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

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The great Zig Ziglar said it best “Money isn’t everything, but it ranks up there with oxygen.”

We live in a world that is ruled by money. Almost everything we do on a daily basis is tied to money in some way. We live in homes that are purchased with money, we drive cars purchased by money, we wear clothes purchased by money and we eat food that is purchased by money. More money can mean a better life, more money can mean fewer problems. Typically when we are asked how much money we want, the answer deep inside of ourselves is always “more”.

Many people struggle and work hard each day to earn more money. The sad thing is, many of these people do not understand what money is. How can you earn more of something that you do not understand? How can you master something if you don’t know what you are trying to master? Sun Tzu the great military strategist said:

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”

The translation of this famous quote from war to money would be: 1) If you know yourself, and understand money, you will never have to worry about money and will always have it. 2) If you know yourself, but do not understand money, you will suffer a loss for every gain you make with money. You will never get ahead. 3) If you do not know yourself and do not understand money, you will lose money whenever you encounter it and will be broke and constantly in debt.

Most people think that money is a from of exchange, or a currency, or a lubricant for life (why scrape through life when you can slide on by?) All of the above definitions are true, but the best definition for money that I have ever seen is:

“Money is an idea backed by confidence” -Ron Hubbard.

The man who works hard for money, works hard for another man’s idea that has become confidently supported by others. Companies become real when investors gain confidence and invest in them. The dreams of great visionaries like Apple by Steve Jobs or Disney by Walt Disney have become concrete once their visions and ideas gained the confidence of others.

Today, brands like apple and Disney have supreme confidence and are worth billions of dollars in stock and revenue. Apple has gained so much momentum it is now the most valuable company in history.

Money only has value, because enough people are confident in the idea of the money itself. In history, sea shells have been used as money, gold, silver, fur, salt, pepper, paper and digital numbers have all been money at one point in time. All of these systems are flawed and none of them have any real intrinsic value. The confidence that backs the ideas is much more important than the actual money itself.

Con men (short for confidence men), throughout history, have been successful at swindling fortunes by exploiting the human weaknesses of others through dishonesty, honesty, vanity, compassion, credulity, irresponsibility, naiveté or greed.

Con men present an idea, create confidence and once those two elements are in place, the victims fall prey to their weaknesses and will transfer their money to the con man who will promptly disappear with a fortune.

There is very little difference between an illegitimate Con Man and a real deal entrepreneur like Steve Jobs or Walt Disney in that they 1) create a clear idea and vision and 2) sell the idea with confidence.

The primary difference between a Con and a legitimate businessperson is that the Con has no real business, asset or investment, while the real businessperson has a tangible business asset or investment. Regardless of the validity of the scheme, the sales process for getting the money is the same.

But how does this affect you?

We all want more money, and since money is an idea backed by confidence, to create money, you must first create confidence. The amount of money you have will directly correlate to the amount of confidence you create.

Self confidence and trusting your decisions is the base of all wealth and is a pre-requisite for attracting money either through sales or through investor capital. Break a man’s confidence and you will also break his bank account. Raise his confidence and you can make him into a god.

Here are 12 Quick ways to raise your confidence:

1)   Get a makeover and create a professional appearance

2)   Keep a physically fit body

3)   Learn to speak well and have a wide vocabulary

4)   Keep well groomed

5)   Show up on time

6)   Have an assertive and firm hand shake

7)   Start small in your business and grow fast

8)   Take on projects that are easy to complete and slowly increase the complexity over time.

9)   Become the expert on your subject; know everything there is to know.

10) Get a coach or mentor to guide you through your studies

11) Share your successes with others, analyze and study your defeats

12) Teach others to sharpen your skills

Thanks for reading,

Stefan Aarnio

Since when is good not good enough?

In the old days it was good enough to be competent. People wanted quality, they wanted skill, they and they wanted experience. It was good enough to go to school, get a diploma and get a good job until you turn 65 and retire. Life was simple and easy.

If you were competent and qualified, you were guaranteed a place on the assembly line at the factory and you would make a very nice living.

However, the days of competency are gone.

The proliferation of the internet and social media has changed the way we see the world and competency is no longer good enough. We must not just communicate in the new economy, we must connect.

