To-do: Buy more post-its

I have a confession.  I suffer from a slight case of ADHD.

In addition to that, I am scatterbrained to the umpteenth degree.

From the outside looking in, many people perceive me as a successful individual.

I run a financial planning practice; I run multiple websites; I have a huge family.

Oftentimes, people wonder how I pull it off – and to be quite frank, sometimes… I have no idea!

I am always looking for ways to increase productivity, and today I wanted to share four methods that have dramatically increased my productivity by 7000%.

How did I arrive at that number? I have no clue. It just sounded really cool for the article title. So, maybe it’s not 7000%, but I assure you, it is a lot!

1. Keep a Notepad and Pen With You at All Times

There is some statistic out there that claims that people are more likely to complete a task if they write it down than if they didn’t write it down at all. I couldn’t agree more with that – but the problem is, I am not a Type A personality like my wife. She keeps more lists and to-do lists than anyone else I’ve ever witnessed. I’m just horrible at it.

Recently, I started carrying around a notepad where I write down my HIGH FIVE™. My HIGH FIVE’S™ are the five most essential things that I need to do the next day. I write these five things down on a notepad and carry it with me everywhere I go.

Just forcing myself into this habit has had a dramatic impact on getting stuff done.

***You might be wondering why the ™ after HIGH FIVE?  Just in case I want to trademark it, I’m starting early.  Just remember where you saw it first. 

2. Use Tasks in Gmail

Gmail Tasks - Pure Awesomeness!

I have no idea how I stumbled upon this, but one day I was messing around on my Gmail account and I found “TASKS”. I felt like I was in heaven.

While the notepad has been extremely helpful, I must confess, in my ADHD-like behavior, I tend to misplace my notepad at some point during the day.

Having a to-do list that you can’t find doesn’t help you get stuff done!

By adding TASKS in my Gmail account, every time I go to check email, I see the tasks I need to get done. Since I’m like everyone else out there and check email several times a day, it is a constant daily reminder of what I need to get accomplished.

There is nothing more satisfying than checking the box when the item is done!

3. Use Reminders on Your iPhone

I have the iPhone 4 and recently updated the software to iOS 5. Whenever I did, I noticed a new icon named “Reminders”.

I didn’t pay much attention to it until one day, I started messing around. I was even more excited with this than when I discovered TASKS in Gmail.

Reminders allows you to do your HIGH FIVE™ list each and every day; and also put in reminders or alerts to remind you to get the task done.

Once it is completed, you have that awesome check box that gives you the satisfaction of accomplishment that’s needed when get something done!

What’s also cool is that the iPhone reminders system keeps an archive of what you’ve completed, so you can always go back to each day and see the tasks that you needed to get done.

If you want to get even more Ninja with it, you can add notes to the task in case there are any intricate details that you need to remember. I am fairly positive that Android has a similar feature on their phone, and I suggest you take advantage.

4. Use a Transcription Service

Writing with no typing necessary

This is the mother of all productivity tools for me, and of the 7000%, I can allot about 6900% from the use of a transcription service!

Mobile Assistant is the company that I use currently to transcribe blog posts, letters to clients, reminders that I want emailed to me, responses to emails when it is much easier to talk than type, and also for mailing out letters.

In fact, I am ‘writing’ this blog post by using my transcription service. How freaking cool is that?

This has literally saved me hours upon hours of writing blog articles, remembering important notes that, had I not had the service, I would never get a lot of this stuff done. If you are a blogger or a business that requires a lot of letters and client notes, I strongly suggest trying the free trial of Mobile Assistant.

The service itself is $72.50 a month, but by using the coupon code ‘financialcents,’ (no spaces) you can save 25%.  That’s my gift to you! 

What tools do you use to help increase productivity?

It all started in July 2008, when my blog, Good Financial Cents, was born.

I’ve always had a passion for educating people on the basics of investing and financial planning and I took that excitement to a whole new level with the creation of the blog.

I was fortunate in the sense that I had recently gone independent and after some convincing, my new brokerage firm allowed me to start blogging.

What was unfortunate at the time, was that I was a Series 7 Registered Representative, which basically meant that I could receive commissions off the sale of  certain investment products, and even though my Series 7 only accounted for a fraction of my overall business, I still fell under full regulation of FINRA (Financial Industry Regulatory).

What does that mean?

Being under full regulation of FINRA essentially means that to publish a blog post, video, or do anything on my site, everything had to be run through my compliance department first.

That meant I would write the article, fax the article along with the submission form to compliance, then wait for the e-mail approval to publish the article which would take between three and seven business days, print off the approval to keep in our branch file, and then make any changes before publishing.

I had to do that for every single article that I published on my site.  At the time that was over 800 articles!

Imagine trying to keep track of that.  I promise you it’s not fun.

The process was a nightmare, but after almost a year of doing it this way, my assistant and I perfected the system to the best of our ability. Even at its highest efficiency though, my assistant and I were spending five to ten hours a week just handling the compliance aspect – and that had nothing to do with actually writing the article, posting the article, polishing the article, and handling anything else on the back end of my website.

What made the blogging aspect even worse was that it was hard for to have a voice.   My blog articles always had to be “balanced” and I was forbidden from making remarks such as

“I love the Roth IRA and I think it’s one of the greatest things ever created!”

Rather, I would have to say something like

“I encourage every investor to consider the Roth IRA as part of your investment plan”.

I sound like a freaking politician.  Ugh!

Needless to say, running the blog was a time consuming process when you add in the time to manage compliance issues!

For over two years, I was doing it this way, and strongly envious of my registered investment advisor counterparts who could post to their blog freely because they had dropped their Series 7 securities licenses.

I ain’t gonna lie, I was jealous!

Not only was I jealous, I was frustrated. I’m the type of guy where if I wanna say something, I wanna say it. If I wanna do something, I wanna do it. I don’t wanna beg permission to speak. The whole time that I was running my blog this way, that’s what it felt like.

I had to get permission to say what I wanted to say. And that ain’t cool.

What sent me over the edge?

In addition to my blog being heavily monitored and regulated, so was my social media presence. That was Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and anything else in the social media space.

So I'm kind of a Twitter-holic #proudofit

When I started on Twitter, I had to get my Twitter profile approved by compliance. It was approved and in a conversation I had with my old compliance officer, she told me to

“Just be careful of what you tweet or post on Facebook. As long as you stay within the same guidelines as your blog you should be okay.”

I took her advice to heart and for the next year plus, I was Tweeting and Facebooking up a storm!

In July 2010, my brokerage firm put out a notice that stated if advisors were going to be on Facebook and Twitter, that everything must be pre-approved before being published.

I read that and literally almost puked.

That couldn’t be right, could it?

To require my Facebook status updates get pre-approved?

Or if somebody were to message me on Twitter and I wanted to @reply them, I’d have to submit my response to my compliance department and wait for their approval before I could speak?

No, there’s no way that that’s how it could be, that’s insane!

Unfortunately, it may have been insane, but it was the reality. In a call with my new compliance officer, she revealed to me that my darkest fears were true: all social media communication would have to be pre-approved.

Trying to talk some sense to them, I presented them with the following scenario:

Let’s pretend that it’s Friday evening and that my family and I are going to Applebee’s for dinner, and I want to get on my Facebook page while I’m at dinner to say, “At Applebee’s with the fam having a great time.” The preapproval requirement for social medial communication would mean that I would have to wait until Monday morning, the next business day, type up that exact Facebook update, fax that off to my compliance department, then wait three to five business days for them to approve it, and then as long as they approved it – I could put on my Facebook update about a week after the fact that I went to Applebee’s with my family?

Her simple, one word response, was “Yes”.

I felt defeated.

