05.30.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 9:28 am by Robin J. Elliott
Last night I surprised my lovely wife when I dramatically changed my strongly held opinion on a certain business opportunity.
We’re all faced with choices, opportunities, and options on a regular basis. We approach it all with a healthy dose of skepticism, as well we should, and we find it important not to rush blindly into new ventures or take up certain options. We’ve been around long enough not to get swept up into every scheme and scam around, and that protects us from the con artists and from losing our proverbial shirts. All good. Except when we throw healthy babies out with the bathwater, miss the train, and overlook the diamonds in the mud, that is.
We’re masters of self-deception, and we diligently seek evidence to support our dominant beliefs and justify our choices - it’s only human. We hate to be proven wrong or admit that we missed a lucrative opportunity, and we trot out endless streams of “reasons” why we were right. It takes courage and humility to change one’s opinion, even reverse it completely. It’s hard to say, “I was wrong, I missed it, and it cost me money.” You can be “right” or you can be rich. Business is not about feeling important, infallible, and ingenious - it’s about making money. The most successful entrepreneurs I know fail on a regular basis. Babe Ruth struck out more than anyone in baseball history, I’m told.
The scary thing is that we lose a lot of money with wrong decisions, and usually it’s our fear, ego, conditioning, bias, and pig-headedness that makes the decision instead of a calm, objective, rational business brain. That’s why it’s important to put the old ego on hold when evaluating one’s options. Looking back, I have lost a lot of money by missing opportunities. And I know a lot of others who have lost a lot, and even some right now that are going to miss huge opportunities that they are being exposed to through DollarMakers. I could name names, but I won’t - they skepticism is going to rob them blind, and they don’t know it yet.
I attended a meeting this week where I met a character that had been a Member of the DollarMakers Club when it first started, but he lapsed his Membertship and never got really involved. He’s a typical. lazy, west coast specimen who has no idea how much money he could have made through DollarMakers had he stayed with us. I know of at least a dozen specific, lucrative opportunities that would have funnelled thousands into his bank account, had he simply showed up at our events and stayed active. But I guess pot, beer, and ice hockey got in the way. The same applies to people offering website services, computer services, financial services, and real estate who were involved with us, but their desperation for a quick fix and easy money had them scampering off to greener grass, only to find it growing over a cesspit. By the time they limp back to us with their tails between their legs and a big bag of excuses, their spot has been taken by a smarter person; we don’t want them back. (”Where were you when we needed you?”)
Decisions cost money or make money, and because nothing stays the same, we need to have the courage to revisit past decisions, if it’s not too late for tears, which it often is. Better still to make the right decision at the outset by aligning yourself with real entrepreneurs who think rationally, and not relying on advice from your loser relative or an unemployed has-been or jumped-up kid that calls himself a “Business Coach”.
Last night I was more interested in making a lot of honest money than feeling embarrassed by telling Rika, “I was wrong, the situation has changed, and I have changed my mind.” Think of it this way: to go faster in your car, you need to change gears. Change is good, and we should embrace it like a warm puppy.
Robin J. “I’m Never Wrong - yeah, right!” Elliott www.DollarMakers.com
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05.27.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 8:54 am by Robin J. Elliott
How many seminars and events have you attended, how many books have you read, how many retreats and Bootcamps and talks have you been exposed to? How many of them changed your life? Why didn’t your life change? You spent so much time and money, and every time you thought, “THIS might be the one that does it for me…” but it didn’t, did it? WHY? I believe there are only two basic reasons why none of these training sessions or books worked for you so far.
The first reason is that you’ve become such a “course junkie” that there is no urgency, and you really think you’ve heard it all before, so there is no more real excitement, and in the back of your mind, you know there will be another seminar next week, anyway. No rush. And you justify the time and money you spend and the lack of success in your life by reasoning, “I need more information - I am still learning - one more seminar” - like the eternal student, the gray-haired loser that never leaves university, and never applies what he learns. Hooked on learning and the little high he gets at each event, the course junkie never intends applying the information. He has been playing the Cash Flow Game for years, but he still works for a boss, and he always will. He likes the idea of being an entrepreneur and getting rich, but he’ll never do it. Perhaps he’s waiting for an inheritance or she’s waiting to marry someone rich… Attending seminars is her HOBBY. Nothing wrong with that - you’re welcome to have a nice hobby. Enjoy it!
The second reason is PAIN or the lack of it. We will only make a dramatic change in our lives when the pain of staying where we are exceeds the pain of change. Until we reach that pain threshold, there will be no change. It is said, “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear”. “READY” means “Enough Pain”. Realistically, any one of the seminars you attended or books you read could have been the catalyst to launch you into a brand new life of success, but you were too comfortable, so you didn’t bother to apply the information, or you did so half-heartedly to justify the time and money spent. When there is enough pain in your present circumstances, you will do whatever it takes to get out and make the changes required. At that point, the seminar or book will become your way out.
How can you induce that level of pain and change? How can you get leverage on yourself to actually change your life, to become a student who will follow the instructions of a master with absolute commitment, trust, obedience and faith? How can you heighten your receptivity and motivation to a point where you apply the instructions meticulously to your life, do whatever it takes, and subjugate your arrogance and slothfulness to an awareness and drive that propels to you heights of success you never dreamed possible?
Stand back and look at your life. Focus on the pain. We will do more to remove pain that to gain pleasure, so use pain. Ask yourself what your life will look like in three years if you DON’T make the requisite changes. Weigh the two: What you have, and what you COULD have. If this doesn’t float your boat, ring your bell, and get you leaping out of bed, you’re simply not ready - YET.
And that’s the scary part. “A hard rain’s gonna fall…” Usually, it takes a dramatic, disastrous episode in one’s life - a divorce, a bankruptcy, a death, the unexpected loss of your job - before you wake up, smell the coffee, and make the changes. Your ego needs to be gobsmacked so hard that that you find out who you really are and where you’re really at. The only problem with that is that sometimes, it’s simply too late. The Chinese say, “Dig the well BEFORE you thirst.” So by all means, play the “What IF?” game, and see if that heightens your awareness sufficiently to finally make the changes and apply what you learn. Think about it. But then, you spend a lot of time thinking, don’t you? Perhaps ACTION is the key?
Robin J. Elliott www.DollarMakers.com
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05.25.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 9:30 am by Robin J. Elliott
Entrepreneurs often spend too much time worrying. Statistically, 85% of the things we worry about will never happen. Those things include worries over our past that can never be changed, worries over which we have no control, irrational concerns or fears, and worries about the future. Worrying about something never solved the problem or affects the final outcome in any way.
Excessive worries cause negative emotions that release chemicals into our bodies which wreak physical havoc - high blood pressure, headaches, heart conditions, and more. I loved Dale Carnegie’s book, “How to Stop Worrying and Start Living”. Worry can ruin relationships, make your face drawn and ugly, and affect every aspect of your life negatively. Leo Buscaglia said, “Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy.” The more attention you pay to worries, like plants, they grow bigger and stronger, until they control you. Someone once said, “People gather bundles of sticks to build bridge they will never cross.”
How do we deal effectively with worry? Action. Pat Schroeder said, “You can’t wring your hands and roll up your sleeves at the same time.” Face you fears. Shine the light of intelligent, rational, and balanced evaluation on them, and the shadows of fear and emotionalism will retreat. Here’s my personal recipe for handling worry. I have a very vivid imagination, so you should know that I have to carefully manage my tendency to make mountains out of molehills and elaborate expansively on the smallest concerns.
I was walking from a business meeting to my car in a parking lot when I realized that I was in a constant state of worry. I knew I had to take control of things right away, so I took advantage of the fact that there were no people anywhere close and I could have a good, long talk with myself. I have found this to be very therapeutic, talking out loud to myself. I would literally ask myself, “OK, Robin, what is your biggest worry?” I would answer myself. Then I would ask, “Why do you worry about that? What’s the worst that can happen? What if it does happen? What would you, or could you do? What do you fear losing?” and answer all these questions. I would then mentally put each of these worries in a tin can on a big shelf. I would name my five biggest worries (or more, if necessary), put them all in cans on the shelf, then one by one, in my mind, as I walked around that parking lot, I would take the can off the shelf, open it up, examine it in detail, and create an action plan.
For example, if I needed to write a letter, make a call, set up a meeting, or whatever action was necessary, I would resolve to do that, put it on a mental “Action List”, and take the can of the shelf. If there was absolutely nothing I could do to alleviate that worry, remove it, or prevent that which I feared, I would realize that there was nothing I could do, and I would take it off the shelf, too. I waddle around that parking lot for about an hour, until I had mentally and emotionally dealt with all my worries in this way. I talked myself through everything. I had an action plan, I was relieved, I had perspective, I was calm, and I was ready to attack again. I thanked myself, got in my car, drove home, and diligently went to work on my Action Plan. When you confront yur fears and take action to diminish your worries, remove them, or set up contingency plans, you take control of your mind, and therefore your emotions and your life.