Consumers, business partners, investors, fans, clients, and customers are all bombarded with competency every day. There are millions of quality products, there are thousands of people with integrity to buy from. Honesty is no longer good enough. What our customers are looking for these days is connection.

Our customers not only want to buy from us, but they want to connect with us.

Social media has become a game-changer in the last 10 years where consumers can instantly connect with other consumers to exchange information about another person, product or service. Likewise, these same consumers are not only looking to purchase from their favourite brands, they expect to connect and interact with them online.

Communication has become a two way street where consumers are now able to communicate with their favourite brands and service providers and expect to get real time communication back. There is a global, online, real time conversation happening 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The question is, what are your customers saying about you? And how are you connecting with them?

Your customers are expecting to connect, how are you able to connect to start a conversation?

In my own business, I have chosen the following 3 channels to connect and interact:

1. Facebook: One of the world's leading social media sites, I provide relevant, valuable and original content to my fans and customers regularly through this media channel. I also look to share anything they may find valuable that comes across my feed. My business growth has exploded through Facebook and I find it be an extremely valuable tool for connecting with customers and fans.
   
   
2. YouTube: Youtube is quickly becoming one of the most powerful search engines in the world. The younger online generation is bypassing Google all together and is searching only on Youtube. I am making video and youtube a priority in my business by video taping every deal I do and putting it online. Your youtube channel is your mini television network and your fans and customers are waiting to hear from you and give feedback.
   
   
3. Linked-In: Linked-in is the online “professional” community designed for professionals to connect. I have used linked-in mostly for a branding tool and a tool to collect endorsements and testimonials. The days of a paper resumé are gone and many potential partners or employers will google you and look at your linked-in instead. In my business I use linked-in less as a connection tool and more as an online resumé or track record. Your linked in profile is very powerful, even though it may or may not have the same traffic as Facebook or other popular social media platforms.
   
   

If you are not already harnessing these three ways to connect with your audience, you must do so immediately. The world is changing, the market is changing and we must connect to stay relevant in the new connection economy.

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!

A wise man once said: " Entrepreneurship is living a few years of your life like most people won’t, so that you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t." -Unknown

Everyone dreams of having the rewards of a successful entrepreneur. We all want more free time, less work, less stress, more money, more vacations, the best spouse possible, a great family, more satisfaction at work, a creative outlet, independence and more cheques in the mailbox than bills. However, everything in life has a price and usually in life, the higher the benefit, the higher the cost.

The truth is that entrepreneurship can provide all of the above benefits that we all want, but it can also become a burden that is far too costly for most to bear. Most employees have dreams and fantasies of quitting their job, firing their boss and living on a beach with lots of passive income. Many employees who have this kind of dream will join a network marketing company, start dabbling in investment real estate or start a traditional business. Some of these employees will dabble with entrepreneurship through all of the above methods and may eventually decide to make the leap and quit their job. However, very few survive.

Entrepreneurship has one of the highest failure rates out of any career path. There is no traditional school that teaches entrepreneurship correctly, and in reality, it is something that cannot be taught or learned from one source. It takes many years, many experiences, many sources of knowledge, coaches, mentors, seminars, books, tapes, mistakes, failures and relationships combined with consistency and a commitment to success at all costs to become victorious in entrepreneurship. The process takes at least 10 years, likely more, and it can never be mastered.

So why do most people fail?

In my opinion, most WANTrepreneurs (aka entrepreneurs who still have day jobs and practice business on the side) are generally crippled by one under-developed skill set.

What is more amazing is that this skill set is not even considered a skill by most educators and it is rarely taught (or poorly) taught in schools and business schools of the world.

The secret sauce that most entrepreneurs are missing is the ability to sell.

When an employee attempts to make the leap into entrepreneurship and then is forced back into his job because he cannot survive, it means that he cannot sell.

I have "quit my job" 3 times in my life. The first two times, I didn't know how to sell and foolishly quit without the adequate skills, credit or cash to survive. The third time I quit and never looked back.

What made me different on the third time? When I was ready to quit the third time, I had worked for a direct sales company and had learned how to become a top performer on the team. I knew how to hire, how to fire, how to train, sell, present, cold call, farm a database, build a database, put on events, sell from stage, fill events and watched my mentor build one of the fastest growing companies in Canada.

The experience was scary at times, it was stressful, uncomfortable and I wanted to quit, but I became successful at my vocation and earned the right to become a full time entrepreneur and never need my resumé again.

