Think Big – Aunty’s notes for your review

Think Big Hawaii happened over a 3 day weekend on October 26-28, 2012.  Here are Aunty’s notes:

THINK BIG October 26, 2012 Hawaii Convention Center (speakers in order of presentation, names are in capital letters and bold:

REGGIE BASS:

Make the decision that you are going to accomplish the goal. (Be lazer focused in your goal setting)

Make the commitment to make it happen.

Make sure you hold yourself accountable, and have someone to hold you accountable.

Make sure that you have an action plan that is clear, understandable, specific, strategic.

Focus on the right things, not the wrong things otherwise you sabotage yourself.

 

PHIL GROVE:

Three Essential Skills

  1. Marketing – Generating Leads, finding deals, prospects
  2. Sales/Negotiating – Converting leads into money making transactionsIf you are great at sales but you suck at marketing, you don’t get at bat. Better to be a better marketer rather than a great salesman.
  3. Strategy – what are the transactions and how you do them

Business is about monetizing your marketing. You will spend time or money to get leads. Everything else is about turning that time and money into making money.

For every $100 Phil spent on marketing, he got 1 lead, for every 20 leads, he got 1 lead that made him $15,000. ($2000 = $15,000)

Take dramatic action. To have different results, you must do different actions. Schools don’t teach marketing or sales.

Immigrants are 4 times more likely to become multi-millionaires than US. (sink or swim)

Take 2 sets of notes – a regular one like you always do; and one of ideas – 3 things to do differently on Monday

Life is Good in America. People will fight fiercely to keep what they have, but it is hard to motivate them to fight for more.  This makes people perfectly content to do the same thing that they have always done which gives them the same result.

What is your Motivation? Need produces Motivation which leads to Goal Directed Behavior resulting in Result. [Tony Montana (Scarface) “In this country, you gotta make the money first. Then, when you get the money, you get the power. Then when you get the power, you get the women.”]

*Look up Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

Marketing budget write down how many dollars and hours you will spend to reach your goal. 85% of your time/money on marketing.

Deal flow = marketing, marketing, marketing

Skeptics, Gamblers, and Lucky Gamblers – bad for future

Never stop the machine. Some shift their attention 100% to the operations and let the marketing engine stop, so have to start from scratch.

Your next deal is always more important than the deal you have now. Focus on getting the next one.

Master Sales – or get a partner that is good at sales.

Always negotiate with a carrot and a stick (what can happen vs what you are offering)

Every opportunity has a close – the least-worse option is sometimes the best one.

Learn how to manage the clock – usually at the last possible minute (foreclosure list shows when going to auction – best time is last possible days)

Learn Strategy

Multiple strategies = multiple streams of income

Multiple strategies recession proofs your business. Focusing on a single strategy making money, one day, you start making less money, so do double of what used to do.

Philosophy of Investing

Finance, analysis, Operations – these are critical, but not urgent (traps)

Use Tools – find a lead vs. use a tools to find 1000 leads

Don’t forget about capital – relational capital. Net-worth = Network

A good network builds deals, coaches.

Left brainers: Analytical, hard to get them to do stupid things, but also tend to not do anything. Let your gut make decisions – take the opportunities.

Right brainers: quick decision makers, shiny penny syndrome (want to do it all). Learn to FOCUS.

Think differently! Transformational strategy, unique selling propositions, zero based thinking, value disciplines, focus, relational capital, marketing, branding, strategy of preeminence, chasing rabbits vs chasing elephants, intentional congruence.

*Keep a calendar and keep track of everything we do – get a true picture of what activities are spent on the most important things vs wasteful activities. Then, figure out if you can have someone else do some of the activities for you. Focus on the activities that are important.

The envelope around the business in order of importance in order to get the right offer in front of the right person:

#1 The Channel – the flow, from producer to retail

#2 The Marketing – makes you money. i.e. – the cover of a book with Fabio sells books

#3 The Product – quality, hard work

Phil found the biggest channel in the business, offered to do all the work, etc., they kept all the profits. After that when Phil became branded, the 2nd product had more weight and he could get profits.

Online Marketing

  1. Website for RE – in order to capture leads:Buyer Website – properties available, resources for buyerSeller Website – services for buying houses, resources for sellersWeebly.com for custom websites to get templates
  2. Develop marketing CollateralMarketing materials (Phil’s home selling guide) hire via elance.com (free lance writers, market resources, etc.), 99designs.com (creative logo design, stationary, etc.), freelancer.com (writers, etc.)
  3. Buy a mailing list – MelissaData.com (hundreds of lists to choose from) or hire a list broker (google “lisr broker”Marketing = message + list. They both have to be rightShort sale list – notice of default list
  4. Mail to list – www.click2mail.com.24¢ postcard + 11¢ printing = $35 per 100 postcardsMulti-touch – industry says 4x, every 7 daysMarketing is an experiment – getting the right message to the right list
  5. Generate SEO traffic to websiteSEO = search engine optimization, traffic from searces for specific keywords. Google has a formula that no one has access to. Having links back to your website gives you a higher score – Being at the top is very valuable. SEO is a science and art form – too much time and effort. Shortcut is to use press releases – gets your site/company referenced in lots of recent, relevant sites, short, simple “LAH launches new national program to allow any homeowner to sell their home…” PRLog.com, Free-press-release.com, PRWeb.com
  6. Local online listings – local advertising. Register self at Google Places, Yahoo local. Use company address, that will show as the address on the map. Google.com/places/ http:listings
  7. PPC for immediate paid traffic = pay for click advertising for a fee in which you pay each time someone clicks on your ad.. Pay and Google will put you there – they are in business to make money. 85% of the time potential viewers click on the top listings.
  8. Social Media – Facebook.com, Linkedin.com connect with peopleKeep it simple – set up Facebook – create a fan page for your business. Do videos and post them on Facebook, linkedin, etc. pages. Link to your website. Add friends, customers, associates. Communicate with them – success stories, problems solved, status, partnerships
  9. Communicate! It costs 7x more to obtain a new customer vs doing business with someone that already knows you. Work what you’ve got first. Offer them valuable products and service, and valuable content and resources.
  10. Auto responders – series of emails automatically sent to prospects.Most common response to a REI offer is “let me think about it”. Instead of trying to offer more money, etc., follow up instead. Auto-responders keep you in the deal until the deal “bakes” long enough to get done. www.aweber.com more than doubles the conversion rate.Professional tools to manage emailing to your list.

Email and online marketing to investors/realtors. Post wholesale deals to buyers list. Market and economic updates, invite to events.

Get people to go to your website.

Offline marketing, develop marketing materials, buy a target customer list, mail to list

Online marketing – PR to get organic traffic, local listings, PPC to get paid traffic

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CHARLIE DOMBAK, CPA MBA tax strategist

worked with tax attorneys for 6 years, founding member of Optimal Financial Group

Comprehensive Financial Planning

Have legal separation between personal and business – use entities = corporation, LLC, Limited Partnership. Each has unique attributes depending on business.

Attorney that knows legal and tax aspects of entity structuring, form separate entity for various investments, specialized.

Insurance agent gets 100% of 1st year’s premium, check policy accuracy. Best deals when you interject competition into the picture.

Financial Planners have financial incentives to keep you in a certain fund. Fee based fiduciary are best for your own monies.

Accountants – historians, specialized

Partnership LLC for investment class recommended by Charlie Dombek

Tax mitigation – overpaid income tax

Current enforcement trends. Enlarging tax gap, 6,000 new auditors, 30% increase in small business audits, less audits of large corps, higher audits for thosE making more than $1 million.

Coming? Personal income tax increases, higher tax rates on savers and investors, igher social security wage caps added up to a 15.3 % surcharge, higher taxes on marriage & family, return of the death tax.

Romney plan – fairer, flatter, simpler – permanently extend cuts, repeal AMT, reduce individual rates, reduce taxes on savers and investors, repeal federal estate tax.

Which entities are best? Avoid sole proprietorships (no separation, only protection is insurance), single member LLCs (not for active business, taxed like sole proprietor, legal shortcomings – in some states can order judicial foreclosure like in Hawaii), general partnerships (responsible for partner’s activities and liabilities).

Corporations fit best for active businesses (not investment activities). C Corp is a separate legal entity and files and pays taxes on separate returns. S Corp is a flow through entity.

Control Garbage Tax (FICA, FUTA)

S corp gives the most control over payroll taxes (garbage taxes) ideal for small business, internet businesses, flips (dealers)

S corp paid in 2 ways, paid through payroll, paid as a draw. Called John Edwards income splitting technique. Split income in a way favorable to you, and compliance with IRS with proper compensation formula.

Negative legal and tax consequences to holding assets in corporations. Investment assets with passive income change to income in corporations.

In a Partnership, the entity cannot be liquidated if held in partnership. Distributions are able to be used if there is a claim against a partner.

Only entity type that benefits investors best are partnership LLCs. Because partnership, have ideal legal and tax structure. Segment assets according to risk.

How to segment risk for real estate investors. Parnership LLC for residential properties (must be taxed as a partnership for maximum asset protection) set up as a holding company (has charging order protection which owns shares of several single member LLC that is disregarded for tax purposes, each owning a piece of property.

Operating agreement –

non assignable interest – partner cannot assign interest to creditor

no power to demand distributions – can keep distribution within LLC

non disclosure provisions,

non pro-rata distributions – can distribute 100% away from partner in a suit

special allocations – use to minimize taxes

poison pill provisions – person holding charging order may get saddled with tax liabilities of LLC

charging order limitations – non liquidating charging order – sole remedy. Annual distributions is the only way to liquidate.

C corporations pay tax at their own rates. (doesn’t want as first choice because of payroll double tax) Corp rates are graduated, usually lower than individual rates. Only entity type that can pay pretax fringe-benefit expenses such as medical payments, etc. Ability to have fiscal year end.

When you have significant income, set up a management company (C corp) that the Partnership LLC for Real Estate pays management fee. The C corporation pays tax deductible fringe benefit expenses.

If you have several (partnership LLCs,) pays management fees to the holding LLC.

Retirement plans:  IRAs, No ERISA protection, not bankruptcy exempt, require same contribution for employees

Qualified Retirement Plans:  401(k)s, pension plans, defined benefit plansare exempt from bankruptcy proceedings and creditory attack, have discriminatory funding formulas

How: Partnership LLC for investments pays management fee to LLC taxed as Corporation (as management support)

Can use retirement plans to take income off tax return – train income stream to flow into a retirement plan. Retirement plan expansion structure. PreferredLLC turbo charges our retirement plans. The tax deductible retirement plan pays into retirement plan expansion structure with preferred and common members, holds

Preferred LLC . Your tax deductible retirement plan feeds your tax-free Roth by routing all investment returns above 6% annually to your Roth. Company plan goes to preferred, goes to common, ROR beyond 6% goes to Roth IRA

Preferred LLC example $100,000 investment with 18% return.