Nelson DeMille said, “Somehow our devils are never quite what we expect when we meet them face to face.” You are bigger than your worries. You have a lot more strength that you think you have. You can choose how to deal with your worries - fight, or flight. You can let your worries dominate you, or you can decide to b the boss. Change your self talk, change your attitude, take action, and win.
Robin J. Elliott www.DollarMakers.com
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Posted in Uncategorized at 8:39 am by Robin J. Elliott
“No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.” ~ Edmund Burke (1729 - 1797)
One thing that stops most people from achieving their goals is the fear of failure, embarrassment, loss, or anything that they currently have and don’t want to lose. This fear will prevent them from moving forward - the perceived threat and pain - until the pain of their present condition or their approaching condition exceeds the potential danger that they fear.
By examining the things you fear, you might get perspective and change your mind about whether or not that fear has the power you currently bestow upon it. What do you fear? How can you diminish that fear? For example, if you fear failure, think about this: If there was nobody else in the world but you, no other people - would you fear failure? No, you wouldn’t. Because you don’t fear failure per se - you fear the opinions and ridicule of other people. And anybody who likes you and cares about you would not ridicule you if you failed - they would help an support you, so why worry about the opinions of people who don’t like you or care about you?
If you fear loss, what do you have to lose? What is the risk factor? Specifically, what would happen if you incurred that loss? Could you cope with that loss? Is the reward of facing your fear worth the risk? Think objectively, not emotionally. Write down the pros and cons. Be rational. How can you reduce or prevent the risk? How can you change the situation, protect your assets, or shift the risk? Fear is usually illogical and based on our conditioning and self-esteem, instead of hard facts. We assume a whole lot of things that are generally not true.
Imagine an engineer, and architect, or a scientist evaluating a risk. Would they cry, wring their hands, get angry, shout, hide, or rant? Probably not - they would get out their calculators and have meetings with other analytical people, draw diagrams, make plans, discuss the situation, and find a solution. The architect doesn’t start whining, “But what if the bridge falls down? What if the floor collapses? I’ll be so embarrassed!” Analyze your fear, get the input of experts, talk with people who have been that route before and succeeded, and then make a logical, adult decision.
Play the “What if?” game. It works well if you write things down. “What if that person dies? What if this project fails? Exactly what would I do? What steps would I take? What would happen? Whose advice I need? What would I do? What could I do? Why would I make that choice? What would my alternatives be? Exactly what would this cost? How do I arrive at that number?”
When you view life like a monopoly game or a chess game, you can override your conditioning, bias, self-talk, beliefs, and fears. When you align yourself with successful, mature people who have experience in the field, it gets even better, hence the Mastermind effect of the DollarMakers Joint Venture Club and the DollarMakers Women’s Club - create a support system that will help you avoid the pitfalls of emotionalism, mysticism, and negative conditioning. Together, we can do amazing things.
The things you fear are not always all they’re cracked up to be. Several recent studies indicate that over 85% of all that we worry about never happens. Our minds tend to make mountains out of molehills. Fear is not bad - it’s a warning light that we should consider, and when the warning light goes on in your car you don’t start crying, get paralyzed with fear, or sell your car; you take it to the shop and get an expert mechanic to check it out, or you take the time to read the manual. Sometimes, an inexpensive item or a small adjustment is all that i required. Sometimes, it’s more expensive, but less expensive than a seized engine. Consider the situation calmly and you will find that all you have to fear, as a smart man once said, is fear itself.
Robin J. Elliott www.DollarMakers.com
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05.24.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 10:21 pm by Robin J. Elliott
Bill Gates of Microsoft said the hardest thing to find is good people, and that if he lost his best people, he would lose Microsoft. I agree. If you think you need to wave that silly little resume around to get hired, think again. If you think people are impressed with your words, reconsider. We’ve met all the has-beens and parrots with the resumes. So your daddy sent you to university, so what? And we’ve heard all the words; talk is cheap, and North America is the Capital of the BS Specialists. We’re all looking for good people with the following seven qualities. Everything else can be learned, borrowed, or Joint Ventured. Nothing else matters.
1. Absolute integrity and honesty.
2. The ability and readiness to work hard, for as long as it takes, to deliver what you promise, on time, with no excuses or lies.
3. A positive, upbeat, optimistic, confident, humble, and teachable attitude.
4. A burning desire to achieve that will not be denied.
5. Courage, persistence, and determination in the face of hardship, obstacles, and failure.
6. Creativity, innovation, and the ability to think.
7. A professional, well groomed, well dressed, appearance - someone who can walk into any meeting and look good.
See how easy it is to win and make a lot of money? There are very few people with the above attributes,and they are all by CHOICE. They don’t cost money. Anyone can CHOOSE to be like this. Your age, education, background, and circumstances do not matter. This mean that there i no excuse not to do exceptionally well. The skills you need can be learned. You can even learn point number seven. When I got my first job out of hotel school managing a successful restaurant, the owner taught me how to shave properly. When I managed my first hotel, the owner taught me how to tie a Windsor knot in my tie. I modelled successful, wealthy people to learn how to dress and groom myself correctly. Attitude is all you need.
Robin J. Elliott www.DollarMakers.com
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Posted in Uncategorized at 10:05 pm by Robin J. Elliott
I discovered something about myself a long time ago: when I get really angry, I learn something about myself. Let me give you some examples of this. I had someone in my business who would give me a ride to my hotel in his red car when I flew into town. By the time I got out of his car, I would be furious, every single time. When I am writing an article or a book and I get interrupted, I get angry. When I deal with people who pretend to be business coaches or consultants, I get hot under the collar. Why?
In the first instance, I realized that the person in my business was a parasite and a thieving leech who was a two faced, lying SOB who only had his own back pocket in mind. Why did this anger me? After all, there are many two faced leeches around. He was sabotaging my business, undermining me, building relationships with my enemies. After I fired him, he joined forces with the biggest con artists in the city. Here’s the root of the matter: he was hurting my people, the Members of DollarMakers, and abusing his position. I am very protective of my people. I learned that I am a lot more protective of my people than I thought I was.
Why do I get angry when I am interrupted whilst writing? I had to read the book, “The War of Art” that Shawn Christenson gave me, to understand this. I was being interrupted when I am at my most creative, and my train of thought was simply derailed for no reason at all. I am obsessive compulsive. I focus absolutely when I write. When I am interrupted, I have to start all over again. I learned that I regard my writing as my most valuable offering, my most important contribution, a part of myself. I am brutally honest in my writing: I open my heart. You would do better to slap me hard in the face than to interrupt me when I am writing.
Why do I get angry when I meet sly snake-oil salesmen who sell themselves as coaches and consultants? I’m not talking about the tiny handful of them who can actually do the job - I’m talking about the arrogant, big mouth losers who bought a coaching course and now waste other peoples’ time and money, giving them silly and often dangerous advice. I saw one of them lose eighteen good clients in a row. Why do I get angry? I care about honest, hardworking entrepreneurs who want to be successful and blindly trust shakedown artists.
Which brings me to my conclusion. When you are truly passionate about what you do, you will be good at it, you will believe in it, and you will jealously protect it, like a mother cougar protecting her young. You will get very angry at anyone who threatens your work and your mission. And your anger will cement your understanding and belief. If there is no passion, you’re probably just another mercenary sociopath playing the role of an entrepreneur. See the passion? Feel the heat? There is a scripture that goes, “So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.” Anger points to passion, and passion points to perfectionism, progress, and prosperity.
Robin J. Elliott www.DollarMakers.com
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05.20.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 5:57 pm by Robin J. Elliott
He allowed his DollarMakers Joint Venture Club Membership to lapse about a year ago and called me to reinstate it. He had attended a Bootcamp, and was shocked to see how much we had grown. Here is the gist of his words to me: “Robin, I have lost a year in which I could have built momentum and leverage in my business through DollarMakers. I would have been well established and positioned in the Club, had I persevered. I estimate that it has cost me at least $100,000 in lost income! I was impatient, and now I have to play catchup, but the reality is that I will never catch up. Anyway, that’s water under the bridge; I won’t make that mistake again.”
