In Search Of Heroes Spreads Good News About Everyday, Real-Life Heroes Who Deserve Recognition For Their Good Works

Click Here to visit Len's In Search Of Heroes page to read the entire transcript and the RED PLAY BUTTON below to hear his awesome interview.

Ralph Zuranski: Len, in our lives we come across a lot of people, people even in our own family, who upset, offend, and oppose us. How important is forgiveness and forgiving those who upset, offend, and oppose us?

Len Thurmond: Forgiveness is a strange thing; it’s a strange concept even. When you are truly hurt by something, you’re scarred. I don’t believe there’s anybody who can truthfully deny that. So what is forgiveness? Do you ever really forgive those who really hurt you? I don’t think so.

Len Thurmond: I think somewhere down deep you never truly forgive them. But there is acceptance. You don’t want to hurt them; you don’t want to get back at them; there’s no retribution involved. It’s acceptance. But forgiveness, I’m not really sure that it is a reality. I don’t really think there is forgiveness.

Len Thurmond: Jesus may have said to forgive, but I’m not sure that he didn’t mean accept. I don’t think you can truly forgive. Forgive means that it’s okay, and it was never okay. It will never be okay that you hurt me. It will never be okay, I’m sorry. That’s just the way it is.

Len Thurmond: But to say, “I can accept that you did it and I will not hold it against you any longer. I will love you anyway,” that’s acceptance. That’s not forgiveness. I think there’s a fine line there. This silliness of, “It’s okay;” it’s not okay.

Len Thurmond: We’re going to get hurt through our whole lives. It’s going to happen. People always stand in your way. I think a lot of it is that it’s really an understanding of where they’re coming from. People who stand in your way and tell you that you can’t do something, that you’ll never be able to do that, or what’s the matter with you, go get a job, whatever the situation happens to be, are people who have no self reliance of their own. They don’t believe in themselves, and if they can’t do it then you certainly can’t.

Len Thurmond: And they can’t give you the benefit of the doubt, so it’s their problem really; it’s not yours. In those kinds of hurting situations, I don’t think it’s a matter of forgiveness. I think it’s a matter of accepting that it’s their problem. You have to just say, “I’m not going to let them keep me in my place because they can’t get out of theirs.” That’s really what it comes down to.

Len Thurmond: And the real hurts, the ones that scar us to the bone, as I said, I don’t think there’s really ever any forgiveness. There’s acceptance and I think that’s where love comes in. You have to love them enough at some point to let go of the anger. But the forgiveness I don’t think really exists.

Ralph Zuranski: Len, do you experience service to others as a source of joy?

Len Thurmond: There again, service. What does that mean? Do I like to see people happy for things that I do for them? Absolutely. I was here when you interviewed Donna. Donna said she enjoyed that spark she saw in people’s eye, that “aha” moment.

Len Thurmond: I do too. I can’t agree with her more. I live for those moments of clarity. It’s not when you’re trying to teach somebody how to make a web site or something and they say, “Aha!” It’s the inside moments where they suddenly realize, “I can do this!” It’s where they suddenly gain a measure of self confidence in themselves in those little things.

Len Thurmond: All those little pieces of self confidence build up to become an “I can do anything” at some point, so those are the victories. If that’s service to others, then absolutely, I live for that.

Len Thurmond: I was a math whiz when I was in school. It was the only subject I liked and I barely made it through anything else, but there was something about math that just intrigued me. It was such an exact science and everything was always the way it was going to be, and there was nothing you could do to change it. I used to love to come up with theories and theorems that would blow my teachers away. They were totally different than what they had taught me to arrive at the same place.

Len Thurmond: They would teach me to do multiplication and division one way and I would do it the other way. I would multiply from the left to the right instead of the right to the left. Just because I enjoyed it, it was fun to play with those kinds of things.

Len Thurmond: But my two girls have a problem with math. Their mother is not really good at math and I guess they inherited that, I don’t know. But to see the look in their eye when I can explain something in a different way that it suddenly just makes sense and they can say, “Oh, I get it!” They were thinking they can’t do this, and now they know they can. So that self confidence is built up and it shows in all of their school work.

Len Thurmond: Now they know that if they can just understand it, if somebody can just explain it the right way, then they can do it and there’s no question in their minds. That’s self confidence. It’s those moments that make my life worthwhile whether it’s with my clients, with people I’m coaching, friends whom I’m trying to help or explain something to, family members, whatever.

Len Thurmond: If that’s service, then, absolutely, I live for that. I don’t see it as service. I see it as necessity. I see it as that’s what life is about and that’s what we’re here for.

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To quote Len..."If just one person can be helped to believe that they too can pull themselves up by the bootstraps, and become more than they are today, then this interview will be well worth the time.

Len's Programs are:
Traffic On Steroids
Article Automator
Auto-Blogger
Free Traffic Seminar With Shawn Casey
Mark Joiner Special
Auto Web Design

Posted by ralph at 10:22 PM | Permalink

If you're a Low Volume Seller, you need to run multiple Dutch auctions to really make a killing on Ebay. Consider this example; you sell designer watches on Ebay for $150.00 each and you have 200 different types of watches. Therefore, you decide to run 200 separate featured in category auctions in the Jewelry and Jewelry > Watches categories.

If you don't make use of the Dutch option and list only one watch at a time, then your maximum potential for sales each week is 200 watches.If your profit margin is $75.00 and your average percentage sales equals 60%, then you're weekly income is $9,000. Not bad, but not $100,000 per month either!

Now let's modify that example. Instead of listing 200 auctions of one watch at a time, you should instead list 200 Dutch auctions selling 100 watches at a time for each style of watch you carry. You would still have 200 auctions online each week, but your sales potential jumps from 200 to TWENTY THOUSAND (200 auctions x 100 Dutch watches in each auction = 20,000). Obviously, you won't sell 20,000 watches each week.If your product is popular, you might sell 5-10 watches on average from each Dutch auction you feature. Now let's recalculate your weekly income after running the Dutch auctions:

10 watches x 200 auctions x profit margin $75.00 = $150,000. A little better than $9,000, isn't it? To be on the safe side, let's allow for a FIFTY PERCENT MARGIN OF ERROR in our calculations. Perhaps you only sell 5 watches per auction, or you only make $37.50 per watch, or you only list 100 instead of 200 different types of products.

You would still make $75,000 per week! Even if we allowed for ANOTHER fifty percent margin of error on the second calculation, you'd make $37,500 per week!

As you can see, Dutch auctions are the key to success on Ebay. When you combine the Dutch option with the featured or category-featured option, then you're playing a winning game. High Volume Sellers need not worry about Dutch Auctions in general, but Low Volume Sellers (the most common and often the wealthiest) must use this option to rake in the profits!

Please Note: An eBay member must have a feedback rating of 50 or more in order to place a Dutch Auction and have been with eBay for 60 days or be ID verified (See http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/id_verify.html for more information.)

In my next lesson, we will talk about... "Market Analysis"

Yours in success,

Jason James
Consultant and eBay™ Power Seller™
Founder, Auction Resource Network

Click Here to get photo hosting for your Ebay items for only $6.99 a month.

Jason James is originally from Boston, MA. and has spent time in the U.S. Marine Corps learning some of the discipline that is required for a successful home-based Internet marketing business.

Jason has built a long track record of success mastering eBay and building profitable membership websites.

His first Internet success was selling products on Internet auction site eBay, becoming a power seller then eventually putting together the website www.auctionresourcenetwork.com which detailed the exact steps a person can take to make money on eBay.

Jason's most recent venture is putting together a series of Online videos made by some of today's top Internet marketers to help budding entrepreneurs get trusted information to help their online businesses grow to phenomenal levels.

Jason has kindly allowed us to post one of his articles about how to be successful on E-bay each day for the next couple of months. Thanks Jason.

Posted by ralph at 03:07 PM | Permalink

Ralph Zuranski: Do you think it’s important and beneficial to make decisions quickly?

Jason James: Definitely. Personally I’m a quick decision maker. Just last night I was with my girlfriend at dinner and we had been to this Mexican restaurant several times.

Jason James: I look at the menu for maybe 30 or 45 seconds. I review it and boom, I know what I want. My girlfriend has been to this place several times but this is a recurring theme. She takes forever. She has to keep telling the waiter or the waitress to come back because she doesn’t know what she wants yet. It’s like, pick something, you know.

Jason James: I think in business you have to be a quick decision maker. You have to think real quickly. Am I going to pursue this or am I not going to pursue this? Am I going to do this or am I not going to do that?

Jason James: You waste a lot of time dwelling on things that you don’t need to be dwelling on. I think it’s important to be a quick decision maker. Explore things in as much detail as possible, make a decision and move on.

Ralph Zuranski: Once you make a decision are you slow to revise or reverse that important decision?

Jason James: Personally, no. I’m not slow at all. I think business is sort of about adapting to change and adapting to things that happen so if I make a decision and I’m not happy with it I will revise or reverse it pretty quick. I’m not slow at all to do stuff like that. I’m one to take action quickly.

Ralph Zuranski: In the pursuit of your goals and your dreams, I know you were in the military for a while and you’ve been challenged by loss of your job and loss of your car and I know that creates doubts and fears. How are you able to overcome your doubts and fears?

Jason James: By not having any choice and sort of realizing that this is my life, this is the only life I will ever have; this is the life that God gave me. You just sort of have to have that hope that there are better times ahead.

Jason James: You just sort of have to keep moving forward and take one day at a time. Take things one day at a time and do small things each and every day that move you toward your goals.

Jason James: For me in those really, really difficult times when I woke up each day feeling really badly about myself but there was also this small part of me that was like, “Things are bad now and they can’t get much worse. So it’s going to be better times ahead. I know there is. Just have faith that there is.”

Ralph Zuranski: Do you think that it’s important to readily forgive those who upset, offend and opposed you?

Jason James: I do, actually. I learned this a long time ago. For example if someone wrongs you or if someone did something to you that you didn’t think was right I think the power of forgiveness is great.

Jason James: I can relate this to online business. Someone, for example, screws you over some way online and time passes and then as you come back and maybe that person comes back and they email you in the future and say, “I’m really sorry. I shouldn’t have done that. That was wrong. I apologize.”

Jason James: A lot of people would say, “Forget you; I’m not going to work with you.” But for me personally I think the power of forgiveness is powerful because what good does holding a grudge have? What good is it saying, “No, I’m not going to work with you. You wronged me.”

Jason James: When you forgive someone what you end up with is friendship and experiences. You know about that person and they came back and they forgave you and what you have is a friendship and a future business relationship.

Jason James: If you take the offence and want to hold a grudge and not work with them, what do you have then? You have an enemy, you don’t have that business relationship, and you don’t have that friendship. I think to forgive is very important no matter how hard it might be sometimes.

Jason James: People make mistakes and if they are willing to admit those mistakes it’s very important to forgive.

Yours in success,

Jason James
Consultant and eBay™ Power Seller™
Founder, Auction Resource Network

Click Here to get photo hosting for your Ebay items for only $6.99 a month.

Jason James is originally from Boston, MA. and has spent time in the U.S. Marine Corps learning some of the discipline that is required for a successful home-based Internet marketing business.

Jason has built a long track record of success mastering eBay and building profitable membership websites.

His first Internet success was selling products on Internet auction site eBay, becoming a power seller then eventually putting together the website www.auctionresourcenetwork.com which detailed the exact steps a person can take to make money on eBay.

Jason's most recent venture is putting together a series of Online videos made by some of today's top Internet marketers to help budding entrepreneurs get trusted information to help their online businesses grow to phenomenal levels.

Jason has kindly allowed us to post one of his articles about how to be successful on E-bay each day for the next couple of months. Thanks Jason.

Posted by ralph at 08:41 AM | Permalink

Click Here to visit Len's In Search Of Heroes page to read the entire transcript and the RED PLAY BUTTON below to hear his awesome interview.

Ralph Zuranski: You know, Len, in your life you’ve done a lot of different projects and some have been successful and some have not been. Once you make that decision to go down that trail, how valuable do you think it is to be slow to revise and reverse an important decision?

Len Thurmond: I think it’s imperative to always be open to change. I can’t think of a single success that I’ve ever had that has ever ended up the way it started out.

Len Thurmond: When I have an idea for a new project, whatever it happens to be, it invariably becomes so much more and so different in the end that it would be totally unidentifiable with what I started out with. So I think you need to be open to changes that present themselves.

Len Thurmond: In the course of creation, things are constantly changing. They are constantly in a state of flux where you make one thing, you do one thing, and it creates another problem or it creates another situation. If you look at that situation and you say, “Okay, how can I better what I’ve done already by looking at this situation?” and then take that into account, it’s continually evolving and changing.

Len Thurmond: When you reach the final edition, the final subject of what it is that you’re doing, whether it is a book or writing or a job or whatever you’re doing, even writing a theme paper at school, you have to be open to those changes. Then you will end up with a far better result than you would have if you stick to what it was to begin with.

Len Thurmond: There have been so many software products and ebooks that I’ve done. If I had stuck with my original idea and refused to change, they would never have been successful because it was the end product that made them special.

Len Thurmond: There have been so many times that I have failed to make things done because I wasn’t willing to make that change and so forth. So, yes, it’s absolutely essential that you’re open to change and then, basically, that you go with the flow. Be open to what comes up.

Len Thurmond: My career has been one of being open to what comes up. Not just in my software creation or in my newsletter or anything, but back to the days of construction and I owned an art gallery. All the things that have happened to me, my entire life has been one of being open to what came up.

Len Thurmond: How do you make the jump from being a carpenter to owning an art gallery? It’s because I was open to what happened. I was a closet photographer at first and then it became my passion and I needed a place to sell my stuff, so I ended up with an art gallery. The art gallery led me to the internet because I was trying to publish the works of art online when the internet was in its infancy.

Len Thurmond: One thing has led to another, but if I wasn’t open to those things I’d still be driving nails right now. I was making a good living driving nails, but I had passions that I had to follow and I had to be open to them.

Len Thurmond: Everything happens for a reason, and you need to follow what comes along.

Ralph Zuranski: Boy, Len, that’s really inspirational to follow your passion and just have self confidence. I know that the world and just the educational system seeks to destroy your self confidence and destroy your ability to pursue your dreams and even believe that you can.

It’s a horrible thing to be paralyzed by fears and self doubts. How do you overcome fears and self doubts? It’s something that everybody deals with on a daily basis.

Len Thurmond: I don’t allow fear to rule me; I face my fears head on. I’ve been doing it as long as I can remember. The more scared I am the more apt I am to jump in the face of that fear. Somehow, somewhere along the line, and I honestly don’t know where it came from but I know it to be true, I realized and was taught that the only way to overcome your fears is to face them.

Len Thurmond: Invariably, the only thing there is to fear is fear itself. It’s an old saying, but it is very, very true. How many times have we all been afraid of whatever just to be suddenly forced into a situation where we didn’t have any choice but to face it, and then realize, “What the hell was I so afraid of?”

Len Thurmond: It happens all the time. When I was a kid I was diagnosed with bone cancer when I was about six years old, and it basically just went away on its own. Nobody knows what it was or what happened, but they put me in the hospital, they did all these surgeries on me, and they were constantly sticking me with needles to the point where my father at one point grabbed the doctor and literally threw him into the hall and said, “Leave my son alone!”

Len Thurmond: To this day I’m afraid of needles. I have a fear of needles because of that, but it doesn’t keep me from going to the doctor. And when they tell me I get a shot, I don’t run out the door, you know? You face your fears and every time it’s like, “Oh, that wasn’t so bad,” regardless of what it is.

Len Thurmond: I think it comes back to what I said a little while ago. Most of us are afraid of failure more than anything else. In most cases the fears that we have are a fear of not being able to perform whatever it is we feel we should perform in any given situation.

Len Thurmond: You have to face those fears and just do it anyway, and most of the time you will overcome those fears and it will help build self confidence so that when something else arises you’re not as paralyzed by it. You get to a point where you realize, “Yeah, it scares me; my heart’s beating really fast, but I know I’m going to survive this. And I know tomorrow I’m going to wake up and wonder what I was scared of?”

Len Thurmond: And the next day when I’m faced with something I’m going to be more self confident and less afraid. To answer your question, I think the only way to deal with fear is to face it head on and realize that it’s just the fear itself that we’re afraid of.

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To quote Len..."If just one person can be helped to believe that they too can pull themselves up by the bootstraps, and become more than they are today, then this interview will be well worth the time.

Len's Programs are:
Traffic On Steroids
Article Automator
Auto-Blogger
Free Traffic Seminar With Shawn Casey
Mark Joiner Special
Auto Web Design

Posted by ralph at 10:20 PM | Permalink

Ralph Zuranski: Yes, it’s important to have positive thoughts. Do you feel it’s important to make positive statements about yourself, the type of person you are and your goals?

Jason James: I think it’s important to make statements for me personally. I write stuff down all the time. I keep goals on paper and I have post-it notes all over the place.

Jason James: Right in my office, on a big huge piece of paper I have characteristics of success. Things like determination, commitment, dedication, discipline, courage, so I have stuff all over the place with sort of positive affirmations.

Ralph Zuranski: Do you feel that it takes courage to pursue new ideas?

Jason James: It does take courage. Like I mentioned earlier I’m in the middle of a product launch right now. It was very hard for me to get started because as you get started and are working really, really hard on something you don’t know where it is going to lead.

Jason James: You aren’t sure of if you should even be doing this. Is this doing to work? Should I be doing something else that is going to make me money? It’s just very hard because when you are working hard on something, like for me in this new project I have thousands of affiliates who have said they will help me promote this thing.

Jason James: I have 20 different contributors who have made a video for this web site I’m putting together. There are times of doubts where I’ve invested all this time and money and is it really going to work out? Is it going to happen for me?

Jason James: So there are always times of doubt and I think it’s just important to just take each day as it comes and keep working hard towards your goals and put the rest in the hands of God.

Ralph Zuranski: Do you think it’s important to be willing to experience discomfort in the pursuit of your dreams because, just as you say, whenever you have a dream and you are pursuing it there are times of doubt and discouragement.

Jason James: So how important is it to be willing to experience that discomfort?

Jason James: Nothing great was ever achieved without some discomfort involved. If you want to be successful in online business, for example, you have to step out of your comfort zone.

Jason James: You have to attend live seminars. You have to email people. You have to get on the phone if you want to arrange a joint venture or something.

Jason James: It’s an American thing, I think, to be lazy and find the easy way and expect things to be done for them. It’s very common in our society.

Jason James: If you want to be successful I think it’s very important to step out of your comfort zone and do the things that are difficult for you, whatever it may be.

Jason James: I think when you are doing something worthwhile you are going to experience discomfort. There are going to be things you don’t want to do. I think that is just natural and if you work through those things you will be better in the end for it.

Yours in success,

Jason James
Consultant and eBay™ Power Seller™
Founder, Auction Resource Network

Click Here to get photo hosting for your Ebay items for only $6.99 a month.

Jason James is originally from Boston, MA. and has spent time in the U.S. Marine Corps learning some of the discipline that is required for a successful home-based Internet marketing business.

Jason has built a long track record of success mastering eBay and building profitable membership websites.

His first Internet success was selling products on Internet auction site eBay, becoming a power seller then eventually putting together the website www.auctionresourcenetwork.com which detailed the exact steps a person can take to make money on eBay.

Jason's most recent venture is putting together a series of Online videos made by some of today's top Internet marketers to help budding entrepreneurs get trusted information to help their online businesses grow to phenomenal levels.

Jason has kindly allowed us to post one of his articles about how to be successful on E-bay each day for the next couple of months. Thanks Jason.

Posted by ralph at 09:40 PM | Permalink

Listen to the Interviews of the Leading Entrepreneurs in the World Who Are Heroes That Are Pursuing Their Dreams With Every Ounce of Strength and Faith.
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Michel Fortin is a direct response copywriter, author, speaker and consultant. His specialty are long copy sales letters and websites. Watch him rewrite copy on video each month, and get tips and tested conversion strategies proven to boost response in his membership site at http://TheCopyDoctor.com/ today.
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So,

The Internet is not a broadcast medium. It's much more than that. Of course, the Internet is a medium. But it's not a broadcast medium in the same sense as TV or radio. It is a direct response medium. It is interactive and dynamic.

It is user-driven. That's a big difference.

I'm not alone as even the government thinks the same way I do. For example, my country's telecommunications watchdog -- the Canadian Radio and Telecommunications Commission (or the CRTC, which is comparable to the American FCC) -- officially declared so in 1999.

In the wake of rumored proposals to regulate the Internet, the CRTC ruled out the possibility by declaring that the Internet is not a broadcasting medium.

It based its decision on the fact that the web is interactive with its audience -- unlike the television, radio and other media one-way media. As a result, regulators concluded that the Internet could therefore police itself.

However, my point here is not a political one but a marketing-related one.

It is based on the premise that many webmasters and online business owners look at online marketing as a mere communications process. And often, they do so by turning their web sites into billboard-littered graveyards. They tend to forget that their electronic "brochures" are sales tools as well.

The greatest limitation of ecommerce is the lack of touch and feel online -- for example, people cannot physically inspect the products they are buying.

Moreover, the Internet is cold, faceless and impersonal. The lack of human interaction takes away the emotional element in the sales transaction, as well as the ability to persuade visitors individually and overcome their objections.

Understandably, a salesperson's enthusiasm for, and belief in, his or her product are easy to convey in person. That person's unique set of sales skills, product knowledge, personality and expertise is equally advantageous in offline selling. Most of all, her ability to slant presentations in order to meet specific client needs, goals and desires are also easier in the physical realm.

But online, these abilities are virtually nonexistent.

That's why copy has a much greater job online than offline.

Like a salesperson, a website must communicate emotions that empower people to buy. But then it must also direct visitors to take some kind of action. And in both cases, the responsibility boils down to the words.

Radio or TV may or may not use direct response. But online, there's no choice.

Online, you must use words that drive your readers' actions and compel some kind of response. Even if it's to simply keep reading. However, dealing with this issue in greater depth requires an entire article on its own.

So for now, let's stick with the biggest challenge we face with online copy, even before we elicit some kind of response from our readers. And that is: benefits.

Why? Because before we compel some kind of response, words should appeal to specific buyer motives and make offers truly irresistible. Common wisdom dictates that the first rule in doing so is to stress benefits over features.

Sounds simple, right?

Not really, for if it were the Internet would be literally filled with successful websites. So in an attempt to provide you with some guidance, here's a tool to help you in developing compelling benefits.

The Product Analysis Worksheet
In "Personal Selling: An Interactive Approach," Ronald Marks, Ph.D., a professor of marketing at the University of Missouri, discusses the ability to convey benefits over features using a tool he calls Product Analysis Worksheet.

Product benefits usually consist of four principal levels. They are features, advantages, benefits and motives. Each layer has its own set of attributes and characteristics, which varies depending on the product type and the market to which the product caters.

To illustrate, here's a brief description of each layer:

Features -- what products have
For example, "This accounting software has a reporting feature."

Advantages -- what features do
For example, "This reporting feature provides real-time, on-demand, updated mission-critical information to key business managers."

Motives -- what motives do features satisfy
For example, "Cost-savings, greater control, increased production, etc"

Benefits -- what those features mean
For example, "Managers are able to keep their finger on your company's financial pulse at all times, thereby reducing costs by as much as 50%, maintaining greater control over expenditures, and increasing their output by 10-20 times at any given time -- in just a few clicks."
Obviously, benefits are essential to successful online selling. But describing them in a way that's appropriate for, and directly related and targeted to, specific audiences is a difficult process.

For example, a common problem among webmasters is to develop content using a language their users will understand, when often they end up using words that only they can understand -- or "technolese."

This is quite normal as we write in the way we think or talk.

However, the goal in writing good, compelling copy is to think and talk like our readers. And this is where much of the copy I see fails, in my estimation.

We're too married to our product, or we're too disconnected from how and what our readers think, feel and communicate. We often can't see the forest for the trees. If this is you, then use the "product analysis worksheet."

First, list all of the features of your product or service, including standard, technical, supportive or abstract features. Then, with each feature, develop a subsequent list of relative advantages.

This is where most business owners and copywriters fail.

They assume an advantage is a benefit, when it's not. The "benefit" is much too broad or one-sided. For instance, you were probably taught that a feature is what a product has and a benefit is what that feature does. Right? But...

... A benefit is what that feature means.

A benefit is what a person intimately gains from a specific feature. When you describe a feature, say this: "What this means to you, Mr. Prospect, is this (...)," followed by a more personal gain your reader gets from the feature.

Therefore, turn it around. don't focus on a certain feature's benefit. Rather, focus on how those features specifically benefit the individual.

Here's an example using my private membership website, where members get access to videos of me tearing sales copy apart, and revealing copywriting tips, tricks and actual, tested conversion strategies in the process.

Feature: Watch a top copywriter in action as he writes killer copy, all recorded on video, using real salesletters and websites from real clients.

Advantage: You get to learn how to write copy faster by understanding the logic behind successful copy (not just how to write it), and also learn copywriting tips, mistakes, shortcuts and proven results in the process.

Motive: Reduces the learning curve, the risks, the effort and the costs involved in trying to do it all yourself.

Benefit #1: This means you get real-world examples and actually see the process done before you, instead of plain textbook theory or swipe files that leave you scratching your head.

Benefit #2: Using real-world examples means you can appreciate and understand what goes into world-class copy, so you can easily repeat the process on your own, in the future.

Benefit #3: Repeating the process on your own also means you don't have to pay an expensive copywriter to do a rewrite.

Benefit #4: Not having to pay for a copywriter means you save money and get it done faster by learning proven, tested strategies you can apply immediately -- without having to wait for someone to do it for you or explain it to you in some "how-to" course.

Benefit #5: And learning proven, tested strategies means you eliminate the need to search for, find, test and learn everything yourself, and avoid making costly mistakes -- without having to figure out what works (and what doesn't) on your own.
... And on and on.

Can you see the difference?

Now, once achieved, look at your worksheet and then ask:

"Did I cover all the benefits that a specific feature has? Did I go deep and specific enough?" (To help you, just keep asking, "what this means to you, is," and work it until you run out of reasons. Once you're done, you then move onto the next feature.)

"Did I use benefits that truly reflect and cater to the situations, problems, needs and desires of my target market? Was the language chosen easy for them to understand?" (To help you, think of expressing benefits in terms that relate directly to each individual in that market.)
Nevertheless, remember that "features tell but benefits sell."

And contrary to popular knowledge, benefits are not vehicles for creating hype or puffery. As illustrated above, they are effective tools you can use to get your readers to fully understand and appreciate your product's true purpose.

Remember, different words mean different things to different people.

In other words, forget features and what they do, which is what most people think are benefits. Think of what a feature means to the customer and the words that communicate this meaning at an individual, personal and emotional level.

Listen to the Interviews of the Leading Entrepreneurs in the World Who Are Heroes That Are Pursuing Their Dreams With Every Ounce of Strength and Faith.
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Michel Fortin is a direct response copywriter, author, speaker and consultant. His specialty are long copy sales letters and websites. Watch him rewrite copy on video each month, and get tips and tested conversion strategies proven to boost response in his membership site at http://TheCopyDoctor.com/ today.
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Posted by ralph at 02:53 PM | Permalink

To Feature or Not to Feature. Featured auctions get more bids. They also cost more - a lot more. Before deciding whether or not to feature your item, you need to evaluate its popularity. You should perform a basic market analysis.

There are 2 types of featured auctions - those which that are Gallery Featured ($19.95) and those of which that are Featured Plus! ($19.95)

By choosing Gallery Featured, your item will periodically appear in the special Featured section above the general Gallery. Your picture will be almost double the size of non-featured Gallery pictures, and will also appear in the general Gallery.

Featured Plus! gives your listing prominent placement in the category list and search results. Your item will be featured prominently in the Featured Items section of the category list you choose for the item. It will also appear in the regular, non-featured item list.

Note: An eBay member must have a feedback rating of 10 or more in order to place a Featured Auction or a Featured Plus Auction.

In my next lesson, we will talk about... "Dutch Auctions - Your Key to Making it Big"

Yours in success,

Jason James
Consultant and eBay Power Seller
Founder, Auction Resource Network

Click Here to get photo hosting for your Ebay items for only $6.99 a month.

Jason James is originally from Boston, MA. and has spent time in the U.S. Marine Corps learning some of the discipline that is required for a successful home-based Internet marketing business.

Jason has built a long track record of success mastering eBay and building profitable membership websites.

His first Internet success was selling products on Internet auction site eBay, becoming a power seller then eventually putting together the website www.auctionresourcenetwork.com which detailed the exact steps a person can take to make money on eBay.

Jason's most recent venture is putting together a series of Online videos made by some of today's top Internet marketers to help budding entrepreneurs get trusted information to help their online businesses grow to phenomenal levels.

Jason has kindly allowed us to post one of his articles about how to be successful on E-bay each day for the next couple of months. Thanks Jason.

Posted by ralph at 07:59 AM | Permalink

How Customer Complaints Can Make You A Fortune:

Yesterday I went shopping for luggage. This has become an annoyingly familiar experience. I go through suitcases, roller-bars, what-have-you, in record time.

Am I harder on my luggage than other people?

I don't think so.

Here's why:

First, a little background. I thought of all the stores I had been to before, and the problem was either

a) low-quality luggage, or

b) too expensive for the value

A friend had recommended I join Costco (box store, huge selection, giant quantities) so I thought this might be a good time to check them out.

I did, and I found an "Executive 26-inch Expandable Trolley" for about half of what I would pay for a discounted TravelPro (which I like, and I own a carry-on, but I think they're overpriced).

OK... to the point about complaints and disappointment:

I need two: one for me and one for products. (I'll be bringing about 35 pounds worth of information products as sales table display units to a conference I'm speaking at later this week).

Right on the front of the little brochure attached to the suitcase were the words "U.S.A. Cordura® by DuPont® Ballistic Nylon" (made in the U.S.A. to military specifications)"

Inside the brochure:
"Full honeycomb memory frame construction made of lightweight, industrial strength ABS composite material for maximum durability and strength."

On the back of the brochure:

"U.S.A. Cordura® by DuPont® Ballistic Nylon, invented by DuPont, was originally developed for bullet-resistant, military applications..."

Hmm... seems to me a LOT of people have trouble with luggage that doesn't go the extra mile.

My disappointment: On my last trip, the pull-out handle that you use to drag the luggage around, wouldn't pull out. And then one of the zippers snapped off.

It wasn't cheap, by the way, but it was something I bought at the last minute from an adventure-travel-goods store that really wasn't in the business of providing rugged or long-lasting luggage. (Unfortunately, this one wasn't a TravelPro... but anyhow, that's the way the story goes... )

So... here's the major point of all of this:

If you KNOW what your customers are upset about... ESPECIALLY with what they're getting from your competitors... and you can HIGHLIGHT a solution to that problem in your copy...

... it will get a lot of frustrated people to gratefully buy what you have to offer.

It did me.

David Garfinkel is one of the best copywriters on the internet and was a speaker at Armand Morin's Big Seminar Series and Carl Galletti's Internet Marketing Super Conference. You can learn more about his books and training courses by clicking the links below.