Slightly Emotional

I can’t remember all the emotions that were going through my brain at that point in time, but I assure you none of them were good. I couldn’t believe it.

I wanted to argue. I wanted to yell and scream, but I knew it would get me nowhere. I knew that this was a corporate decision and even though they felt they were doing the right thing for their advisors, from my point of view they were absolutely wrong.

*I guess I should say in their defense, they have now released an archiving program that does allow all social media updates to be archived, which then allows their advisors to not tweet or update Facebook without prior approval.

I should also mention that at the time of this conversation, I was already doing that. I had already hired an archiving service, paying them $50 a month to archive all my social media content even though they never had advised me to do so, but I thought it would be a wise decision on my part to do it.

It’s Time

When I got off the phone with my compliance officer, I knew it was time. I knew that there was no way that I could operate in this capacity and still function and still be happy. I 1000% believe that social media and anything online is not just the way of the future, but it is the present – and if I want to continue to grow strategically then I need to have the free reigns of a traditional entrepreneur. It was time to let loose and start my own RIA (Registered Investment Adviser).

I don’t want to bore you with the details about the research that I started to figure out what my options were, but ultimately what needed to be done was to form my own registered investment advisory firm (Which I did: Alliance Wealth Management, LLC). I needed to drop my Series 7, eliminating my ability to earn another commission ever again.

My business would be a 100% fee-based, and that’s it.

As I mentioned earlier, almost 90% of my business was already fee-based, but I did have a percentage of income that came through commissions that could only be earned if I had a Series 7. In the financial industry, we call this a “trail”.

Kiss $36k Goodbye

Based on the trails that I was receiving, I was getting ready to give up approximately $36,000 a year gross revenues by making the switch. Before you start thinking that I’m a multimillionaire and $36,000 doesn’t mean a lot to me, I assure you it does.

I’ve been building my business for over ten years and to give up that amount of income just for the sake of me getting on Facebook and Twitter was a tough pill to swallow. As you can imagine, it was an even harder pill for my wife to swallow!

It’s not a decision I made overnight, but it’s one that weighed on my heart heavily. I’ve always believed that if you have the potential or the capabilities to do what you love, to do what you’re passionate about, to be able to wake up in the morning and go do what your dream is, then you have to go after it.

I knew that I would be losing out on a significant amount of income, but I also knew that with the refound freedom that I’d have forming my own RIA, not only to market my financial planning business but to derive additional income from my blog, that I would eventually make up for it.

Was I 100% sure? Absolutely not.

Did I 100% believe in myself? I absolutely do.

So, I pulled the trigger.

I finally made the decision in January of 2011, to just go for it. I knew in my heart it was what I needed to do. To make this transition, I wanted to be sure that I didn’t just give up on the clients I had worked with for years, and the relationships I had established just for the sake of my dream. I wanted to make sure that my clients would be taken care of when I made this leap.

The clients I had through the trail part of my business were moved to one of my former partners, who works in the same building with me.

I felt good about this decision and knew this person would take good care of these clients so that I could focus on building my business the way I wanted to.

At the end of the day it was all about freedom. And now have full control of my destiny and I wouldn’t have it any other way

How you ever make a bold step to follow your dream?   How big of a chance was it?  What finally prompted you to make the move?

Mobile Office

This post is not about the latest investment advice or a breakthrough trend in personal finance, rather a reflection of my evolution from a Corporate professional to a full time internet marketer and blogger living the mobile lifestyle.

While there are several factors that contributed to this successful transition, one of the more critical ingredients that made the transformation possible is discipline; discipline in living, learning, applying and giving.

It’s amazing how successful individuals, no matter in what field of practice, always share certain characteristics and discipline is one of them.

For example, without a strong and disciplined approach to living and saving, an average couple making the average annual income in the United States would never be able to retire on time or early and with financial abundance. Similarly, without a disciplined approach to learning, applying, monitoring and tweaking, an entrepreneur cannot be successful at his or her chosen field.

Utilizing that very same disciplined approach, I was able to break into a top ten university out of high school to become the first in my family’s lineage to attend and graduate from college. I went on to pursue a Masters degree, and subsequently several certifications that have left an alphabet train after my name.

Many stop right at high school graduation. Some may push through and complete college. But only few pursue higher heights.  Not because they are not interested, but rather because it takes sacrifice and discipline to achieve those heights, and that of course is a trade off not many are willing to accept.

Fast forward a few years in Corporate America….

I was making a mid six figure salary with excellent benefits all under the age of 30.  I was happy with how I was managing the core pillars of my life which include my faith, family, fortune and fitness. I kept accumulating more fortune, enjoyed the relationships with my loved ones, kept in great shape and gave away a fixed percentage of my income back to causes I believed in.

I was not unhappy at all, but I felt that something was missing to go from good to great. It was my drive for entrepreneurship and creation.  Having experienced so much success in my past, I knew I could achieve what I wanted by applying the same disciplined approach that worked for me in the past.

Discipline Check

The beauty of a disciplined approach to success is that once you have executed it, it becomes that much easier the second time around. Moreover, the psychological advantage you have is tremendous because you know you can do it.  This is exactly what enables successful individuals to make it back to the top despite having to start all over again. They know they can do it because they have been there before. They know what it takes to make it work.

Fast forward a few years to today, I am managing a portfolio of healthy investments of all sorts, in real estate, the stock market, brick and mortar businesses and the cyberspace. The model that I have established allows me to live off of my investments and enjoy the mobile lifestyle that anyone can achieve in my opinion, but few are willing to do what it takes to get there.

Reflecting back on the core pillars of my life, today with the grace of God my faith is stronger than ever before, I have more fortune, more abundant and satisfying relationships, and I continue to give back more.  The beauty of this cycle is that the more I give, the more I get back multiple times over. I don’t know the science behind it, and likely there is none, but that has got to be one of my most lucrative growth strategies

I am thankful for what I have and what I have been able to achieve, and none of it would have been possible without a disciplined approach to life.  Whether it’s investments, personal finance or entrepreneurship, this disciplined approach to life has helped me growth personally, professionally and spiritually.

Sunil owns over a dozen profitable niche websites and is the author of “How to Go from $0 to $1,000 a month in Passive and Residual Income in Under 180 Days All in Your Spare Time“, a FREE report you can download instantly from his Extra Money Blog, where he discusses expedited wealth building through solid personal finance, entrepreneurship and internet marketing. In 2007, he sold his ecommerce website for $250,000 to a top Ebay Power Seller and since then has sold several niche sites for five figures each. You can read more about him and his work on his blog.

photo credit: Giorgio Montersino

What’s going on?  It’s Jeff Rose again from goodfinancialcents.com where I’m typically giving you tips on personal finance and financial planning, but today I’ve got a special treat.

Today I’m going to be interviewing Cavanaugh Gray who is the director of business development for The Entrepreneur Café.  I love entrepreneurs.  I love hearing entrepreneur success stories.  I love to hear people talk about their short term goals and their long term goals! I think it is so great to have Cavanaugh here that he can share some of his experience working with entrepreneurs and help them develop their businesses.  He’s just a great resource to have.

JEFF:  Today I want to say hello to Cavanaugh.  Thanks for having me.  I really want to kick off and first talk about your business and what you do, but I think most importantly, what has lead you down the path of having an extreme interest in entrepreneurs and getting them where they need to get to.

CAVANAUGH:  Jeff, I think I fell into that category of being one of those odd kids that while other kids were playing and having a good time outside, I was doing a little bit of that, but I was always fascinated by the stories and the tales of the business owner who was willing to put their dreams and things on the line and take a risk.  So if you read enough of those stories as a kid you begin to think that you can do some of those things because no one has told you that you couldn’t.  I think I went down that path.  I went to a lot of fairs in Chicago being born and raised in Chicago.  Chicago is a great, blue collar kind of city so you get this strong can-do work ethic from the city.  I think just being in that environment put me in situations where I felt that here is something I can do, I can try.  Reading these stories and being in a city where I can go to fairs and sell books or pretty much play around with my own ideas, that’s where things, I think really started forming.  Then, through high school those things carried over.  Things got a little bit more sophisticated.  By the time I got to college I was putting together organizations in the small business realm, one project being my own.  That is where things started.

