Expert or Not?

With the high volume of scams on the Internet I am not surprised when I am at times challenged whether or not I can call myself an expert. Yes, I earn a living by teaching people how to use the Internet to earn money. That in and of itself does not make me an expert. Having a combination of formal education, private training, and experience over time does. Still, this does not mean that I know more than anyone else, or that I need to show my earnings to qualify as an expert.

While it is true that one should get marriage counseling from someone who has been married, or car advice from someone who has experience successfully fixing cars, it is also true that when one has a Mastermind, the issue of expertise becomes moot.

A Mastermind is a group of people who readily share their experience and skills for the benefit of each member of the group. Henry Ford, the innovator and founder of Ford Motor Company, once sued a local newspaper because it labeled him as 'ignorant.' He saw his credibility coming under fire. During the trial, the attorney for the newspaper kept asking Mr. Ford questions he could not answer. Finally, Henry said something like, "What does it matter that I don't know the answer? I have a group of men available at my disposal such that any question that comes up, all I need to do is push a button and I am connected with the expert in that field. With the combined knowledge I have access to, I myself do not need to know every piece of data you have asked me here today."

Henry Ford won his case. In many subjects, Internet Marketing included, it is not possible for one person to know every single aspect of the subject. Nor should one be expected to, even one such as myself who earns a living passing on what I have learned.

Each of my students knows that I present myself as both a student and a mentor. I have clients who know more than I do. These clients are wise enough to understand intuitively the power of the Mastermind and include me in their Mastermind group.

If you are considering purchasing training, do your due diligence, and see what background your potential mentor has, yes. However, also consider what resources come with that mentor or resource. Get referrals in addition to testimonials. See if you can actually talk to clients of whomever is giving you a sales pitch. Stay away from promises of earning large sums of money in a short period of time. Stay away from promises of virtually no work.

For myself, my Mastermind Group includes people from different disciplines. I know enough to teach what I know and I have access to people to answer questions I have. More expertise will cost you more money. Most people I've met who are really making the good money aren't really interested in mentoring others, they are too busy playing! So a mentor who is also a student is just fine. I will teach you what I know and we will learn together.

Here are some resources I recommend. I use these regularly to learn and to teach:

The Wealthy Affiliate University This website is a membership website that will teach Internet Marketing. It is the best resource I have found with the lowest price.

Site Build It SBI offers a website builder and education. A builder is a combination of software and hosting. This product takes you step-by-step via text and video instruction.

Omni Business Solutions is the company I work for, my "Day Job" if you will. I am a Trainer as well as an Instructional Designer. Omni has teamed up with "Internet Money Map" to provide a builder and coaching. When you go to Internet Money Map, the trial is a temporary access to the Omni Site Builder--be sure to cancel if you don't want it for longer than the temporary period. The Full Package is to purchase the builder right from the start (monthly fee), and the Premium Package gets you the builder plus telephone training with a trainer like myself. Who knows, it could even be me.

Both Site Build It and Omni Business Solutions offer website builders. This is hosting plus software that allows you to build a website without knowing HTML or other programming. The Omni product is easier to use and costs more. The Site Build It product costs less and requires that you pay a year at a time rather than monthly like the Omni Site Builder. So they both have advantages.

This is an email from one of my mentors. We read the book, "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill, and these are his thoughts about the last chapter.

"Fear is the most insidious of all emotions. I like
the way Dr. Hill put it: "Indecision is the seedling
of fear." Indecision gives birth to doubt and doubt
manifests itself as fear. When fear sets in, it will
paralyze you. I know that it did me.

I used to be captive to all the fears (at least more
so than I am today) that Dr. Hill mentioned. I feared
poverty, criticism, ill health, loss of love, old age
and the biggest fear of all: Death.

When I was young, money was always tight in the family.
I always heard Dad or Mom say that we didn't have
enough. My Dad worked two jobs just to make ends meet.

As I grew and entered adulthood the fear of lack grew
with me. I thought that just making ends meet was
normal or maybe just the curse of our family. To make
matters worse, I bought into the religious philosophy
of poverty being a virtue.

I came to believe that riches were "of the devil" and
I should not seek riches or wealth but be "content"
with what I had.