When you consider Robert Kiyosaki's cashflow quadrant (as it's displayed in the photo above), there are 4 quadrants. 2 of them actively work for money on the left, (the E for employee and S for self-employed), while the quadrants on the right (the B for large business owner and I for investor) do not work for money.

So many E's and S's dream of being on the right side of the quadrant and they wish they had residual "passive income" to fund their ultimate lifestyle, but they try to "make the leap" to the right side of the quadrant without knowing how to sell.

Selling is the difference between the left and the right. The right side of the quadrant must sell to survive and grow, the left mostly trades time for money.

Too often, people on the left try to go from the E quadrant and make the leap to the B or I without becoming an S or self employed. This, in my opinion, is one of the most dangerous moves a person can make.

The S quadrant is a great training ground for becoming an entrepreneur and it is the place that most professional salespeople live in. Robert Kiyosaki explains in his book that the most natural progression towards financial freedom is to start as an E (or employee), become a salesperson (self employed), then become a B or (Business owner) then finally end up as an I (or investor).

This progression is very natural and the skills learned in each quadrant compound on one another. For myself, I had been in the S quadrant for most of my life and my progression looks like this so far: S E S I

1) My first S - I was a self employed guitar teacher running an all cash business out of my mother's home in university

2) My first E - I was a phone sales employee taking inbound calls in the middle of the night.

I quit this job and tried to become a "B" (or business owner) and failed.

I then became a merchandiser "E" (or employee) stocking chips on shelves for one of the largest chips companies in the world.

I then quit my job and tried to become an "I" (or professional investor) (I failed and had to get a job)

3) After failing again on my own, I became an "S" again, worked for a direct sales company, got the skills I needed and built my own "I" (investor) company.

Today I am out of the rat race and run my own successful business. I work when I want to on projects that I am excited about and have the honour and privilege of growing the business of my dreams. My life is better in every way because I know how to sell. Selling is the #1 skill in my business and I continue to study it meticulously to become a superstar. As my sales skills improve, so does my income, and I love being in control of how much I earn.

Ever since I learned to sell, I have earned the right to operate in the "B" and "I" quadrants on the right side of the diagram and survival is no longer a concern for me. Instead of trying to "scrape by", I use my energy towards thriving, building a legacy of value and anything I set my sights on is possible!

Action Step: Can you survive on your sales skills alone? Have you become a student of selling? How can you benefit from improving your sales skills? Please share your comments below!

By: Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
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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!

This morning I was having breakfast with a colleague of mine and we were trying to find ways to compliment each other's respective real estate businesses. Sometimes it can be difficult to find ways to compliment another person's business due to personal similarities or differences and we spent a considerable amount of time talking about our business philosophies and dreams.

My philosophy in business has predominately been: it is better to sell one $1,000 hot dog than sell one thousand $1 hot dogs. 

Selling one hot dog for $1,000 makes much more money, requires less effort and has a completely different clientele and resources required to sell one thousand $1 hot dogs. 

However, we don't often see any hot dog carts selling $1,000 hot dogs… Why?

Years ago on the Celebrity Apprentice, one of my business heros Gene Simmons sold a $5,000 hot dog to one of his friends for charity. The context of the sale was a battle between two teams of Celebrities to see who could raise the most money selling hot dogs for charity. The business models of the two teams varied greatly with one cart selling $5 hot dogs and the other cart selling $5,000 hot dogs. The results for the two teams was vastly different with the $5 hot dog making approximately $17,000 while the $5,000 hot dog made closer to $52,000.

All of the money was raised for charity and both teams were loaded with celebrities. Both teams did very well, but the huge difference in money raised was that one team was thinking bigger by asking for more dollars per hot dog.

Years ago when I was in the music industry, I wanted to find a way to do business in a bigger way. Naturally I got into real estate because in music I was selling hundreds of $1 "hot dogs" whereas in real estate I could sell a few $1,000 "hot dogs" and make a much better living. Real Estate in general when compared to a music business has much better margins, takes less time, less work and is much more sustainable because there is usually only one customer instead of 1000 for a similar profit.