JEFF:  At what point in your life did you have that realization that I’m an entrepreneur.  This is in my blood.  It’s in my DNA.  It’s what I was born to do?

CAVANAUGH:  I think one of the things that you really feel when you’re at that point is you wake up every day with this mind set of hitting the ground running.  I think entrepreneurs that I bump into, they sleep very little.  They are always thinking about what’s next or the next idea.  I found myself in that category, but then I was always excited about my own dreams, my own ideas, just feeling in that place of feeling like you’re always in a risk taking mode.  You’re always willing to step out and try something new.  I think that is when you really know that you are now in that small business, entrepreneur mind set space.

JEFF:  Can you share a story or an experience of one of your first entrepreneur activities that you would classify as a business venture?

CAVANAUGH:  I think so.  I think one of the ones that stands out the most, again, starting out as a kid running businesses and then in college, there was an organization.  I was trying to combine my love of working with entrepreneurship and then giving back to the youth of Chicago.  I got started in the nonprofit space, but I developed this organization called YEP, the Young Entrepreneurs Program.  YEP dealt specifically with students 12-18 years of age trying to really introduce them to something that I hadn’t been exposed to which was financial literacy and entrepreneurship.  It was how do I take things that I’ve learned over the years and then impart that to them.  One day I got a call from a gentleman by the name of Jerry Fisher for Entrepreneur Magazine saying,

“We’ve seen what your trying to do.  We have some ideas for you.  Can we do a write up in Entrepreneur Magazine on this program?”

I just remember feeling like Wow, I’m in this space now.  So that was a lot of fun for me and then seeing that connect with people around the world.  Within the States and even around the world you would get emails at the time and even now from places as far as Africa saying I work for a school.  We’re trying to do something similar.  How can you help?  That part is a lot of fun.  That’s when I knew that I was hooked.

JEFF:  Wow!  That’s amazing, Entrepreneur Magazine.  That’s big time.  Now you have The Entrepreneur Café where you were telling me to give entrepreneurs more time, more money, more control, more happiness.  How long has that been in business and what got you to that point?

CAVANAUGH:  I think what’s interesting is at the time that I was doing YEP, the Young Entrepreneurs Program, I was at this fork in the road where I needed to make a choice.  So even at the time I was doing that I was thinking 5-10 years ahead in terms of where I would like to be.  The Entrepreneur Café may have had a different name a decade ago, but it was still floating around.  It was just a matter of when.  Before I made our last move, which was in 2003, I began putting the plans together for this small business development consulting firm that really worked with small companies, 3-4 employees or more, minimum 100,000 because they all have special issues, very unique issues.  Those are dealing with management, marketing, financial issues, and finding resources.  Being in that environment for most of my life, you get a chance to pin point what it is that entrepreneurs and small business people run into on a regular basis.  That’s how things started.  I’d say about 2003 is when the switch came for The Entrepreneur Café.

JEFF:  Can you walk me through the process?  Say I’m an entrepreneur and maybe I have an idea or maybe I already have a small business established, but I’m just struggling to get to that next step.  Where do you feel that you can come in and help them develop.

CAVANAUGH:  You would be surprised.  A lot of businesses start in one of two ways.  They are either born out of a hobby, so people will take things that they are very much interested in that they’ve done for fun, and some kind of way it rolls, picks up a little bit more momentum and becomes this small business.  The other thing is people stumble into the business realm accidentally.  Those two things go hand and hand.  The problem with that is often times when people start a hobby it takes on a different form when it becomes a business, or a company can start and go for two years just on pure momentum and then they get to a place where they find themselves floating in that little space.  It’s just one of those things where they’re trying to figure out how to take the next step.  I usually try to figure out where a company is at the very beginning.  I try to find out what stage they are in the process of small business.  Then I will usually ask what is your biggest obstacle.  If they can identify that, great.  If not, we try to help identify what is the company’s biggest obstacle, and we hone in on that and go forward.

JEFF:  I’ve talked to several people that have approached me and they’ve always considered themselves to be an entrepreneur, but I feel a lot of times they can’t take that next step and they are not really sure what to do.  Can you maybe give some tips or some pointers for someone that maybe has a good idea or has a venture and they’re not sure what to do?  Some guidelines maybe.

CAVANAUGH:  Believe it or not Jeff, one of the big things that I do that doesn’t show up on the radar of business development is you’re really in the business to some degree of encouraging people to see that they can do the same things that Bill Gates did, the same things that Mark Zuckerburg has done.  I think one of the big things is getting people over that hump of fear, the fear of just making that first step.  Once you can let people see that this could be something they could do and step out on, if you can make the connection then things start to pick up.  If you can get people to believe in their idea and their ability to take that business to the next level I think that is where things really start.  Getting over the fear for a lot of business owners, and it could even be starting a business or even expanding a business.  That’s something I really try to lock into.  I try to paint the picture for them.  Once you do that, if a business is already functioning then I try to look at, again the biggest obstacles that they are facing.  If they are just starting out then we are looking at business planning, a comprehensive planning.  Again, businesses fall somewhere along the spectrum and it’s identifying where they are and what the biggest issues are.  We always start there.

JEFF:  Of all the entrepreneurs that you’ve helped, all the small businesses that you’ve helped developed, would you say that there are some common pitfalls that you see that are common within a lot of these businesses?

CAVANAUGH:  Absolutely.  I think that’s the thing.  It doesn’t matter what business you’re in, Jeff.  If you’re in technology or industrial, whatever it may be, there are about four things as we mentioned that really all small businesses face.  It doesn’t matter where they are in the process.  Usually a company is going to deal with management issue meaning that they either don’t understand the industry as much as they thought they did or they don’t have the personnel to help them pull it off.  So it’s identifying that.  The other thing is having people make the shift in terms of their marketing.  I think because marketing has come such a long way, even in the past decade with Web 2.0 and everything else, it’s helping people make a shift to doing more effective marketing that gives them more return on their dollars.  The other thing is helping them really lock into their financials and key into whether or not money is coming in.  Is money going out at the right times?  Is there enough money in the reserve?  Do we need financing?  Helping them identify that.  The last thing really falls into locating resources.  That is a big thing.  If a company can’t find the resources to help them grow, they’re still in trouble.

JEFF:  I know that you have a passion for kids, for helping them.  One of the coolest entrepreneur success stories I’ve heard of is a young guy by the name of David Orr.  He founded a site called Fruper.com.  Have you heard of it?

CAVANAUGH:  No, but I love that name.

JEFF:  Yeah, it’s just one of those crazy names.  It basically just sells the most random tech things on his site.  By the age of 16 he was able to pay cash for a Range Rover from his business.  He actually is located here in Illinois up in, I think the Effingham area.  I thought that was an amazing story.  When you talk to a young person, when they aspire to be a David Orr or a Mark Zuckerberg, what is some direction you can give a young person to get to that next step?

