The rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer at a staggering rate. Once upon a time, the United States had the largest and most prosperous middle class in the history of the world, but now that is changing at a blinding pace.

So why are we witnessing such fundamental changes? Well, the globalism and “free trade” that our politicians and business leaders insisted would be so good for us have had some rather nasty side effects. It turns out that they didn’t tell us that the “global economy” would mean that middle class American workers would eventually have to directly compete for jobs with people on the other side of the world where there is no minimum wage and very few regulations. The big global corporations have greatly benefited by exploiting third world labor pools over the last several decades, but middle class American workers have increasingly found things to be very tough.

Here are the statistics to prove it:

Read the rest of this entry »

Crazy cool! This is the world famous “Devil’s Causeway” in Colorado. Super scary… a 3 foot wide section with 1,000 foot cliffs on both sides. I pushed the comfort zone while crossing this big time.

Feeling stuck and not knowing how to re-engage your business and life? Ready to begin moving forward in creating the business you truly love?

In this short 6 min video, you’ll reconnect to your true passions and begin to attract what you really want into your life. Enjoy!

Let’s chat personally, get to know each other and talk about your business…

To book a free 30 min strategy session …

Looking forward to speaking with you soon.

Travis

Wishing you a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend, enjoy!

- Travis

Based on his work with professional sports teams, world-class organizations, and interviews with top professionals in a wide variety of fields Jon Gordon has found that the best of the best, whether they play sports or the piano or work with numbers, a computer or a scalpel, all share the same eleven traits and habits that cause them to excel in their work and life.

Jon says, “There is a formula for success. There are habits that the best do that others don’t and things that the best do better than everyone else. There is a way that the best of the best approach their life and work and craft that differentiates themselves from others. This formula is predictable, repeatable and a process anyone can follow…especially YOU.”

In this spirit you’re invited to listen to the Training Camp tele-seminar event and hear Jon share invaluable insights and proven strategies on what it takes to bring out the best in yourself and your team.

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Jon Gordon is a speaker, consultant and author of the international best seller The Energy Bus: 10 Rules to Fuel Your Life, Work and Team with Positive Energy, The No Complaining Rule: Positive Ways to Deal with Negativity at Work, and Training Camp: What the Best do Better than Everyone Else. Jon’s latest book, The Shark and The Goldfish: Positive Ways to Thrive During Waves of Change, is now available.

The message in Jon’s books and speaking presentations is such that NFL coaches such as Jack Del Rio, Mike Smith, the PGA Tour and the FBI have called on Jon to inspire and benefit their teams. Jon and his books have been featured on CNN, NBC’s Today Show and in Forbes, Fast Company, O Magazine, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times. Clients such as The Atlanta Falcons, Campbell Soup, Northwestern Mutual, Publix Super Markets and JP Morgan Chase also call on Jon to bring out the best in their leaders and teams.

Steve Jobs (CEO Apple and Pixar Animation) delivers his Stanford Commencement Speech 2005 to the graduates of Stanford University. He tells three stories from his life: connecting the dots, love and loss and death!

Extract: ”Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick.

Don’t lose faith.

I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers.

Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking.
Don’t settle.

As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on.

So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.”

Join Nick and Travis as they reveal a new project they are working on that will give you the opportunity to become a Best-Selling Author alongside a few other success minded entrepreneurs – the Fast, Easy way!

Click the link below to listen to a brief overview…

Imagine what kind of credibility and additional business you will get just from having the title of “Best-Selling Author”

“A Book Can Take You Places You Could Never Take Yourself”

If you want to dominate your market by becoming known as the absolute expert on in your field, this could be the opportunity you’ve been looking for…

Listen in to hear Travis and Nick peel back the curtain and show you how you can:

* Become a Best-Selling Author Quickly and Easily
* Position Yourself Above all of your competition
* Use your Best-Seller Status in your Marketing to Grow Your Business!
* Use a Book to Take You Places and Get You Clients You Could Never Get Yourself
* Use a book to drive traffic and lead generation on your website
* Repurpose your content to attract more and better business
* and much, much more!

My friend, celebrity attorney & branding expert, Nick Nanton, gave me a publishing deal to author a collaborative book and we’re inviting a select group of high-integrity, experienced entrepreneurs, marketers and professionals to join us in this unique opportunity.

You’ve possibly come across other collaborative books and book opportunities out there in the past.

I have to confess, I really haven’t been that drawn to the model myself because the other books didn’t relate to what I was doing, so I couldn’t use it to increase the income from my business.

That is, until I met Nick.

