The Millionaire Mind Support Network

Customer Care Summary
The Profit Margin Is In The Details

We started this Customer Care series by asking you to examine how to deliver excellent customer service in a way that allows the customer to access them in the most efficient, fair, cost effective, and humanly satisfying and pleasurable manner possible.

The Golden Rule, “Treating others as you, yourself, would like to be treated,” is the surest foundation for any customer care program.

One of the best ways to keep your customers happy is to understand the way they think.

• What motivates your customer to buy now, or hold off until later?
• What worries them or makes them feel confident?
• Which product or service benefit means the most to your client base?

All Business Transactions are Based in an Emotional Response

Customers, and all of us are somebody’s customers, do business on the basis of their feelings. We customers want what we want, when we want it. We business owners need to position our product or services to not only understand, but also accommodate our client’s sentiments and sensibilities. As individuals, we customers gravitate toward a company or group of people with whom we enjoy doing business — patronizing those businesses and organizations with which we are comfortable. We customers are very reticent about changing our buying habits; however, when we are disgruntled by a minor frustration or discourteous response, experience has shown that we customers will not only change vendors, we usually share the source of our dissatisfaction with several of our friends and associates.

Ways to Deliver Outstanding Customer Care

Successful organizations understand the need to stay close to their customer base. In every business function — product/service development, marketing/sales, distribution and customer care — employees and owners need to understand their customers’ wants, needs and expectations.

What do they want?

Ask them!

Use surveys, the best are short and drill down to unambiguous conclusions that give the business owner actionable intelligence.

Utilize Blogs, customer forums, users groups and other online resources to communicate with your customers and learn their attitudes, what they want, and what they dislike.

Carefully analyze the ideas, suggestions, and complaints of your present and former customers.

Communication, Communication, Communication

Consistently courteous phone manners are a BIG issue that is often overlooked in a “growing” business enterprise. Candidly consider both your own and your employees’ telephone manners. Consider sponsoring formal phone etiquette classes for every one in the organization. Good phone manners are particularly important for small businesses. Mishandling a phone contact could undermine an otherwise successful marketing initiative.

Institute a program to regularly check employees’ phone protocol. Contract with someone whose voice is unfamiliar to play the role of a customer or prospective client, preferably one with a problematic or unusual issue. Assess the tenor of the response and address any client care issues that need correction. It is essential that any correction or criticism include specific points and solid suggestions for improvement. To simply complain about an employee’s phone manner is not helpful to either the individual in question or your customer. Specific phone etiquette guidelines, such as prompt answering and a cheerful attitude of helpfulness are critical aspects of a successful customer care initiative.

It Takes a Village, or at Least Everyone Who Works in the Organization…

Really great customer service is a team effort. Successful organizations develop a customer-care culture. When dealing with a corporate culture, it is important to acknowledge that each business has its own quirky personality — that unique something that permeates the organizational structure. Find those support tools and services that build on your organizational personality. It is that distinctiveness that drew your client base to you in the first place. Any customer care initiative needs to be authentic — true to the organizational culture, to be successfully integrated into a consistent practice. Find out what works best for your organization. Some companies have used group meetings, specialized onsite training, memos, posters, in-house publications and rewards specifically designed to acculturate great customer care. Getting and holding customers requires the whole team’s attention. Invite employees’ and other stake holder’s ideas — Listen, learn, adapt and listen some more.

Do Your Clients Consider You and Your Organization as Welcoming?

As a founder of an emerging business or an established enterprise you and your employees, need to be out and about. Some business owners and professionals confine their meet and greet time to “business to business” events like Chamber of Commerce or other professional meetings. It is simply good business practice to extend your after-hours, public relation efforts to the more informal environments favored by your client base. All business activity is a form of energy exchange. Your existing and future clients react positively to a graciously welcome vibration. A genuine, consistently pleasant demeanor attracts folks to you and your business. Take advantage of the relaxed atmosphere of social occasions or the neighborhood community center to turn friends into customers or to reinforce the loyalty of existing ones.

If you have any customer service ideas, or experiences, please share them with the rest of your Millionaire Mind Support Network™

Copyright © Millionaire Minds, LLC 2007
All writings here are copyrighted. You may not use them without written permission but you may link to the posts or give out a link to the posts. And remember, You Have a Millionaire Mind!

The Value of Expressing The Golden Rule In Your Business Venture

Wealth Principle
The Law Of Income: You Will Be Paid In Direct Proportion To
The Value You Deliver According To The Market Place.