CAVANAUGH:  When you mentioned that, I always love hearing those stories because they really represent what entrepreneurship is all about.  I think this generation has the opportunity to take anything that has been done before by any of the great names in small business and take it one step further.  I think with the young people, what’s great about them is that they are not old enough, as we mentioned to be boxed in yet.  They are still in this very creative realm of thinking.  They have all this drive and all this determination.  That’s what’s great about them at that age.  They don’t see any boundaries or limitations and that goes a long way in starting a business.  Going back to what we talked about is just helping them identify what they are passionate about.  You hope that young people have locked into something whether it’s sports or academics or whatever it may be, helping them find out what they are passionate about.  That could go for adult businesses as well, but helping young people identify that and then making it fun.  Often times I’ll get questions from parents about that same issue and I’m asking the same things.  Are they passionate about something and if not can you help them find what their passion is or things that they enjoy and too, do they enjoy money.  If they have an aversion to money and don’t really care about it then that’s going away from this process.  There are a lot of lessons to be learned.  If you see that your kid has traits of being a leader, very persistent, all those things fall in line with some of the traits of some of the great small business owners of our day.  You want to find ways to encourage and nurture that.

JEFF:  For any business owner or entrepreneur that wants more information maybe to contact you for a consultation what’s the best way to get a hold of you.

CAVANAUGH:  The best way is they can either contact us through our website at ecafellc.com or reach us at 618-206-7013.

JEFF:  I know he is also on Facebook.  You can also hit him up on Twitter because I’m following him.  There’s other ways to get a hold of him.  Any last words for all the entrepreneurs out there.

CAVANAUGH:  I think one of the things I’ve found over the years Jeff, is that everyone in some shape, form, or fashion was put here to do something.  One of the things that I feel like I’ve been amazingly blessed in is I get a chance to get up every day, live my dream, and help other people live their dream in the process.  So I’m hoping that people that come in contact with you or The Entrepreneur Café that in a sense we are helping them to live out their dream through small business.  If you have a dream find a way to live it.

JEFF:  If you have any questions leave a comment at the bottom here.  I’m going to see if Cavanaugh can actually address some of the questions we might have.  It’s been a splendid experience learning from you.

CAVANAUGH:  Thank you, sir.  I appreciate it.

JEFF:  I appreciate it.  Thanks for stopping by.  Check us out on Facebook as well.  We have the fan page going so be sure to like us there.  We’ll see you next time.  Take care.

I have one of the personality types where I LOVE meeting new people. There’s something addicting about meeting someone new and learning their story. What’s even more exciting is when you meet someone that is super motivated, genuine and uber successful.

My buddy Bobby Diehl was gracious enough to introduce me to his good friend (and now mine) Ben Newman and I’m so excited that he did.  Here’s a quick rundown of some of Ben’s accomplishments:

• Super successful agent at Northwestern Mutual
• Professional speaker
• Author of not 1, not 2, but 3 books!
• Founder of The Continued Fight and Bootcamp Workshops
• Loyal husband and proud father
• One cool dude

Did I mention he’s only 32?

Feel like a slacker yet?   Yeah, me too

Fight For What You Believe

My first introduction to Ben was reading his book Fight the Good Fight, A Mother’s Legacy Live On. (In case you missed it, I included this book in one of my Top 25 Books for Entrepreneurs).

I might lose man points for admitting this, but while reading Ben’s book I cried.   I actually cried several times.  I don’t want to be a spoiler and reveal too much, because the book is such an uplifting read.  In fact, before you read the interview, head over to Amazon and buy it now.

Seriously, you won’t regret it.

Ben recently released his third book titled Pocket Truths for Success.  Like I said, this man is always involved in something powerful and am excited for him to answer some questions.

Introducing Ben Newman…

+++++++

1For those that are just meeting you, give our readers some background on what the Continued Fight is?

A company that’s believes strongly in the INDIVIDUAL YOU.  WE are all different and we will all have different paths to greatness.  Speaking and writing are the catalyst to educating, inspiring and empowering individuals to uncover their passions and desires to seek a greater vision for themselves.

2What are some of the most common obstacles that you see people face and how do suggest they overcome them?

The most common answer I hear and the stories that are often told relate to what happens in between your two ears.  In life we will all face obstacles.  Howe we respond and frame the challenges we face will determine our legacy.  We all have stories and challenges we have faced in the past.  When the timing is right, reach onto your proverbial mental shelf and have the courage to explore past adversity to give you strength for the future.  You never know who you might impact by the manner in which you have fought to overcome your obstacles.  The great philosopher, Rocky Balboa, once said, “its not how hard you fall it how fast you are willing to get back up.”

3What was your motivation behind your latest book Pocket Truths for Success?

“Pocket Truths for Success” was written for the individual YOU.   The book is about understanding through daily passion for the process of what you do and love YOU will achieve great results in life.  The book is also intended for those tough days when you are struggling to get up when you have been knocked down.  The book provides belly punches of inspiration to HELP you get up and get back on your success journey!

About this Video: Only watch this if you want to moved, encourage, motivated in some way. I’ve had the pleasure of hearing Ben speak in person and this guy is oozing with passion. Love this dude!

4How do you define success?

Success is defined by a great balance of the personal and professional.  Success is not about wins and losses.  Success is about giving your best every single day and believing in a purpose that is greater than you.  May I also paraphrase a poem by Linda Ellis…

For it matters not how much we own;
The cars the house the cash
What matters is how we live and love
And how we spend our dash.

So when your eulogy is being read
With your lifes actions to rehash
Would you be proud of the things they say
About how you spent your dash?

I believe this poem says it all.  Focus on the right things in life and challenge yourself to love more, laugh more and live more and you will find tremendous SUCCESS IN YOUR LIFE!

5In a recent interview, you stated that you always end meetings/talks with the questions, WHY NOT YOU? AND WHY NOT NOW?  Tell us why.

Life is all about choices.  What happens in your future and more importantly the LEGACY you live behind is a direct reflection on your choices and beliefs.  STRIVE to BE GREAT!

6I was fortunate enough to attend one of your motivational boot camps.  What was the inspiration behind those?

Boot Camps are designed to help individuals with mental toughness and to help YOU define your  legacy and purpose for life. We have been holding Boot Camps since 2009 and they always have individuals attend from coast to coast.  You can check out details for our next Boot Camp in Las Vegas June 23rd-25th at The Palazzo by Venetian at www.UncommonSalesBootCamp.com.

7 You have a knack for sharing awesome and inspiration quotes.  Can you close with one that has moved you lately?

“It’s not how long you live, its how you choose to live your life.” Janet Fishman Newman

I am living proof that individuals can choose a positive path when faced with adversity. My mother Janet Fishman Newman passed away from a rare muscle disease called Amyloidosis when I was 7 years old. She left behind a journal that represents how she unleashed her positive mental attitude onto the world as she battled the deadly disease. Her life and her journal now represent for me the valuable lessons that exist to help others overcome adversity and remain positive on their success journey.  The above quote is the greatest life lesson I have ever learned and it comes from my mother, the greatest champion of life I have ever known.

Don’t ever let anyone tell you that you can’t do something.  Strive for greatness on your bridge to success everyday and surrender to a purpose way bigger than you.

LEAVE A LEGACY!

WHY NOT YOU? WHY NOT NOW?

+++++++

Thanks, Ben for the great interview.   If you want to see Ben in action, check out one of his speeches below.  Be sure to look for his awesome closing words.

Reading is said to be the spark behind creative thinking, and is one of the most predominate traits of individuals said to pertain a level of “higher intelligence”. Is the thought of gaining intelligence through reading actually viable? I believe that it is not intelligence that is gained through reading; rather it’s the exposure to other people’s thoughts and perception of events and processes that generally will lead to you being better rounded thinker. One of the most dangerous characteristics or life paths anyone can have or follow is to surround your self with a few like minded thinkers, and believe that the thought process your small group has come up with is proper, and more dangerous than proper is correct!

