This madness must end, it’s time for a change

Today I am on a rant. I am on a rant because for the last few days all of heard about is the absolute madness that is sprouting out of the black community concerning black men. No offense but this Sh%t is now out of control. During the last five years of the Iraq War, 25,000 black men have been murdered and 10,000 are younger then 18 years old. There is an urban war that is exploded among black men and the murder of Sean Taylor’s in his home is an indication that this war has no boundaries.

I don’t claim to know all the reasons but I do no this. Things have got to change. When I started to write this post, I did a little research and here are some recent stats;

1) According to a recent study Nearly one of every 13 people living in Detroit does not have a job according to a private research group
2) U.S. Department of Justice figures also indicate that in 2005, homicide-offense rates for blacks were more than seven times higher than for whites, while incarceration rates were 5½ times higher for blacks than whites, and almost twice as high for Latinos than whites.
3) The Justice Department estimates about 32 percent of black males will enter state or federal prison during their lifetime compared with 17 percent of Hispanic males and 5.9 percent of white males.

Why is this true are black men more inclined to be criminals. Of course not but this idea of victimization and blame needs to stop. Things have to change and I think one of the things that need to change is African Americans need to start taking control of their own destiny by learning to control and create their own financial destiny, Sure, we need additional help, sure we need better schools but we also need to start thinking and focusing on creating and changing our own destiny and we also need to at minimum begin to help young black men understand how to create their own financial destiny.

Look, I’ve got a lot of readers and I am not casting blame but depending on others to help without helping ourselves in a recipe for disaster. It’s time for things to change and now.

Are you Being Bamboozled By The Baloney (Had another word)

The baloney is that many ways of starting a business are flawed because the business owner didn’t do the necessary research upfront. I am a student of a couple of really successful business models. One is the Guthy-Renker business model. For those that don’t know Guthy-Renker they are the informerical folks that have produced very profitable businesses like Tony Robbins, Get the Edge program, the Practiv skincare line and Winsor Pilates. The point is they are very successful and their model is worth studing. The gist of the model is create a test before you create the business, basically develop the system and prove the system works.

Well our interview with Mrs X is a proven system. Mrs X reveals in her interview all of the secrets to

1) How to create a business quickly
2) How to find your market
3) How to leverage yourself so you work in and not on your market
4) What type of marketing works and what’s the most important marketing

and much much more. If you are truly an entrepreneur, then this interview is like getting an MBA in business and investing.
So don’t delay get your subscription today.

What type of business should I start….

This is a continuation from yesterday’s post where I went on about the type of business you should start and the reason I bring this up is becasue many people ask just that question. I think it’s the wrong question. If you purpose of owning a business is to delivery money to you pocket, the type of business is not as important. What’s more important is what skills, experiences and other resources that you have that you can offer to a willing customer for a price. So in my view, it’s not what business to start, the question is “What can I do, aggregate or leverage that will create value for a willing customer. That’s the question.

So when you think about “What type” maybe the real question is “What Can I Leverage”, the answer to the second question will lead you to a profitable business

Dedicated to your succcess

P.S. Very exciting stuff coming up, in January we will have an interview with a very astute business women that has grown a very successful business quickly. There are tons of lesson to learn and she will reveal the secrets to her success and how to build a business quickly. Looking forward to learning alot and you should be too.

What type of business should you start….

This is an interesting question “what type of business should I start?” is a question many people spend alot of time trying to answer. BUt I think that the question is flawed. The reason I think the question is flawed is because the basis of the question is rooted in this question “What do I like (or want to do)?”

What I mean is the thinking when asking this question. “I am going to have to work in this business”. The thinking is I am the business and today I am hear to help break that belief. Let’s start with the question “What is the purpose of a business?” and specifically “What is the purpose of YOUR business”?

The answer to that question determines the type of business but I content the answer is simple. The purpose of a business is to put money in the pockets of the owners as quickly as possible. Of that’s the purpose maybe “What type” is the wrong question to ask.

We are really ramping up with some very exciting topics including interviews with some very savvy entrepreneurs, so if you haven’t already SUBSCRIBE NOW to the only newsletter dedicated to advancing black business.

Leaving St Lucia is tough but I’m excited to get home

I’m on my way home; this post is a lesson in systems. You see my flight is at 8:30am so there is no way I made this post today. You see, I use a system called WordPress to create the blog and an auto-responder to send the blog post to you automatically. So this post was made on Saturday long before I left St Lucia.

So, one of the most important aspects of entrepreneurs is creating and using systems that do things automatically so you can focus on building your business, not the mundane details of running a business.

Every successful business uses some system and the truly wealthy typically bought, created or duplicated a system that created great wealth. Here are some examples; Henry Ford actually created two systems. The first, most people remember and that’s the assembly line system. The system that most people don’t remember or think about is the dealership system.