What he doesn’t know is that one of his competitors is now firmly positioned and has made a lot more than $100,000. Use it or lose it. Take full advantage of every situation - milk it - apply yourself diligently and conscientiously and sow massively. Impatience, a feeling of entitlement (I joined for $250, so now I am entitled to have people beat a path to my doorstep), and the need for instant gratification, are the signs of an immature, desperate salesman. We provide all the tools, access, support, training, and guidance, but you still have to work and take the time to establish your reputation and identity within the club. Once you get traction, you will find that your momentum starts accumulating, and the wave that you worked so hard to catch will carry you to unexpected heights of success.
Every opportunity set before you requires some tenacity and work, and most people don’t have the staying power, patience, or self discipline to build to a point where things start happening by themselves - your phone starts ringing, and you become the “go-to” person. The good news is that there is really very little competition in a world where people are addicted to comfort, mediocrity, and the quick fix. Few people deliver what they say they will, on time. They are experts at making excuses that nobody believes. And they rob themselves of the success they claim to want. We overestimate what we can do in the short term, and we vastly underestimate what we can do in the long term. Perseverance pays off big time. Opportunities, like windows, open and close. People have long memories. If you don’t use it, you will lose it.
Robin J. Elliott www.DollarMakers.com
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05.19.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 12:01 pm by Robin J. Elliott
Everything that impacts your mind, perception, choices, or awareness, has only one of two effects: Good or bad. The lukewarm amongst us will jeer at that declaration and allege that there is a “gray area” - losers LOVE that idea. The fact is that if you are seriously committed to success, everything that you are exposed to will either help or hurt your progress en route to your objective. Winners cannot afford any dilution or distraction. Cyclists shave their bodies. Champions measure their speed in thousandths of seconds. EVERYTHING counts: diet, environment, input, association.
I received an unsolicited phone call today from a fellow who wants me to participate in a public conference call. He asked me what my criteria were to participate or not. My answer was, “When I know whom the other participants in this project are, I will make my decision.” I will judge him by the company he keeps. I once unexpectedly had to impose on someone with whom I had a business meeting to give me a lift home in his car. Before and during the meeting, he had impressed me with his stories of success and achievement. Until I got into his filthy van, that was. Cigarette butts clogged the ashtrays, papers were spread all over - dirty disarray, a reflection of his real nature - no congruency. End of relationship.
Nourish your success by elevating your standards, expectations, systems, and consciousness through the carefully selected association with people, ideas, input and environment. Exorcise the mundane, the tepid, the feeble, and the inconsistent. Find mentors and heroes, both dead and alive, who will inspire, uplift, and challenge you. Adhere to and create environments that are aligned with and congruent with your values, beliefs, aspirations, and expectations. Everything you read and watch, see, hear and perceive, has a consequence. The people in your life either take you towards your goals or away from them.
Nourish your success by paying whatever price is required. Invest in your goals and future. Read only that which will fuel your ambition and inspire you on your journey. Churchill will trump Stephen King. Associate with those whom you wish to emulate. Practice that which you wish to perfect. Read the thoughts of the great ones, if you wish to think the thoughts of the great ones, for their words ARE their thoughts. Align your philosophy with that of your heroes. Carefully and diligently remove all obstacles, detractors, and distractions from your path. Fuel your enthusiasm with stories about the accomplishments of winners. Everything counts, and everything matters. Contamination is real. Replace poison with power. You don’t eat donuts if you want to win the marathon.
Robin J. Elliott www.DollarMakers.com
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Posted in Uncategorized at 11:11 am by Robin J. Elliott
The voice-over of a wonderful new television advertisement for the new Cadillac goes something like this: “Some say the nail that stands up gets hammered down - BE THE HAMMER.” (It is better to be a hammer than an anvil. - St. Dominic.) At the Joint Venture Bootcamp I presented in Vancouver BC to eighty-five people on Saturday, one of the Delegates told me at a break, “The more successful we get, the more our friends and family attack us.” Thankfully, this Delegate has joined the DollarMakers Club, where he and his wife will find the support they so richly deserve.
When you are not experiencing failures, frustration, and the attacks of those who have a vested in the status quo and the dumbing down of the herd, you are not making progress. When you are not hated, discredited, renounced and undermined by the losers of the world, you’re idling, and entropy has set in. Kites fly higher against the wind.
The sheeple will always attack that which challenges their addiction to compromise and mediocrity. That’s no news. But what is scary is that the prostitutes and pimps that call themselves politicians will support the persecution of free thinkers and those who would beckon the unwashed masses to higher ground. As the world sinks deeper into concession, statism, collectivism, and denial, those with the courage and integrity to speak out and the intellect to support their premises are losing their freedom of speech. This is disturbing. Leaders of freedom like Mark Steyn are being actively, systematically, and viciously attacked. Christopher Hitchens is a lone voice in the wilderness, one of the great intellectuals of our time, an Ayn Rand in his own right, who still manages to share his liberating wisdom without being closed down. The moronic masses have fortunately not yet ceased to be justifiably intimidated by those with a superior intellect.
When you’re being admonished to lower your standards, dilute your dreams, and stop rocking the proverbial boat, you’re in good company. When you’re accused of being too expensive (Rolex), too extreme (Richard Dawkins), too thinly spread (Richard Branson), too old (Winston Churchill), too radical (Ayn Rand), too different (Colonel Saunders of KFC), too aggressive (General Patton), or too small (the Google start-up), scrape that “advice” off the bottom of your shoe and move forward with greater gusto.
When your team becomes an anchor, replace the team. When your supporters become your detractors, find new supporters. You only really need one friend and supporter, and that is YOURSELF. If it’s lonely at the top, it makes sense to be your own best friend. Don’t be tempted to roll over because it’s the easy way out; embrace the pain and conflict which are the essential seeds of great success: be the hammer. Be encouraged. Look to your heroes and mentors. Stay the course.
Robin J. Elliott www.DollarMakers.com
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Posted in Uncategorized at 8:12 am by Robin J. Elliott
Rika and I moved into our lovely new home in the fall last year. The leaves gave us a magnificent autumn show before they fell, and we enjoyed an unusual amount of pristine snow for a Vancouver winter. The spring has surprised us with numerous beautiful displays of flowers we didn’t know were awaiting us! As summer gets closer, new flowers reveal themselves in the gardens in the courtyard around us - welcome treasures previously hidden! What a wonderful experience!
As a Joint Venture Broker, you are a catalyst for business, and you literally start to attract all manner of opportunities. New deals flower and bloom, and you realize that you’ve become a money magnet. Why? Because you offer solutions to people who previously had no hope of accessing the kind of resources you are privy to. You know how to link supply and demand, provide solutions, and solve problems for entrepreneurs, salespeople, and business owners. You’re in demand, because only ONE PERCENT of the owners of small and medium-sized businesses understand and use Joint Ventures.
Canary yellow diamonds are very scarce, and therefore extremely valuable. A genuine, trained Joint Venture Broker is an equally scarce commodity, and very much in demand once people realize the power we wield. Whereas the average “Business Consultant” or “Coach” may succeed in minor, expensive improvements, often incurring additional expenses and risks for the business owner which in many cases don’t yield any return on investment, we create additional profit with no cost or risk, and very little time, by accessing and leveraging existing resources. We reveal previously undiscovered treasures. We can fast track income and cash flow by working with other businesses.
When I hear business owners cry, “I’ve tried it all, I’m tapped out, the competition is killing me, people don’t have money…” I know he has not met a DollarMakers Certified Business Mentor yet. He has yet to make the acquaintance of one of our Genies. He doesn’t realize there is treasure in his own back yard. What a joyful surprise is awaiting this forlorn fighter, this embattled entrepreneur. JV Brokers open the cash flow spigot and turn on the lights to unveil the myriad of opportunities and possibilities previously ignored and overlooked. The sun comes out and the flowers bloom, the bottom line rejoices, and the birds sing. The winter is over.
Robin J. Elliott www.DollarMakers.com
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05.18.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 8:14 pm by Robin J. Elliott
I recently had a jumped up seminar junkie once again disgorging his unsolicited advice about how to run my business. One flower of success in the midst of a murky myriad of failures has convinced him that he is the business oracle before which mortals such as I should gratefully prostrate ourselves. One swallow does not a summer make, my young friend. Buying overpriced business courses does not make you a Donald Trump - it merely makes you a customer of the Donald. The smartest people I know only offer their advice when asked, and even then they humbly qualify their contribution.
Taking advice from people, as Mr. John Addison says, “who are more screwed up than you are”, is not one of my many failings. I am acutely aware of the limits of my knowledge and experience, but I have never benefited from the advice of someone who is clearly inexperienced, arrogant, and stupid into the bargain. When I discovered that, on a bell curve, the average person has an IQ of 100, I was at first appalled, then relieved, when I found forgiveness in my icy heart for the average plebe who disguises himself as an entrepreneur and doles out his noxious counsel to other equally inept pretenders - the blind blissfully leading the blind, and laughing all the way to the bankruptcy court.