David Garfinkel is founder of the World Copywriting institute and is considered by many people to be the best teacher of copywriting in the world. The stated mission of the World Copywriting Institute is to “eradicate copywriting illiteracy in the world.” Jay Conrad Levinson, author of the world’s best selling series of marketing books, Guerrilla Marketing, says, “David Garfinkel is the best copywriter I know.” Sign up for David’s free World Copywriting Newsletter. and you get a free one-hour downloadable teleseminar on copywriting. Also visit David’s World Copywriting Blog:

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Posted by ralph at 09:18 PM | Permalink

Ralph Zuranski: Do you feel that it’s important to maintain a sense of humor in the face of serious problems?

Jason James: I do. I’ve never been a big worrier. Things could be going wrong in my life but I always joke about them. When my car got repossessed I laughed it off, as serious as that is because I had no car. That is one of the reasons I got fired from my job because I couldn’t get there.

Jason James: It did damage to my credit report which is so important in these days. Everything is based on credit. I just kind of, well, it’s a learning experience. It happens and I’ll learn from it and I’ll learn never to buy a car that I can’t afford with $500 payments and I’m only making $800 a month.

Ralph Zuranski: Wow, what kind of car was that?

Jason James: It was a Mitsubishi Eclipse when they first came out with a new model. I went out and got one, which was really stupid.

Jason James: Cars are a depreciating asset. Unless you are really doing well I wouldn’t go out and buy one that you can’t afford. A car is just transportation from point A to point B.

Jason James: Especially these days there are kids who have these fancy cars and you know that ¾ of their monthly income is going to pay for that thing.

Ralph Zuranski: Do you invest time in daydreaming about what your life will be like when you attain your goal?

Jason James: I actually do, all the time. I have these goals for my business and for myself. I’m not a material person but I’ve worked real hard and one of the things that I want is a boat.

Jason James: I live in Virginia Beach, Virginia, currently. I’m originally from Boston. There’s a dock up the street and I want a nice modest boat to just go out on the water one day and relax.

Jason James: I feel that I’ve worked hard for that and that’s my goal is to have a boat. I also think about throughout the day just being able to do things like pay for my child’s college education in full when I do have a child some day.

Jason James: My girlfriend is actually struggling right now. She’s in a tough place in her life with her job. She doesn’t like her job and she isn’t making all that money. She has a mortgage and her room-mate moved out. She’s struggling financially.

Yours in success,

Jason James
Consultant and eBay™ Power Seller™
Founder, Auction Resource Network

Click Here to get photo hosting for your Ebay items for only $6.99 a month.

Jason James is originally from Boston, MA. and has spent time in the U.S. Marine Corps learning some of the discipline that is required for a successful home-based Internet marketing business.

Jason has built a long track record of success mastering eBay and building profitable membership websites.

His first Internet success was selling products on Internet auction site eBay, becoming a power seller then eventually putting together the website www.auctionresourcenetwork.com which detailed the exact steps a person can take to make money on eBay.

Jason's most recent venture is putting together a series of Online videos made by some of today's top Internet marketers to help budding entrepreneurs get trusted information to help their online businesses grow to phenomenal levels.

Jason has kindly allowed us to post one of his articles about how to be successful on E-bay each day for the next couple of months. Thanks Jason.

Posted by ralph at 08:39 PM | Permalink

The key to making enormous profits on Ebay is to develop a detailed and efficient strategy long before you list your first item. First you need to know what type of product you want to sell, where to find your niche market on Ebay, and develop a profile of your average customer. In addition, you should already have determined which categories are appropriate for your product. Now you are ready to set your strategy for the business. Read this part of the guide very, very carefully. I'm going to present you with a strategy that you can apply to virtually any product you wish to sell on Ebay. I will generalize the outline so you can fill in the specifics related to your own particular niche market and merchandise.

There are two types of sellers on Ebay which I will call High Volume Listers and Low Volume Listers. High Volume Listers are those who list more and keep more than 10 auctions online at a time. Low Volume Listers keep fewer than 10 auctions online at a time.

The profit margin of the product you sell determines which category you will fit into.

For example, if you sell real estate and make $10,000 per sale, you may only need to list a few properties each week on Ebay to make a real killing with your internet business. The same applies for the sale of expensive jewelry, automobiles, and other items with a large profit margin. However, if you sell magazines or other inexpensive items you may only make $5-10 per sale. In this case, you would need to list hundreds of items at a time to make large profits, and thus you would become a High Volume Lister. I know what you're thinking - why would anyone go through the effort of listing so many items when it seems so easy to list a few large items and make a fortune? The answer cuts to the heart of internet sales itself: ONLINE BUYERS ARE MOST WILLING TO SPEND UNDER $50.00 FOR A PRODUCT. This makes sense - would you pay thousands for something you have never seen? Another reason that High Volume Listers are more common and often make more money on Ebay is that it is very easy to buy inexpensive items at wholesale prices, but very difficult to buy real estate or automobiles at wholesale prices.

Armed with this information, you must consider the product you're selling and make an intelligent, informed decision on whether to become a High Volume or a Low Volume Seller. If you have plenty of free time to devote to your new business, I recommend you opt for the High Volume option. But if you are an Ebay seller at nights and on weekends, you may wish to start off with the Low Volume option until your business really takes off. Again, only you know best which option to choose based on the amount of time you have available and the profit margin of your merchandise.

Once you determine what type of seller you will be, you are half-way to developing a sales strategy on Ebay. The next step is to integrate everything you have learned so far in this guide and project your selling strategy into the future. For example, let's assume you have decided to sell jewelry on Ebay. Here is a test case for consideration: You have identified your niche market and found the associated categories. You know that your buyers will probably spend $50.00-100.00 per purchase and you realize that the average profit of your auctions will be about $60.00.You have plenty of time and your profit margin is low, so you decide to become a High Volume Seller on Ebay and choose to list 100-200 auctions per week. You estimate that 70% of your auction will end with winning bids, which is the eBay average. Based on this prediction, you calculate your weekly income at $6,300. You have a wholesale account set up with your jewelry supplier and have already purchased enough inventory to cover your first week of Ebay sales. You plan to re-list every auction as soon as it ends and place one weekly order to fill your inventory along with one weekly outgoing mailing to your buyers. Your basic sales strategy is set and you are ready to begin listing your auctions!

In the example above, you will notice that the seller thought of EVERYTHING before listing a single item, making sure that he/she was prepared for the task ahead and establishing a solid game-plan. Before beginning, you should project your sales strategy into the future and run through all possible problems, resolving them in your mind. If it helps, write out a paragraph like the one above and analyze it for errors of logic. KNOW YOUR SALES STRATEGY BEFORE YOU BEGIN.

I strongly recommend listing all of your auctions as regular auctions before you begin. Do not feature them or use the Dutch Auction option at this time. Test out your sales strategy and evaluate the popularity of your product in its niche market for several weeks before continuing. The rest of this guide contains advanced tips designed for sellers who have mastered the concepts already set forth and who have performed a basic market analysis of their products based on the results of several weeks of auctions.

Please note, when and if you ever decide on Dutch Auctions (the selling of more of the same item at one time to the highest bidders) An eBay member must have a feedback rating of 50 or more in order to use the Dutch Auction Feature or be ID Verified. (See http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/id_verify.html for more information.)

In my next lesson, we will discuss... "To Feature or Not to Feature"

Yours in success,

Jason James
Consultant and eBay Power Seller
Founder, Auction Resource Network

Click Here to get photo hosting for your Ebay items for only $6.99 a month.

Jason James is originally from Boston, MA. and has spent time in the U.S. Marine Corps learning some of the discipline that is required for a successful home-based Internet marketing business.

Jason has built a long track record of success mastering eBay and building profitable membership websites.

His first Internet success was selling products on Internet auction site eBay, becoming a power seller then eventually putting together the website www.auctionresourcenetwork.com which detailed the exact steps a person can take to make money on eBay.

Jason's most recent venture is putting together a series of Online videos made by some of today's top Internet marketers to help budding entrepreneurs get trusted information to help their online businesses grow to phenomenal levels.

Jason has kindly allowed us to post one of his articles about how to be successful on E-bay each day for the next couple of months. Thanks Jason.

Posted by ralph at 03:58 PM | Permalink

Click Here to visit Len's In Search Of Heroes page to read the entire transcript and the RED PLAY BUTTON below to hear his awesome interview.

Len Thurmond: Honestly, Ralph, for me it’s not a matter of courage. It’s a matter of necessity. I don’t know how it is for everyone. I’m a very creative person and I have been all my life. If I’m not creating, which means coming up with ideas and trying them whether they be music or new products or software or writing a book, I’ve got a novel, I mean, regardless, if I’m not creating something I’m miserable.

Len Thurmond: But that’s just me. I don’t think it takes courage to try something new or to create something. I think people who don’t feel they have the courage to do it are really afraid of failure. It’s not fear of the unknown; it’s not fear of changing; it’s not fear of trying something new. It’s fear of failure.

Len Thurmond: If they don’t make it, then what? If you have a great idea and you need to quit your job to do it, it’s not a fear of what will happen if I create this thing or if I go down that road. It’s a fear of what if I fail and I don’t have my job?

Len Thurmond: I think that all really comes back to believing in yourself again. If you believe that you can do it, you can do it. What the mind can conceive, the body can do. That’s just the way it is. It is a proven fact over the millennium. You must truly believe, and that means believing down to your toenails, not telling yourself, “I can do it! Yelp, yelp, yelp!” That’s the way it works.

Len Thurmond: But if you truly believe in your soul that you can do something, then there’s no question. Then it takes, I don’t know if courage is the word, but it would take more courage not to do it than it would to do it because how could you live with yourself if you didn’t? I couldn’t. I absolutely couldn’t.

Len Thurmond: If I have an idea that I feel is something I need to do and I don’t do it, then for the rest of my life I’ll wonder why. I think you just have to believe in yourself.

Len Thurmond: Unfortunately, I think we’re brought up not to believe in ourselves. As an American culture especially, I’m not sure that it’s that way worldwide, but in America we’re brought up to work for somebody else, to not think for ourselves, to never believe in yourself, basically, beyond the fact that you can do what you’re told.

Len Thurmond: I think that’s totally wrong, and somehow we’ve got to change that in our children and in society in general, and let everybody believe in themselves. It’s okay to work for someone else, but you’ve got to believe in yourself. You’ve got to know that that’s what you want to do, you know? It’s not because you have to or that you’re not good enough to do anything else. That’s where the fear comes in.

Len Thurmond: Trying something new is essential for everybody at all times. Otherwise your life gets stagnant and then what’s the point? But it’s fear of failure more than anything else, and that can only be overcome by believing in yourself.

Ralph Zuranski: As a creative person, you definitely make a lot of quick decisions. How important and how beneficial is it to make decisions quickly?

Len Thurmond: I’m not really sure that I would categorize it as making decisions quickly. What I would say is that it’s essential to act on things when they come up.

Len Thurmond: It’s been my experience over my entire life that ideas come and go, things happen, but they’re fleeting. And if you don’t act on them right now, they’re gone. I can’t count the number of ideas that have come to me that I didn’t bother to write down or act on or whatever, and they were gone forever.

Len Thurmond: Opportunities and ideas, creativity, creation in general, are things that are floating around in the cosmos. It sounds cryptic and weird, but I can’t think of any other way to put it. And that’s not really the way I look at it, but I can’t really put it into words.

Len Thurmond: They’re there, and they’re like little birds that are just flying around and they’re constantly lighting on your shoulder. And if you don’t grab that bird when it lights and make it your pet, make it your own, then it’s going to fly away and light on somebody else.

Len Thurmond: That’s why so many people have had ideas that they didn’t do anything on, just to find out a month later that somebody else did it instead. It’s not that we’re such geniuses that we’re the ones that thought of it. It’s just that the idea came to us, and if we don’t take that and act on it quickly, and that would be your making decisions quickly, then it will go someplace else and somebody else will.

Len Thurmond: So making decisions quickly; I’m not sure that it’s so much decisions as it is acting on opportunities, and thoughts. It’s knowing yourself. You can have a thought like, “I want to kill somebody,” and that’s not something you obviously something you want to act on real quickly.

Len Thurmond: It’s a difference between believing in yourself and knowing what is a good opportunity and what it is you need to act on and not. Obviously, the bad things you shouldn’t act on. But you need to be open to the positive, and when positive things come to you I think you need to act quickly, or at least decisively if not quickly.

Len Thurmond: It doesn’t mean that you have to create whatever it is immediately, but you do need to start the process or it will go away and become somebody else’s.

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To quote Len..."If just one person can be helped to believe that they too can pull themselves up by the bootstraps, and become more than they are today, then this interview will be well worth the time.

Len's Programs are:
Traffic On Steroids
Article Automator
Auto-Blogger
Free Traffic Seminar With Shawn Casey
Mark Joiner Special
Auto Web Design

Posted by ralph at 09:19 AM | Permalink

Ralph Zuranski: Is it valuable to have highly charged emotions about achieving your goals?

Jason James: Most definitely. I think having a passion for what you do really shows to other people and having a passion for what you do will, I think, you will be more successful when you have highly charged emotions.

Jason James: When you are passionate about what you do you just put your heart and soul into something. Put yourself into a project that is very important and I think when your heart is into something life can go by much easier as opposed to something that you are fighting and you are not into and you have emotions but they are negative emotions.

Ralph Zuranski: Is it useful to take a positive view of setbacks and misfortunes and mistakes?

Jason James: Absolutely. I’ve had tons of, not bad things happen to me but unfortunate experiences. I’ve been there where I’ve been fired from a job. I’ve had money problems. I had my car repossessed. I had big-time credit problems.

Jason James: I’ve learned from all these different things. They can all be learning experiences. Granted I’m only 29 years old but I’ve been through a few things that have really helped me.

Jason James: Now where I’m at in the place in my life to sort of learn from where I’ve been. I’ve been down in the dumps. I’ve been there with no money, no prospects for a job, being a college drop-out. I’ve been there.

Jason James: All these things that have happened to me have contributed to where I am at now. I run a pretty successful business and I’m happy with where I’m at.

Jason James: In January of this year I was able to buy a house and I bought a car that I paid for with cash. I really attribute my success to having been in a bad place and having learned from those experiences.

Ralph Zuranski: When you do have setbacks and misfortunes and mistakes is it important to have optimism?

Jason James: Absolutely because no matter how bad things get for me or for anyone who is listening to this, there is always light at the end of the tunnel. You can’t appreciate life now as it is if you don’t have a feeling for how bad it could be. I don’t know if I said that properly.

Jason James: When you are down and not where you want to be it’s very important to just stay positive, stay working towards your goals and stay optimistic. That is very helpful and very important.
Yours in success,

Jason James
Consultant and eBay™ Power Seller™
Founder, Auction Resource Network

Click Here to get photo hosting for your Ebay items for only $6.99 a month.

Jason James is originally from Boston, MA. and has spent time in the U.S. Marine Corps learning some of the discipline that is required for a successful home-based Internet marketing business.

Jason has built a long track record of success mastering eBay and building profitable membership websites.

His first Internet success was selling products on Internet auction site eBay, becoming a power seller then eventually putting together the website www.auctionresourcenetwork.com which detailed the exact steps a person can take to make money on eBay.

Jason's most recent venture is putting together a series of Online videos made by some of today's top Internet marketers to help budding entrepreneurs get trusted information to help their online businesses grow to phenomenal levels.

Jason has kindly allowed us to post one of his articles about how to be successful on E-bay each day for the next couple of months. Thanks Jason.

Posted by ralph at 08:37 PM | Permalink

Click Here to visit Len's In Search Of Heroes page to read the entire transcript and the RED PLAY BUTTON below to hear his awesome interview.

Ralph Zuranski: Len, I wanted to ask you this question about the subconscious. I know you’re quite aware about what goes on in the mind and how powerful the subconscious is. Do you take time to feed your subconscious?

Ralph Zuranski: Everything needs food, and it seems the subconscious is the primary factor that determines how successful we are and what we do and sort of the thing working behind the scenes that gets things done.

Ralph Zuranski: What do you do to feed your subconscious?

Len Thurmond: Feeding the subconscious? I think that the conscious is fed by the subconscious, not the other way around. I don’t think that we feed the subconscious.

Len Thurmond: The subconscious is the door that’s open to all that is. The subconscious is where ideas come from. The subconscious is where creativity comes from. The subconscious is where inventions come from, songs come from; anything that’s creative and inventive comes from the subconscious.

Len Thurmond: Then it’s fed to the conscious and the conscious is then, if it’s open to it, allowed to make that into a reality. I honestly don’t believe that we have to feed the subconscious. We have to feed the conscious. We have to allow the subconscious to do its thing. I think it’s inherent of the way life is.

Len Thurmond: If we cut off that connection between the two, then we’re robots and we don’t get anything done except what the boss tells us to do. People who are entrepreneurs, people who get over adversity, people who become successful, people who invent things are all people who have opened that door between the subconscious and the conscious and allow that thought to flow.

Len Thurmond: When I was younger I was a singer and song writer, and I played bars and stuff like that. And I wrote a lot of songs and the majority of the songs that I wrote were written while I was asleep. I would hammer on my guitar all day trying to hammer out a song. I could not get it. I’d have the melody and I’d have an idea for the lyrics, but I just couldn’t make them work.

Len Thurmond: I’d go to sleep and I’d wake up in the middle of the night, about 4: 00 in the morning, and write down the lyrics for the song. It’s because that door is automatically opened when you’re asleep. If you can train yourself to let that door be open when you’re awake, then the thought processes that go on let that unconscious idea feed into the conscious.

Len Thurmond: It’s like a machine. The conscious can then make that a reality. It’s like the subconscious draws the blueprint and then the conscious is the factory that hammers out the product.

Len Thurmond: You have to be open to that. Feeding it? I don’t feed my subconscious. I relax my subconscious. When I’ve had a stressful day or whatever, I relax. I listen to Windham Hill and Narada, soft jazz and classical music when I go to sleep. I turn it on and I go to sleep to it.

Len Thurmond: It soothes my subconscious and opens that door. There is a reverse polarity there where if you’ve got too much crap in your conscious it can feed back into your subconscious. That’s where nightmares come from. That’s where all that happens.

Len Thurmond: I soothe it instead of feeding it with music. And my way is music. There are lots of other techniques. I was talking to a lady at dinner last night who is putting out some CDs with, basically, hypnotherapy, small snippets of hypnosis that allow you to overcome different situations that you’ve gone through and relax and so forth. She’s got different things for different ones. But I think it’s a genius idea.

Len Thurmond: However you do it, whether it’s through certain herbs or whatever; if it’s through music; some people can just zone out by watching a movie and let all the crap go away. Whatever it takes I think it’s not so much feeding the subconscious as it is soothing the subconscious so it can get back to doing its job.

Len Thurmond: We really are controlled by our subconscious to a great degree.

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To quote Len..."If just one person can be helped to believe that they too can pull themselves up by the bootstraps, and become more than they are today, then this interview will be well worth the time.

Len's Programs are:
Traffic On Steroids
Article Automator
Auto-Blogger
Free Traffic Seminar With Shawn Casey
Mark Joiner Special
Auto Web Design

Posted by ralph at 01:18 PM | Permalink

This is what is all comes down to, you take everything that you have learned and you put it to good use. You know what you want to sell, you know how you want to describe it, you know what your starting bid will be, and you have a picture or two up on the Internet that you want to use in your ad. You are primed for action!

This next step can really make or break any ad that you have come up with. If you’ve looked around eBay or other auction web sites, you couldn’t tell one from another. You know what that means? You probably are not inclined to buy from those ads.

You did see a few ads through, that you thought "wow that's cool." You know the ones that used different fonts, in different sizes, with bold letters, or different colors that really caught your eye. And they used a great photo of the product, and even some cool graphics, right? And, those are not only the ads that people remember; they are the ads that people BUY FROM!

If you take the extra time to make your ad look good, the people who are bidding on the item will realize that they are dealing with someone who cares about what they are selling. They are dealing with someone who will go the extra mile to make sure that they are happy with their purchase!

If you are already familiar with HTML, the language that you use to create web sites, than you can pretty much skip this section. What I’m going to show you here is how to make your ads look like a custom web page using simple HTML.

There are a lot of different programs out there that can help automate this task for you. Programs like Microsoft Front Page are a full-blown web design tool that you can use. Or you can even use the more recent browsers from Microsoft or Netscape to create a simple web page. The programs will let you work in a WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET environment, and will let you create some awesome looking web pages without needing to know a whole lot about HTML.

The section on eBay that asks you for a description of your item, the section that says that HTML code is accepted. What this basically means is that you can include any of the tags that HTML understands. These tags can do anything from make the text larger or smaller, make the text bold or italics, center the text and graphics on the page, or even link up to another website. The possibilities are endless.

BASIC HTML TAGS

What I’m going to give you here are the bare basic tags that you can add to your eBay ads to make them look better. This is not a full guide in HTML, but you can find a web site address later in this section that will take you to a full tutorial on HTML if you are interested in such things!

If you have placed any ads on eBay, you have seen the screen where you enter the ads into the system. You enter your vital information, like your e-mail address and your password. When you get down to the box where you enter your description, it says something there that you may or may not understand. It says that HTML tags are acceptable. What this is telling you is that you can use little bits of HTML tags to help your ads look better.

Attaching Images: Most auction sites make it very easy to attach an image to your auction when placing a listing.
(Note: URLs for images will all end in either "gif" or "jpeg." These are file formats for images. GIF images are limited to 256 colors, but JPEG images can contain up to 16 million colors and provide photo-like clarity.)

Many sellers have decided to go the extra step and create personal Web pages, which can include information about them, their auctions, and the kind of items they specialize in. It's a good way for buyers to get a better understanding of whom they're dealing with. Many Internet Service Providers offer a small amount of free Web space on which to host a personal page. In addition, Web-building software, tutorials, and HTML books make it extremely easy for even the most technologically challenged to be the masters of their own domain space.

Ever wonder how the HTML pros do it? Well, it's very easy to discover the tricks of the trade whenever your browser is on a given Web page. If you're using Internet Explorer, click on View on the menu bar and then select Source. If you're a Netscape user, click on View on the menu bar and then select Page Source. This should bring up a Notepad file in which you'll be able to view all the HTML commands and codes that went into the creation of the page you're visiting. It's a good way to familiarize yourself with all the different elements that go into a Web page.

FREE COUNTER

We can see how many people have actually bid on our auctions, but how do we know how many people have stopped to look at our ad for the item we're selling? You can obtain a FREE counter for your eBay ad when you create a listing.

However, if you wish to have more details stats about your auction listings a program called "Sellathon" will tell you such things as: How users found your auction, what search terms were used, how much time people spend looking at your auctions, and more. Use the link below to get more information on Sellathon: http://sellathon.auctionresourcenetwork.net

In my next lesson, we will discuss... "Your eBay Strategy"

Yours in success,

Jason James
Consultant and eBay™ Power Seller™
Founder, Auction Resource Network

Click Here to get photo hosting for your Ebay items for only $6.99 a month.

Jason James is originally from Boston, MA. and has spent time in the U.S. Marine Corps learning some of the discipline that is required for a successful home-based Internet marketing business.

Jason has built a long track record of success mastering eBay and building profitable membership websites.

His first Internet success was selling products on Internet auction site eBay, becoming a power seller then eventually putting together the website www.auctionresourcenetwork.com which detailed the exact steps a person can take to make money on eBay.

Jason's most recent venture is putting together a series of Online videos made by some of today's top Internet marketers to help budding entrepreneurs get trusted information to help their online businesses grow to phenomenal levels.

Jason has kindly allowed us to post one of his articles about how to be successful on E-bay each day for the next couple of months. Thanks Jason.

Posted by ralph at 12:54 PM | Permalink

Click Here to visit Richard Schefren's In Search Of Heroes page. I will be interviewing Rich in the middle to late part of July. He is offering a valuable Special Free Report that is jammed packed with useful information on how to make more money in your business and spend less time.

Richard Schefren is the person many of the Internet gurus turn to when they need guidance on growing their business. So while you may never have heard of Rich Schefren, you’ve certainly heard of the people he consults with and coaches.

During the time Richard has been working with a group of insiders, most of his clients have posted an incredible record of business growth. And many of them, such as Rob Bell, the head of 1Shopping Cart, attribute a great deal of their success to the advice Rich has given them.

And during the period Rich has been working with the gurus, he’s inspired successful joint ventures with people like Jay Abraham, Jeff Paul, Stephen Pierce, Alex Mandossian, and John Carlton.

Rich has done something very unexpected. No, he’s not selling anything. In fact, quite the contrary. Rich is giving away a special report that summarized some of the steps he has taken with many of the leading Internet marketing gurus.

I’m going to suggest you hurry over to Rich's Strategic Profits Website and grab that report while it’s still available. Rich’s report will force you to think about your online business and suggest ways you can increase your business profits by actually working less.

Here’s what marketing guru Jeff Paul said about Rich, “Rich has more real world business experience and entrepreneurial savvy than most business owners can accumulate in 10 lifetimes.

He's been featured in the media for his business success, from The Wall Street Journal (being featured as "an unbelievable retail turnaround story") and CNN (appearing several times and labeled as an expert in retail marketing)...... To Crain's, Newsweek, Entertainment Tonight, ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, MSNBC, Vogue, GQ, MTV, VH1, The Discovery Channel, The Learning Channel, Cosmopolitan, The Daily News, The New York Post and too many others to list.

Now, here's a dirty little secret about Internet marketing: Most Internet marketing "gurus" who brag about living the "Internet lifestyle" are... in actual fact... working their asses off like slaves!

Why? Because they don't know the REAL secrets to owning a hands-free Internet business. There's much, much more to it than just "automation" and "outsourcing" that everybody and their dog talks about. And there's no better person to teach you all these secrets (that NO-ONE else talks about)... than Rich.”

Here's a small sample of what you'll discover in Rich’s report:

The REAL difference between Internet millionaires who consistently rake in buckets of cash and struggling Internet marketers who can't get off the ground!

The insider's secret that no-one online ever talks about but it's the reason why rookies work ten times more hours then they need to - while guru's are raking it in even when they're out playing golf!

Discover the shocking truth about outsourcing... and the biggest fallacies about outsourcing that no-one else is telling you!

Why almost all the advice you'll get online about niche marketing is 100% wrong!

A simple step-by-step plan to dominate any niche that you enter!

The real secrets for making insane amounts of money with your website - completely and totally hands off!

The unknown story about how success guru Napoleon Hill (author of Think and Grow Rich) died almost dead broke and why if you don't learn from his mistake the odds are high that you just might end up there too!

The biggest 'cash drain' on an online business, and how to overcome it quickly and easily!

I’ve read this report and it is powerful. Rich is revealing concepts almost no one is talking about in Internet Marketing today. I have had the opportunity to hear and photograph Richard Schefren at numerous internet marketing seminars and his knowledge and experience blows everyone away.

Richard definitely knows what he is talking about and is one of those unique people who actually can back up what he says with what he is doing. I look forward to doing his heroes interview in the middle part of July. This is going to be exciting because few of the internet marketers have been so successful.

I suggest you grab this report and find some time to read it – today. Since I am using Napoleon Hills "Think and Grow Rich" model for the In Search Of Heroes Program wealth building training, you would benefit greatly from reading this report if you are starting a business, own one or even thinking about it.

Posted by ralph at 11:04 PM | Permalink

Click Here to visit Len's In Search Of Heroes page to read the entire transcript and the RED PLAY BUTTON below to hear his awesome interview.

Ralph Zuranski: Len, did you find it was valuable to invest time in daydreaming about what your life would eventually be like when you attained your dream and achieved your goals?

Len Thurmond: I’m really not sure if daydreaming helps or hurts. You can really get lost in your dreams.

Len Thurmond: I think you have to have a clear vision of the direction you want to go in, and I think you have to have a clear vision of what will make you happy. That’s really all that’s important.

Len Thurmond: Dreaming about it, daydreaming about it, thinking about it, obsessing about it; I’m not sure that that doesn’t just hurt rather than help. I think you really need to have a strategy. You have to have a road map that you come up with that’s going to get you to the next level.

Len Thurmond: This flies in the face of what so many of my peers say. I think you have to take it one level at a time. I think you have to have a road map to that next level and you have to follow it and you have to go for it. In the back of your mind you’re always going to know where you want to go next and you never can stop.

Len Thurmond: One of the problems about having dreams and goals and so forth is that once you’ve reached those, assuming you do, now what do you do? I think you have to continue; you can’t ever stop.

Len Thurmond: If you can set finite goals, that’s a recipe for saying, “I’m done; I finished it; I did what I wanted; I’m through. Yeah, me!” It doesn’t work that way. People who are successful, people who continue on, the Bill Gates, the Armand Morins of this world are never happy with where they are. There is always more to do.

Len Thurmond: They are very satisfied with what they’ve done, but there’s always more to do. And I think you have to look at life that way regardless of what it’s about; business, family, friends; it doesn’t matter. You can never love anybody enough.

Len Thurmond: To say, “I’m going to love my children until they know they’re loved, until I make sure they know they’re loved,” that’s like saying, “When they figure that out, I’m done.” You can never love anybody too much. You can never work too hard. You can never get to a place where enough is enough.

Len Thurmond: We are here to do everything we can until we die, and I think that’s the way you have to go. As long as you keep that inside and continue to go on, then your life will be full. You’ll always have something to shoot for; you’ll always have something that you’re trying to work towards.

Len Thurmond: If we run out of things to work towards, we die. Think about it. How many people have had loved ones, and their whole life was wrapped around that loved one. What does that mean? That means that it was wrapped around making that person happy. They loved them so much that their entire life meant, “I want you to be happy and I’m going to spend my life making you happy.”

Len Thurmond: It doesn’t end. It never stops. “I will make you happy, forever, and happier and happier and happier,” and that’s their goal in life. When that person dies, they usually die shortly thereafter because they have nothing to live for.

Len Thurmond: I don’t think that you can set goals in that sense. I think your goal needs to be always to go father; to never stop and never reach the end of the road. The end of the road is a death sentence.

Ralph Zuranski: Len, do you feel it’s important to make positive statements about your future and your goals?

Len Thurmond: I feel that it’s important to believe in yourself, and the only way you can believe in yourself is to be positive about where you want to go and how you’re going to get there. Positive statements? I think too many people take that out of context and feel that, “If I tell my friend I’m going to quit smoking, that means I’ll quit because I’ll be shamed into doing so.”

Len Thurmond: That just means that when they don’t, they’re going to feel badly about themselves.

Len Thurmond: What is a positive statement? A positive statement is, “I believe in myself.” If you believe in yourself, then all things are possible. Then it really comes down to what do you want to do? And you will do whatever you want to do if you believe you can.

Len Thurmond: Positive statements in a sense that it helps you keep track of knowing you can get there, that helps you keep track of believing in yourself, yes. But positive statements in the sense of speak it and it will happen, I don’t believe in that. I think that’s cooked up by the gurus out there who are selling the self-help books that don’t work.