Bill Gates didn’t create a system he bought MS-DOS from another developer and sold it to IBM. So Bill Gates is an example of melding a system with a vision to create wealth. BTW, Bill’s vision was that everyone would have a computer and that vision is almost true.

The founders of Google did almost the same thing. They didn’t invent search engines; they didn’t even invent pay per click marketing. What they did was improve on an existing system to create wealth. The improvement was to simplify the process of searching and marketing on the Internet and that’s how they got rich.

So, this post is about the power of having a system to create wealth and the idea that you don’t have to create the system you can plug into an existing system and still reach your goals. “The Phenomenon” is just such a system, a system you can plug into, tailor to your business and create your financial independence. Join me on “The Phenomenon Call” and learn how you can plug into this powerful system.

Dedicated to your success

BTW. This post is also about thanks. (Back to gratitude and the power of friendships) so I want to thank Derek Lewis and Paxton Baker for making my trip to St Lucia possible as well as the folks in St Lucia. Thanks Paxton and Derek and I love you both and I will be forever grateful.

St Lucia Trip, Great fights in St Lucia last night

Great fights last night and a good time had by all. Some of the fighters are Andre Ward, Chad, William Joppy and I don’t remember the rest because I spent my time partying.

Today, I’m going to watch a basketball game I call the Geezer Bowl. This is basically a basketball game between some middle age men that had flashbacks of their youth. Hopefully no one will get hurt but today’s story is about lessons learned and as importantly creativity.

My plan is coming together and I actually have done a ton of writing along with making long posts on two blogs. I am excited about the plan. I intend to use my talents as a coach and teacher to help people that want to learn how to start a business or test the viability of a new product or service.

The idea is that instead of spending lots of money hoping that a business or product idea will work, you create a mockup of your business. You then market and test your business idea as if it where real to see if there is a market, what the market will pay, what words the market needs to hear to buy, basically compile all of the needed information to see if the idea is an idea that people will spend money to use. After you know all of that information, you can roll out the business or product and predict with relative certainty the success of the venture.

I call this process Start-A-Business-Backwards it’s focused on you, specifically, what you want out of the business before tons of money is spent, instead of spending money hoping and praying that your business, product or service idea will work.

I also am continuing to roll out the Black Genius Network with the idea of sharing he success and ideas of other entrepreneurs. These are typically entrepreneurs that have experienced their own “Phenomenon”. They have created their own businesses that are very successful and they’ve experienced that success quickly. Wait until you hear some of these stories, they are incredible and you can learn a lot from their experience.

So subscribe to the BGN and join Start-A-Business-Backwards. Join me while I create my own Phenomenon and also learn how you can create your Phenomenon as well.

A response to Tom Joiner “We’ve Got To Save Our Black Males At Black Colleges”

I read Tom Joiners article “We’ve Got To Save Our Black Males At Black Colleges” on Izania.com today and I couldn’t agree with the article more.

My only challenge is that I believe the article should have been called “We’ve Got To Save Our Black Males Period at colleges and wherever we find them“.

Ok, I’m a self serving renegade and this post does serve some personal interests, but those interests aside I believe that we all need to focus on saving young black men.

We need to save them from believing that the only road to success is by selling drugs or producing beats. We have to save them from deciding that they can settle fights and disputes with a gun. We have to figure out a way to bring them into some mainstream and we need everyone’s help.

I agree, we need to save black males in college but I also believe that not every black man or woman or white man or woman actually needs to even go to college at least not initially.

I love the focus on black males and colleges but I know we need to get them thru high school and junior high school first and perhaps we do that by training young men to think about entrepreneurship so they can create their own legal income.

Perhaps we need to start encouraging young brothers to become electricians or plumbers. Maybe, we need to encourage them to create small service businesses in their neighborhood and sell an actual service that does some good instead of selling a product that cause untold harm.

No matter what, if we want things to change it’s up to all of us to help change it.

Written L-in-SLU

Live from St Lucia and grateful to be here, Part 2.

Yesterday I talked about this trip to St. Lucia as a way to re-group, to rejuvenate, and to reinvent myself. I also talked about finding a new challenges. Everyone needs to find a new challenge, everyone needs to rejuvenate, and everyone needs to reinvent himself or herself and I am going thru that process.

