The Magic Carpet Ride.

Thirty seven years ago I was sitting at the supper table with my family when there was a knock on the door. It was our next-door neighbor that stopped by quickly to invite my father to a business meeting on becoming successful.He said a very sharp businessman is traveling in from North Carolina to discuss ways to build personal success and increase your income.  He told my father the meeting would be at 7 PM and asked my dad if he would attend. My Father accepted the invitation. 

At this point in my life I was seeking change and trying to find a better direction in my life. I had attended College for business management and my big goal in life was to be a store manager. After going through a couple years of preparation and being mentored by other managers, I realized in my heart it wasn't for me. I went to college for it, I told everyone I was going to be a store manager,but down deep, it wasn't my passion. If I continued to accept this fate, I would end up living in average common life today for just a paycheck and waking up each day with regret. 

I believe most Americans live this way, they are selling their daytime hours for dollars and giving up control of their freedom for that period of time. I made a commitment to myself, that was not going to be me. 

I was really frustrated that my neighbor didn't invite me to the meeting. Instead of stewing the whole night and pouting because I wasn't invited, I decided that I was going to crash the business meeting and see what this guy from North Carolina had to say.

I arrived at my neighbor's door and was greeted by his wife. I told her I wasn't invited to the meeting, but I want to come anyway. She told me there were no seats left, but I could  sit on the stairs on the way down to the meeting room and look through the banister. That is exactly what I did.

As I peered through the banister and listen to the speaker I was impressed. I recognized that  he was well spoken, dressed in a blue suit, white shirt and a red tie. His black shoes shined like a mirror, his Rolex watch sparkled like diamonds, and there was an impeccable red and white Cadillac in the driveway that looked like it just left the showroom. As a young man I was seriously IMPRESSED. He spoke of success and financial increase..
He told everyone sitting in that room that you can change your position, your status and your wealth at any moment in your life by making a decision. He spoke about creating a vision that would keep you awake at night.

He laid out a pattern for success. It was undeniable. As an 18 year old I understood it completely. I never heard words or intellect like that in my life. He discussed the cycle of income in particular businesses. I learned that America's residual purchasing habits relate to residual income. He mentioned about gaining a piece of America's distribution network of various products and companies that will pay you continual royalties after each and every purchase. He mapped out how this could play over a five year period of time. He showed how wealth could be created.

I began to fully understand what he was discussing. He shared an 8-step process to fully build and increase my income. He continued on with power statements:

     -  Don't let getting a college degree deter you away from the true passion .
     -  If you have an opinion that will help others give it and stand by it.
     -  Financial debt is death to success and a great attitude.
     -  You are who you associate with.
     -  You make a living from 9 am to 5 pm and create a great life from 5 pm to 9 pm.
     -  Pay cash for everything you can. If you cannot afford it, wait until you can.
     -  People will judge you in the first 7 seconds of a meeting you. Always smile, dress for
        success, and shine your shoes.
     -  Always leave a great impression behind when you leave a conversation.
     -  Find a strong proven company that will pay you residual income that you resonate with
        and work the daylights out of it until you reach financial security.
     -  Self confidence is one of the top key factors to success.

Every person in that room walked out except me! Some thought he was full of it, others thought that because he drove a Cadillac he was a shyster. Most of them did not resonate with his vision. I personally thought that they were either afraid of change or were simply negative thinkers. I caught the vision he put forth...I made it my life's mission to make his philosphy work. That night became my magic carpet ride !!!!!!!

I look forward to sharing my August 25, 2015 blog with you.

   “The Insurance Coach”

       John P. Slosek, Jr 

   "The Insurance Coach ™"
Insurance Coach Radio Show 
Airs Every Saturday Morning 8am 

   www.realoldies1250.net          413-246-5037

Find me on Facebook".https://www.facebook.com/theinsurancecoach 

   

Finding Strawberries

Hello Speakers, Business Owners, Future Entrepreneurs and Americans,

Happy Memorial Day!

Today we pay tribute to those men and women who served in the Armed Forces protecting our nation especially those who paid the ultimate price that guaranteed our freedom. When I look at the flag of the United States I have so much pride to know there was so much sacrifice involved and continued sacrifice keep that flag-waving. We will always honor you and remember you.