Len Thurmond: I think you have to believe in yourself, period. And if you believe it, it will happen, whatever it takes to get there.
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To quote Len..."If just one person can be helped to believe that they too can pull themselves up by the bootstraps, and become more than they are today, then this interview will be well worth the time.

Len's Programs are:
Traffic On Steroids
Article Automator
Auto-Blogger
Free Traffic Seminar With Shawn Casey
Mark Joiner Special
Auto Web Design

Posted by ralph at 07:16 PM | Permalink

THE TITLE GETS YOU NOTICED

Ok, you’ve been to the auction web site, and you’ve taken a look around. It’s a lot like looking through the classified section of a newspaper, except for the fact that you have to click on the title to see the rest of the ad. It can be a very confusing task to find exactly what you are looking for. It is a virtual maze as you try to weed out just the items that you are looking for. There’s so many items that the information overload makes you want to scream! It’s your job as a seller to help your prospective bidder cut through the red tape and get your ad viewed by as many people as you can! There are a few ways to do this, so let’s get to it! Like I just said in the last paragraph, in order for someone to see your ad, they have to go through the trouble to take their mouse, put it over your title and click on it! If they do not do this one thing, I do not care how good your item is, and I do not care how good your ad is, the simply reality is you are not going to sell a darn thing to them! Therefore, one of the most important things that you will do is create a title for your ad.

USE RELEVANT WORDS IN YOUR TITLE

The thing that I feel is the MOST IMPORTANT when coming up with your title is to include relevant words. Ok, this sounds really stupid, but you would be surprised at the amount of titles that tell you ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. You must be extremely specific in your titles about exactly what you are selling. If you have an autographed Frank Sinatra photo, don’t use the title "Frank Sinatra." I don’t care if it is in the autograph section of the web site, this is not descriptive enough, and a lot of people may miss your ad. Use something more like "RARE Frank Sinatra AUTOGRAPHED LP" and you will be amazed at the difference in the amount of bids you will get. Remember that a lot of people will use the search feature to find the items that they are looking for, and make sure you include the words that they are most likely to search for in your title! I’m a big NASCAR racing fan and absolutely love to purchase die-cast model cars over the Internet. If I am searching for the different paint schemes used by a particular driver, they had better have the driver's name in the title, or I am going to miss it! So remember, think about what your buyer is searching for, and give it to them in the title! USE WORDS THAT WILL GRAB THE BUYERS ATTENTION

The other thing you want to do in the title is use words that will GRAB the attention of the buyer. After all, they have literally thousands and thousands of titles to look at, and you want them to take a closer look at yours. How do you get their attention?

First, you can pay an extra fee to get your title listed in a bold face font. This is an easy way to set your ad apart from the rest of the ads that are out there. And while the bold face is a quick and easy way to get more attention, I don’t believe that it is always the best way. The best thing, along with being descriptive, is using POWER WORDS.

What are power words? They’re things that you can use to add a sense of urgency to your items. Words such as RARE, LIMITED EDITION, UNIQUE, ONE-OF-A-KIND, BEAUTIFUL, will help you get attention. Other words like GREAT, UNBELIEVABLE, STUNNING, AWESOME will also help get your buyer to notice what you are selling.

Look at these two titles:

Bruce Springsteen Autograph

"RARE SPRINGSTEEN AUTOGRAPHED GUITAR-AWESOME!"

Ok which one grabs your attention? I’d say that 98% of you said that the second title did, the other 2% of you need to take another look! There are a few things going on in the second title, the most noticeable is that the whole thing is using capital letters. Now, this is a great way to make your items stand out, but sometimes it can be overdone. Occasionally it can take away from the emphasis on what you want the buyer to see. Take a look at this title:

"RARE SPRINGSTEEN Autographed GUITAR Awesome!"

This can also be a very effective title. The buyer will see what is the most important in the title first, which is "Springsteen Guitar." Remember no matter how you use capitals and lower case letters, you want your title to stand out from the rest.

Many sellers like to use characters in their title, things like @, #, $, %, etc. to draw extra attention. Sometimes they look cheesy, and sometimes they work. That all depends on the product, and the type of buyer that you are trying to attract. Try a few different things and see what is most effective. Keep records on how well each individual ad title is received, and use the style that is most successful! Remember, when it comes to the title: be descriptive, use exciting attention grabbing words, and set your ad apart from the rest!

WRITING DESCRIPTIONS THAT SELL

Once you’ve gotten someone to take a look at your ad; you want him or her to bid on the item you are offering! You need to make your product look as appealing as possible and you want to motivate the person to place a bid immediately. After all, if the person leaves without placing a bid, there’s a good chance that they will not be back.

BE SPECIFIC

There are a few things that are important in the ad itself. The first, is the overall description of what you are selling. BE SPECIFIC. This is the most important thing in your description. Do not leave any room for error on what is for sale. Get as graphic and specific as you can to describe your item. If there is anything special about the item, list it. List any special features of the item. People do not feel comfortable bidding on something of which they are not 100% sure.

LIST ANY IMPERFECTIONS THAT THE ITEM HAS

If there are any flaws in the item, like a dent or scratch, you have to list that when you are selling the item to protect yourself. As long as you are 100% specific on what you are selling, you will save yourself a lot of time and hassle if someone decides to return the product to you because they were not aware of a defect.

Even if you are using a picture in your ad, and we do highly recommend using one. Write your description for an ad without a picture. That way the picture can be there to totally reinforce what you are selling, but will not rely on the photo.

Once you have written an accurate and honest description of the item, add your own creative touch. Again, use wording that will motivate the buyer to bid on your item. If the item is difficult to find, use words like rare, one of a kind, and unique. If it’s brand new in a box, let the buyer know that. Include things that may seem obvious to you, because the potential buyer may not be aware. This helps the buyer feel more comfortable in dealing with you.

BE CREATIVE

When writing your ad you want to paint pictures with your words. Use adjectives like great, awesome, beautiful, etc. to describe your item. Paint a visual picture that makes your item irresistible! Tell a story with the item if you can. Explain what the item is, and what it can do for the buyer. If you are selling a cute little teddy bear, play it up. Put something in the ad about the bear looking for a good new home, and some new friends to play with. Not only will the buyer get a kick out of the ad, they will be more likely to bid on the item if it is something that they are looking for. Going along with the theory that people do not want to bid on something that they are not 100% sure of, people are much more likely to bid on an item if they like the person that is selling the item. While it certainly is not easy to convey your personality through an eBay ad, it does not hurt to try!

In my next lesson, we will talk about... "How To Use Photos To Increase Your Sales"

Yours in success,

Jason James
Consultant and eBay™ Power Seller™
Founder, Auction Resource Network

Click Here to get photo hosting for your Ebay items for only $6.99 a month.

Jason James is originally from Boston, MA. and has spent time in the U.S. Marine Corps learning some of the discipline that is required for a successful home-based Internet marketing business.

Jason has built a long track record of success mastering eBay and building profitable membership websites.

His first Internet success was selling products on Internet auction site eBay, becoming a power seller then eventually putting together the website www.auctionresourcenetwork.com which detailed the exact steps a person can take to make money on eBay.

Jason's most recent venture is putting together a series of Online videos made by some of today's top Internet marketers to help budding entrepreneurs get trusted information to help their online businesses grow to phenomenal levels.

Jason has kindly allowed us to post one of his articles about how to be successful on E-bay each day for the next couple of months. Thanks Jason.

Posted by ralph at 07:09 PM | Permalink

Ralph Zuranski: Do you think that prayer and having a spiritual connect with God and just having a spiritual relationship with somebody that has the same guiding principles as you do, do you think that is helpful in helping you attain a happy place?

Jason James: Absolutely. My girlfriend that I’ve been seeing for three years and I hope will soon be my wife, when I met her things were not at a great, great place in my life.

Jason James: When I met her I started becoming more into prayer and into going to church. Half of my life got better and better and better and I attribute a lot of that to her. She really set me on the right path.

Jason James: It’s easy in life to make bad decisions and go on the wrong path but when you have someone there by your side to always remind you to do the right thing and that you shouldn’t do that and to always guide you in making decisions. That is very important.

Jason James: So my girlfriend has been there by my side and always led me on the right path.
Ralph Zuranski: It’s valuable to have somebody like that. Are your goals and actions consistent with your beliefs?

Jason James: I would say they are, absolutely. I have written down my goals and I write a daily action plan every night before I go to bed.

Jason James: When I talk to people and even simple things like email I am always going to be myself but part of being myself is having core beliefs of honesty and integrity and that is very important to me.

Ralph Zuranski: I know that you spent a little bit of time in the Marine Corp and there is always that question of what are you willing to sacrifice your life for?

Jason James: I would sacrifice my life for others, really. Actually I was joking about this with my girlfriend the other day. We were having a conversation that was very silly about taking a bullet.

Jason James: I just got two new puppies and it was like, “Would you risk your life for those puppies?” I’m like, “I would.” They are just four months old little Miniature Pinschers and I love them so much.

Jason James: If a bullet was coming at them I would jump in front of it, or a truck, which is maybe more appropriate, or something like that.

Jason James: I feel that I’m important but I also place a very high value on other life, animals and people.

Yours in success,

Jason James
Consultant and eBay™ Power Seller™
Founder, Auction Resource Network

Click Here to get photo hosting for your Ebay items for only $6.99 a month.

Jason James is originally from Boston, MA. and has spent time in the U.S. Marine Corps learning some of the discipline that is required for a successful home-based Internet marketing business.

Jason has built a long track record of success mastering eBay and building profitable membership websites.

His first Internet success was selling products on Internet auction site eBay, becoming a power seller then eventually putting together the website www.auctionresourcenetwork.com which detailed the exact steps a person can take to make money on eBay.

Jason's most recent venture is putting together a series of Online videos made by some of today's top Internet marketers to help budding entrepreneurs get trusted information to help their online businesses grow to phenomenal levels.

Jason has kindly allowed us to post one of his articles about how to be successful on E-bay each day for the next couple of months. Thanks Jason.

Posted by ralph at 06:36 PM | Permalink

Ralph Zuranski: How important is it to stay focused on a primary goal?

Jason James: It’s very important. Setting goals in general in life and a business is very important. I’m creating a product right now and I’ve poured my heart and soul into it. If I wasn’t into it you would be able to see that on the product itself.

Jason James: When people would be dealing with me they would see my attitude and how I was approaching things. So when you are focused on a goal and you don’t let external things distract you. It is very important to stay focused and to take small steps each day to reach your goal.
Yours in success,

Jason James
Consultant and eBay™ Power Seller™
Founder, Auction Resource Network

Click Here to get photo hosting for your Ebay items for only $6.99 a month.

Jason James is originally from Boston, MA. and has spent time in the U.S. Marine Corps learning some of the discipline that is required for a successful home-based Internet marketing business.

Jason has built a long track record of success mastering eBay and building profitable membership websites.

His first Internet success was selling products on Internet auction site eBay, becoming a power seller then eventually putting together the website www.auctionresourcenetwork.com which detailed the exact steps a person can take to make money on eBay.

Jason's most recent venture is putting together a series of Online videos made by some of today's top Internet marketers to help budding entrepreneurs get trusted information to help their online businesses grow to phenomenal levels.

Jason has kindly allowed us to post one of his articles about how to be successful on E-bay each day for the next couple of months. Thanks Jason.

Ralph Zuranski: Do you follow your hunches and intuitions?

Jason James: Sometimes. I prefer to go with things that are more fact based. I’m not a guy that has a hunch and acts on it. I’m more of a good decision maker and I get facts and make good, educated decisions.

Ralph Zuranski: What is the specific philosophy or philosophies that guide your life and your decisions?

Jason James: Like we first talked about, I think it is very important to be a person of high moral character and an honest person. I also mentioned that when you come into success I think it is very important to thank those who have helped you and to give back to people that want to get where you are at.

Jason James: I think it’s very important to just give of yourself and not to be selfish and think “me, me, me” because I’ve been there and it’s not a very pleasant place to be. And you don’t make a lot of friends that way.

Jason James: So I would say to give of yourself and to be almost selfless in your life. Think of the other person first when you are making decisions and try to put yourself in other people’s shoes.

Ralph Zuranski: What place does the power of prayer have in your life?

Jason James: It has a big place in my life actually. I attend church most Sundays when I can. I pray every few days. Actually I wasn’t that religious and into prayer but I’ve been seeing a girl the past few years and she really got me into it.

Jason James: I cannot believe that up until the time I met her that prayer and belief in God and having faith was not a part of my life. More and more each day prayer is becoming a bigger part of my life and I think it’s very important to have that spiritual connection.

Jason James: So prayer for me is a huge part of my life.

Posted by ralph at 11:35 PM | Permalink

Click Here to visit Len's In Search Of Heroes page to read the entire transcript and the RED PLAY BUTTON below to hear his awesome interview.

Ralph Zuranski: In light of that question and overcoming those and learning from the mistakes that you’ve had, how important is it that you have optimism? Is optimism valuable in overcoming those problems?

Len Thurmond: I think optimism is very important, but I overhead you interviewing someone else, a lady I greatly admire, and she had an answer that I absolutely adhere to. I think pure optimism is foolish. I think you have to be realistic.

Len Thurmond: There are people in my family who feel the exact opposite. They feel that pessimists are never disappointed. I think that somewhere in the middle is the truth. I think you have to weigh one against the other. You have to be optimistic in order to get anywhere in life, but being overly optimistic or stupidly optimistic is a recipe for failure.

Len Thurmond: I think you have to look at both sides of the coin. You have to know the possibilities of failure, and you have to be willing to accept that failure. But the optimism comes in by accepting that failure in a way they will help you get ahead the next time. It’s okay to fail as long as you continue to strive. One step back, two steps forward is fine. That’s the way most of us work and most of us learn.

Len Thurmond: Yes, you have to be optimistic. You have to look at the world in a sense that you know you can get ahead.

Len Thurmond: You know what it really comes down to? What it really comes down to is that you have to believe in yourself any way you look at it. That’s optimism. It’s not this rose-colored glasses view of the world that everything is beautiful. That’s what everybody thinks that optimism is. It’s really just believing in yourself, know that you’re going to fall down, but that you’re going to get back up.

Len Thurmond: That’s optimism. And every time you get back up you’re going to take another step forward. If you’ve got that dedication and that kind of optimism, then it’s imperative that optimism be there.

Ralph Zuranski: Len, do you maintain a sense of humor in the face of serious problems? I know a lot of times in events that occur in people’s lives it’s either laugh or cry. How important do you think a sense of humor is?

Len Thurmond: I think it’s important to have both. I think it’s important to laugh and cry. I think that if you do nothing but laugh in the face of danger or laugh in the face of adversity, laugh in the face of loss, then eventually all those hurt feelings, all that down feeling will build up and make you crazy. It will come back to just make you a basket case.

Len Thurmond: Crying is something most men feel that they can’t do. That’s really unfortunate that we were raised that way. Fortunately, I was raised by my mother only, so I was never raised that way; crying was okay.

Len Thurmond: There is no such release as a good cry when you really are feeling down. It just cleanses your entire body.

Len Thurmond: At the same time, you can’t walk around crying all the time either. I think you have to maintain a sense of humor in the face of what’s going on, but not to the point where you can’t let your emotions show. I believe that humor too often is there to mask the feelings that people are really having., male and female.

Len Thurmond: It’s really important to do both when the time calls for it. If you’re ashamed to cry, do it on your own away from people which is probably the best way anyway, so people won’t look at you weirdly. But it’s really important not to hold those feelings in and not to try to laugh everything off which I’ve seen too many people do.
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To quote Len..."If just one person can be helped to believe that they too can pull themselves up by the bootstraps, and become more than they are today, then this interview will be well worth the time.

Len's Programs are:
Traffic On Steroids
Article Automator
Auto-Blogger
Free Traffic Seminar With Shawn Casey
Mark Joiner Special
Auto Web Design

Posted by ralph at 10:14 PM | Permalink

Listen to the Interviews of the Leading Entrepreneurs in the World Who Are Heroes That Are Pursuing Their Dreams With Every Ounce of Strength and Faith.
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Michel Fortin is a direct response copywriter, author, speaker and consultant. His specialty are long copy sales letters and websites. Watch him rewrite copy on video each month, and get tips and tested conversion strategies proven to boost response in his membership site at http://TheCopyDoctor.com/ today.
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One of the things most if not all Internet marketers come across at least once in their lives is "spam." Whether they've used it, contemplated it, rallied against it, or received it, the deceptively appealing nature of unsolicited commercial email as well as the gut-wrenching, mind-numbing, nerve-racking person-hours it takes to manage spam makes it the most detested form of online marketing. But the question remains: Why is it still being used?

It's Like a Drug
Today, while driving to a client in my consulting practice, I listened to the audio version of one of my favorite books, "The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing" by Al Ries and Jack Trout -- the fathers of positioning. One of their laws struck me in a way it has never struck me before, for I realized, now that I am online, how much these laws apply to Internet marketing as well. It also struck me because the book was written in a time when email was relatively unknown and "WWW" was thought of as an acronym for some new sports organization.

Law number 11, the law of perspective, states: In marketing, "The long-term effects are usually the exact opposite of the short-term effects." Al Ries illustrates this law with sales promotions and the way they work -- and work against you. While sales do help to increase business in the short-term, in the long-term the effect wears off and, like a drug, one has to inject more price based incentives to keep the volume at a certain level. Ultimately, a discount driven company will see its business inevitably decrease. As Ries points out, "Sales tend to educate consumers over time never to buy at regular prices."

Sex, drugs, money, and crime are all typical examples in which short-term gains can lead to long-term losses. But these hedonistic-like marketing approaches are not limited to sales promotions. With the Internet comes along another -- this seemingly unstoppable barrage of unwanted commercial email called "spam." Obviously, spam is effective and very profitable since, if it wasn't, it would have stopped haunting our inboxes long ago. However, in addition to the potential infringement of new business-related laws, the negative consequences of spam with regards to long-term profitability far outweigh the short-term advantages.

Credibility is Crucial
A business' most important asset is its credibility -- and more so online, for the Internet lacks the human element. (By the way, it is this very lack that often makes spam so attractive if not addictive, as some people tend to forget that people receive the mail, not computers.) Nevertheless, credibility in the faceless world wide web is like oxygen in its offline version: It's critically important and inescapably essential. Therefore, a more profitable, long-term solution is the creation of one's own opt-in mailing lists or the use of others that are opt-in, responsible, and targeted.

Consequently, ezines are growing with astonishing fervor. Beyond the fact that they help build trust and credibility, ezines help you to stay in constant touch with your prospects. People want to get to know you. And the level of value they attribute to their purchase from you is -- as unrelated as it may seem -- inextricably tied to the level of trust they place in you.

Sure, short-term band-aid solutions can produce good results. Sales and profits can be made with spam (or without the need for prospects to know you, for that matter). But like drugs, these solutions are only short-lived, which is why they must be continuously repeated in order to remain viable let alone profitable -- hence, the reason why spammers keep spamming.

Knowing you is the basis of any long-term business success. If you're in it for the long haul and if you want to remain profitable for a long period of time, then consider the converse -- short-term losses versus long-term gains. In other words, don't spam. Find ways to stay in contact with eager, interested, and consensual prospects. Publish your own ezine. Buy or rent targeted opt-in lists from reputable mailing list brokers. Get linked on as many other sites as possible. Most important, advertise in ezines... It's your surest and safest bet.

Needless to say, it is commonsensical that, if you sell a product online that helps to make life easier for your prospects, don't market your product in a way that negates or contradicts that very point. Use responsible email marketing strategies. The pitfalls of spam marketing will, in the end, cost you much more than some of its more respectable alternatives.

Listen to the Interviews of the Leading Entrepreneurs in the World Who Are Heroes That Are Pursuing Their Dreams With Every Ounce of Strength and Faith.
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Michel Fortin is a direct response copywriter, author, speaker and consultant. His specialty are long copy sales letters and websites. Watch him rewrite copy on video each month, and get tips and tested conversion strategies proven to boost response in his membership site at http://TheCopyDoctor.com/ today.
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Posted by ralph at 02:44 PM | Permalink

Buying and selling things is not new. As a matter of fact, people have been buying and selling things in one form or another ever since time began. It is part of life. We all need or want things that we can’t provide for ourselves, so we have to find someone who can supply us with the items, and we pay them to provide us with these items that we need or want.

Deciding what you want to sell is not as easy as it looks. There are two main types of items that you will be selling. The first and most obvious are those items that are lying around your house that you want to get rid of, you know, all of those CD’s that you don’t listen to anymore, that old toy you got when you were a kid, things like that. These items are great to sell to make some extra money, but they are a one time sale item, meaning once they are sold, they are gone and so is your chance at a recurring income!

The second category of items that you will be selling is a set of products that you create or buy in order to sell them. These can be a great source of income, things as simple as your mother’s recipe for chocolate chip cookies or an ebook about Stock Market Investing. These types of items are things you can sell over and over again. They may not bring in as much per item as other items, but you can sell them in a great quantity. Let’s look at each of these item types in a little more detail.

ONE OF A KIND ITEMS - ITEMS THAT YOU OWN

First, we'll take the one of a kind items. These are the items that are taking up space in your closet, the things that you bought and don’t have a use for anymore, or the things you’ve gotten as presents that have never been taken out of the box! These items can put some fast cash in your pocket, as well as open up some much-needed space in your closets!

There is really no limit to the type of things that you currently own that you can auction off. Just by taking a look at an auction web site like eBay of course, you will see people selling everything from toys, computer equipment, photo equipment, antiques, books, clothing, and even automobiles and homes! Your choices for what you can actually sell are unlimited!

ITEMS THAT YOU CAN SELL IN QUANTITY

Now, let’s take a look at the other type of items. These are the items that you can sell in quantity. These can be things that you purchase in quantity in order to sell. There are a lot of collectibles that are widely available in certain areas that aren’t available worldwide. These can be sports figures, dolls, trading cards, etc. Anything that you can buy and sell at a modest profit is fair game, remember people on eBay DEMAND low prices. Better to sell 100 books for $5 than 20 for $10. And of course you can buy products in bulk from wholesalers to re-sell on eBay. For example, computers, digital cameras, and these types of in demand items. But like I said, make sure you are getting a good deal when you buy, and your profits will be higher.

HOW TO DECIDE WHAT TO SELL

How do you decide what types of items that you want to sell? Well, there are a few different ways to do this. The first thing I would do is make up a list of the items that you are considering for sale. Look at the items carefully, and write down information such as a description of the item, what you paid for it, the condition it is in, etc. Being very specific here will help you greatly if you decide to list any of these items for auction. Sometimes the smallest details can mean much greater prices, and much greater profits for you!

Now, take your list; sit down at your computer and search eBay for the types of items that you have come up with. Now, this may not be effective for that one of a kind BABE RUTH autograph. For about 85% of the things you want to sell, however, it should give you a pretty good idea of the market value of the item, as well as consumer interest.

So, fire up your internet browser, get to www.ebay.com and enter your search terms and you're on your way.

In the search box type a relevant term. If you want to know what 'U2 GREATEST HITS' CD is worth type "U2 GREATEST HITS" If you’re looking into selling your VCR, simply type "VCR" into the search categories at eBay.

As you can see, with searching for the proper words, it is very simple to see if the types of items you want to sell are already being sold at auctions. When you find the listings, you can learn a few very important things. The first is, you can get a good idea on what the market price is. By seeing what other people have sold similar items for, you can decide whether or not you want to sell the item, as well as what you should expect to get for the item when it sells! When you search, you can look at auctions that have recently been completed, as well as current ones, to see what items similar to yours are bringing in for other people. After you find out all of this good information, you can now set out with an idea of what you should bring in for selling your items.

The other thing you will learn by searching the web site for other similar products is the amount of people that want the type of item that you are selling. The auction web site lists the amount of bids along with all of its items. This will tell you how many people are bidding on those items. Obviously, if you have fifty different people bidding on an item, it’s a lot more apt to bring in money than an item that is being bid on by only one or two people. This is not an iron-clad rule, though, since you only need one bidder/buyer to make money on your item!!

The best way to get started in the market of buying and selling is to decide how much money you can afford to invest right off the bat. I would recommend starting with at least two hundred dollars or so to begin your empire. It’s a small investment, and you should be able to double your money pretty quickly!

Then, you need to decide exactly what you want to buy and sell. Your choices here are virtually unlimited, as you have already seen. Here’s a good way to begin. If you have a hobby, or an expertise that gives you an edge in particular field, use it to your advantage! If you know computers, you might want to buy and sell computer equipment. If you’re a camera nut, then maybe photographic equipment would be your cup of tea! Remember, if you have an edge over 90% of the other people at the auction site, you will probably be able to spot the bargains that you can buy and then re-sell at a profit!

Another way to find out good items to buy and sell is to check out the auction web site to see what other people are buying and selling! Just because someone else is selling the product like yours does not mean that you should not try marketing your own version of it. As a matter of fact, just the opposite is true! After all, if someone is already successful selling something, you probably can be too! Imagine that everyone looked at HENRY FORD’S first car and said, "gee what a great idea… Too bad it’s been done, no need for me to try." We would all be driving Model A's if that was the case!

CREATE ITEMS THAT YOU CAN PRODUCE & SELL YOURSELF

Another type of item that can be extremely successful is something that you can produce on your own. Things like grandma’s recipes, a "how-to" manual on hooking up your VCR, etc. These are the items that can offer you immense profits! I know, you’re asking yourself "what kind of item can I produce?" It’s simple, look at what you are good at and use it. If you can make the best brownies in town, sell your recipe. If you’re the guy everyone calls when they can’t figure it out how to do something on their computer, write a how to manual on that! Look at all of the books that are available "for dummies" on the store shelves. They sell like crazy, because everybody needs help to tell them how to do something! So take what you are good at and MARKET IT! People will gladly pay $5.00 to $10.00 for the information that they really need. After all, it is a very small price to pay in order to understand something, or to better yourself. And, while $5.00 or $10.00 is a relatively small amount for a buyer, it can really add up quickly for the seller!

If you’ve ever watched the TV Food Network, and I know I watch it too much sometimes, you may have seen the show the Essence of Emeril. Chef Emeril Lagasse has a saying that I think is very relevant to what you want to do with selling you items on eBay. Emeril says, "We’re not building a rocket ship here!" And, we are not building a rocket ship, nor are we reinventing the wheel. What you want to do is take a simple idea and nurture it, build it into something that you can offer the buyer. What you want to do is look for items that go for people’s "hot buttons".

While it may be true that everybody is different, it is also just as true that everyone is the same in a few ways. Everyone wants to make more money! I don’t care if you are near broke or Mr. Microsoft, Bill Gates himself; everyone wants to make more money! Everyone wants to be smarter. These are universal things that you can use to make yourself money!

Reference materials, like what you are reading right now, are great items to sell! Trust me, they are not always easy to put together, and can challenging to get off of the ground! But, the payoff comes when you are finished! Not only can you sit back and feel you have accomplished something, you can now sell that one item over and over again and you can feel good making money by helping other people accomplish something that is important to them!

If you do decide to write a book, check your local print shops for a good deal on printing them up. When you are dealing with a lot of copies, and we certainly hope that they sell big, it is much easier to leave the copying, folding and stapling to the experts! Then, all you have to do is collect your checks and address the envelopes!

So, use your imagination. Examine your unique talents. Look at what products are in demand. It really is the simple ideas that can change your life forever!

SELL A QUALITY PRODUCT AT A FAIR PRICE

I want you to keep in mind, and never ever forget - People will buy virtually anything! That is, as long as you are providing a quality product at a fair price, you can be a huge success in buying and selling! Look for products that people use on a day to day basis. Look for a unique idea that you think is in demand; or take an existing idea and make it better. Use your imagination and think about what kind of a service you would like to see and if it is something that you can put together on your own, go for it! Also remember this, if people are happy with your product, they will become repeat customers!

Now that you know what you want to sell, it’s time to package it and market it for the auction process. Here is where it takes a little bit of planning and care to get your items noticed. Next you’ll learn the techniques that will get your items higher bids on average than similar items. The things I will show you are simple, but they are very effective. It’s amazing to see ads on eBay that are totally horrible. Ads that have misspellings are the kiss of death for me. If a seller cannot spell correctly in an ad, you can't completely trust their ability to address the package correctly! Maybe I should write a whole new book on the importance of the spell checker!

WHAT CATEGORY DO I SELL IN?

First visit eBay and see what categories are available then click on a category that you want to market your product in. Now you will see sub categories. Now click on that sub category and see how many auction Items are in that category.

Also, by using the search capability on each page, type in a keyword related to what you will be marketing. You will receive a listing of all the items being offered on eBay in various categories. Click on an item and it will come up and right below the Title and item # you will see a link which states the category the item is offered in as shown below. This is an quick and easy way to find out what a proper category for your product(s) would be.

STILL NEED HELP DECIDING WHAT TO SELL?

As I just mentioned, if you want to sell something on ebay you have to know what is selling and for how much it's selling for. With "Hot Item Finder" software you can search and collect all the Hot Items for current as well as past auctions with the click of a button!

Now, you can cut down research time, and find what real people are searching for with a program called Hot Item Finder.

With Hot Item Finder you can:

Find all the HOT ITEMS on eBay in minutes!!
Analyze EVERY eBay category for HOT ITEMS!
Generate the TOP 100 popular search terms!
Search eBay's online keyword database!
Gives sellers a great idea for what items to sell on eBay !
Use the popular search term generator to create very attractive auction descriptions !!
SAVE a HUGE amount of TIME at eBay
Analyze a particular category to see with one contains the most items!
Find out how much your competitors are selling their products
Increase your sales by adding popular search terms in your auction descriptions and titles !
Find products in your market that are selling !

>> Click here for a special discount on the Hot Item Finder Software

In my next lesson, we will talk about... "Creating the Perfect Ad"

Yours in success,

Jason James
Consultant and eBay™ Power Seller™
Founder, Auction Resource Network

Click Here to get photo hosting for your Ebay items for only $6.99 a month.

Jason James is originally from Boston, MA. and has spent time in the U.S. Marine Corps learning some of the discipline that is required for a successful home-based Internet marketing business.

Jason has built a long track record of success mastering eBay and building profitable membership websites.

His first Internet success was selling products on Internet auction site eBay, becoming a power seller then eventually putting together the website www.auctionresourcenetwork.com which detailed the exact steps a person can take to make money on eBay.

Jason's most recent venture is putting together a series of Online videos made by some of today's top Internet marketers to help budding entrepreneurs get trusted information to help their online businesses grow to phenomenal levels.

Jason has kindly allowed us to post one of his articles about how to be successful on E-bay each day for the next couple of months. Thanks Jason.

Posted by ralph at 07:01 AM | Permalink

Ralph Zuranski: Hi, this is Ralph Zuranski, creator of the In Search of Heroes program and I’m on the phone with Jason James.

Ralph Zuranski: He’s a young and up-coming star on the internet who has been very successful in marketing membership sites for eBay and is now coming out with a revolutionary product I think on July 11. Is that right, Jason?

Jason James: Yes, the launch of that product is called Uncut Internet Marketing Pro Launch July 11.