Net earnings: $18,000

Taxable deferred earnings: $100,00 x .06 = $6,000

Tax free earnings: $18,000 – $6000 =$12,000

tax saved: $4080

developed by tax attorney out of St. Louis

captive insurance companies – the anti millionaire tax strategy.

Primary business structure pays insurance premium up to $1.2 million annual to a Captive Insurance Company (you as a business owner owns) Is a fully licensed insurance compnay, governed by section 8319B0 of code, are 100% owned and controlled by shareholder, no restrictions on investments, can be used as rainy day funds.

Audit proofing – never file your taxes late, avoid paying taxes late, avoid matching issues, ratio analysis – scored when deductions are too high to income, etc., be careful with travel, entertainment and auto deductions.

For highly contested deductions. Five tests – valid date, receipt, amount, reason, relationship for entertainment, car & truck expenses – have mileage log, credit card statements are not considered receipts, business/asset acquisition travel

if you are traveling to look at your line of work it can be deducted. If you are traveling with expenses not in your line of work, not deductible unless the deal is done.

Charlie will move any properties on Schedule E to a partnership LLC and file a separate tax return. No protection if the property income shows up on your personal tax return.

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Day 2 LINDSEY JEAN: Irresistible Influence and Wealth Creation [Aunty’s note: this was my favorite presentation]

Simply show up. Go to events. Do what needs to be done in the best way you can.

We do business with people we like the most.

For each of the statements below, write down the letter that you agree with the most:

When I have an opportunity to meet someone in business for the first time, I am:

D.  outspoken & direct

I. Spontaneous and funny

S. Welcoming and friendly

C. reserved

 

In business, I consider myself to be:

D. competitive

I. passionate and animated

S. peaceful and laid back

C. diligent and dependable

 

The traits of someone I do not interact well with are:

D. slow and indecisive

I. meticulous and critical

S. controlling and insensitive

C. unorganized and chaotic

 

Your time management for business would best be described as:

D. efficient

I. move quickly to the next fun thing

S. go with the flow

C. systematic and prompt

 

In relation to leaders in business I tend to:

D. be the leader

I. hate directions

S. want the best for everyone

C. like exact instructions

 

In business, I tend to be:

D. bold and determined

I. spontaneous

S. calm and even tempered

C. predictable and conservative

 

When given an assignment, I am:

D. productive

I. creative in finding solutions

S. focused on helping others

C. diligent and detailed

 

After writing down our corresponding letters (D, I, S, C) and tallying them by majority (i.e. if you had 4 “D”s then you were in the “D” group) we broke into our groups.

Everyone was to describe themselves, in one word, both the positive and negative, and someone recorded the responses. Each group had similar characteristics, very different from each other, needing different approaches.

Characteristics of the types are:

D type: dominant driven determined risk takers, results oriented, decisive, efficient, enjoy challenges, achievement driven, influential, innovative, but can be can be like dictators, bossy, impulsive, talk over others, insensitive to others. Their appearance: sharply dressed, quality clothing, wear jewelry, walk tall, have aggressive handshake, confidence in their demeanor, image conscious, talk fast, manicured hands. To make an impression on this type of person, need to be business-like, straight forward, assertive. To impact them, talk about the possibility of financial gain, get to the point, stay focused, show them what is in it for them, let them believe that they are in control. Listen attentively to their ideas, do not interrupt, be as agreeable as possible and try to build them up.

I type: influencing interactive inspirational, extroverts, passionate, risk takers, emotional, magnetic, animated, very social, stimulating, impulsive, full of life, but can be easily distracted, unrealistic, defensive, impulsive, too talkative, totally disorganized, tend to be late, too much drama, tends to waste a lot of time, not taken seriously. Their appearance: dress in bright colors, trendy, fashion conscious, love jewelry, bright makeup, tends to flirt, flatter, and touch a lot. To approach them, you need to be enthusiastic and upbeat, active and motivational, talk about exciting opportunities for possible cash for spending, make them the center of attention, visual stimulation, provide positive and fun environment. To impact them, be animated, use emotion, analogies, stories, allow them to be vocal and welcome their input, introduce them to important people and help them visualize what their future can look like.

S type: stable supportive sensitive, nurturing, agreeable, considerate, reliable, truthful, endlessly loyal, excellent listeners, compassionate, team players, giving, committed to providing service, and sensitive to the feelings of others, but can be indecisive, overly passive, overly supportive, providing help to a fault, tends to hold a grudge, sacrifice results for the sake of harmony, overly accommodating, Their appearance: casually dressed, wear earth tones, longer hair than most, soft spoken, laid back, calm, passive presence, more natural looking with less makeup. To approach them, be easy going, laid back and genuinely interested in building a relationship, be slow paced and not in a rush, ask about family, take time to build trust, recognition, inclusion, create vision of family life and cohesion. To impact them, be engaged, understanding, provide genuine sincere caring answers, tell them what to do in a supportive way, helping the greater group.

C type: controlled, conscientious, cautious, meticulous, orderly, high standards, professional, does diligence, organized, accurate, analytical, very high regard for integrity and systems, but, can be rigid, too critical of others, appear unemotional, stand-offish, aloof, don’t like change. Can over analyze. Their appearance: dress conservatively and professionally, wear blacks, browns, greys, tend be well kept, manicured, business like demeanor, pens in pocket, carry briefcase or portfolio. To approach them, be business-like, professional, accurate, slow pace, systematic, have outline, give facts, present in logical structure format. To impact them, be detail oriented and precise, do not over-embellish, ready with supportive documents, do not pressure, need time to process and evaluate.

Cater your personalities to communicate and relate with others. First you need to figure out what “type” the other person is and approach them accordingly. Look at how they are dressed, and then ask them a question, so based on their answer, you can figure out their type. Listen, observe, find their hot button to get them interested.

People like to work with people that are like themselves, so it is best to work with people you get along with. A business team needs all components and not too much of any one type.

DISCprofile.com website – gives full profile – 2 ½ hour test ~ $100 .

NLP = Neural Lingistical Programming – the unconscious brain and how it reacts. 90% is unconscious. We have belief patterns based on our life’s history. Brain does not process negatives (can’t don’t won’t) so always put things in the positive rather than the don’ts, etc.

One way to win and influence people is by mirror/matching them – speak slow if they speak slow, fast if they speak fast.

We move every 60 seconds. When you first approach people, pay attention to body movements. Most of the people will mirror the actions of the dominant person at the table – subtly copy what they do and do what they do. To test if you “have” them, do a body shift and they follow – you do have them. If they don’t follow, then go back to mimic them and then test later. C types take the longest to win. If you don’t “have “them, don’t ask. Talk to them later.

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PHIL GROVE day 2

3 essential skills – Marketing (65), selling (10), strategies (12).

Advice to newbies:

1. 1st deal should be a low risk deal. No money but a lot of skill needed.

2. Learn a lot.

3.  Don’t learn too much (take action).

4.  REI, like all business, is a numbers game that starts with marketing.

5.  Don’t try to do it all yourself. You will fail.

MARKETING – finding deals

65 methods – some paid, some free

Free: door hangers, stickeis, etc., letters of intent, business cards, FSBO marketing, magnetic signs, professional referrals, networking, realtors and the MLS, REOs and HUD foreclosures (get list, make random offers on all of them), door knocking, driving for dollars, past customer referrals, bird dogs, wholesalers, bulk REOs, social media, blogs/curation, search engine optimization, website, local search advertising.

Paid: direct mail – tax late, pre-foreclosure, divorce, probate, modeled list, bankruptcy, non-owner occupied, section 8 landlord list, bandit signs, mass media, newspaper ads, online advrtising, paid lead, affiliate marketing, pay per click advertising, REI matcher.

Phil’s top 6 Google pay per click, direct mail, paid lead service. Driving for dollars (make a list of abandoned houses) local search, craigslist

Big takeaway – #1 job is finding a deal. Most investors fail because of insufficient marketing.

STRATEGY- different ways to make money

referrals, buy & hold, house swapping, auction/option, lease/option, contract for deed, fix and flip, equity partnering, mortgage assign, wraps, wholesaling, short sales

cash = fast, advertise self as a cash buyer.

wholesaling – get property under contract, sell or assign the contract for a fee.

Buying subject-to – agreement to pay seller’s mortgage in exchange for the deed. Find motivated seller that does not want to pay their mortgage or else they face foreclosure. The catch is that they have to sign the deed over to you. (2 docs that matter – deed and the note. Whoever’s name is on the deed is the owner, the name on the note is the one who owes the money) Then you can renovate/retail, wrap, rent,

Fix & Flip – but property, renovate and sell retail. Most people underestimate cost of rehabbing by 50%. Must remember that it is NOT your house. Miscalculate what the house will realistically sell for. Non investment minded realtors tend to tell you what you want to hear, not necessarily the truth.

[Ace that you pull out when you have to get the deal] Equity Partnering – Subject-to (no $$) (with IOU for future profit share) partner with the seller and agree to share the profits. Renovate and retail.

Left brain close: when trying to negotiate with seller, negotiate profit, not price. Do a numbers close. Works well with one exception – the magic house. Then, use the magic close – get their numbers (how much they think it is worth, how much they think the rehab will be)

House swapping – trade house for house (no $)

Option-auctions buy the option contract (no $$) sell at retail auction get house on option.

Mortgage payment assignment. Buy and just get under contract w. standard master agreement (sub-to w/ option), sell by assigning contract for a fee. 82 million people that are not qualified to borrow – looking for houses that are financed.

**Buy and Hold. Sub-to owner finance conventional, rent, or sell retail in 5-10-15 years.

Million dollar plan. Buy $10 million of subject-to properties, rent them, wait until the market goes up. ****10 years from today is dependent upon what you do today.****

Listing referrals and combo plans. Do marketing for sellers, selling lead to realtor on your power team.

SALES – negotiating

Whenever send offers, have option period and subject to inspection.

Always ask, by the way do you need to have another house?

All-in-One Done-for-you video encyclopedia, one password, marketing, strategy, sales done for you.

REI marketing manager – seller website, seller squueze page, buyer squeeze pages, professional website, optional (paid) lead services, private investor MLS of owner finance deals, wholesale deals

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JT FOXX

Think bigger so great things can happen.

