By: Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
facebook.com/stefanaarnio
https://twitter.com/stefanaarnio
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/stefanaarnio

Get Stefan Aarnio's book "Money People Deal: The Fastest Way to Real Estate Wealth" at MoneyPeopleDeal.com!

Remember: Please share this article if you found it enjoyable!

This last week I have been officially closing a previous chapter of my life. I have been selling off all of my music gear; guitars, basses, amps, speakers, cords, mixing boards, cases, microphones – everything! I used to be very heavily involved in writing music, performing music and teaching music. I used to derive 100% of my income from music and was a professional in the field. Today, I am selling off all of my music gear and I did receive some backlash from my girlfriend and my mother.

“Why?” they protested.

“Won't you be sad?” they wanted to know.

The answer, is “no, I will not be sad.” and the reasons are simple.

Years ago, when I quit basketball in high school, my coach, whom I will never forget said to me “there is nothing wrong with quitting, as long as you take all of the energy you put into basketball and put it into music.” Music was my passion at that point in my life, not basketball, and it was what I wished to do professionally.

Today, I am officially quitting the music chapter of my life and I'm using the energy to pursue my path as an entrepreneur. Selling all of my music gear is a way of clearing my mind, my space and my path.

But what happens to the years of my life, and all the money that I spent accumulating knowledge and equipment in the music business?

In physics, energy is never lost, the same holds true in real life. The skills, the experience and the wisdom I gained in the music industry carries over to my real estate career and the best part about skills and experience is that they can never be lost.

True value does not lie in the musical equipment. True value lies in the skills I learned from the equipment. I will always know how to sing, how to play instruments and perform. These skills can get rusty, but they never go away.

But how does this apply to real estate?

In real estate, so many investors cling to their buildings and are terrified of losing material wealth. Most of us think that our buildings are assets, when in fact, they are just lifeless bricks and mortar. Real value, even in real estate lies in the experience and the knowledge of building and operating the business.

Years ago, Henry Ford, the founder of Ford automobiles was asked by a reporter “Mr. Ford, you're a billionaire – so what? What would happen if you lost it all tomorrow?”

Mr. Ford smiled and replied “I would have it all back and more in 5 years!”

I truly understand what Mr. Ford meant by these words and I feel the same about the music business or even my real estate business. The knowledge I have gained by building the business from scratch will never leave my mind and the wisdom is the true asset – not the equipment or the buildings.

In the classic book “The Richest Man in Babylon”, the characters in the book are given a choice between a large sack of gold and a clay tablet with wisdom inscribed in it.

The book explains that the man who chooses the gold will quickly lose it, whereas the man with the knowledge will eventually get the gold.

Henry Ford and the Richest Man in Babylon both agree, true value is in the knowledge not the gold, the money, the buildings, or the companies.

Early in my real estate career, I made of point of investing in my education through seminars, coaching, training, mentoring, books, audio files etc. To build my education as fast as possible. Education, knowledge and experience form the backbone of business and entrepreneurship. Where most people rely on their job, their salaries and the government to survive, entrepreneurs rely on business acumen thrive.

It always startles me to see young investors and entrepreneurs forgo business and real estate education and jump into the field with both feet. I have made this mistake in the past and it is extremely costly to experiment with real world dollars.

If you are in business, real estate investing or entrepreneurship, please ensure that you allocate a portion of your earnings to ongoing education. For myself, my education has made all the difference and has allowed me to grow my real estate business from a one time investment of $1200 to a multi million dollar portfolio.

Thanks for reading,
Stefan Aarnio

Freedomway.ca
facebook.com/stefanaarnio
https://twitter.com/stefanaarnio
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/stefanaarnio

Get Stefan Aarnio's book "Money People Deal: The Fastest Way to Real Estate Wealth" at MoneyPeopleDeal.com!

P.S: Please share this article if you found it enjoyable!

By: Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
facebook.com/stefanaarnio
https://twitter.com/stefanaarnio
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/stefanaarnio

Remember: Please share this article if you found it enjoyable

What do the world's top athletes, actors, and salespeople all have in common?

They are the three highest paid positions in the world.

No one makes more money in a JOB than actors, athletes and salespeople; and contrary to popular belief, Actors, athletes and salespeople have much more in common than the average person may think.

What stands out to me when I think of top Actors, Athletes and Salespeople is that each of these top level positions requires more than 10,000 hours of practice to compete at the top level of performance.

All of these positions are PERFORMANCE based and at the starting level, the pay is absolutely ZERO.

Ask yourself, when was the last time you hired a rookie actor to entertain you? The answer is likely never.

When did you last hire a rookie Athlete to endorse your product or service? Likely never.

When was the last time you paid a fat commission cheque to a rookie salesperson who doesn't know how to sell? Likely never.

However, when was the last time Nike hired a PRO athlete do endorse it's products? Everyday.

When was the last time that Disney or 20th century FOX hired a PRO actor for a production? Everyday.

When was the last time a top level sales performer cashed a huge commission cheque for dominating his or her market? Everyday.