Ralph Zuranski: Can you tell me a little bit about yourself, please?

Jason James: Sure. I’m actually from Massachusetts and I was in the military for four years. When I got out I was looking for something to do.

Jason James: A lot of my friend had been actually making money online in their spare time doing things with eBay and such and all these different areas like a lot of affiliate marketing and stuff like that.

Jason James: So I got really interested in it. I thought I’m not a nine to five kind of guy so I started exploring the different areas and what I came up with was it sort of just hit me like a ton of bricks that this eBay thing is unbelievable.

Jason James: I got my start selling online with eBay and selling a few things from around the house.

Ralph Zuranski: Let me ask you a few questions about heroes because you are pretty young. I think you are still right around 29, aren’t you?

Jason James: I turned 29 in April of this year, 2006.

Ralph Zuranski: Yeah, so the heroes program is to help inspire young people on how to be successful in businesses and entrepreneur. So the first question I wanted to ask you is what is the worthy ideal you are pursuing with honesty and integrity?

Jason James: In business I don’t think you can go very far if you are not someone who is very honest and you don’t have integrity because when you are going to things such as live conferences and seminars and you go out and meet people, people form an opinion of you.

Jason James: People can see, at least I can. I can sort of get a feel for what type of person I am speaking with. Is this person a good person, a moral character? Are they an honest person?

Jason James: For young people I think it is very important to be honest and to have a high level of integrity. So that is what I would say.

Ralph Zuranski: What do you want out of life in ten words or less?

Jason James: Well, out of life in ten words or less. I would like to be remembered for making a difference in people’s lives. I would also just like to be very simple.

Jason James: I’ve had the same goal since I was young and that was just to be happy. To live a happy life. And like I said, to make a difference in people’s lives.

Ralph Zuranski: What is the dream of vision that sets the course of your life?

Jason James: Like I just mentioned I really have been very fortunate with my online business and it’s funny when you are starting out with an online business you are just going for money, money, money, me, me, me. At least that’s how it was for me when I was starting out.

Jason James: But as you come into a little bit of success and the money is there, for me personally all I want to do now is help people achieve success because it’s so rewarding to see when other people are at a certain point and they are struggling and sort of give them guidance.

Jason James: To take them on this path of, “I hate my job; I want to start an internet business. This is my idea and this is what I want to do.” To set them off and give them advice and mentor them and take this along this path and see them achieve success.

Jason James: For me seeing someone who emails me with a glowing testimonial like, “Thank you so much for your help. I was able to make this much money and I was able to buy a new car” or whatever. To me that is very rewarding.

Yours in success,

Jason James
Consultant and eBay™ Power Seller™
Founder, Auction Resource Network

Click Here to get photo hosting for your Ebay items for only $6.99 a month.

Jason James is originally from Boston, MA. and has spent time in the U.S. Marine Corps learning some of the discipline that is required for a successful home-based Internet marketing business.

Jason has built a long track record of success mastering eBay and building profitable membership websites.

His first Internet success was selling products on Internet auction site eBay, becoming a power seller then eventually putting together the website www.auctionresourcenetwork.com which detailed the exact steps a person can take to make money on eBay.

Jason's most recent venture is putting together a series of Online videos made by some of today's top Internet marketers to help budding entrepreneurs get trusted information to help their online businesses grow to phenomenal levels.

Jason has kindly allowed us to post one of his articles about how to be successful on E-bay each day for the next couple of months. Thanks Jason.

Posted by ralph at 10:32 PM | Permalink

Willie Crawford: I love the whole concept because, because the youth of today are going to be our leaders of tomorrow, and anything we can do to shape their minds to set positive examples. There’s… is television is too willing to provide negative examples and that is partly because of what people want.

There is this side of humanity that you know when you drive past an accident we rubberneck and gawk and see well who was killed or whatever you know. There is a part of us that wants to see that… but there is a part of us that wants to know that man is basically good and wants proof of that.

And so the greatest impact that I can have and most of us can have is too provide positive examples, positive role models. Showing that a future spokesman helping others. If you help enough people get what they want you will get what you want.

If we just focus on helping others life will work out in your favor. It will.

Ralph Zuranski: I think that was Zig Zigler that said that.

Willie Crawford: I think Zig said it too yes.

Ralph Zuranski: He has got an amazing story it reminds me of what you talked about the necessary aspect of forgiveness, where somebody’s sitting in a car and somebody honks their horn at them and that person is down the freeway and they’ve completely forgot about honking their horn.

Willie Crawford: Yeah you’re sitting there stewing about it and they’ve forgotten about it and it’s only affecting you because you are stewing about it.

Ralph Zuranski: And Zig had a funny story about kicking the cat. Did you ever hear that one?

Willie Crawford: No I didn’t hear that one.

Ralph Zuranski: It is one well worth listening too and getting Zig’s I won’t run the experience of it for people that get a chance to listen to Zig’s material.

But the idea is that a person had a problem in the morning like they spilled coffee and they were upset about that and then they go outside and get in their car and make a mistake in driving.

And all of a sudden somebody pulls out in front of them or whatever and they’re just furious the entire day and that other person didn’t even know that they pulled out in front of them.

Willie Crawford: No.

Ralph Zuranski: And when they finally get home the cat does something, pee’s on the carpet or whatever, and the person kicks the cat and feels a lot better and Zig says the person should have kicked the cat when they got up.

Willie Crawford: Yeah. The cat won’t appreciate that.

Ralph Zuranski: No I don’t believe in abusing animals but I thought it was a funny analogy.

Well Willie I really appreciate your time. I mean you have just given an incredible value and wonderful information for everybody no matter where they are in their lives. To understand what they need to do to change themselves to become like you who has overcome tremendous obstacles to be incredibly successful.

Willie Crawford: The only person you can change is yourself. And so you know it’s an inside job. It all starts with changing yourself, your perspective, what you’re willing to risk and you go from there. And it’s also making a decision
that you’re going to do it, not just thinking about doing but doing it.

Ralph Zuranski: Yeah boy that is just timeless advice. Well again Willie I really appreciate your time.

Willie Crawford: Thank you, thank you.

Posted by ralph at 05:36 PM | Permalink

Listen to the Interviews of the Leading Entrepreneurs in the World Who Are Heroes That Are Pursuing Their Dreams With Every Ounce of Strength and Faith.
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Michel Fortin is a direct response copywriter, author, speaker and consultant. His specialty are long copy sales letters and websites. Watch him rewrite copy on video each month, and get tips and tested conversion strategies proven to boost response in his membership site at http://TheCopyDoctor.com/ today.
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While publicity is the most powerful promotional tool there is (since it is more impacting, more far-reaching, and far more credible than advertising), it is the one that is the least effectively used. Too often, for example, business owners view a news release as a form of advertising.

It's definitely not. The media are not in the business to provide free advertising. And if you are guilty of this, they will also likely tell you (if they actually tell you anything at all) that you should have called the advertising department instead. However, don't get me wrong. Their goal is to report on stories that affect or are of interest to their readers or viewers. So, news releases are the media's best friends -- but only if they follow a few important guidelines.

Newsworthiness is the Foundation
Reporters are always looking for newsworthy items on which to report -- that's what reporters do. But they specifically like human interest stories, stories that are related to current events or important issues, or those that have some emotional appeal. Larger media also like stories that appeal to a wide audience. Targeted or specialized media, on the other hand, love to report on stories that appeal to their specific market and thus help capture more of it.

Of course, the foundational component of the news release is the news aspect. A good story must be newsworthy for it to be considered. But the news release should not tell the entire story. If you do have a good story to tell, your news release should provide enough information to generate interest and it must say just enough to incite the media to want to know more.

While there are thousands of ways to present a news release, there is no one "correct" way of doing it. There are as many different ways to present a news release as there are publications out there. However, all of them should at least possess some key elements, which are:

A strong, compelling headline
An appealing, informative story
A professional, tasteful appearance
A number of quotes and reactions
And the sender's contact information
An excellent news release can also be a powerful business tool for gaining free media coverage for your company, product, or service -- and keep in mind that media coverage tends to be a more effective form of promotion than advertising since it is coming from an objective third party. It can be used for announcing important company changes, new appointments or recruits within your organization, or the launch of your company's new product or service.

Capitalize on Leadership or Uniqueness, not Superiority
Being the first in some category is an effective tool that can also help spark more interest in your news release. For example, if you can support the fact that your product is the first in its category, that your service is the first to be delivered in a certain way, or that your event is the first or largest of its kind, you can and should use that information in your news release.

Obviously, a company claiming to be the best is never a news item. But a company claiming to be the first at something always is. Capitalize on it when approaching the media. Look for ways to market your story differently by presenting it with a different angle or a unique twist.

For example, think of the times you've seen a story about someone starting a business. While it may sound trivial, it isn't if that person is a local politician, suffers from a disability or has 10 children. In other words, bring your own unique angle or experience into your news release. A person I knew was an amputee -- and an entrepreneur. His product was a backpack with special straps that made carrying it a little more comfortable. I told him to use his lack of one leg in his release as being the inspiration behind the creation of his backpack. "One-legged man lightens people's loads!" was the headline.

In fact, human interest aspects are wonderful tools to spark interest. In most cases, adding a special human element or some emotional appeal -- even blending it with an important social issue -- will up your chances. The key is to be able to capture the interest of reporters who are bombarded with literally thousands of news releases each and every business day.

A news release is like a résumé, which is not meant to land a job but to land an interview. In the same way, a news release is not meant to get instant media coverage but should be used as a tool for sparking interest and curiosity among a very busy and exceedingly leery staff of reporters and editors -- and it must do so quickly and efficiently. Therefore, the headline as well as the first few lines should instantly communicate something worthy of their attention.

Blend a Human Feel With Your Story
For a great sample of an effective news release, see one developed by Leslie Spencer. She operates an online business called "Home-Based Working Moms," which offers resources for home-based businesses run by mothers. Her goal was ultimately to get exposure to, and to increase memberships of, a specific target market. (By the way, Leslie follows another important rule of online marketing -- niche marketing, which is also a great way for gaining attention from the media.)

She wrote an excellent news release that successfully tied-in the benefits of her business with the current challenges faced by most stay-at-home moms -- women who want to be more involved with their children while at the same time contributing to the family's income. Her news release, entitled "The New Entrepreneur: Shorts, Shirt and... a Stroller? Moms Find Ways to Combine Career with Children," provides the media with a great story to tell.

That said, you may feel that you're not a skilled writer. And if you're anything like me, you probably don't have the time. The following are great sources for help in writing, targeting, and distributing news releases, particularly electronically or for Internet-related information. Many provide the full service while others only provide guidelines as well as lists of media contacts.

Press Release Workshop
Dr. Kevin Nunley
Gebbie Press, Inc.
News Bureau
Medialink
Profnet, Inc.
Direct Contact Publishing
Imediafax
Gap Enterprises
PR Web
Email:Media
How to Get the Press on Your Side
Finally, Target Your Market... And Your Media
A news release sent to the general media often gets lost in a sea of others. Most often, it will end up on some editor's desk where your story will be screened and, if judged newsworthy, passed along to a particular reporter in the organization. However, special features writers, columnists, radio show hosts, news anchors, specialized media representatives, special interest publishers, trade publication editors, specialty channel producers, radio show (or segment) hosts and so on are particularly beneficial.

First, a news release sent to a specific person (and not the general newsroom or media entity) has definitely better chances of being noticed and reported -- it doesn't have to go through so many hands. While it may require a little research, remember that the media are made up of people too. They like the personalized approach just as much as your clients do.

Second, targeting your news release is far more effective, for the results that you want your release to achieve will be substantially higher when reported in a medium that targets your specific market. Ask the following: "Where does my niche or target market hang out? What do they read? What shows do they watch? What programs do they prefer? To which ezines are they subscribed? What web sites do they surf? On what discussion boards or forums do they participate? With what associations or trade organizations are they affiliated?"

The media's greatest concern is their audience and especially their ratings -- not the stories on which they report. Therefore, targeting your news release is just as important as market targeting. Not only will you attract qualified prospects but your chances of being reported will also increase since the media love stories that inform or affect their specific audience.

Listen to the Interviews of the Leading Entrepreneurs in the World Who Are Heroes That Are Pursuing Their Dreams With Every Ounce of Strength and Faith.
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Michel Fortin is a direct response copywriter, author, speaker and consultant. His specialty are long copy sales letters and websites. Watch him rewrite copy on video each month, and get tips and tested conversion strategies proven to boost response in his membership site at http://TheCopyDoctor.com/ today.
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Posted by ralph at 02:49 PM | Permalink

Click Here to visit Len's In Search Of Heroes page to read the entire transcript and the RED PLAY BUTTON below to hear his awesome interview.

Ralph Zuranski: Len, is it valuable to have highly charged emotions about achieving your goals and your dreams?

Len Thurmond: I think achieving anything is emotional. I think you have to be emotional in order to get anywhere. If you don’t have any emotion, you don’t have any energy. It takes energy to accomplish anything.

Len Thurmond: I think goals and dreams is where the problem comes in. What are your goals and dreams? People set unreal expectations. I don’t adhere to the theory that you’ve got to set a goal of making a million dollars in order to make a million dollars.

Len Thurmond: I think that making a million dollars in and of itself is pointless. I think your goals should be set to be happy, and whatever it is that makes you happy will come. You need to find an avenue that you can follow. We all have to work somehow at something, so you have to find something that you can do that you love. And family has to be a very high priority in everything.

Len Thurmond: As I said before, I believe in the law of reciprocity. If you find something that you love and you continue to try and help people better themselves through whatever it is that you do, it will come back to you and you will have everything that you need. And if you’re happy, then you’re successful.

Len Thurmond: I think the goals that we set are not as important as the happiness that we need to obtain. I’ve known people who were penniless and were ecstatically happy because they had love and they loved each other and they had their family.

Len Thurmond: What else is there in life? You can only spend so much money, and it’s great to go on cruises and do all this stuff. I do it. I make enough money to do that, but I think the money has come to me because I have tried to help a number of people and it brings people to me wanting me to help them. It comes.

Len Thurmond: Like I said, it’s reciprocity. I think if your goals are to be happy and help other people, then money and everything else will come to you. It’s inescapable.

Ralph Zuranski: Everybody in life has setbacks, misfortunes, and makes mistakes. How important is it to take a positive view of those things that look like failures or setbacks, and it’s hard to comprehend why it actually happened? How important is it to take a positive view of the things that aren’t going right in your life?

Len Thurmond: Wow, how important is it? It’s everything.

Len Thurmond: We, as humans, can be taught by other people all day long and never learn a thing. But you learn from your mistakes, and we have to make mistakes.

Len Thurmond: Someone told me if you’re not successful it’s because you haven’t made enough mistakes; you’re not trying hard enough. And it’s very true. The more mistakes you make, the more you fail, the more successful you will be if you learn from those mistakes.

Len Thurmond: I’ve seen a lot of people make the same mistakes over and over again, and it’s because they’re not willing to learn from those mistakes or admit that there may be a better way.

Len Thurmond: But it is the only way we can learn, and I think having a positive attitude instead of saying, “I failed,” as Edison said, “Let’s just say I found another way that didn’t work.” Remember that and move onto something else.

Len Thurmond: I think it’s imperative. It’s the only way that you can get ahead in life. Otherwise you’re stuck in the same rut and you’ll never get out of it.

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To quote Len..."If just one person can be helped to believe that they too can pull themselves up by the bootstraps, and become more than they are today, then this interview will be well worth the time.

Len's Programs are:
Traffic On Steroids
Article Automator
Auto-Blogger
Free Traffic Seminar With Shawn Casey
Mark Joiner Special
Auto Web Design

Posted by ralph at 09:13 AM | Permalink

It may be a cliché that a picture is worth a thousand words, but it is one hundred percent true! A simple picture included with your ad can increase your sales by over two hundred percent! Like I’ve said before, people are not comfortable bidding on an item unless they are absolutely sure what they are bidding on. A picture gives the buyer a strong visual image of what they are buying.

Take a look at the items that have the most bids in almost any category on the auction web site, and I’ll bet you that the ads that have pictures have more bids, and also have higher bids than the ads that don’t include a picture! It’s the simple fact that seeing is believing! Ok, so you're sold on an idea that a picture will help your item sell. Now your asking yourself, how do I get a picture up on the Internet? Well, that’s a good question, and this next section is dedicated to showing you exactly how to take a picture of your item and post it to the Internet.

STEP 1- GET THE PICTURE INTO YOUR COMPUTER

Ok, so this may be a no brainer, even for the novice, but there are a few different ways that you can accomplish this. The first is the old fashioned way, and that is to use a normal camera, take a photo, and then take it to your local photo shop and get it developed. Once you get the photo developed, you need to get the photo scanned into your computer. You can either buy a scanner at you local computer shop for approximately $80.00 and up, or you can take your photos to many local copy shops like Kinko’s and they can scan your photos for you, and save them on floppy disk or CD. Or, you can search eBay and see if anyone has a scanner for a fantastic price. Getting feedback as a buyer, also gives you the credibility that you need as a seller.

The other alternative you can use is a digital camera, which will take a photo and download it immediately to your computer. These cameras are great to use, and the prices have gone way down. You can find them under $100.00 now. Of course, if you can afford a high quality one, then you will have sharper pictures. A company called Tiger Direct has a great selection of digital cameras as very low prices.

STEP 2-PROCESS THE PHOTO

Ok, you’ve got your photo saved on your computer in either a .gif or .jpeg file. Next thing you may need to do is process the photo in a graphic program. Programs like Paint Shop Pro (http://www.jasc.com/psp.html) or LView Pro (http://www.lview.com) are available as shareware on the Internet. You can use them to do things like crop the photo using only a portion of the photo with your item. You can use them to adjust thing like the brightness and contrast of the photo, or even add some cool text over the photo to create the perfect ad! Programs like Adobe’s PhotoShop Elements is a full blown graphics program that will help automate tasks like processing photos and adding some cool effects to both your photos and your text. You dont have to process your photo at all if you don't want it. It will just look neater if you do.

Take a look at the photo of the item you want to sell. The first thing you need to do is crop the photo to only show the item that you are selling. Each program will do this fairly simply. You need to click on the tool that selects a rectangular area of your photo. You then need to draw a box only around the area you wish to keep, and then select crop command from the main toolbars image or edit menu.

Then you should go and adjust the brightness, contrast and sharpness of the image as needed. Try to get as much visible detail as possible. Remember that the better the picture is, the more bids you will get!

You can also add text directly over the picture of the item. This may or may not be useful for you, since you can type in as much text as you want before or after the image on web page. If you do want to add text, simply click on the text button, which is the "T" button in 99% of graphics programs, and select an area on your photo and type away!

STEP 3- POST THE PHOTO TO THE WEB

All right, the photo is taken, processed, and ready to be used in an advertisement on the auction web. The next step you have to do is to actually upload the picture to a web site. If you’re on AOL or a lot of other Internet Service Providers, you most likely have some web space allotted to you through them. You can check with your provider to find out how much space you have, and how to access it. There are also many auction friendly images hosting providers that provide image hosting for a small monthly fee.

You can get reliable image hosting for only $6.99 a month from a company called Onvia Photo Hosting for Ebay. Click this link to visit Onvia's website.

Once you have someplace to put your picture, you have to upload the picture. Upload, for those of you who don’t know, simply means to send that picture file from your computer to your web space. There are a variety of programs, which are called FTP programs that you can use to transfer files over the Internet. You can easily find them for download on the Internet from places like http://www.tucows.com or http://www.download.com

The program called WS_FTP is very popular, and easy to use. You can download a copy directly from the manufacturer by going to their website at: http://www.ipswitch.com/Products/WS_FTP

Once you have your FTP program, you simply log onto your server and choose the files you want to send to the web site. For example, let’s say that your picture file is called "auction1.jpg" and it shows the item you want to sell. You would start up your FTP program, choose the directory on your computer that your picture file is in, select your file "auction1.jpg" and press the button to transfer it to your web space.

There is a great tutorial on how to get started using FTP at: http://www.ftpplanet.com/tutorial

Entering the following text to your auction's description can now access your photo: (This is just an example..) http://www.yourhost.com/images/imagename.jpg

In my next lesson, we will talk about creating... "The Killer eBay Ad"

Yours in success,

Jason James
Consultant and eBay™ Power Seller™
Founder, Auction Resource Network

Click Here to get photo hosting for your Ebay items for only $6.99 a month.

Jason James is originally from Boston, MA. and has spent time in the U.S. Marine Corps learning some of the discipline that is required for a successful home-based Internet marketing business.

Jason has built a long track record of success mastering eBay and building profitable membership websites.

His first Internet success was selling products on Internet auction site eBay, becoming a power seller then eventually putting together the website www.auctionresourcenetwork.com which detailed the exact steps a person can take to make money on eBay.

Jason's most recent venture is putting together a series of Online videos made by some of today's top Internet marketers to help budding entrepreneurs get trusted information to help their online businesses grow to phenomenal levels.

Jason has kindly allowed us to post one of his articles about how to be successful on E-bay each day for the next couple of months. Thanks Jason.

Posted by ralph at 06:49 AM | Permalink

Ralph Zuranski: Well that is a wonderful place to be. How does it feel to be recognized as an internet hero?

Willie Crawford: It takes some getting use to. But I honestly feel I’ve earned it. I have worked at it for about ten years. See so many people start out down a path and give up. And not everything I’ve done has been you know worked out perfectly. So its persistence is just sticking to something long enough for it to work out.

And so it fells great. When I was at Yanik’s seminar in DC and half the people I talked to said I’m a subscriber to your newsletter. That’s a very good feeling but it also says I’m doing something right. It says I’m treating people fairly, I’m not misleading people, so it says I’m on track for what I want to accomplish.

Ralph Zuranski: Well why do you think you were selected for the unique honor of a internet hero?

Willie Crawford: I perhaps because of visibility, but also you know my value system. You know I really care about people. You know about I work out of my home I have my office there and above my desk I have a picture of some of my subscribers.

And so when I’m setting down writing a newsletter, I’m not just writing a newsletter, I’m talking to individuals. I’m saying I know that you’re a work at home mom with three kids. I know that you’re a senior citizen on a fixed income. I know that you’re whatever. And here’s what I found that works for me and here is how you can tweak it or twist it and make it work for you.

So I am an internet hero, but it’s because I care about you, I care about people.

Ralph Zuranski: Well how will being recognized as an internet hero change your life?

Willie Crawford: It won’t change it too much, other than me pointing people to the website and saying go check this out because there is other people that really do care about you.

And that’s what it is all about to me. It’s all about really caring about people. It’s you know… a 100 years from now I won’t be here and so I will be judged by what I do. And I don’t want to step on anybody’s dreams. I don’t have permission to step on anybody’s dreams you know.

Ralph Zuranski: Well do you have any good solutions to the problems facing society especially racism, child and spousal abuse, and violence among young people?

Willie Crawford: Only that you teach people that the only person they have control over is themselves. I’ve dealt with not spousal or child abuse but I’ve dealt with racism much of my adult life.

And the only person you can change is yourself. If you can make yourself a better person, someone that people can look at and look up to, and see that you know yeah he’s different from me, but he’s not harming me he’s making the world a better place then you’ve made a difference.

So and that probably even for spousal and child abuse it’s setting an example of what’s acceptable what’s acceptable. But no I don’t have any… I wish I could wave a magic wand and fix the world tomorrow but I can’t.

I can only fix myself and if I fix myself that will make the world a better place.

Ralph Zuranski: What if you had three wishes for your life and the world that would instantly come true what would they be?

Willie Crawford: Well I guess most would say world peace. But I’ve seen close up the effects of war, and you know it just disrupts ordinary lives, so peace and into many of the forms of suffering you know,,, I mean cancer is probably the most scary thing that most of us face. And yet it’s something out of kilter in our environment that you know that causes cells to grow at an abnormal pace.

So a cure for cancer, and then serenity. Too many of us are facing these battles in our minds, and we’re not happy we’re just we are at war with ourselves. So to me serenity is a major, major is a major importance.

Ralph Zuranski: Well what are the things that parents can do that will help their children realize that if they choose to be heroes, and make a positive impact on the lives of others?

Willie Crawford: The best thing that they can do is be a good example. I mean my grandmother in particular she just set a good example for me. She showed that she wasn’t just talking the talk, she was walking the walk you know.

She didn’t have the money to do things but she could show me how to do the next right thing. And things that we do when our children are in their teens or whatever, may not kick in until they are like ten years later in their late 20’s or whatever but we’ve influenced their thought process.

And so the most the greatest thing you can do for your children is to set a good example.

Ralph Zuranski: Boy that’s amazing too because kids really look at your actions as well as listen to your words.

Willie Crawford: Absolutely, absolutely.

Ralph Zuranski: Well Willie what do you think about the In Search of Heroes program and its impact on youth parents and business people?

Posted by ralph at 05:35 PM | Permalink

It doesn't take a genius to make money on eBay, nor does it require you to have any specialized computer knowledge. You don't even need to be a skilled entrepreneur, because eBay does most of the work for you. With over 1.5 billion page views per month and more than 1000 categories, they bring customers TO YOU and save you enormous advertising costs.

Your job, therefore, is to make a successful sales pitch to the customers who see your auctions, and doing that isn't as easy as you might think. You will be competing with more than two million other eBay sellers, many of whom are veterans at online marketing and highly knowledgeable in the niche markets found on Ebay. So how do you compete with them? The answer is simple: INFORMATION!

This guide provides the information needed to get ahead on eBay and gives you an instant edge over your competitors. I will provide you with insider secrets on Ebay trading that I have learned from years of online auction sales. If you read this guide carefully, you will be armed with the knowledge necessary for an extremely lucrative home-based business selling virtually anything on eBay.

====eBay First Steps====

Step one: Click here for eBay!
This link forwards you directy to eBay's new user sign-up page.
Enter all the information that is requested on that form then click submit. You will then be forwarded to a page where you get to pick your eBay user ID.

Step Two: You will need a unique name when asked for a user ID. You might as well advertise your company name for your user ID. For example, Instead of "BobSellsoneBay99" it's best to use your company name, like, "Bobs-Metro-Camera" or something to that effect. I think you get the point. If you don't have a company name, just make one up!

Step Three: Once that is done, you simply have to confirm your new eBay account by checking your email. Simply click on the "Confirmation" link within the confirmation email to confirm your new account. This step confirms your request to sign up to buy and sell on eBay.

The next major step is to get set-up to send and receive payments. Becoming e-commerce enabled if you will. The good news is this is very easy with an eBay owned company called "PayPal." PayPal makes things very easy to send and/or receive money with a credit card, checking account, or your PayPal account balance. Sign-up is fast, free and easy. Just click this link to be forwarded to PayPal's website.

Congrats! You are now ready to begin buying and selling on eBay!

Now lets start selling. First you will need to set up your eBay sellers account. Please take the time to read all the tutorials and "how to" links eBay provides: http://pages.ebay.com/help/basics/n-selling.html

Once you have these initial steps completed, you are on your way to becoming a very successful eBay Power Seller! The following will help you expand your business to its fullest...

In my next lesson, we will talk about how to answer the tough question... "What Do I Sell on eBay?"

Yours in success,

Jason James
Consultant and eBay™ Power Seller™
Founder, Auction Resource Network

PS: If you want to quickly and easily pocket some extra cash, or even if you want to replace your full-time income selling products at online auctions, eBay is the easiest and simplest way to do it.

My members only private site has everything from beginners guides, to the most advanced tips for expert auction sellers. Not only do you get MY insights and ideas, other leading eBay Power Sellers contribute their most advanced tips and ideas to my members area.

You can have instant access to all this amazing information within a matter of minutes. Even if it's 2:00 a.m.!

Click here for eBay!
This link forwards you directy to eBay's new user sign-up page.

Sign-up is fast, free and easy. Just click this link to be forwarded to PayPal's website.

Jason James is originally from Boston, MA. and has spent time in the U.S. Marine Corps learning some of the discipline that is required for a successful home-based Internet marketing business.

Jason has built a long track record of success mastering eBay and building profitable membership websites.

His first Internet success was selling products on Internet auction site eBay, becoming a power seller then eventually putting together the website www.auctionresourcenetwork.com which detailed the exact steps a person can take to make money on eBay.

Jason's most recent venture is putting together a series of Online videos made by some of today's top Internet marketers to help budding entrepreneurs get trusted information to help their online businesses grow to phenomenal levels.

Jason has kindly allowed us to post one of his articles about how to be successful on E-bay each day for the next couple of months. Thanks Jason.

Posted by ralph at 11:27 AM | Permalink

Click Here to visit Len's In Search Of Heroes page to read the entire transcript and the RED PLAY BUTTON below to hear his awesome interview.

Ralph Zuranski: Len, this is a hard question. There are a lot of people who believe that running into a burning building to save somebody is a sign of a hero; or a soldier who’s out on the front lines who gives his life. Those people definitely are heroes and doing a wonderful thing to save another person’s life. But a lot of times sacrificing your life for something, for a principle or for a goal, is a lot harder to define, and it’s a lot harder to do because it doesn’t just take adrenaline like it does running into a burning building and being in a battle as a soldier. What are you willing to sacrifice your life for?

Len Thurmond: What would I sacrifice my life for? I would hope that any situation that arose that required that to save someone else’s life I would jump to the occasion. I don’t really know that.

Len Thurmond: But I feel that a true hero is anyone who gives selflessly out of love for anything. We spoke about this before.

Len Thurmond: What would I give my life for? What would I consider myself to do selflessly? I would do anything that it took to keep my children safe, and my children are my world. I think we’re put in this world to create other lives that can be better than ours and to make them better. I think that the reason we’re put here is to help those who go beyond us to be better than we were.

Len Thurmond: We can only do that by loving them and helping them through it and being there for them when they need us, and trying to raise them in a way that they can go on to help other people be even better than they are. If everybody had that in mind, I think there would be no war; there would be no starvation, no poverty.

Len Thurmond: There’s enough in this world to go around. There’s more than enough to go around. There’s no reason for anybody being hungry; there’s no reason for any of this stuff that goes on. All this war crap is mostly over religion which is another reason I am against organized religion.

Len Thurmond: Why does one religion have to say that, “We’re right and, therefore, we’re going to have to kill all of you.” I mean, just to prove that they’re right. Is that any different than going into a church and gathering around each other and patting each other on the back to say that, “Yes, we’re right.”

Len Thurmond: It’s all crazy. We need to love each other. We need to accept each other’s differences and allow each other to be different. And I think it’s our responsibility to foster that in our children. If the majority fostered that in their children and they did the same through procreation, we have more than one child generally, the world would continually become a better and better place until there was none of this crap left.

Len Thurmond: I think that’s the only thing worth sacrificing yourself for. You can’t change the world. You can only do it a few people at a time and those people have to be within your family group because you really don’t have the control to do it for anybody else.

Len Thurmond: That’s who I would sacrifice myself for and do sacrifice myself for, and I love every minute of it.

Ralph Zuranski: That’s a very interesting answer and I agree. There have been more killed in the name of religion than probably anything else. It’s sad to think that all the great teachers and all of the people who created these religions, their whole statement was that you should show kindness and you should love others.