Every time I attempted to do something to gain wealth
the religious beliefs, that I held, stopped me. I
always wanted to make a go of network marketing because
I knew that was a great vehicle to gain wealth and
financial freedom.

My aunt and uncle were in network marketing and they
seemed to always have money, nice homes and cars.

However, I never could follow though with my desires
because of the lingering fear that wealth was some
thing bad. Thus I remained broke and unfulfilled.

By God's mercy, about 3 years ago a chain of events
took place that changed my life forever! I believe
it was God working "all things together for good."
Sandy and I became quite tight financially.

I was making good money, but no matter how much I
made, it seemed to disappear. Actually, for a college
drop out, I was doing VERY well, but my pockets had
holes.

Now I understand what the "hole" was; it was the Fear
of Lack. The fear of lack kept me in lack. I began
seeking the Lord for the way. Eventually I was intro
duced to Mike Murdock and that lead to many other
teachers and writers on the subject of wealth and
abundance.

I began a quest to study wealth from both the Biblical
and secular perspective. My studies began to open my
eyes, big time.

God is rich and abundant.Lack isnt in His comprehension.

Everything He touches produces MORE.He touched 5 loaves
and 2 fish and ended up feeding over 5,000 people! He
came that we would have life and have is MORE ABUNDANTLY

He touched a withered hand and it became whole. The
dead were raised and the blind saw. Why, because
He know no lack. So why was I buying into being
broke as the "way it should be" philosophy?

What can a "broke" person do to augment their own
life or the life of another?

I am come to realize, for me, that it is okay to
gain wealth.Even the Bible says that God gives us
power to gain wealth. For the first time in my
entire 53 years I am free from this fear...the fear
of poverty.

I have an abundant Source within me who WANTS me
to be wealthy and share my wealth with others.
Abundance is from God and is limitless and He want
be to enjoy all the riches He has for me.

With this freedom came the freedom from criticism.
Man, was I living in that! I was always concerned
about what "they" thought of me.I always wanted to
make a "good impression." I never wanted to be
considered a "failure" or "money lover" or anything
like that. But NO MORE!

Today I am learning to not be concerned about what
others think of me. What's important is what God
thinks of me and what I think of me. I know God
thinks I am awesome, so why should I feel any
different than He does?

If people want to judge, have at it; it only hurts
them and not me. Yes, this fear creeps in every now
and then, but now I have the knowledge of what it is
and bid it farewell.

Ill health was somewhat a fear of mine. I would
worry that I had some fatal disease whenever I had
an ache or pain that I never had before.

However, since my study of the mind-body connection
and the knowledge of the power of thoughts I exercise
to keep my mind off all thoughts of ill health and on
thoughts of good health.

I don't complain or mention my aches and pains.I just
thank God for the health I do have and move on.
Eventually, when I stop pay attention to those aches
and pains, and exaggerate them by doing so, I find I
am able to go on with little difficulty.

Because of time, I won't discuss my experience of
the other Big Fears. I do experience them, but I
have endeavored to deal with them in the same fashion,
take my focus off of that thing I fear and focus on
the things I want.

Instead of worrying about the loss of a loved one,
I cherish them. Instead of fearing old age, I live
life to the fullest and laugh a lot! As for death,
no fear there because I believe in the One who over
came death that I could live forever.

The mental cleanse has been a great experience. It
is teaching me to do what MFF is all about: Learn
HOW to think; not WHAT to think. It is blessing to
all of us that you have provided this system for
us and for that I am grateful to you and Linda,
who has sacrificed so much that others could
begin to experience freedom from these 6 big fears."

Michael Puskas

Get Rich Quick

No matter how you slice it, any program you see on the Internet that says you can earn large amounts of money quickly with little work, little time, and little education needs to be carefully scrutinized before you spend any money on it. I have been in business since I was 12 years old when my dad and I started Gary and Larry's Yard Care. I have never seen nor do I ever expect to see a legitimate program that is guaranteed to make you a lot of money in a short period of time.

While 85% of the people hate to be hard-sold, more than 85% of people seem to get hard-sold quite often on these programs with grand, quick promises. But when you read the guarantee, it is actually quite different.

