Performance Strategies: Happy New Year and more...

I want to offer you more than the usual Happy New Year wishes. This past year has been particularly troubling for so many due to a number of external forces. As I've said and written many times "you are exactly where you should be based on the decision you've taken to date". If you are not happy about where you stand today it is likely a result of decisions you made yesterday. So, let's look at what the masses ARE NOT doing right now and consider standing out by doing the opposite.

Embrace Economic Chaos
(courtesy of my good friend and speaking business mentor, Burt Dubin)

Lesser mortals are either retreating or crawling into their shells, doing nothing, waiting for the storm to pass. Most competition evaporates leaving the field to the bold and tough . . . (meaning you).

Ask your subconscious mind to come up with fresh concepts and strategies your market will welcome and pay for.

Simply believe in yourself and say, “Yes I can!”

Engage these tough times to move your business up a notch or two. Quitters are giving up and getting out. This is your moment.

Target new markets in which you are a new face offering new hope. That’s what decision makers yearn for now . . . hope.

Be resolutely persistent. There is a cycle to everything.

Joseph J. Charbonneau, said, “People are either the wind in your sails or an anchor on your tail.” Dump employees, vendors, partners who are not aligned with your spirit and your goals.

Conserve your funds. Honor obligations when due.Ask yourself before buying anything: Will this investment advance me toward my goals? If not, defer it. If yes DO IT!

Avoid discounting by adding value to your present offerings. For instance, as a profesional speaker I am willing to offer an extra program the same day at no extra cost or willing to Host a private round table for senior executives, Chair a panel, MC the event. In other words, go beyond what anyone else would do for them. Pile on the extras. Make your offer irresistible.

Offer proof of the outcomes you deliver. Over-deliver. For instance I offer follow up phone coaching, after-program teleclasses they can record and use throughout their organization.

Relentlessly pursue mastery of your craft. Enjoy every twist of the road before you. Let your inner knowing guide you to weave the shreds and tatters of the economy into a tapestry of triumph for you

NOW, go and have a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Performance Strategies: Spirituality and Enlightenment

My dear friend Sukhvinder Singh Jutla has launched a wonderful blog titled: Umeedon ka Gulsan - Garden of Hopes which I recommend you visit. During still or challenging times we need spiritual refreshment. His blog provides such for you to "drink in". Your feedback is valued as a comment on this blog.

Performance Strategies: Make money in any market...

With the real estate market receding, the credit market in crisis, the stock market plummeting, record job losses, and an overall feeling of despair, it's no wonder people have lost confidence and don't know how they can get money flowing.

As an expert in the real estate market I can tell you the great news. Anyone can make money in this market if they know how and get the experienced help they need to succeed.

What has actually happened? Simple, people bought more home than they could afford and the lenders facilitated that illusion. Many are either in or facing financial ruin with no help in sight.

They could have avoided the drama and trauma by educating themselves and aligning themselves with trusted advisers.

The process is really rather simple. Here it is:

1. Find a distressed property or seller (easy these days)
2. Determine the current value (tip: you must know how to do this for yourself)
3. Determine the costs (acquisition, repair, holding, sales, debt service)
4. Establish your offer (don't forget to deduct your profit)
5. Make and negotiate your offer (make sure it's escapable and assignable, no big deposits)
   
6. Establish multiple funding sources (create a professional presentation to a lender or private investor)
   
7. Determine primary and backup exit strategies (buy/hold, buy/flip, buy/fix/hold or flip, options, etc.)
   
8. Perform due diligence (verify everything)
9. Remove contingencies and close the deal
10. Execute action plan and exit strategies

If you want to make money NOW in real estate and need help, we are here. We have an amazing, personal coaching program for you. We've done it all before. In good markets and not-so-good markets. E-mail us for details. Yes, you make money in this market. Are you brave enough to find out how?

Performance Strategies - Inspirational Movies

I'm compiling a list of blog readers' top inspirational movies. Feel free to comment with your list and make sure you include a short explanation for each as to why. Thanks for helping out.

Performance Strategies - Inspirational Music

I'm compiling a list of blog readers' top inspirational music. Feel free to comment with your list and make sure you include a short explanation for each as to why. Thanks for helping out.

Performance Strategies - Victim or Victor

You are exactly where you should be based on every decision you've made to date. Is that difficult to accept? If so, you just might be one of the many people who do not take responsibility for their results and by extension, there life. In other words, are you playing the role of...victim?