When Jim Stovall said that we should only take advice from people who already have what we want, he should have been awarded the Nobel Prize for Wisdom. Imagine an entrepreneur taking advice from an academic, a bank manager, or a socialist. Ridiculous, I know. Yet the sheeple continue to be sheeple, and we don’t have to follow them over the edge of the cliff. Let us carefully select a good pair of effective earplugs and install them as soon as we are approached by one of these tormentors. Let us not confuse the symbol for the real thing. If I was a detective looking for a psychopathic conman, the first suspects on my list would be religious leaders, seminar presenters, consultants, and coaches, suffering from delusions of grandeur and fed by brainless sycophants who pay too much to join their cults.
I seek out truly successful mentors and follow their advice carefully, all the while retaining my reason and a good dose of skepticism, and cautiously weighing their recommendations before grabbing my wife’s checkbook. Empty barrels do, in fact, make the most noise. And still waters run very deep. The Buddha said, “Don’t hurry to believe in anything, even if it has been written in the holy scriptures. Don’t hurry to believe in anything just because a very famous teacher has said it. Don’t believe in anything just because the majority has agreed that it is the truth. You should test anything people say with your own experience before you accept or reject it.”
Let me add this final piece:When you find yourself in any meeting, seminar, or presentation where group dynamics and mass hysteria, group-think and emotional manipulation are at work, do not spend more than $500 or commit yourself to any amount over $500. This will prevent you from waking up with a terrible, haunting question the next morning: “WHAT HAVE I DONE?” The offer will still be there the next day, believe you me, and it might look very different.
Robin J. Elliott www.DollarMakers.com
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Posted in Uncategorized at 3:12 pm by Robin J. Elliott
Announcing our new, flagship DollarMakers service, our premier offering:
www.BusinessMentorTraining.com
The DollarMakers Credited Business Mentor Training Program
Become a Certified Business Mentor (CBM)
Learn how to Double the Profits in virtually Any Business
Earn real money getting real results for business owners
As a Protégé of Robin J. Elliott and Patrick Giesbrecht, get five days of personal, hands-on coaching in beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia
From the Desk of Robin J. Elliott, President of Elliott Enterprises Inc, T/A DollarMakers.com:
“For 18 years, I consulted with the owners of small and medium sized businesses to dramatically increase their profits. As I got more involved with the DollarMakers Membership and traveled around the world more frequently, I stopped the consulting. My fees ran from $500 per hour to $1200 per hour and my monthly retainers were $5,000 plus profit sharing, but my heart was in the Bootcamps and my Joint Ventures.
I continually get requests from business owners to help them grow their businesses through my business mentoring, and there is nobody I would recommend to do that. After seeing how many “Coaches” and “Consultants” out there cost a small fortune and do more damage than good, I don’t know one person who can do what we do. OK, I know one person who can do it: Patrick Giesbrecht, the fellow who retired within seven months of attending my Bootcamp, but he doesn’t do mentoring either.
And so we came up with a solution: We would offer personal, intense, hands-on training to a few, carefully selected, qualified Protégés so that we can turn them into Business Mentors who are equipped to go into virtually any business and double or quadruple its profits, and get very well paid to do so. We created a five day, focused program, during which Patrick and I will personally coach and train these few, selected people and duplicate our skills in them. They will learn directly from my 21 years of experience and Patrick Giesbrecht’s business genius.
We will accept only a limited amount of Protégé’s per group, and we will include their accommodation, meals, and a professional city tour of our home, Vancouver, the most beautiful city in the world. Spouses and life partners can attend the training as well, at no cost, and their accommodation and tour will also be included (with the exception of their meals).
If you are interested in applying to be a Protégé, you can complete an application form on this site. We reserve the right to accept or reject applicants without an explanation, and since we will only accommodate a few people over five days, there will be very few slots to fill and we are already inundated with applications. If you’re interested in applying to be personally trained to be a Business Mentor, click here.
Read what you get and what investment is required before completing this Application.
More information: www.BusinessMentorTraining.com
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Posted in Uncategorized at 8:45 am by Robin J. Elliott
Seriously - if you don’t have a box of brightly colored wax crayons, go raid your kid’s toy-box or buy some right now - you’re going to love this little exercise, and it might well be one of the most valuable things you’ve done in some time. The insight you will gain from doing this is going to be quite revealing, believe me!
Joint Venture Brokers and any entrepreneur with a few brain cells knows how important relationships are in business; they are foundational to your long-term success. Let’s create a colorful, fun, but deadly serious visual depiction and representation of your 20 (or less) primary business relationships. Get a large (LARGE) piece of paper at your local Staples or stationary store, and of course your wax crayons. Lock yourself up in a quiet room - early morning or late night is best- you know your optimal thinking / planning time - and unplug the phone, to ensure you will not be interrupted. You need at least 90 minutes alone.
Now draw a huge circle on the paper in black, and smaller concentric circles, culminating in a bull’s-eye, like a large dart board. You are the bull’s-eye, the center of all your personal relationships. Now draw twenty bright yellow dots on the different circles around the bull’s-eye, each representing a person in your life. Write the name of the person next to the dot. The more time you spend with someone, or the more they influence / guide you / your decisions, and the more impact they have upon you, the closer they should appear to the bull’s-eye. For example, your spouse should be on the innermost circle, while people with whom you have the least contact and who have the least influence / impact upon you should be in the outermost circles, and everyone else in between.
Now you should have a large “dart board” in front of you, with you in the middle, and about twenty yellow dots orbiting around you like planets, each representing a person in your life. Each on of these people influences you in either a positive or a negative way; some will build you up, encourage you, motivate you, push you to achieve more, love you, make you money, inspire you, and protect you. Others will undermine, sabotage, hurt, depress, and frustrate you, and cost you money. I want you to depict that graphically, with colored lines emanating like the spokes of a wheel between you and each person surrounding you. (Space the yellow dots so that the lines don’t cross). Green means good, yellow means neutral, and red means bad.
The stronger the impact or influence, the thicker the line between you and the person should be.
For example, your spouse is in your inside circle. She is loving, kind, understanding, supportive, clever, and there for you under all circumstances, like Rika is for me. Draw a thick green line from her to you (the bull’s-eye.) Your wicked uncle, however, who has less influence on you, is orbiting on a circle further away from you, and has little impact on you, however he is a negative, pessimistic character, so you draw a thin red line from him to you. Your most important employee is very negative, so a thick red line connects him to you. One of your major suppliers is neutral - neither good nor bad - so a yellow line makes that connection. Simple, huh?
Take the time to do this. Think it through. Do it over again if you make a mess. It’s a great investment. It forces you to objectively and rationally evaluate where you stand with the twenty most important people in your life - relatives, friends, JV partners, employees, vendors, and represent that in a simple, visual format. You can now stand back and see yourself and your life and business relationships, and make some valuable choices. Ideally, you want to thicken the green lines ( improve on good relationships), and improve or remove red and yellow lines. If a person has a negative (red line) effect on you, you can perhaps move them to an outer circle, which means you minimize or lessen their negative effect on you by spending less time with them or giving them less say in your life, or simply remove them from your life and perhaps replace them with a more positive, productive person.
Draw the good ones closer, drive the bad ones further away, or work on improving the relationships. Also, find new, good people to replace the bad ones. Create an ACTION PLAN, in writing, to deal with every one of those relationships, and review your action plan once a week, whilst at the same time adjusting your graphic representation. Redraw it, put it up on the wall, and fix it. You naturally want more thick green lines and less red and yellow lines. Take control of your life. Your netWORK determines your Net WORTH. Have fun!
Robin J. Elliott www.DollarMakers.com
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05.16.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 11:19 am by Robin J. Elliott
“When we hide from the world in this way, we feel secure. We may think we have quieted our fear, but we are actually making ourselves numb with fear. We surround ourselves with our own familiar thoughts, so that nothing sharp or painful can touch us.
When we are constantly recreating our basic patterns of behavior and thought, we never have to leap into fresh air or onto fresh grass. Instead, we wrap ourselves in our own dark environment, where our only companion is the smell of our own sweat. In the cocoon, there is no dance, no walking or breathing. It is comfortable and sleepy, an intense and very familiar home.
In the cocoon, there is no idea of light at all, until we experience some longing for openness, some longing for something other than the smell of our own sweat. When we examine that comfortable darkness - look at it, smell it, feel it - we find it is claustrophobic.