Reading other people’s thoughts and ideas are the key ingredients to being successful in life (beyond being very naturally intelligent). By reading through stories of people who were in similar situations to your own, and hearing their stories of success and how they perceived the difficulties along the way, you will be able to better separate yourself from your normal thought train and tackle a situation with more “proper” guidance.  I can’t tell how many times I’ve read a book by a successful entrepreneur to immediately have a burning desire to apply some aspects of their success to my own life.   Don’t believe me?   Ask my wife.  She’ll be first to tell you how after I read Tim Ferriss’ Four Hour Work Week, I wouldn’t shut up about it.  Thanks to Tim, I hired my first VA (virtual assistant) that was able to free up some of my time of many of the mundane details that you have from running a blog.

Having diagnosed the process and benefits of reading, there are some books that have changed the way I have thought, as well as opened me up to some great ideas I, and the majority of the world, would initially have thrown out as hogwash. My favorite books that help characterize the process, and more important mental game of becoming an entrepreneur are all listed below with a small synopsis of their content.

Top Must Reads for Entrepreneurs

1The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferris

Tim’s book takes the prize for the best book I’ve ever read that revolves around business and entrepreneurship.  Ever.  I want my kids’ kids to read this book.  This book provides a non-standardized idea of how to approach daily situations, and how to think of them with new perspective. It also teaches you positive thinking to maximize your potential.

2Smarter, Faster, Cheaper by David Siteman Garland

This book goes through some cheaper and less main stream ways to market your new personal business. The book focuses on the importance of blogging and an atypical approach. I had the pleasure of meeting David at one of his “Rise” Entrepreneurial lunches up in St. Louis and I’m here to say that HE IS LEGIT. I was so pumped to meet him, that I filmed my own thoughts on what it takes to become an entrepreneur…..while I was driving. Kids, don’t try that at home. This guy is a firecracker and he knows his stuff.  Also, beware of fluffy pink bunnies – no petting allowed!

3Book Yourself Solid by Michael Port

This book goes through an in depth analysis of why it may be more important to market yourself opposed to marketing your actual business. It also gives guidelines for how to attain more clients and raise your business profile.

What’s funny about this book is that it’s been on my shelf for years.   I’m not even sure who recommended it, but it’s been a great addition to my reading library.  When I asked fellow entrepreneur Matt Sapaula what books he would recommend, this was tops on his list.   I knew I had good taste

4The Brand You Call You by Peter Montoya

A great book that teaches you about how marketing your personal attributes can be more successful and important than marketing your business.  This book really helped put into perspective how to differentiate myself from all the competition…like this blog

I’ve been a huge fan of this book for years and recommend it to every new small business person that I encounter.   As you can imagine, I was blown away when Peter called me out of the blue to tell me how he liked my blog and I was doing a tremendous job marketing myself.   I’m pretty sure he felt good when I told him that his book inspired me to create it.

5UnMarketing by Scott Stratten

Yes, this book might be more marketing related, but I couldn’t leave Scott out of this list.  This book goes through the approach of viral marketing techniques and social media becoming the predominant source of profitable businesses. What I like about Scott so much is that he’s just a real dude.   It’s hard not to respect that about him.   Plus he likes Pearl Jam.   What else is there to say?

6Creating Your Own Destiny by Patrick Snow

I was pleasantly surprised when Patrick sent me a copy of his book completely unsolicited.  This book is an inspirational learner of how to fulfill your personal dreams and how to find true happiness in life.  Think it’s silly to have big dreams?   Think again.   Patrick’s dream is to have a NFL team in Hawaii and is raising money to try and make that dream happen.   Tell him that it’s stupid to dream big.  I dare you.

7The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

This book is an in-depth look at the phenomenon of a small idea turning huge, and how the critical point is referred to as the “tipping point” by the author.  I was amazed on how the kids show Blues Clues was able to take the Sesame Street concept and blow it up.  If you’re looking to grow your business with the same magnitude as Paul Revere galloping on his horse through the U.S. country side, this book is an excellent read.

8Overwhelming Odds by Susan and Denny O’Leary

This inspirational story of a man who is given overwhelming odds of failure, and the story of how he succeeded in life. I was so fortunate to meet Susan and Denny’s son John, and a small intimate gathering put on by the next author on the list.   John was involved in a horrible burning accident as a child that left him nearly for dead – the doctors telling his parents that he had a 1% chance to survive the night.

John did survive and used that tragedy to inspire others to be better people and also better business leaders.   If you need help in redefining your purpose in life, this is a must read.  Find out more about John and his professional speaking business at Rising Above.

9Crush It by Gary Vaynerchuk

How can you not love Gary V?   This guy is loud mouthed, full of energy and lives and breathes entrepreneurship.  His book gives a guide of how to think successful in life, opposed to the ordinary how to be successful type novel.   Favorite word of the book:  Passion.  <<<<YOU better have some passion if you’re going to Crush It!

10Delivering Happiness by Tony Hseish

How do you top selling a business for $265 million at the age of 24?  How about selling another company for a mere $1.2 billion.  Even though I new the outcome of the book (see previous sentence where he sells company for $1.2 billion), I was on pins and needles seeing how Zappos.com almost didn’t make it.  Think Tony was worried?  Nah.   He decided to go ahead with a scheduled trip to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro.  Now that is an entrepreneur that has brass balls.

11Fight The Good Fight by Ben Newman

I didn’t know what to think when a buddy of mine recommended this book to me. I have to say, I’m thankful that he did. Fight  the Good Fight shares the story of a son who loses his mother at a young age. Later on in life, his grandmother delivers a gift to his son that will change his life.  Turns out his mother had kept a memoir of her life, so that her kids could see the courage and inspiration she had – despite her illness.

I can’t remember the last time a book moved me the way that this book did.  I’m thankful to have it as part of my reading library, and excited to share it to others.

12Industry Transformers by Dan Sullivan

You’ll hear more about Dan Sullivan here in a bit.   This was a book that I couldn’t pass on, especially when I found out I could get it on my iPad for $12.99.   What makes this book so good for entrepreneurs?  How about 10 interviews from 10 awesome entrepreneurs that have all developed their own Unique Process™ through the Strategic Coaching program (that I’m happily enrolled in).  If you ever wanted to know how an entrepreneur started from the ground up, how they learned from their mistakes and were able to fully capitalize on them then this is the read for you.

A few of my favorite interviews are with Phillip Tirone from 7 Steps to 720 Credit Score and Joe Polish from Pirahna Marketing.  Both were well respected in their industries and were able to develop their own unique product that launched them into the stratosphere.   I’ve been fortunate to speak to Phillip directly a few times and I’ve inspired by his continued drive as well as his love for his family.

For Financial Advisors

If you’re a financial advisor and looking to differentiate yourself from the crowd, another good book from Dan Sullivan is Unique Process Advisors.   I’m more than halfway through the book and my wheels are already spinning.

13Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki

Many people feel that Kiyosaki is full of crap with his Real Estate riches and Cash Flow Quadrant.    While I have to admit that much of his advice lately (for me, at least) doesn’t hold a lot of water, his book Rich Dad, Poor Dad was the first book that really got my entrepreneurship juices flowing.  This book tells a tale of two separate people and their life choices. It analyzes these choices to come to some type of conclusion on the more appropriate way to think. Thanks to his book I always knew there was and always will be something more.

On the “Need to Read List”

14Purple Cow by Seth Godin

This book teaches you how to re-market your existing business to satisfy the evolving business needs in an ever changing world. Thanks to Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income for getting this book to me. Mike from Oblivious Investor also recommends this book in addition to The Dip and Tribes.

15Enchantment by Guy Kawasaki

I just recently was introduced to Guy Kawasaki in an interview that he did on The Rise to The Top.com.  I had heard of Guy but didn’t really know much about his story.   This “guy” just oozes success.  I immediately bought his new book Enchantment but also realized that I need to check out his other stuff, too.  Another highly recommended book of his is Art of the Start.

