“If you keep on doing what you have been doing…

…you’ll keep on getting what you have been getting!”

Just saw this video from a colleague of mine, that teaches this lesson in a simplistic, comical way. He has more videos and a unique “100 day challenge” that you can learn more about after viewing the video. Check it out, it’s really good.

The man who wins is the man who thinks he can

I’m a big believer that you are what you think. Many times I walk into a situation and feel a little held back. Sometimes, I think I am crazy for moving forward on certain things. But at the end of the day, I know I must do what it takes to provide for my family. So I take over my thoughts and start to think of the positive end-result. I literally draw out what the best case scenario is and then believe that will be my end-result and what I will work towards.

You must control your thoughts. Do not be your worse enemy. Be an ally for yourself. Your own cheerleader. “Thoughts become actions.”

I found a poem (yes a poem!) online that I feel describes what I am saying very well… I hope you enjoy it.

The Victor
Poet: C.W. Longenecker or was it Walter D. Wintle?

“If you think you are beaten, you are.
If you think you dare not, you don’t
If you like to win but think you can’t,
It’s almost a cinch you won’t.

If you think you’ll lose, you’re lost.
For out in the world we find
Success begins with a fellow’s will
It’s all in the state of mind.

If you think you are outclassed, you are.
You’ve got to think high to rise.
You’ve got to be sure of yourself before
You can ever win the prize.

Life’s battles don’t always go
To the stronger or faster man.
But sooner or later, the man who wins
Is the man who thinks he can.”

Posted with the A/C blasting while listening to ‘Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad – Sunshine Dub’ on Sirius Chill.

Connection Tree Networking Event

So tonight I was invited by my good friend and real estate attorney, Chris Goodson, to a local networking event in Wall, New Jersey. Though, it’s not very local to me because I live up in Somerset, New Jersey but nonetheless it’s a good opportunity for me to meet a couple of people that have similar interests as mine and I thought that it would be great opportunity to have dinner with Chris Goodson whom I haven’t gone out with for a while.

So I only got the heads up about the event a few hours before it began and as you can imagine, I was in quite in a hurry to leave the house! Thanks to the help of my beautiful wife I found an outfit and got dressed and headed right on over!

After dealing with a few traffic delays (thank you Garden State Parkway), I ended up about 5 minutes late to the event, well maybe only 3 minutes. When I walked in to the event, I quickly realized that it had a lot of older business owners in attendance. Most of them are dressed up in suits and I actually felt a little uncomfortable at first, but I decided to put a smile on my face and have a positive attitude about it and so I went into the room where the event was being held and just started meeting and greeting every single person that caught my eye. I put out my hand and shook the hand of anyone that met eyes with me. And I said “Hi my name is Joe Lawrence”. With a good smile on my face I found out what they did for a living and what they were at the event for. I told them what I did for a living and what my purpose was and why I was there as well.

Finally, the event got started and all of us got an opportunity to introduce ourselves. We each got a 30 second introduction.  That room was full of at least 35-40 people. So as you can imagine, it took sometime to finally get to my turn (especially because you know most people take longer than 30 seconds). Fortunately it didn’t go too long though.

It was about to be my turn and I actually got nervous as it was coming to be my turn. It was nice to feel nervous again because, naturally as a public speaker, I don’t usually get nervous before I’m about to speak. So now it’s my turn. I made a little joke about how I’m the owner of the restaurant where the event is being held and I shared with everyone that I’m a pre-foreclosure investor in Somerset, NJ and my passion was teaching business credit workshops.

After that, about 3 or 4 people came to me and I talked them about my real estate business and about my business credit workshops. Meanwhile, Chris kept trying to pull me out so we can go eat dinner. I don’t blame him because I hadn’t eaten much that day myself. So I met with and greeted as many people as I possibly could, shook hands, exchanged business cards, and then we went and had dinner at the Shogun Legends Restaurant (where the event was being held). We ended up getting sushi and I even had some heavenly chicken! I had a great meal. We had a few Blue Moon beers too. The atmosphere was nice and it really was a relaxing, good dinner. We had some good conversation and caught up on things.

My advice to anyone who attends networking events is simply to have a positive attitude going into the event. Catch the eyes of all the people that are there and then smile and put your hand out and shake their hand. Introduce yourself and listen to what they’re saying and share what you’ve got to share.

My other advice would be: don’t get distracted when you go to a networking event. Meaning, you’re going to be meeting a lot of people and you might get excited about a lot of different opportunities. But at the end of the day, you need to stay focused on what your core business focus is and what’s making the majority of your revenue. You don’t want to walk out there with a 100 new projects to take on! So you want to stay focused! And if you feel that you’ve met someone that you’d like  to pursue a relationship with or do business with, then of course follow through (which 85% of people don’t). Simply by following through and following up you can turn those relationships into profitable relationships. Good luck!

My new plan

Hey guys,

I apologize that I have not been keeping up with this Blog. The blog that I have been working on and updating weekly is located at http://www.businesscreditworkshop.me . It’s my Blog where I teach Business Credit Tips / ways to obtain business credit.

This Blog is my personal blog though and I found a clever way to keep it up-to-date. Thanks to Jason Rodriguez (http://extremerealestatechallenge.com/).

Here’s the deal: I enjoy speaking, but I don’t exactly LOVE sitting down and typing, plus I type about 2-3 times slower than I talk (so do you – I bet!). Most people speak at 120 words per minute. Most people type at 40 words per minute. Point being, I can now talk into my blackberry phone and I press a transcribe button and within a short period, I receive the transcribed text back to me via email. I then edit the document and will post it here on this blog. Cool huh? The service I am using is called Idictate.

So, you will see and hear more from me from now on. If you find some posts that don’t have perfect verbiage, it’s because when you talk, it’s different than when you write. For example, you would never type the phrase “Umm…”, but people do use it when speaking, got it?

I plan on posting on this blog the way I would act at a social event. I’ll share some insight with you, tell you a little about what’s going on in my life and tell you about things that work for me in business. I appreciate you following!