Disrupt the normal.

3 keys –

      1. all about relationships. Monetize relationships. People invest in people.
      2. Marketing – branding is the key. Always better when someone sells you than you sell yourself.
      3. Perseverance

go from survival to competence to confidence to success to significance to legacy.

Broke people are always busy, Successful people are always productive.

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BRUCE BUFFER official voice of the UFC and business and marketing and entrepreneur, told story of his businesses, life.  [Aunty took a picture with him!]

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Day 3  JT FOXX after an evening out and stuck in Waikiki because of tsunami warning

Strategic thinking – paint the picture for them.

“they can copy the how, but they can’t copy the why”.

The more exclusive you are, the more money you will make.

Won’t have everyone liking you -i.e. to be President with 51% of the vote, which means 49% don’t like you..

NIDO QUEBIN video highlights BetterLifeMedia.com

Examples of McDonalds, Prudential – people want to buy if you think of how to make people feel.

Pain of discipline vs pain of neglect. Performers focus on results, non performers focus on obstacles.

Do a Stop Doing list, rather than a To Do list.

Any improvement in our lives come as a result of change.

Why should people to do business with me? How easily can someone else imitate what I do? If I were to buy what you have to sell, would I think of you first, second, at all?

Brand awareness okay, brand preference better, brand insistence – best.

Great people have great attitude. Bad sandwich story. Your attitude expressed on the outside of you is the commentary of the person who resides on the inside of you.

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JT FOXX resumes

Awareness – who you are, what you stand for, your mission statement, to become successful you have to be uncomfortable. Always be uncomfortable.

Education based marketing – build on client’s success.

Consideration, WIIFM – what’s in it for me. Show the immediate benefit of taking action now.

Action – want to be first to market – Innovation, determination, engagement, action.

The choices you make determine the reality of your outcome. How you change is how you succeed.

Branding – key. You want to be the authority in your field.

What gets measured gets managed, what get rewarded gets repeated. Know your numbers – what is working, what is not.

New Rules of marketing

  1. dominate (your niche) SOV = share of voice – have your own authority
  2. innovate – how are you different, stand out from everyone
  3. illustrate – CEO = chief experience officer
  4. articulate – move yourself from perception to consideration – move from”thinking about” to actually doing.
  5. Create the experience – inner engineering – clients want to buy the experience
  6. brand advocacy – reputation = brand, the brand doesn’t make the company, the company makes the brand. Brands are mirrors – want people to connect with you.Have authority, respect, aura of authenticity,

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PHILL GROVE day 3

Branding How to

Started off not being on Google as the #1, now he is for Austin real estate investor

[ example of Houstons in Austin has best French dipped sandwich – Schiner Bock beer was Phill’s favorite beer to have – an insistence that he have that kind of beer.]

Brand – the personality that identifies a product, service, company, or person. People describe a brand in terms of their: thoughts, feelings, perceptions, images, experiences, beliefs, attitudes towards the product, service, company, or person and how it relates to others.

Value of Brand Awareness = 1, Brand Preference = 3, Brand Insistence = 10. Brand Advocacy is even more valuable – not only insist on using the brand but tells others about it = 12. “Life is too short to have a PC.” = the brand advocacy of Apple computers to an Apple fanatic.

How to get to brand insistence, brand advocacy is to give WOWs. Wow’s are anything that’s better than your competition. Examples: send a Christmas card, stay open past 5:00 pm, invite your customers to a special event, unexpected service. Avoid Un-Wows, i.e. un-returned phone calls, the run-around, a stupid customer service person.

You are a brand, and so is your business. Your brands are constantly “being built” with or without your attention. Googleability is key in today’s market. Good branding makes deals and business come to you, bad branding makes people avoid you.

Purpose of the marketing department is to eliminate the sales department. Good marketing makes the sale easy. Purpose of the branding department is to eliminate the marketing department.

You only get ONE chance to make a first impression. [Phil wore a suit to create a good impression.]

Branding starts with a name, or 3. For real estate, need 3 brands for different audiences – motivated sellers, buyers, investors, other services. Need 3 or more because the message is different to different audiences. [ We buy ugly houses – we sell houses by we-buy-ugly houses]

Brands take on identities (max 2-3) [ sony has a chemicals business, motorola makes bar code readers]

Motivated seller branding: audience is motivated seller, attract realtors, attorneys. Target audience wants to sell fast, no cost, no credit harm. Message, we buy houses, cash, fask, any condition, any problem = no problem. USP – Unique Selling Propostion, AMPS, solutions. Brand Equity value is low – few repeat customers, always ask for testimonials anyway.

Investor branding – other investors, power team members. What does your audience want – not to loose money, want money back with a nice return, want it back fast, ability to rinse and repeat. Message – we offer high return, low risk opportunities. USP – why would they want to do business with you. Brand Equity Value is super high – automatic deals, ask for testimonials.

Buyer branding – owner finance buyers, any buyers, realtors etc. Message – rent to own (higher response rate than “seller financing”) No bank financing. USP we do what realtor’s can’t to.

Generally recommend doing business in an entity LLC, LP, Corp. The entity that actually buys property (enters into contracts) is probably the Investor brand (or possibly the seller brand)

Consider doing dba (not really a company but using a different name as the master company), will simplify the business structure. Too many complex corporate structures for beginners not good. Instead, simplify and focus on building the business.

The 3 phases of being an entrepreneur.

  1. The new entrepreneur looking for the 1st deal – goes to intermediate entrepreneur – sometimes get stuck because they think they have it figured out, gets stuck at a certain level.
  2. The advanced
  3. The guru

The new entrepreneur – needs websites, business cards, voicemail message, REIAs and professional organizations. Watch your message – people don’t just listen to what you say, they watch what you do. Etiquette, USP – unique selling propositio, elevator speech, borrowed credibility (“my partner has done over 1000 deals”), aura of authenticity (at top of all George Ross’ leases even though he has 19 of them, they are called “Standard Lease”. Phill changed all his contract names to “Standard Master Agreement” and it makes things a lot simpler), mindset.

Website – most important is to capture leads. If you make people click on one more tab or link, you lose 50% of the people. Branded logo, social media integration, etc.

Business cards – getting to be billboards, making them look cool. Purpose is to exchange contact information, part of your brand. Ask “would Donald Trump do it”. Professional business cared– limit to logo on upper left corner. Name of company at top next to logo. In center of card, your name, your title (senior managing partner, etc.). Under that put your website: www.company.com. Put phone number on card, don’t put “cell phone” and your phone number, O: (808) 123-4567, F: (808) 123-7890, email address on the bottom left corner. Put your company email, i.e. aunty@honoluluaunty.com

Physical address on the bottom right corner. Leave back blank. Or, put picture of a project you are working on – little conversation starter.

Etiquette: Blocking and Tackling. Have great manners. Act like you belong. Dress for success – how you look – shoes, hair eye brows, grooming. Insert yourself into high net worth situations – benefits, charity events of the rich, the right parties. It can take time. Donating $10,000 to United Way, you get on the “list”. Surround self with wealthy people Have an elevator speech, include a USP. Professional storefront – company name, branding, etc.

[Case studies –

  1. Magic Trick Guy – poor dressed, missing teeth, stood in corner doing magic tricks, kept following around Phill, got into his personal space. His intro was “I can transform a $200K investment into $200B in under 3 months”. His brand was Crazy.
  2. Bulk REO guy in WDC – listend to webinar, bragged about success, intro looking for $50M. His brand was Idiot.
  3. Real estate club guy (multiple). Claims to have great deal but if you look into it, it is not a good deal. Brand = Rookie.
  4. Sharp looking kid at Billionaire Class – dressed shart, spoke well. Talked about working long hours, studying, training, doing marketing, looking for a good one. Brand – Go-Getter]Your USP – Unique Selling Proposition – if you have one, you have Super Powers. “I can sell your house in less than 30 days, at no cost to you and at no harm to your credit, even if you have little, no, or negative equity.” (as investor) “I list homes on the MLS, like other Realtors, and use 12 additional strategies to sell homes, that other Realtors don’t even know.” (as super realtor).

Elevator speech – 15 – 30 seconds. Who you are, USP

Phase II – The intermediate entrepreneur.

  1. position self as the expert. Make presentations to title companies, REIAs, meet up groups, etc.
  2. Elevator pitch – update pitch – leverage experiences
  3. brand leverage – leverage partnerships, affiliations – bought the preferred national vendor for short sales of Kenner Williams $5400 check to them.
  4. host beneficiary relationship 0 use 3rd party endorsements – always better than self promotion –
  5. orientation package – about me, bio, highlights, press kit, branding with picture
  6. social media and google-ability – build presence of Facebook, LinkedIN, YouTube (record all deals) do YouTube video showing deal, etc. case studies, publish, & on side of page all other videos, testimonials. When you do a deal, make a video.

Fan page for business on Facebook, brand yourself as a professional, talk about deals, problems that you are solving. Linkedin – more professional, has picture, various recommendations, has elevator speech, USP, links to website.

7.  Internet Marketing – blog and advance internet marketing.

Phase III – Expert Entrepreneur

  1. Host your own events – bird dog breakfast, new entrepreneur group, meet ups, host a training event
  2. Loss Leaders – starting your own REI clubs, radio show, etc.helps build your brand
  3. Reputation management – bigger pockets, blogs, endorsements, online presence
  4. Internet Marketing – PPC, SEO, etc. and advanced traffic
  5. Alliances with other Gurus – internet marketing, affiliate marketing, partnerships (i.e. Phill and Jt Foxx)

**************

LINDSEY JEAN – Cash Cow Know How. Single Mom Secrets to Fast Cash Finding Deals

Dave Asarnow High Heels and Hard Hats

how to get deals chasing you rather than you chasing deals

getting cash buyers fighting to give you their money for deals

do it on autopilot from home. Program your mind for success, eliminate any negativity, no excuses, stop complaining, act smarter, not harder, take action & take command of your destiny.