Before I talk about the plans I’m making, let me tell you about my trip. Today is my third day in St Lucia and while I know a lot of people here, I’ve used the first two days to basically chill. I have worked writing and planning but I stayed pretty close to the Windjammer (a great resort, that I highly recommend). It’s easy because as you can see the Windjammer is a beautiful property and provides almost everything you could possibly need. The highlights of the last two days is chilling and getting a massage on the porch overlooking the sea but that’s another story. Last night, I started the social part of my trip and I must say I love the treatment. I got a chance to see a lot of very dear friends, people that I worked with for ten years or more. What a treat. I then had dinner with a good friend Hayle Harvey. I love Hayle, she has been my friend for years and I’ve watched here grow from a little girl into a grown women. What a treat. BTW, Hayle is fineeeeee, smart and very very talented. Thanks for the hang Hayle

When I was in St Louis (yes over the last few weeks, yes I’ve been to the “Lou” twice, St Louis and St Lucia) at the Glazer Kennedy Summit they debuted a movie called “The Phenomenon”.

The idea of “The Phenomenon” is that the twelve practitioners that have experienced “The Phenomenon” have experienced more business growth in the last 12 months than many people experience in their lifetimes.

I’ve decided that I want to experience the same feeling and as importantly I want you to come with me.

My journey creating my own Phenomenon is starting on two tracks, as a publisher and as a coach and I’d like to enlist your help and your experience. So I am opening up my process, sharing my experience so you can learn from me and as importantly I can learn from you.

So as my journey begins I hope you will join me. I intend to create my own Phenomenon experience, build my wealth infrastructure and live the wealth ethic. I am hoping you will join me.

Dedicated to your success.

BTW – if you live in the Philadelphia area, you can jumpstart the process and network with others by joining us at our monthly Cashflow 101 event on Monday night, November 19, 2007 go to http://www.realestatelifestyle.com/cashflow.html for more information.

BTW – Tonight is the first time a professional fight will be hosted in St Lucia and I am going. So check my post tomorrow for what happened and my experience behind the scenes. Also, the fight will be hosted on Showtime so you can check it out live tonight.

Live from St Lucia, an opportunity to plan the next steps

Ok, I’m not just relaxing in St Lucia I am also planning. You see, I’ve been to Dan Kennedy’s events and watched “The Phenomenon” and decided without doubt to experience my own Phenomenon. “The Phenomenon” and I would love it if you would join in the journey.

You see, “The Phenomenon” experience is all about building very profitable businesses fast. So, I’ve decided to create my own Phenomenon using the proven strategies created and advocated by Dan.

So, this trip is all about planning in great detail, my phenomenon experience. I am exploring everything I need to execute over the next year to be a Phenomenon. So, St Lucia is an opportunity to plan and think about the most important aspects of business. The thinsk most people don’t want to or don’t think of doing. I am starting to create a business backwards by thinking about the most important aspect of any business “What do I want” first and planning for that.

So, I am planning and you should plan too. One of the things I’m planning is this new business coaching program called “Start Your Business Backwards”, a 90 day, 11 step program to guaranteed business success. IN this new program we will be exploring the most important aspects of starting a business, “What you want and how to get it”. We also will figure out how to find a niche, how to determine the price, marketing message, life time customer value and more. Basically at the end of the program the goal is to have an business with a predictable income model and marketing strategy. Thats the goal.

So, stay tuned to this blog to learn more and enjoy with me my trip to the lovely island of St Lucia.

Dedicated to your success

Live from St Lucia and grateful to be hear

Some of you that read this blog know that I love St Lucia. I have been coming here for a long time (10 years) and in many ways feel like it is my home away from home. I traveled to St Lucia today and what a great trip. Normally I write all about business and motivational stuff but for the next few days it’s live from St Lucia. So here goes.

I’m in St Lucia to go to a prize fight but mostly to see friends that I haven’t seen in a long time. When I left for St Lucia this morning it was 5am and the flight to San Juan left at 7:50 am. So I was dragging along trying to pack and get to the airport. The flight to San Juan was uneventful (love that) and had a short layover. I caught an American Eagle from San Juan to St Lucia and landed in St Lucia at 4:20. Many people would panic when they traveled to a country with only the airline info and when I landed in St Lucia I had know idea where I was going, staying or anything. I just know eveything would be handled.

I knew things where good when I got to customs and got bumped to the front of the line (everyone staring thinking who the hell is this guy) cleared customs and a car was waiting out front. What a great feeling to land in a country and have a guy standing at the airport with a sign and your name on it.

Anyway long story, I’m staying at the WindJammer Laniding Villa overlooking the Caribbean Sea. When the car turned onto the property all troubles melted and I fet complete relaxation. As I’m writing this I am looking at the Caribbean Sea, warm breeze blowing and loving life.

For the next few days, I’m writing about my trip and the lessons I learned and the first lesson, reinforced today is “BE GRATEFULL”. Gratefull of your life and it’s blessing whatever they are. Look closely at your life and decide to be grateful for your family, your friends, your experiences, your life and your blessings. Thats the lesson for today Gratitiudelivefromstlucia.mov

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