Ralph Zuranski: Yet, there are individuals who take it out of context and say, “If you don’t believe the way that we will, we’re going to violate what the teacher told us to say and we’re going to end up killing you because you’re not going to accept our particular way.” It is absurd.

Ralph Zuranski: So a lot of times people’s goals conflict with their beliefs. Are your goals consistent with your beliefs?

Len Thurmond: I hope so. My beliefs are that I’m put there to do something, and the only thing that I can think of that I’m here to do is to help a few people get by. I’m trying to help as many as I can.

Len Thurmond: We talked about it earlier. I truly believe this and I think it is something that most people don’t understand. They think on such grand scales that they can never really achieve it. But if you could change the life of one person for the better; if you could help one person, whether that’s your children or your neighbor or whoever that happens to be, if you can impact that person positively for their life and change their life in some way, then you are more than successful.

Len Thurmond: That, to me, is the epitome of success. That’s my belief and I am trying, one person at a time, to help people. My main goal is to make sure that my children are loved and grow up to be positive and not prejudiced and want to be the same way with their children.

Len Thurmond: But at the same time, I try to help my clients and people that I come across, friends and even strangers, who just look like they need somebody to talk to. I think that’s the best thing that you can do with you life is help whoever you can where you can.

Len Thurmond: I hope I live that. I’m trying to, but that’s my belief.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To quote Len..."If just one person can be helped to believe that they too can pull themselves up by the bootstraps, and become more than they are today, then this interview will be well worth the time.

Len's Programs are:
Traffic On Steroids
Article Automator
Auto-Blogger
Free Traffic Seminar With Shawn Casey
Mark Joiner Special
Auto Web Design

Posted by ralph at 09:11 AM | Permalink

Jason has built a long track record of success mastering eBay and building profitable membership websites.

His first Internet success was selling products on Internet auction site eBay, becoming a power seller then eventually putting together the website www.auctionresourcenetwork.com which detailed the exact steps a person can take to make money on eBay.

Jason's most recent venture is putting together a series of Online videos made by some of today's top Internet marketers to help budding entrepreneurs get trusted information to help their online businesses grow to phenomenal levels.

Jason has kindly allowed us to post one of his articles about how to be successful on E-bay each day for the next couple of months. Thanks Jason.

Posted by ralph at 11:08 PM | Permalink

Ralph Zuranski: Well why do you feel that heroes are important to young people?

Willie Crawford: Because young minds are so malleable and shapeable. You know, if we they look for examples of what’s possible in the world. And they need something positive to see.

I mean all you see on television is just negatives and all you see in movies is for the most part negativism. And so they need somebody that shows them what’s possible and show them what’s possible when you do the right thing.

You know to me heroism is about doing the right thing.

Ralph Zuranski: Well who do you thing are the heroes of today that aren’t getting recognition that they deserve?

Willie Crawford: Yeah I mentioned earlier, schoolteachers. There is so many schoolteachers who are in really, really dangerous situations who are getting paid next to nothing. They’re not getting any respect and yet they’re shaping the next generation of our country. So I think schoolteachers.

I want to say soldiers because I was a soldier, and because when America transitioned force what that meant was, the rich could then say well I don’t want my son to go into military so I’m going to hire you instead to go.

And risk your life to defend me and my rights and my privileges and someone who you know once you raise your hand and say I’ll follow orders and do whatever I’m told to do, you’ve basically volunteered to sacrifice your life if necessary.

And you know while everybody says a soldier is a hero probably, most don’t realize that they have basically given up all their rights. I mean I spent 20 years where if you told me to charge up that hill with a rock it was my job to do that you know.

And even if I saw the guy in front of me getting shot it’s my job to do that.
So when a country has an all-volunteer force, you’re finding people to step out and volunteer to risk their lives and their health to defend your way of life and to me a soldier is a big hero.

Nobody, again nobody just wants to run out and get shot but a soldier is defending your freedom, your ability your right to think whatever you want to.

But its often somebody who, who has less choices as to other things to do. And so because they don’t have a lot of other options they choose to go into the military and they’re off in a rock in whatever country. They are in the demilitarized known in Korea.

The war ended in Korea in the 50’s, the countries have been at war over almost 60 years. And there are soldiers on the front lines everyday right now.

So to me a soldier, you know a young man who at 18 gets married and marries his high school sweetheart, and then goes off and leaves her maybe pregnant, and gets a picture of his child being born while he is off in some other country.

To me that’s a tremendous, tremendous sacrifice. And I you know anybody listening to this recording, I beg them to at least you know show your support for somebody like that.

You don’t have to agree with the politics of your country, but what you have to realize is that the soldiers don’t have to agree with the politics of the country, they do what they are told to do.

Ralph Zuranski: Yeah.

Willie Crawford: You I have often said you know the old men set around and make decisions, and send the young men out to get shot you know. Those young men have no choice. They volunteered to do a job, and then they have to trust their leaders to make good decisions, and decisions aren’t always good. But they do what they’re told to do, so to me a soldier is a tremendous, tremendous hero.

Fireman, policeman, very tough jobs, they do things to protect us and we often don’t appreciate them. But we all should appreciate fireman. Policeman… you know I’m driving down the freeway and my wife sees a police car and she brakes or whatever. I don’t brake, I think great, there is a man doing his job he’s protecting me. And he’s taking tremendous risk.

Ralph Zuranski: Yeah that’s true.

Willie Crawford: And he’s getting paid next to nothing. And in my part of Florida 28 to $35,000.00 a year is salary for policeman. You know I’ve done that in a month you know. So yet it’s his job to protect me, my home, my property. Protect me against drunk drivers, drug dealers, people just driving wild on the freeway, so policeman are my heroes.

I don’t… its not us against them. It’s them working for me.

Ralph Zuranski: Yeah, well that’s so true. You know it’s funny that a lot of people don’t realize that the freedom they experience is at the sacrifice of someone else.

And if we didn’t have people that were willing to stand up for what was right and use force when it was necessary we would all be slaves wouldn’t we.

Willie Crawford: We would, we would. I have traveled to more than 40 countries. I have climbed the Great Wall in China, I have seen the rice terraces in the Philippines, I’ve seen the Pyramids, I’ve seen the Hanging Gardens, and I’ve seen most of the wonders of the world.

And we live in… we as Americans live in the greatest country in the world the most freedom. The most freedom of any country in the world.

We enjoy such tremendous privileges and we don’t appreciate it. You know when I was in Korea I watched the entrepreneurism of the Koreans.

And I went through sections where they’d taken the highway the median they found the dirt section and planted vegetables in the median and they planted trees or whatever you know something to harvest in the highway itself in the median.

I thought that is so wild, you know that they don’t have that much cultivatable land. And so they go out into the median strip in the highway and plant vegetables and tend them and then harvest them and you see enough things like that and you really, really do grow to appreciate what you have.

I’m extremely fortunate. I get to work from my home everyday, get up and decide whether I want to even go to work. Whether I want to go fishing or just go play with my granddaughter or whatever. I’m so, so blessed you know.

Posted by ralph at 05:33 PM | Permalink

Click Here to visit Len's In Search Of Heroes page to read the entire transcript and the RED PLAY BUTTON below to hear his awesome interview.

Ralph Zuranski: That’s a great answer. And to follow up with that, what’s your perspective on goodness, ethics, and morality? Do you think that it’s important for people to be good, have good ethics, and have moral behavior?

Len Thurmond: I think that all comes back to what I just said a minute ago that “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Goodness is being good, which means not hurting people. Ethics means following your inner self, knowing when you’re hurting somebody and when you’re not, or whether something that you’re about to do is going to hurt somebody and not doing it.

Len Thurmond: It’s really just a matter of trying to help each other and loving each other, and not trying to use each other. I think that’s where ethics and morality comes in. When you start trying to use other people for your gains, whatever those are, then you’re getting into a very grey area and it can turn black really easily.

Len Thurmond: You need to do what you can for yourself in your own way without having to affect other people unless you’re going to affect them positively. I think trying to help other people will always further your cause. I honestly believe you can help yourself better by working with other people and trying to help them better themselves.

Ralph Zuranski: Len, you know a lot of people in their lives have a higher power, some supernatural being that they’re involved with or some God consciousness. What do you think is the place of prayer in a person’s life? What place does it have in yours?

Len Thurmond: That’s a sticky, almost sore, subject with me. I mentioned a few minutes ago that I believe in a higher consciousness, a total consciousness that we’re all part of the one, part of the whole. And I truly believe that.

Len Thurmond: In any sense of the word, that would have to mean God. So, am I religious? Am I spiritual? Yes, absolutely. I totally believe that only an idiot could think that there’s not a higher consciousness of some kind. How did we get here? Why are we here? There has to be a reason. To deny that is to say that there is no reason for us to be here. That’s like saying, “I’m dead.” There has to be.

Len Thurmond: As far as where do you pray? As I said, this is a sticky subject and this is probably going to upset some people, but I have a real problem with most organized religions because I believe that most organized religions are people who don’t have the faith to believe on their own and are gathering together so they can convince each other that they’re right.

Len Thurmond: I personally go to church on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I love churches. I think they’re beautiful buildings and they do bring me closer to God, but I go there when there are not other people there because I don’t need or even want other people telling me what to believe.

Len Thurmond: The main place that I pray is in nature. I’ve always loved the mountains, and I think the reason I’ve always loved the mountains is because it’s God’s greatest creation and you just feel so close to the infinite when you’re there.

Len Thurmond: You can sit in the middle of a field in a mountain pasture surrounded by trees and snow-capped peaks and eagles flying over and know what God really is and know what spirituality really is and know what life is really all about.

Len Thurmond: Whenever I have a problem or I feel badly, that’s where I retreat to. It’s almost always by myself. It’s the only way that I can spiritually connect with what’s there.

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To quote Len..."If just one person can be helped to believe that they too can pull themselves up by the bootstraps, and become more than they are today, then this interview will be well worth the time.

Len's Programs are:
Traffic On Steroids
Article Automator
Auto-Blogger
Free Traffic Seminar With Shawn Casey
Mark Joiner Special
Auto Web Design

Posted by ralph at 09:10 AM | Permalink

Click Here to visit Len's In Search Of Heroes page to read the entire transcript and the RED PLAY BUTTON below to hear his awesome interview.

Ralph Zuranski: This is kind of a strange question, Len, but do you follow your hunches and intuition? I know women are usually more intuitive and follow their hunches more because it’s a part of the brain hemisphere, the right brain that most men don’t use. What do you think about that? Do you use your intuition and follow your hunches?

Len Thurmond: That’s a funny question. Actually, as a man we don’t call it intuition. We call it our “gut feeling.”

Len Thurmond: But, yes, I always follow my gut feeling and, if I don’t, I pay for it. Inevitably, throughout my entire life I always seem to know what to do, what’s right, what’s wrong, when to do it, why, where, everything intuitively. Through my gut, I mean, I can feel it.

Len Thurmond: I guess the gut feeling really comes in when you don’t follow what you think is right or when you don’t follow that intuition which, I guess, is what it really is. But if you don’t follow it your guts just get tied in knots. You know that you’re doing the wrong thing.

Len Thurmond: So many times through my life, and I’ve seen it in other people too, they don’t follow what they feel they should have done and, inevitably, it turns out to be wrong and it comes back to bite them in the butt.

Len Thurmond: My wife, whenever we’re trying to make a decision, the first thing she’ll ask me is, “What does your gut say?” and then she keeps me on track forcing me to listen to my inner self. I believe that there’s an infinite consciousness out there that we’re all part of God. We’re all part of one infinite consciousness, one thing, and if you open yourself up to the answers they will come. They’re all there waiting to flood in.

Len Thurmond: But when you deny your intuition, that’s shutting that door; that’s just slamming it shut. The truth can’t get in, and if the truth can’t get in you’ve got a 50/50 chance of going in the right direction.

Len Thurmond: I can’t say that I always do, but I try to always listen to what my inner self is trying to tell me.

Ralph Zuranski: Philosophies guide people’s lives. What specific philosophy or philosophies guide your life?

Len Thurmond: Philosophies; that’s a tough one. I don’t think it’s so much philosophies as it is a way of life. I believe that everything you do, good or bad, comes back to you tenfold. And I think if you spend your days trying to do good in one way or another, and that doesn’t always mean trying to help people or running around handing out stuff at soup kitchens, but if you try to do good and not bad and help as many people as you can, eventually somewhere, somehow that will come back to you and it will come back to you tenfold.

Len Thurmond: It’s happened to me so many times in my life, and it’s also happened to me when I’ve done some things that were completely selfish which I would consider bad things, and they come back to bite me too.

Len Thurmond: I think you have to remember that nothing is free in life. If you do a good deed or if you try to help somebody and you do help somebody, it will come back to you. Someone else will be there when you need it. It’s the law of reciprocity which applies in all things and works both ways.

Len Thurmond: I guess, if there’s a philosophy that I follow, that would have to be it. I do a lot of coaching and people pay me a lot of money to coach them, but I also almost always have several people that I do for free. I just feel that they need the help; they ask for it; I give it to them.

Len Thurmond: Almost without question, in one way or another, it comes back to me. Many times they become successful and they’ll come back and pay me out of the blue. I never asked for money. Or they’ll turn me onto someone else, or someone else will want to do a business deal with me because they mentioned how much they learned or whatever. It always comes back to you, always.

Len Thurmond: If everybody followed that golden rule, that “do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” I mean, that’s one of those silly things we were taught when we were kids. But it’s just so true. It does come back to you..

Len Thurmond: That’s not to say that bad things won’t happen, but I think overall the good will outweigh the bad if you are doing more good than you are bad.

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To quote Len..."If just one person can be helped to believe that they too can pull themselves up by the bootstraps, and become more than they are today, then this interview will be well worth the time.

Len's Programs are:
Traffic On Steroids
Article Automator
Auto-Blogger
Free Traffic Seminar With Shawn Casey
Mark Joiner Special
Auto Web Design

Posted by ralph at 11:07 PM | Permalink

Ralph Zuranski: Well also along with love comes humor. If you maintain a sense of humor in the face of serious problems because I know in situations that are difficult sometimes it’s either laugh or cry.

Willie Crawford: Yes humor is incredibly important to me. I mean I don’t allow myself to watch negative movies for example anymore. I mean I have gone through a number of courses that taught me about energy management, and about how your environment affects you, and so if I can’t laugh or smile about a situation, if I can’t be lead to laugh or smile about a movie its not for me.

When I turn on the news and its all negative I turn it off and its not because I don’t want to hear it, it’s because if I can’t change it I don’t need to fret over it.

If it’s something I can change and I should and I’m the right person to change it I’ll go out and try to change it. But I’m not going to spend you know, all my energy all my time worrying about something that I have absolutely no control over, no influence over.

And so humor, humor comedies are the greatest gift I can give to myself. That’s another thing when you look at what you allow into your life you have to be good to yourself first.

If you’re not firmly grounded physiologically and mentally you can’t help others, so you have got to be happy with yourself first. And for me that’s not watching negative TV shows, not listening to negative music, not listening to… not watching negative movies.

It’s watching things that propel me towards that energize me and push me toward my goal. It not allowing negativity into my life at all you know. If you’re a negative person, and you’re a friend you can still be my friend but I’m not going to hang out with you. There’s no doubt about that in my mind right now.

My mentors have taught me that negative people just drain you of your energy. You know if all you can do is complain you can complain to me but I will say to you what are you doing about it. And I’ll push you toward to doing something about it. But if you don’t do anything about it we’ll part ways.

Ralph Zuranski: Boy that’s so true. Well who are the heroes in your life Willie other than your Grandma?

Willie Crawford: You know I thought about that earlier. I don’t really have any heroes. My heroes were people I discovered in books. Because I didn’t have the role models that… you know that did things that I wanted to do in my community when I was growing up.

I will say that teachers who took on one of the toughest jobs in the world you know, shaping young minds were heroes, and soldiers and policeman and fireman they’re heroes, but there is a lot of other people in our society are heroes to me too.

Volunteers, people I went through some medical procedure recently and as I’m sitting in the waiting room, this young lady who is a Red Cross volunteer, who herself was dying with cancer and knew it, she worked as a volunteer you know just to cheer people up while they are in the waiting room waiting for a family member to pull through surgery.

I thought that is so giving you know. She said I’m not going to set at home you know thinking about my misfortune, I’m going to reach out and touch someone else.

And she was you know honestly dying she knew she had maybe four months to live. Yet she spent her time as a volunteer in a waiting room you know just cheering up other family members. That was so profound. So my heroes are volunteers, people who just give of their spare time or their spare assets to help others.

Ralph Zuranski: You know it’s funny to when people are depressed or cast down that the fastest way to raise their spirits is by doing something for somebody else without expecting anything in return.

Willie Crawford: Absolutely. There is a saying; I felt bad because I had no shoes until I saw a man that had no feet.

And no matter how bad your situation, if you look long enough and hard enough you are going to find someone who has it worse than you do.

Posted by ralph at 05:33 PM | Permalink

Click Here to visit Len's In Search Of Heroes page to read the entire transcript and the RED PLAY BUTTON below to hear his awesome interview.

To quote Len..."If just one person can be helped to believe that they too can pull themselves up by the bootstraps, and become more than they are today, then this interview will be well worth the time.

Ralph Zuranski: Hi, this is Ralph Zuranski, and I’m here with Len Thurmond. He’s been a friend that I’ve had on the internet for many years and has been incredibly successful in a lot of different projects that he’s actually done. How are you doing today, Len?

Len Thurmond: Doing real good, Ralph. I appreciate you having me here. I’m really anxious to talk to you about this. It’s a subject that I really love.

Ralph Zuranski: You know, Len, you’ve been a good friend to me for a long time. We’ve had some great discussions and I was always impressed with the love that you have for your mom in taking care of her, and that’s one of the major reasons why I chose you as one of my heroes. I was just curious. What do you want out of life in ten words or less?

Len Thurmond: Wow, that’s an interesting question; ten words or less. I want to be remembered as someone who cared. I think that would have to sum it up the best I can.

Ralph Zuranski: Len, what is the dream or vision that sets the course of your life?

Len Thurmond: Dream or vision? I guess initially like everyone else I wanted wealth and fame, but as I grew older and realized what success really was, my dream is to see my children be happy; to help everyone in my family as much as I can; and to touch as many people and society and help people find their way in life.

Len Thurmond: There are just so many people who are lost needlessly, and all they really have to do is look within themselves and believe in themselves. I’ve been through a lot in my life, mostly self imposed, and I think I can help people realize that if they just look at themselves a little differently, if they just have faith in themselves and realize that they can and will do anything that they set their minds to, whether that’s good or bad, the future is up to them.

Len Thurmond: If I could just convince people of that, then the world would be a better place all the way around.

Ralph Zuranski: Len, how important is it to stay focused on your primary goal?

Len Thurmond: Staying focused is probably the most important thing you can do. I think your primary goal is the question here. What is your goal? I think you have to have good goals; you have to have worthy goals. Then, once you’ve set a worthy goal that’s good for you and those around you, then in order to get there you have to be focused.

Len Thurmond: I think, more than focused, you have to be dedicated. I think you have to make up your mind that no matter what you’re not going to give up until you get it done. That dedication is what gets people through the hard times.

Len Thurmond: Focus comes and goes and it’s almost impossible to keep that from happening. Things around you, the world around you is going to change your focus, but dedication brings you back to that focus time and time again.

Len Thurmond: I think it’s really dedication that is necessary to get anywhere in life.
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To quote Len..."If just one person can be helped to believe that they too can pull themselves up by the bootstraps, and become more than they are today, then this interview will be well worth the time.

Len's Programs are:
Traffic On Steroids
Article Automator
Auto-Blogger
Free Traffic Seminar With Shawn Casey
Mark Joiner Special
Auto Web Design

Posted by ralph at 10:55 PM | Permalink

Ralph Zuranski: Will you experience service to others as a source of joy?

Willie Crawford: Absolutely. Absolutely. I have one friend who… one mentor who shared with me that his father, I won’t get too deep in this because somebody will mug me.

But he told me his father use to go into restaurants and pick out a young couple that looked like they were struggling and he would call the waiter over and say I want to pay for their meal anonymously.

And he would pay for their meal and you know the waiter and he’d leave before the meal was over with maybe. And the waiter would go up to them and say somebody paid for your meal already you know don’t worry about it.

I believe in service to others too that extent. I believe in giving anonymously. I come across people on the internet all the time that are struggling who need help and I give it to them.

And I again I am too accessible by phone. I need to fix that because there is people who don’t need too, don’t need access, don’t need me really, but they just tap into me because I am a valuable resource.

But there are others who really, really need me and won’t make it without me. And I don’t when I went through struggles and I ask myself so what’s this what’s life all about. Somebody convinced me it’s about serving my fellow human you know.

Helping out other people I mean I’m going to live I don’t know 80 years and I’m going to die. When I define why I’m here, part of it is to be of service to others. Connect to others is to love others, and so you have to, to me being of service to others is very important.

Ralph Zuranski: What place does the power of prayer have in your life?

Willie Crawford: Prayer connects me with my higher power. I’m again I make note of a Southern Baptist. My religious grounding is that’s what my parents believed in. So if they and the generation before them, and the generation before them, and the generation before them, and the generation before them all believed the same thing and it passed as least on to me. I can question that belief but I can’t believe I’m smarter that you know people who lived for ten thousand years before me you know.

There’s something wrong with thinking I’m smarter. And we all do think we are smarter. We think that you know well they were ignorant or whatever you know so I need to really look at this.

But prayer connects me with the person that is running it all. And it allows me to step back to allow energy and goodness and serenity and all those things just to flow to me.

You know, I mean throughout the day look for opportunities just too connect with… a God of my understanding see and that’s again my drug treatment days, where part of what you’re taught in rehabilitation is that a lot of us are out of kilter with our concept of God.

And if our concept with God isn’t working for us, there’s something wrong with that you know. You’ve got to feel that whatever your concept of this higher power is, cares about you and isn’t vindictive and loves you.

And so that’s why if you go to Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous or any of those treatment programs, they always use the term of God of your understanding.

You know I… I’ve spent to many years struggling with so what if you believe differently than I do. You know are you wrong and if your parents taught you differently than what my parents taught me, or you are wrong.

So I don’t even go there. But prayer allows me to connect with this higher power. Whatever created the universe and the world around me and that I feel every day of my life. I feel every day in my life and almost every minute of my life.

I mean I can be in the most horrendous environment I can be anywhere doing anything and I am at total peace with the world. And that is an incredible feeling. It’s to me the greatest power in the world is love.

I can be surrounded by people who completely hate my guts, and if I can try to understand them, and I try to love and appreciate them they’re disarmed. They’re not even a threat to me. It’s mind boggling if you really think about it. But the greatest power in the world is love.

Posted by ralph at 05:32 PM | Permalink

Click Play to listen to Mike Filsaime's valuable information-packed, mind-expanding, and awesomely inspiring In Search Of Heroes Interview.

Click Here to visit Mike's Heroes page.

Ralph Zuranski: Do you have any good solutions to the problems facing society, especially racism, child and spousal abuse and violence among young people?

Mike Filsaime: Yes, I will say a statement that will shock a couple of people. Racism will probably be around for a long time. I don’t see how you can have so many different people that can grow up in different cultures and unfortunately there’s negative energy in this world and those people are going to see differences in other people as fear unfortunately.

I would hope that one day as Martin Luther King had this dream that everybody can let go on the differences and understand that those differences can bring us closer together.

If we understand that there’s racism in this world just as we understand that there’s hate. There will probably always be hate and there will probably always be love. Of course there will always be love.

As long as we know the right thing to do. If we focus too much on the racism and look at these leaders that are fighting for racism lets go back to the 1960’s. There were two major leaders out there.

It gets very tough when you start talking about faith, religion and politics and things like that. I’m not going to talk about the one leader that spoke about racism and did it in terms of anger.

I’ll talk about the one that did it in terms of love and that was Martin Luther King. What he did is everything that we are talking about today. If you have debt and you focus on how I can get out of debt then you are just going to get more debt.

If you have debt and focus on how I can have more success then you’ll have success and you’ll get out of debt. So it’s the same thing that Martin Luther King realized is that there is racism in this country. But don’t go out there and focus on the problem and say “There is racism. We need to do this and to do that and they need to recognize us.”

No, talk about the positive things like love and talk about getting together. Then all those things will automatically go out. To answer your question a little quicker is not to dwell on the negative things.

There is racism out there and a lot of bad things out there. All these kids are seeing it in their schools. There are bad kids in every school.

Some have it worse than others. But if you focus on the positive and align yourself with the positive students in the school and you can overcome it. Focus on the good and you’ll have good in your life. Don’t focus on solving the problems by looking at the problems. Focus on solving the problems by looking at the solutions....

Ralph Zuranski: If you had three wishes for your life and the world, that would instantly come true, what would they be?

Mike Filsaime: I just want to live a long healthy life. I want it to be prosperous. I want to leave a legacy by helping as many people as I can along the way.

Ralph Zuranski: What do you think about the In Search Of Heroes Program and its impact on youth, parents and business people?

Mike Filsaime: I think we are blessed to have people like you in this world Ralph that get heroes together out there to work and speak and to help young kids. We need more things like that in the world and I’m so glad to participate in a program like this. I know that you’ve created some butterfly effects that will change people’s lives and young people’s lives.

They’ll look back and one day they’ll do an interview with a successful radio show or television station. Someone will ask “What was it that changed your life?” They’ll say it was a program called In Search of Heroes and they’ll talk about it.

I think you are leaving a legacy here Ralph and I want to commend you and applaud you for what you are doing for young kids. It’s the most selfless act a human being can do. I am very proud of you.

Ralph Zuranski: I really appreciate your time and thanks a lot Mike.

Mike Filsaime: Thank you very much Ralph. I appreciate it. All the kids listening out there today remember whatever the mind can dream up it can achieve. You can conceive it and I know that you guys will all have a good life and you are very lucky to be working with Ralph and being part of this program. Thank you Ralph.

Ralph Zuranski: Thanks Mike and have a great day.
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Posted by ralph at 03:11 PM | Permalink

Ralph Zuranski: Well who helped give you the willpower to change things in your life for the better?

Willie Crawford: My grandmother whom again, my father and my mother separated and my mother left me and my two younger brothers with my grandmother. We were like three or four years old and then she went up to New England to find a better job.

My grandmother was a short fat lady, but I just watched her interacting with the world and even though she didn’t have a lot of wealth she had no wealth really. I mean we had a $365.00 a year house payment and she worried about making that payment. She had a Farmers Home Administration loan yet the way that she dealt with the world showed me that there is nothing to fear you know.

There is absolutely nothing to fear. And lately I have run into a few people on line who are coaches or mentors and they’ve also taught me the same little basic lesson which is, most people fear things that they don’t need to fear. So if you can get beyond that then life is good. Yeah.

Ralph Zuranski: Well how important is it readily forgive those that have upset, offend and oppose you?

Willie Crawford: Well that’s an interesting question. You know as a black person, as a soldier, as someone from the South, I have been offended, I’ve been discriminated against.

When I was in the military I got back to my barrack but again I talk about a unit where the commander of the unit basically took care of those who went to the same school he went to. And so you were treated unfair if you weren’t one of the inter circle you know, and that was pointed out to me very quickly in that unit.

I learned that we are most comfortable with people just like us. People the same background, the same whatever just like us. And so once you go to understand that, it’s… if you’re different than me I don’t know what you are all about, I don’t trust you. I don’t feel comfortable around you. You grow to appreciate why people do what they do.

I don’t allow others whose smallness makes them racists or sexists or ageists or whatever to impact me at all.

I try to understand where they’re coming from you know. But I don’t allow them to impact me at all. I try to figure out why they are the way they are you know. If you don’t like me because of my… whatever… I want to know why I want to know what makes you that way and I want to understand that.

And I want to know maybe I can change your perspective. But I don’t want to change your perspective by arguing with you. I want to change your prospective by showing you that I’m, I’m different.

That I care about you, that I want to make your life better and I don’t want to argue with you. I don’t want to change your perspective by discussion, I want to change your perspective by demonstrating that you’re wrong and leaving you to that logical conclusion.

But if you don’t like me because of my race, my religion, my age, whatever, that’s fine you know. It doesn’t impact me at all. I worry about things that I can change and the things I can’t change I don’t worry about.

Ralph Zuranski: So you feel that it’s important to forgive those that injure you in some way either emotionally or physically just because…

Willie Crawford: Absolutely, 100%, 1000% you know I have often set in traffic, and or driven in traffic and just watched somebody riding their horn and then they are off down the freeway.

And that person may be fuming you know a ten miles away, while the person they honked their horn at should have gotten over it and the only person that is being impacted now is the person that is harboring that ill feeling.

The only person being affected is the person who can’t let go. So I’ve learned to let go. I’ve learned to just let go that it doesn’t matter. It’s not worth spending hours or even minutes harboring ill feelings toward someone.

Harboring resentment, just you know life happens and the minute it happens if its worth paying attention to, you pay attention to it that minute and you ask yourself what can I do.

I am also about positive energy. I am about it has been proven to me that if you surround with negative people, negative events, negative things that you attract negativity. If you surround yourself with positive people, positive thinkers, positive doers you attract positive things into your life.

I firmly, firmly, firmly believe that and so I let go at things that are negative I push out of my life. I don’t they are not admitted in my life at all.

Posted by ralph at 05:31 PM | Permalink

Click Play to listen to Mike Filsaime's valuable information-packed, mind-expanding, and awesomely inspiring In Search Of Heroes Interview.

Click Here to visit Mike's Heroes page.

Ralph Zuranski: Why are HEROES so important in the lives of young people?

Mike Filsaime: We need people to look up to. Part of the human spirit is knowing that we can’t do it alone. Having a negative person in our lives can be detrimental.

Having a hero helps us to block out everything. We want to work with that hero because a hero believes we can achieve our best. The hero sees us with crystal clear glasses. They can see the future. They don’t judge us. They love us and they see the best part of us when a lot of people don’t.

They bring out the things in us that we don’t even see. So it’s very important for a young kid to have a hero to work with because sometimes that hero is all they’ve got and can bring the world out for them.

Ralph Zuranski: What are the things that a parent can do that will help their children realize that they too can be heroes & have a positive impact on the lives of others?

Mike Filsaime: The first thing a parent needs to do is lead a life by example. You can’t be a hypocrite and tell your kids they shouldn’t smoke weed when you indeed smoke weed. Kids are smarter than what parents give them credit for.

Even if they don’t consciously see it subconsciously they pick up on things. A parent needs to live their life by example then they need to let their kid know how much they love them. They need to share that and express that and let that kid know that they are the best thing that’s ever been put on this earth.

When the kid starts to understand that they need to instill the properties in these kids of the laws of reciprocity to know that when you have what you want or when you’re going through that point in your life & trying to achieve what you want you have to always make sure you help other people get what they want.

As you are always a student looking up to your hero there is always somebody looking up to you. So you have the dual role of the student and the hero. When people look up to you as a hero you have to be there for them.