5 quick and easy steps to quick cash (assignments)

  1. build team of birddog agents – local professional agents. Most important step – recruiting the right agents that specialize in areas, Right agent – google REO agents, these control the sale. Short sales agents , brand new hungry agents. Use Lyndey’s “hot Deal” handbook.
  2. analyze deals they find for you – deal analyzer spread sheet (60 seconds) – determine ARV (after fixed), how much to fix, our offer price = ARV goal 65%. Cost of capital 12%, closing costs 7%, everything is done in the MLS. San Diego 73%, Santa Barbara 85%, Los Angeles 80% San Bernardino 65%. Tell agent to look at what cash buying investors are buying. Over last 6 months, look at rehabbed properties & what they sold for, look at what the investor paid, look at what they rehabbed – put in the numbers. To determine ARV, pull other like-kind properties (comps)
  3. submit “yes!” offers – relationship between you and listing agent, how you present your offer. Secret: clean cash offers (no contingencies/appraisals/inspections) buying as is, in as in condition, in other – “buyer intends to sell the property in some point in the future for a profit”. Never lowball – always come in with highest and best. Have agents offer price using deal analyzer. Sometimes make smaller checks – all real estate agents are happy & willing to work with you again.
  4. Decide which buyer gets the deal – review the waiting list – who you like the most, who has the most money, text or email blast text their purchase price, rehab, what they can sell it for. Quality of buyer vs quantity. Need integrity, honor, ethics, enjoyable.
  5. assign the contract for quick cash Present the deal, escrow manages the entire deal, you will be paid as a buyers consultation fee.

*do short sale offers – LOTS – because they are taking such a long time.

Better to be a normal investor rather than agent – less fiduciary duties. Can be signed on as their assistant 7 have access to MLS.

Not about who you know, it is about who knows you.

Find Cash Buyers (ask them what they want & how much they would pay for it), then find the houses that they want (using your real estate agent) = the secret formula.

More people have invested in 2012 ($11 billion) than 2010 and 2011 combined.

(sold her program to many of the attendees. Aunty did not buy)

…………….

 

JT FOXX

follow through, speed of implementation, trust but verify. No excuses, crazy 8 – 8 people, talk to them 8 times, over an 8 month period, circle of influence.

Credibility equals power, power equals access, access equals brand.

Four steps towards getting branded

  1. Personal Branding – this is you – creating the brand – featured on “self made list” website featuring pictures and profiles of celebrities and other successful entrepreneurs – including you! 10,000 twitter followers, facebook/linkedin/google fast track 9social media in 7 minutes with Curt Maly $1997 value), the art of building brand equity Cds
  2. Brand monetization – leveraging the brand to make money and have deals come to you
  3. brand innovation – growing the brand through innovations and brand associations
  4. brand identity – promoting and refining the brand with advanced techniques

 

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

All in all, it was a VERY long weekend. On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the best of the best, Aunty would rate this event as a 6. Better than most, but the content wasn’t really there. It was as if JT Foxx wasn’t really excited to be there – perhaps because we didn’t fill the room with prospects. For myself, most of the presentations were repeat performances – and so the newness of the message was diminished.  However, the messages were still very good, especially if hearing them for the first time.

Raymond Aaron (does a program on the Monthly Mentor with daily videos sent to Aunty’s email) was not there, which is a big void in this group. Interestingly enough, Phill Grove ran out of time on the third day and did not go into his 9-9-9 which sounded a bit like Raymond Aaron’s 10-10-10 of getting a book written, formatted, and published in order to create one’s “brand”.  Aunty misses Raymond Aaron’s excellent presentations.

Hopefully these notes are understandable to readers. If you have any questions, just send them over as a comment and I’ll see about finding the answers.

Mahalo for reading through a very long report!

Just for Aunties

2013-04-01_16-20-38As we get older, it shows.  I really like the wisdom part and the being comfortable in my own skin as I age.  Unfortunately, my skin, face, hair and body seem to be running away from what I used to look like faster and faster.  At some point Aunty will just give up, but for now, Aunty will invest time, effort and money to slow the process down.

Here are a few pointers along the way:

Kapiolani Women’s Center often has classes on beauty and health.  Aunty’s favorite is TaiChi.  I have been in the beginners class for about 3 years now.  I am learning this wonderful exercise VERY slowly.  It has given me very good balance.

Currently, Aunty takes 4 supplements for maintenance of good health.  Two are the must takes.  Intestinal Correctional Formula #1 (I know Wanda, too much information) and Protandim.  Super Food and Strontium are taken when and if I remember.  So far, Aunty feels pretty good and healthy which equals a very wonderful life.

Learn something new.  Eat at different places.  Try a new hair style.  Wear pretty earrings.  Wear lipstick.  Simple things like these make you feel better, and look better.

The PACE exercises (see Exercise tab under Health and Wellness) are good for building lung capacity.  It is good to be able to have strong lungs and endurance.

Currently, Aunty uses NeriumAD every night on her face, arms, and neck.  Because it is so easy to use (spread on clean damp skin at night and rinse off in the morning), Aunty never misses a night of applying it.  The results are really good – or maybe people are really nice when they say that I don’t look my age.  My skin looks nice and my lipstick doesn’t “bleed” outside my lip line anymore!

Dress up. Sometimes Aunty over dresses.  We used to enjoy playing dress up when we were little girls.  Now that we are older “girls”, enjoy and dress up!  You will look faahbulous, dahling.

 

Some of Aunty’s Best of the Bests

2013-04-01_17-18-57Best Las Vegas realtor is Martin Fajardo (702) 289-0831, of Robinson & Associates and LV Invest.  Not only does Martin find me the best places and deals, he also is absolutely the best property manager in that town.  He has integrity, hustle, connections and is 100% on the side of his clients.  He is the number one reason Uncle and I have cash flow in Vegas.  Please only call him if you are serious about investing because I am selfish with his time.  He needs to be cloned – amazing what he gets done.

Best luxury auto repair shop – Chad of LXS Hawaii, located on Beretania Street right after Isenberg.  Chad used to be a mechanic for the Lexus dealership before opening up his own place.  You might have seen Aunty driving around a fat beautiful celadon green Lexus LS400.  Aunty loved driving that car – felt like a shark cutting through still waters – powerful, substantial, solid.  Taking it to the dealer was a hit to the pocketbook.  Finding Chad was fantastic.  His rates are super reasonable and the quality of service top notch.  After Uncle agrees to let Aunty get her next dream vehicle (Mercedes-Benz GLK), Aunty will save money and grief by taking it to Chad for service and any repairs.  All makes and models are welcome there.  For the dents and repairs that insurance will cover, Punchbowl Fender Works in Kaimuki is Aunty’s go-to place.  Laird Ogata has been the lead estimator there for 15 years, and the service is fast and excellent!

Best shiatsu massage, ever.  I have had a lot of great massages from Thailand, Japan and Hawaii.  All of them were good to excellent.  However, I have recently found Dick Murakami of Hikari Shiatsu on King Street to be the best of the best.  This was one hour of bliss and I didn’t want it to end.  Shiatsu is not for those that like patty pats.  It is deep massage designed to release stress and strain from tight muscles.  It is heaven on a mat.  Dick’s phone number is 955-5125.  Located in the same building as Alan Wong’s.  Free parking in the building – go up the ramp on the far right rather than down the ramp on the left, and sign your vehicle in.  The best of the best, really.

Favorite Attorney – Michael Bowman, Las Vegas based, should be an associate or partner at Anderson Business Services.  One of the most entertaining speakers on a boring subject – asset protection and tax relief.  He reminds me of a labrador retriever and he looks like one of those popular actors, just better looking.  I forget the name, but will think about that later.

Favorite Dentist – Dr. Hideki Kurokawa 538-0047.  Located in the McDonald’s Building in Makiki.  He does wonderful fine work.  Best dentist, and I’ve had quite a few dentists work on my somewhat cavity filled mouth.  Attention to detail and quality at a fair price.  Always looks good in a long sleeve dark dress shirt with tie – classy.  He even uses something like a trampoline in the mouth when he works on a tooth – pretty cool stuff – keeps the debris off my palate.  I love his dental hygienist, Kelly.  There is nothing more luxurious than having someone else floss your teeth for you as you are reclined with minty polish on teeth.   Everyone who I have referred to him have thanked me for helping them find such a great dentist.

Favorite accountant/CPA – Diane Sandlin of Sandlin & Associates.  Very sharp, very up to date, and she also invests!  We are moving our tax filing to her this year, and already her assistant Tara Decker has been the biggest help for me in training me to use QuickBooks (which I absolutely LOVE!)  Tara has the patience of those geniuses at the Apple Store table.  Another favorite CPA of mine is Dianne Lee, who I used to use years ago when she had her office near Diamond Head.

Favorite hair stylist – Lola Yoza at Aksel’s Hairstyling.  737-3049.  I have gone to stylists who charge $140+ tip and come out looking like Jamie Lee Curtis.  Not that I don’t like Jamie Lee Curtis, I just don’t want to look like her.  Lola is like a carpenter journeyman – measures twice, cuts once, and the result is just perfect.  Parking is free in this Kapahulu 2nd story business (stalls 1, 3, 4) and rates are super reasonable.  She reminds of Lucille Ball in I Love Lucy.  Fun, beautiful, and a really nice lady.  [note:  boohoo, Lola doesn’t cut hair anymore, boohoo!]

Best place to buy hair products – BOSS Beauty Supply Outlet at  1130 N Nimitz Hwy (close to Eagle Cafe) Honolulu, HI 96817.  Phone (808) 548-2677.  Lincoln Wang once gave our Hawaii Stitchery and Fibre Arts Guild some free shampoo samples and said our hair will look like virgin hair – and it did!  Great shampoo and conditioner.  So of course, us aunties went back and got the product, and everytime we go in we buy more because it IS really good stuff!  If Lincoln is in, ask him to put some sample on – you will instantly see a wonderful difference in the way your hair looks, or your skin feels.  I currently use the Neuma line for hair.  Smells great, looks good, wonderful stuff.

Favorite place to shop for clothes – Calista at Kahala Mall.  This is a really small store located on an inside corner in the Mall, and filled with wonderful clothes.  If I ever need a special outfit or dress, this is where I shop.  Gilda is wonderful and very helpful.  I usually shop the bargain racks, but sometimes a piece catches my eye and then becomes my favorite outfit in my wardrobe.  Siam Imports on King Street next to Kinko’s is a dangerous place for Aunty.  I always find some wonderful top or bottom – great casual clothes with organic look and feel.

Favorite Famous Person – the Dalai Lama.  He is such a cute man.  Whatever he says is full of wisdom and greatness.  My favorite line from him, “Be kind whenever possible.  It is always possible.”  I have much to learn.  Much much.