So the first impulse that draws us away from the darkness of the cocoon towards the light is a longing for ventilation. As soon as we begin to sense of the possibility of fresh air, we realize that our arms and legs are being restricted. We want to stretch out and walk, dance, even jump. We realize that there is an alternative to our cocoon: we discover that we could be free from that trap. With that longing for fresh air, for a breeze of delight, we open our eyes. To our surprise, we begin to see the light, even though it may be hazy at first. The tearing of the cocoon takes place at that point.
Then, we realize that the degraded cocoon we have been hiding in is revolting, and we want to turn up the lights as far as we can. In fact, we are not turning up the lights, but we are simply opening our eyes wider. We catch a certain kind of fever.
But again and again, we should reflect back to the darkness of the cocoon. In order to inspire ourselves forward, we must look back to see the contrast with the place we came from. You see, we cannot reject the world of the cocoon - which out which we may create a new cocoon. When we see the suffering that occurred in the old cocoon, that inspires us to go forward in our journey of warriorship. It is a journey that is unfolding within us.” ~ Chogyam Trungpa
The dark cocoon of debt, financial hardship and shortage is filled with the stench of inferiority, second best, fear, worry, anxiety, stress, limitation, repression, slavery, scarcity, and embarrassment.
Like a butterfly, you can fly free and high, and live in the bright sunshine of security, freedom, self respect, abundance, individuality, health, joy, power, adventure, expansion, creativity, and peace. That is the purpose of DollarMakers.
Robin J. Elliott www.DollarMakers.com
www.BusinessMentorTraining.com
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05.15.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 9:52 pm by Robin J. Elliott
SYSTEM: Save Yourself Time, Energy, and Money!
Imagine the amount of mistakes I have made in the last 21 years in my business. Scary! I discovered a lot of things that don’t work, and I survived. I got through the minefield, in spite of being blown up a few times. You have a choice: repeat my mistakes, or learn from them. Be smart and get onto the fast track.
Would you try to teach yourself to fly an airplane? Of course not! You would crash and burn! You’re wise, so you would take lessons from a certified professional. You would do exactly what you were told and you’d become a good pilot.
DollarMakers offers you a complete and unique success system that allows people to make money with no cost or risk, regardless of their background, age, circumstances, education, and whether they have a business or not. After 21 years, we provide a Blueprint for Joint Venture Success. Don’t try to reinvent the wheel; simply follow the recipe. Get the map. Invest in the compass. Buy the GPS, and you won’t spend 40 years wandering in the business wilderness. That’s what smart people do.
Robin J. Elliott www.DollarMakers.com
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Posted in Uncategorized at 9:24 pm by Robin J. Elliott
You might think it strange that wealthy people will take an irreplaceable evening out of their lives and drive for an hour through snow, to attend a sales pitch event for a complimentary meal. You may be amazed to see successful business owners lining up in an airport to sign up for a credit card they don’t need to get a cheap, Dollar Store clock. You shouldn’t be surprised, because it’s human nature.
We don’t want to be sold things, but we like getting gifts, and we love buying things. We don’t want to be pitched, but we love being entertained. Why do you stop and watch the pitch man demonstrating a set of kitchen knives or a juicer at the local fair? Because it’s entertaining and interesting! THEN, he shows you the amazing value and additional complimentary GIFTS you’ll get if you buy something right away, and we all reach for our wallets! It’s fun, isn’t it? It’s what works, that’s why smart people do it.
We don’t get excited about getting discounts, because they’re not fun, and we don’t believe them - we think they just hiked the price up top afford the discount - we think we’re being conned. And we don’t get too excited about getting money, because we have to pay the bills and the rent like responsible adults, but we love choosing toys that we get given, don’t we? We want to play, and we don’t want to work. We want to feel like we got a good deal. Like we got something for nothing. Then we can justify the fact that we just bought an overpriced thing that we didn’t need with money we didn’t have, to get a cheap gift we will probably never use.
Smart marketers use gifts and complimentary value, like education and entertainment to get people to a point where they will buy “by choice”. Dangle the big carrot in front of their noses after you’ve had them following the trail of chocolates all the way into your store. People will spend twice as much on an item or service to get a gift worth a few dollars. Why? Because sometimes they feel they couldn’t justify buying the gift for themselves, because of financial pressure, guilt, having to explain to a spouse, or some other psychological reason. This way, they can’t help getting it, so they justify the inordinate waste of time, money, and energy they expend.
Gift Certificates, evaluations, reports, CD’s, DVD’s, samples, candy, coffee, donuts, T shirts, ball caps, memberships, meals, toys, gimmicks, tours, ANYTHING they don’t have to pay for, is tremendous BAIT. And if you’re a smart Joint Venture Broker, you don’t have to pay a cent for the items and services you so generously give away. In fact, you can BE PAID for giving other peoples’ stuff away!
Think about using this approach: stop selling, and start enticing.
Robin J. Elliott www.DollarMakers.com
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05.13.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 1:57 pm by Robin J. Elliott
One of the first things to check under the hood when your business engine falters and sputters and you see your cash flow leaking onto the pavement, is your philosophy. Your philosophy determines all your choices and the consequences those choices will bring to your bottom line.
When we, as business owners, feel sorry for people and allow them to continue to abuse themselves and others, we demonstrate the use of “Idiot Compassion”. Trunga Rinpoche coined this term to describe the false, inverted compassion that enablers succumb to. Usually, they are really assuaging their own guilt - a selfish motive disguised as compassion - the opposite of “Tough Love”. So we continue to employ and tolerate losers and parasites, we overlook the bad choices of people, remove the consequences to crime and dishonestly, and thereby undermine those who are producing and constructing value. We become “politically correct” to avoid confrontation and disguise our own gutlessness. This is the worst form of altruism.
We need to check our philosophy - are we altruists and collectivists, or are we capitalists?
According to Capitalism.org, “the theory of collectivism (in all its variants) holds that man is not an end to himself, but is only a tool to serve the ends of others. Collectivism, unlike individualism, holds the group as the primary, and the standard of moral value. Whether that group is a dictator’s gang, the nation, society, the race, (the) god(s), the majority, the community, the tribe, etc., is irrelevant — the point is that man in principle is a sacrificial victim, whose only value is his ability to sacrifice his happiness for the will of the ‘group’”. This is the opposite of capitalism; it is a cancer that will kill your business. Entrepreneurs are not sacrificial victims.
We should pay people in direct proportion to their contribution of measurable value to the business. “Carrying” unproductive people is unjust, counter-productive, and downright dangerous in the business world and in life. Socialism has been proven not to work, and it’s beloved cancer cousins, multiculturalism, mysticism, and environmentalism, are equally pernicious. We are entrepreneurs, not social workers. We are in business to make a profit, not to support a prophet.
Those most violently opposed to capitalism and individualism often hide in organizations that pretend to be capitalist. They use terms like “caring and sharing”, “contribution”, and “giving back” to cloak their sacrificial contributions (entrepreneurs are the ones being sacrificed). They call their groups “Service Clubs” and talk about charity, when they really mean altruism. Their raison d’etre is the destruction of free enterprise and capitalism.
I suggest to every entrepreneur that he or she reads Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” in order to realign his philosophy and adjust his direction to wealth and the pursuit of happiness.
Robin J. Elliott www.DollarMakers.com
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Posted in Uncategorized at 10:17 am by Robin J. Elliott
Most people are blissfully oblivious to their level of risk. The most obvious and dangerous of all is having “all your eggs in one basket”. Is the bulk of your income dependent on one person, industry, product, service, geographical area, or niche market? Is your financial well-being controlled by, or subject to, the climate, politics, the Internet, a sales manager, a committee, or a key employee or partner? No wonder you suffer from stress, emotional highs and lows, and insomnia. Being controlled and being at such blatant risk is no fun. Living on the edge of a crumbling precipice doesn’t exactly inspire one to giggle much, unless it’s a nervous giggle…
Here’s the scariest part: The heavier that basket gets (the more money you make), the more likely you are to drop that basket, and the more incentive certain people have to take it away from you. People aren’t likely to cut you out of a deal or replace you with a lower earner when you’re earning peanuts. In addition, the more money we make, the more secure we tend to feel, and the higher our cost of living seems to go, as we start spending more and getting into more debt. Pride comes before the fall, and living in denial or suppressing the awareness of your hazardous gamble won’t prevent the inevitable. Fires, earthquakes, death, change, new competition, illness, bankruptcies, litigation, and a myriad of other things can happen at any time.
