Have you invested in a 401k for a number of years only to see it cut in half in past year or so?

The idea behind a 401k is a good one.  You can take part of your paycheck every month and invest it long-term in some financial vehicle that will hopefully grow and become enough money for you to live on when you retire.  It’s a lot better than Social Security because it has a chance to earn money through whatever investment it is in while Social Security can’t.

The problem with a 401k, or any other investment like it, is that you have invested in paper and ideas.  Like what has happened in the past year, most investments have declined and some have gone away completely.  When a company goes under you don’t even get your original money back.

To balance that risk you can invest a part of your money in something that has intrinsic value, like private gold and silver.  These tangible assets do go up and down in value but they aren’t likely to “go under” during our lifetimes.  Unlike with stocks, if the company that issued the gold or silver fails, the investment doesn’t lose its intrinsic value because it is accepted as money all over the world.

I have found a company, YOUnique Wealth, that issues private gold and silver.  They are creating a plan where regular people can make a fixed monthly investment, just like you do with your 401k, and they send you gold and / or silver.  Here’s an example of how it works.  You decide to invest in gold, put in $250 a month, and the gold costs $140. The first month you will get one gold medallion at $140 and the remaining $110 will be held until the next month. The second month you put in your $250, add in the $110 that was held over, so you have $360. They will send you 2 gold medallions ($280) and roll the remaining $80 over. It works the same as your current paper investments because you can only buy whole shares. If you look at your investment account you will usually see some amount of cash sitting in a money market or something.

To find out more, there is a Big Day event starting soon, August 12th at Noon EDT. There will be short 15 to 20 minute informational calls every other hour starting at that time.  Go here to get the schedule, get on the calls, and start stockpiling your precious metals.

Here are the two videos that are on that page. The first one is Bob Proctor.

BTW, I’m not a financial adviser. I like gold and silver because they have held their value a lot better than the dollar over the past several years and they have real value as opposed to the dollar, which is just paper.

Wayne Woodworth
Gold and Silver are valuable and shiny

The value of the dollar has been decreasing over the past several years.  You know that.  You know why too.  The government keeps pumping out more money in the form of bailouts and other programs.

Until about 30 years ago, the value of the US Dollar was tied to the value of gold.  We were on a gold standard.  In 1971 President Nixon abolished the gold standard which made it possible for the government to have more money printed without it being backed up by anything.  You’ve got to hear Glenn Beck’s description of this and see his chart.  It is amazing and somewhat disturbing.

I recommend that you convert some of your savings into something that will hold its value while all of this insanity is going on.  I found a great place to get private gold and silver.  Right now they are even offering a FREE GIFT just for taking a look.  You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.  Go ahead and check it out.

I have started listening to Bob Proctor’s Mission in Commission program, which is for people who make their income through sales.   He makes a few statements on the first disk that really stood out to me.

First is a quote that he found from a Spanish distiller: “The good life is expensive.  There is another way to live that doesn’t cost as much, but it isn’t any good.” I like that line.  Everybody has dreams of living a certain lifestyle and most people think they will never have it.  I think that’s too bad.  I believe that we are here to experience all of the greatness that life has to offer and it is a shame when we limit ourselves with wrong ideas.  Bob Proctor notes that salespeople are both the highest paid and the lowest paid of all professions and the difference between high and low is just your mindset.

The second statement that stood out is that “selling is something you do for a person, not to a person.” Being involved in network marketing circles online I am constantly amazed at how pushy some marketers are.  They will tell you all about how great their opportunity is almost before they ask your name.  Selling is about finding out about the other person.  Who are they, what kind of person are they, what are their concerns and needs.  Build a relationship first then only bring up your product and business opportunity if you see that you can fill a legitimate need of theirs.  Most people I meet on a daily basis know nothing about me being a network marketer or the product that I sell unless I learn they have a need for it.  Be a person and a friend first.

Bob then went on with the qualities that he thinks makes for a good salesperson.  “It takes a pleasing personality and sincere desire to help someone else improve their quality of life.” I think we’ve pretty much covered this one.  If you are friendly, not pushy, and have a genuine desire to help then you have the necessary qualities to be a great salesperson.  The rest of what you need are skills that can be learned.

If you like this material then you will love Bob Proctor’s other programs.  If you are interested in trying you hand at sales then I recommend network marketing because it is easy to get into and learn the skills as you go.  I know of a few different opportunities that you can check out.  Leave me a comment and we’ll talk.

Wayne Woodworth
Everyone is a salesperson. Most just don’t know it.

