MARCH 26, 2008

** You Can Work and Play at the Same Time
By Adrian Newman, Founder of e-Wealth Daily

This past weekend, I went to Las Vegas with some old friends
of mine. We did this trip almost five years ago and everyone
made it out to this sort of reunion trip.

Everyone except one person.

Les is a real estate developer who is probably the hardest
working person I know. And let me tell you, sharing an office
with Michael Lombardi and being the son of Michael Newman,
that's saying a lot.

I would guess that Les works about 12-14 hours a day, seven
days a week. He's rarely vacationing anymore and his once
severe addiction to golf is now limited to a couple of
tournaments a year, all work-related.

Even with technology such as the BlackBerry and virtual
offices in almost any hotel you go to, Les was unable to get
away, even for a couple of days.

Over dinner on Saturday night, Les' name came up in
conversation and we figured out that the last time anyone had
seen him was sometime last June. I haven't seen him in about
three years (he came by to visit just after my daughter was
born, so I'm able to virtually pin down the date).

But I remember that day, talking to him about his life and his
business. While he's been very successful with his business,
you could see it was taking a toll on his life. I've heard that he
and his wife welcomed a baby girl recently. But I've also heard
that this major life-altering event hasn't slowed him down.

Working hard is great; it can be very fulfilling if you work
smart while working hard, and take the time to relax and reload
from time to time.

There's no point in going full out 100% of the time, because, if
you don't stop, you will burn yourself out.

It's good to have downtime, but it also can be rewarding. If you
use your downtime wisely, you could actually be more
productive.

Les might be able to get more deals done while on the golf
course. If he would've come to Las Vegas, he could've
networked with some people and created more business.

In conclusion, it is possible to work and play at the same time.
In fact, I highly recommend it.

Man. Had I known then what I know now, I'd be among the
information-marketing masters of the world by now. But back
then, who knew?

It was 2001, I think. Everyone who was in the market to buy a
car started turning to the internet for selections, options,
prices... all the stuff that gave everyone anxiety and anger in
showrooms. Then web sites like cars.com and a bunch of
others came on the scene.

It was great. No salesperson breathing down your neck. No
salesperson trying to open your wallet wider than you want.
You simply click on what you want. Then you'd always be
asked for your zip or postal code.

You enter the information requested and zap — you're what
they call an electric lead. Car dealers with the vehicle you want
in or near your area get your contact information from the web
site. Car dealers pay for this information, mind you.

And then what happened? Well, most every car dealer in the
land subscribed to these web sites, but very few of the dealers
were able to close the sale from these sales leads. My friend,
who happens to be a new car dealer, figured it all out.

He's a smart guy, but all it took was common sense to see what
was going wrong. The real challenge was to see what could go
right. Hold that thought. We'll come back to it, I promise.

By now I hope you're begging me to tell you what went wrong
with all those electric car leads. Many blame the showroom
salespeople, but the real blame falls on the shoulders of the
dealers. They failed to see that this new-fangled Internet-
information-armed car customer was a different kind of buyer.

Internet car shoppers expected a hassle-free car-buying
experience, probably for the first time in their lives. But when
the rubber hit the road (actually even before the test drive),
showroom salespeople gave these new "sophisticated" buyers
the same old song. They wouldn't reveal prices over the phone.
They continued to hold out that final number, as they continued
to sell you options you never checked off.

It's no wonder those electronic leads were considered worthless
back then.

I told you that a friend of mine is a car dealer. Naturally, that's
where I buy my cars. And I guess it was back in 2001 that I
found myself in his office at his showroom. He's telling me the
whole Internet story and how he's actually closing sales off
electronic leads like crazy.

He told me the how's and why's and showed me the separate
operation he set up to handle the electronic leads exclusively. I
don't know what he was thinking. I know he was proud. I was
thinking marketing.

I asked my friend if it would matter to him if other car dealers
in other parts of the country learned his secrets. At first, he
minded. Then I told him, "What do you care? Besides, we can
make money marketing all this information you have." Then he
listened more carefully.

