"What Do You Do?" "Uhhh...."

I met some new people tonight, and was asked the question, and stumbled a bit, as I often do, before saying something like, "I publish Homewood Nation, an internet-based community news service."

I stumbled, and often do, not because that answer is false, but because it is so very incomplete. Any single answer to the question has been incomplete for...decades.

And for decades, giving a single answer has cheated the people who asked, of a more complete answer.

At times, that has produced absurd consequences.

From 1989 through 1994, I was a real estate agent with a family-owned firm, Lavelle Real Estate, Inc. Against the counsel of those who said that a real estate agent should begin that work on a part-time basis, I quit my job to pursue it full-time, telling myself that that was the way to experience success sooner.

It took me a year to complete my first sale.

While I was struggling as a real estate agent, I was also an associate minister at Bethany Baptist Church, a Homewood congregation whose Sunday morning attendance averaged 300 or so people, most of them (as far as I could tell) middle class.

I taught classes, I counseled, I helped to lead worship, I preached, I performed weddings and funerals and dedicated infants. All for free.

(From 1985 - 1988, I was paid, through an arrangement with the Coalition for Christian Outreach, a campus ministry organization.)

In five years, I never did make a living as a real estate agent, and one reason was that in five years, I never presented myself to the hundreds of people at Bethany as a real estate agent. I convinced myself that people who saw me in the pastoral role could not see me well as a business person.

So I didn't give them the chance to give me the chance to make a living.

Absurd.

But the failure, if not downright refusal, to present myself to the world in a holistic way has been one of my strongest habits for...well, seemingly forever.

So now, most people who know that I market LegalShield don't know that I am the president of a fledgling nonprofit organization (Race Street 2050, Inc.), and my fellow members of that nonprofit probably don't know that I publish Homewood Nation. Do readers of Homewood Nation know that I market LegalShield? Most probably don't.

So I was thinking about how I want a better answer to, "What do you do?" and came up with this:

"I'm building a media company, and working on a project to help college students graduate debt-free, and collaborating with my neighbors to exercise leadership in maintaining and enhancing our street. Oh, and I drive for Uber."

That's all stuff that I am doing right now, but whaddaya think? Too much?

A Slice Of Thanksgiving

I have much to be thankful for today, including having more opportunity than most people can imagine.

I'm talking about being a independent representative for LegalShield, a company with the declared goal of creating more millionaires than any other company, and a company whose chief financial officer has pledged to pay out a billion dollars in commissions.

And one of the things that I love most about LegalShield is that both the goal and the pledge are for anyone who wants to partake of them. I love the way that the company practices diversity.

Note the second-to-last word in that sentence: practices. Not "strives for," not "seeks". Practices.

Each year, LegalShield's international convention brings together 10,000 or more members of its sales force, along with its corporate leadership. I have attended twice, and both times, I have been struck by the diversity of the crowd.

Black, white, Asian, Hispanic; native-born, immigrant; male, female; disabled - when I walk the halls at our convention, I seem to see every kind of person there is in North America.

And it's not just that every kind of person there is, is present. It's also that every kind of person there is finds success in LegalShield. One of the key features of the convention is the awarding of recognition for high achievers, including bonus checks. One person who comes onstage might thank God through Jesus Christ, the next might express gratitude to Allah. One might virtually dance across the stage, the next might roll up in his wheelchair.

While other companies talk about diversity, while other companies have diversity statements and diversity policies and diversity officers - while other companies spend lots of money trying to figure out how to break down the barriers that homogenize their workforce - LegalShield simply demonstrates what happens when you don't put those barriers up in the first place.

And that is what I love most about this aspect of LegalShield: not the diversity itself, but the way that the diversity happens - organically, in the most natural way possible, not through plans and programs, but by friends talking to friends. It just happens.

I have been privileged to bring two friends into the business this month. One happens to be black, the other happens to be white. That pleases me, because I want to build a team that reflects the diversity of the company (not to mention the multiculturality of the Kingdom) - but the company doesn't even know that, because the application form doesn't even ask about race. Or religion. Or sexual orientation.

Because LegalShield doesn't care.

Becoming a LegalShield representative is the most truly equal opportunity I've ever encountered. My challenge is to be as open as the company is in presenting that opportunity, to neither prejudge who would want it, nor to make assumptions about who would succeed.

Everyone I know, deserves to know that there's a company that is willing to pay them as much as they earn. Period. And that offers training to help them earn as much as they want.

With no barriers.

I thank God for the unlimited opportunity that has been placed in my hand.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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P.S. - If you want to at least consider the possibility of living at least part of your life without barriers, take a look (click on "Sell LegalShield).

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? - Pt. 3

In earlier posts, I wrote about how LegalShield wants to create 1,000 millionaires by 2020, and how I expect to be one of them.

The company's goal of creating 1,000 millionaire fascinates me, for a couple of reasons. The first reason is that I know what a millionaire is.

Many people think that a millionaire is someone who has $1,000,000. That's a total misconception, for at least two reasons.