There are people making obscene amounts of money in these positions everyday. However, most people perceive these roles as feast or famine.

Why not feast everyday?

Most parents will encourage their young children to be Doctors, Lawyers or Accountants because they can grow up and earn a high guaranteed rate of pay.

Parents overlook actors, athletes and salespeople as REAL jobs because these positions are perceived as "risky". Of course, all parents generally hate risk when it comes to their children.

Many people attribute success in acting, athletics or sales to politics, luck, good looks, genetics or connections.

The truth is, success in Acting, Athletics and Sales takes all of the above, but most people overlook the hard work, preparation, hours of study, and persistence that separate the top from the bottom.

Success is a science that needs to be studied and engineered on a daily basis. However, most people are too "busy" to bother studying success.

For myself, I have become a student of success early in life and have achieved marginal success in acting and athletics. However, I have achieved professional success in sales by becoming a national sales leader very quickly after entering the field.

What made me different?

What makes anyone different?

I had the very fortunate experience of being coached by a veteran salesman who had sold kirby vacuums door to door for years: 

If you can show up at someone's house unannounced and sell them a vacuum that they do not need or want then you can sell anything. If you can do this consistently over many years, you are a sales professional.

Unfortunately, most salespeople today, namely realtors, don't know how to sell kirby vacuums. In some ways, the study of sales is a lost art-form.

I had a great respect for my veteran coach; he showed me how to engineer success in sales and create a science out of the mysterious "sales art-form".

My coach was a left-brained engineer who was NOT a natural salesperson. Most natural sales people are right-brained, conceptual, outgoing people (the exact opposite of an engineer). In many ways, my coach was a greater teacher than most because he was NOT naturally gifted in the field. He had to learn, practice and prepare for success on a daily basis. Since he had learned to prepare every day for decades, he taught me how to PREPARE for success on a daily basis and manipulate my results.

PREPARATION: HOW TO STACK THE ODDS IN YOUR FAVOUR:

The first thing my coach taught me to do was write down the following:

LESSON #1

actions = money
money does not equal actions

What he meant by this statement was that if we analyzed our daily actions, we could find which actions made money and which ones didn't.

In sales and in business, actions equals money.

However, the opposite is not true. Money does not equal actions.

If you tell someone to make $1,000,000, often they cannot figure out which actions generate the money...

Money is not an intrinsic motivator and should never be used to motivate a sales person - or any person for that matter.

If you figure out how much money you want to make, and figure out which actions make money, you can reverse engineer the amount of actions required on a daily basis to create the dollars desired.

For example, 50 phone calls (actions) will generate 10 conversations which will generate 2 meetings which will generate 10 meetings a week. 40% of the meetings will results in a sale valued at an average sale of $20,000... 4 average sales a week will generate an average of $80,000 a week.

If I consistently made 50 calls a day, annually I would generate $4.16 Million dollars for the company, of which I would get 3% or $124,800 annually. If I made 50 calls a week for 52 weeks, that totals 13,000 calls. $124,800 annually divided by $13,000 calls is $9.60 per call JUST FOR DIALLING THE PHONE.

All I needed to do was:

1. Be prepared on a daily basis
2. Call 50 people a day
3. Book 2 meetings
4. Conduct 2 meetings
5. Close 4 per week

The actions that drive the whole model are CALLS. I could directly control my income by the number of CALLS I made. 

CALLS = ACTIONS = DOLLARS

If most people legitimately collected $9.60 per number DIALLED on a daily basis, I guarantee that most people would be dialling numbers until exhaustion.

Years ago, some scientists hooked a rat up to a button that released dopamine (a pleasure drug released by the brain). The rat would push the button consistently until it would die of exhaustion. The rat wanted the dopamine so badly that it would sacrifice it's well being to get the pleasure-drug. As humans, we are exactly like the rat. When we earn money, dopamine is released. If we know that dialling the phone generates money, in theory, we would be dialling the phone until we drop dead... correct?

Incorrect.

In reality, we do not dial the phone until we die of exhaustion because:

Average people hate sales, they are scared of sales, they freeze and won't pick up the phone.

They freeze because they have not associated dialling numbers with pleasure (aka dollars).

The average person thinks that they make money when they CLOSE a sale, however, they actually EARN money when they dial phone numbers.

CLOSING IS AN EFFECT
DIALLING IS A CAUSE

Life is CAUSE and EFFECT.

To get an EFFECT, we must create a CAUSE.

No matter how good of a salesperson you are, you cannot close every sale. This is a fundamental truth of sales. However, you can always make another call or dial another number. Control your actions, because actions are the only things you actually control. If you control your actions, you will become the master of your results.

The most important action in the business of sales is calls. Every time we call, we increase our probability of winning. It's like buying another lottery ticket, except the lottery ticket is free and has much higher chances of success.

Sounds too good to be true, but it isn't.

If we understand the science of success in sales, then why would athletics or acting be any different?

All fields take preparation and can be reverse engineered into daily actions that compound over time.

The trick is to understand which actions create results that move us forward and move us backward and waste our time.