I set up a Joint Venture with a young weasel that earned me an easy $9,000 a month. It didn’t last long as the little tyke revealed his arrogance and ineptitude, and it died a sad death a few months later. I was not in the least perturbed, however, since I had 19 other income sources pumping away. It was replaced even before it disappeared. Had I become all gleeful about that income source and naively expected it to last indefinitely, however, I might have been severely disappointed, especially if it constituted my entire income. A friend of mine in Australia was suddenly laid off from his high-paying job at the age of 52. Downsizing, outsourcing, dishonest JV partners like the wanna-be above, and changes in the weather or economy (gas prices, for example) can unexpectedly rip that basket from your hands and smash your eggs all over the sidewalk. Some people never recover.
Diversification, spreading your risk, lowering your overhead, and leveraging your resources and the resources of others is what smart Joint Venture Brokers do. Don’t bank on income until it’s in the bank. Don’t believe the promises you hear: talk is cheap. If you have a slave master, think about this while you’re grovelling and simpering in the corner of your nicely furnished prison cell. Your bootlicking won’t make you any more secure. Lackeys don’t last, and toadies get tossed. The Chinese say, “Dig the well before you thirst”; prepare for the inevitable, and diligently create additional, congruent income sources that will eventually exceed the income you get from your primary source. Use JV’s to have your primary income source feed your new dollarmakers.
Using Joint Ventures, you can learn transferable skill sets and participate in leveraged systems that will provide growing, residual income that continues while you lie on the beach or watch a movie. You can stop selling your time and blood and live the lifestyle you want and deserve.
Robin J. Elliott www.DollarMakers.com
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05.12.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 1:23 pm by Robin J. Elliott
“Vertical Thinking” is analytical, focused, left-brain, binary (black or white) and narrow. This is the way most of us in the west have learned to view life and business. Horizontal thinking, on the other hand, is creative, right-brain, lateral, open, inclusive, synergistic, and strategic. Joint Ventures utilize and optimize both these approaches perfectly.
Edward DeBono, author of 62 books on creative thought, said “Some people are unhappy about lateral [horizontal] thinking because they feel it threatens the validity of vertical thinking. This is not so at all. The two processes are complementary, not antagonistic. Lateral thinking enhances the effectiveness of vertical thinking by offering it more to select from. Vertical thinking multiplies the effectiveness of lateral thinking by making good use of the ideas generated.”
The Wedding Planner, for example, is good at providing all the services and products related to weddings and the immediate events, even going as far as the honeymoon arrangements, and she gets paid a commission on all referred business within that limited time realm. A good Joint Venture Broker, on the other hand, will see well beyond that to a strong mailing list that builds an ongoing, long-term relationship and proceeds to mutually benefit both parties over the years; that married couple will breed, buy houses, furniture, cell phones, and holidays, and fifty percent of them will get divorced. All those services can garner serious income for the broker and the service providers, while at the same time providing massive, additional value for the couple. The broker thinks out of the box.
The traditional business owner is focused on his own products and services, to the exclusion of multiple additional sales and service opportunities. This myopic approach explains why, in my opinion, the average small and medium-size businesses out there only operate at about 10% of the potential net profit. A lateral thinking, Joint Venture approach can set up numerous back end income sources, all at 100% margin (we like to call them DollarMakers) within hours, days or weeks, thereby turbo-boosting income and differentiating the business from it’s competition, whose blinders keep them working too hard for too little.
Leverage and duplication can be systematically applied to virtually any business when the JV Broker applies this open mindset to the business services, focusing on providing the optimal ease and value for the customer and getting paid on all resulting transactions, much like owning multiple Toll Booths on thousands of bridges across the world. Best of all, this can be accomplished with no money or risk, and surprisingly little time, since this involves leveraging existing resources. The Broker looks for links and partnership opportunities, and specializes in building a congruent flow of business.
When you think out of the box, you get out of the box, and unlimited opportunities suddenly start appearing all over.
Robin J. Elliott www.DollarMakers.com
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Posted in Uncategorized at 9:19 am by Robin J. Elliott
At a Joint Venture Bootcamp I conducted for 140 people in Edmonton, Alberta yesterday, a woman wrote the following on a slip of paper and put it on the podium for me to read: “Excuses are like armpits; there are lots of them around, and they all stink!” and, “I’m not paying for excuses - I’m only paying for results!” Your excuses are a cancer that eats away at your success., your credibility, your reputation, and your self-esteem.
Like Yoda, who said, “There is no try - only do or do not”, I have ceased to believe peoples’ excuses, and I don’t make excuses for my own slothfulness. I’m fat because I eat too much and exercise too little. Some people even make excuses IN ADVANCE! Ever heard yourself say, “I’ll try”? T.R.Y. means To Relive Yesterday’s Failures. When people say, “I’ll do my best”, or “I hope to succeed” or “If everything works out well”… these people expect to fail, so they do.
What happens when you don’t do what you promise and you then make excuses, instead of admitting to your lack of self-discipline and integrity? Your self esteem drops. You earn money in direct proportion to your level of self esteem, and that means that excuses cost you money in many ways. People take away opportunities from you and give them to other people who will deliver what they promise. Your excuses are hurting you.
One reason for excuses is that people are afraid of feeling rejected. They’re more likely to be rejected for offering feeble excuses (traffic, kids, spouses, cars, illness) than just admitting that they messed up and making right. “I’m late because I didn’t get out of bed early enough. It’s my fault. I am sorry. I won’t do it again.” Now, if you don’t repeat the bad choices, nobody will reject you - they will admire your courage and candor.
We make excuses to ourselves as well, so that we can avoid making painful choices and doing uncomfortable things. Winners know that when there is no pain, there is no gain. Instead of making internal excuses, compare the pain of regret to the pain of discipline. “Pay me now, or pay me later”. An ounce worth of painful self discipline will save you tons of regret in the future. Discipline will increase your confidence, self image, energy, and enthusiasm. You will feel you deserve to be rewarded, so you will succeed. Don’t compare yourself with people less successful than you are - compare yourself with more successful people and determine to improve your life in every area.
Finally, let’s talk about being late for appointments. There is NO excuse. Leave 30 minutes early. Everyone faces traffic and interruptions. Take control of your life. If there was a million dollar check waiting for you, would you be late? Get there early, turn your cellphone off during the meeting, be well prepared and well groomed, and you’ll be in the top three percent of people. Let us agree to stop making and accepting excuses.
Robin J. Elliott www.DollarMakers.com
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05.09.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 7:19 am by Robin J. Elliott
Your future will be whatever you decide it will be. In four years time, you will look back on today and know that your decisions determined your destination. It is YOUR future. You can have whatever future you want; you don’t need to beg, plead, manipulate, or make excuses. You don’t need permission. Your future is like a buffet table with a huge selection of foods - take what you like. You are the master of your fate, the captain of your soul. Exactly what do you want your life to look like in three or four year’s time?
When I am in a strange city and I have a destination, I call a taxi and tell the driver where to take me. Then I sit back and relax. I do have to pay him, though - there is always a price to pay. What price will you pay for your goal life? Guess what? You’ll pay a price for NOT achieving that lifestyle, too! So either way, whether you design and create a wonderful lifestyle or submit to a life of compromise, pain, and frustration, you will pay the price. So you decide what price you will pay, because it’s cheaper to pay for the perfect lifestyle. Why? In four years, after paying the price and achieving the lifestyle, it gets much easier. If you don’t, and your life stays boring, painful and scary, you keep on paying!
Think of the man sitting in a rowing boat, working hard, rowing around in circles, going nowhere fast. That represents the average person in this world - 97% of people, statistically. In four years time, he’s older, weaker, and even more depressed, but he’s working just as hard, if not harder, to keep on going around in circles. The other rower in the other boat heads for his Treasure Island. He works just as hard, but in four years he is resting in luxury. Your choice. This can be your defining moment, if you want it to be.
DollarMakers is designed and continually evolves and improves, to offer people around the world the means and the guidance to reach their financial life goals. I know that 97% of your problems will be solved or severely alleviated with enough money. We have the blueprint, the systems, and support, and the tools necessary for you to use to reach your destination. Where will you be in four years? Your taxi is waiting…
Robin J. Elliott www.DollarMakers.com
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05.08.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 9:07 am by Robin J. Elliott
I say your “Secret Weapon” is a secret, because most us are blissfully unaware of it’s power and efficacy. When we realize how powerful this weapon is, we start to use it all the time, and life gets infinitely easier. Those daunting detours, obstinate obstacles, and blinding barriers are child’s play for your Secret Weapon. On the way to your objective, you get to replace your ox wagon and blunderbuss with a fully armed F18 jet fighter. Instead of using a sundial and a sextant, you get the latest and best GPS when you use your Secret Weapon. You cut through hindrances and impediments like a freight train going through a shopping cart, a red-hot knife through butter.