Wealth Beyond Reason sounds good doesn’t it?

I have used a lot of programs about the Law of Attraction and other related topics from Bob Proctor, James Ray, and others and they are all very good.  I highly recommend them.  But the absolute best I have come across for how to use all of that information on a daily basis to actually create the life you want is Wealth Beyond Reason by Bob Doyle.

The most important thing Bob teaches in addition to the Law of Attraction itself, is how to clear the resistance that we have.  I believe that you will get real benefits from this program.

Wealth Beyond Reason is all online, has a lot of content for the price, and you go through it at your own pace.  Check it out.

Wayne Woodworth
Bob Doyle Fan

Have you heard of Bob Proctor?  Whether you have or not, he wants you to be rich.

I have blogged before about affiliate marketing programs and a great opportunity arrived in my email this week. A couple years ago Bob Proctor got together with Jack Canfield and Rev. Michael Beckwith, 2 of his co-stars from The Secret, to create the SGR Program. At the time it cost $2,000 and shipped with a whole bunch of stuff in addition to the real content.  It sold very well.

They took the program offline a couple months ago to revamp it and make it more affordable.  They are about to relaunch the program, without all of the fluff, at a much more affordable price – only $197.  It hasn’t launched yet and they are looking for affiliates to help them promote it.  The affiliate program is free, so it is worth it to at least check it out.

Here’s the email that I received about it.

Hey,

I want to invite you to something really special.

http://partners.thesgrprogram.com/affiliates/signup.php?m=48814321

A couple of years ago, back in 2007, I made a decent amount of money from this  just by pushing copy, paste and send. It’s called the Science of Getting Rich (sounds like something the market would like to have right now, doesn’t it?).

So boy, was I glad to see Bob Proctor and his team relaunch it!

http://partners.thesgrprogram.com/affiliates/signup.php?m=48814321

I’m signing up again because I know it will be another success. (I mean, we ARE talking about a powerful product from Bob Proctor, Jack Canfield and Rev. Michael Beckwith)

And I want to personally invite you to jump on the bandwagon.

They have a great affiliate plan. And it’s so, so easy.

http://partners.thesgrprogram.com/affiliates/signup.php?m=48814321

The pre-launch date is April 14th, so hurry to get your head start.

Cheers,

PS: Oh, and did I mention it’s a 50% commission 2-tier program? Plus, there’ll be an additional ONGOING 50% commission on a new continuity program they’ve got. It’s a beauty!

http://partners.thesgrprogram.com/affiliates/signup.php?m=48814321

So, go get on board, send out some emails, and prepare to make some money.

Wayne Woodworth
Affiliate Marketer

UPDATE:  The program has launched and, based on the emails I have seen, has been extremely successful so far.  Now is a great time to get on board.

How much money do you want to make this year?  Do you know how you are going to do it?

My wife and I spent some more time with Live Out Loud for training on their affiliate program (which pays very well if you are looking for a cash machine).  One of the things we came away with is Loral’s process for revenue modeling.  It is a very simple process because you want to quickly figure out what you need to do to meet your goals then get busy doing those things.

First, write down how much money you want to make in the next however many days.  Then figure out how much of your product or service you need to sell to reach that number.  Next figure out what you are going to do to make those sales.  And the last step is go do it.

For example, let’s say I want to take home $2000 in the next 30 days.  My profit for selling Nikken product is 20% if I sell it at the full retail price so my sales goal is $10,000.  Now I have to figure out what products I think I can sell this much to reach $10,000.  It turns out that all I have to do is set up 3 families with the basics of a wellness home (if you curious, that is a magnetic sleep system, air and water filtration, magnetic insoles, and a few other small items).

Pretty easy, right?  The benefits of spending a few minutes doing this planning are huge, especially considering the amount of time it takes because now you know exactly what you need to do to reach your income goals.  You know where you need to devote your time so that you are not as easily distracted  by other things.

If you don’t have a way to make money outside of a fixed paycheck, see my cash machine post then leave me a comment.  I would be happy to discuss ideas with you as well as share a few of the things that I am doing.

If you want to learn more about how to write you plan, check out the Building, Leading, Protecting Your Business audio program or attend on of her live Cash Machine Workshops.

So there you have it.  Go plan then get busy.

Wayne Woodworth
Network Marketer
Affiliate Marketer
Planning to be wealthy

Do you have an MBA? I don’t mean a Masters degree in business. I mean, do you have a Massive Bank Account? I heard the term most recently from Loral Langemeier who created the Cash Machine concept that I talked about last time. You could say that you get an MBA by majoring in your cash machine.