Many who take responsibility for their life are also acting as victims. What? I'm a victim either way? No, but you just might be one if you blame yourself rather than just being accountable.

What's the difference. If you blame anyone for your results (including yourself) you are acting the victim. If you respond without negative interpretation, you are being accountable and therefore the victor.

The only things you really, truly control are how you feel, what you think, and how you act. Everything else is external and not really up to you.

Start paying attention and you'll be surprised...particularly if you think you are accountable you might just find that maybe you are not

Performance Strategies - Sales Position Available!

INCREDIBLE OPPORTUNITY FOR THE RIGHT PERSON

International company expanding into USA and Canada needs people with a proven success record of relationship selling. If you can demonstrate your sales record we want your resume. Once you've sent it, call us to set up a phone interview.

Commissioned positions available in Detroit, Orlando, Tampa, Miami, Las Vegas, Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Quebec City, Calgary, and Vancouver.

Product: Luxury Membership Package (Discounts on major retailers, travel, health and wellness, automotive, technology, personal growth and development. 24 Hour private concierge service, affiliate program at no extra cost)

Close Rate: 70% - 90% (established, proving we have an incredible product, with high value and desirability)

Commission: $1,400 per sale

Growth: Opportunity for management position

Contact: Stephen Libman
e-mail to: stephen@stephenlibman.com
Phone: 514-667-1522

This is not MLM or Network Marketing. It is Direct Sales.

Performance Strategies: Ethical Investing

A number of people have asked where they can find my interview titled Why Ethics Matter in Real Estate Investing and the sister piece titled Ethical Behavior 101: A Five-Step Guide to High Ethical Standards. Bother are covered in Growing Wealth Magazine. You can review them by clicking the links.

Growing Wealth provides knowledge and support concerning a broad range of interests shared by entrepreneurs and investors in all markets. Whether you are a novice or seasoned invested you should check it out.

Performance Strategies: Need Cash? Ask a Private Investor

In the November 2007 edition of Growing Wealth Magazine you can review my article about finding private money to fund real estate deals. Click here for access.

Growing Wealth provides knowledge and support concerning a broad range of interests shared by entrepreneurs and investors in all markets. Whether you are a novice or seasoned invested you should check it out.

Performance Strategies: What happened to Stephen?

For those of you who do not know, I am recovering from surgery as I write this entry.

On December 5th, 2007, I had a thoracotomy (see definition) to investigate a possible tumour. To my relief, and that of my friends and family, the result was nothing more than an inflated lymph node. The experience however, left me with many new views on many subjects. Stay tuned as I share my thoughts.

For those of you who knew about my health issue and wished me well, I thank you. Your support, thoughts and prayers went a long way and continue doing so. I am better and better each day and I have just returned to presenting workshops and seminars.

Look for blogs titled Performance Strategies: Life Lessons

Performance Strategies: Take a break...

Every now and then you should take a step back from all your life's turmoil to re-center and refocus on what's important.

Performance Strategies: The Cluttered Mind

Nothing happens without action! While fear, uncertainty or doubt are often the culprits of inaction, a confused mind equally paralyzes.

We are all so busy with our tasks that the big, important stuff seldom gets done unless it becomes a crisis. Well, sometimes the best action is simply going for a walk. Ever hear the expression "I'm just going out to clear my mind"? The problem is that once "out" our mind typically focuses inward to try and sort things out.

A better way is to focus outwardly. Appreciate the beauty of things around you, find a spot to just STOP, and literally "smell the roses". In other words, focus your mind on a single item outside yourself.

Those who meditate tell me beginners are trained in the "rose" or "candle" technique. That is to say they have a flower or scented candle (burning) in front of them and they focus on the design, shape, scent, movement, and symbolism. This technique calms and unclutters the mind allowing you to then focus inward on your breathing. At first your mind wanders then with practice and over time, you begin mastering the technique and are able to clear your mind entirely.

Now while I do not meditate per se, I do take walks almost each day. I am lucky enough to have a large forested park near me and I make a practice of enjoying the magnificent views. Each day brings something new to see whether it's at this time of year when the leaves are fiery red and orange or in the spring when the baby raccoons are playing. Maybe it's just staring at a catfish who is staring back at me.