You already have the secret weapon. Here’s the scary part - right now, TODAY, right here, it is either working FOR you, or it’s working AGAINST you! And most of the time, people have set their their own secret weapons up to work against themselves! No wonder the seething herd is locked into mediocrity, compromise, frustration, fear, weakness, and depression. No wonder it’s so hard to get ahead and get traction. No surprises there, once you understand and acknowledge the choices to make to switch your Secret Weapon from Destroy to Deliver. Once you stop turning the gun on yourself, life gets easier.
Ever wondered how it is that you wake up just before the alarm clock goes off? Or you think of someone that you haven’t had any contact with in months, and there’s an e mail or letter of voice mail from that person waiting for you? What about those people who always seem to have “bad luck” and everything goes wrong for them, while everything others touch seems to turn into gold? “The rich get richer and the poor get poorer” - ever wondered why? I’m not talking about the lies you will hear from the mystics, politicians, and others who have a vested interest in keeping you poor, blind, hungry and tired, I’m talking about the rational, proven reality here.
I have to keep this article short, so let me get to the point real fast now. Your Secret Weapon is your Subconscious Mind. Now before you bleat, “I read about that and I know about it”, let me assure you and all the other sheeple out there that you might have read about it or heard about it in a seminar, but you’re not USING it, or you would understand it. When you learn how to harness, control, and direct your subconscious mind, your whole life starts changing. You suddenly realize that you have turned from victim to victor, and your Reticular Activating System and subconscious power stars directing and enhancing every single one of your choices and changing your perspective so that you find yourself flying on jet fuel towards your goals; you start to get extraordinarily “lucky”. Things start working out. You start “attracting” and magnetizing all manner of good people and great opportunities, and your peace of mind, confidence, and power starts increasing in leaps and bounds.
Here, in a very tiny nutshell, is the simple recipe for governing your Subconscious Mind to work FOR you, and not against you:
1. Focus on what you want, and not what you don’t want - be very clear and specific about your congruent goals and objectives, using visualization, affirmation, and daily monitoring. This is the catalyst that will activate your powerful Reticular Activating System.
2. Control your self talk, questions, what you say, and every single choice.
3. Carefully construct ALL your input - what you see, read, hear, watch, and whom you mix with, where you go, and what you expose yourself to - everything has to be aligned with your objectives and values. Everything has to be cohesive and clear.
4. Mercilessly cut the rubbish from your life and your mind, your environment, your home, and your business. That means all bad people, input, association, visual triggers, as you would two week old, smelly garbage and dead animals.
5. Focus on the future and the present, not on the past, unless as a tool to motivate and inspire you.
6. Change your philosophy from one that will keep you deluded, confused, inferior, guilty, and impotent, to one that will empower, release, and revere you.
As you apply these six choices on a daily, consistent basis, your subconscious mind will start working for you in amazing ways, I assure you.
You have the power, and the money is already in the bank. Use your most valuable asset, your Secret Weapon, and break free from the shackles of ignorance, sacrifice, and servitude. Be free!
We will be teaching these principles as a part of the curriculum on our exciting DollarMakers Cerified Business Mentor training program.
Robin J. Elliott www.DollarMakers.com
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05.07.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 5:56 pm by Robin J. Elliott
When Tibetan Buddhists chant “Om Mani Pedme Hung“, they mean that ‘what we seek, we are’. The seeds of greatness are within us. We are wonderfully equipped with a powerful mind that can guide us to whatever goal we seek, as long as we take action and make the right choices. Tony Robbin’s work, “Awaken The Giant Within”, was a great inspiration to me. When I fired my boss and started my own business, a friend of mine, Louie Boshoff, gave me a copy of that book and wrote in it, “Congratulations on your Independence Day, Robin!” That day, I started focusing on the giant within me.
Tony Robbins said, “We can change our lives. We can do, have, and be exactly what we wish”, because he understood the power we all have within us. When you learn to master your mind, you will be able to control your emotions, beliefs, and choices. At that point, you get the power. When you understand how to use your internal communication with yourself to accomplish your goals by asking yourself the right questions, you control your focus and the interpretation of your circumstances. It’s not what happens yo you that will determine your success or failure, but how you interpret what happens to you, and your reaction to those circumstances.
You are the lotus, beautiful, unblemished, unlimited, and perfect, rising up out of the black mud of mediocrity, compromise, confusion, and pessimism, and the jewel, that is the seed of success, is within you. You can control your Reticular Activating System, command your subconscious mind, and steer yourself directly to Treasure Island. Other people have no control over your success, your emotions, or your mind, unless you hand it to them willingly. This is the plateau we all need to ascend to in order to be the best we can be. And we first have to BE (become) before we can DO (take the correct actions), and DO before we can HAVE whatever we want in our life: Happiness, Health, and Prosperity in every area of life.
How do we unleash our power, nurture the seeds of success within us, and break free from the bonds of compromise, second-best, feeble accomplishments, excuses, and frustration? How do we elevate ourselves to this level of self control and discipline? I like to think of our potential as being a huge water tank with an unlimited amount of pure, magical, fresh, sparkling water in it. The spigot or tap opens in minute degrees to allow more and more of our potential to flow, or it closes by degree. What closes it? Our association with negativity, bad input, bad people, bad thoughts, and wrong choices. This is the result of ignorance and slothfulness.
How do we open the spigot and allow more and more of our immaculate potential to flood our lives and the lives of those we love with joy and prosperity? Every time you associate with positive people, learn from the right sources, understand the correct techniques, and apply good choices, the spigot opens a tiny bit more, slowly elevating our minds, our understanding, and our self discipline to the next level of power. By immersing ourselves in the correct information, allowing ourselves to be mentored by the right people, and consistently making good, rational choices, we learn how to open the spigot more and more. We grow up into giants. We wield more power. We control our minds, emotions, and circumstances better. As the Buddha said, we “make our minds a castle”.
You are the source of your own power, the answer to your dreams, the solution to your questions, and the combination to the vault of success. By learning and working, you allow the seeds of greatness within you to grow and develop, until you are strong enough to teach others. We never stop growing and learning, and we all learn from one another, so keep your feet firmly on the ground and remember that we all have a long way to go. It just gets better and better!
Robin J. Elliott www.DollarMakers.com
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Posted in Uncategorized at 8:25 am by Robin J. Elliott
Imagine you had two lovely, flowering plants. One of them you chose to water and feed consistently, nurture, and care for on a regular basis, making sure it was protected from the snow, ensuring it had enough sunlight, pruning it and changing the soil when necessary.
The other plant you chose to neglect, feeding it sporadically, letting it fend for itself, rarely taking notice of it. You know which plant would grow and flourish and which would limp along, eventually dying.
The same goes for relationships. If you don’t communicate regularly, positively, and effectively with someone, if you ignore them, never buy them gifts or acknowledge their birthdays, break them down, and never pay them any compliments, seldom see them, and take advantage of them, that relationship will stagnate and die. You build relationships by contributing positively and consistently to their lives, well-being, and happiness. You know what is going on in their lives, and you make them feel good about themselves. You nurture and love and protect them. So the relationship grows and deepens.
If you want your business, or a particular profit center in your business, to grow and prosper, it will need regular, focused, caring attention. I received an email from someone last night, actually complaining that we continue to change and upgrade our websites! Imagine that. Our amazing, genius Technical Director, Winston Bromley, spends hours and hours tweaking and improving our online systems and websites, ezines, product packages, and Members services. He is always looking for ways to make it easier to work with our websites, add value, and speed things up. We learn from our mistakes, and we believe in never-ending improvement. Grow or Die. Change and improve, or lose your business.
See your business as a baby that is growing up: It needs A LOT of attention in the beginning, but when your baby gets to the age of two, do you tell him to get out and get a job? When you understand Developmental Psychology, you know that we have changing needs as we grow older, going through all the different phases of life. As a parent, you know that. Treat your business with respect, love, and care, and it will grow up to take care of you. Fortunately, it doesn’t take as long as a child growing up! A business that is built on a firm foundation of regular and constant development will end up making you rich.
Welcome change, and don’t try to put diapers on your teenage son. Adjust to the changing business climate and demographics, trends, and needs in society, reinvent your business, and be creative. What you focus on will grow. If you focus on the negative aspects of your business, they will grow. If you focus on your strengths, opportunities, and positive business partners and alliances, remaining consistent and persistent, and fall in love with your business, your work will become your hobby, your passion, your legacy. And that, dear Reader, is a wonderful place to be.