In my personal business, I have taken point from one of my mentors, Jeremy Cobb. Jeremy is the CEO of the company I work for, and I have my own business on the side. Jeremy's company and mine both have the same guarantee: "We will work with you until you say you don't need us anymore"

If I do some work for someone as my own company and they are not satisfied, I will continue to work on it until they are--within reason. I don't want to get in any situation where I am taken advantage of. But if someone is sincerely dissatisfied, I'll do what I can to make it right. Since I give a service, I cannot give the product back, so I do a little more.

Omni, (Jeremy's company), has the same guarantee: We work with our clients by being available via email for as long as they need us.

When you are looking at programs that promise to teach you how to make money online, look for these kinds of guarantees. They are more realistic, and chances are they come from reputable companies like ours.


Gary

How Did It Go?

Well, if you read the last post you know I made some Slight Edge goals for Tuesday. I did them all except for having dinner as a family.

Most of time a person doesn't begin a project or gives up on a project, it's because they are trying to wrap their brains and motivation around a project that is too large. Just take things one day at a time, and make sure you do one thing for that project each day. Even if that one thing is small.

Implementing the Slight Edge

The Slight Edge philosophy probably has many names. My father-in-law calls it the Law of the Harvest and says it is a principle as old as time. I agree.

I use the term, The Slight Edge, because of the name of the book where I learned it: The Slight Edge: Secret to a Successful Life.

To quickly define it, it is the philosophy that wealth (or health, relationships, art, nations, families) will grow based on small, non-dramatic actions and events over a long period of time rather than short and dramatic events or actions. One of my mentors has said that wealth comes most often by long-term discipline, not by the lottery or inheritance.

I speak now as a student of creating financial freedom, because I am on that road--not wealthy myself. As you might read in my profile, I am a student and mentor. In terms of achieving financial stability and eventually wealth I am a student. However, I have found some mentors I have chosen, and I share them here.

Now that I have an understanding of The Slight Edge, here are my plans. If you are learning along with me, you will see how this goes, what I learn. Join me on this journey.

One of the fundamental principles that I have followed for many years is to focus on one particular thing and let everything else take a second or later priority in my life. For example, my yard is in shambles. I actually have said to myself many many times over the years that once I reached a certain financial goal, I would keep up my yard. I reasoned that I would have more time then, and it wouldn't be long before I reached that goal anyway. Well, it's been years and I haven't reached that goal at all. In fact, I would say that only now do I understand how to reach it and am committed to what is needed.

We all have several roles in our lives. I am Father, husband, a child of God, an employee, a member of a Boy Scout committee. I have responsibility to eat right, to take care of my yard, to build sound and nurturing relationships with my children.

The Slight Edge teaches that I should be doing things relative to each of my roles on a non-hurried, non-dramatic, but consistent basis.

As I look at my yard, I now see taking care of it as part of a holistic set of activities that will bring me the things I want in life. For example, as I learn how to take care of a large tree, I'll learn how to take care of other things, such as a business. As I discipline myself to do the small, regular things that are needed in my yard, my discipline in getting things done in my business will also increase.

I have made a fundamental change in my thinking and planning. I will no more hurry to put out the fires I perceive. Most of them are not really emergencies anyway. To quote one of my mentors, Michael Puskas,

"Keep your mind focused on what you DESIRE and off of the APPEARANCES of lack in your environment. For that is all they are, appearances."

I have been blessed to have an employer for my day job who was willing to allow me to work 4-ten hour days and have one weekday off. I spend part of this day volunteering in Boy Scouts of America, and part of the day working on my own business.

So this week my plans are different. Instead of ignoring the lawn, and the tree; instead of not exercising, and instead of a few other things, I plan to mow the lawn, maybe I'll set an amount of time to work in the yard. Unlike other attempts, I won't try to clean the whole yard in one day so I can leave it for a year. Like most important things in life, a yard requires cultivation, a little work here, a little there, maybe a bit more on Saturday. But I will do a small thing or two. I won't exercise all day long and try to convince myself it will do me for a month. Instead I will go for a walk. I will do one (slightly larger in terms of time) thing for my business, and one thing for Scouting. Tuesdays are my days to cook dinner for the family, and this time we will sit down and eat together.

This is how I figure I can implement The Slight Edge into my life. I challenge you to do the same.