Ralph Zuranski: How do people become heroes?

Mike Filsaime: By just living a good life. People look up to you when you do things right. That’s a simple answer for a complicated question. How to become a hero is simply just living the life that you know is right. Then people will look up to you.

Ralph Zuranski: How does it feel to be recognized as an Internet HERO?

Mike Filsaime: Oh I’m honored. It’s something that’s difficult to put into words. I am honored to be on this call and as long as I know what I keep on doing what’s right in my heart I know I can be an example for others & not let anybody down.

If I do let anybody down it’s because I’ve made a mistake I can acknowledge it and apologize for it and move on. You can’t live the perfect life because you want to be the perfect life for other people. Along as you go out everyday with good intentions most of the time you’ll end up doing the right thing.

Ralph Zuranski: Why do you think you were selected for this unique honor?

Mike Filsaime: I look good in photos. (Laughter)I think that you and I Ralph had an opportunity to build a very good friendship over the last year and a half. We’ve had an opportunity to see each other and we both know that we want to do what’s right in the world.

I think everything we spoke about in this call about attracting negative and positive energy is that you and I both put out positive signals. I think it was just a matter of fate that we had an opportunity to meet and do this call today.

Ralph Zuranski: How will being recognized as an Internet HERO change your life?

Mike Filsaime: As long as I can realize that I can continue to help people then my life gets changed as I see other people’s lives get changed by any influence I have about it.

Ralph Zuranski: How are you making the world a better place?

Mike Filsaime: By helping others. Teaching people what I know and teaching people how to take action. I know that these butterfly effects that we are having with other people like Jason, Dennis, James and Keith is making them able to become heroes to other people.

That butterfly effect is now becoming a ripple effect and those people they are helping will become heroes for other people. It can go on for years and years to come and that’s leaving a legacy.

-------------------------------

"Discover an amazing revolution in internet marketing that generates incredible amounts of passive income so you only have to build websites once and then sit back and enjoy a continuous stream of income that shows up in your mailbox or PayPal account just like clockwork for years to come."

The Butterfly Internet Marketing Program is a Top-Secret home study course on online marketing strategies. It includes a valuable, easy-to-use software program that produces large opt-in lists in record time, while it generates passive income without using any high pressure sales tactics whatsoever.

Don't miss out on this opportunity of a lifetime. If you are desperate to become incredibly successful on the internet, invest in your own copy of the Butterfly Internet Marketing Program.

Posted by ralph at 03:10 PM | Permalink

Ralph Zuranski: Well so that’s so true.

Willie Crawford: So what am I risking, I am risking embarrassing myself in front of a group of people that I care about their opinions, but a lot of those people aren’t even willing to step out and take the chance. So what is the cost of failure, of taking a chance of making a mistake of not achieving your goal.

Often it’s just; oh I made a mistake and I didn’t do what I was trying to do. Nobody is going to torture you forever for that. you know… they may mention it a while but we very quickly get back to our own world and what’s important to us and we forget Willie missed up when he tried this project very quickly.

And so I’m not afraid to try very big things. I will send you, you know after this interview I’ll send you some links to some of the projects I’m working. I’m working many projects of multi-million dollar projects. And they’re not guaranteed to succeed.

Ralph Zuranski: Well how.

Willie Crawford: But if they succeed, will change the world. I’m involved in a project to build a number of homeless shelters in Baton Rouge funded by a Cable television show, a cookbook, spices, cookware, and all kinds of products. And that project will succeed but I am involved in a lot of other projects that are multi-million dollar projects that if they don’t succeed we tried you know.

Ralph Zuranski: Well how important is it to have a belief that your dreams will eventually become reality?

Willie Crawford: It’s extremely important, if you don’t believe in yourself and believe that its conceivable then the negativism and everything will transfer to your actions.

And so you’ll sabotage yourself. You’ll do things that you don’t believe its possible and man is an electromagnetic creature. We pick up on other people’s signals, other people’s energy.

And so if you’re telling somebody one thing and you feel something different, people can pick up on that just because we can pick up on other people’s magnets and stuff, the energy they’re giving off in their body.

You know you set in the room with somebody and you’re talking with them and thinking about doing a deal with them, and the hair on the back of your neck stands up and you feel I don’t trust this guy, you’re picking up on that person’s electromagnetic energy.

And if you don’t feel you should do a deal with that guy, don’t do a deal with that guy there’s something wrong with it. So you got to trust your instincts too. And it’s difficult to explain but I trust my instincts, I trust my feelings, they’ve never led me wrong.

You know I could go way up in left field explaining a lot of things and getting into quantum physics, and all kinds of stuff but I mean we live in a world defined by laws. As a marketer one of those sets of laws is the laws that Robert Cialdini laid out in the book Influences Psychology Persuasion.

You know one of those laws is the law of reciprocity when somebody does something for you no matter what country you’re in and anthropologist has studied every culture in the world just like now. When somebody does something for you feel an obligation to do something back for them.

And there’s other laws that they’re just nature laws that are invalid that say this is how human beings interact. If you can study and understand and match the laws, you’re actually quiet dangerous you know.

Ralph Zuranski: Well you know one of the things that everybody has problems with is their doubts and fears. How do you overcome your doubts and fears?

Willie Crawford: I say to myself I’m statistically… I don’t know I will live to probably be 80 my grandmother lived to be 96. And so and I’m 50 now, I’m 47 now. So I have to be willing to take chances. I have to be willing to be wrong. And again its going back to if I’m wrong who’s going to notice and what are the consequences?

There are no consequences? I mean if I am wrong somebody might mention it in their newsletter or on a discussion forum or whatever, but most people are not going to notice.

So I have doubts, I have fears, I mean I have I know myself better than the average person does just because I was taken through a process of getting to know myself. And most people will not admit that they have fears but yes I have fears I have doubts. But I am willing to step through them you know.

Ralph Zuranski: Well …

Willie Crawford: I am willing to do things that… take chances. Because I know that 90% of the time even if I mess up and I make a mistake the penalty, for being wrong is not that high.

You know we exaggerate in our minds the penalty for being wrong; we exaggerate the cost of making a wrong decision. I mean when you walk down the street, or you drive down the street and you look at people on the street corner 99 of those people don’t know who you are or completely unaware of who you are, they are in their own world.

They will never ever, ever, ever know of your existence. And so to worry about making a mistake is totally not called for. I mean if I go out on the internet right now and spend $10,000.00 on an advertising campaign and mess it up, nobody will know except the people that I spent the money with. And maybe not even those people you know.

But there is no reason to doubt or fear anything. Fear is completely unfounded. I mean who is going to know and why do you care.

Ralph Zuranski: Yeah, well do you think that 90% of all the things that we fear never become reality?

Willie Crawford: Yes 90% of all the things we fear never become reality. And its I don’t know, its crazy but you know you watch a horror movie or whatever, and you watch the monsters in the movie those are all products of someone’s imagination. They are not real you know.

So there is no reason to fear. You should identify what you want and you should go for it.

Posted by ralph at 05:29 PM | Permalink

Click Play to listen to Mike Filsaime's valuable information-packed, mind-expanding, and awesomely inspiring In Search Of Heroes Interview.

Click Here to visit Mike's Heroes page.

Ralph Zuranski: Did you ever create a secret hero in your mind that helped you deal with life’s difficulties?

Mike Filsaime: When I was a kid I was a Superman fan and I don’t know if Superman helped me deal with any difficulties but I used to put the towel on my back and run around the house in my underroos and fly around. I had my little Superman expressions and things like that.

It was good to have those fantasies but I think the real heroes I had was my dad. He’d get home late like 11:00 pm at night. He’d sometimes wake me up and I would be there sitting there at the kitchen table.

He’d be putting cheese & jelly on saltine crackers and we’d talk. Any problems that I had I’d talk to him about.

Ralph Zuranski: What were the qualities and attributes of your secret hero or your real life heroes when you were growing up?

Mike Filsaime: I guess what I always liked about Superman was
that he was the most powerful super-hero out there yet but what was great about it was he had his Achilles heal which was kryptonite. As powerful as he was there was always a way to take him down and he was able to overcome it.

With my dad he was just my dad so I had that unconditional love from him. He’s still around today and we talk all the time and we have an incredible friendship.

Ralph Zuranski: Who are the HEROES in your life now?

Mike Filsaime: Yes, the marketers that I have great respect for. I almost don’t want to name them because I’ll probably forget some. I guess if I have to name some they are some of my good friends like Tom Beal, Paulie Sabol, Donna Fox and Stephen Pierce and Armand Moran. Frank Kern was an early hero of mine.

Brad Fallon is a very good friend of mine. If anyone is hearing this I probably could list another 50 but those are some very good friends and heroes. Chuck Smith is a very good friend of mine. A young man coming up that really has a good heart and I like what he’s doing is Sterling Valentine.

I think he’ll be a hero for a lot of young kids for years to come. Those are just some to name a few. As I said there’s probably another 50 I could name.

Ralph Zuranski: How important is it to have trusted friends or a master mind group to bounce your ideas off?

Mike Filsaime: It’s extremely important. In the terms of the Napoleon Hill mastermind I don’t know if it’s that easy to structure a mastermind that well. The closest you can get to that the better.

Like I said before your income is the average of your four closest friends. If you want to give yourself a raise you have to start associating yourself with people at higher levels that you want to be like.

That’s what happens with the mastermind. You don’t want to associate yourself with the mastermind of losers because you will become a loser to the tenth degree. If you associate yourself with a winner in a mastermind and that’s not really the scope of this call, to talk about what a mastermind really is.

But, just so if any young kid is listening if I could explain the power of the mastermind. The mastermind is a result of what happens when two or more people get together. Ralph I could have one idea that’s a very good idea and you can one idea, so together we have two ideas.

When you and I get together and we talk about that idea we can say “You know what we should add?” You say “How about we do this?” and we are working together. What results in that is a third idea. Now two people can achieve a third better idea than the two we had by ourselves.

That’s the power of the mastermind. It’s the result of what happens when two or more people get together. When you get 8 to 10 people together in a mastermind that exponential formula I just gave you is what makes the results become exponential.

Ralph Zuranski: How do they make a positive difference in your life? Who do you feel are the real heroes in our society today that are not getting the recognition and rewards they deserve?

Mike Filsaime: The teachers and the pastors and the kids that are working with the youths in the YMCA & the Big Brother Program and things like that. Those are the real heroes out there today.

One thing I really want to talk about is those people that are serving this country over seas. Some of them are so young they don’t even realize how important they are or even what the cause is that they are fighting for. But they are real heroes.

As a mastermind unit together they build up and defend the strongest country in the world and give us the freedom we might take for granted.

-------------------------------

"Discover an amazing revolution in internet marketing that generates incredible amounts of passive income so you only have to build websites once and then sit back and enjoy a continuous stream of income that shows up in your mailbox or PayPal account just like clockwork for years to come."

The Butterfly Internet Marketing Program is a Top-Secret home study course on online marketing strategies. It includes a valuable, easy-to-use software program that produces large opt-in lists in record time, while it generates passive income without using any high pressure sales tactics whatsoever.

Don't miss out on this opportunity of a lifetime. If you are desperate to become incredibly successful on the internet, invest in your own copy of the Butterfly Internet Marketing Program.

Posted by ralph at 03:09 PM | Permalink

Ralph Zuranski: Well, that’s a great way to provide opportunities for everybody no matter where they’re at, that they know they too can do good things not only for themselves and achieve their dreams, but also help society at the same time.

Paulie, do you have any good solutions to the problems facing society, especially racism, child and spousal abuse, and also discrimination against people that have different perspectives on life?

Paulie Sabol: Good solution is such an interesting question because if good means practical, easy, simple, ready to implement immediately, I’m not sure that I do. I think I am lacking in that. I’ve shared with you before that from time to time when I see the scope of the problems I get discouraged and uncertain.

I will tell you that I absolutely believe that fundamental abundance is the solution to most all of those problems. If you look at things like racism, what a lot of people don’t know is that racism has often been used in history, for example, to thwart the labor movement. While racism will be incited as the way to say, “Look, those people over there, those different people, are coming over here to take your good jobs.”

Sexism has been used in the same way to thwart the labor movement. There is a great movie out right now about a woman coal miner in Colorado and how she had to break down the all boys network, and even the labor unions were being played against her, and the fears of difference were made.

We don’t even need a labor movement if we have fundamental abundance. The labor movement is designed to protect laborers from management. But if there is fundamental abundance, we don’t even need that, much less with management and what I like to call small capital, not because they don’t really fall into the category of big capital, but because they are small minded.

What small capital tries to use when they use the race card, when they use the violence, and this isn’t suggested to be an excuse Ralph, but very often people would have a behavior pattern that might include violence, fall into that behavior pattern because of financial struggle.

So fundamental abundance would reduce the number of triggers. Now they still want to work on the inner work, but fundamental abundance would decrease the incidents. It would put somebody in a resourceful position.

So that is my solution – help me do it.

Ralph Zuranski: If you had three wishes for your life in the world that would eventually come true, what would they be?

Paulie Sabol: Cool question. My first wish would be for a complete end of parochial and provincial paternalism, and to have it all replaced by a sex positive, body positive, diverse open and full panoply of the human expression. In other words, I would have the completion of the civil rights movement and the joyous expression of it for everyone.

Ralph Zuranski: Basically you’d like to have everybody accepted for who they are?

Paulie Sabol: That’s right. We don’t need to be burning witches. Second, I would wish for a totally healed globe and environment without wars of aggression and unlawful wars against sovereign nations. I wish we could just replace all those government tribalism with an anarcho village. Go right into true communities being autonomous and independent. It would be a beautiful thing in my view.

Then of course, in the spirit of fundamental abundance, my third wish would be to wish for three more wishes.

Ralph Zuranski: Unfortunately, you don’t get a chance to have any more wishes. So that’s it for you Paulie. One more question for you. What do you think about the In Search of Heroes program and it’s impact on youth, parents, and business people?

Paulie Sabol: I appreciate it, and I especially appreciate the diversity that it represents, that there is a place at the table for everybody. There is a hero that you can identify with. Even if there is a hero that you don’t fully identify with, you can grow in that identification with heroes that you might not even considered at first.

I know you’ve used the word acceptance a few times, but I think acceptance is a wimpy position. People don’t want to be merely accepted for who they are, they want to be celebrated for who they are. And that is what In Search of Heroes does. It celebrates the unique and consistent communications of success by different people.

Ralph Zuranski: That is probably the major paradigm of the In Search of Heroes program. It is the Help Enthusiastically Responsibly Optimistically Exceptionally Socially and/or Spiritually that stands for what heroes really are. They are the people that step into that moment in time and are self-sacrificing to help somebody else. They do it without any expectations of return.

I think that is what is truly needed in the world today. No matter who you are or what you believe, no matter what your sexual persuasion is, if you step out and help somebody else, at that moment in time, you rise above your own self interest and make a difference in the world and also eternally.

Paulie Sabol: Thank you for the experience Ralph.

Ralph Zuranski: Paulie, thank you for your time and how much you shared with us. I know it will resonate with a lot of people that need that assurance that what they are doing is at the right time and the right place.

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Click Here to listen to Paulie's In Search Of Heroes Interveiw.

Paulie Sabol has tapped into the Dale Carnegie's secret strategy for amassing a huge fortune that was shared with Napoleon Hill and Earl Nightingale. You can learn why and how to become successful by listening to their heroes interviews.

It is high time we start spreading "Good News" about local heroes through a grassroots program that is self-funding and that teaches young people how to make money on the internet by creating and selling many different types of new and used products on E-bay...their own and others.

Don't miss out on this opportunity of a lifetime. If you are desperate to become incredibly successful on the internet, invest in your own copy of the Butterfly Internet Marketing Program.

Posted by ralph at 08:34 AM | Permalink

Click Here to be amazed by David Frey's In Search Of Heroes interview. It was one of the best ever. His knowledge and thought process is nothing short of astounding, amazing...incredible.

Last week I wrote about Dr. Neil Baum who sold over 120,000 books with one phone call to Bayer company.

I want to tell you about another great example of this particular strategy.

A fellow named Jason Oman and his partner Mike Litman wrote a book called "Conversations with Millionaires."

You've probably heard of this book.

It became an immediate hit, selling over 145,000 copies in 76 days and then sold hundreds (possibly thousands) more on the backend with a bounceback offers.

Here's a peak at their now-famous book.

http://www.cwmbook.com/

But That's NOT The Most Interesting Part of the Story

If the story ended there, it would be incredible enough. But there is a Part II to the "Conversations with Millionaires" story.

Jason and Mike were approached by one of the largest Network Marketing companies in the nation with an idea to extend their book to that niche.

The company is called Excel Telecommunications and if you pay attention to business talk, you've certainly heard about this company.

It was the fastest growing telecommunications company in history.

So as a spin-off from their first #1 best-selling book they created another book that was specifically written for ONE company and their reps ONLY.

It was created purely FOR them based on what THEY would want most.

The book was fittingly called, "Conversations with Excel Millionaires."

The Excel Company Ended Up Buying 130,000 Copies!

Mike and Jason also sold around 15,000 copies directly to their distributor base.

Not to mention, they sold hundreds of hundreds of tape sets with the same title to their reps as well.

Here's the real shocker.

All of this was done without a single penny spent on marketing or advertising.

All told Jason and Mike made somewhere around a 1/4 million dollars from doing this simple deal.

And all it took them was about 25 days of work, which included creating the book, the cover for the book, the tape set, and the cover graphics for the tape set.

Amazing.

Imagine Taking This Model and Applying It to Your Business...

If you're a service company you should consider taking this clever marketing idea and running with it.

For example, suppose you were an accountant and you wanted to get more business from local independent auto dealerships.

What would stop you from calling up the top 10 independent auto dealers in your city (or in other cities) and interviewing them.

This would do two very important things....

1. It would be a great non-threatening way to introduce

yourself to local auto dealers and get to know them on a one-to-one basis.

and...

2. Compile a book or report (or audio CD) and use it as

a "get in the door tool" that you can give as a gift to other auto dealers in town.

You could call it "Conversations with Superstar Auto Dealers."

Then what I would do is send a simple letter to all the independent auto dealers in town and offer them your information product.

When they request it, instead of sending it to them, hand deliver it to them personally so that you can meet the dealer face-to-face.

I can think of a dozen other promotional program you can use with this simple marketing tactic.

I hope this gets you thinking a bit outside of the box about your marketing.

Have a great week.

David

David's Training and Educational Programs are Phenomenal

The Make Straight A's in School Program
The Small Business Marketing Bible
The Instant Referral System
The Coaches and Consultants Marketing Bootcamp

Posted by ralph at 07:45 PM | Permalink

Ralph Zuranski: I did too.

Willie Crawford: Yeah I studied why we do what we do. And how we’re impacted by other people’s opinions. I am not influenced by other people’s opinions right now.

It’s good that I didn’t learn what I know now when I was younger. Because I can set on the airplane and look across the aisle at the most… I don’t know the most beautiful lady in the world and you know strike up a conversation and feel completely at ease and feel like she’s more ill at ease than I am.

I can look at a ninety-year-old and see beauty in their eyes and just feel, feel their spirit, because I’m completely at ease with the world and with everyone and who I am and optimism plays a part in that. It’s wherever I am and whatever is happening it’s supposed to be happening right now.

I am where I am supposed to be.

Ralph Zuranski: Well do you think its important as far as prospective of expecting good things to happen to you, and looking for the silver lining in things that may not appear good first hand.

Willie Crawford: It is, you know I believe that when you do good for other people that good comes back to you. And it may not come back to you right away. I understand that, and so… you know if I do a favor for you or do good for you I don’t expect you necessary to give back to me but I know it will come back to me.

Ralph Zuranski: Yeah that’s so true.

Willie Crawford: And it does, it always has. I do I make contributions, donations, things anonymously to tons of organizations. I’ve walked into McDonalds, actually my wife is going to hear this recording later probably but you know I’ve tipped the guys sweeping the floor you know ten dollars or I have just given it to them to just watch their face light up, because nobody does that.

Ralph Zuranski: Yeah, yeah.

Willie Crawford: And it’s a good feeling.

Ralph Zuranski: Yeah it is a good feeling.

One of the things that a lot of people have is fear, fear of pursuing new ideas; do you think that it takes courage to pursue new ideas?

Willie Crawford: It’s takes courage to know that your ideas may not be accepted and that you may fail. You know if you miscalculate and you do something that was headed down the wrong path, so that goes back to that fail fast because something is going to work.

And a lot of my teachers in real life, a lot of my teachers in books, have taught that since the majority of people are average or failing, you need to do something different. You need to just step out there and take a chance you know.

Ralph Zuranski: Um, Um True.

Willie Crawford: And I do that. I have no fear of failure. I don’t want to leave my family in a bunch of debt when I die and I won’t, but I have no fear of taking chances. I have no fear of taking chances. I have no fear of rejection, which is significant, because too many people worry about what others think. I don’t care what others think.

I calculate my probability of success, my probability of doing the right thing and I take action. When I go to seminars I make a list of what I’m going to do in the next day, the next week, the next month, the next six months, and I do those things.

And there are things that I go back to my hotel room and get on the internet and do things that night on some websites you know just testing things. I don’t spend too much time thinking about it. I don’t get trapped in that paralysis by analysis thing.

I do it. I just do it and it has made a tremendous difference.

Ralph Zuranski: When you experience the discomfort that comes from pursuing new ideas and your pursuit of your dream, how important is it to be willing to accept that and go through it to attain a higher level?

Willie Crawford: You have to realize that if you do fail you know what the consequences are going to be. And if the consequences are extremely high maybe you should not do it.

But what I have discovered I read a book a couple of years ago and there was a thing in there that most of the time when you fail the only consequence is, maybe the need to admit that you failed. But there is also great probably that no one noticed that you failed.

You know knowing that knowing that even if I completely screw up, chances are no one even noticed that I missed up you know.

Posted by ralph at 05:28 PM | Permalink

Click Play to listen to Mike Filsaime's valuable information-packed, mind-expanding, and awesomely inspiring In Search Of Heroes Interview.

Click Here to visit Mike's Heroes page.

Ralph Zuranski: Was there anyone who helped give you the willpower to change things in you life for the better?

Mike Filsaime: Yes, my dad. My dad’s nick name for me when I was a kid was top shelf. I wrote about that in Butterfly Marketing. My dad is my hero and my mentor. My dad always used to talk to me in positive ways.

He brainwashed me a little bit. He never told me I was better than anybody else. He told me I could be the best and I can run with the best. I never realized what a difference that made until someone that you look up to in your life says negative things to you.

Maybe holding a beer can and saying “You are nothing but a piece of garbage. You are going to turn out to be nothing just like your grandfather on your mother’s side.” Kids are impressionable.

I watch some of these movies these days where you are a hero to run around with a gun and drive a Hummer and talk about “popping caps”. And sayings like “get rich or die trying” and other things. Again these kids are impressionable today. As much as those things may be entertainment they are really poisonous to the youth of our society.

Get rich or die trying is a terrible, terrible thing for people to look up to. And these young kids actually look up at these stars and say I want to be like this person.

The messages in those movies are horrible because those people end up having success at the end of the movies. So it’s telling you that you need to be a thug or die trying. Man, it just bothers me. There are so many better heroes out there to learn from.

Ralph Zuranski: How important was it to believe your financial dreams would eventually become reality?

Mike Filsaime: You set your goals and I have to be honest with you, I’ve been setting goals all my life and never achieving them but it sent me in the right direction. I set a goal years ago that I wanted to be a millionaire.

Sometimes you say to yourself “Well that’s a great carrot to go for.” What ends up happening is that when you get there you have to re-evaluate and set new goals. You have to start thinking bigger and thinking more philanthropic.

You want to start thinking how you want to affect lives and help people achieve success and dreams they want out of life. Of course I can still make money doing that. There is nothing wrong with charging money for mentoring programs.

If you believe in what you are doing and that people will spend $5,000 a year and it can bring them from making $5,000 a mo nth to a$100,000 a month, well they’ll pay you 10 times for what it is.

Sometimes you have to pay for information. Like I said before you have to be a student of learning. So those are some of the things we are doing right now. I believe in higher learning. When you ask that question about positive thinking and achieving goals, I think it all boils down to having a positive attitude.

Ralph Zuranski: Why is it valuable to know exactly how much money you want to have in your bank account and when?

Mike Filsaime: You need to have specific goals. The more abstract something is the harder it is to envision it. There are people that have taken a $100.00 bill and written three zeros at the end of it and they have taped it to their roof of their bed so every time they woke up they would see that they wanted to make $100,000 a year.

They take their bank statements and they white it out and they type in the number they want to see in their bank account. It’s just envisioning what they want and by doing that they manifest it.

It can come true and I believe it will come true if you start living the life that needs to be lived in order to achieve those things. You just can’t say “I want a million dollars.” and continue to work at the bakery and not do anything about it.

I will tell you that when you start focusing on those positive things you will attract those opportunities into your life. When you are decisive in nature you will take action on those things.

Ralph Zuranski: What is your definition of heroism?

Mike Filsaime: A hero to me is a mentor, a person that has unconditional love for the people that they are working with. I don’t see heroes necessarily in terms of Babe Ruth. Those are icons.

I don’t want to tell people to change the way that we can talk in this country. You can have sports heroes but the true heroes need to be the fathers and uncles and the teachers.

Those are the heroes of this world and people like you with what you are doing with young kids. I think a hero, has to do with some type of adult figure working with a young child.

-------------------------------

"Discover an amazing revolution in internet marketing that generates incredible amounts of passive income so you only have to build websites once and then sit back and enjoy a continuous stream of income that shows up in your mailbox or PayPal account just like clockwork for years to come."

The Butterfly Internet Marketing Program is a Top-Secret home study course on online marketing strategies. It includes a valuable, easy-to-use software program that produces large opt-in lists in record time, while it generates passive income without using any high pressure sales tactics whatsoever.

Don't miss out on this opportunity of a lifetime. If you are desperate to become incredibly successful on the internet, invest in your own copy of the Butterfly Internet Marketing Program.

Posted by ralph at 03:08 PM | Permalink

Ralph Zuranski: It is amazing to stand in the hall of heroes and the great men of our time. It is interesting to basically accept people on the way that they are and look at them according to what they are accomplishing and what their attitudes are and how they treat other people. It is kind of neat to sort of be like the Earl Nightingale or the Napolean Hill of my era to be able to ask people that are successful on how they did accomplish the dream that they set forth in their lives.

Why do you think you were selected as a hero for this unique honor?

Paulie Sabol: Before I answer that, let me say one other thing about your being the modern Earle Nightingale, Napoleon Hill, Dale Carnegie, or whatnot – this is an important point that I’m going to make. What excites me even the most, if I had the choice to be a part of the Internet In Search of Heroes as an Internet hero, or to be a part of Napolean Hill’s Think and Grow Rich, I would choose the Internet heroes.

The Internet is global. It is worldwide. It is truly democratic. Information on it seeks to be widespread and free. There is nothing wrong with paying for information, too, but for the most part, this is going to transmit to people that it could actually be illegal to give somebody a book about positive thinking, but they can get on a web page about it.

So in my mind, it is actually cooler because the Internet is worldwide. It is diverse and it includes everybody.

Ralph Zuranski: Will being recognized as an Internet hero change your life in anyway?

Paulie Sabol: Yes, it will. I did want to explain why I thought you selected me for this unique honor. I really do hope and believe that it is important for me to do this because as a gay man, it is essential for that on average one out of ten young people who are gay, bisexual, lesbian, transgendered, and even more than one out of ten who are questioning, wondering and curious, because of the high incidence of suicide in the disenfranchised.

Look at the number of gay teenagers who commit suicide. In some estimates, the percentage is a whopping 300-500% increase in the likelihood of suicide just because of the difference in sexual orientation. I am here to say to those individuals that there is something to live for. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. There is even a love at the end of the tunnel.

So just make it. Correspondingly, that is how it is going to change my life as well. My life is going to change because I’m going to have a place, a very easy place to send somebody. I’m going to be able to send them to In Search of Heroes.

When I know when they express that they want a more intimate, personal and profound experience of who Paulie Sabol is, and who the other mentors and heroes in their life are, I have a place to send somebody simply.

That is going to change a lot, because I have a choice to either not respond to that question, and use the time on something else, but now I have the ability to respond to the question every time. There will never be a lack of time or ability. So that’s how it is going to change things for me.

Ralph Zuranski: Well, that is what the Heroes program is all about. It doesn’t matter what your sexual orientation is, or what your philosophical orientation is, or what your religion is, that at any moment in time, you can be a hero if you just reach out to help others.

So, Paulie Sabol, how are making the world a better place?

Paulie Sabol: I am making the world a better place by focusing on creating opportunity for the disenfranchised. First, I run the original entrepreneurial internship program that I have seen a number of the mentors and experts that I have in my mastermind recreate and respectfully imitate.

That is changing lives. It is giving an alternative. The statistics says the number of individuals graduating high school who really have no appropriate place, they are not college bound, they are not wishing to tie themselves to the tyranny of a time clock. They are looking for something more.

But they are looking around and not finding anything. I saw this burden and I responded to it. It has been profoundly effective. Multiply that, I am creating a foundation called the Eagle Foundation which is Economic Assistance for Gay and Lesbian Entrepreneurs. I am basically creating a virtue capital, instead of venture capital, opportunity for gay and lesbian people who want to start their businesses.

Those are the ways in which I am helping.

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Click Here to listen to Paulie's In Search Of Heroes Interveiw.

Paulie Sabol has tapped into the Dale Carnegie's secret strategy for amassing a huge fortune that was shared with Napoleon Hill and Earl Nightingale. You can learn why and how to become successful by listening to their heroes interviews.

It is high time we start spreading "Good News" about local heroes through a grassroots program that is self-funding and that teaches young people how to make money on the internet by creating and selling many different types of new and used products on E-bay...their own and others.

Don't miss out on this opportunity of a lifetime. If you are desperate to become incredibly successful on the internet, invest in your own copy of the Butterfly Internet Marketing Program.

Posted by ralph at 08:33 AM | Permalink

Click Here to be amazed by David Frey's In Search Of Heroes interview. It was one of the best ever. His knowledge and thought process is nothing short of astounding, amazing...incredible.

Last year I was asked to give a seminar to a group of prominent business executives in Nairobi, Kenya.

Seeing as how I'd never been to Kenya, or anywhere close to that part of the world, I agreed to give the seminar.

It was a great experience.

While I Was In Kenya I Was Asked a Great Question

A CEO of a soap manufacturing and distribution company attended my seminar. We landed on the subject of creating a Unique Selling Proposition.

This soap CEO asked me...

"David, we make soap. It's not fancy. They make bars of soap and cut them into small blocks that are sold in retail stores. What can I do to differentiate my product from the other soap that's being sold?"

He pulled out a bar of soap to show me.

Indeed, it was a simple, no frills bar of soap.

He mentioned that his competitors have continually undercut him in price, which frustrated him.

And he didn't know of any way to set his soap apart from the other brands and he asked me what he should do.

Here Was My Advice to the Soap Executive...