We can all find something other than our own thoughts to focus on for a few minutes and the more we do this, the more relaxed we are and more able to arrange those other cluttered thoughts so we can methodically take action on the important stuff.

Give it a try and report back with your comments.

Performance Strategies: Don't turn "Self-Help" into "Shelf-Help"!

How may times have you bought a self-help book or program, reviewed it, digested it, attempted to apply it, just to put it on the shelf never to be used again? I call that turning self-help into shelf-help and too may of us have done it all too often.

Oh yes, I am one of the guilty parties. I have so many self-help books, CDs, casette tapes, DVDs, workbooks and the like I could fill the entire personal development section of your favorite bookstore. Some I've never even opened! Many of the ones I have, I never finished. Of those I finished, all too many of the valuable teachings remain unapplied...

Ahhhhh. but to take responsibility for that lack of action and to be accountable to yourself for it is actually enlightening. OK then, now what? Well, the answer is not in those self-help programs, it is in the "self", itself! In other words, assuming you are getting good content, it is you who must ACT! The "book" does nothing.

The simple solution? You need outside help!

I am sure you want success. I am equally certain you are willing to do what it takes to have it. BUT, the issue is following a plan with sustained and correct action. Most of us find it hard to ask for help or to seek it out.

Go out and get yourself a mentor, a coach and a personal assistant. Notice I did not say one or the other. I said...one of each. Oh, and please don't post a reply that you can't afford it. What you can't afford is that attitude. Either make excuses or make it happen. Choose!

Performance Strategies: Unquestioned love...

Performance Strategies: Unwritten - Natasha Bedingfield

Performance Strategies: Watch these...

Take 15 minutes for yourself and watch each of the following videos. Then take a few extra minutes to return to this blog and write your comments. Very powerful stuff...

The Simple Truths of Service
The Nature of Success
The Dash
212 The Extra Degree
To A Child
Rock Solid Leadership

Performance Strategies: Risk, I Mean REAL RISK!

We worry about the wrong things! A wonderful article from MoneySense Magazine (February/March 2007) titled "The Risk Illusion" says it all.

Here's a funny question? What are you more afraid of, a bear or a deer?

The obvious answer is the bear. But, a study showed that in Canada last year 2 people were killed by bear and 159 by deer (think car accidents).

Our mind does a terrible job of assessing true risk. It imagines the worst and that seldom happens. But at the same time, it does not perceive certain real dangers until too late.

So what do you do? Well, let's put this in the context of business risk and leave bodily harm out of the discussion. First, when you assume risk STOP and ask yourself if your response was automatic and emotional versus logical and unemotional. If emotional, take the time to truly assess the "risk". I believe intuition is valuable but I also believe that our mind can trick itself into accepting emotion as intuition. If still unsure, get expert advice and remember it's not what we think about that will usually hurt us, it's what we don't think about that will.

Performance Strategies: Lessons from "The Secret"

WOW! Once Oprah and Larry King "discover" something it really takes off. Of course I'm referring to the phenomenon of "The Secret". Watch it free here and if you like it buy it at the official website.

So why put the word discover in quotes? Simple! They discovered nothing. They did however pick up on a sweeping wave of interest that has been around forever and bring that to a massive audience. In so doing, the interest continues growing exponentially) I'm sure Rhonda Byrne, James Ray, John Assaraf, Joe Vitale, Lisa Nichols, Bob Proctor, Jack Canfield, Dr. Michael Bernard Beckwith and others affiliated with the project are all smiling.

The real secret is applying what you learn. In other words...live it, don't just learn it.

WORD OF CAUTION...Watching the secret changes nothing. Telling people how you agree with its content changes nothing. Entire groups of people will make it into a trend but like all other truths out there, nothing happens till you live it. Watching it is a start but then so is Dianetics, Landmark (a/k/a EST), holy teachings (The Torah, The Bible, The Koran, Buddhist texts, Kaballah, etc.), Quantum Physics (i.e. What The Bleep Do We Know, etc.).

Reading, Listening, Watching....all passive!

Doing, Living, Being...all active!

The difference is in the outcome.

Footnote: Joe Vitale already "slipped" that there will be a sequel (because he is attracting it). He also said his recent emergency appendectomy was attracted because he needed to take a break from his hectic life.