After I had mentioned that I would rather sell one $1,000 hot dog, my friend replied that his philosophy has been to sell one thousand $1,000 hot dogs. He elaborated by saying that he was working on a multi-million dollar land subdivision deal where he would sell nearly 100 lots of land and metaphorically speaking sell one thousand $1,000 hot dogs. His thinking was clearly bigger than mine.

When we had met that morning, we were looking at a house that I was going to buy to flip. I had clearly illustrated my $1,000 hot dog thinking with my current business model of flipping houses one at a time. My colleague had a much greater plan to take the profits of my plan and multiply it by 100 with the same effort.

But what do the hot dogs mean?

There are two ways to build a business model. One is vertical and the other is horizontal. 

HORIZONTAL BUSINESS - $1 hot dogs x 1000

A horizontal business will have lots of customers with low transaction volumes. The business relies on having a high amount of customers and transactions to make a profit. This is the hot dog cart with $1 hot dogs.

VERTICAL BUSINESS - $1000 hot dog x 1

The other model is the vertical model. This model has less customers, but makes more money per customer. It relies on having a few great repeat customers who account for 80% or more of the business. This is the model I am building in my business today. This is the hot dog cart with the $1,000 hot dogs.

DIAGONAL BUSINESS - $1000 hot dog x 1000

There is a third model, and this model is the diagonal model that uses both vertical and horizontal strategies where we sell $1,000 hot dogs to 1000 customers. This model is much more advanced and requires the customer care of the vertical model with the systems and velocity of the horizontal model. If you can build a diagonal model, you will be rich - guaranteed. However, this model is the most difficult to create and few people know how to actually build a horizontal business model that works.

After examining the $1 hot dog cart and the $1,000 hot dog cart, which hot dog cart would you like to own? Which cart are you running in your current business? Is this where you want to be today? What is holding you back from building a diagonal business?

Thanks for reading,
By: Stefan Aarnio
Freedomway.ca
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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!

Everyone loves perfection.

We demand perfection when we go out to a restaurant for dinner. We demand perfection when we go the dentist to get a tooth drilled. We demand perfection when a relative goes into the hospital for surgery.

Of course, perfection has a cost - perfection is not cheap!

For our perfect dinner, we need 5-10 people working in the restaurant dedicating their lives to our dining experience plus all of the suppliers of food, contractors who built the restaurant, interior designers who designed the restaurant and everyone else who indirectly created our experience.

When we see the dentist, he usually has a team of 5+ people working in the office plus nearly a decade of post secondary education to earn the right to work on your teeth.

The surgeon is has a similar team and education to the dentist.

Perfection is something we all want, but is it something we need?

Studies show that Top Achievers, the world's most successful entrepreneurs, actors, sales people, sports stars etc. strive for perfection but choose improvisation over perfection.

Top achievers improvise.

Consider the 80/20 rule, 80% of our results come from 20% of our actions. If we want to achieve the last 20% the "law of diminishing returns" comes into effect. After a certain point, the same actions will yield no further results and the last 20% becomes nearly impossible to reach.

Perfection is an ideal, something that we all strive for, but something that we cannot achieve without an irrational amount of effort. Therefore, top achievers will reach their point of satisfaction, improvise and will move onto the next task. 

You are better to grab the first 20 cents of every dollar than to try to grab 100 cents of every dollar because the last 80 cents are so hard to achieve that the return on time yields no measurable result.

Improvisation is a key skill for success. In his book Lynchpin, Seth Godin talks about the concept of "shipping". When creative, influential people are working on a project, they set a deadline and on that day they "ship" the product whether it is ready or not. The deadline benefits the author twofold:

1) It gets the product out the door in it's first revision, the product is imperfect, but it exists and is ready to go.
2) The product no longer has the risk of never becoming completed

Instead of perfection, we have a shipped product that is ready for use and is ready for improvement.

Microsoft (love them or hate them) has a very practical business model. They always "ship" their software - ready or not, bugs and all. The software that they ship is not always ready, but with patches and revisions, it eventually becomes functional and the company is able to earn revenue and serve it's customers. Bill Gates became the richest man in the world by "shipping" his software like this and improvising rather than seeking perfection.

If software companies would hold onto their software until it's perfect, they would all go out of business before the software is ready. The fact of the matter is that perfection should be reached for, but we cannot wait for the "perfect" product to ship because perfect does not exist.

What is much more practical is to produce a good product and slowly adjust it towards perfection.