Without even realizing it, I was entering the information
marketing business. I had never heard of such a business. All I
knew was marketing — and I saw a product I thought could be
marketed at a high price. Who knew this was called
information marketing?

I wish I had. Now that I know about information marketing, I
look back to 2001 and see the mountains of mistakes I made...
the piles of opportunities I failed to recognize... and what really
kills me is when I envision what it could have been.

What I did was create a company called C.A.R.S. This stood
for Cyber Auto Retailers Success. Anyway, I took what my
friend knew and we wrote this giant fat book and sold it to car
dealers for $695.00 each. Then we put on one-day seminars in
major cities up and down the East Coast. Again, $695.00 per
dealer for the day.

We did all right. We had lots of fun. We had lots of partners,
too. One of the partners owned his own plane, so that was cool.
I actually had the controls flying from Philadelphia to
Pittsburgh.

But today, I'd have structured that whole business much
differently. Today, I understand information marketing. You
should, too. In my new book, "Getting Your First Million," I
explain the million-dollar secrets of information marketing.
Check it out here:

http://www.lombardipublishing.com/ads/ym/index.asp

When venturing out on your own, it is important to create a
network of business and personal contacts that can support
your efforts.

And you can start assembling your network by contacting
people that you believe can help you along the way. These
could be inventors, bankers, investors and local entrepreneurs
who have been there before.

The key is to be open and confident when meeting new people.
You have a great idea and you want them to get just as excited
as you are.

Here, then, are three tips you can use to improve your
networking skills after making the first contact:

1. Send out a personal "thank you." While a follow-up call or
   an e-mail is a nice gesture, neither of these is very permanent.
   So, instead, send out a thank you card that does double duty. A
   card says you're sincerely thankful and took the time to fill this
   out and send it to your new contact. It also becomes something
   tangible your new contacts will have that they can use to
   contact you. So make sure you include all of your contact
   details and an invitation to meet or discuss something in the
   future.
   
   
2. Record the details of your new contacts. Write down
   everything you can. Just names, numbers and addresses
   certainly aren't enough. Write down what you discussed, as
   well as other points that may help both of you down the line. If
   your new contact mentioned something they are interested in,
   make a note of it. It could be a great opening topic for when
   you contact them next.
   
   
3. Don't always contact them when you need something.
   Everyone has a friend or relative like this. You only ever hear
   from them when they need help. So, don't be that friend. To
   keep your connection in tune, reach out to your contacts and
   even offer them some advice, whether it's simply a new
   restaurant you thought they may like or a recent article about a
   related business.

** Expect the Unexpected
By Michael Newman, Self-made Millionaire

For most of us, what happens today will be a near mirror-image
of what happened yesterday. Of course, there may be a couple
of little alterations, but usually it's not anything we're not
prepared for. This isn't a problem; it's just how life is. I don't
necessarily like to refer to it as going through the motions, but,
for the most part, the average person's life is fairly consistent.

However, every once in a while something may come along to
shake up your day. Maybe it's an issue at work or a customer
request you've never had before. Regardless of what it is, it's
important how you handle it.

It's important to view these unexpected changes as new
opportunities that will allow you to build on your skill set and,
at the very least, teach you something you didn't know before.

These little challenges are what make life interesting and keep
us on our toes.

So, the next time your boss comes to you with a new project or
a customer has an issue you've never seen before, don't look at
it as a problem to solve, but rather as an opportunity to seize. If
you approach the task with the right attitude, you'll find yourself
having more fun than you'd expect. After all, you'll be able to
try out new things and maybe come up with that big idea to
get your life moving in the direction you've always wanted.

When a new challenge presents itself, try not to get flustered.
Simply take a step back, assess the situation and figure out
your plan of attack. If you get yourself all bent out of shape,
you'll only be making things harder on yourself in the long run.
Once you've come up with a plan you're satisfied with, get to
work and find the opportunity hidden inside the challenge.

Breaking life's routine every once in a while can really help to
put things in a new perspective and present a number of new
opportunities to help build a positive future.