To obey the 80/20 rule. 20% of our actions create 80% of our results. We must find the 20% and ONLY do the 20% to increase our success.

In the sales example, my coach taught me that CALLS were the 20% that drove the business. Without calls, you may as well go home.

Take a moment to think about your business or your job and find your 20%. Which actions bring you your results? How can you do more of these actions? How many dollars do you make per action?

Know these numbers inside and out and the next level of success is yours to be had.

Thanks for reading,
Stefan Aarnio

Freedomway.ca
facebook.com/stefanaarnio
https://twitter.com/stefanaarnio
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/stefanaarnio

P.S: Please share this article if you found it enjoyable

By: Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
facebook.com/stefanaarnio
https://twitter.com/stefanaarnio
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/stefanaarnio

Remember: Please share this article if you found it helpful

“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up, it knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn't matter whether you're the lion or a gazelle-when the sun comes up, you'd better be running.” – Christopher McDougall

In every market whether business, jobs or investing, there are lions and there are gazelles. The lions are the fastest, strongest, fiercest animals in the field while the gazelle is a fast, light, pack animal that finds safety in numbers.

The lion represents the leader in the market: he feeds on his competition and swallows up the slowest weakest gazelles. There are few lions, and only the best can become lions in the field.

The gazelles symbolize the “herd” of average players that flood the market and swarm the terrain in packs. Where one gazelle goes, the rest follow.  Unlike the few lions on the field, there are scores of gazelles. As a gazelle, you do not have to be the best to survive. Instead, you must only be faster than your slowest competition to win another day of life.

The lion requires a complex skill set and a high standard of performance to live, He must become strategic while hunting and move contrary to the direction of the herd. He must appear where the herd does not expect him if he is going to kill and live another day.

The gazelles only need an average skill set and average standard of performance. The herd feels secure when everyone is the same and the gazelles organize themselves in a crowd. The crowd makes the gazelles feel safe because it gives them a thin veil of protection from the lions. This thin veil keeps the lion from focusing on any one gazelle, for the lion cannot catch them all. The lion can only catch one gazelle for his dinner and let the rest of the herd go. The gazelles know this and they base their survival strategy around this fact.

As an investor or entrepreneur, which would you rather be? The Lion or the Gazelle?

Would you rather have the illusion of safety and move with the herd as a gazelle?

Or would you rather have the freedom of the lion to hunt and kill on your own terms?

In my investment/entrepreneurial career, I have always chosen to become the lion.

In my opinion, the lion is a better choice in the investment/entrepreneurial world because I have always had a rule for myself: Whatever the average person does – do the opposite of it and you will succeed.

Most people are not successful at all, so if you do the opposite of the average person, logically you will be a success.

If the average person wants to buy, then sell.

If the average person drinks, then don’t drink.

If the average person smokes, then don’t smoke.

If the average person has a 60-inch plasma screen TV, then don’t own a TV.

If the average person has a PC, get a mac.

If the average person doesn’t exercise, then exercise.

The formula is quite simple and it works more often than not.

People are pack animals, much like gazelles. As mammals, we flock and freeze when we are scared. We form packs to feel safe and we want to belong to a group.

Unfortunately, groups don’t know how to make decisions or create good ideas. Decisions and ideas come from an individual and never a collective.

A committee of professionals built the titanic while one man built the Ark.

No matter which subset of the world or the market you look at, there is always a majority and a minority.

Pareto law states that 20% of your actions create 80% of your results. This relationship applies to markets and people as well. 80% of the market is dominated by 20% of the players.

In the case of the lion and the gazelle, it would be more skewed. Perhaps the lions as 5% of the animals control 95% of the gazelles.

In America, 1% control 99% of the world. This is exactly the same concept as the lions and the gazelles.


The question is, why would anyone want to be a gazelle when you could be a lion?



The truth is, most people are not lions because it’s easy and convenient to be a gazelle while it is extremely difficult to become a lion.

The gazelles have safety in numbers; they do not have to be fast (just faster than the competition), they can feed on grass, which is plentiful and at the end of the day they can go to sleep with a belly full of grass. They don’t have to worry about hunting and killing because they can graze all day. Gazelles know that tomorrow will be the same easy routine and find security in the herd.

Lions on the other hand hunt alone or in very small groups. They have to be much faster than the slowest gazelle or they starve to death. Lions cannot eat grass like the gazelle and require meat survive. Every day the lion must be tracking and hunting for his next kill.  If the lion fails to kill a gazelle, he goes to bed with an empty stomach and too many empty stomachs in a row means death for the lion. The lion has no security and must be better than the gazelle to survive.

To be a gazelle is to be average.

To be a lion is to be a champion, a performer and an athlete.

Every day, both the lion and the gazelle are running, to survive. But what makes the two animals different is “who” they must be on a daily basis to survive.

In every business, every industry and every market, there are lions and there are gazelles.

Every morning when you wake up, you must make the choice between running the field as a lion or a gazelle. No matter which one you choose, you are going to be running anyways.