Favorite spa – Green Valley Ranch Spa in Las Vegas.  This is living in the lap of luxury.  I had the absolute best facial for my dry parched skin (Vegas does that to me as soon as I arrive) and my skin was glowing and felt like a babe’s for weeks after.  I had Elaine as my therapist – she has magic fingers and not once got any goo in my eyes.  A lovely person doing a lovely job.  Bliss.  In fact, Elaine shared a beauty tip her mother shared with her.  You see, I have sunspots on my face from years of not taking care in the sun.  I am zealous about wearing hats and sunscreen now but the dark patches on the skin on my face remained.  The tip from Elaine’s mother is to stop drinking caffeinated coffee and switch to decaf.  I tried this, and lo and behold, after about 3 weeks, my dark spots and patches have faded!  Not disappeared (yet), but they have visibly faded!  (Thanks Elaine’s Mom!)

Favorite computer:  Apple.  Truly this is the most innovative company.  Once you have an Apple, you know why Apple fanatics are fanatics.  I just got this laptop last week – they transferred all my files from my older laptop (Apple to Apple) and signed up for their One-on-One program for $99/year – one hour daily (if you wish) with an Apple person to help you with anything you want having to do with your computer and its multitude of possibilities.  Used that service today and my Apple guy taught me how to load a video I shot at our TaiChi class onto YouTube, and then embed it in this website.  How cool is that?  It was love at first touch.

Favorite retail store:  Nordstrom Rack near Ward Warehouse.  Hard to go into that store and not find great stuff.  All doodads, but great doodads at a discount.  I have the store credit card, and was once a few days past the due date in payment.  I opened my next statement thinking I would be charge finance charges and late fees, but surprise! – no fees or finance charges since it was before the statement end date.  Just little things like that – total customer service and satisfaction makes me a loyal customer.   Target – I was very impressed with the training and culture of the company while our youngest worked there.  Kind of like the Nordstrom of bargain stores.  VUE Hawaii in Kahala Mall.  Don’t let the mediocre display window fool you.  Inside are designer like comfortable clothing in wonderful fabrics and colors.

Favorite art dealer/gallery:  Robyn Buntin of Honolulu.  Robyn’s art gallery is a wonderful place to find treasures.  Everywhere I turn I find exquisite classic pieces of art tastefully arranged.  Aisha is usually there with her beautiful smiling face to help with framing as well as sales.  If I have a fine piece of art that needs framing, I go to see Aisha – I have never been disappointed with the final result of their multi-layering of matte board and touches of elegance to make the piece even more wonderful.  Art is an investment that pays off in more ways than just appreciating in value.  It is an asset that you can enjoy looking at every single day.  Collect what you love, and enjoy it.

Favorite place to get a car wash – McKinley Car Wash on Kapiolani Boulevard.  My favorite jump in the car moment always occurs after a full tank of gas, super duper car wash with interior vacuuming and a super clean interior smelling great.  Don’t let those workers fool you at first sight.  They look like a prison gang broke out, but they wipe all the cars that come out with great attention to detail – almost lovingly.  Putting in a couple of dollars in the “tip box” is my way of saying thank you to them all.  Aunty did a review on them!

Best Shaved Ice:

Waiola Shave Ice behind and slightly around from the Makiki Library.  My favorite flavor and style:  large strawberry with ice cream on the bottom.  Super fine ice, tasty strawberry syrup (someone said it has ajinomoto that’s why it tastes so good) and towards the end you slurp up ice cream mixed with the slushed up flavored ice.  Additional bonus is you get red lips.  My good buddy Wanda Woman insists on getting a large bowl with ice cream on the bottom, with haupia syrup and lilikoi topping.  It looks like a white volcano with cream colored snow topping and flecks of lilikoi seeds.  I must admit, it beats out my strawberry with ice cream shaved ice.  However, you don’t get the bonus red lips.

I have heard that Your Kitchen in Palolo Valley on 10th Avenue has awesome shaved ice.  Homemade syrups and ice cream.  Yum!  Their pork bowl is something to try because of the onolicious reviews it gets.  This is a true hole in the wall without parking.

Best musubi:

Mana Bu’s on King Street.  You might miss this place if you don’t know where it is.  A little past PeeWee Drive In on the mauka (left) side of King Street in a little parking lot fronted by Baskin Robbins.  The owner is from Japan.  The shop opens at 9:00 a.m. and by 12:30 most of everything is sold out.  Excellent musubis.  Sometimes he gets creative and makes it different with mochi rice.  Even though they look unassuming and little, these delectable triangles of pressed rice fulfill the senses using the best rice with just the perfect amount of salt, filling and good nori.  If I have an afternoon or evening flight, I try to buy these to munch on in the plane.  Staves off the dread of flying and beats out airplane food any day.

Shirokiya at the Ala Moana Shopping Center.  Once a year, around the beginning of July, a township comes to Shirokiya and we are able to purchase the food of the locale.  Their musubis are worth waiting for.  It’s all about the rice.  What a difference short grain high quality rice can make in even the humble musubi.

Favorite Misoyaki Butterfish:

Okuhara Foods at 881 N. King Street, phone 848-0581.  They import several kinds of miso from Japan and cut the butterfish into irregular shapes to maximize the marination and taste of their broke-da-mouth ono misoyaki butterfish.  Sold in 5 or 10 pound bags (5 lbs has about 9-10 pieces) of uncooked swimming in miso chunks of butterfish, $11+/lb, cash or checks only.  Wipe off the excess miso before cooking.  Uncle usually makes the hibachi fire outside and grills it so it practically falls apart with flavor.  This latest time we were out of charcoal so I lined a pan with foil, added another sheet of foil and placed the butterfish skin side up.  I broiled it in the oven until the skin was quite black, removed it from the oven, carefully removed the sheet of foil with the butterfish (swimming in oil), then carefully used a spatula to transfer the butterfish back on the foil lined pan with burnt skin down.  I then put it back in the oven to broil on low.  I cooked it until the top was golden brown.  Easier than grilling – but I must admit I like Uncle’s grilled version better.  Make sure you have your stove vent going on during and after because your house will smell like butterfish – but it is worth it!

Favorite Grass:

No, not what you are thinking.  I am a yard person.  I can spend all day out in the yard weeding, planting, trimming, and watering.  Uncle cuts the grass.  I used to really love to plant emerald zoysia grass – beautiful color but slow growing.  I plant the real pokey stuff – temple zoysia under trees because it can do well with full shade, though this type of grass is really slow growing.  St. Augustine grass also does well in the shade but has very wide blades and runners everywhere.  My favorite grass now is the Z3 zoysia because it grows the fastest of the zoysias, tends to stay short, and grows in very thick – so thick that the dreaded nut grass cannot penetrate.  I get my Z3 zoysia from Quality Turf Grass in Waimanalo.  I am currently on a mission to transplant most of the backyard with Z3 zoysia except for under the mango tree, where I have straggly temple zoysia slowly growing.  It is a losing battle with the dogs, but I keep on keeping on!

Favorite Banks:

So far, it is Bank of Hawaii, mostly because that is where we have banked all our adult lives.  Favorite bankers there are Israel, Davin, Darren, Lowell and Kyle (Waialae branch).  Sometimes a bit frustrating because of their rather conservative bank policies, but I did bug Davin enough to get an umbrella!  Update!  Davin is now the manager!  Go see him and tell him Aunty sent you.  Then ask him for an umbrella, lol!

Territorial Savings Bank is pretty outstanding for a little bank.  The Kahala branch has the nicest bunch of people there – all friendly, all willing to help.  Cyrus Robinson is the manager and I do believe he hires for “nice-ness”.  Great job.  Fantastic customer service.  The website is a bit old/funky looking, but it works!  I have loans and a checking account there.  They do wire transfers and are just behind Lanikai Juice, where I like to go for their acai bowl with sliced bananas and granola on top.  That’s my reward sometimes for doing my own errands.

Speaking of customer service, Wells Fargo Bank goes the extra mile and then some.  I have had the pleasure of dealing with Giovanni Annacta from the Business Banking branch on South Rancho Lane in Las Vegas because I needed to open a business checking account for Vegas investing.  He brought in a commercial business officer, hooked me up with a mortgage officer, and I met the office manager Lois McCaskill, another charming person with customer satisfaction as their goal and mantra.  Office number is (702) 382-8722.  It is a BIG bank with personal attention.  They also have an excellent website and the ability to do a lot with a multitude of options.

Favorite phone company:

AT&T/Cingular.  I like their family plans with Cingular’s rollover minutes, and now ALL calls to other cellular phones are free, even if they are Verizon, etc.  However, what I like most about them is their customer service – a HUGE improvement over the old AT&T.  I had the pleasure of being served by an excellent service consultant at the Kapahulu (near Safeway) branch of AT&T – Chris Esteron.  He didn’t make a single cent in sales on us but he was most pleasant, helpful, and caring.  [Note:  Chris has moved on and is no longer at AT&T Kapahulu.  The new agent that I have found to be excellent there is Kevan Mau, retail sales consultant at the Kapahulu Retail Store near Safeway at 900 Kapahulu Avenue 808-732-3200.  Kevan’s contact info is:  km792a@att.com.]  [[Another Note:  Another great customer agent is Donn Yoshioka.  He set me up with additional lines, new iPhone, and took care of a couple of other techno stuff fast and smooth!]]
If AT&T keeps up this level of service, we aren’t switching even if they do outsource to India (Slum Dog Millionnaire) and donate millions to political candidates.

Raymond Aaron’s iMarketing Genius

If Raymond Aaron comes to your town to give a presentation or class, I have a two letter word for you – GO.  Here’s a link to get more info from Raymond himself.

This recent Raymond Aaron workshop was an unusually small crowd of 25 students, which was fortunate for us since we could ask questions at any time, and because the majority of the participants were Hawaii realtors, the focus of the weekend was on the marketing strategies of realtors in business but ALL of us benefited immensely.

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Selling is a skill that must be learned and mastered.  Selling anything to anyone is easy if they want what you have to sell, and they want to pick you as their seller.

Marketing can be transactional (weak, more of the same, what everyone else is doing) or transformational (startingly, totally different).  Transformational marketing can change the whole picture and increase income tenfold.

An example of transactional marketing is to increase prices, work more hours, sell more items.

Transformational marketing using a chiropractor as an example went like this:

A chiropractor charges $40 per adjustment.  Everyone else also charges $40.  To increase his income he could charge $45/adjustment – but he may get less customers because he is priced too high.  Or, he could charge $35 but he may lose money because he is charging too little and/or have to increase the hours he puts into his business which cuts into family time.

Instead, Chiropractor writes a book “The Book on Sore Backs”.  He writes press releases and sends them off to all sorts of media outlets.  One or more pick up on the press releases, and the phone starts to ring with potential customers.  The receptionist asks “how did you find out about Dr. ___?” and if they say they heard about the doctor because of his book, they are asked if they would like to be treated by the book author for $99 or an associate for $40 (prior to he makes an arrangement with the other chiropractors if they would do adjustments for his patients at his office for $20, and he gets the other $20).