How BEING is Expressed in the DOING

Some of the most effective “Customer Service Extras” are really basic aspects of conducting good business. Customers, accustomed to “Voice-Jail” prompts, are often are pleasantly surprised when the phone is answered by a person, on or about the third ring, who treats them with respect and courtesy. Something as simple as greeting or addressing a client by name and promptly and politely answering their questions makes a huge impression. Sadly such civility is rare in today’s business environment. No one expects you to know everything. If you or your employees don’t know the answer to a client inquiry, it is OK to simply say, “I don’t know the answer, but I’ll be happy to ask and get back to you as soon as possible. When is the best time to return your call?” When phoning a customer, after the greeting, always ask, “Is now a convenient time to talk to me, or would you prefer me to call back.” Your customers appreciate anyone who is respectful of their time.

Customer service is definitely enjoying renaissance. Successful companies have made outstanding customer service synonymous with their names. Think of the legendary retailer, Neiman Marcus. During the entire purchase cycle, the customer is treated like the single most important person in the representative’s day.

Is the price point slightly higher at Neiman Marcus?
Probably.
Do customers really care?
Not really.
Why?

Because Neiman Marcus customers KNOW that if they need anything, the sales representative and the customer care people will ALWAYS handled any request graciously — hence, an intensely loyal customer base.

To succeed in today’s buyer’s market you must give your customers what they want, NOT what you think they want.

Who is your next customer?
One never knows.

The enlightened entrepreneur is consistently courteous, offering friendly service to everyone they come in contact with during their day — suppliers and others as well as current customers.

If you want to keep customers coming back for more, practicing the Golden Rules has never made better business sense.

In the next Millionaire Mind Support Network™ Blog — Customer Service — In Conclusion — I’ll look at ways to deliver excellent customer service in a way that allows the customer to access them in the most efficient, fair, cost effective, and humanly satisfying and pleasurable manner possible.

If you have any customer service ideas, or experiences, please share them with the rest of your Millionaire Mind Support Network™

Copyright © Millionaire Minds, LLC 2007
All writings here are copyrighted. You may not use them without written permission but you may link to the posts or give out a link to the posts. And remember, You Have a Millionaire Mind!

Expectations

Imagine a scenerio: You started a business. Now, four years later, with nothing to show for your efforts but the lessons you learned and $40,000 in debt, you close your doors and walk away dejected.

Now imagine a second scenerio: You enrolled in college. Now, four years later, with nothing to show for your efforts but the lessons you learned and $40k in student loans, you close the doors on your college career and walk away elated.

What is the difference? Expectation.

In the first case you expected a thriving enterprise that would make you rich and successful. In the second you expected a set of skills that would propel you forward in your life. Many would argue that in the long run, the lessons you derived from your business were more valuable. Have you ever skated through school? Fudged a bit? Didn’t pay attention? Forgot some/most/all of what you learned? But in your business every experience is permanently emblazed in your memory, and every lesson taken to heart.

Throughout your life you will fail. Every new thing you try, like the toddler learning to walk, will have failures – some large, some small, but there, nonetheless. As T. Harv Eker said, “Every master was once a disaster.” Even if you have a perfectly successful venture and opt to stay exactly the same, the world is changing around you.

So the lesson is this: Can you see past your expectations to what value you actually derived? And can you move forward from every “failure” with the same hopeful elation of any graduation?

Wealth Principle —

The Law Of Income: You Will Be Paid In Direct Proportion To

The Value You Deliver According To The Market Place.

The Value of Expressing The Golden Rule In Your Business Venture

BEING The Best You Can BE
and Sharing That Perfection With Your Customers

How can the enlightened entrepreneur demonstrate their willingness to give that extra measure to assure customer satisfaction? Those willing to travel the “road less taken,” should be prepared to encounter a new view of outstanding customer care. As a business owner, I’ve been inspired by Wayne Dyer’s wonderful presentation, “It’s Never Crowded Along the Extra Mile”. Drawing upon the lessons of great teachers such as St. Francis of Assisi, Viktor Frankl, Jesus Christ, Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, and Buddha, Dr. Dyer explores the concepts of gratitude, unconditional love and acceptance. Dyer’s insights are especially applicable to enlightened entrepreneurs, following their passion and building a customer centric business model. Being completely customer focused is a way to generate the expansive energy needed to implement an outstanding customer service program.