Are you committed to being the best in your field and taking the lead as the lion? Or would you rather blend into the crowd and take your chances as a gazelle?

In the end, it doesn’t really matter which animal you are. Either way, you will be running. But if you’re running anyways, you might as well choose excellence and learn to be the lion.

Thanks for reading,
Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
facebook.com/stefanaarnio
https://twitter.com/stefanaarnio
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/stefanaarnio

P.S: Please share this article if you found it helpful

By: Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
facebook.com/stefanaarnio
https://twitter.com/stefanaarnio
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/stefanaarnio

Remember: Please share this article if you found it helpful

 "All I know is that I know nothing"
-Socrates

Why is it that in life, the smarter we become, the less we know?

When I was 7 years old, I was the smartest person in the world. I knew everything there was to know about space, the planets and the solar system.

When I was 7, the facts of the solar system were as follows:

1. We have 9 planets
2. A sun
3. A bunch of stars

If I knew these basic facts, I knew everything there was to know about outer space and received a gold star.

With this limited knowledge, I knew 100% of what there was to know about space and was an expert until junior high when suddenly, the subject of outer space expanded and became more complicated.

I started to learn that I was no longer an expert on outer space because now we had to know:

1. That the sun is made of gas
2. Gravity holds the solar system together
3. The planets have multiple moons that orbit them etc.

Suddenly, I went from being a 7 year old expert to a 12 year old ignoramus who had to re-learn the facts of the universe.

When I was 7 I knew it all, when I was 12 I suddenly became ignorant about the universe.

In high school, I ran into the same problem. New information about the universe flooded my context through physics and chemistry. My knowledge base exploded and I could not keep up with all of the new information. With each new level of proficiency, I learned that in-fact, I knew nothing about the universe.

With each new level of information,  I knew less and less. The more I studied, the less I knew.

Today I know virtually nothing about space and the solar system.

Even facts that used to be true are suddenly un-true. For example: We used to have 9 planets and now there are 8. 

Pluto is no longer a planet... what changed?

What I used to know is no longer relevant in today's world. 

As Einstein says: "change is the only constant in the universe".

How is a person supposed to keep up with all of the new information that is introduced to us every day in this brave new world?

We become experts in a field, learn everything there is to know and suddenly the information changes, the market changes, or we find the "next" level in our field.

No matter what we do, we know nothing.

ENTER ZERO BASED THINKING

Zero based thinking is the concept of always knowing nothing. 

In zero based thinking, we are always at the beginning... we forget everything we used to know.

The reason why we must forget our prior knowledge is because what we knew yesterday no longer applies in our current context. 

The same concept applies when we want to take our business or our life to the next level and bring it into the future.

"If you do what you have always done, you will receive what you have always got."

Zero based thinking applies when we want to take our life and our business to the next level.

For example, when you are a child and begin to earn money, you are 2 figure earner or a 3 figure earner. You get a paper route, work part time, save up your pennies and make dollars.

When you're in high school, you have a part time job babysitting or flipping burgers and become a 4 figure earner working 2 or 3 months of the year at a summer job. Becoming a 4 figure earner is a different process than becoming a 3 figure earner.

Of course, the chain continues...

To become a 5 figure earner, you enter the world of "full time employment". Through promotions and proficiency in the corporate world, you can transform into a 6 figure earner. However, this is where most people get stuck.

When we become 6 figure earners, our context usually becomes frozen. We think we know everything there is to know and our egos keep us from learning how to get to the next level.

To jump to the next level, we must use Zero Based thinking and forget everything we used to know about earning money because a 7 figure earner follows a completely different process than a 6 figure earner.

Usually a person can reach 6 figures by pure effort and energy. Hard work, blood, sweat and tears can produce 6 figures quite easily these days and many people achieve this accomplishment.

However, to reach 7 figures is completely different. 7 figures is a different set of actions and a wildly different mind set. Hard work alone will not allow a person to jump from 6 to 7 figures.

To become a 7 figure earner, we must "build a business", build a team, build systems, build marketing campaigns, manage people, sell, and essentially run an enterprise.

We must unlearn what we used to know as a 2 figure, 3 figure, 4 figure, 5 figure and 6 figure earner stages because 7 figures is a completely different ball game.

Naturally, the chain continues. 8 figures is completely different from 7 and 9 figures is completely different from 8.

But what is the lesson?

No matter what "level" we are on in life, we must always employ Zero based thinking and approach our situation with fresh eyes. We must deconstruct what we used to know and re-learn the new facts of the world as they become relevant to us in a new context.

Unfortunately, egos and pride stop us from using zero based thinking consistently and often, we need outside personal help from a coach or mentor to expand our context and allow us to see outside of our tiny "box".

For myself in my business, I have completely changed my thinking this year from January 2012 until now December 2012.

I started off with a 5 figure mindset and through coaching and mentoring, I have been able to expand my context. This year alone, I have expanded to a 6 figure mindset and am now approaching a 7 figure mindset.

All that I have to do is execute actions based on my mindset and let the results catch up to my thinking. This process will likely take 12-24 months.