Simply package your soap in a bright fluorescent yellow wrapping with a picture of a sun and rays of sunshine on it and call it, "Sunny Fresh."

He was silent for a few moments and then it seemed as though a light bulb went on inside his head.

"Yes, that's it." he said.

Well, I don't know if he ever took my advice or not, but I DO know that packaging can certainly create a perception of difference in the mind of consumers.

A great example of that just popped up the other day.

How a Little-Known Fertilizer Became One of the Fastest Selling Plant Growth Supplements In the World

This week my wife planted three new trees in our backyard. She was looking for some soil fertilizer and was presented with a bunch of options down at the local nursery.

After scanning the shelves, one product jumped out at her like a sore thumb.

The packaging was so compelling that she immediately purchased several bottles of it.

The product is called "Superthrive."

Would you like to see what it looks like?

--> Here's the front of the package

http://url123.com/zhxrm

--> Here's the back of the package

http://url123.com/zhe2p

Here's What Makes This Product Packaging Stand Out

Notice on the front cover how the package uses the following techniques...

1. A very bold headline

"#1 Extra Life"

2. Very powerful words

"World Champion", "Greatest Guarantee", "Proof",

"Vitamins-Hormones", "Science Miracle."

3. Bold colors

Bright yellow, red, and green.

4. A variety of large fonts

5. Photos of healthy plants and trees

And Did You Take a Look at the Back of the Package?

If you examined the back of the Superthrive package you would have noticed that it's as compelling as the front of the package, but in a different way.

There's no bright colors or photos.

It's all text.

But the text is very compelling.

On most bottles of something, the back is filled with cautions, directions, and ingredients.

The back of Superthrive is filled with additional sales copy. Notice how the back says, "EXTRA LIFE for YOUR..." and it lists 10 different things to which Superthrive provides extra life.

Basically the front of this package gives you all the emotional reasons for buying and the back gives you a lot of logical reasons for buying.

It's no wonder that Superthrive has taken the fertilizer world by storm (even though they don't claim to be a fertilizer).

Could Your Packaging Sell Better?

Mine sure can.

A good case in point is my http://www.MarketingBestPractices.com website.

It's ugly.

It doesn't sell as well as it should.

That's why I'm about to roll out a brand new site in about a week from now.

It will look 100% different and will include a lot of my best material - - but it will be packaged in a way that will sell.

So stay tuned.

Take a second look at how you package your products and services. Look at your...

1. Company vehicles

2. Uniforms

3. Website

4. Graphical depictions of your services

5. and especially your packaging if you sell hard

products.

Ask yourself if your packaging is exciting and eye catching. Would it stop the eye if it was sitting on a shelf side-by-side with your competitor's products?

If not, do something about it.

David

David's Training and Educational Programs are Phenomenal

The Make Straight A's in School Program
The Small Business Marketing Bible
The Instant Referral System
The Coaches and Consultants Marketing Bootcamp

Posted by ralph at 07:48 PM | Permalink

Willie Crawford: Its extremely important. It’s everything. Its you have to believe that you can achieve that dream, but if you don’t have that dream you’ll settle for where you are, you’ll settle for where you are.

And that’s very sad, because I deal with people on line everyday who are stuck in jobs they hate. Who are… whose family situation is not where they’d like it to be. And they are willing to settle for it. I’m not willing to settle.

But not only that… I traveled to over 40 countries in the military, and I saw what was possible.

I went to Panama for example, there were multi-million dollar condo’s and right next to them were tin sheds of homeless people who just pitched a shed next to the side of the building. So I saw extreme wealth and extreme poverty. So I knew what was possible. I know what’s possible.

And then it’s a matter of knowing that you can… can achieve you know the high end of that spectrum. And it was just… I set a goal for myself, I set many goals for myself, but and I take action on those goals. But I refuse to believe that I can do anything other than the high end of that spectrum.

And a part of that is also a philosophy of that’s ok to achieve a lot of things, to have wealth. My grandmother who I grew up in this Southern Baptist church she had fifteen brothers and sisters. Her father built the church and I grew up thinking money was bad. She would say to us as youth money is the root of all evil.

Which is not what the Bible says, it says the love of money is the root of all evil, because if you put that ahead of caring about others and things like that, that is bad.

Having money is not bad. I had to relearn that. I had to learn that it was ok to have money. That money lets you do things that you couldn’t otherwise do. You can spend money on things that you care about.

But only if you have it. So money is not bad. And I had to relearn that though. And now I have learned that… you know I clearly envision myself someday making ten, twenty, thirty million dollars a year.

But I’ll spend it on things that I care about. Cancer research, whatever, but money itself is not evil. You know it’s just a tool, it’s just a tool.

Ralph Zuranski: Well you know it’s important to have a positive view of setbacks of misfortunes and mistakes. And it sounds like you’ve derived at that position where that is your belief. How important has that been in your life of taking a positive view of setbacks, misfortunes and mistakes?

Willie Crawford: It’s extremely important. It’s I was stepped through a process of forgiving myself for the mistakes I made. I’ve made many mistakes in my life. Done wrong to other people. I was taught that you cannot undo those mistakes you can go back and apologize for those mistakes and people may or may not forgive you and that’s ok either way. You have to let go of it.

I’m only in control of myself and even then only to a certain extent. I learned a long time ago I’m not even in control of myself. And so I can only control what I do at a given moment in time.

My belief system is that I can do anything and I… there is this saying that we call it the serenity prayer. Which is like God grant me the serenity to accept the things that I cannot change, change the things that I cannot find, I actually lost that.

Ralph Zuranski: Change the things that I can, and know the difference between the two.

Willie Crawford: There you go, there you go. So if I look at something and I can change it and it needs to be changed I’ll do it. But if I look at something and I have two beautiful daughters. My wife is from the Philippines and I’m African American. So my daughters have this jet-black hair, its straight, they are the ideal of many cultures.

I mean you as a white person you want to get a tan or whatever sometime. Well they’ve got the tan, they’ve got the straight hair that I wanted and they are in the middle.

And I as they were growing up I looked at all the young suitors they had and wanted to chase them off but couldn’t and I learned some things are out of your control you know.

Ralph Zuranski: Yeah. Yeah.

Willie Crawford: You just go with the flow and if you can’t change it you don’t worry about it. So I’m at peace with myself and with the world right now and that is a very good place to be.

Ralph Zuranski: Well I guess so, well how important is optimism in achieving that peace?

Willie Crawford: Apart of me is all so about energy management and not allowing myself to be influenced too much be negative people and negative things. And so I’m a very optimistic person.

Again I see myself as making millions of dollars not just to have it because money is just an instrument, it’s just a piece of paper well actually 94% of the worlds money is zero’s and one’s in a computer system.

But to go from welfare, to go from being on government assistance so poor that I woke up one point in my life and I’m ready to school and my school’s the bottom is falling off and my grandmother says well here honey wear my shoes to school.

And I’m like I can’t wear my grandmother’s shoes to school. And she is like you can, so I put on my grandmother’s shoes. These shoes were like nurse’s shoes with thick bottoms because she was a diabetic and she had to have her feet comfortable.

And I wore those shoes to school and the only people who mentioned it and gave me a hard time were cousins, because they were embarrassed that I was wearing as a teenager, a grandmother’s shoes. But I had no choice.

And so I could have missed school until the next check arrived, the next welfare check and we could have gone to the local department store and bought another pair of shoes but I didn’t, I just wore them to school.

And so that was such a lesson for me in life, and just… and not letting what others say or do or think impact you too much. When I was in college I studied sociology.

Posted by ralph at 05:27 PM | Permalink

Click Play to listen to Mike Filsaime's valuable information-packed, mind-expanding, and awesomely inspiring In Search Of Heroes Interview.

Click Here to visit Mike's Heroes page.

Ralph Zuranski: Do you readily forgive those who upset, offend and oppose
you?

Mike Filsaime: I am so forgiving to a fault. I think that’s the Scorpio nature in me. I was born October 26. I almost go into everything that I do with the expectation that I’m going to do everything I can right. I hope this person does too but if they don’t then so be it.

I try not to hold a grudge. I’ll kick and scream sometimes and say “Oh man I can’t believe this guy did this to me.” But you have to get over it. If you are going to dwell on the negative things and in the past think instead of what you could be doing if you are working on a project and moving something forward.

I’ve been burned so many times. I could basically tell you on a weekly basis how I get burned. But look where I am in my life because I let it go.

I say “Ok you know if that happened and this & that got shut down or this person did this & that then I hope in my heart this person changes their ways so they can be a better person. Because if they don’t they’ll only have bad things happen to them.”

I don’t wish that upon them. There was a person recently that we didn’t get along with each other in Butterfly Marketing. Remember I said you may have fire your bad friends, well this guy wasn’t behaving. I had to fire him as a customer and refund him.

So he now is going around in forums and tongue & cheek beating me up a little bit. I’m not going to play down to that game. I sent him a very polite email and apologized that we got off on the wrong foot.

I said “We can do better things in this world if we both put positive energy out there. I give you my word I’ll never say anything bad about you regardless of what you continue to do to me.

However, maybe one day we’ll meet and let’s not have any uncomfortable feelings when that happens. I always believed that if you don’t have anything nice to say about people then don’t say anything. And right there, do I have faults with that? I’m sure I do.

I’m sure there are times I may have a cup of coffee or a drink with somebody and a topic will come up and I’ll probably talk in ways that I shouldn’t about somebody. But publicly you should never do anything like that. Without a doubt you have to be able to forgive people and forgive yourself.

You have to know when you’ve made faults. You have to say I’m sorry and apologize to people and reach out to them before they reach out to you if you believe that they may be upset. You have to let it go and don’t associate with those types of people but you can definitely forgive them.

Ralph Zuranski: Do you experience service to others as a source of joy?

Mike Filsaime: Yes. It’s not about the money. Money is a byproduct of doing good things. If you can create good products and good services then that’s what life is all about.

It’s about good products and good services. What your doing In Search of Heroes, is a good service. I definitely believe in putting a good service out there and everything else you want in life will come.

Ralph Zuranski: When was the lowest point in your life and how did you change your life path to one of victory over the obstacles you were facing at that time?

Mike Filsaime: I’ve been fortunate Ralph that I haven’t had, knock wood of course, and I will (Knock, knock), any deaths in my immediate family. My parents got divorced when I was in my mid-twenties so that didn’t affect me the way it could have.

Maybe it would have affected someone who was 8 years old. I lost my grandfather. We knew each other but we didn’t know each other well. So “knock wood” again there hasn’t been any type of tragedy or anything like that.

However, I had financial tragedy and stress back in 1998. I was in the car business. I left the car business for 6 months to get involved with a real estate investor who turned out to be nothing more than a con man. He took me and about six other people in on this con. It was a con by driving a Mercedes and having a house that wasn’t his and all these other things that we believed were his.

His intentions were good. His intentions were to use our credit and our money to buy houses and repair them and flip them. What ended up happening, remember what we said about taking on too many projects, he was trying to buy too many houses at a time.

While he was trying to put all this construction in and collecting the mortgage payments and when the cash flow went negative he started keeping the mortgage payments and putting it in his own pocket.

Several months later we found out that the whole project went bankrupt. Since it was our credit and our money he lost nothing. We had him arrested and we filed charges and put all that stuff behind us.

What it left me in 1998 was $70,000 in debt and 3 foreclosures and 3 repossessions. One was for a Mercedes Benz and one for a Ford Exhibition and a Harley Davidson. I had signed for all these things for him under the business name.

Also the credit card machine and three foreclosures were in my name so I had no choice at that time but to file bankruptcy. They were coming after everything I owned. If you look at all these successful people out there like Stephen Pierce, Mark Victor Hansen, Armand Moran and Joe Vitalie there’s one thing you can be comfortable in knowing.

The school of hard knocks happens to all of us. So we must stop with the self-pity. Everybody’s got their own story. I heard recently that everybody is going to tell you “My parents left me when I was three years old and I was put up for adoption.” Ok, well so what, everybody’s got a story.

Let it go. Stop holding on to it and let that be an inspiration to people when you’ve overcome it. Start thinking positive and stop dwelling on it on that. Eighty-five percent of the people in the US have grown up in a dysfunctional family.

You are not alone. So stop thinking about that you were given these bad things. I think that 9 out of 10 successful people that are multi-millionaires in this world have gone through major tragedies or bankruptcy or financial tragedy.

It’s ok to let those things happen. You can’t be embarrassed and say “Oh I don’t want anybody to know that I went bankrupt.” Hey, it happens. We’ve made mistakes in our life. We have to learn from them and move on.

-------------------------------

"Discover an amazing revolution in internet marketing that generates incredible amounts of passive income so you only have to build websites once and then sit back and enjoy a continuous stream of income that shows up in your mailbox or PayPal account just like clockwork for years to come."

The Butterfly Internet Marketing Program is a Top-Secret home study course on online marketing strategies. It includes a valuable, easy-to-use software program that produces large opt-in lists in record time, while it generates passive income without using any high pressure sales tactics whatsoever.

Don't miss out on this opportunity of a lifetime. If you are desperate to become incredibly successful on the internet, invest in your own copy of the Butterfly Internet Marketing Program.

Posted by ralph at 03:06 PM | Permalink

Ralph Zuranski: That really is amazing. How do people actually become heroes, Paulie?

Paulie Sabol: The first answer is a day at a time. You become a hero one day at a time. This is the other part of it. Do you know how you become a villain? One day at a time. You become a hero or a villain one day at a time.

So let me tell you what the difference is. If the path is the same, what’s the difference? For your case, we will brand the hero’s edge. The hero’s edge works this way. Today there will be a challenge. You will respond to that challenge with the simple discipline of heroism or you will respond to it with the simple neglect of villainy.

I may have said this once before, but I want to be clear. When I am making this hard juxtaposition, of course there are shades of gray. But for the purpose of this, let’s just say the only thing that it takes for evil to prevail is for good people to do nothing.

Our only choices are heroism or villainy. So today when that challenge comes, we are either going to respond as a hero, with heroism, or we are going to respond with neglect which is villainy. In doing that today, we won’t notice a big difference. It is sort of like if you had the choice today to read a book on a subject area that you’d like increase your strength in.

If you read it today, a chapter, you may not know a whole lot more, right? You may not notice the difference. But what happens if you read a chapter a day a year from now? Now you’ve read maybe ten different 36 chapter books. That’s a huge amount of information. That’s going to make a huge difference.

What if you do that for the entirety of your junior high years? You do that for three years. You’ve now read 30 books. In many cases, that is as many authoritative books as there are on a subject. You are really an expert at that moment. It is the same way with heroism.

The act of making the decision to act like a hero right now – in the action of doing so will seem to make no difference at all, but the compound effect of making the simple decision of discipline to act like a hero rather than the simple act of neglect, villainy, over time will make all the difference in the world.

That is why the ability to move into your destiny as a hero is assured. That is why you can trust the truth. That is why it must happen. All it takes is the little act of discipline. It is not hard to do. Is it hard to read a chapter today? Is that extraneous and take hours and hours of time to read a chapter? No, just a little bit of time.

But the compound effect over time assures greatness. That is how you become a hero today.

Ralph Zuranski: That is one of the things that has been so outstanding in doing the Hero’s interviews, is that the majority of the heroes that I’ve had the opportunity to interview have said that is has been all the great men that they’ve read stories about, and become their mentors in their mind, their virtual heroes, because they didn’t have people that were heroes in their lives.

They didn’t have good examples. It is just such a good thing to talk about that Paulie, is that it is so true. How does it feel to be recognized as an Internet hero?

Paulie Sabol: Naturally, of course, it is a terrific honor. Not only is it a joyous experience in and of itself, it would be if there were no other heroes in the entire collection. But the ability to be among this who’s who of heroes you’ve assembled. It is kind of like if I were inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame that would be a great honor.

But the real honor is being among people like Pete Rose, and all of these other individuals who have touched back all through time, and will continue to touch forward through the rest of time. Yes, it is a tremendous honor.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Click Here to listen to Paulie's In Search Of Heroes Interveiw.

Paulie Sabol has tapped into the Dale Carnegie's secret strategy for amassing a huge fortune that was shared with Napoleon Hill and Earl Nightingale. You can learn why and how to become successful by listening to their heroes interviews.

It is high time we start spreading "Good News" about local heroes through a grassroots program that is self-funding and that teaches young people how to make money on the internet by creating and selling many different types of new and used products on E-bay...their own and others.

Don't miss out on this opportunity of a lifetime. If you are desperate to become incredibly successful on the internet, invest in your own copy of the Butterfly Internet Marketing Program.

Posted by ralph at 08:32 AM | Permalink

Ralph Zuranski: Really.

Willie Crawford: I was a functional walking drunk. I would go to work and do my job and drive back and forth, and I could function perfectly normal but my body had said you completely overwhelm me, I’m tired and I’m lying on the floor of a shower with the water flowing and the room is going dark.

And it was my wife’s yelling and screaming don’t you leave me, don’t you do this to me. That I guess pulled me out of it enough to where she helped me out of the shower, and I sat down on the toilet lid and got dressed and they took me to the hospital where they sent me into treatment for alcohol addiction at the time.

A third of my blood was alcohol.

Ralph Zuranski: Really.

Willie Crawford: It was in excess of .35 I think it was.

Ralph Zuranski: Oh man.

Willie Crawford: It should have poisoned my brain enough where my brain should have stopped working you know. But and so they sent me to a 28 day treatment program, and that was the low point of my life. It was the weeks leading up to that I had done a number of crazy things.

I spent three years in Alaska where I was assigned as a soldier and when you go out fishing, or in the wilderness in Alaska you can look behind you and see a bear or a wolf or a badger or some other creature that wants to hurt you.

And so I carried a 44 Magnum pistol with bare rounds and these rounds were powerful enough, where somebody can drive at you with a car and you can shoot through the radiator into the engine block of a car with a 44 Magnum and stop that car.

Ralph Zuranski: Wow.

Willie Crawford: That is how powerful that pistol was. I went from Alaska to Florida with the military, I brought my pistol along, and at my lowest point I actually considered suicide. And I can remember being out drunk and thinking I’ve lost control. I’m a control freak.

A lightening told myself, my life, everything and I thought to myself I’ve lost control. And I thought ah I’m going to end it all. And I actually stuck my gun to my head and cocked it and then I thought I don’t want to die alone I want somebody to hold me in their arms as I die. That is what stopped me from shooting myself.

I just didn’t want to be out by myself in the middle of nowhere with no one appreciating the fact that I was killing myself.

Ralph Zuranski: Wow.

Willie Crawford: I wanted to be touched by another human being as I died. That was the lowest part probably in my life you know.

And many people go through that and it’s important for those people to realize that it’s ok to be that way. But you need to reach out to others and let them know that you’re struggling because there’s people who are there to help you.

And people helped me. And you know I turned around. But that was a low point in my life. I was on the verge of taking my own life at one point. I collapsed in the shower and was on the verge of my body just saying ok we give up. You’ve abused me too much and I came back and at that point I was making over $100,000.00 a year on the internet.

You know things have turned around enough now where its seven figures and it happened and when the momentum kicks in it’s just amazing. Just totally amazing. It’s mind boggling.

Ralph Zuranski: Yeah, boy that is amazing to get to that point where you’re ready to take your own life. I know I was at that same point and even though I had money and sex and drugs there was just no happiness there.

Willie Crawford: Yeah, yeah. For me it’s all about serenity. It’s all about being at peace and at ease and comfortable with your role in the world. And if you’re not happy with where you are and with who you are, then you know something is out of kilter, but you need to find that balance because otherwise life is just not worth living to you.

And serenity is very important to me. Peace and happiness is very important to me. I mean I live in northwest Florida where I can get up any day and just go out go fishing whatever, and as long as there is no hurricanes, I can just go out and go fishing I can be out in the middle of the ocean.

The ocean is the most peaceful place in the world. I mean it puts me in touch with my tiny place in the world, because I am just one little tiny speck in, you know a dot in the universe.

And you can go out and look down in the ocean and see a school of a million fish and you realize how vast things are. And if you look on your depth finder and you see the ocean that… spots like five miles deep you know which is incredible.

You realize that if you fell overboard you would never reach the bottom, because the water the pressure and the things change you would sink slower and slower and slower and you’d never reach the bottom. That’s just incredible.

But you know I’m all about serenity, I’m all about being happy with what I do and I when I was in the military I’d wake up everyday I’d look at the television and there was the news on and everyday there’s a conflict in the world. Theirs like 35 wars going on in the world right now whether most people think about it or not. I mean Korea has been at war since the 50’s.

They are still technically at war. You know the north against the south. And there is about 35 wars going on in the world. And as a soldier I would look on the television and say where am I going to be tonight. And as an aircrew member who delivered special forces and soldiers that did ??? and things like that and things like that behind the lines.

I didn’t know and there came a point where I just said I’m tired of this and I want to experience some of my children’s birthdays and just be more in control of where I am at the end of the day.

And that is when I decided I was going to leave the military and when I decided I was going to go ahead and build my own business and make it a success, you see failure was never an option for me.

It was; you will build a successful business and you will make over a million dollars a year from your successful business. It was never an option that I could do anything other than that.

Posted by ralph at 05:26 PM | Permalink

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Ralph Zuranski: Is it beneficial to make decisions quickly?

Mike Filsaime: Yes absolutely Ralph. As you’ll see you’ll be talking to a lot of people and we all quote famous people and successful people. Especially quotes from Napoleon Hill.

Napoleon Hill teaches that one of the habits that he notices about all the successful people he interviewed was that successful people are decisive in nature. Successful people make decisions very quickly. And they change them slowly.

Unsuccessful people make decisions very slowly and they change them very quickly. I saw that in the car business. What that means is if I ask you “What color is a blue shirt?” You say it’s blue because you know it to be true.

Sometimes we know the right answer but we were brought up to say “Never make a decision right away. Always sleep on it. Always think about it.” That’s a bunch of nonsense but we have to look at the people that taught us that. They were people that lived their structured life where they made $472.63 a week

Those are the people that are teaching our kids today. I want the kids listening today to know that when they know something is right to make the decision. Stick with it and make it through and focus on that decision you made because you knew it was right.

If it turns out to be the wrong decision then we go back and we talk about what we learned from our mistakes. I will venture to say that 19 times out of 20 your gut instinct is right and you know the right decision. The mistake that people make is they say I’m going to sleep on it.

It’s like me saying “Here you give me $5.00 and I’ll give you ten tomorrow.” Then you say “Well let me think about that.” And the next thing you know you end up saying “I remember when Snapple came out. My friends bought it but I decided not to buy it. I remember when Google came out and I was going to but the stocks but I didn’t.”

Because they knew it was right but they didn’t act on it. What ends up happening is that when they do end up making a decision they say “Everybody bought Google. I waited a year and half and I’m going to buy Google now.”

They buy Google for $110.00 a share and tomorrow it goes to $109.00 a share. Remember unsuccessful people make decisions slowly and change them quickly. It took them a year and a half to make the decision then all of a sudden they say “Oh wow, I just lost a dollar. Let me pull my money out of the market place.”

Next thing you know as they pull their money out of the market place it goes up to $115.00 and they lost the opportunity when they had the right decision to begin with. So that’s an example that I can give you.

To answer question in a nutshell when you have a decision should you act quickly? I believe the answer is unequivocally yes.

Ralph Zuranski: Are you slow to revise or reverse an important decision?

Mike Filsaime: That’s correct. Yes I think that when you believe something is right in your heart, don’t listen to everybody. Take everybody’s advice into consideration. That’s a good question. You see we are on a ship and we are going to the new world. We don’t know exactly where it is but we know it’s there.

We have our captains and other people that are helping us and telling us “Our calculations show us that the wind is blowing us this way. We need to shift our direction two degrees.” That doesn’t mean you have to stand firm with your feet dead in cement once you’ve made your decision.

You want to stay along the same path and make small changes along the path that you believe is right. But don’t just do a complete 180 degrees because at that point you are going to get lost in the ocean and just sink.

Ralph Zuranski: How were you able to overcome your doubts and fears?

Mike Filsaime: They tell you whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. You have to confront your fears. That’s easier said than done. I have things that I struggle with in my life. I have the fear that there are things I need to take care of that I work on. It all comes down to knowing what’s right.

If you know what’s right and you have faith you need to just confront your fears. You can not let anything control you especially not a fear. If you can confront the fears and ask yourself “What’s the worse that’s going to happen?”

If you are a 16 year old boy and you want to take that 16 year old girl out to the prom and remember about being decisive in nature, well if you take too long to act on that you are going to do it in 3, 4 or 5 days then you finally build up the courage to do it. As you’re doing that the other kid is going to walk up and ask her “Hey would you like to go to the prom with me?”

She’s going to say “Yes.” and just like in the movies she’s going to look over and see you 3 lockers down and say “Boy I wish he would have asked me first.”

So if you have a fear to ask a girl or whatever the case is to go to the prom you have ask yourself “What is the worst that can happen? She’ll say no.” Is that really the worst thing in the world? No brush yourself off and say “Her loss.”

Guess what’s really going to happen? She’ll say yes. You have to take action on the fear that you have. As long as you know the worst and best case scenario it’s better to make a decision and go with it.

-------------------------------

"Discover an amazing revolution in internet marketing that generates incredible amounts of passive income so you only have to build websites once and then sit back and enjoy a continuous stream of income that shows up in your mailbox or PayPal account just like clockwork for years to come."

The Butterfly Internet Marketing Program is a Top-Secret home study course on online marketing strategies. It includes a valuable, easy-to-use software program that produces large opt-in lists in record time, while it generates passive income without using any high pressure sales tactics whatsoever.

Don't miss out on this opportunity of a lifetime. If you are desperate to become incredibly successful on the internet, invest in your own copy of the Butterfly Internet Marketing Program.

Posted by ralph at 03:05 PM | Permalink

Ralph Zuranski: Yeah and I think probably you would agree that the most important thing in the world is to actually do something and create a product.

So many people spend their lives spending thousands and thousands of dollars every month just going to the seminars, buying all the courses and never producing one product or taking the good advice that the majority of the speakers give them.

Willie Crawford: Most people set in the back of the room and they make notes and they plan they buy things they go home and they stick it on a shelf and the speakers can’t control what their customer’s do with what they buy.

So you I guess grow a little callous as far as; well they’re not going to do anything that’s not my fault but it’s all about action.

I mentioned earlier I’ve gone through some counseling. One of my counselors said to me, she said; Willie she said nothing happens until you change. It’s all about change and it’s all about action.

This is March and on January 2nd, I produced my first info product this year. I sat down and spent about four hours writing out an ebook that was 24 pages that I sold for $29.00. It has already made my $15 grand. I’m on my this is March I’m on my fifth product this year already.

Ralph Zuranski: That’s great.

Willie Crawford: And I’ve already made March, I’ve already made about 300 grand this year.

Ralph Zuranski: Yeah, well that’s sweet.

Willie Crawford: Yeah, I mean part of that that’s skewed because I did a fire sale that it made about $27,000 in a day. But that’s all about action you see.

Ralph Zuranski: Yeah.

Willie Crawford: Again I look at Mike Filsaime was selling his Butterfly Marketing program, and when I went through it I said everybody and his brother is going to do a fire sale now. And I said I need to do one early. And I’m sure I was one of the first people to do one.

And I rolled it out, I didn’t give my partners enough time to plan for it. I just said… I was at Ken McArthur’s JV Alert live seminar in Orlando and I said I’m going to do this starting on Friday of next week. And I said to the people in the room I’ll let you in first. I offered it at the back of room product for like $47.00 and I didn’t even have the products together yet.

I went back home and planned it, put the website together, there were some glitches there with the scripts that were suppose to go in the backend of the show. And while others were making excuses and hemming and hawing I said I’m not going to delay it I am going to do it. And so I just, I had to make some changes.

I had to email my partners and say you know this changes the backend that pays you, that manages the affiliate program some of that stuff has changed because there’s problems with the scripts. But I am still going to do it on time.

And we rolled it out and my first day was $27,000.00, my second day was $21,000.00 and my third day was $18.000.00 and there’s people in my part of Florida don’t make $80,000.00 in a year.

Well maybe they do, but that’s poverty level, but nobody makes $21,000.00 a day or $28,000.00 a day. But I did you know. And that’s just my friend Joe Vitale, he wrote in one of his books he says money aligns people that act fast.

And that is all I picked up from that book. I think that was the attraction factor, I’m not sure. But I make a decision and I do it.

Ralph Zuranski: Well that is amazing you’re experiencing some incredible success in your life now. A lot of people don’t realize that everybody has low points in their lives. In fact life is like a roller coaster. When was the lowest point in your life and how did you change your life path to win a victory over all obstacles?

Willie Crawford: I want anyone listening to this call to go to GitOffThePorch.com and read my biography. I talk about getting up one morning, walking into the shower, taking a shower and in the middle of the shower collapsing. And I made such a thunderous noise that my wife rushed into the bathroom and I’m lying in the shower dying. I’m convinced I was dying at that time.

And she yells and screams at me don’t you do this, don’t you leave me. And she yelled and she screamed so much that there was a part of me that thought you know, I’m tired, I’m very tired. At that point I’d probably been drunk for like six months every single day.

Posted by ralph at 05:25 PM | Permalink

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Ralph Zuranski: Do you have the courage to pursue new ideas?

Mike Filsaime: Oh yes. The easiest way to get your family to get behind you is to prove them wrong in the first place. When they start telling you, “Enough already! You have a job already & that’s where the food comes from. Why don’t you go out and get a real job instead of chasing these Mickey Mouse dreams and blah, blah, blah? I’m sick and tired of hearing about these names you keep talking about.”

That’s negative energy and you have to put your force field up. You have to do what the entrepreneur spirit inside knows you can do. Then all of a sudden when that check comes in of $34,000 then you’ll see how quickly the friends or people in your life say “Oh wow, that’s great! How can I do something like that? Can I have that to go buy something?”

You just have to do what you know is right and they’ll come around when they see the success or they’ll get out of your life. Sometimes you need to fire your negative friends & fire the negative people in your life. If you are married to a negative person you have to understand that you can’t change people.

I would never endorse people to fire the negative people in their life when they are their kids and their spouse. All you can do is be who you can be. Be the best you can be and what will happen is that hopefully they can see the type of person you are and want to be more like you.

You can’t change somebody and keep trying to change people from who they are. They can only change themselves. They do that when you stop batting heads with them. You just have to sometimes say “This is the life I want to live.” Either they are going to come along with you or they won’t. But you can’t forcefully try to change them.

We are talking about everything we’ve spoken about on this call. It’s about honor, ethics, faith and knowing what’s right & believing what’s right. Sometimes we get into a position where we did get involved with the right person in the beginning.

That doesn’t mean it’s over. It means they have to realize that you are the right thing in their lives and they have to walk towards you. Sometimes you can’t force them to do that.

Ralph Zuranski: Were you willing to experience discomfort in the pursuit of your dream?

Mike Filsaime: Absolutely, Ralph. Absolutely. Like we were saying before sometimes you need to fire your negative friends. The expression is that your income is the average of your five closest friends.