You need to have a massive bank account for several reasons. The most obvious reason right now is the economy. Gas prices have come down in the past couple months but it looks more likely that they will go up in the long term. Rising gas prices coincide with higher heating costs for your home because they are both based on oil, either directly or indirectly depending on whether you heat with gas or electricity. Higher has prices also translate into higher prices for goods that you purchase because the companies have to cover their transportation costs. Having a lot of money allows you to absorb these rising costs without having to significantly change your lifestyle.

Another aspect of the current economy is rising unemployment. Hopefully you will never have to experience being laid off from a job. If you did have to experience it though, a massive bank account can make it a whole lot less stressful. Having enough money saved up to cover your expenses for several months gives you the luxury of either taking the time to find the right job or to really take control of your finances and create your own business.

The last reason for why you need to be rich is for your own personal growth. Wallace Wattles says it best in his classic book The Science of Getting Rich published back around 1910.

Whatever may be said in praise of poverty, the fact remains that it is not possible to live a really complete or successful life unless one is rich. No man can rise to his greatest possible height in talent or soul development unless he has plenty of money; for to unfold the soul and to develop talent he must have many things to use, and he cannot have these things unless he has money to buy them with.

A man develops in mind, soul, and body by making use of things, and society is so organized that man must have money in order to become the possessor of things; therefore, the basis of all advancement for man must be the science of getting rich.

So, do you have an MBA? To summarize, you need a Massive Bank Account to help you ride out the ups and downs in our economy, to protect your family financially, and to have the tools to grow as a person. What are you going to do to create your riches?

I spent 3 days last weekend at Loral Langemeier’s Cash Machine Workshop and it was the best seminar/workshop that I have ever attended. The days averaged 12 hours long but flew by.  I never even  once checked to see what time it was during the weekend except to make sure I returned from the breaks on time.

I learned of Loral from the movie The Secret where she appeared as a financial strategist.  During the seminar she said that she was taped for 5 hours for The Secret and only a few minutes of it was actually used in the movie.  We found her Millionaire Maker books and started reading her material. Her company is Live Out Loud and her tagline is “The Millionaire Maker”, hence the title of her books, The Millionaire Maker, The Millionaire Maker’s Guide to Wealth Cycle Investing and The Millionaire Maker’s Guide to Creating a Cash Machine for Life.

Loral teaches you to start creating money by using your fastest path to cash.  That is the idea behind a Cash Machine and the point of the Cash Machine Workshop.  You take skills that you already have and create a business around them.  To start off it doesn’t matter if it is something that you like to do or not.  You can do what you want to do later.  For now you focus on making money doing what you know how to do. Once the cash is coming in then you can learn new skills to do the things you want to do and build a new Cash  Machine.

She puts a lot of emphasis on building a team too.  You cannot keep your focus on what you need to do if you are spending all of your time on more mundane tasks like cooking and cleaning, unless those are things you like to do, in which case you might consider them as a basis for your Cash Machine.  In your new business you also want to dole out the more mundane or specialized tasks like making phone calls, bookkeeping, or tax preparation so that you can focus on growing your business.  You Cash Machine needs to be in an entity, like an LLC or a corporation so that you can get the full tax and limited liability benefits.  You will probably need to find an expert to create your entity.

We were expected to make money while at the seminar.  The first day was about what a Cash Machine is and anyone who didn’t already have one was supposed to figure out what theirs was by the end of the day.  Once we knew what our Cash Machines were we had to figure out what we wanted to sell during the Market Place on the third day.  The rest of the seminar was dedicated to building the Cash Machine through marketing to generate sales, joint ventures, and referrals.  An hour and a half of the third day was for the Market Place where we were to practice and refine our pitch and sell our product to the rest of the room.

For us, we went in knowing what our Cash Machine is.  We split it up so that Michelle sold 5 minute massages for $5 and I sold Nikken’s magnetic insoles for $60.  Loral told us that if we knew what we were selling we should start selling immediately.  Some people made money during the first break on the first day.  We took in our massage chair on the second day and got started making money.  Michelle worked during breakfast and lunch doing 5 minute massages while I talked to people about sore feet.  She never got a break only got to eat during the dinner break.  It went pretty well for both of us as we deposited better than $500 in the bank once we got home.  One person at the seminar said he made $6000.  That’s pretty darn cool.