What is wonderful about expanding the mind through Zero based thinking is that: "an expanded mind never returns to it's original size".

What becomes challenging throughout the process, however, is to keep the Zero based mindset and to refrain from becoming a "know it all". 

This year I have re-built my website 4 times, re-designed my business cards 6 times, changed my business model 6 times and will likely re-brand before the year is over.

I am constantly "back at the beginning" in my learning process and this is where major growth comes from.

If you are interested in taking your business to the next level,  using Zero based thinking can be a simple process.

Find someone who is more successful than you and get them to coach you to the next level.

To become 6 figures, you must learn from a 7 figure.
To become 7 figures, you must learn from an 8 figure.
To become 8 figures, you must learn from a 9 figure etc.

The chain never ends and goes on forever... this is the beauty of life.

The real question is, where on the chain do you want to stop?

Thanks for reading,
Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
facebook.com/stefanaarnio
https://twitter.com/stefanaarnio
http://ca.linkedin.com/in/stefanaarnio

P.S: Please share this article if you found it helpful

By Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca

Remember: Please share this article if you found it helpful!

Anyone who has ever become successful in reaching their dreams has always had a series or roadblocks to overcome.

Whether you are a Real Estate investor who has dreams of building an empire, a Entrepreneur with the next great idea or an Artist with the next great vision, we all have a series of challenges to face before we can become successful.

One common challenge that everyone has to face when chasing our dreams is that somewhere along the way, we require capital.

This is true for absolutely everyone. Whether you are the Real Estate investor requiring capital for buildings, the Entrepreneur requiring capital for a venture or the Artist requiring capital for an Art-form. The requirement is universal and every business/successful person requires funding at some point in his or her path to success.

Unfortunately for many people, raising capital is a "black box of voodoo" that many do not understand. Some of us are held back by limiting beliefs that "we do not deserve" to have capital or that we need to be born with it to be successful.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Raising capital is a science and an art form. It obeys the law of certainty much like everything else in this world.

If certain things are done in certain ways, certain results are certain to occur.

With that being said, here are 5 Secrets to Raising Capital shared with me by the very-successful capital-raiser JT Foxx:

1. Dress to impress: We only have one chance at making a first impression. The timeframe for establishing a good impression is a very short window between 3 and 30 seconds. As social animals, we are constantly looking for reasons NOT to do business with other people and we will scrutinize every minor detail to disqualify a newcomer. Some key details for dress are: the quality of suit, polished shoes, quality of business cards. Anyone who is idealistic enough to think that these things don't count is delusional. Even legends like Steve Jobs, Richard Branson and Hugh Hefner had to wear suits early in their careers. Dressing to impress is an easy way to ensure success.
2. Pay attention to your branding: Effective branding is extremely important for anyone who wants to raise capital. However, branding is so much more than just a name, a colour and a logo. Branding is a feeling and an emotion surrounded by you and your company. What feeling does an audience get from you? Some easy ways to find out if you have effective branding or not are; Do you show up effectively in Google? Do you have pictures of yourself with successful people? Branding is what separates the top from the bottom in any business and it ensures a potential investor that you are not a fly by night operation.
3. Know your numbers and be conservative: If in doubt, always be conservative. The worst mistake so many people make is that we try make our deal look better than it really is. A savvy investor will always poke holes in your strategy and call you on a plan that is too optimistic. If you appear to be misrepresenting something then you will scare away your investor and their money. Provide a "best case", "realistic case", "worst case" and "nightmare case" scenario. If your investor is ok with the "nightmare case", then you know that you have a deal.
4. Back end is more important than the front end: Congratulations! You raised the Capital! Now what...? In a perfect world, raising the Capital is easy. What is much more important, however, is how you manage the "back end" of the deal. How good are you at "taking care" of the investor's money? Savvy investors are very hesitant to part with their money and you need to show them some accurate monthly reports with precise information. One of the worst things you can say to an investor is "I run the business and I do my own books." Investors want to see audited financials by a certified account. If you can provide this information you show that you are a professional, understand what they need to feel secure and have built a competent team.
5. Make it about more than the numbers: Relationships are always the most important thing in business. When you pitch a deal or yourself based on the numbers, you are selling yourself short. If you are placing all of your value on the numbers alone, you are in big trouble. Don't be known as "the 12% guy", because later when the "13% guy" comes along, you will be finished. Instead, focus your presentation on your relationships, philosophy and results. Sell the vision of the big picture to your investors and have strong, realistic numbers. If you can provide all of the above, then investors will be calling you looking for a good place to put their money.

Raising capital is a skill that very few people have mastered. It's a skill that revolves around sales, marketing, branding, relationships and understanding the numbers. If you can focus on the 5 fundamentals above, then raising the capital required to build your dream will always be easily found.

Thanks for reading,
Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca

P.S. Please share this article if you found it helpful!

By Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca

Remember: Please share this article if you find it helpful!

Image: Would you rather have half a watermelon or a whole grape?

According to Robert Kiyosaki, there are 4 types of people in the world: Those who want to be liked, those who want to be comfortable, those who want to be right and those who want to win.