Want a little more insight into how Guy Kawasaki’s mind works?  Check out this witty quote of his:

“Don’t worry, be crappy. Revolutionary means you ship and then test… Lots of things made the first Mac in 1984 a piece of crap – but it was a revolutionary piece of crap.”

16Never Get a Real Job by Scott Gerber

I ordered this book as an add on to one of the other books mentioned above.   Sometimes Amazon is good at suggest titles I might like.  Sometimes they suck.   How could I pass on this title though?  I’m itching to finally getting this puppy cracked open.

17Thank You Economy by Gary Vaynerchuk

This is Gary V’s anticipated second release.   To be honest, I didn’t even read what the book was about.  I bought because Gary put his name, heart, and soul on it; so I know it will be good.

18The Dan Sullivan Question by Dan Sullivan

I just joined the Strategic Coach program this year and I’m really excited to see what it can do for me.  Dan Sullivan the creator has written several books including this one.   I figured with a wildly successful coaching program, the guy has to know what he’s talking about; so this has been added to the “must read” list.

19ReWork by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson

I’ve heard a lot of good things about this book.  Heck, even Seth Godin says, “Ignore this book at your own peril”.  Plus, he’s like one of like 100 entrepreneurs and authors that vouch for this book.

What Do Friends Have to Say?

Knowing there had to other great entrepreneur books out there, I decided to ask some of my friends on Facebook, Twitter, and the blog to give me their top picks.  Here’s what they had to say.

20Who Moved My Cheese by Dr. Spencer Johnson

From Matt Bishop on Facebook saying, “Wonderful, short, very good.”

21The E-Myth by Michael Gerber

Matt Sapaula, Phil from PT Money and  Glenn from Free From Broke all recommended this book.  That’s a trifecta!

22Career Renegade by Jonathan Fields

MD from Studenomics recommends this book.   Honestly, I don’t know how I left this one off the list.  I haven’t read his book, but I absolutely love his blog.   Jonathan is currently in the process of releasing his second book and I’ve signed up for his tribe newsletter that has been filling us in through the entire process.   A great resource for anyone looking to release a book.

23How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie.

Glenn from Free From Broke and Mixergy CEO Andrew Warner both highly suggest this book.  Turns out I forgot I even had this book (though I loaned it and never got it returned – Whew!)

24Awaken the Giant Within by Tony Robbins

Baker from Man Vs. Debt says reading this book , “Fundamentally changed my life.  I read it while transitioning from poker into Real Estate and it shifted how I viewed myself and my life/business relationship. ”

25The Go-Giver by @BobBurg

Recommended by Jeff Haywood, CPA via his Twitter account

All of the above listed books are great for anyone who would like to start their own business, or is just looking for a release from the conformist thought process of the majority of Americans. There are many differing viewpoints in the world today, and these books will give you some motivation as well as enlighten you on the thought process behind success.

Nearly everyone wants a little more money. The tricky part, of course, is figuring out how to make extra money. The good news is that, with a little planning and some careful thought, you can make more money. But it helps to have a plan:

What are Your Options?

Your first step is to identify your options. What can you do in terms of making extra money? If you have a job that allows it, you can stay later, or pick up an extra shift. Back when I was a waitress, a good way to make extra money was to take a turn on Friday night, when there were more people in the restaurant paying tips. If you have the time in the evening to work on a web site, you can make a little extra money with affiliate programs. For someone with the skill of woodworking, it is possible to create pieces that others might be willing to buy. If all you have is a few minutes each week, you can go to the nearest blood bank and be paid for a plasma donation.

Consider what you have the time and ability to do. Then, make a plan to exercise those options to make money.

Creating a Plan

If you want to be successful at making extra money with a side job, it helps to have a good plan. Think about what you need to make your venture successful. List supplies you might need if you want to make baby clothes. If you are going to monetize a web site, you will need a domain name, web server space and a number of other items. If you want to be a tutor, or a freelancer, you will need some sort of expertise.

After you know what you need, it’s time to set some goals designed to help you succeed. If you are allowed to work overtime at your job, you can set a goal to work one extra hour each day to get five hours of overtime. If you are crocheting doll outfits, set aside half an hour each evening to work. In some cases, you may have to schedule in time to research companies (if your method of making extra money is dividend investing), write ad copy (if you want to advertise in the Classifieds), look for a place to sell your items online (such as Etsy, eBay or Craig’s List) or set up an accounting system to keep track of your business income.

Map out the tasks you need to accomplish, and how much time you can devote to these tasks each day or week.

Stick With It

One of the most difficult parts of making extra money is sticking with. Few endeavors yield immediate results. You need to have the discipline to stick to your plan. If you want to make extra money with a web site, you have to realize that it can take months — or even more than a year — to build up your traffic to a level that allows you to earn money. Sometimes it takes a while for you to find clients as a freelancer, tutor or as a craftsperson, and build a customer base. However, if you keep working at it, you are likely to see your income grow.

Most of us spend some thought on how to make a little extra money. Whether you are trying to get out of debt a little faster, or whether you want to boost your savings, a little extra cash is almost always welcome. If you want to make a little extra money on the weekend, there are things you can do. With a little creative thinking, it is possible to make a few bucks every weekend. Here are 4 ideas:

1. YOU are Your Greatest Asset: Selling Bits of Yourself

You can get money for donating different parts of your body. Plasma donation can provide you with up to $35 a pint, depending on where you go. You can also be paid for bone marrow. It’s a little harder to find facilities that will pay you for bone marrow, but it’s a cool $200 for 50 cubic centimeters in some places. You can even donate white blood cells. Spend four hours, and make as much as $350. If you have the entire weekend free, you can donate while blood cells in a three-day procedure and earn as much as $750. There are also places to sell your hair. In the end, what you already have can be a way to earn money fast.

2. Service with a Smile: Waiting Tables and Bar Tending

One of my favorite jobs was waitressing. I always had cash — and at one of my jobs I only worked on the weekend. It is possible to work weekends, or hire on as an alternate for weekends. The same is true of bar tending. However, it helps to have prior experience in these areas if you want to be called upon. And you have to be willing to come in with a short amount of notice if you are “on call” in one of these jobs.

3. Go Green: Recycling

In some places, you can still take aluminum cans to a facility and be paid by the pound for them, helping the planet and helping yourself. But it’s not just cans that can get you paid. My brother changed his own brake rotors, and not only did he save money by doing it himself, but he also got some quick cash when he took it the metal recycler down the street. Look around at the metal you have; it might be worth something. Additionally, if you are in a state that returns a deposit for glass bottles, you can gather some up and get some cash. (Realize, though, that transporting bottles across state lines from a non-deposit state to one that offers a return is illegal.)

4. Your Junk is Another’s Treasure: Selling Your Stuff Online

Go through your stuff, and sell it online. You can add one or two items to Craigslist or eBay, and let your social network know about it through Facebook and Twitter. Do this on the weekends until your junk is all cleaned out. If you are a little more ambitious, you can look for great deals at yard sales and then bring it back and sell it for more online. Offer your services to those in your town who might not be as Internet savvy. Ask for a commission on the sale for putting the item up on their behalf.

photo credit: marcovdz

This is Jeff Rose.  Welcome back to Goodfinancialcents.com.  Today I want to ask you a quick question because I like asking questions   The question is:

How do you define success?

Part of the reason why I am asking this question is I received an email the other day.  It was from a guy who had read an article on my blog, and the article is entitled, “How to be a Successful Financial Advisor.”  If you read that article, I talk about attributing some of the reasons of my success, and how if you want to get started in the business and become a financial advisor, actually interview some other financial advisors and have them attribute some of the reasons they feel that they are successful in the industry.  If you read that post I talk about how I am not a million-dollar producer, which is a bragging right our industry.