She offered Cash Machines in a vendor expo area for anyone that had trouble coming up with one on their own.  One of them was a facilitator program for her Millionaire Maker board game.  We have a copy of the game and have played it several times just the two of us.  On Saturday night at the seminar we got to play the game in groups of six, which was a whole different experience.  On one hand it was a little disappointing because I was the only one at my table who had played before so it went pretty slow as everyone else figured out how to play.  On the other hand I saw how fun it can be when I get the opportunity to play with a group of people that know how to play.

As a facilitator for the game we will be able to hold our own game nights and invite others in our area to come play.  If anyone likes the game and buys a copy we can make up to 50% commission on the sale.  They also will teach us how to sell the rest of her programs and events, and that training will care over on how to sell our products effectively.

If you see the value of a Cash Machine and would like to take a look at mine then see my Nikken network marketing opportunity.

I’m going to take a break from the string of posts I have been writing to talk about something that has been bothering me lately. Over the past few months I have been reading conflicting stories on CNN about the economy, gas prices, and other things that seem to affect us on a daily basis. You hear from one expert that we are in a recession, from another one that we’re not in a recession, or even two experts arguing about what the actual qualifications are for a recession. We all probably agree with the experts who say that high gas prices are bad for the economy. Well, I read a story recently from an expert who said that falling gas prices, as they are now, are bad for the economy. It appears that they are and indicator of a coming recession.

The point that I want you to get out of this is that you can find evidence or news stories by experts to support any view of reality that you want. You can find some experts that will tell you that you need to stay away from real estate because prices are dropping due to all the foreclosures. On the other hand, other experts say that now is the perfect time to get into real estate for the very same reason, so many foreclosures make prices low. People are selling off their stocks and leaving the stock market because prices are falling. I heard from another expert that now is the perfect time to get into the stock market because every time in our history that stocks have dropped like this, the market has increased by better than 50% in the next two years.

Instead of letting other people define your reality, pick your own view and go find evidence to support it. I will give you a few examples of people or companies creating their own reality.

I had a prospect back in June join my team in my network marketing business. She had already paid the money to join and received the business kit. She was a physical therapist and had just started working at a wellness center and thought that the Nikken products would be something that she could recommend to her clients. But she said she was really busy with the end of the school year and hoped to get to the business kit in a week or two. Well, I tried unsuccessfully to reach her until finally I got her on the phone at the end of July. Consistent with her belief that she is too busy, she never got around to even opening the business kit. In addition, she has quit the wellness center because she wasn’t getting any work. She said that the economy is bad and that people are not going to wellness centers. She admitted though that she didn’t do any marketing for herself, so is the lack of work because of the economy or because nobody knows she’s there because she never marketed herself. Her belief that she is too busy and that the economy is bad has created that reality for her.

The next example is the company that I work for (yes, I still have a JOB). They are a small company that competes against monster companies like Allen Bradley and Siemens to sell PLCs and other automation products. The company president knows that the economy is in recession but also believes that a recession is the company’s time to really shine because our products are much less expensive than the competition. So even though the economy is supposed to be bad and July is generally one of their slower months, they had the highest sales in their 12 year history. I’ve heard from the day that I started that this company is the company of choice when times get tough in the automation industry. That is what they believe and that is the reality that they are currently living.

The last example is of me and my network marketing business. For the longest time I limited myself by believing that people wouldn’t buy the more expensive items that are offered through Nikken, the network marketing company I am with. Also, like the lady I mentioned in the first example, I didn’t do any marketing. And sure enough, I didn’t sell much. In the past several months I have been learning how to market on the internet and that big ticket items are actually the best products to have because when you do sell them they make you a lot of money. They have to be worth the price and deliver the benefits of course. During June I really got busy with marketing, mostly with pay-per-click advertising on Google, and in the middle of a bad economy, sold almost $2000 worth of product which netted me a check for a little over $400. Not bad for someone just starting out. I changed my reality by changing my beliefs.

So, what reality do you want to create for yourself? Do you want to believe that the economy is shot to pieces, that you are too busy to make positive changes in your life, and that you will never make enough money to do the things you want to do? Or do you believe that life is good, the economy is improving (at least your economy), and that you can have money if you chose to make some changes?

Last time we talked about how a “job” is a dead end.  JOB = Just Over Broke.  The problem is that your income is ultimately limited to the number of hours in the day.

What else is there?