• People who want to be liked are motivated by what others think of them. They don't want to "rock the boat" and want to be everyone's friend.
  
• People who want to be comfortable are motivated by their comfort level. They don't want to be pushed outside of their comfort zone and want to remain in complete control of their comfort.
  
• Those who want to be right are motivated by winning arguments and asserting their authority over others. These people will win an argument and don't mind losing a friend in the process.
  
• Those who want to win are motivated by "winning" and getting what they want in life above all else. These people will lose an argument to win in the long term.
  

Each one of us wants to be liked, comfortable, right and win, but the question is, which of the 4 types motivates us the most?

In negotiation, business and deal-making, success depends on our desire to "win". Creating win-win situations is the most important skill in negotiating or deal making.

• When negotiating with people who want to be liked, these people will give up key positions just to maintain their likability. This makes people who want to be "liked" bad negotiators, but easy to make deals with.
  
• When negotiating with people who want to be comfortable, they will never give up positions of comfort and this makes them harder to make a deal with.
  
• When negotiating with people who want to be right, they will argue over non-critical points until they kill the deal.
  
• When negotiating with people who want to win, they will do whatever it takes and give up any position just to win the position they need in the negotiation. These types of people make the most effective negotiators.
  

Mark Cuban has used the following line on the hit TV show Shark Tank many times "What would you rather have? Half a watermelon or a whole grape?"

When negotiating or making a deal, we need to ask ourselves, are we willing to sacrifice some of the things we want so that we can end up with a watermelon and not get stuck with a grape? Negotiation is always a"push and pull" process where the objective is never to obliterate the other side. We have to create win-win situations so that both sides end up sharing a large tasty watermelon.

Unfortunately, we all have personality traits and qualities that can inhibit our ability to negotiate effectively.

We all have the ability to be great negotiators and great deal makers, but unfortunately we also have many opportunities to be deal-killers.

I have identified 11 questions you can ask yourself to find out whether you are a deal maker or a deal-breaker.

13 DIAGNOSTIC DEAL-MAKING OR BREAKING QUESTIONS:

1. Is your personal profit on a single deal worth more than the lifetime value of the relationship with the other side? Yes or no?
   
2. Do you take more value than you give? Yes or no?
   
3. When doing a deal, do you try to get something for nothing? Yes or no?
   
4. When negotiating on key points are you looking at the big picture or just the minor details? Are you focused on the forest or the trees?
   
5. Do you need to win every point of a negotiation? Can you give in on less important points?
   
6. Do you care what the other side gets as long as you get what you want?
   
7. How many deals have you done this year?
   
8. Are you easy and pleasant to deal with? Or are you hard and tough to deal with?
   
9. Do you go back on your word? Is your word your bond?
   
10. Will you try to kill a deal that you are not a part of? Will you try to disrupt or block someone else's deal?
    
11. When great opportunities come up, do you get called first to participate? Or do you get called last or not at all?
    

13 ANSWERS FOR DEAL-MAKING OR BREAKING QUESTIONS:

1. Lifetime value is always worth more than personal profit on a single deal. Networks and relationships are always worth more than a single deal. If you are too focused on transactional profit, you may be a deal-killer.
   
2. If you take more value than you give, you are a deal-killer. Deal makers always give the other side much more value than anticipated. Think value, not price.
   
3. If you try to get something for nothing, you are a deal-killer. Nature is based on inputs and outputs, it is impossible to get something for nothing in this world.
   
4. If you are obsessed over the small details of a negotiation and fail to see the big picture, chances are you are a deal-killer. The best deal makers can see the big picture and find flex on small details.
   
5. If you need to win every point in a negotiation, you are absolutely a deal-killer. You are also probably a painful person to deal with.
   
6. You should not care what the other side gets, as long as you get what you want. Someone will always get more than you. Focus on what you want and forget about the other side. This is key in deal-making and in life. Happiness comes from getting what you want, not getting what the other guy gets.
   
7. If you are not doing as many deals as you would like, you are likely thinking like a deal-killer and not a deal-maker. It might be time to change our mindset.
   
8. The number one personality trait for top negotiators and deal makers is personality. If you are not a pleasant and easy person to deal with, then you are likely a deal killer. Personality is #1.
   
9. If you go back on your word, you are a deal killer. Integrity is extremely important in making deals. Get this fixed immediately if it's a problem.
   
10. If you try to disrupt someone else's deal because you are not in it, you are a serious deal killer. Avoid this at all costs. Allow commerce to happen and opportunities will flow towards you.
    
11. If you do not get called first for a deal or business opportunity, chances are, you are a deal-killer. Work on your negotiation and your personality skills to increase your chances of getting the best opportunities first.
    

Neogitations, business and life are all very simple games. To quote Zig Ziglar "You can get everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want." Effective negotiation is a skill that revolves around people and people skills. If you can eliminate the 11 ways to kill a deal above, there is no reason why you can't sell more, transact more and have better more fulfilling relationships.

