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This is one of the harshest facts I have encountered, but it is unquestionably accurate.  Let’s get something straight; I was a member of the 98% club until April 1999 when I decided to take charge of my life, become my own boss and take responsibility for what was going to happen to me.  I was no longer going to be making someone else’s dreams come true.  That day was the starting point of my personal road to wealth and achievements. There is nothing great about being members of the 98% club.    I share my experience with being a member of the '98% club', the story of how I got out, and the five steps I took to get me to the 2%. 

In this episode, we will discuss the importance of fitness and how it impacts your success personally and professionally.    Now, let’s set the record straight; I wasn’t always that person whose working out was part of their DNA; in matter of fact I was far from it.  Physical fitness was something I dabbled in now and then or when I had to buy a bigger waist size, or my Doctor would say I need to lose weight or when each new year would come around.    My Mom who was a great cook and made us wonderful meals every day.  We ate large portions and combined with my family genetics being husky as a kid and overweight as an adult was a reality.    Over the years, I had added 30 pounds, 4 waist sizes, high blood pressure and sleep apnea to my 5’6’’ frame.  To add to it, my stress leveI was a bit high; I was running my consulting company that was in a critical stage of its lifecycle, traveling over 100k miles a year in the air, working 60 to 70 hours a week and oh yeah, trying to be the best father possible but dealing with an ex-wife who made joint parenting a living hell, etc.       It was the perfect storm for a disaster that was waiting to happen.  

Today’s episode #046 is one of my favorites: Book Smart vs Street Smart – How Important is Common Sense?  In this week’s episode, we will discuss the concept of Common Sense and how impacts your progress.    Society as a whole is lacking common sense and is overemphasizing the importance of book smart versus street smart.  So, looking at your life, are you book smart or street smart?    

In the last 3 podcasts, we have covered 3 critical components to being able to take the STAIRWAY TO SUCCESS and they include:    Adopt a Success Mindset  Build a Bulletproof Routine Think Like a Wealthy Person        The journey to SUCCESS is not a straight line; there will be ups, downs, retreats and gaps between achieving goals and making it up the next set of steps on the stairway. 

Ever since I was a young man in my hometown of Deming New Mexico, I imagined myself as a wealthy person and seeing myself in a position of financial success and wealth that at the time was so far from being achievable.  Yet, I implanted visions of myself on what kind of person I would be when I achieved financial wealth, how I would dress, how my family would live, how I would help people, where I would travel, what kind of car and house I would have and would actually see the balance I wanted to achieve in my bank account.   

In this week’s episode, we will discuss Step 2 of the 1+1+1=4 CONCEPT which is BUILDING A BULLETPROOF ROUTINE to ensure consistency and discipline to make a positive change in your life.        Everyone has a routine, but is it a positive, goal-oriented routine or a routine guided by where the wind takes us that day?     So, why don’t you have a positive, bulletproof routine?   What is your excuse?  I guarantee if you asked 10 people around you more than 75% don’t have a positive routine they stick by that has become part of their DNA and made a difference in their life.   

In this episode, we will discuss the concept of 1+1+1=4 and its individual components that when added up will be greater than the sum of the individual parts.     Adopt a Success Mindset  Build a Bulletproof Routine  Think Like a Wealthy Person  Take the Stairway to Success  Today, we are going to talk about the first step in 1+1+1=4 which is Step 1 - Adopt a Success Mindset.    A success MINDSET is key to everything in your life; it must be applied in all areas of your life (personal, professionally, socially) in order to be successful.  