Performance Strategies: Perspective, Balance and Duality

Keep your feet on the ground and your head in the clouds

Performance Strategies: A great coach will help you find your heart

Performance Strategies: Absolute Abundance

Prosperity is real. It emanates from a source. Scarcity is illusion. It emanates from imagination. The subconscious mind manifests both as a result of conscious action. Conscious action emanates from belief. Conscious inaction emanates from fear. Focus on faith and you get abundance. Focus on fear and you get scarcity. Faith erases fear...and vice-versa. Either way, it's a choice.

Your limitations are just that...yours! No one has imposed them upon you...except you.

Notice each time you utter or think of a self-limiting or self-defeating thought. Step back, take ownership, and take corrective action just as you would if you did something in error in your "normal", physical day. For example, if you made a mistake writing a letter, you would notice it, accept that you made the mistake, think little of it, and yet you would effortlessly correct it. Simple! Noticing your mind working in the same way creates abundance.

You must know yourself to dwell in abundance. Ignorance is poverty-mindedness.

Performance Strategies: A Holistic Approach

Performance is not limited to any one area of our life. We must look at everything, evaluate where we are at right now and move towards balance.

For example, you may be in optimal physical condition and yet your relationships may not be so "optimal".

Consider performance in every aspect of your life; physical, financial, emotional, intellectual, spiritual...Are you at 100% efficiency? Is there room for improvement?

Understand where you are and where you need to be. Create a plan to accomplish each and remember, you are either moving toward your goals or away from them. Keep at it.

Performance Strategies: Overcoming Fear

If I hear the acronym for FEAR uttered one more time, I might just scream!

OK, you need to know, so just for you...False Evidence Appearing Real. Yippieeeee!!!

What an overused cliché. Has knowing that ever helped? Probably not!

To overcome fear, you have to know what it really is. So let's take a look;

Fear is defined as "a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined." (For our purposes we will deal the "imagined" version.)

Impending is defined as "about to happen, imminent"

Imagined is defined as "to form a mental image of something not actually present to the senses."

Now consider that the event of which we are afraid has not yet happened and is therefore fixed at some future point.

As such, it is imagined. So what is the catalyst for all this? It is actually quite simple. Since birth we are "programmed" by internal and external experiences. We are programmed by events and by what people say. Many of those experiences we negatively interpreted and stored in our mind as an ongoing tape recording which automatically plays without our knowledge or conscious attention. We are fooled to think it is there to protect us. It is not. The instinctive mind protects us not the imagined mind.

If we could just step back when it begins to play we would actually have the choice to follow the voice in our head or not.

The key is awareness. We can condition our awareness by noting the typical words we use as triggers. Words and phrases such as "no, I can't, it won't work, it's dangerous, I'll get hurt, that's bad, what if, etc." Once we notice these words (and others like them), we can ask ourselves if the threat is real or imagined. By the way, it's real when an 8 foot grizzly bear is staring at you from 3 feet away and there are no bars or cage.

Successful people act regardless of the fear. Yes they are fearful and yet they will do it anyway. That is an achiement-oriented mind. That is true courage. Withour fear to overcome there is no courage. Be courageous!

Performance Strategies: Don't let emotions control you

"When your emotions take flight...don't be onboard"
unknown

Performance Strategies: The Horse Knows The Way...

When I was a young boy I would go horseback riding with my father. One day I remember asking "what if we get lost?". "No problem" he said, "just loosen the reins a little, squeeze your legs (English saddle), and the horse will take you home (back to the stable). The horse always knows the way". "What about in the dark?" I asked. "No matter, the horse knows the way".

Years passed, I gave up riding for along time, then took it up again. I rode with a friend who was very experienced. I got comfortable and one day, with no riding partner, I went out on my own. Well, you guessed it. I got lost. I was so focused on the beautiful scenery that I forgot to take my bearings. Then it started to get dark, quickly. Soon there was little light and I was getting more nervous by the minute. Anxiety got the best of me and I froze. I had no idea what to do. Then it hit me. Loosen the reins and the horse will take me home. So I did. To my amazement, the horse did just that...and fast. It's like he could see in the dark.

This story is a metaphor for the times we get lost in our lives. Either personally or professionally. All we need is a good horse. In other words, we must have something we can trust in times of stress. A mentor comes to mind. Someone who has our best interest at heart and who is an expert in the areas that we are not. In this way we need not trust ourselves, we just trust them, the horse. Why? Because they always know the way home!