Robin J. Elliott www.DollarMakers.com
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05.06.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 9:50 pm by Robin J. Elliott
You have heard me say in my presentations, “North Americans have mastered the art of BS.” The level of apparent arrogance among people who really have nothing to be proud of is quite overwhelming, if not farcical, when you’re first confronted with it. The biggest losers with the biggest egos and the loudest mouths - all hat and no cattle - “life coaches” in obvious need of psychiatric help, the blind blithely leading the blind… UNTIL YOU REALIZE THAT IT’S ALL A FRONT; it’s poor self-esteem masquerading as overconfidence.
How do I know this? How can these seemingly conceited, vainglorious chumps really feel inferior to a blind earthworm? Am I guessing? No - Ayn Rand said, “When you think you’re confronted with a contradiction, check your premises.” The way to determine whether these buffoons with verbal diarrhea really believe their own claptrap or not, is to simply put them to the test. Call their bluff - suggest they put their money (they usually don’t have any, unless it’s inherited or his wife’s salary) where their big mouth is. Give them the opportunity to do something very uncommon - walk their talk.
Before you accuse me of waffling, let me give you a simple example: I talked with a fellow who, to put it mildly, claims he is a brilliant gift to mankind who only needs the right opportunity to create unprecedented wealth and save the world. After all, his daddy paid for him to waste years at university and drink barrels of beer, so he has a degree. I believe he is delusional to a great degree, but my point is that he talks the talk. Attended enough seminars to be able to parrot a lot of impressive junk. According to him, he can teach most people a lot. Here’s where he hit the wall and revealed his true level of self-esteem and what he really believes about himself and what he’s worth:
When offered the opportunity to invest $20,000 to learn a skill set that could easily earn him at least $8,000 per month (which is about $6,000 more than he’s earning right now, truth be told), he said he wasn’t sure he could do it. A winner will easily invest in himself because he knows he will succeed and create a massive return on investment. When the rubber meets the road, when the guns start going off and the bell rings and the boxers have to go back into the fight, the cowards always reveal themselves. I heard a boxing champion speak on the radio the other day. He said the fight is lost long before the boxer steps into the ring. Losers live in doubt, fear, and pessimism, and excel at passive aggression and blame, while winners believe in themselves, courageously create the lifestyle they want, and use the tools at hand to reach their objectives. Talk is cheap, but money buys the whiskey.
So next time you’re confronted with a big talker who is full of promises, put him to the test. You’ll quickly find out who he really is. Follow the tongue in his shoe, not the tongue in his mouth. The whiners and complainers have the loudest voices and never produce anything except indigestion. Winners don’t have anything to prove or anyone to impress; they get on with the job and leave the BS artists choking in their dust.
Robin J. Elliott www.DollarMakers.com
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Posted in Uncategorized at 5:36 pm by Robin J. Elliott
Wanted: DollarMakers Country Director for Australia
If you are a successful, motivated entrepreneur who would like to apply for the position of Director for Australia, please e mail robin@dollarmakers.com
The position will require a trip to Canada, attendance of a Joint Venture Bootcamp in Canada, and personal qualifying interviews. On acceptance, the successful Delegate will be required to host Bootcamps in Australi, presented by Robin J. Elliott, and build the operation there.
DollarMakers is well established in North America, with Members in eleven countries. DollarMakers UK is already operating successfully, and DollarMakers South Africa launches June 1.
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Posted in Uncategorized at 7:21 am by Robin J. Elliott
“He works in fits and starts. She experiences peaks and valleys in her business, ups and downs. He’s either experiencing feast or famine - chicken or feathers. She builds up the business, then she slacks off and loses it and has to start all over again. So it’s always a cash flow problem. It’s almost as if his business is manic depressive!” Does that sound familiar to you? It does to most people in business. There is a solution.
In your business, do you feel like you’re pushing a car up a hill? As soon as you stop pushing and take a rest, it either runs back down the hill over your limp and exhausted body, or it stops dead and you have to start pushing all over again from a dead stop. Very disheartening and frustrating, isn’t it? You develop a love/hate relationship with your business. You feel as if you have many plates balancing on many sticks, and you need a rest. You’re so tired of juggling those fragile glass balls, and your arms are so painful - you take a holiday, and when you come home there’s a lot of broken glass on the floor and you have to go out and get more…
You work like a crazy person during the busy period, and then you use up your savings in the quiet period that follows. Or you work long hours to build your downline and then you take a rest, and before you know it, you’ve lost everything you built up and you have to start over again. That’s why a lot of entrepreneurs regularly flock to seminars - they need that “shot in the arm” to get them going and motivated again. The reason for this is that you’re not building Momentum and you have no leverage. Usually, it includes the fact that you’re selling your time, so when you stop working, everything stops.
The solution is to manage your momentum and so pace yourself and build your business strategically. You only have 24 hours a day, and you only have so much energy. So you need to create leverage, and work ON your business instead of IN your business. It cannot all depend on you. So the tools of a successful entrepreneur who has a real business as opposed to a low-paying sales job, are leverage, momentum, and strategy. You can change your business and make any choices you wish. In a nutshell, here’s the best way to work:
1. Focus on profit, not sales. Activities that create the maximum profit are the best activities, whether they are in your own business or Joint Ventures with other service providers or vendors.
2. If your personal time and energy is required to make a process happen, you’re selling time and you’re at risk. Only do what only you can do, and use delegation and leverage to extract yourself from the process if at all possible. Everything that takes up your personal time should result in leveraged business and income. For example, when I present a Joint Venture Bootcamp, it creates numerous streams of residual income for me and builds my brand. When I write a book, it carries on paying and creating more passive income. The investment of your time has to create an on-going, growing return.
3. Manage momentum - that means you need to make sure that other people are keeping those balls in the air, that the production line is working and well oiled, that things are happening on time in the right way, and that the machine which is your business is working properly. Delegate, and then manage the people to whom you have delegated. You can’t manage what you can’t measure, so think like a business owner, not a snake-oil salesman; understand the numbers in your business.
4. Working smart, not hard, means exactly that. Use Joint Ventures at every conceivable opportunity, since that is the ultimate leverage with the least cost, risk, or time. Let other people carry the risk and the inventory, supply the services, and handle the day to day slog, while you strategically feed them new business - that is a triangulated Joint Venture and it’s the ideal situation. Don’t pick one grape at a time - pick bunches or make a deal with the owner of the vineyard.
5. Give people a vested interest in your success. Be generous and be extremely selective. When you find you have a loser on board, fire him or her fast - you cannot afford the contamination, any more than you would allow a few drops of poison in your breakfast cereal. Business is all about having the right people on your team, and when people change and lose interest or stop producing, get rid of them. Loyalty and integrity is as important as productivity. Don’t keep people on your team simply because you like them or feel sorry for them - that not capitalism.
6. Finally, maintain and build momentum strategically - inject new business, new ideas, new leverage, and new fuel into every process on a regular basis - tweak and improve and measure, cut away fat, prune and nurture and discipline on a regular basis. You’re the Mastermind, the controller, the puppet master. You can work smart for one hour a day and make a fortune or you can slave away for twelve hours and day and go broke.
It’s not too late to change. You can do this. Attend one of my JV Bootcamps. Read my new book, “How To Double Your Business Profits in 97 Days with no money and no risk” and apply this approach to your business, whatever your business may be. It’s nicer running your business from the beach than sweating behind a desk.
Robin J. Elliott www.DollarMakers.com
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05.05.08
Posted in Uncategorized at 7:38 am by Robin J. Elliott
Yesterday, I waddled along the “beach” on Lake Ontario, opposite the hotel where I stayed and presented my Joint Venture Bootcamp on Saturday. I was thinking about the individual Delegates who attended and wondering how much of what they learned would be implemented in their lives. There were really great people at the event, and so much potential… Did they realize how much financial power they could wield if they used that information?
My sincere desire is that the Delegates will really push the envelope and take their businesses through the ceiling, take it to the limit and beyond - there is no restriction on the amount of money they can make when they use the information. The only thing that will hold them back is themselves - their own self-esteem, beliefs, level of discipline, and the support they get. While DollarMakers will support them to the hilt, they often need more.
When I travel and speak publicly, business owners often grab my arm and ask me if there is someone who can assist them in implementing these Joint Venture systems in their businesses. I no longer mentor business owners myself, so we created a special DollarMakers Certified Business Mentor (CBM) program for a small number of carefully selected people, so that this service will be available in the future. That way, another powerful vehicle will be added to the DollarMakers resources available to business owners and JV Brokers.
One could go to Lake Ontario with a teacup and get a cup of water, or you could fill a forty-gallon drum; there is a lot of water available. In the same way, there is a lot of money available when you use the right systems. You can choose the size of your teacup. Take it to the limit!
Robin J. Elliott www.DollarMakers.com - Making YOU Dollars.
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