I am far from it.

How do I define success or why do I consider myself to be successful?  The reason that I feel is, one:  I have survived.  In our industry it is tough.  Whenever I first started in the industry back in 2002, I had a training class that had just over 50 people.  We always keep track of the numbers in that training class.  After five years, there were only six of us left, only six.  So after five years we lost over 44 people.  Some of those got out of the business and some did transfer elsewhere, but only six of us were left.  That is part of the reason I contribute my success, so the fact that I am still here is one.

Do What You Love

The other thing why I consider myself to be successful is that I have a profession; I have a job that I love.  I love what I do.  I love helping people.  I love helping my clients plan for retirement and helping them make sense of this complex investment world.  I love it.  My alarm clock goes off in the mornings.  I am not much of a morning person, but I don’t dread it how I have talked to a lot of people that just despise their jobs.

Whose The Boss?

I don’t have a boss.  I am my own boss, so if I want to show up a little bit late I don’t have to clock in in a report.  To have that freedom is priceless.  Having a bit of a military background, if we had formation at 8:00 you had to be there at 7:45 for the pre-formation.  If you were late for that, you got reprimanded.  I was a squad leader, so I had to reprimand my guys if they weren’t there for the pre-formation, which is just funny when you think about it.

My Family Is The Coolest

The Fam

The other reason why I feel that I am successful is that I have a beautiful family that supports me.  I have a wife that supports me 150% on everything I do.  I have a family that I love to provide for.

That is what I contribute to success.  It is not how much money I make.  It is not the assets that I have under management.  It is not my total production, which is just a metric that we advisors use to say how much revenue you basically generate for your firm.  These are the things that are arbitrary to me.  I could care less.

I love what I do.  I love my job.  I love my business.  I love the fact that my business allows me the freedom to do my blog, Good Financial Cents and videos like you see here.  I love it!   That is what I consider to be successful.

I ask you, “How do you define success?“  Is it how much money you make?  If it is, you need to take a step back and really rethink your strategy because it is not all about money.  It is not about numbers; it is not about that.  It is about what you have inside your heart that you love to do.  So, ask yourself how you define success and truly, truly ask yourself.  Dig deep find that answer.

Glad you can join me again, and we’ll see you next time.

The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. To determine which investment(s) may be appropriate for you, consult your financial advisor prior to investing.

One thing that is an exciting process for me is when I can actually take a step back from my day-to-day activities and really focus on where I want to be a year from now.  Many people talk about the “things” that they want to accomplish and the “things” that they want to do, but they hardly make any effort to actually get there.

Someone once told me that if you have a goal or desire, you have a 90% greater chance of success of achieving it if you actually write it down. Is it true? Heck if I know, but it sounds good to me.

Every year I do some type of goal planning, but I felt that this year that I really needed to take it one step further. I wanted to take it to the next level and put my goals out there for everyone to see – to hold me accountable, hence this blog post.

Why the need to make it public? Because I want to make 2011 my year. What do I mean by my year? That’s where the fun begins…..

Right now I have a lot of things on my plate that I know I can get done. I know that with a few sacrifices (can’t watch every single St. Louis Cardinals game – doh!) and with a lot of extra hard work, I can pull it off.  (I think I can. I think I can. I think I can.)

Am I a workaholic? That’s debatable. But here’s the thing:  I love what I do.

I love being a financial planner.

I love having two blogs.

I love filming videos for my Soldier of Finance site and soon for this site, too (see goals below).

Here’s my most favorite Soldier of Finance Video Thus Far:

If you want to see more, head over to the Soldier of Finance YouTube channel.

I love all that stuff.

And as a wise man once said, do what you love.  So, 2011 I designate as the “Do what you love year“.

Group hug anyone?

2010 Recap

Biz: 2010 was very successful for me. We were coming off a really bad market and just over a year removed from starting our firm, Alliance Investment Planning Group, I didn’t know exactly what would happen. I didn’t know how people would react if the market did come back and recover. But it did come back (definitely still more to go, but I ‘m forever the optimist). People are more confident, although hesitant, and that has really helped make 2010 a great year for me.

I love helping my clients. I love helping them make “cents” of the investment world and just helping them live their life the way they want to.

See the “Do what you love” theme here?

Blog: My blog had an amazing year as far as traffic and growth -  I’ll get into some of the numbers below.  I never could have imagined that my blog could get as much notoriety as it did this past year.   I get calls from other advisors all over the country that are really impressed by my blog and how good it is – their words, not mine.   Anytime you get compliments from colleagues in your industry, it’s enough to brighten your day.

Family: We welcomed our second son, Bentley, in January.  Our first son Parker turned 3.  We found out we’re having a third son due next June.  And my wife and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary.  Family life couldn’t get any better.   Well, a little more sleep wouldn’t hurt

A Brief Confession

First, I have to make a confession: Up late one night, I decided to start writing my goals out on my whiteboard that I have in my home office. I recall as I wrote it down, my first goal I wrote down was:  business. The second was my blog . The third one was my book, and the fourth was my family.

I remember sitting there looking at that and thinking,

“What the heck am I doing? How could I put my family fourth of the goals I wanted to accomplish?”

Just looking at it on that whiteboard just gave me a sick feeling inside. I love my family. My wife, especially,  supports me in everything that I want to do, and I had no right putting her and my two sons at number four. I felt icky inside, and I knew that’s not how I wanted it to be. So, a quick adjustment moves them to the number one spot – right where they belong.

Finding a Balance

When you have a lot of goals that you want to accomplish, you have to find a way to find your balance. You have to balance your family, your wife, work, and everything else. I know that I always need to work on this, but I also know that I love spending time with my family. Since we have two sons right now with a third on the way, I know that it’s not going to get any easier. I will have to commit myself to devote the necessary time for my family so that we can enjoy each other, love each other, and learn from each other.

Okay, now for my goals.

Family Goals

1. Upon arriving home, put the phone down.

I have a BlackBerry, sometimes referred to as the “CrackBerry”. The thing is always on my hip. I’m always checking my e-mail. I’m always checking my Facebook; it’s always there. The first goal is when I come home, I want to sit it down and forget about it for a minimum of 30 minutes. I know that might not sound like a long time for you, but I can’t help it – I’m a web junkie.

At least for 30 minutes, I want to come home, kiss my wife, tell my boys I love them and just sit down and play with them. Now 30 minutes could easily turn into an hour, and that’s the point.  Because I also want to extend it to dinner time.

2. Peaceful dinner please

My wife and I have both been guilty of being on our phones while we’re eating dinner. That’s something I want to put a stop to. I want to be able to have that time to dedicate to us to reflect on the day and just to see how things are going. When you’ve got two kids, it’s hard to have good alone time. I’m hoping by setting the phones down, this will help accomplish just that.

3. Pucker Up

The other goal, which I alluded to earlier, is to kiss my wife each day. It’s almost sad that I have to admit this, but both my wife and I, with two kids and both working, have gone a full day without kissing each other. I love my wife. I love to kiss her, I love to love on her (PG-13 please), and the fact that I have let this happen truly upsets me. We have both talked it out and we both have admitted that sometimes life  has got the best of us. No more. There is enough time in the day for a simple kiss and simple I love you, and I want to make sure that happens each and every day for the rest of our lives. Love you, baba! Mmmmmmcha!

Business Goals

Okay, on to the next stage: my business. Ever since I left my old firm and joined LPL Financial to form Alliance Investment Planning Group, it has been, by far, one of the best moves, second to marrying my wife, that I have ever done. I never could have imagined that it would have taken off as well as it did. Now that I have an awesome client base with people that truly value my opinion, and most importantly that I love working with — my clients are great.