Nick is a branding and positioning master and he actually has a system that ensures Best-Seller status.

And, we’re both committed this isn’t “just another book” that sits on shelves… or is just an entertaining read.

Our collaborative book will be a first class hardbound book, with proven tips from the trenches and actual strategies and knowledge that people can use to change their lives and grow their businesses in any economy.

About Your Co-Authors:

Nick Nanton, Esq. is known as “The Celebrity Lawyer” for his role in developing and marketing business and professional experts into Celebrity Experts in their field, through personal branding, to help them gain credibility and recognition for their accomplishments. Nick is recognized as the nation’s leading expert on personal branding as Fast Company’s Expert Blogger on the subject and lectures regularly on the topic at the University of Central Florida. His book Celebrity Branding You® has been selected as the textbook on personal branding at the University.

Nick serves as the Producer of America’s PremierExperts® television show and The Next Big Thing® radio show, both designed to recognize the top Experts in their field and bring their solutions to consumers.

Nick is an award winning songwriter, television producer and, the co-author of the best-selling books, Celebrity Branding You!®, Big Ideas for Your Business and Shift Happens. Nick also serves as editor and publisher of Celebrity Press™, a publishing company that produces and releases books by top Business Experts. Nick has been featured in USA Today, The Wall St. Journal, Newsweek, The New York Times, Entrepreneur® Magazine, FastCompany.com and has appeared on ABC, NBC, CBS, and FOX television affiliates speaking on subjects ranging from branding, marketing and law, to American Idol.

Travis Greenlee is a Master Internet Marketing and Business Development Consultant. He specializes in teaching small business owners, entrepreneurs, and service professionals to leverage the power of technology to automate, simplify, and rapidly increase their profits.

Travis began his career with Merrill Lynch as a financial consultant and business advisor. He has been a professional speaker, trainer and a Master Business Development Consultant since 1991. As CEO of the Business Building Mastery, LLC. family of companies, Travis shares his extraordinary blend of passion, purpose, and excitement for life and business.

In addition to being a professional speaker, Travis is a world renowned author. He is a co-author of Guerrilla Marketing on the Front Lines with Jay Conrad Levinson, and Don’t Miss Your Boat: Living Your Life with Purpose in the Real World.

Whew, touching eh? When I watched this, it brought me to tears… Not for feeling sorry for Nick, but for the fact that so many of us go through life focusing our time and energy on what we fear rather than what’s truly possible

It’s easy to get all rapped up in self pity, blame, and fear… especially during these challenging times.

Reminds me of a lesson I learned many years ago. It’s not what happens to us that’s important, it’s how we respond to it that makes all the difference.

If you’ve been in slump, now’s the time to get up, step out, and build your true character.

Sending lots of love and positive energy!

- Travis

Tired of chasing that elusive “six to seven-figure mark?”

Or are you already making six figures, but the pace you’re keeping is a whirlwind of clients and meetings and projects and crazy, mixed-up hours?

I’ve got great news for you:

You are 75 minutes away from catapulting your “overworked and underpaid business” into a rewarding and successful MONEY-MAKING MACHINE

Discover how to take advantage of every opportunity while at the same time thriving in business because you get to do what you love most every day!

But this is about more than just making oodles of cash (although I know that’s important). This is also about enjoying the business you’ve created rather than being trapped back in a J.O.B.

You know what it’s like when you spend all your time and energy trying like heck to finish that ultra-long to-do list. Overwhelmed with learning new technology, keeping up with all your social media or even the extraordinary amount of effort it takes to ramp up a new client…

There’s just never enought time to get it all done!

Until now.

I’d like to help you discover the secret weapon I’ve been teaching entrepreneurs how to leverage for the last five years that will set you up for more money, time and fun in your business.

You may think you’ve heard it all when it comes to growing your business, but believe me – you haven’t! Give us just 75 minutes and we will show you a simple way to work less than you ever dreamed possible, make more money than you ever thought possible AND put the joy back into your business!

In the past, this program has been a $97 investment. But because you are a part of our community and we are committed to helping entrepreneurs like you rev up their business, we’d like to share it with you.

Enjoy!

Melanie Benson Strick is known as The Million Dollar Lifestyle Business Coach because she knows first-hand how to build a successful, thriving, freedom-based company with her secret weapon — LEVERAGE. With over 12 years in corporate America and eight years as a business owner, Melanie works exclusively with entrepreneurs who are ready for a “sustainable” lifestyle business.