His income has been transformed from $40 to $99.  He also receives income without having to do any adjustments from his “associates”.  His business is transformed.

10 requirements of transformational marketing:  Be a Leader, Branding, Lifetime Value of Customer, Intentional Congruence, Image & Video, Copy (great wording), Social Media usage, Traffic, Buzz, and Relevant Charity.

The most important trait was being a Leader in your field so people will want to follow.

Next comes Branding, which we focused on for the rest of the day.

Branding is about you, not the company you belong to (in the case of realtors, it isn’t Caldwell Bankers, etc. that is your brand.  You are your brand.)  Your brand is not what you say.  It is what others say or think about you.

Raymond gave several examples of Brand trumping Product.  Pepsi, in a blind test challenge, was the cola of choice over Coca Cola several years ago.  However, because Coca Cola has a stronger brand name, Coca Cola sales are higher than Pepsi.  It doesn’t matter that Pepsi tastes better, Coca Cola is perceived to be a better brand so it has higher sales.

The levels of branding rise from 0 – 10 from brand absence (zer0) to brand awareness to brand preference to brand desire to brand insistence (ten).  Brand advocacy (when you tell all your friends how great some brand is) is over the top.  An example of brand advocacy is the Apple Computer Company.  Apple users love their Apples and tell everyone about the wonders and greatness of their Apple products, which gets their friends to try it and buy.  This is the best and highest level of salesmanship.

To advance to higher levels of branding, make WOWs (when people say “Wow!).  Every Wow moves you up – gradually.  Every unWow (things that need fixing) moves you down – fast.

6 ingredients of Wows = Big, Unexpected, Memorable, Positive, Extra, Relevant. (BUMPER)

Sources of Wows include your own creativity and uniquness, feedback from clients, turning unWows into Wows.

_____________________________________

Ways to brand yourself:

By Achievement (Lance Armstrong’s achievement of defeating cancer and winning the Tour de France several times earns him $100,000 for each speaking engagement)

By Association (pictures with famous or successful people)

By Authoring a Book

By Reciprocation (give, give, give and create relationships)

By 3rd party recognition (testimonials – especially written ones)

By charitable donation (example is McDonald and the Ronald McDonald House)

By Brand Mascots (Snap Crackle and Pop for Rice Crispies)

By Message Control (be careful of the words and stories you use – always be aware of the message/image you are wanting to convey).
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At the end of Day 1, we were instructed to create our own website with “OurOwnNameReview.com”.  Raymond has RaymondAaronReviews.com as one of his websites.  On it, using WordPress templates, he asks a simple question “What is the greatest thing that Raymond taught you that will increase your business?”

When people fill in their name, city, and occupation as well as their feedback (which is automatically a testimonial), it is posted.  This review site will be at the top of anyone’s Google name search of you which will help your branding as it serves as bonafide validation and positive reinforcement for you.

THAT is ultra cool.

[Aunty’s review website will be HonoluluAuntyReviews.com in the near future and my question would be about benefits from visiting Aunty at HonoluluAunty.com.]

Elance.com is a site like ebay – but just for services.  Post the job you want done (i.e. make a review site just like Raymond’s) and bids for your job will come in – after which you leave feedback.  This is a great resource for finding a webmaster or website developer if you need one  (they can help you make your review site – tell them to go see RaymondAaronReviews.com and make one for you just like that).

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DAY 2 iMarketing Genius

Raymond began by giving us 6 rung steps in the “Ladder of Profits”.  From a ground base of zero:

1.  Visibility – with so many channels of media on the internet, magazines, etc. build a presence and get your name out there.  Create and maintain a website.

2.  Credibility – you want to be known, liked, and trusted.  Becoming an author of books will give you instant visibility and credibility.

3.  Marketability – setting up a business to succeed where customers choose you

4.  Profitability – the achievement reached.

Starting at the base and moving downward is

– 1.  Invisibility – the majority of people as entrepreneurs, employees, investors are on this rung.

– 2.  Instability – mental, emotional, financial distress.  Insolvency.

In order to achieve profitability, you move up one rung at a time, in order.  The way to skip rungs from invisibility to profitability is to win a lottery – which has very low probability.

_______________________

Nido Qubein is one of Raymond Aaron’s coaches.  He is the President of High Point University in North Carolina, and on the Boards of BB&T Banks and Lazy Boy.  Raymond played a short video of highlights of a recent presentation.  What a WOWer of a speaker!  If you can, google for YouTube videos of Nido Qubein.

Points from his presentation:

To become great and successful, hang around with successful people.  Who you spend time with is who you become.  Figure out what obstacles are in the way in your life and avoid or get rid of them.

Over and beyond communicating is connecting.  Figure out how the other person must feel first before he/she will do what you want them to do.

Training is teaching people what to do.  Educating is showing people what to be.

Pay yourself first.  Most people pay themselves last after all the bills, etc have been made.  Pay yourself first.

Nido hates “to do” lists because they never ever end.  Instead, have a “stop doing” list.  (Raymond expanded on this concept – keep reading.)

Do only the 3 things you do best.  Delegate all the rest.  [Wow – what a wonderful possibility!]
________________________________

Regarding the “stop doing” list:

1. Write down every task, activity performed in a week, business related as well as non-business related.

2.  Identify what 3 things you are good at (A items).

3.  Identify your C things – things you hate doing, procrastinate about, and are lousy at doing.

4.  Everything else is a B item.

5.  Eliminate one C item.  [This is WILDLY transformational]

6.  Get rid of all other C’s.

7.  Get rid of B’s.
_____________________________________

Here are 21 steps for your Marketing Department

1.  Have a transformational Marketing Department.

2.  Strategically choose your niche – where/what do hot eager buyers want?

3.  Understand your niche – do market research – 3 actions/person involved for every sale – the decision maker, the payer, the beneficiary.  Cater to the decision maker.

4.  Organize duties – keep your core abilites (things you do best) and delegate the rest eventually

5.  Start with 5 lead sources for new prospects – referrals are most common, Facebook page, craigslist, posters, Linkedin profile, contests, billboards, speeches, newspaper ads, cards, networking groups, eZineArticles.com, blog, radio, video testimonials, etc.

6.  Add 1 new lead source every 2 months

7.  Story board your prospecting funnel – at the start of lead generation you may have 20 prospects because of response to an add, and at the end you have 1 or 2 sales.  Between the start and end, track the drop off rate and figure out why.

8.  Establish 3 levels of clients and cater to them differently.
level 1 – ones that don’t want to pay the going rate – sell them something smaller, i.e. audio CD set
level 2 – will pay standard
level 3 – will pay higher – will get more

9.  Create your BRAND – this is what people think of you.  Have a slogan, logo,         color scheme, font, URL site

10.  Create your 5 second pitch – be puzzling,enigmatic.  Give insufficient information, no selling, about them not yourself.  Purpose is that they ask for more information because you become interesting to them.

11.  Create visibility and credibility.  Write a book, self capture websites, do something to be recognized.

12.  Plan for social proof – testimonial capture system (example RaymondAaronReviews.com)

13.  Plan for referrals – on sign up sheet ask for 3 guest referrals (if you ask for 1, you get 0, asking for 2 or 3, you get 1, asking for 4 or more, you get 0)

14.  Align with a related cause – on your marketing tools “a certain portion of my sales goes to….”

15.  Management feedback data – how many clients you saw, results, numbers, numbers, numbers

16.  Soft Launch – do a pretend or test launch.  If you have a coach, ask first.

17.  Review numbers and redesign.

18.  Hard Launch

19.  Keep watching your numbers

20.  Keep delegating more and more so that you just have your core abilities tasks

21.  Check in with coach at every stage (keep getting feedback)

Without a Marketing Department, there is no leader, no transformational ideas, no focus, procrastination, time wasted on non-essential tasks, no positioning, only a few lead generation sources, no brand, no formal referral system, no strategic plan.  It is living inside invisibility.

_______________________

After lunch, Les E.???  did a presentation on marketing to sell more.

The seller must be non threatening.

Words such as experience, integrity, service, honesty, quality, reliability, the best are not important and so standard that the customer is not impressed.

Customer Espionage:

* Who is your target market

* Who are your primary competitors and what are they doing

* What would cause someone to want or buy what you want in the first place

* What problems, frustrations or annoyances do people experience when buying what you sell

* If this was your best friend, what “insider knowledge” would you want them to know

* What’s your evidence – need supporting proof

If you want massive sales success you must do all of your customers’ thinking for them.  Phrase your sales pitch with “so that you”, i.e. We service your air conditioning our way so that you will always be comfortable.

___________________________

The last part of the day was spent with Raymond showing us Intentional Congruence.  It brought tears to his eyes – because he gets it.  Truth to tell, I didn’t get it yet – but I will try out the concept.

Start with a circle in the middle of a blank sheet.  This will represent whatever your #1 source of income (write it in the circle).  Then, in a planet like arrangement around but away from the central circle, draw other circles.  Write down in each circle whatever you do that has activity or expenditure of time, other income sources, or important person (i.e. wife, family).

There are 3 kinds of arrows for this – absent, thin, and fat.

Starting with your #1 source of income circle, draw an arrow to one of the named “planets” and ask yourself how does A (#1 income source) support B (the activity or thing.)  After you have done a bunch of these, draw arrows back from B to A and figure out how B supports A.

After that, draw arrows from a planet to another planet – all or none of them if you can think of a connection in which they support each other.

At first, there will be a lot of absent arrows (no support or connection), some thin, and a few fat arrows.

The purpose of this exercise is to have a blueprint image for conscious decision making in order to have congruence in life.  Congruence so that doing something in one “planet” will benefit/support more than just itself, but other “planets” will also benefit because you intend/plan it that way.

An example Raymond used was this:

His central planet is Coaching (his #1 source of income).  One of his planets is his youngest daughter.  He has an iPad with better games than hers because he pays for his apps and she is only allowed free apps on her iPad.  On the day of the week when he is in charge of her, he has a phone coaching session with one of his clients.  Rather than have her be bored and free during that period of time, he allows her to play with his iPad, but the rule is that it must be on the couch of his workroom – while he is on his phone coaching session with his client.

The intentional congruence occurs when his coaching sessions support his time to be with his daughter, and ALSO when she is in the same room and hearing (even if subconsciously) his lessons and advice to one of his coaching students.  She is learning without realizing it (arrow from his coaching planet to daughter planet), and he has her in his vision which inspires him and is in her ear (arrow from his daughter’s planet to his coaching planet) to give really inspiring and great words of wisdom to his student that he has to spend time with – both at the same time.  He was wanting to spend time with his daughter anyway, and he had to be on the coaching session anyway.