Thanks for reading,
Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca

P.S. Please share this article if you found it helpful!

By Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca

Remember: Please share this article if you found it helpful.

Entrepreneurship has never been easy...

 Every entrepreneur has to manage hundreds of variables from inner problems such as fear, vision, doubt, and passion to external problems such as the economy, markets, suppliers, employees, banks, customers and competition.

There is often a paralyzing amount of information every day that the modern entrepreneur needs to sift through just to compete and stay alive.

Succeeding at an endeavour like entrepreneurship can seem impossible when we consider the variables and look at the well-known published statistics:

90% of new businesses fail in the first 5 years of operation. Of the businesses that survive, 90% of the survivors fail in the second 5 years.

If we only look at the statistics, success in entrepreneurship looks absolutely bleak. 

With such low chances of success, why would anyone want to become an entrepreneur?

"Lies, damned lies, and statistics" is a phrase popularized by Mark Twain. 

Statistics can always "lie" and be manipulated to paint a skewed picture of the way things really are.

Although the statistics look bleak, Entrepreneurship is truthfully a simple numbers game. If we can follow a simple formula, then success if extremely likely and maybe even guaranteed.

If you look at the numbers for any business, industry or sales cycle, patterns can found in the numbers. Through the numbers, we can find the path to success.

For example when I was in sales, I knew that I had to make 50 calls to have 10 conversations. From these conversations, I would book 2 meetings. If I booked 10 meetings, I would close 4 customers and earn a predictable amount of profit.

If I wanted to earn a consistent income, I had to make 50 calls a day. My actions determined my results. There was no luck in this game.

Most people, when they enter "the sales world" think that "luck" is a factor. They think that there are "good days" and "bad days" when in fact, every day is the same. The question is, "did you execute your daily repeatable actions to create success over time?" 

There is no luck in this world but the luck we make for ourselves.

A wise man once said "the harder I work, the luckier I get".

The same laws of "actions repeatable over time" apply to entrepreneurship as they do to music, sports, chess or any other real world activity.

THE POWER OF 10.

10 is a very powerful number in entrepreneurship.

Since 9/10 businesses fail, an entrepreneur must create 10 businesses to guarantee success. It's simple mathematics.

Business cycles run in 10 year increments. To see real profits in any business or buy-and-hold real estate, you must commit yourself to a period of a minimum 10 years.

Years ago, I used to study the world's most famous and successful rock bands. I was always intrigued by their start-up phase and how the bands became successful. For most bands, it takes at least 10 years of operations to become nationally recognized and reach commercial success. 

However, most bands quit after 1-2 years of grinding in the bar circuit.

The most successful athletes are the ones who put 10 years of time into their sports before their competition can catch up. Think of Wayne Gretzky hitting the ice at age 3 or Michael Jordan shooting more free throws than anyone else.

10 years is a standard business cycle and there is no variation to this principal.

Israel Asper, a very successful entrepreneur had a rule. The rule was; if he wasn't successful in a venture at the 10 year mark, then he would re-evaluate his position. In his life, Israel was successful at Media, Politics, Law and many other endeavours. With each endeavour, he committed a minimum of 10 years to his path and he was successful every time.

Most people quit after 1-2 years of no success, but they are too early in the cycle to even dream of being successful.

You can only reap what you sow. If you plant a seed in the ground and expect to have delicious fruit in 2 years, you may have to wait. It takes much longer than 2 years for any endeavour to bear delicious fruit.

To go with the theme of 10 years until success, Malcolm Gladwell, a man who has studied success across many fields has a rule: The 10,000 hour rule.

To quote Malcolm, "it takes 10,000 hours to become a phenom. To be so freakishly awesome, to be such a standout among your peers, that sometimes your first name is enough to tell people who you are: Peyton. Tiger. Venus. Kobe. Oprah."

10,000 hours and 10 years seem to line up perfectly, because  10 years is the amount of time it takes for most people to put in 10,000 hours.

“To become a chess grandmaster also seems to take about ten years. (Only the legendary Bobby Fisher got to that elite level in less than that amount of time: it took him nine years.) And what’s ten years? Well, it’s roughly how long it takes to put in ten thousand hours of hard practice. Ten thousand hours is the magic number of greatness.”

In my own personal cycle, I have only been doing real estate for 3 years and have already achieved a measurable level of success. I know that if I want to achieve substantial or "phenomenal" success, I have at least 7 more years to commit to Real Estate.

However, as an entrepreneur, I have always had a side business running and when I measure the time and hours I have invested as an entrepreneur, I am likely further ahead of other "3 year real estate entrepreneurs" in my 10 year development cycle.

The combination of being 3 years into my Real Estate cycle and perhaps 5-6 in my entrepreneurship cycle may explain why my Real Estate success has come faster and easier than past endeavours. 

I can speculate that my past knowledge has compounded  and I have learned from my mistakes in my past businesses mainly in Music, T-shirts and debt-buying.

If we are to measure my success by the "power of 10", I am on my 4th year in my real estate business and have 7 more years to commit to my cycle before I have matured as a real estate entrepreneur.