Dyer reminds us that we’re all connected to God, or if you prefer, the Universe. When you “tap in to” this connection, you can access intuition, see the universe as one, and understand that you simply have to align yourself with what you want in order to bring it into your life, or business. Anyone can access this expansive, energy—it’s only a positive thought away!

It is often said that you can’t solve a problem with the same mind that created it. Any limitation can be transformed with intention. That is the basis of the Law of Attraction. In several of Joe Vitale’s books, The Attractor Factor and Zero Limits, he stresses that the Law of Attraction is a much larger concept than Wealth and Health. It is a process that can change the people around you by bringing a higher energy to them and by sending love in response to hate, or in this example, customer discontent.

When the high energy of love and unconditional acceptance is focused on a situation, there can be no such thing as justified resentment or disappointment — the type of emotion that is the basis for most customer service issues. A mind that is open is one that invites in miracles. When you’re open to everything and attached to nothing, you’ll learn that you don’t need to constantly evaluate right/wrong/good/bad. Your success and your customers satisfaction is measured upon the ability to do what you love and love what you do and sharing that perfection with the people who come to share the energy exchange of unconditional support,

“Success is advancing confidently in the direction of your own dreams.”

— Henry David Thoreau

In the next Millionaire Mind Support Network™ Blog — Customer Service — The Value is in the Details I’ll look at ways to deliver excellent customer service in a way that allows the customer to access them in the most efficient, fair, cost effective, and humanly satisfying and pleasurable manner possible.

If you have any customer service ideas, or experiences, please share them with the rest of your Millionaire Mind Support Network™

Copyright © Millionaire Minds, LLC 2007
All writings here are copyrighted. You may not use them without written permission but you may link to the posts or give out a link to the posts. And remember, You Have a Millionaire Mind!

Wealth Principle
The Law Of Income: You Will Be Paid In Direct Proportion To The Value You Deliver According To The Marketplace.

I am a stanch proponent of self-directed business education. Part of my continuing business education routine is the commitment to read and study business magazines and trade journals. By studying the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, Fast Company, Entrepreneur, and Inc. cover-to-cover, I have received an excellent return on my investment of time. Every day I learn something new — tools to assess a business opportunity, a growth strategy, lessons learned, and how to manage my time and resources more effectively. As I read about the business wunderkinds, like Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg; or seasoned innovators like Apple’s Steve Jobs, I am reminded that the great companies have found ways to stay close to their customers. These firms are fully engaged with their customer base. They pay close attention to what their customers are saying, then develop products or services to meet their customers’ needs — or in Apple’s case, anticipate the market to give us, “What we never even knew we always wanted.”

Communication technology makes it easy for even a home-based, sole-proprietor, to tap into their customers’ base needs, wants and desires. Today, anyone can use Blogs, product/service forums, and users-groups to ask questions and carefully track the responses. To be successful, businesses must listen to and talk with customers. Apple’s early success was helped by their use of “Apple Evangelists.” These savvy, tech missionaries went out to the developers, the third party vendors and end-users and learned how to better serve their base.

Apple is committed to staying close to their clientele and they identify with them. Apple representatives give their customers the level of service they themselves would expect to receive. Apple’s symbiotic relationship with their customers necessitates paying attention to every link in their distribution chain; this means listening to everyone who helps get their products to market and soliciting suggestions for improving both the products and service.

Knowing, understanding and acting upon what the customer wants, is the smartest thing any business owner, big or small, can do. Satisfied clients come back, again and again. Keeping an existing client happy is more cost effective than attracting new customers.

“65% of a company’s business comes from existing customers, and it costs five times as much to attract a new customer than to keep an existing one satisfied.”
— Customer Service Institute

Customers are so loyal to the Apple product line, that other consumer electronic giants study and try to emulate the Steve Jobs’ industrial design mystique and Apple’s customer-centered product development process.

As Bill Gates of Microsoft can attest, an eroding customer-base is even more expensive then retaining your customer base through responsive customer service.

“91% of unhappy customers will never again buy from a company that has displeased them; they will also voice their dissatisfaction to at least seven other people.”
— Technical Assistance Research Programs Institute

Software buyers, distrustful of predatory business practices, and unhappy with product reliability, actively sought alternatives to the Microsoft product line. They found them in Linux products and web-based applications from Google. A resent business review concisely stated Microsoft’s current customer service problem, “Google is to Microsoft as Microsoft was to IBM.