Raymond also showed us what his coach Nido Qubein’s intentional congruence looks like.  It was mind blowing and way way out of our league.  Like seeing what a Grand Master can do with hundreds of instruments here and hundreds of instruments there, with much larger dollars and connections.

The more intentional (important word – intentional) congruences you make in your life, then every intentional action you make will bring more benefits/advances/fulfillments to more of the “planets” in your life – with less time involved.  Since you are going to do something anyway, let them be multipliably fruitful.

_______________________
Raymond’s introduced us to his 10-10-10 package (for a price) consisting of a 4 or 6 webinar program that will teach and guide anyone to produce and publish a book.  10 chapters – 10 hours of your time – 10 weeks printed.

Well, that was a WOW.  Uncle is thinking about it.  It could dramatically increase the esteem of being an expert in his field (no, it’s not fishing…yet).  And the benefits of being able to say, “I wrote the book on that” is multi-fold.

In any case, the two days spent with Raymond were days well spent and fantastically valuable.  The real kicker was that it was free – no cost at all, even though Raymond brought in his key program man, paid for travel expenses, hotel meeting room and amenities, and even gave us all the Steve Jobs biography book.  WOW, WOW, WOW!

2 Rules for Wealth

2013-04-14_16-16-25Mark Ford writes for the Palm Beach Newsletter.  He recently wrote an article about “Breaking the Chains of Financial Slavery.”  Here are his key points:

Acquiring wealth through some short-term investment strategies is possible, but not probable.

However, in a relatively short period of time, anyone can achieve freedom from financial slavery in just a few years.  It does not have to be a lifelong process.

 

If you are in a financial slavery situation , here are five wealth-building strategies to get you out and moving in the opposite direction.
First of all though, what does financial slavery mean?  Most commonly it means two things:

You earn less than you spend.

You owe more than you own.

 

If you earn less than you spend, you are in a constant state of stress. You must put off or partially pay your bills. You must appease creditors. And all the while, your debt is mounting.
If you owe more than you own, then you can’t buy a house or lease a car or get a loan from anyone other than your parents. (And what if they are dead or tired of helping you…or don’t have the money?)
Because you are in so much trouble, you can’t even think about taking nice vacations or retiring someday. Instead, you have to worry about losing your job. So you keep working and reading investment newsletters. But as each month passes, your financial situation gets worse.
It’s a miserable existence. But it doesn’t have to last. You can break the chains you feel attached to by simply recognizing and reversing the two “facts” mentioned above.
Problem #1: You earn less than you spend.
Solution (Rule #1): Spend less and earn more.

Spend Less
You can’t break the chains of slavery without hitting them hard with a big mallet. You won’t be able to gain the independence you want in a few years or less by cutting $10 here and $50 there.
The recommendation is to cut your expenses by 30% to 50%.
That sounds crazy. And it may be impossible in your case. But don’t dismiss the idea until you understand the concept. The primary factor in how much you spend every month is the neighborhood you live in. Your neighborhood creates the financial culture that presents the spending choices you make. If you live in a community of million-dollar homes, you will be looking at new BMWs and Audis when it comes to buying or leasing a car. When you go out to dinner, chances are, you’ll be spending more than a hundred dollars per couple.
Unless you live in a working-class neighborhood now, you can radically reduce your spending by moving into one.
We all know people (maybe even friends and relatives) that live in expensive homes in beautiful neighborhoods and drive luxury cars, but the reality is they are broke and getting poorer every month. They refuse to even consider the idea of downsizing because they are simply too ashamed to do so. What they don’t realize is every month they try to “hold on,” it is making them poorer.
Moving to a less expensive neighborhood would be the quickest, biggest, and surest way to bring their spending down by 30% to 50%.
Earn More
The other thing you must do to improve your situation is to earn more money. You should take immediate steps to increase your income by 20% to 50%. That seems radical, but if you want a “short-term” solution out of financial slavery, this is just as important as radically cutting expenses.
There are dozens of ways to increase your income.  Take some time to figure out what those ways can be for yourself.  [For Aunty, it might be network marketing a truly great product that I believe in.  Or, cashflow from real estate investments.  Or selling my “valuable” clutter on eBay and Amazon.]
Problem #2: You owe more than you own.
Solution (Rule #2): Start owing less and owning more.

Owe Less
If you have accumulated a lot of debt, it means that you don’t see debt as financially dangerous. You must accept the fact that most debt you have is bad for you. There are only a few exceptions: mortgage debt when interest rates are low, and business debt when the business is sound and you are not personally liable.
The first step towards debt management is to get rid of every credit card you have, as well as any credit you have with your bankers. Use cash or debit cards for your shopping. Yes, that means there will be lots of things you can’t buy every month. That’s a good thing, not a bad thing. [True, that.  But Aunty loves her Hawaiian Miles VISA cards because of the miles – but I make sure I don’t charge too much and I always pay off the balance in full to avoid any finance charges.]
If you have a lot of existing credit card debt, you need to consolidate it. Then work with a professional to pay it off at reasonable interest rates.
If you are lucky enough to have equity in your home, then trading it for a cheaper one (see above) will accomplish two important goals: it will reduce your monthly expenses, and it will give you a chunk of cash that you can use to pay off debt or put aside as savings.
Own More
You must increase what you own. And by that, I do NOT mean cars or boats or furniture or toys. I mean tangible assets that are likely to appreciate such as gold coins, income-producing real estate, dividend producing stocks, etc.
Every extra after-tax dollar you make by taking on extra work or starting a side business should be devoted to increasing your ownership of such assets. None of it should be spent.
Being financially independent is not about having a big house or driving new cars or taking fancy vacations. There are tens of thousands of Americans in that situation today who are financial slaves just like you. They are in chains because they spend more than they make and owe more than they own. Their stress is just as great as yours, even though they may make more money or have more toys.
Being financially independent means having more income than you need and owing far less than you own.
It means knowing that you won’t be harassed by bill collectors or embarrassed at the supermarket. It means you have money put aside to take care of any emergencies that come up, and it means a savings account that gets substantially bigger every year.
Becoming a multimillionaire takes years. But breaking the chains of financial slavery can be done relatively quickly. The hardest part is recognizing the chains that are binding you—earning less than you spend and owing more than you own—and deciding to do something serious about them.

Donna Kato and Polymer Clay

In my stumbling around using different art mediums, I have had the privilege of meeting and learning from some of the finest artists in their field.

Polymer clay (some call it Fimo the way you say Kleenex instead of tissues) is instant gratification.  What you work with is what you get.

My absolute favorite teacher of the medium is Donna Kato.  She calls me kiddo!  LOL!  Actually I think she calls almost everyone kiddo even though she is the same age as me.  She sure doesn’t look it!

She even has a clay named after her – Kato Polyclay by Van Aken.  How cool is that!  It also happens to be the BEST polymer clay on the planet – easy to condition, holds firm in canes, is super strong after firing, least toxic of the clays.  I have given away my other clays because I am now too spoiled with how wonderful Kato Polyclay is now.

When I grow up, I’m going to play even more with polymer clay.  It will be my reward during our retirement years of leisure.

Beauty tips

2013-04-01_15-35-37This is a page dedicated to all of us non-beauty queens who just want to look a bit better than usual with the least amount of effort.

First of all, smile.  Nothing makes your face look better than a genuine smile.

I also firmly believe in brushing my teeth with toothpaste after I drink my morning coffee.  Keeps my teeth white rather than brown and yellow.  I know this is hard if you work in an office but do what you can to get the coffee off your teeth.

To prevent those sun spots and skin discolorations in the first place, use a good sunscreen (I use Neutrogena spf 70 that I get at the Nordstrom Rack or Costco) and wear a hat or visor whenever you go out in the sun.  For some reason, young folk don’t have this problem, but one day, all of a sudden, they will have the sun spots too – take it from Aunty.  At that time they will wish they wore hats and sunscreen.

Aunty latest and greatest find is NeriumAD.  This is a night cream that is amazing in its science, results, and business opportunity.  After the first 2 weeks, Uncle said my face was glowing – and so was his!  I have Elaine of the Green Valley Ranch Spa keeping tabs on my rather dark sun spots since I see her about once every month or two.  At my last treatment, she said the spots are beginning to break up – which is great!  Aunty has tried almost everything and was about to try Obagi – the very complex (5 step process 2x a day for 2 months), very invasive (your skin actually peels off and leaves skin looking raw), very scary (some people have permanent sunburn damage if they do not take care during the treatment) through a dermatologist since this is a prescription based product and treatment.  Aunty is very glad to be introduced to NeriumAD – the product and the company, and Aunty is now a distributor of this excellent age defying night cream at aunty.nerium.com, and did a review of the business on a Review page.

Although facials could be classified as doodads, they become a worthwhile expense because of the benefits and how good it makes Aunty feel (and look)!  I make it a point to get a facial whenever I travel to Vegas (Elaine at the Green Valley Ranch Spa) because of how Aunty feels like her skin shrivels up and dries over there.

To have beautiful clean hair, use Neuma shampoos and conditioners.  I buy mine at BOSS Beauty Outlet Supply on Nimitz next to the AAA Hawaii store.  I love the Neuma Volume products – it has the added bonus of smelling wonderful!  [Update – now Aunty uses Aveda’s Volumizing Shampoo with its Conditioner thanks to pal Patricia.  It almost seems to make my hair feel tangled when shampooing, and really does give volume and boost to Aunty’s locks.]

Master Hong says to eat 7 dates a day to maintain beauty.  I got the big tub from Costco, and ate 4 a day until I ran out.  Not sure if it made a difference, but it was quite nice and delicious to eat with my morning cereal.

Eat a good diet, exercise, and get your sleep.  Simple and real.  If you don’t eat that well, make sure you take supplements.  I take one or two capsules of Super Food 100 daily from the American Botanical Company. I also take a capsule of Intestinal Correctional #1 (from American Botanical) every evening with dinner.  A potty a day is good for you.

For the last 10 months, Aunty has taken Protandim by LifeVantage.  Aunty’s review of it in on a Review Page of the products and the company.  Protandim is a wonderful daily supplement and has helped my energy levels, joint strength, and brain fog.  I feel less stressed in general, and I will take this little yellow tablet forever.

