster. Use the principles that Napoleon Hill wrote about in Think and Grow Rich and build a future that will ensure financial security from this day forward.

This one’s for you “Baby Love”

I will always remember Susan.  She has a special place within my heart that can never be touched. I will do things to remember her and I will do things in her memory going forward. The best thing that I can do to honor her is to get myself fiscally fit. She was a CPA Auditor for the National Science Foundation and always gave me a hard time about my finances. I will use everything in my power to pay off all loans and creditors and get my financial house in order. When I am finished, I hope she will be proud of me.  I was always so very proud of her and her accomplishments.

Here is my contact information:

Connect with me!

Twitter:  @thebookkahuna

Empower Network Blog:  http://thebookkahuna.net/

Blog: https://thebookkahuna.wordpress.com/

Website:  http://thebookkahuna.com/

YouTube Channel:  https://www.youtube.com/user/TheSkootdad

E-book:  The Electronic/Digital Revolution in Book Publishing

Topsy-Turvy Innovation 2!

 

A few weeks ago I did a blog post about how I was trying to find the topsy-turvy planters for my seedling tomato plants. There were none to be found at any of the big warehouse hardware and home supply stores. Finally one of the managers at Walmart gave me the key: just take an old planter and pop a hole through the bottom and make your own topsy-turvy. Luckily I had some old hanging baskets that I could use as an experiment to see if this would work with one of my tomato plants.

Fruit on the Vine

Last night while I was watering all of my tomato plants I noticed that the plant in the jerry-rigged topsy-turvy had a very small tomato on the vine. I was overjoyed to see this and the reason is that it showed my invention was actually working better than I had ever anticipated. Upon noticing this one tomato, I began to look at all of the branches on all of the other tomato plants in the topsy-turvy’s. Not one of the other tomato plants has a tomato on any of the branches. I’m not sure whether this has to do with the fact that this particular tomato hybrid grows faster than the others or if there are any other reasons why this particular plant would already have a tomato on it. I do think it’s pretty coincidental that the one plant that is in the innovated planter is the one that seems to be thriving and doing the best of all of my plants.

The plant analogy is a good one to compare to your business. Your business needs TLC, constant nurturing and influxes of knowledge which are akin to the plant food for the tomato plant. If you continually feed and water your business it will bear fruit at the end. The continued growth will only come about through nurturing and time investment to make sure that your message and word are heard clearly by the audience. I know from seeing this tomato that my business is on the upswing. I can feel the electricity and the vibration that is beginning to reverberate around what I am doing. I have noticed that all of my YouTube videos are getting more and more views. I am also noticing that my blog posts are getting more and more views than ever before. It’s just a matter of time before my business will explode successfully. The content I’m producing is the finest that I can create. I am very much looking forward to building a team for my Empower Network. I know that there are people out there who are looking for something different and could thrive in an opportunity like the Empower Network.

Can you re-plant and begin a journey?

I know that my success is dependent upon all of the steps that I take day in and day out. Those steps include but are not limited to: blogging, videos, guest blogging, hangouts, audio podcasts, educational readings and educational webinars and hangouts. I want to take my business to the next level and I feel that the time is right to build a team. See all of my contact information below and connect with me if you are willing to think differently and start a new adventure.  The information that I’m getting from within the Empower Network is golden and will help me in every aspect of my business going forward.

What choice will you make?

Here is my contact information:

Connect with me!

Twitter:  @thebookkahuna

Empower Network Blog:  http://thebookkahuna.net/

Blog: https://thebookkahuna.wordpress.com/

Website:  http://thebookkahuna.com/

YouTube Channel:  https://www.youtube.com/user/TheSkootdad

E-book:  The Electronic/Digital Revolution in Book Publishing

Kiyosaki: Multiple Streams of Income!

The other day I posted a video of Robert Kiyosaki on the Oprah program. During the discussion, Robert was talking about how financial independence can be accelerated by setting up a home-based business. By doing this you are going to avoid the tax bracket of being an employee, and will reap the benefits of being a business owner. This was very sage advice from the man who wrote Rich Dad, Poor Dad.

Kiyosaki:  The Money “Zen” Master

Another take away from many of the discussions that I’ve heard Robert give focuses on having multiple streams of income. Now, if you are an employee and you do set up a home-based business, the goal is to take some of the excess capital and invest it in real estate properties or other assets that will provide a cash-flow stream. I’ve always thought this is extremely important to anyone who wants to be a business owner and entrepreneur. The reason to diversify assets is that some business ventures could have an element of risk involved and at some future time start to downgrade from the initial cash-flow expectations.