This month’s topic is a true story and it started about five years ago. Let me give you some background about myself so that you can understand what my true purpose is in my current profession. In the early 1980's I started my career as a financial planner for a well-known Life Insurance Company. After a while, I developed my own style of recommendations and presentations based on what I saw in the late 80's. Many of the families were not able to achieve the goals they had set for themselves because of excess debt. I once knew a very loving couple that ended in divorce because of fighting over money and expenses, and in some cases, if divorce did not occur life in the house was so miserable they probably should have divorced. These are common occurrences. Over time I developed the philosophy to not sell, but to get to know people at a friendship level and discover what their issues were with money, debt and income. The true problem is most individuals or couples never put the brakes on for spending. Many do not ask for help because of shame. To this day, I still go out and meet couples and sit down and do what I call a life planning review. The problem still exists because few want to ask for help.

This story takes us back five years. I was called out to an appointment by a middle-aged couple who wanted to buy $150,000 of term life insurance on each of them. When I pulled in to the driveway I noticed two newer vehicles, the house was above average, yard was well maintained, backyard well-maintained with a nice swimming pool and I thought to myself, they have done well.

When I met with them I could tell by the look in their eyes something was wrong. I let them know that I am in the business of helping people not just to sell life insurance policies. I always do and income to debt ratio with families because it is the starting point and it summarizes all the income brought into the house and sets it against all the debt that sits in the house. After three hours, of listing every credit card they were close to $100,000 in revolving debt. I estimated they were paying these credit card companies almost $30,000 a year in interest. They were living a sick existence. Basically they were looking for  Life Insurance just to pay off their debt at the time of death.

 I closed up the briefcase and told them to put on a pot of coffee. I took out a lot of blank papers and started to lay out a plan for them. I am not a credit counselor, a credit psychologist or credit adviser. I help people out through common sense advice that always seems to have worked for me over 30 years. This case however, I had to refer to professionals. It was a worst-case scenario. The plan we laid out back in 2009 was a plan of 5 to 7 years that involved sacrifice, discipline, and diminished spending to reconstruct their lives financially so that they could start living normal. The last thing I told them is you must put a Strawberry on your refrigerator.  ”Finding the Strawberry” is just a metaphor that means to do something fun! For example: once a month, have date night together, pretend you're young adults again and you only have $15 to spend somewhere and make the best of it and have fun while you’re doing it. I explained to them that they needed to keep that Strawberry in front of them all the time, especially in the hard times when things aren’t always going so well. As time starts moving along you will need to start thinking bigger about what you’re going to do with all the money you’re freeing up in the future and you need to start planning for that now. 

 I told them you have to have look forward to things along the way as you continue on your course of achievement, reward yourself in small ways.

They wrote out their game plan and they turned in the direction of the professionals for help. I stayed in touch with them for the first year to make sure they were staying on track. On or about 2010 I lost my connection with them.

Present day.

A few weeks ago I received a call from one of the spouses I had worked with back in 2009. She said: “Hi John, how are you?”. I told her I was doing great and asked her how she was doing and she described to me that she received the certificate. I said to her: “What certificate?”. She said the certificate congratulating us on being totally debt free. She told me next month we don’t have to make any more payments. The money that we were once paying out every month is all ours from this point on. She said we always kept to the original plan you laid out for us and we made sure we kept finding our Strawberries along the way. Even though we didn’t spend a lot of money through the last five years my husband and I always made sure to have great times together because it was our goal as a couple to get out of this mess. She told me that the real big Strawberry that they planned together was a 10 day Caribbean Cruise. I told her that  they deserved every bit of it. I told her understand how successful that she and her husband were to have achieved their goal, because the statistics for success in long term debt reduction are minimal. She told me that they knew it was going to be a very tough road, but they also knew they could not live with the alternative. I suggested that we talk in the coming months about securing their retirement and redirecting this money so they can continue to find the Strawberries when they stop working. For now, go out and enjoy that Big Strawberry (The 10 Caribbean Cruise).  

  “The Insurance Coach”

      John P. Slosek, Jr 

   "The Insurance Coach ™"
Insurance Coach Radio Show
Airs Every Saturday Morning 8am 

   www.realoldies1250.net
          413-246-5037

Find me on Facebook".https://www.facebook.com/theinsurancecoach