Stay close to your customer base. You need them more than they need you.

Drop me a line at sbatik@mymillionairemind.org and you may see your question answered in an upcoming Blog or featured in our Millionaire Minds Forum.

Wealth Principle

The Law Of Income: You Will Be Paid In Direct

To The Value You Deliver According To The Marketplace

Implementing the ‘Golden Rule’ by putting the customer first is one of the surest ways to add value to the marketplace. Based on customer interaction, every business is a service business. All ventures live and die based on their customers’ satisfaction and ensuing loyalty.

“No matter whether you manufacture, grow, produce, distribute, or sell, you are ‘in service.”

— Paul Hawken, Growing a Business

Structuring a Customer-Centric Enterprise

A strong, customer ethic and truly outstanding customer service begins with you and your employees. As the business owner, it is your responsibility to codify the customer service standards; then make sure everyone who represents your company, employees, contractors and in some case vendors, understand them and has the authority to implement them. Your representatives must have the ability to do what is necessary to make the customer happy without fear of reprisal.
You hired them and trained them —trust them.

“Policies and procedures are helpful only as guides toward an end result. When employees run out of possibilities to make the customer happy, they must have the latitude to improvise to make it right. Most employees operate in a state of fear that their own generosity with a customer will be viewed as foolishness by their boss. This situation will stifle flexible customer service.”

— Paul Hawken, Growing a Business

It is important to acknowledge your team for achieving stated service goals. The Golden Rule of business extends to your employees. Your employees are also customers of the business enterprise. Be quick to resolve solve daily annoyances that could lead to poor morale. Disgruntled employees are unlikely to extend them selves to assure end-user satisfaction.

One of the big hurtles for emerging business is recruiting and hiring the “right” folks for the job. The owner isn’t the only individual who has to wear many hats in an emerging business enterprise. Those first employees have to be technically versatile and very, very, customer-oriented. Stressing your business customer service requirements is a critical aspect of the hire process. A positive outlook and energetic attitude is a must.

Try as you might, you can’t train against basic personality types.
To paraphrase one of my favorite Texas Truisms —

“You can’t fix pessimistic.”

For more information on successful hiring practices, check out Winning by Jack Welsh. This book is a-must-have for your business library.

In the next Millionaire Mind Support Network™ Blog — Staying Close To your Customer— I’ll look at ways to deliver excellent customer service in a way that allows the customer to access them in the most efficient, fair, cost effective, and humanly satisfying and pleasurable manner possible.

If you have any customer service ideas, or experiences, please share them with the rest of your Millionaire Mind Support Network™

Copyright © Millionaire Minds, LLC 2007
All writings here are copyrighted. You may not use them without written permission but you may link to the posts or give out a link to the posts. And remember, You Have a Millionaire Mind!

Wealth Principle:

To Get Paid The Best, You Must Be The Best

Outstanding customer service is a sector in which a small business or professional enterprise successfully compete with the big businesses in their chosen market. It is often the differentiator between client loyalty and a one-time sale. Consistently excellent customer service is the holy grail of customer loyalty and the cherished goal of repeat business. Even the best run businesses are vulnerable to poor customer care criticism. Hundreds of satisfying customer contacts can be negated by one, really bad, customer service snafu. In many ways, Big Business dependence on technology-based customer service ruined their customer care performance. An automated system forces callers to endure endless holds, and a computer generated voice, that demands identifying information. We all know the drill, “Say or key your zip code now.” Ahh.. would that be my home zip or my office zip? Customer frustration leads to the path of least resistance. In the case of poor customer service, that path is simply go away and don’t come back. Oh yes, and warn your friend and family, “That way be dragons!”

How do we define great customer service?

There are as many definitions of great customer service as there are business books. I’ve always liked definition Carol I. Kallendorf used in her excellent article that described the “Tools to Build Customer Service that Create Passionate Customer Loyalty”, featured in BizWatchOnline. (1)

“Excellent customer service is the process by which your organization delivers its services or products in a way that allows the customer to access them in the most efficient, fair, cost effective, and humanly satisfying and pleasurable manner possible.”

The Energy Imperative

How can we assure that our customer contacts are humanly satisfying and pleasurable?

To my mind, truly, great customer service is all about positive, energetic intent. The exchange of energy is very apparent in the customer care process. Think about what we, or those close to us, have said about their customer service experiences.