Even companies like Blizzard Entertainment, the creators of World of Warcraft, the most profitable video game of all time are known for "taking their time" to produce their product. They will develop a title over 10 years and reach the closest they can to perfection without achieving it. After 10 years of development, they will release the imperfect software and continue to patch it to bring it closer to perfection over a 5-10 year period on the back end.

Are you addicted to perfection? Is your addiction holding you back from achieving your dreams?

For myself, I have renamed my company and brand nearly 6 times this year, I have gone through 6 runs of business cards, I have created and re-created 6+ websites to get the exact message I want. My motto is to "ship" whether or not it's perfect and adjust as necessary. The benefits of shipping when it's functional instead of perfect vastly outweigh the drawbacks. For example, I won the Canadian Real Estate Wealth Magazine's Joint Venture Partner of the Year award for 2012 because I had started blogging on an imperfect blog and gained some visibility.

My business was exactly the same with or without the visibility, I still did 12 deals, however, because I had an imperfect blog with imperfect articles distributed in an imperfect way, I was visible and nominated for the award.

Had I not "shipped" my blog until it was perfect, I would not have won the award. The deals still would have been done, but I would have lost out on $30,000 of press and exposure.

Perfection is a fickle mistress, chase her as an ideal, but do not succumb to her allure. Favour the maiden of improvisation and all will be well.

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 enjoyable!

Everyday we wake up the morning, we go to work, we earn a living, we come home, we go to bed and do it all over again. Some of us earn a living doing what we love; others earn a living doing things that are tolerable. However, we all earn money the same way – we sell.

The question is, what do you sell?

Most of the population sells their time or a derivative of their time. A Janitor sells his time at a certain rate per hour. A doctor sells his time at a higher rate per hour. As long as we are selling time, labor and skills, we are bound to the labor that we sell.

Years ago, I used to teach guitar to teenagers out of my living room. The work itself was rewarding, enjoyable and fun. However, the part of the job that I hated was that I was tethered to the living room and could not leave town if I wanted to. Every Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday I had to be in the living room to teach the kids. If I wasn’t teaching, I wasn’t getting paid. Going away on a trip was impossible because I would have to reschedule everyone and give credit to my customers in the summertime which would eat into my vacation time.

While working as a guitar teacher, I decided that selling time was not for me.

I also had a rock band that I played in and managed on the side and the great thing about the band was that I learned how to sell other things besides my time.

I used to put on little rock shows at community centers in Winnipeg and I generally lost a lot of money with those shows. The formula was simple and poorly thought out; put in all the money, take all the risk, invite other bands to play and pray that people showed up to buy tickets to the show. 90% of the time, the bands would not draw a crowd and I would lose money; until I got smart.


Instead of renting the most affordable venue I could find, I started to rent the best venue in the city that I could NOT afford. I would put up $100 as a down payment on a $1000 venue to control a day on the calendar. I would then get tickets printed and sell spots in the show to other bands. I would sell the tickets in the show wholesale for $300 per band and would make profit before the show started. I would then make additional profit at the door and profit off of the merchandise.

Instead of selling time I sold: space, tickets, and merchandise. I liked selling space instead of time so I started to study real estate and today have put myself in a position where I no longer have to sell my time. Instead of selling my time, I sell space in my rental units and the space allows me to earn a living.

Unfortunately for most people, selling is a dirty word. Most people hate selling, they think it’s cheap, they think they are ripping people off, they don’t like rejection, they fear approaching others and asking for money. What is even more unfortunate is that we all sell everyday: we sell our time to our employers, we sell our girlfriend/boyfriend as to why they should date us, we sell our kids on why they should be quiet and stop screaming. Everyone sells, it’s the only way to make money and we have no choice over whether we sell or not – we must sell. However, we do have a choice over WHAT we sell.

We do not have to sell our time; we can sell many other things that are not tied to our labor. Real Estate and business are two ways that we can break the link between time and money and begin to sell things other than our time. When we build a business we get to choose what we are going to sell and begin to take full control of our lives.

There is only one way to make money in this world, and that is to sell. What do you sell to earn a living?

Thanks for reading,

Stefan Aarnio

Freedomway.ca

facebook.com/stefanaarnio

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http://ca.linkedin.com/in/stefanaarnio

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