You can find anybody out there whether they are making $300,000 or $30,000 a year or $15,000 a year I will venture to say their income is the average of their 4 closest friends with them making $5,000.

If you look at the two people above them and the two people below them they will probably make more than two people and less than two people and they are the average of those two. I think it’s important to understand that if you want to give yourself a raise you have associate yourself with a better quality of people that think in the way you think.

If you can please repeat that question there Ralph. I wanted to tie that in but have kind of lost my train of thought there.

Ralph Zuranski: Are you willing to experience discomfort in the pursuit of your dreams? I was talking to Tom just the other day and he was talking about it’s like increasing the size of your muscles. The muscles to be successful and the muscles to be empathetic where you have to stretch your abilities to the point of breaking. It’s uncomfortable to do that. Do you feel that’s important?

Mike Filsaime: Absolutely! Again that’s the frame that you define yourself for or align yourself with. In my opinion I don’t think that somebody should just quit their job today even though their job is creating pain in their life. You can’t just quit your job and say “Well I’m going to go out and be an entrepreneur.”

That’s good if you have $50,000 in the bank. If you have nothing in the bank then you have to morph into the next thing. You have to work at your current job and leverage that income and time where you’re not working there into building the new business that you want so that you can walk away.

As an example, when I was in the car business I was making good money. I was making $150,000 plus per year. It was killing me but I knew I had to stay there in order to build the foundation of my business that I wanted to build on line.

It was difficult to run both. It was very, very difficult to run both. Then when the time is right it will come. It came to the point where I was talking to the owner and we just decided one day it was time for me to move on.

I took the leap. It was the scariest thing that I’ve ever had to do Ralph. I actually cried outside of the dealership. My other sales people came up to me and said to me “Hey don’t worry about it. Everything is going to be ok.” I couldn’t believe he gave me an ultimatum saying “You work for me or work for yourself.”

I took the choice and stuck my hand out and said “Thanks it’s been a great five years. The other people were saying “How could you walk away from this making $150,000 a year?” I was so emotionally upset that I was one of the best managers in the auto group and that he would actually be so upset that I was trying to better my life in a non-conflictive way that he made me choose. I was so emotional I couldn’t talk to the guys. I was saying “I don’t care this is…”

One of the reasons I was crying is that the chains just let go. It was an emotional charge. They saw the tears as me being upset but more than anything it was that anger and that happy emotion that came out. It was that happy anger of breaking free of the chains.

I was saying, and in not so polite of words so I’ll tone them down, “Screw that. He doesn’t understand what he just did for me. He doesn’t understand that he gave me a choice. I didn’t have the strength to ask him myself. This is a celebration! This is the best thing that’s ever happened to me.”

Then I had to get home and tell the family that I no longer have a Toyota Forerunner demo. I no longer have medical benefits and an income or all these things. But to me it was liberation. Because of that I was able to go from $150,000 to making $850,000 last year.

So far this year I’ve made over $3,000,000. Sometimes you have to be able to be willing to “break or cut your wrist” or almost shave the skin off your arms while you are pulling your hands out of those things that bind you.

-------------------------------

"Discover an amazing revolution in internet marketing that generates incredible amounts of passive income so you only have to build websites once and then sit back and enjoy a continuous stream of income that shows up in your mailbox or PayPal account just like clockwork for years to come."

The Butterfly Internet Marketing Program is a Top-Secret home study course on online marketing strategies. It includes a valuable, easy-to-use software program that produces large opt-in lists in record time, while it generates passive income without using any high pressure sales tactics whatsoever.

Don't miss out on this opportunity of a lifetime. If you are desperate to become incredibly successful on the internet, invest in your own copy of the Butterfly Internet Marketing Program.

Posted by ralph at 03:03 PM | Permalink

Ralph Zuranski: Well what is your prospective on goodness, ethics and moral behavior?

Willie Crawford: And you haven’t had a chance to read my biography, If you read my biography you’ll learn that one of the struggles I went through was an addiction. It’s the most common addiction in the world, which is an alcohol addiction.

And so I had to go through counseling and when I went through that counseling at the expense of the military, they spent about $28,000.00 to recycle me if you will. I learned a lot about myself.

And I learned that a big part of the big problem with most of us is that we are not comfortable with who we are. And that we’ve somehow gotten out of kilter, and that it’s we need to reconnect with our higher power with a God of our own definition. That’s somebody that we feel comfortable with, somebody to me you know God’s a caring individual that loves me as I love my children.

And then we have to define our own world. For me ethics, morality and all those things are doing the right things. It’s looking at a situation and doing what I know is right. It’s doing the next right thing. It’s you know doing the right thing, it’s doing what would make me feel good if I knew no one was looking.

And so no matter what I’m involved in, and I’m involved in internet marketing, I get approached with a lot of deals that have the potential to make me 10, 20, $50,000.00, I turn a lot of those down because I look at the impact that’s it’s going to have on other people.

Ralph Zuranski: Yeah.

Willie Crawford: And I say no I can’t do that, for various reasons. But for me I have to feel good about what I do. The only person that really throws out of kilter if I were to do some of those things that I consider unethical would be and no one would know about it. But I cannot afford to have myself feel out of kilter or imbalanced.

So because of experiences that I’ve been through, because of training I’ve been through, counseling I’ve been through where I’ve been taught that you do the right thing.

Ralph Zuranski: Yeah.

Willie Crawford: It’s just who and what I am you know.

Ralph Zuranski: Yeah, well you’ve been a soldier and there’s always that question of what is a person willing to sacrifice their life for. What would you sacrifice your life for Willie?

Willie Crawford: I’ve often thought of that you know. I could be in a fast food restaurant where there was a hold up and I would sacrifice my life for the person standing next to me you know.

Its… its crazy because I have no desire to die, but I view… my world is different than a lot of people’s. You know so I’m willing to sacrifice my life for the person just standing next to me in line, especially if that person hasn’t lived as long as I have.

I look at the world and I look at humanity and I look at you know people that lived a thousand years before me and people that will live a thousand years after me and I see us all as one. I see us all as a continuum of that flow of energy and of genes you know.

It’s I don’t know, I probably getting to far out there but I look at the fact that right now I share the genes of somebody who lived 5,000 years before me. And 5,000 years in the future somebody else will probably have my genes and so I will continue to be there, whether I’m there or not. And so I have no fear of death and I would risk my life for anyone really.

You know I could be put in a hold up situation, I could be put in a situation where I would desire to die, I would hope that in the face of danger I could somehow pull through you know.

Ralph Zuranski: Yeah.

Willie Crawford: But I would risk my life for someone who was afraid you know to say in a hold up situation, I would step in and try to talk the holdup person out of harming them. It’s just me, it’s just I guess its my faith knows that even if I’m killed its not the end. So I don’t fear death.

Ralph Zuranski: Yeah, yeah.

Willie Crawford: And so but I was also trained as a soldier just step up and die. You know they were soldiers in previous wars who… I flew airplanes they knew that when they went on a mission that 80% of them would not return. They knew that, statistically they knew that and they did it anyway.

And I talked to people who were commanders who would look at their 18 to 20 year old troops, and know that 80% of them would not return. And had to say to them ok go to your job, which is you know these were their children you know.

Ralph Zuranski: Yeah.

Willie Crawford: And that was so in grained me that to me risk is, I have very… a very high threshold for risk which is good in business. Because I was trained by my mentor that you’re going to make mistakes, and so you get the mistakes out of the way.

I was trained that you’re going to fail and that you will learn from your failures. So you don’t fear those but you get them out of the way.
I was trained fail fast. If you know you’re going to fail you know go ahead and get it out of the way so you can find the successes.

Ralph Zuranski: Yeah, well isn’t that true.

Willie Crawford: You know that almost every major successful author out of every three books they’ve published that two were complete flops.

Ralph Zuranski: Yeah.

Willie Crawford: If they knew that, why not get those flops out of the way so they can go ahead and get that successful book done. And so I was trained to just go ahead and do it. Knowing that I mean most people when they look at internet marketers in particular and they look at the big successes they don’t know that these guys had failures.

Ralph Zuranski: Yeah. Yeah.

Willie Crawford: But they did. And now their successes over shadow those failures. But you know, I don’t fear failure I just do it.

Ralph Zuranski: Yeah well you know that is so true that everybody thinks that when they get their first project done that its going to be an incredible success.

But don’t even know that the majority of the people, the reason why they are so successful is they failed so many more times than anybody else that isn’t quiet as successful as that. It’s called failing forward.

The faster you fail, the more you’re going to find out what doesn’t work and what does work and the faster you’re going to become a success.

Willie Crawford: Right the whole key is learning from your failures. Dan Kennedy is one of my favorite copywriters and my favorite mentors. I spend thousands of dollars every year with Dan.

And when he was in the infomercial business, I think it was like one out of every eight infomercials that he did was a complete flop. Did the one pay for the eight failures? But it wasn’t looked, as a failure it was looked at as ok we discovered this didn’t work.

You know if it was the same company paying for those you know the one success and all the other failures it wasn’t bad but if it was different companies paying for the failures then that was bad.

But marketing is all about testing and you can’t just look at it as failure you look at it as learning experiences.

Posted by ralph at 05:24 PM | Permalink

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Ralph Zuranski: Is it useful to take a positive view of setbacks, misfortunes and mistakes?

Mike Filsaime: Oh yeah. To answer that directly I think we all need to learn from our mistakes. What I was talking about before about being a student of higher learning I would rather learn from other peoples successes than learn from my own mistakes. We all have to know that being an entrepreneur is that we’re going to have more failures than we do successes.

We need to be able to understand that when we have a failure that negative people are going to welcome that. Saying “Oh you see that, you tried to join that thing and it didn’t work. Well you’re still stuck here in blue collarville.”

The true entrepreneurial spirit will not allow those negative people to effect us. It will understand that we made mistakes and we can ask “What did we do wrong?” Let’s look at the success principles and see what we did and find out where we went off the tract. Then get back on the horse and try it again.

Ralph Zuranski: Is optimism valuable?

Mike Filsaime: Yes. It’s all in that circle Ralph of positive thinking. If you are pessimistic you will achieve pessimistic results. If you are optimist you will achieve optimum results. All going back to the power of positive thinking, the energy you put out there comes back to you in the same way. The entire universe is built on energy.

The reasons why you are sick or if you’re healthy are based on energy. So when you put out positive energy that’s what that is, is optimism. When you put out positive energy it will come back to you in positive ways.

If you are pessimistic, that glass is half empty. I know entrepreneurs and I know you. We believe that the glass is half full. A lot of people believe that the glass is half empty. When people start thinking half empty the sooner or later the glass will be completely empty.

Ralph Zuranski: Do you maintain your sense of humor in the face of serious problems?

Mike Filsaime: Oh absolutely! Probably too much. You know Ralph when I was in the car business I was the joker. I knew when it was time to be serious but even at the most serious points like if I was getting mad or if we had a meeting or something like that I would always throw in a tidbit of humor.

I think it keeps us real. I think it bonds people with you. It’s one of the best qualities you can have is to have a good sense of humor and a good wit. Being able to laugh at yourself but still knowing when business is business and how to put business together.

I think it’s important to create a work environment where people have fun. There’s no place they’d rather be than working with a group of people that they are with. If humor is not somewhere in there then I think the workplace will suffer.

Ralph Zuranski: Do you invest time into daydreaming about what your life will be like when you attain your goals?

Mike Filsaime: Yes I do. I tend to night dream or day dream at night before I go to bed. I’m sure you’ve had that Ralph. Some of the people listening may be racing in their mind and get to bed at 11:30
pm then all of a sudden they look up and the clock says 12:50am. They saw “Wow! I’ve got to get to bed.”

Or you may say “Wow, if I can get this site up tomorrow and get this interview up.” Then you look over and its 2:30am and it’s like you can’t shut your mind off. But that’s healthy. That means that you are thinking in the right terms. Again whatever the mind can conceive the mind can achieve.

That is why Ralph it is so important that people don’t daydream on the negative things. So it’s best they don’t say “Oh my goodness I didn’t do my taxes yet and my car payment is 60 days behind.” You are attracting that negative energy.

If your car payment is 60 days behind and that’s all you are thinking of then you are thinking in wrong terms. You need to think in terms of “I want to gain financial success.” When you think in terms like that you will attract those things and the car payment issues will go away.

Yes I do tend to daydream quite often about my business and always think in terms of positive ways. Sometimes the negative things work their way into your thoughts and there is nothing you can do. You can’t shift on positive things so just don’t think of them at all

Just start thinking of clown feet (Laughter) or something like that. But if you can’t think of anything that’s positive at that time then almost go into a state of denial and just block it out because it’s not going to do any good to dwell on it or the negative.

Ralph Zuranski: Do you feel it is important to make positive statements about yourself...the type of person you are and the your goals?

Mike Filsaime: Yes, those are affirmations. You need to not only say the affirmations but you need to envision the affirmation. Like I said before it’s been proven and it’s a fact that when your mind and in your imagination & you think in terms of the past & look back in your memory bank & you imagine things the mind looks in the same exact place that it does for memories.

The mind cannot distinguish between imagination and reality. So all you have to do is imagine the results that you want & you will suddenly start to live that life. I know I keep on saying that same thing but I believe so strongly in those things that we are talking about right now.

Ralph Zuranski: Do you take time out of your day to feed your subconscious positive thoughts about you, your goals and dreams?

Mike Filsaime: That’s something I believe I should do and something I believe everybody should do. But I can’t tell you that I do that. I think it has become so conscious that once you start living a life of positive thinking you are just on auto pilot and thinking g positively all the time.

However, I believe that meditation is good. I think you should have some type of time where you are doing meditation. Whether you are doing sub-conscious learning programs, any types of hypnotic programs or subliminal programs or anything like that.

I think those things are great to super charge the mind. I don’t actually do it, Ralph. I do research into it. That’s one of the things I said before. Do I actively do everything I know that’s right? No I don’t. But that doesn’t mean that they’re not right. I don’t do as much as I’d like to.

-------------------------------

"Discover an amazing revolution in internet marketing that generates incredible amounts of passive income so you only have to build websites once and then sit back and enjoy a continuous stream of income that shows up in your mailbox or PayPal account just like clockwork for years to come."

The Butterfly Internet Marketing Program is a Top-Secret home study course on online marketing strategies. It includes a valuable, easy-to-use software program that produces large opt-in lists in record time, while it generates passive income without using any high pressure sales tactics whatsoever.

Don't miss out on this opportunity of a lifetime. If you are desperate to become incredibly successful on the internet, invest in your own copy of the Butterfly Internet Marketing Program.

Posted by ralph at 03:01 PM | Permalink

Click Play to listen to Mike Filsaime's valuable information-packed, mind-expanding, and awesomely inspiring In Search Of Heroes Interview.

Click Here to visit Mike's Heroes page.

Ralph Zuranski: Are your goals consistent with your beliefs?

Mike Filsaime: Yes they are. I think they go hand in hand. Again I think when we talk in the terms of the power of positive thinking you are talking about your beliefs and your goals. When you set your goals you need to believe that you can achieve them.

Then talking abstract about all the different beliefs in your life like your faith and things like that I believe everything needs to be congruent in order to have symmetry in your life & to achieve exactly what you want out of life.

Ralph Zuranski: Are your actions consistent with your beliefs?

Mike Filsaime: These are all great questions and I’d like say yes. But I’m not perfect but I try to be. I know my faults and I try to work on them and I try to be humble. I’d like to say Ralph that yes I try to make most of my actions as close to my beliefs as I can. We know everybody has sometimes lazy tendencies.

Some of the things I struggle with are living normal hours as most people in the world would see as normal. I tend to go on these weird patterns where I’m working normal hours then the next thing I know I start working till two, three or four in the morning then get up at 11:00 am. Then the next day I work until 4:00 in the morning and then the next day get up at 12:00. The next day I work until 4:30 in the morning then I end up sleeping until 1:00 in the afternoon. Then I have to hit that reset button & say “Wait a second.”

I can’t even get up and get to the bank on time and get my hair cut. (Laughter) So those are some of the faults I have. To answer the question some of my actions are not 100% of what my beliefs are but I try working on them.

Ralph Zuranski: Is it valuable to have highly charged emotions about achieving your goals?

Mike Filsaime: Oh yes! Absolutely! And those are exercises that you can do. I recently saw a great movie. It’s really a documentary that I recommend to everybody watch it. I’m sure some of the past speakers mentioned it and some of the future ones will as well.

You can see it at thesecret.tv. That documentary talks about the power of positive thinking but you need to be a visionary and you need to envision these goals that you set. There are certain things you can do. You can have a cork board that you call a vision board.

You can cut out the home that you want or how you see yourself looking professional in a suit or the watch that you want or the car that you want. Or the family type of icon that you want or a picture of your church to see where you want to be associated with. Group photos of people you love and family and friends.

If you start to put these exercises into place then that’s how you can start setting up exercises to attain your goals. I think one of the mistakes people make when they make a goal Ralph is they say things like “I want a million dollars.” No you don’t. You really don’t.

Ralph if I gave you a million dollars what does that do? That is just a means to getting what you really want. What you really want is to help children. Or what you really want is to have better health or raise your kids the right way or send them to the right schools.

So setting a goal on money is ok. I know a lot of people do that but you really need to realize that the money is just the means to what you really want. You have to really ask yourself “What do I really want?” I even caution people sometimes when they say “I want a million dollars.” or “I want this business or I want do this type of business per day for a month.”

Sometimes you have to say to yourself “What will I have created if I say I want an Ebay business that makes me a million dollars a month?” Do you really want to be shipping boxes out of your house? Sometimes by really defining what it is that you really want I think you can have a more clear understanding of what you want & how to get there. Rather than putting up an abstract and saying “I want a million dollars.

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"Discover an amazing revolution in internet marketing that generates incredible amounts of passive income so you only have to build websites once and then sit back and enjoy a continuous stream of income that shows up in your mailbox or PayPal account just like clockwork for years to come."

The Butterfly Internet Marketing Program is a Top-Secret home study course on online marketing strategies. It includes a valuable, easy-to-use software program that produces large opt-in lists in record time, while it generates passive income without using any high pressure sales tactics whatsoever.

Don't miss out on this opportunity of a lifetime. If you are desperate to become incredibly successful on the internet, invest in your own copy of the Butterfly Internet Marketing Program.

Posted by ralph at 03:00 PM | Permalink

Click Play to listen to Mike Filsaime's valuable information-packed, mind-expanding, and awesomely inspiring In Search Of Heroes Interview.

Click Here to visit Mike's Heroes page.

Ralph Zuranski: Do you follow your hunches & intuition?

Mike Filsaime: Yes I do. Pretty much like you just said, you have to be careful with your ideas. That’s where out sourcing comes in. If you can find people to manage the projects you can put other ideas out there on the back burner and move them a little bit closer to the front burner if you understand how to out source.

There’s a great expression that says “money likes speed” and I agree with that. If you do decide to take action on something, do it very quickly. Because money likes speed and money attracts speed. When you work fast you can get into this great zone where you can start bringing things to the market very quickly.

Ralph Zuranski: What specific philosophy or philosophies guide your life and decisions?

Mike Filsaime: I believe in principles so certainly that are a lot of things I’d like to do to be a better man, to be a better husband and be a better marketer. One of the specific things that I like to do is to let go and stop thinking or ever believe that I know everything.

I’m a big believer in continued learning. Again Stephen Covey & another one of the seven habits, Habit #7 says “You must continue to sharpen the saw.” So even if you start to learn and you sharpen that saws & it’s the best saw in the world what ends up happening is that months or years later that same saw built on great knowledge becomes dull if you continue to use it every day.

You must continue to sharpen the saw. I recommend that everybody be a student of learning and learn from the masters, those people that have blazed the trail. Sometimes and in most cases you have to pay for that information. But you’ll find that anything you pay for when learning from the best will come back to you tenfold.

Ralph Zuranski: What is your perspective on goodness, ethics and moral behavior?

Mike Filsaime: Again, those are life principles. Those aren’t things in my opinion that one person can say “Well that’s your view on ethics.” Fundamentally there is a difference between right and wrong. If you are even questioning it then in some cases it probably can be wrong.

We know deep down in our hearts what the right things to do are and what the wrong things to do are. I believe that in anything that you do it will attract that same thing to you. If you live an ethical life you will find yourself surrounded by ethical people.

You will have an ethical business and you will have ethical customers working with you and everything like that. Anything that you try to kid yourself with or try to resist is going to push back at you in the same way. If you’re working and you are doing things unethically it will come back to bite you. It’s just a terrible way to have a mindset to think that you can take advantage of people. You really need to just cleanse your soul and know the right things to do and live your life in that direction.

Ralph Zuranski: What place does the power of prayer have in your life?

Mike Filsaime: Well you know Ralph this something that I’ll talk from the heart and say this in a way as to not offend anyone or any faith. I will say it in some generic terms. I believe in a higher place and a higher person.

I do have a God in my life and have a very good relationship with him. In terms of quote “religion” or would I say I am a religious person? No and again I don’t want to offend anybody but I’ll speak my heart here for a second.

I think sometimes people get confused between the difference of the words faith and religion. I believe everybody should have faith. I also believe that what is religion? Religion means doing things religiously. Sometimes those rules were given to us by man not by what we believe our God is or the book that was written by God.

I believe in faith and having a relationship with God. As I said before, you know what’s right and you know what’s wrong and you know what God wants from you. So I think you need to walk that life as close to the way they wanted it as best you possibly can.

Ralph Zuranski: What principles are you willing to sacrifice your life for?

Mike Filsaime: If you truly believe in your heart that the soul goes on then our time on this earth is so miniscule that it can’t even be measured if we talk in the terms of eternity. I think we have a purpose here on earth to do what’s right and to live a life in the way that God would want us.

So what that means is that anytime you are faced with a situation and deep down, sometimes it’s very subconscious & you don’t know what to do. Your subconscious takes over and you just do what’s right. I believe that anybody listening on this call would go into a house and save a child if they knew there was a life in there, a precious life that needed to be changed whether it was a stranger or their daughter.

I think that’s I inherent in all of us. I love to see those types of stories where you see average, ordinary everyday people do great things. That is something I think is unique to the human spirit. I think that it’s blessed to see those things.

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"Discover an amazing revolution in internet marketing that generates incredible amounts of passive income so you only have to build websites once and then sit back and enjoy a continuous stream of income that shows up in your mailbox or PayPal account just like clockwork for years to come."

The Butterfly Internet Marketing Program is a Top-Secret home study course on online marketing strategies. It includes a valuable, easy-to-use software program that produces large opt-in lists in record time, while it generates passive income without using any high pressure sales tactics whatsoever.

Don't miss out on this opportunity of a lifetime. If you are desperate to become incredibly successful on the internet, invest in your own copy of the Butterfly Internet Marketing Program.

Posted by ralph at 02:58 PM | Permalink

Ralph Zuranski: Laughter

Willie Crawford: But I answer my own phone. And that’s not the way to make you know ten million a year.

Ralph Zuranski: Sure.

Willie Crawford: I’ll make over two million this year.

Ralph Zuranski: Yeah.

Willie Crawford: But I won’t make ten unless I start outsourcing more and unless I get an answering service and stop answering my own phone, and get somebody to process my own emails and things like that.

Ralph Zuranski: Yeah well I know you shared the room because my other roommate had to leave early.

Willie Crawford: Right.

Ralph Zuranski: I was amazed at how late up at night you stayed and answering emails and stuff it was just incredible I thought gee does Willie ever get any sleep.

Willie Crawford: If you were on instant messenger with any with most of the guru’s, you see a lot of them are up at two or three in the morning because that’s when the phone stops ringing and that’s when you can get the most done. That’s when I can focus the most is like I’m often up at two or three o’clock in the morning.

And again it shocked me that others will see me online and they’ll IM me or whatever and say what are you doing up so late. But it’s just I have complete control of my time.

I work 100% from the internet. And I choose when I get up, when I work and everything. And so if I want to work at 3:00 in the morning and then sleep late or go fishing during the day then I can.

Ralph Zuranski: Yeah well that’s really amazing. You have been to a lot of conventions you’ve been all over the world. I’m sure that you’ve met quiet a few people that you considered heroes.

What is your definition of heroism?

Willie Crawford: Because I’m a soldier and old soldier who spend twenty years in the military my definition is probably different from most.

But my definition of heroism, is someone who puts the interest of others ahead of their own interest. They do what needs to be done in the face of adversity. They know that they can be harmed.

They know that they won’t necessarily get the immediate benefit of it but they do it anyway because they think it’s for the better good of society, and for the culture or the country as a whole.

You know whether it’s a fireman that rushes into a burning building knowing he could… that the building could collapse around him or soldier who would rather be at home with his family you know his new born baby but is off on some battlefield risking his life.

Or a teacher at some inner-city school teaching and knowing that there’s a possibility that kids in this classroom have guns in their nap sacks or whatever.

And that there are teenagers going through all of these chemical changes that they go through in adolescence and that they’re all wired and everything, and anyone of them could go off at them at any minute. Yet that teacher spends the time and energy to really care for those kids, and push them in the direction that they need to go.

So it’s someone who puts the interest of others ahead of their own interests ahead of their own immediate interests. That is my definition of a hero.

Ralph Zuranski: You know you had a pretty rough up bringing living on a farm and being on welfare most of the time. I know I had a pretty tough time growing up to and I was wondering did you ever create a secret hero in your mind that helped you deal with life’s difficulties?

Willie Crawford: That’s a good question you know, I didn’t have any real heroes per se. My heroes were books. I have a biography I’ve written called "Git Off The Porch" and its at my website at GitOffThePorch.com, and in that biography I explain that as I looked around me when I was growing up, all the people that I knew were smoking pot or doing cocaine or whatever.

And every spare penny they had was used to escape from reality and so they… they didn’t set a good example for me. I knew no people who were successful in business. I knew no people who were really good role models. Except for a few schoolteachers who reached out to me.

And so my Grandmother bought a set of World Book Encyclopedia’s when I was probably ten or twelve and that was probably the greatest gift that she could have given me. I grew up with my Grandmother. My Mother and Father separated and my when I was about three.

My Mother went to New England where the jobs were better than in the South. And she had custody of the three younger sons and my father had custody of the two older children and he was in the military still traveling the world. Remarried four other times after that and my mother left me and my two younger brothers on the farm with my Grandmother.

And she bought a set of World Book Encyclopedia and I read every volume of that set of Encyclopedia including the reference guides and things like that.

And I also at fourteen started my own mail order business. I had a bulk mailing permit. I did what was called big mails where you send out a package of circulars, just like online you send out your newsletter. Well I had a bulk mailing permit and people sent me their circulars and I mailed them out to people.

And I discovered somewhere in there that you could buy and resell books and people would send me like you know 500 books and I’d run an advertisement and resell these books.

And I discovered some really, really great books and that is where I learned that there were bigger worlds out there. I discovered in books that there were people who you know who made millions.

And who you know didn’t fall asleep worrying about the fuel oil running out at night and wake up in the morning you know when it’s freezing cold and you have no kerosene left and so your house is cold which we did many times.

So my heroes were books. That is where I learned about the bigger world and where I learned to dream. And to decide I was going to be a part of that bigger part of the world. I read books and I also listened to audiotapes, Earl Nightingale and people like that so.

Posted by ralph at 05:23 PM | Permalink

Click Play to listen to Mike Filsaime's valuable information-packed, mind-expanding, and awesomely inspiring In Search Of Heroes Interview.

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Ralph Zuranski: What is the dream or vision that sets the course of your life?

Mike Filsaime: The dream that sets the course? I would probably say the power of positive thinking and trying to keep all the negative poisons out of my mind. Napoleon Hill says “Whatever the mind can conceive it can achieve” and I’m a big believer in that. I believe that the things you dwell on you are going to pull into your life.

I think that the mind cannot distinguish between imagination and reality. That’s why the mind doesn’t know the difference between what you’re thinking and past memory. If you can envision something and not just set a goal that says “I want to make a million dollars” but actually envision you have with that. Like what you’ll be wearing, what you’ll be smelling, what your house will be like and what it’s like to drive that car.

Also what it’s like to be with the person you love. If you can truly envision that in your mind I believe that you will actually attract that into life very quickly.

Ralph Zuranski: How important is it to stay focused on your primary goal?

Mike Filsaime: Staying focused is something we’ve been talking about a lot lately and I’m going to give credit to a very good friend of mine Stephen Pierce. I’m going to give an example that I saw him talk about in Australia. Basically what Stephen says is “Imagine if there was a young child that you knew very well and you were standing at a garage maybe at a bar-b-que. In the street was a young child maybe playing with marbles or something right at the corner of the driveway on the street.

Between you and the child were several of your friends and relatives holding a drink in their hand and behind them was a wagon wheel, a big wheel, a bicycle and other kids playing. You noticed up at the top of the hill that somebody just parked their car and didn’t put it in park and didn’t put the emergency brake on.

It was very slowly running down the hill towards this young girl. So I’ll ask you the question, Ralph, if you saw that car coming towards the girl and you had all these people in front of you but you knew you had to get to this child, what would you do?

Ralph Zuranski: I would do what you would do Mike. I would do anything it took to get to that girl before the car got there.

Mike Filsaime: Anything it took, right? What about that bicycle that’s in your way?

Ralph Zuranski: I would leap over it and knock the people aside and not let any obstacle stand in my way.

Mike Filsaime: Exactly. It’s what bicycle at this point. You have a goal and you’re not going to let anything get in your way. Now here’s what happens when you turn that scenario around. As Stephen mentions, you take that young child and you turn it into a car. Now at the top of the hill coming down in stead of a car it’s a shopping cart.

You see the shopping cart coming down and you still have all these people in front of you. So now you’re entire intention shifts. Your perception has just shifted So what you are going to say as you see that shopping cart coming down as you’ll probably have a little of the deer in the headlights look, you’ll probably say “Hm, this is going to be interesting.”

I think that’s what happens sometimes with people with the project they are working on. They don’t have that serious focus where they put the blinders on like a horse in horse racing. They say “That’s my target goal. I don’t care about the bicycle or the people in front of me. There’s nothing that’s going to stop me from getting to my target goal.

If you start looking at that with the product that you are working on it’s pretty much the same thing. I think what happens is people get stuck in this syndrome of “Oh I’ve got another great idea.” A great idea is probably the biggest poison that anybody could have when they are working on a project or trying to focus on something. What I tell my students and people that I work with is to take their ideas and put them into a separate book.

Write down that idea in a little paragraph then put that book back in the drawer. When you are done with your current project open up the idea book and find the ideas that you can work on that you can immediately leverage quickly and bring to the market place or whatever you want to do to complete it. Brad Fallon, a good friend of mine talks about working on four different projects at the same.

Let’s assume that each project takes you one month to do and you’re working on all four of them at the same time. Simple math would tell you that it would take 4 months to get these projects done. So what ends up happening is that you work on one project one week, the next project the next week, the next project the following week and you’re moving each project along kind of like pushing up all these little magnets up on a board.

But what ends up happening is if you had been focusing on one project, in one mo nth you could have that project making money for you after 30 days. Then you can fully focus on the next project. Then after 30 days your 2nd project is making money so now you have two in