Facial yoga for double chins:  Put your fist under your chin with your mouth closed.  Giving slight resistance with your fist, open and close your mouth slowly.  I suppose you could do this while standing in line at the bank, but you might look a bit strange.  Aunty just got the PY Neckline Slimmer for herself.  Possibly working, easy to use.  Buy it from Amazon.com or eBay.com, sometimes you get free shipping.  Also, when no one is looking, do “EEEEE”s to help jowls look less saggy.  If you do those in public, you will look scary.

While standing in line, do your kegels.  This is when you squeeze or contract your pelvic muscle.  Makes your butt firmer, and has other benefits.  Five seconds at a time should do it.

Master Hong says that the perineum muscle (area between anus and the other stuff) is the base of your body pyramid.  He teaches several exercises on a slant board for health and beauty benefits.  One of the easiest to describe and do is to stand straight with arms to your side, and place both feet together on a slant board (with your toes higher than your heels).  Contract your perineum as you inhale through your nose.  As you contract and inhale, let the energy from the perineum rise up your back through your spinal cord, up to the top of your head, and then release your breath through your mouth, relax your contraction, and let the energy go down through the front side of your body.  The higher the slant of the board, the more your body will respond and need correction (i.e. crooked stance or head tilted to one side).  Although this exercise works best on the slant board, it also works just standing in the bank line.

To combat dry hands and feet, vaseline can be your best friend.  Just before bedtime, put a good layer of vaseline on your hands and then put on a pair of old cotton gloves.  You can use latex gloves but you will get sweaty hands and the latex will start to disintegrate.  For your dry feet, slather on some vaseline, and put your feet in socks, then go to sleep.  When you wake up in the morning, your hands and feet will be soft and moisturized.

Attended a facial massage class at the Kapiolani Women’s Medical Center recently.  It is well worth the few dollars to attend, but Aunty found it to be a lot of work gently pushing on pressure points.  Much more luxurious and wonderful is to have a fantastic whole body shiatsu by Dick Murakami at Hikari Shiatsu.

For us more mature gracious ladies (i.e. older), Aunty wrote a new page Just for Aunties.  We need a bit more help than young people in order to look decent.

Please leave a comment below if you have any tips for beauty to share.  Mahalo in advance!

Love and Marriage

2013-04-01_13-19-54The single most important decision to make in life is to marry a good person, if you plan to be married, that is.

We are all attracted to the good looking ones, but as Uncle says, it is the heart that counts.  I lucked out because I was attracted to Uncle who is a real hunk, but he also has a heart of gold with a smattering of local yokel rowdiness.  Uncle and I have a really great marriage.  He cherishes me, even with all my faults, grey hair, clutter, and idiosyncrasies.  That is love.

As his wife, I use the “Tuesday” rule (when I remember) since I can be a pain in the butt and don’t want to be a nag.  If Uncle does something I don’t like – like leaving his fishing pole in the way or not putting the cover on the toothpaste, I ask myself, “Will this matter next Tuesday?”  If it will matter, I bitch away (I AM trying to say things more diplomatically nowadays).  If it won’t matter, I just suck it up and don’t say anything.  It’s not worth the sour taste if it’s not that important.  [update:  I have never, ever regretted using the Tuesday rule.  Uncle is obliviously happy and I might have some teeth marks on my lower lip because of the effort needed to hold in my comments not mattering in the Tuesday test, but it has been worth it.  For sure enough, Tuesday comes and goes, and whatever it was that bugged me the week before, it really didn’t matter worth squat a week later.]

Menopause is something else.  It is the worst period in a woman’s life but even worse for husband and family.  It is also a period of power and some never get over it.  I think it is the test of a marriage.  If you’ve passed the test, congratulations.

Also, advice from Alice Kong (girlfriend’s mom) – always wear lipstick.  It makes a difference in how you look, and you should always try to look half way decent in front of the most important person in your life.  Please check out Aunty’s pages on Beauty when you have time.

That’s another thing.  Your spouse is the most important person in your life.  That is who you chose, and they chose you.

At a recent Wealth Summit here in Honolulu, Ian Plummer, a color expert, gave a brief summary of using color to help people in their relationships.  I was very impressed and thought I knew what color I was as he described the traits, especially the not so good stuff.  Here is an Aunty page on the theory, although I suggest you go to the website and take the test.

I feel that being able to understand the other person’s core motivation can be used to enhance any relationship.

Back in college we were given the Briggs Myers personality test, and I was an INTP (Introvert, iNtuitive, Thinker, Perceiver) type.  It is rather fun to know and be “typed”.  Just this year, I took the same type of test, called the Jung Typology test, and I was still an INTP.  I believe Uncle is the exact opposite of me – an ESFJ.  This may be why we get along so well.

For a good marriage, respect is paramount.  With respect, comes trust and actually liking your spouse.

Aunty constantly looks at a quote from the Dalai Lama:  “Be kind whenever possible….. It is always possible.”  It applies to everyone for everything.  It makes for peace, goodwill, and a very happy Uncle – when Aunty remembers.

Supplements

IMG_0769Aunty will share what she currently takes and when Protandim comes up, it will sound like a sales pitch, so sorry in advance, but it is worth pitching, imo.

Uncle swears by Super Food from American Botanical.  It is all the best green food stuff compressed into a green tablet.  Everyday, Uncle takes about 4 of them.  I take 2 if I remember.  This is a very good nutritional supplement especially since I don’t eat enough vegetables.  Dark green leafy vegetables, spirulina, blue green wheat grass, etc. are easier for Aunty in a tablet form so it works for now.  I just wish it looked, tasted, and felt like a crispy fried piece of bacon – one of Aunty’s absolute favorite bad foods.

Strontium is more acceptable because of its properties and lack of side effects for bone building than calcium supplements.  Aunty’s once every 5 year (I know I’d better go more often) checkup revealed low bone density so this is what Aunty takes, one a day.  Good friend and nutritional UH professor Alan Titchenal sent over the info and here is the page on it.

One a day Protandim by LifeVantage is really something.  Aunty has more energy throughout the day, wakes up refreshed and clear eyed, feels mentally sharp again, and also sexier.  Fingernails are stronger, stiffness and pain in the hands have diminished drastically, and I think I am handling stress a bit better (but Uncle and the kids would know more definitely.)  Aunty has a page on Protandim for more blow by blow under the Review pages.  If you sign up as a preferred customer on monthly autoship and you continue for 6 months, you will get a FREE bottle of TrueScience Anti-Aging creme – that’s a good deal since the creme is rather expensive – $70!  If you do sign up to be a distributor (possible to make good commissions) or preferred customer, Aunty does get a nice commission the very first month.  The company provides each distributor with their own business website, and Aunty’s website is mylifevantage.com/aunty.

Another product that Aunty takes once a day forever is Dr. Schulze’s Intestinal Correctional Formula #1 from the American Botanical Company.  With it, Aunty “goes” in the morning, guarans ball barans.  That is very important for good health.  Each person needs to find the right dosage, and happily Aunty has been able to decrease her daily dosage to one a day.  Like the Dalai Lama, Aunty also smiles in the bathroom.

Of course eating a healthy gatherer/hunter diet is the ideal as well as doing daily exercise, but for now Aunty is being lazy and having supplements as I slowly (very slowly) transition to the healthier choices and lifestyle is a blessing and a regime that I can easily stick to.

Nattokinese is denatured natto (the stinky slimy stuff made from soybeans that is great for the health) and because one of the properties of natto is blasting away clots in the blood, Aunty takes it whenever she has a headache – just in case it is blockage.  It always works for Aunty, so this is one of the “must haves” in the pill arsenal that is always kept on hand.

I have recently been introduced to Kyani (yup, Aunty signed up, lol)).  Not sure how well it works yet, but will post a review when the results come in.  [note:  Uncle’s papa likes Kyani – he has diabetes and his black looking leg has gotten better, or so he says.  As for Aunty, I think the juice tastes good, especially the one in the packet, and I keep a little bottle of the Nitro Extreme in the purse and take squirts from time to time, but I really cannot say if it works or not.]

What do you use for your good health/beauty/happiness?

Be wary, Be careful

This was sent by concerned friends/family and is worth reprinting here.  Bad people preying on other people’s kindness is becoming a dangerous and repulsive ploy.  Like the police sargeant in that New York Blues police show (forgot the name) would say just prior to releasing his group after briefing, “Hey!  Be careful out there..”

Want to let you all know of a true story.  Sherri’s (Aunty JoAnne’s daughter) friend’s mother was at Walmart on Keeaumoku St. and was walking to her car in the parking garage when she passed a car and saw an old lady slouched down between two cars and moaning .  She was ready to go and help this lady but was also a bit scared because of a lot of bad things that seem to happen when you offer assistance.  She stood for a few seconds then walked passed the car and called 911.  She thought it was odd that the moaning from that old looking lady was not as loud so when she walked back to see this lady but from a distance, the moaning started to be loud again.  Well, she said that HPD came so fast and when she waved them down, one of three HPD cars stopped right where she was.  This old lady got up and started to run.  She was apprehended by several HPD officers that responded and store security.  Turned out that this lady was a man and he had a big blade knife in his duster that he tried using to fight off the officers.  He was apprehended.  Sherri said if it were her mother-in-law who saw this guy dressed like an old lady, she would have immediately gone over to help and could have gotten seriously injured or killed (her mother-in-law likes to help seniors).

Sherri shared this story with us when we were at dinner one night and said she always receive emails with similar stories but was never sure if they were true.  She said this is so true and her friend’s mom was so shaken up when she realized that she could have been in danger.  I guess we must all be very cautious in parking lots, public restrooms, parks, stores and even on roadways.  I still remember the young lady driving on the Pali highway many years ago who pulled over when a car in the back of her put on his blue light.  She was never found after that.  The thing is, this guy’s blue light was in his car grill.  Cops never have blue lights in their grills.

Anyway, be safe and be aware of your surroundings as you walk, get in your car, strap in children, etc.  Be careful getting in your car especially when parked next to a van.

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Here’s a tip about your car’s GPS from friend Cynthia of M&H’s kitchen:

“Don’t program your home’s exact location into your GPS.  Incidents are occuring where GPS are stolen from cars and all they have to do is hit home on your GPS and instantly they are at your house when you are not.
Program a commercial place nearby that you can get home from, such as your local police station, a bar or the pharmacy as your home. Be careful when naming your other contacts such as your parents house, better to say police, shoe store, soccer game and such.
I learned this from a fellow RE/MAX Agent at our retreat. He said it’s happening at Yankee games. The thieves know where you will be for the next 4 hours. I thought it was brilliant when he said he programmed the 22nd Precinct to his. Tell all your friends to do the same.”