They have been through the hard times, they’ve been through the good times, and I’m enjoying helping them transition to their Golden Years. I have brought on a significant amount of new clients in the past year, and most importantly – they are ideal clients. Not meaning that they just have a lot of money — which most of them do — but the key is that they appreciate me. And guess what? I appreciate them. Here are some of the goals that I hope to accomplish.

There are many metrics that you can use to measure the success of a financial planning practice:

1. Asset growth (total dollars of the assets that I manage for my entire client base).
2. Revenue growth (how profitable is my business)
3. Growth of ideal clients. (clients that have sizable assets or are good referral sources of idea clients)

For the sake of simplicity, I’ll focus on the first two of the sake of my goals for 2011; mostly because they are almost directly related.

Using my growth rate of this year, and factoring in a few “clients-to-be” that I’ve already met with and I’m expecting to come on board next year, I’m estimating that I should have at least a 33% increase in revenue and asset growth.  I’m hoping that’s a conservative number, because last year’s growth was 55% – (growth was calculated based on both revenue growth and growth of assets) – yes, like I said, 2010 was a very good year.

The beauty about my business, as with most businesses that have laid strategic seeds in fruitful locations, is that you’ll always a certain amount of crops you can count on.  It’s so fun to see when the expected seeds starting popping up – the ones I wasn’t counting on.   I’ve done a fairly decent job (sorry, tooting my own horn again) of using my blog to leverage my local media presence.   It’s been a time investment, but I’m now starting to see some real results.

How am I going to do it?

To help me in my quest, I’m going to attempt something new this year that I’ve never done before: I’m going to hire a coach.

I know.  It sounds weird saying it. My wife even questions it because she knows how self-motivated I am and wonders why I need to hire a coach.

I don’t question my motivation, but I know that at  times I get a lot of ideas that I want to do, that I lose track and sometimes spread myself too thin.  By me hiring a coach, I want to have someone that I’m accountable to – that will keep me focused on the parts of my business that I need to concentrating on.

I’m actually filling out the paperwork as I write this post to get signed up for my first coach.  This excites Jeff – yes, I just referred to myself in the third person.

Blogging Goals

Blog Stats for 2010

Wow, where do I even begin?  In 2008 I didn’t even know what a blog was.  Then in July of 2008, I started this baby.  I remember the day I had over 50 visitors – I was ecstatic. When I passed 100 I’m sure I busted out a big “Woo-hoo!”.   When I passed a 1000, I’m pretty sure I almost fainted.  For the entire year of 2009, my rough estimates show that I had over 400,000 new visitors to my site.   How insane is that?  Wait, it gets better….

As of right now, my blog averages between 3k-4k visitors per day; which equates to around 80k-90k visitors per month.  To my little ol’ blog.  Pure craziness.

Now I know that many bigger blogs and sites get way much more traffic than me, but remember: two years ago, I didn’t even know what a blog was.  This is one of those times that I even impressed myself; mostly because I was so clueless.

As of now, I’m on pace to have over 1,100,000 visits to my site for 2010 alone.  Over 1 million people have came to my blog this year.  That’s still hard for me to comprehend.

So how do I improve that?

That’s a great question.  One that I had a hard time answering.  Here are few of the things that I’m going to try this year:

1. Site redesign: I love the layout of my blog, but I know it could be improved.  I want to make it easier for new visitors to navigate through the blog to find material that could be beneficial to them.
2. Focus on a wider range of articles. Hiring Miranda as a guest writer was a great decision for a couple reasons: 1. Her stuff is good and I enjoy having it on the blog.  2. She’s able to offer a perspective that I don’t have.   I want to try to have more guest posts to cover topics that are outside my realm that I feel would be beneficial to my readers.
3. More guest posts on other blogs. One of the bonafide ways to get more traffic to your blog is to guest post on other sites.  I’ve written for Wisebread.com, GetCurrency.com and a few other sites when I first started blogging, but haven’t done much at all lately.   That will change.  In 2011, I will embark on a guest posting campaign in attempt to expand the Good Financial Cents reader base and try to help that many more people with their finances.
4. Video blogging.  This is the one that I most excited about.  As a way of building my brand for the book that I’m writing (See next goal), I started recording short videos and uploading them to YouTube.  (Check out my Soldier of Finance YouTube Channel)  Most of my initial videos were all recorded with a new HD webcam that I bought and I quickly realized how much I liked it.  Trying to step up the quality a bit, I hired a local young man to record and edit for me.  He does an awesome job and we have much more planned.  Recently, I bought a Flip Ultra HD camera to I can do some more videos on my own and now I’m officially hooked.   For me, filming a 3-4 minute video takes just that (maybe two takes at most) and is much easier than writing a 750 word blog post.  Now seeing how easy it is for my Soldier of Finance videos, I want to start doing more for this site, too.   Stay tuned.  I’m on a video mission

What are my goals then?

Even though I averaged around 90k visitors per month for the year, my fear is that much of that traffic was due to the the Roth IRA conversion event of 2010.   That term alone helped me get over 120,000 visitors in the month of January, and the reason why I feel I’m finishing the year off strong.  In 2011, I don’t expect the Roth conversion to be as a big deal so I have to be on the lookout for other topics that are both timely and beneficial to my readers.  I’m hoping that the strategies noted above will help with the traffic lost from Roth conversion seekers.

My goals as far as traffic is to see my blog average at least 100,000 visitors per month, consistently. On the higher side, I would like to see 120,000 by the end of the year.

Don’t forget about the Soldier of Finance site. I just launched the site this past September, so the traffic is just starting to pick up.  As of right now, I’m averaging about 60 visits per day – took me much faster than with this site   I know this might sound crazy, but I think I can pull it off, I would like to get my traffic to Soldier of Finance to at least 30,000 visits per month by the end of the year.  I know I have my work cut out for me, but I’m up for the challenge.

Last Goal:  The Book

Oh, the book.  The thing that I love…..to hate.   Writing a book is by far one of the most challenging tasks that I’ve taken on in my life.  Luckily, I’ve hired Les O’Dell to join me in the misery.  Just kidding.  We’re having fun with the book, we’re just trying to find the right direction for it.

Right now, we have about 5 chapters complete and I was excited to share the first 3 with a book agent that I was introduced to.  For those that don’t know the book writing process, it’s tough just to get an agent to look at what you got.  I want to thank Baker at Man Vs. Debt for the introduction.  He’s cool like that

After a few weeks I finally heard back from the agent.  Just for the record, I haven’t shared this with a lot of people.   Honestly, it’s took me sometime to digest, but I’m ready to address it.  It’s not horrible, just not what I hoped to hear:

Overall my impression is that I’d want to push you in the direction of having a stronger voice and a more unique structure to the book. There’s plenty of good info in there, but my concern is that in looking at the writing & structure editors will feel like it’s a pretty straightforward personal finance title. And unless you really have a huge platform to rely on, you don’t really want it to feel that way.

The agent was very helpful and I was thankful for this opinion.  He reminded me that he is one person and his opinion is clearly subjective.

Does that mean back to the drawing board?  Not at all.  I know that we have a lot of good stuff so far, it’s just a matter of doing some strategic repositioning.  Once again, I’m up for the challenge.

So what’s the goal? I want to take what the agent suggested and get the tone of the book in line with my mission: Enlist.  Take Charge.  Succeed.

And I’ve set a goal to get 90% of my book complete by July.  Why 90%?  Partly because it sounds cool   And it gives me enough wiggle room for edits, re-edits, and more re-edits.   In the mean time, I’m looking to build my platform with the Soldier of Finance brand through the blog and my videos.   2011 is going to be a great year.

What can you do to help?

Wow, I’m so glad you asked

Thanks for coming along for the ride!

photo credit: DG Jones