Negative experiences are often described with contracting, defensive energy—fight or flight; “It was too draining to deal with. I just gave up trying to get it resolved.”

Positive experiences are often described with expansive energy — “These folks are great! They listened to me and handled the issue right away!

Happy customers with a history of positive experience will be back and they bring friend and family.

Customer Service and The Golden Rule

We hold these truths to be self evident, “Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you.”

What is one of the surest ways to hold positive energy in all your business processes? In the west we refer to “living by the golden rule”. For those of us studying Zero Limits, we might think of the process as a form of Ho’oponopono, keeping our energy clear and clean, with everyone in our personal and professional lives. In practice it is being positively focused with 100% intent to share a positive, even loving experience. Each of us strives to conduct our personal lives by the guiding principle we have come to know as the golden rule. It should be obvious, that this golden rule is good business policy as well as am important personal practice.

In THE-BIG-BOX-Age, customers focused on “lowest price and one-stop convenience.” Many of these customers did not understand, or did not care, that the hidden cost was the loss of high-quality service. The saying, “You don’t know what you got till it’s gone. “ applies to customer service. Consumers are demanding the return of dependable customer service. Companies in every sector of the economy are recognizing that treating their customers as they themselves would like to be treated – or better has become a critical business strategy. Offering the “BEST” customer service is not only a competitive factor but an integral part of their product or service life cycle.

“Consumers are beginning to feel that their needs haven’t been met. They’re sick of getting poor service all the time.”

— Bonnie Jansen, U.S. Office of Consumer Affairs

The renewed customer service imperative represents a significant competitive opportunity to small or emerging businesses. Delivering excellent customer service in a way that allows the customer to access them in the most efficient, fair, cost effective, and humanly satisfying and pleasurable manner possible is a highly valued customer benefit that small companies can, in the least expensive way, set themselves apart from the competition.

“…small businesses which put heavy emphasis on customer service were more likely to survive and succeed than competitors who emphasized such advantages as lower prices or type of product.”

— National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) in Washington, D.C

In the next few Millionaire Mind Support Network™ Blogs, I want to look at ways to deliver excellent customer service in a way that allows the customer to access them in the most efficient, fair, cost effective, and humanly satisfying and pleasurable manner possible.

1) BizWatchOnline
http://www.bizwatchonline.com/BWJuly06/article3_0904.htm

If you have any customer service ideas, or experiences, please share them with the rest of your Millionaire Mind Support Network™

Copyright © Millionaire Minds, LLC 2007
All writings here are copyrighted. You may not use them without written permission but you may link to the posts or give out a link to the posts. And remember, You Have a Millionaire Mind!

Wealth Principle:
How You Do Anything Is How You Do Everything.

In his book Secrets of the Millionaire Mind and in the Peak Potential Training workshops and seminars, T. Harv Eker emphasizes continually enjoins us to expand our opportunity for business success. Just before a break, the trainers often ask participants to use the time to talk to ten-people about our current business venture and to actively listen and respond as they described their enterprise or career.

After an exercise or a break, the MMI trainer would often ask, “So how did you do?” Some of us found it very difficult to talk to folks we didn’t know. Some folks found it easy to talk to someone, but didn’t know how to be “present” and listen actively when someone else was speaking. Some got so focused on the ”stated goal” of 10-people, they rushed through the exercise just to get ‘done. The check off was more important than being with the person with which they were exchanging information. In some cases, the very individual they were trying to get pass to reach an artificial goal, was a very real business prospect.

The goal of the exercise was two-fold.

First when there are over 700-people in one room, there is a very strong likelihood that some of us could do business together. That is how this website was founded. We wanted an opportunity to keep in touch with like-minded business associates.

The secondary object of the exercise was to notice how we approached and performed the ‘Meet & Greet’. Our trainer didn’t label our actions and reactions as ‘right’ or ‘wrong’.

He simply asked us to honestly ‘notice’ how we did, what we did, and why. Because — How You Do Anything Is How You Do Everything.

This Wealth Principle was demonstrated several times over the course of the workshop. Always with the same request, just notice your reaction, be aware of your energy level, and understand if your energy is expanding or contracting during the exercise. If you are feeling and acting a certain way ‘in here’, then that is how you are acting or reacting ‘out there’. Because — How You Do Anything Is How You Do Everything.