When you get a chance, analyze your own business experience and try to find your position in the 10 year business cycle. Examine the "power of 10" rule and figure out  where past experiences have fed your current experiences and how many more years you have before you reach the 10 year mark.

Measuring myself by these metrics has been extremely valuable for understanding where I am at today - and where I am going. 

I can gain perspective on my position when I apply the "power of 10 rule", I can see how much longer it will take to achieve guaranteed success in entrepreneurship.

In my mind, there is no such thing as failure. Failure only happens when you give up.

Thanks for reading,
Stefan Aarnio
freedomway.ca

P.S. Please share this article if you found it helpful!

By Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca

Remember: Please share this article if you found it educational!

Today I spent the day with two of  my Joint Venture coaching students and I was helping them build their Real Estate Joint Venture business from the ground up.

We built the outline of a business plan, a vision plan and a marketing plan - all very important elements to a successful business.

The most important of the three plans (for forward growth and sales) is easily the marketing plan.

Access to capital is a problem that real estate investors and entrepreneurs always have. We always run out of capital, invevitably. We aggressively invest in real estate, systems and people and we are constantly undercapitalized. There never seems to be enough capital to do everything that we want to do and play the game at the pace we want to play.

I showed my students a technique today that really helps to bring customers in the door and reconnect with our social networks that may or may not be properly "touched" by their personal branding and marketing.

Relationships are the core of the Real Estate businesses (or any business) and  all revenues, whether direct or indirect come from having good relationships.

The problem with relationships is that they take constant maintenance to stay alive.

Some people may say that the "Grass is greener on the other side" until they find that the grass on the other side needs watering and maintenance as well - Relationships are very much like grass and require lots of work.

My students today were new investors who have done 3 deals to date. They have only used their own money to this point and they are ready to start growing their business by taking on Joint Venture money partners. 

By Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca

Remember: Please share this article if you find it educational!

We only get one chance to make a first impression.

The world is an extremely judgemental place. People judge our clothes, our posture, our hair, our skin, our grooming, our watches, our shoes, our belts, our bags/briefcases, our fingernails, our jewellery and  our hygiene.

Absolutely every aspect of your physical self is under scrutiny from others 24/7 and we always rate the social ranking of our peers (whether conscious or not).

We are very quick to judge and can determine very quickly if we want to "deal" with someone based simply on appearance.

When it comes to networking and meeting people I have heard theories like: 

1. The first 3 seconds will earn you 3 minutes
2. 3 minutes will earn you 30 minutes
3. 30 minutes will earn you 2 hours
4. 2 hours will earn you a day.

This kind of sounds like dating, doesn't it? The above formula applies to dating, business and networking. Meeting people is a courtship, a process and an art form.

Many people can get a fairly good image together, enough to have a 3 minute or thirty minute conversation, but one aspect of "first impressions" that I feel like many entrepreneurs, networkers and real estate investors fall apart on is the business card.

I know how hard it is to put together a good, well laid out professional business card because I have failed at it at least a dozen times in my life.

This year alone I'm on my 6th run of business cards and I'm still tweaking my formula to get it right.

Different cards are relevant for different industries and send different messages.

I can take a glance at someone's business card quickly and know instantly where they are at with their career or business.

Here are 10 business card sins that send the wrong message to the people around you:

1) Neon Card = Broke, needs attention because he/she doesn't know how to get attention in other ways.
2) Picture on card = Self Employed, potentially broke.
3) "Get FREE cards on card" = Cheap, run away.
4) "Bob and Sally Smith" (2 names on card) = Not committed enough to get separate cards, run away.
5) Card that looks like $100 bill = broke person.
6) Card that boasts $500 referral fee = salesman who doesn't know how to get real referrals.
7) Card that says "Specializes in" with too many items = specializes in nothing, doesn't have a niche or identity.
8) Home made card = disaster, not serious and cheap.
9) Card with yahoo/hotmail address = not serious, will repel serious people.
10) No logo on card = either super classy or very very bad identity with no branding.

I have really studied business cards this year because I have sent the wrong message out on 5 runs so far. My 6th run is getting closer to perfection.

A general rule of thumb for a business card is "Would Donald Trump put this on his card?" If the answer is "no", then YOU DO NOT put it on your card. 

Who said success was hard? This is a very simple rule to follow. At the bottom of this article I have posted the business cards of Donald Trump, Abraham Lincoln, Bill Gates, Ben Franklin and Albert Einstein. Notice the similarities.

Here is the formula for a good card:

TOP LEFT = Your Logo, company name.
YOUR NAME
YOUR POSITION (Hopefully not CEO or President)
YOUR WEBSITE
YOUR PHONE NUMBER (No personal cell numbers)
FAX
EMAIL (FirstInitial.LastName@YourWebsite.com)
OFFICE ADDRESS OPTIONAL.

Remember: Your business card is NOT a billboard, do not make it scream from space. Be professional, look professional, act like the boss and people will treat you like the boss.

Happy printing,

Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca

P.S. Please share this article if you found it educational!