To learn more: VirtualTeamBuilding

Cruisin’ on my snowboard with my buddy Peter Shunny on his skies. Nothing like soft, spring slush snow to play around in. Life is good

Listen in as “Lyrics Born” rocks Steamboat in our Bud Light concert series. A great way to top off a full day of snowboardin’

I’m sure you’ve heard many times from different experts that delegating can help you grow your business quickly. I mean just this last week I saw at least 25 articles alone espousing the benefits of having other people implement your marketing tasks, alleviate you from tasks you put off, and speed up the process of launching your programs to the world.

You may also know that I’m a firm believer in getting everything off my plate that I don’t do well or is not prudent for me to spend time on so I can always be focused on my personal money making magic! But what if I told you that maybe you SHOULD NOT delegate? Maybe there is some times in which it just makes sense to do the opposite of what works to achieve six and seven figures.
Curious?

Here are my four reasons why you should absolutely, positively NOT delegate or outsource to expand your business this year:

1. The idea of making more money is revolting.

Why allow other people to help you get more money making tasks done? That’s just silly! You love staying stuck exactly where you are because you must do everything yourself. I mean come on, money doesn’t grow on trees so why should you wisely invest it in capable, hard-working, efficient associates who help you achieve more in a week than you normally do in a year?

Even if you could see proof that learning how to hire “A” players to manage your social media, update your website, handle your organic SEO strategies would free you up to triple your income, why bother with stuff like that when you’ve got so much to do today, right?

2. Doing tasks that suck the life out of you is the highlight of your day.

When you wake up you are ecstatic knowing that you’ll get to update your bookkeeping records or spend 2 – 3 hours answering routine questions from tire-kickers who never plan to buy. But the highlight of your day – filing! Why, cause it’s an excellent use of your time. Who wouldn’t want to spend countless hours putting papers in folders when they could be putting together a launch strategy that could result in over $100k in revenue?

Then there are your personal favorites…the tasks that make you feel like a Mac truck ran over you. You know the ones ….you feel completely exhausted afterwards. As you dig into these tasks (if you ever get to them) you think how lucky you are to be an entrepreneur with all this freedom. Why would you ever want to spend most of your time doing things that make boat-loads of money?

3. Perfection, not progress, is the only route for you.

You are committed to getting things done yourself — correctly. Can you really trust someone else to do things right (I mean really what does Bill Gates know about delegation…he’s the genius in the business.) As you release every product perfectly with great pride, you somehow overlook the consequence of this choice – it takes you 5 – 10 times longer to get things done.

Even though you are frustrated with your slow progress you fear handing things off to someone else. You witness your peers who have discovered the secrets to hiring “A” players soaring to new heights and wonder what must be wrong that you can’t get these same results.

4. Work-a-holism is Under-Rated

Who needs sleep, right? There is so much to do you can barely get a few winks at night let alone actually meet your friends for a nice evening out. Family? Who are they? Oh those people who walk up and down your hallway waiting for you to come out and have dinner together.

Don’t they understand that you have hundreds of tasks to accomplish in record time and you don’t have anyone to help you out? Not that you couldn’t – you just have your head in the weeds and you haven’t yet seen the brilliance in slowing down, hiring some capable people and multiplying your accomplishments in record time.

All silliness aside, why on earth should an entrepreneur delegate or outsource? Because it’s how you create a business that can grow into six figures and beyond, profitably, without losing your mind!

When you pay attention to the business owners who consistently generate high six and seven figures, you’ll notice the one thing they all have in common is: they don’t do it alone.

In today’s economy, many make the fatal mistake of holding off on delegation. They key is to find is learning to hire people who will take tasks off your plate so you can focus on doing what you do best — profitably! And that requires a system of identify the right tasks to hand off, the right people who can do the job, and the right delegation techniques to ensure the tasks are done correctly the first time.
Stay tuned over the next few weeks I’ll be sharing with you some of my insider secrets to exponentially growing your revenue and results through delegation and outsourcing!

But first, my question for you is:

WHY DO YOU HOLD OFF DELEGATING? Please share in the comments below. I’d love to know what’s holding you back.

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Melanie Benson Strick is known as The Million Dollar Lifestyle Business Coach because she knows first-hand how to build a successful, thriving, freedom-based company with her secret weapon — LEVERAGE. With over 12 years in corporate America and eight years as a business owner, Melanie works exclusively with entrepreneurs who are ready for a “sustainable” lifestyle business. To learn more: SuccessConnections

Livin’ the dream in Steamboat, Colorado!

This is how I spend my time while coaching business owners to build million dollar businesses and giving them the freedom to enjoy life to its fullest. Are you ready to have it all?