1) A millionaire is someone who has a net worth of $1,000,000. That means that if you add up the value of what they own, then subtract the value of what they owe, the result is at least $1,000,000.

If you have $1,000,000 cash, and owe $2,000,000, you are not a millionaire; you are a person with a serious debt problem.

2) You can be a millionaire without having any cash at all. If the only thing you own is a building worth $1,200,000 and the only thing you owe is a $200,000 mortgage on that building, you are, for that moment, a cashless millionaire.

That leads to a corollary:

2a) Not only do you not have to have $1,000,000 to be a millionaire; you don't have to have $1,000,000 to become one.

For instance, with that building worth $1,200,000, the fact that it is worth that much does not mean you would need $1,200,000 in cash to buy it. You might be able to buy it for $1,000,000. You might be able to buy it for $800,000. Life is unpredictable, and you never know what someone might be willing to sell something for. Heck, if you could buy that building for $150,000, and you got a mortgage for $115.000, you would only need $35,000 in cash to become a millionaire.

Here's another extreme example: You buy $100,000 worth of shares in the XYZ Corporation, and the company then takes off so dramatically that your shares become worth $1,000,000. Assuming you are net positive otherwise, you are now a millionaire.

Then there's the matter of creating assets. Writing a book, for instance, may take a lot of time, but it requires almost no money. If that book becomes a bestseller, it could make you a millionaire. And if you're J.K. Rowling, it could become a series of books that make you a billionaire.

So, while one can become a millionaire by direct earnings, the process can be accelerated by acquiring or creating assets that increase one's net worth.

Back to LegalShield: the second reason that LegalShield's goal to create 1,000 millionaires fascinates me is that, as far as I know, LegalShield gives associates one thing in compensation for our work: cash. Not real estate, not equities. Just cash. So when CEO Jeff Bell talks about creating 1,000 millionaires, he's talking about paying 1,000 individuals $1,000,000 in cash. Each.

I consider that remarkable.

I expect Legalshield to pay me $1,000,000 over time. But on the way towards that mark, I intend to use my growing excess cash both to acquire assets at a discount (there's always a deal somewhere for cash), and to create and market new assets, so that I become a millionaire before I've earned $1,000,000.

That will be fun. But this would be even more fun: helping someone else, or several someone elses, to get there.

I need to get serious about recruiting. For the fun of it.

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RELATED:
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? - Pt. 1
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? - Pt. 2

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? - Pt. 2

In my last post, I asked three questions, to which there are no wrong answers:

1. Do you want to become a millionaire?
2. What is your most compelling reason for wanting to become a millionaire?
3. How might you make it happen?

I promised to share my own answers, so here goes:

1) I don't want to become a millionaire; that is, I don't have that as a goal. My goal remains to establish a passive income of $50,000 a year. But I expect to become a millionaire.

Why? Because I have begun doing what 190+ other LegalShield associates have done to become millionaires, so I expect a similar result (barring death or total disability).

In recent months, two things have happened that have made that possibility more real for me.

• I have met, and dined with, a couple of men who have earned millions with LegalShield. In so doing, I have experienced enough of their humanity to de-iconify them, to realize...they're men. They're guys. They put their pants on the same way I do. I can do what they did. I've begun doing what they did.
• The second thing is something that I don't feel free to tell. Consider this line a placeholder for the fact that there is a second thing.

Now, my stated goal is so far from $1,000,000 that you might think that I'm afraid of becoming a millionaire. In the past, that has sometimes been true. I was afraid of having more money than I would know what to do with. But now that I expect to become a millionaire, I find the fear of wealth melting away. I now expect that as my income continues to grow, so will my knowledge of what to do with it. No sudden wealth syndrome for me, thank you.

2) To reward my wife, the lovely Janet. She deserves so much more than I've ever given her that I can never give her too much.

3) By marketing LegalShield and helping others to do so. Which leads to this:

LegalShield wants to create 1,000 millionaires by 2020, and I already had the goal of helping 50 people to establish annual incomes of $100,000 by Dec. 31, 2020. I figure that by the time I get to the 50th person, at least a couple of the first 49 will have earned $1,000,000. Ergo, I'll just tweak my goal to help the company out:

I want to help 50 people (anywhere in the U.S. or the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba or Ontario) to establish annual incomes of $100,000, with as many of them as choose to earning $1,000,000.

If you have burning desire, are coachable, and are willing to work, and want to be considered to become one of the 50, check out the opportunity, then drop a line to elwin15208 at gmail dot com, and let's talk!

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RELATED:
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? - Pt. 1
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? - Pt. 3

Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? - Pt. 1

Last Saturday (June 27), I attended a LegalShield training event in Louisville at which James B. Rosseau Sr., Business Solutions Vice President, laid out some of the company's vision and goals for the year 2020. Two of the goals struck me immediately and deeply; I find them highly energizing.

