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

An Unexpected Turn of Fate

Many years ago my Mother and Father took in a stray cat. He was mostly black with some white spots.
They called him Blackie the Cat. He was a good companion for them and their household.

He had the sharpest claws I had ever seen on a cat. Blackie had a thing about tearing through the house and he would swat at anyone’s ankles and legs that were in range. And it didn't matter who it was.
I wasn't a fan of this cat.
One day Blackie took a swat at my Mothers leg and got her good. He cut her leg wide open with his claws. She was bleeding pretty badly. My father immediately wrapped her leg and stopped the bleeding. Within a week my Mom came down with a severe fever and an upset stomach that sent her to the Emergency Room.

The Doctors ran blood tests and determined she had sepsis. I was much younger and did not know what sepsis was. The attending Nurse that was assisting knew my brother and she told us this is pretty serious blood infection and it could be fatal. She said the infection has reached serious level in her blood stream. The Doctor administered an aggressive medication he called the “Antiseptic Bomb” to kill the infection. He told us to pray.

And we did! I also had thoughts and visions of what Blackie’s fate was going to be. Thankfully, the antiseptic bomb worked. This Doctor wasn't your average run of the mill Emergency Room Doctor which is cure the ailment and send them home.

I noticed a peculiar way the Doctor would act when he came in the room. He seemed a suspicious and puzzled about something. He was PAYING ATTENTION to an intuition he had.

He informed us he was going to run a full MRI on my Mom. He felt the infection level was much higher than a cat scratch should have caused. When the results came back it showed a cancerous tumor on my Mom’s kidney. She was operated on to remove the Kidney immediately. The cancer stayed encapsulated on that kidney and it never spread anywhere else. Within a week my Mom was home.

I accompanied my Mother on the follow up appointment with the Doctor. He told us in reality that the cat was the true hero. The cat scratch triggered the infection (sepsis) otherwise the cancer not diagnosed would have spread within a few short months. The Doctor revealed it was a very aggressive and deadly form of cancer. This occurred over 10 years ago. My Mom to this day still has a clean bill of health.

Blackie the cat saved my Mother’s life. Unfortunately, Blackie is in cat heaven right now and it was from natural causes. In my opinion, The Doctor was also a hero! If his intuition did not lead him to run the MRI in the emergency room (which in reality is a rare request these days) my Mom would not be here today.

The moral of this story is not to pre-judge events or circumstances in your life. Sometimes fate will intervene to make things right. My Family and I to this day are grateful that this Doctor PAID ATTENTION to his professional wit and gut instincts to make the absolute right choice for my mom. He went above and beyond.

We should all commit to this excellence in what we do daily. We should strive make it a code to always go above and beyond our call of duty to those we serve everyday. 


John P. Slosek,Jr. 
413-246-5037 
Inspiringwealth@aol.com 
Certified Speaker for John Maxwell 
Exclusive Agent for Allstate 
"Let's talk about Retirement Income" 

Sharks, Surf Boards and Riding Waves! Take the Risk!

Welcome Success Team Speakers and Entrepreneurs, 

When I was younger my parents would take my brother and I on vacation to York Beach, Me. There are two beaches there one is Short Sands and the other is Long Sands. Long Sands is where I learned how to surf. The waves reached 4 to 7 feet high. When your a kid waiting to catch a wave they seemed as tall as a skyscraper. I love the challenge of riding those waves. I started surfing around the age of 13, I bought my own surf board, wet suit and a huge supply of wax. By the time I was 15 years of age I became quite a surfer and started surfing with guys a bit older than me. The more experienced surfers would urge me to head out further and further into the ocean(against Mom's wishes). The curiosity and mystique of finding "The Big Wave" was what lured me out as far as 60-80 yards from shore. The older surfers were right I caught some of the biggest waves that I have ever ridden. This is when I learned that going after what you want in life comes with some RISK. In July, the waters in Maine reach their warmest of the season. This will bring in Tiger Sharks closer than ever to shore. One time I was sitting approximately 80 yards from shore with two other surfers watching the roll and cadence of the waves so I could catch the next big one.......when looking over my shoulder  .....I caught glimpse of 3 fins quickly approaching the three of us 30 to 40 yards out. There is no time for fear! I yelled: "sharks!!" dropped to the surf board and started paddling towards shore like you wouldn't believe. There was plenty of people on the shore including at least three capable Life Guards. I knew one thing was for sure, we were on our own and we didn't have a second to spare. There was no possible chance for help. I remember paddling and thinking which foot is going to get it first. Seconds seemed like minutes.Thankfully, All three of us caught waves and we surfed to shore safely. A few weeks later I had  the opportunity to see a new movie called "JAWS". That is when I hung up the surf board in the garage for good.

 "Golden Nugget #2": "What are you willing to RISK so you can achieve your life's dream? What your dream? Is it to do your first paid speech? If it is walking away from your job and opening or starting that business or career that you have wanted for years, WILL YOU DO IT? What is that VISION that keeps you up at night? WILL YOU PURSUE IT? Yes, there is RISK in everything we do. There is risk in driving our cars everyday. I have always found that you need to push the limits to achieve something special, to be different and to live different. Too many dreams and goals in get eaten by the two legged negative sharks in life. They could be your friends, family or co-workers. If personal change was easy everyone would be doing and achieving it. The near shark attack I had was a true story. There were plenty of other surfers in the water that day. They were close to shore and playing it safe. They were betting on catching the small waves and they achieved what they set out for. My advice: Go for the extra yardage of effort in your pursuit. Work harder, study harder, prospect harder, look better, sell better and always DREAM BIGGER. If you always strive to stay away from AVERAGE you will leave the AVERAGE thinkers close to shore playing in the small waves while you go out and catch the BIG ONES!

 I look forward communicating with you on the 25th next month.

John P. Slosek, Jr. 

30 years as a Sales Professional and Insurance Agency Owner. He is currently an Exclusive Agency Owner for Allstate in Chicopee, Massachusetts. (413-331-3900) johnslosekjr@allstate.com.

He is also the host of the "Insurance Coach Radio Show" which has been continuously running for 13 years. His efforts are directed to promote personal change. The show steers towards personal growth and common sense education for his listeners.His personal email:  Insurancecoach@aol.com.                                        
The show can be heard every Saturday morning at 8 am on WARE 1250 AM or
 www.realoldies1250.net. John is also a Certified Speaker in the area of Sales, Personal Growth, Marketing, Leadership Skills, and Entrepreneurship. He is available by direct contact (413) 246-5037(text). Just in case the speaker you hired cancels, he will make himself available for last minute cancellations for your company or event. John is also licensed to teach John Maxwell material and multi-level marketing concepts.