Eker joins other, enlightened-entrepreneur, business mentors when he talks about the exchange of energy and positive intent being at the root of a successful business or professional enterprise. Stewart Wilde once told his students, “People don’t really come to you for a specific product, you know. They come to you to exchange energy. Money, after all, is our agreed upon physical representation for energy. You either draw it to you, or you actively or subconsciously repel it. If your energy level is positively expansive, people are drawn to you and your enterprise. As humans, we simply want to be in an energetic field that nurtures us. The most successful people are those who generate expansive energy. Their product or service is almost an incidental issue.”

All these moths after our Millionaire Mind Intensive, the abiding recollection is not so much, what was said, but how it was communicated and how we felt when received that message. The Millionaire Mind Intensive Was ALL about the exchange of energy.
Yes, attendees received hundreds of life-changing ideas and processes; we met people who will be business associates and more importantly, friends. But at the root of the experience, it was the exchange of energy.

After studying Joe Vitale’s book, Zero Limits, The Secret Hawaiian System for Wealth, Health, Peace, and More, I am even more convinced that all our contacts are about the exchange of energy. In his talks, Joe talks about “cleaning his mirror.” This is phase he and Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len, master teacher of ho’oponopono, uses to described getting his energy and intention to the highest level possible in any situation.

In the next few Millionaire Mind Support Network™ Blogs, I want to look at ways we can expand and clarify our energy in our professional and business environment.

If you have any ideas, or experiences, please share them with the rest of your Millionaire Mind Support Network™

H. Sandra Chevalier-Batik
Copyright © Serendal Research Institute 2007

All writings here are copyrighted. You may not use them without written permission but you may link to the posts or give out a link to the posts.

Do you have a question for any of the Millionaire Minds Team?

Drop me a line at sbatik@mymillionairemind.org and you may see your question answered in an upcoming blog or featured in our Millionaire Minds Forum.

THE GIFT

The other day a young person asked me how I felt about being old. I was taken aback, for I do not think of myself as old. Upon seeing my reaction, he was immediately embarrassed, but I explained that it was an interesting question, and I would ponder it, and let him know.

Growing older, I decided, is a gift. I am now, probably for the first time in my life, the person I have always wanted to be. Oh, not my body! I sometime despair over my body … the wrinkles, the baggy eyes, and the cellulite. Often I am taken aback by that old person who lives in my mirror, but I don’t agonize over those things for long.

I would never trade my amazing friends, my wonderful life, my loving family for less gray hair or a flatter belly. As I’ve aged, I’ve become kinder to myself, and less critical of myself. I’ve become my own friend. I don’t chide myself for eating that extra cookie, or for not making my bed, or for buying that silly cement gecko that I didn’t need, but looks so darn cute on my patio. I am entitled to be messy, to be extravagant, to smell the flowers. I have seen too many dear friends leave this world too soon; before they understood the great freedom that comes with aging.

Whose business is it if I choose to read or play on the computer until 4 a.m. and then sleep until whenever I please.

I will dance with myself to those wonderful tunes of the 50′s & 60′s, and if I, at the same time, wish to weep over a lost love, I will.

I will walk the beach in a swim suit that is stretched over a bulging body, and will dive into the waves with abandon if I choose to, despite the pitying glances from the bikini set.

They, too, will get old, if they’re lucky. I know I am sometimes forgetful. But then again, some of life is just as well forgotten and I eventually remember the important things.

Sure, over the years my heart has been broken. How can your heart not break when you lose a loved one, or when a child suffers, or even when a beloved pet passes on? But broken hearts are what give us strength and understanding and compassion. A heart never broken is pristine and sterile and will never know the joy of being imperfect.

I am so blessed to have lived long enough to have my hair turn gray, and to have my youthful laughs be forever etched into deep grooves on my face. So many have never laughed, and so many have died before their hair could turn silver. I can say “no,” and mean it. I can say “yes” and mean it.

As you get older, it is easier to be positive. You care less about what other people think. I don’t question myself anymore. I’ve even earned the right to be wrong.

So, to answer your question, I like being older. It has set me free. I like the person I have become. I am not going to live forever, but while I am still here, I will not waste time lamenting what could have been, or worrying about what will be. And I shall eat dessert every single day… if I want.

Today, I wish you a day of ordinary miracles.
Love simply.
Love generously.
Care deeply.
Speak kindly.
Leave the rest to God.

LIVE WELL – LAUGH OFTEN – LOVE MUCH
It does not matter where love goes; As long as it flows…

-Anonymous

A dear friend shared this with me and I thought to pass it on to you. She received this gift anonymously, but if anyone knows the author, please forward the name to me so we can properly credit these wonderful words of wisdom.