The first one is to increase the customer base tenfold, from 1.4 million households to 14 million. When I saw the big "10X" on the screen, I immediately thought of Jack Welch, the legendary CEO whose vision of tenfold growth transformed General Electric into a stewpot of innovation. I find it exciting that our CEO, Jeff Bell, is thinking at that scale.

The second goal is to create 1,000 millionaires.

Think about that for a moment. Here is a company saying, publicly and out loud, that it wants 1,000 of its associates to become millionaires.

LegalShield knows how to make millionaires: more than 190 of our associates have already gained that status. Now the leadership wants to pick up the pace, a natural corollary to the goal of increasing the customer base tenfold.

So, the title of this post is not just quoting the game-show title. It's a real question: who, reading this, wants to become a millionaire? If you do, you might consider affiliating with a company that wants to create 1,000 millionaires.

In fact, I'd like to ask three real questions (there are no wrong answers):

1. Do you want to become a millionaire?
2. What is your most compelling reason for wanting to become a millionaire?
3. How might you make it happen?

NOTES:
1) Some people absolutely do not want to become millionaires; the idea of having that much money repels them (we will with the misconception that being a millionaire means having $1,000,000 in a later post). Indeed, it frightens some people. And some people even believe that not wanting to have that much money makes them better than people who do want to have that much money, or who actually have that much money.

Then there are those who want to become millionaires, but are afraid to say so. Which is a shame, because people should be able to say what they want - that's kinda the first step towards getting it.

2) Some people want to become millionaires, but their reasons for doing so are not nearly strong enough to keep them doing the work that's needed long enough for them to get there. Simply liking the idea of having a million dollars won't do it.

3) Some who say "Yes" to the first two questions, have no idea of how to get there. Which, it seems to me, could drive a person nuts.

I'm eager to hear your answers...

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RELATED:
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? - Pt. 2
Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? - Pt. 3

B.C. and Me, Part 3: Getting Excited

It has been way too long since I wrote anything here about LegalShield. I'll catch up over the next few days, Lord willing and da crik don't rise.

Brian Carruthers' book, "Building An Empire: The Most Complete Blueprint to Building a Massive Networking Business," continues to inspire and challenge me. I still have to work at maintaining a stance of teachability as I re-read portions of it.

He makes much of the fact that in network marketing it is critical to follow the system that the company you're working with has in place.

While he never names LegalShield specifically, the system he describes looks totally like LegalShield's system to me. It consists of seven steps:

1. Get excited
2. Make your list
3. Book a Private Business Reception (within first 3-5 days)
4. Book a Private Conference Call (within first 3-5 days)
5. Weekly Business Briefing
6. Trainings (Events and Calls)
7. Corporate Convention

There's more, but he treats other things as ancillary to what one graphic calls the "Seven Step Funnel."

Now, about that first step...

As I've said before, in high school I was so strongly emotional that sometimes I wished I could be like Star Trek's Mr. Spock. When the Army sent me to Okinawa, I became involved with Campus Crusade for Christ, whose teachings helped to deepen my distrust of my emotions. A single image, in particular, burned itself into my brain. It looked something like this:

The idea of it was that we should base our faith on facts, not on feelings; that when our faith lines up with facts, the appropriate feelings will follow. But I took it to mean more: that feelings should be ignored.

That led to a lot of bad stuff for a long time.

I am learning to pay attention to my feelings without being controlled by them (I think). But still, when I saw that the first step of the system was to "get excited," I recoiled. The idea of willing oneself into a specific emotional state as part of a system for conducting a business repulsed me. Indeed, it sounded cultish.

Until I thought about it a little more, and realized that we talk ourselves into emotional states every day. That performing artists will themselves into emotional states before going onstage. That athletes will themselves into emotional states before going onto the field or the court. That soldiers will themselves into emotional states before a charge. That emotions energize motion, that they are fuel for action. That, in short, emotions are always in play, and it is advantageous to play them well.

Then I thought about it a little more more, and realized that in order to get excited, I simply had to contemplate the facts about LegalShield:

1. We offer people the opportunity to gain wisdom, power and prosperity via access to the legal system for a monthly cost that is less than that of a night at the movies. 
2. We offer identity theft detection, and have licensed investigators who will do whatever it takes for as long as it takes to restore a member's identity to its prior condition after a breach.
3. As a LegalShield rep, I can get paid well, get paid daily and get paid forever.
4. As a LegalShield rep, I can get paid well, get paid daily and get paid forever on someone else's work.
5. The company has a declared goal of creating more millionaires than any other company.
6. I have begun doing the things that reps who have already earned $1 million or more did to get there.
7. A survey indicates that 60% of Americans would like to have a legal services plan if they knew that such a thing existed. Our market penetration is less that 2% of the population. That means that 58% are just waiting for someone to tell them about it.
8. The company's new mission statement speaks of helping people to gain life-transforming skills, and the title of the corporate business opportunity presentation now has the phrase, "a powerful journey." These suggest that LegalShield is positioning itself as a personal development company for its reps. I have always wanted to help people do better at life; sponsoring associates may become my best way of doing that.

You know what? I'M EXCITED.