There are three broad categories of ways to make money.  The first is to trade time for money, or have a job.  This also applies to some people who start their own business. For example, when someone starts a restaurant they feel that they need to cut costs by doing all the work themselves, which makes for some excruciatingly long days. They have to begin work very early to prepare food, work all day serving customers, then after the restaurant closes at night they still have to total all of the receipts, order supplies, and any of the other office-type paper tasks of running a business. As a massage therapist, I know that this is where a lot of therapists fail to make ends meet. They want more money so they keep adding more sessions during the day until they end up injuring themselves from overwork. At the end of the day, for both the restaurant owner and the massage therapist, there is very little money left over after expenses. That’s way too much work for so little money, not at all my idea of the American Dream.

The second way is to trade money for money, or to invest. I think most people do this to some degree, usually through a 401k plan through their job or with an IRA. I also think that most people have no idea what they are doing when they put money into their account. You need to do a lot of research to successfully invest money in stocks, or you need to have someone you trust doing the research for you. I don’t know about you, but I don’t take the time to be an educated investor. I look on my pay stubs to see that money went into my 401k then hope that my quarterly statement will show an increase in value. While some people do make a lot of money doing this, Warren Buffet for one, most people don’t do as well. Some people lose everything they have (think Enron). The problem with trading money for money is that you have to have money to start with and you have to have enough money to be able to weather the market fluctuations. And it is very risky. Most of us are probably too young to remember the Great Depression but we probably do remember the .com bust, Enron, and the very recent collapse of Bear Stearns which involved a lot of speculative investing in sub-prime mortgages.

That brings us to the third method, which is to leverage other people’s time for money. This is usually called MSI, or Multiple Streams of Income. You may have also heard the terms “residual income” or “mail box money”. This is how most, if not all, of the wealthy people created their wealth. Basically, since you only have so much time available, you use other people’s time to make money. An example that you are probably very familiar with is the person, or group of people, who own the company that you work for, assuming that you currently have a “regular” job. They have hundreds or even thousands of people, including you, doing things that make them money. The restaurant owner who was doing everything himself can turn his business into an MSI by hiring some employees to run the restaurant, which will free him up to focus on activities to build his business, such as marketing, and eventually opening up more locations and/or franchising out to other people. Our massage therapist friend, or my wife and I, can rent out some space to do massage and contract with another massage therapist to do the work. The owner only works on select clients herself and uses the rest of her time to work on marketing and attracting more clients. Then she hires more therapists to handle the growing client base and eventually opens more locations.

That’s how MSIs work in a traditional business world, but it still takes a lot of up-front work to get the business started. There are easier ways to get started that don’t require all of that initial effort. I will cover a handful of them here very briefly and cover them in more depth in separate posts in the near future.

Affiliate marketing is the easiest that I know of. With affiliate marketing you sell someone else’s product for a small commission. You can create an Associate account with Amazon.com then add book links to your website or in your email signature. When someone clicks on your link they are taken to Amazon.com where they can buy that book and you get a share of the proceeds.

In network marketing you can create full-time income with part-time effort. Take an established business (some of which have been around for 30 years or more) with established products (usually higher quality than you can get anywhere else) and start selling them. Sounds like affiliate marketing, right? Well, with network marketing you generally get better commissions and keep the profit from the difference between retail and wholesale prices (effectively buying at wholesale and selling at retail but without the headache of actually handling the product). Network marketing companies generally offer incentives too. For example, the company I’m with will make my car payments once I reach a certain level, and at a higher level will make my house payments too. That is all in addition to the money that I earn.

The real money-making opportunity in network marketing comes from getting other people to join your team. That’s what makes it an MSI. In the company I’m with, I get paid on up to six levels deep. That means I get paid on the activities of the people I sponsor, the people they sponsor, and the people they sponsor, up to 6 levels. Put another way, if I sponsor 6 people and they each sponsor 6 people, and everyone on down each sponsors 6 people, I will get paid on the activities of 55,986 people. Now that’s what I call mail box money.

Next, you can write a book or e-book and sell it online. With the internet and Adobe’s PDF format, you can self-publish and self-market your own books. You are no longer dependent on big publishing houses and major bookstores. As an author and publisher, the internet gives you complete control of how your information is presented to your reader. And you keep all of the money. You won’t get that from a traditional publisher. So, if you have something to say, say it online.

Last, you can start an on-line business. Everything I’ve mentioned so far can be done as an online business, but there are other things you can do too. Just use your imagination. I’ll give you an example to get you started. How about an eBay store. I know of people who go out and buy things, usually from outlet stores, garage sales, or auctions where they can get them cheaply, and list them for sale on eBay. People will buy just about anything on eBay.

If you want to learn more about network marketing right now, see my page on Squidoo or check out my opportunity. For some recommended book, see my resource page.