I’m Taking What Their Givin

Anyone who has been an employee and depends on that particular corporate structure for payment to maintain a lifestyle knows that having alternate sources of cash flow could be a deal-breaker on maintaining financial health and independence. The main objective that Robert Kiyosaki outlines in his books and in his live events has to do with changing your mindset. The most important organ you have in your body is the one between your ears. The brain can be reprogrammed to think in any way that will bring a beneficial result. The problem is that everyone is taught from an early age how to be an employee. The real lesson that should be taught is how to build a business. Another lesson that should be taught is how to deal with money, and know an asset from a liability.

Hey Maverick, Where’s Goose?

When you begin to change your mindset there is the possibility that you will come out of alignment with friends and family. Since everyone is programmed the same way to think about money and jobs, you are a maverick and skirting the rules of normality which throws everyone’s game off. Do not be dissuaded from your final focus. The Mavericks of the world are the ones who actually make the changes. The people who sit back and stay at their jobs are the ones who are sometimes unhappy and unfulfilled. If you can build a bridge to your own future based on the sweat and knowledge from your brow and brain, you will thank yourself later on in life tenfold.

Build Your Own Financial Bridge

There are some people who are absolutely not made to be entrepreneurs. Work, no matter what you do, is an honorable endeavor. The problem with trading time for wages: You will never get rich working for someone else. There will always be a governor and an upper limit to how much money you will be allowed to make. Conversely, if you work for yourself and build your own corporate enterprise, the sky is the limit on how much you can make. I’m choosing to build my own future, will you join me?

Here is my contact information:

Connect with me!

Twitter:  @thebookkahuna

Empower Network Blog:  http://thebookkahuna.net/

Blog: https://thebookkahuna.wordpress.com/

Website:  http://thebookkahuna.com/

YouTube Channel:  https://www.youtube.com/user/TheSkootdad

E-book:  The Electronic/Digital Revolution in Book Publishing

 

Kiyosaki on Oprah!

Sometimes you just have to follow “Robert’s Rules!”

 

Connect with me!

Twitter:  @thebookkahuna

Empower Network Blog:  http://thebookkahuna.net/

Blog: https://thebookkahuna.wordpress.com/

Website:  http://thebookkahuna.com/

YouTube Channel:  https://www.youtube.com/user/TheSkootdad

E-book:  The Electronic/Digital Revolution in Book Publishing

 

 

Motivating Emotion: Love

My recent blog post about my grief got me thinking about other motivations that push you toward your goals. In happier times love is the overriding factor that can propel you toward your final achievements. Love can make you come out of your comfort zone and do things that you wouldn’t normally do. Love can make you move mountains even if the mountain is an Everest.

Love=Pain– Sometimes

Sometimes love can mean pain as well. I was recently put in a position where I had to make a choice. A loved one told me that if I revealed her medical condition to her family, she would never speak to me again. Having just watched someone I loved and cared about die from ovarian cancer a few years earlier, I knew that there was only one answer to this riddle. If I made the choice to do nothing I would lose and so would everyone else. Instead I made the choice to notify family members and deal with the consequences. I was ready to lose everything so that she could still be around for her family and friends. This is one of the most difficult decisions I’ve ever had to make in my life. It was agonizing and painful, but I knew that I made the right decision and eventually so did she. She did not stop speaking to me and our relationship continued, and she even thanked me for going against her wishes on a few different occasions afterward.

Back to the Future

Sometimes love means doing things that are not easy, but they are the actions that are right. I’ve put together a video that goes along with this blog post and there is a portion of the video where it’s almost like the Jean-Claude Van Damme movie, Time Cop. You’ll recognize the part of the video that I’m referring to and I hope you will have as much fun with it as I did putting this together. People come in and out of your life and for whatever reason they leave. You love them, you will always love them, but unfortunately the circumstances work against you and the situation changes. You will see from the clip a man who is totally and unquestionably head-over-heels in love. He is so much in love that he will put himself outside his comfort zone just to make sure that the woman he loves knows exactly how much he cares.

Get to Charlotte For Your Loved Ones

Love can move mountains and it can get you to focus on what you need to do to regain control of your life and everything else that goes with it. If you love as I did and do, I highly recommend that you look to get to the Empower Network Impact Conference in Charlotte and change your financial outlook for those who you love. Your life may never be the same and the possibility exists that you may end up happier than you’ve ever been.

Here is my contact information:

Connect with me!

Twitter:  @thebookkahuna

Empower Network Blog:  http://thebookkahuna.net/

Blog: https://thebookkahuna.wordpress.com/

Website:  http://thebookkahuna.com/

YouTube Channel:  https://www.youtube.com/user/TheSkootdad

E-book:  The Electronic/Digital Revolution in Book Publishing