Millionaire Minds live life richly!

H. Sandra Chevalier-Batik

Wealth File # 2

Rich People Play The Money Game To Win

Poor People Play the Money Game to Not Lose…

It’s been over six moths since our Millionaire Mind Intensive weekend. Many of us are initiating new enterprises specifically intended to build multiple streams of passive and residual income. We are tweaking and restructuring our existing business looking for every opportunity to monetize. Just as we are beginning to execute our “SpeedWealth” strategies, it seems as if the business environment may have become slightly more challenging. Some of us are hesitating, very much like a child about to enter a double-dutch skip-rope game…looking for just the right time to jump in. Some of us have compiled a list of reasons to delay the implementation of new business initiatives. As T. Harv says you can make excuses or you can make money. The first step is dealing with the current siege mentality.

A siege mentality might be described as being overwhelmed by the pervasive pessimism as expressed in business media, the evening news and informal conversations with business associates. In the business world, the talking heads on the financial channels, and the writers of Op-Ed pieces are communicating their many worries. To some, it seems like all the old rules no longer to apply, and the new rules are hard to identify. Media mavens express concern about how these challenging times will affect all of us. We need to recognize that these perceptions, sense of malaise, pessimism and uncertainty are not helpful and not necessarily applicable to our personal or professional life.

“Worry is a prayer for what you don’t want.”

Wealth File # 5

Rich People Focus on Opportunities.

Poor People focus on Obstacles.

It is all too easy to become so focused on threats, risks and challenges – to be drowned in the sea of skepticism, that we quickly loose sight of opportunities and new sources of growth. Business is cyclic. There are upturns and down turns. The enlightened entrepreneur will continue to create economic value in any market cycle.

What You Focus on Expands

“Another key principle pertinent here, is that rich people focus on what they want, while poor people focus on what they don’t want. Again, the universal law states, “What you focus on expands.” Because rich people focus on the opportunities in everything, opportunities abound for them. Their biggest problem is handling all the incredible money making possibilities they see. On the other hand, because poor people focus on the obstacles in everything, obstacles abound for them and their biggest problem is handling all the incredible obstacles they see.”

— T. Harv Eker, Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, pg. 80

Action Always Beats Inaction

“Rich people get started. They trust that once they get in the game, they can make intelligent decisions in the present moment and make corrections along the way.

Poor people don’t trust in themselves or their abilities, so they believe they have to know everything in advance, which is virtually impossible. Meanwhile they don’t do squat!

Rich people see an opportunity, jump on it and get even richer! As for poor people — They’re still preparing.”

— T. Harv Eker, Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, pg. 84

Need some you need some Millionaire Mind Action Steps?

Check out Secrets of the Millionaire Mind, pg. 85.

Need some Millionaire Mind Inspiration?

“The Big Idea”, your roadmap to the American Dream with Donny Deutsch. Each weeknight at 9 and 11pm CT on CNBC Deutsch, the maverick CEO who built a multi-billion dollar advertising and media business, introduces you to the men and women who have made BILLIONS with their Big Idea. If you can’t catch the show check out The Big Idea Blog at: http://www.cnbc.com/id/15838512/site/14081545/

This show and Blog are not only inspirational, but great ways to kick start your personal dream machine.

Need an antidote to the doom and gloom talking heads?

Check out the wild man of “The Street”, Jim Cramer and his “Mad Money”each weeknight at 5 and 10 pm CT on CNBC. Jim Cramer believes that there is always a bull market somewhere, and he wants to help you find it. “Mad Money” takes viewers inside the mind of one of Wall Street’s most respected and successful money managers. Cramer is your personal guide through the confusing jungle of investing, navigating through both opportunities and pitfalls with one goal in mind — to help you make money. “Mad Money” features Cramer’s unmatched, fiery opinions and the popular Lightning Round, in which Cramer gives his “Buy,” “Sell,” and “Hold” opinions on stocks to callers.

Stock information aside, this is first and foremost an educational program. Cramer is a great teacher and explains the “Who, What Why When and Where” of the financial markets. And best of all, you learn that savvy investors can make a profit in any economic climate because, “There is always a bull market somewhere!”
For more on Cramer and Mad Money Check out:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/17283246/site/14081545/

Remember, You have a Millionaire Mind and we are here to support you.

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