In this episode, we will discuss the importance of evolving as a person as you become successful over time.  As we have discussed in previous podcasts, success isn’t just about having a big bank account. Many people with lots of money have horrifically unhappy and radically imbalanced lives. Success is about continuously improving who you are, how you live, how you serve, and your relationships with others.  So why won’t most people be successful? Why don’t most people evolve?  The more evolved you become, the more elevated becomes your thinking, behavior, expectations, and standards.    Becoming evolved means:   You no longer major in minor things — As Jim Rohn said, “A lot of people don’t do well simply because they major in minor things.”  You are intentional about every moment of every day — even when that means being fully unplugged and present with your loved ones.  You know that you become the product of what surrounds you and who you interact with every day.  You know that everything you put in your mind and body shapes the person you become — As Zig Ziglar said, “Your input determines your outlook. Your outlook determines your output, and your output determines your future.”  You realize that your behaviors shape your personality and identity — therefore you recognize that EVERY CHOICE YOU MAKE signals to yourself the type of person you are.    Balancing the few essentials  The more successful you become — which is balancing the few essential things (spirituality with your God, relationships with those most important to you, your physical and mental fitness and financial well-being) in your life and removing everything else — the less you can and will justify low quality.  Lets be real; accepting “just ok” leads to a low level of quality in your life.  Its that simple.    Before you evolve as a person and accept “just ok” as the norm:  You can reasonably spend time with just about anyone  You can eat just about anything put in front of you  You can waste time on just about anything to fill up your time  You can justify having terrible evenings because you don’t have anything meaningful to wake-up for anyways    So, as your vision for yourself expands      A quote from Wayne Dwyer, a truly beautiful person and a great life philosopher of our generation - “If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”      As your image of the future you expands; you realize you have to make certain adjustments. You need to cut back on spending all of your time and effort on crap that doesn’t benefit you in your evolution as a person.           So, as you become more successful and evolve as a person:    The less you can justify low quality the higher your standards become for yourself — As Tony Robbins said, “Remember in life we get what we tolerate! Where in your life is it time to draw the line in the sand and say no more! To yourself? To others?”    The more you value your time — and how that time is spent. When you’re at work, you’re 100% at work. When you’re at home, you’re 100% at home.    You are no longer willing to work on a time clock (this type of work is a thing of the past).  Instead, you only work and get paid for what results you produce.  You apply the 80/20 rule in all you do. You only focus on those things that produce the best outcomes, and you ignore all else.  You get the best mentoring.  You work when your energy levels and brain-power are peaked, which for most people is during the first 3 hours of their day.  You’re totally unplugged spending quality time with your friends and family.  You’re investing more and more into your self-improvement. You get to the point where 20% of your time is spent working, and the other 80% is spent either learning or resting.  You’re continually upgrading your mindset, mentorships, skills, abilities, and income.  Your life and your identity are a product of your choices. Your personality doesn’t shape who you are. Your behaviors shape who you are.    You put yourself into environments that force you to rise to new standards. Said historian Will Durant, “I think the ability of the average man could be doubled if it were demanded. If the situation demanded.”  You surround yourself with people who have higher standards than you do.  Your input shapes your mindset and worldview, which shapes your output. That output creates opportunities for the future.  So, as you increasingly become successful, evolve as a person, continually improve your world around you, and as you consistently make better and better choices, your identity changes. Your environment changes. Your confidence and abilities change.  You begin taking on much bigger goals.  You begin recognizing and appreciating how far you’ve come.   You begin collaborating with brilliant people. You transform yourself over and over, all the while continually going deeper and deeper into your “why.”  In Closing  Lets be real, most people won’t be successful. Most people won’t evolve and progress.  But you will. You know it, and you can feel it. You’ve already begun. And every day, you’re taking one step closer.     Soon enough, you’ll fully commit to being who you know you can be. Once you pass that point of no return, nothing will stop you.  I leave you with a quote to consider that sums up this podcast as we all work to become successful and evolve as the persons we ultimately wish to become:     “Some souls leave behind a trail of light that is never forgotten”. Muses from a Mystic 

In this episode, we will discuss the concept of DECLUTTERING YOUR MIND to make room necessary to make a positive change in your life.       How many of you today are thinking I have so much to do I don’t know where to start?  Or you can’t sleep at night because you are thinking of every item you need to complete?  Are you stressed to the point of being physically ill?   Or do the days and nights just run together, and you see no end in sight?  Have you just given up?  Are you mentally hoarding every idea and task you need to work on, complete or think you are responsible for completing?  I talk to a lot of people who have a CLUTTERED mind of tasks, projects and to-do’s that go on forever and forever.  They can’t think straight and have no focus or clarity in their approach to life.  They are paralyzed in their lives.    As I have always said, if you don’t know what road to take in your life it doesn’t matter which one you choose.  A cluttered mind distracts you from taking the right road you need to be traveling on in your life to enhance it and make it the life you want to lead.  So, why don’t people take the time to clear their CLUTTERED mind?  Well, how many people do you know that need to clean out their closet or garage and say I will get to it tomorrow but never do.    Many people are like the show HOARDERS who just hold on to everything they need to do before someone from the outside comes in, intervenes and helps them declutter and clean it up.    Remember this important statement:  Your MIND is meant to create ideas not hold them.  Your MIND is meant to create ideas not hold them.  Your mind needs to be decluttered to permit you to have clarity and focus on the ideas, tasks and activities that improve and make your life GREAT!   As an entrepreneur for 20 years, I remember the days I thought my brain was going to explode or run out of memory because it was so cluttered with personal, professional, and social to-dos I couldn’t keep up with it anymore.    I was forgetting things or intentionally not wanting to take the next step whether it was something as easy as I could do in 2 minutes, ask for outside help or just need needed to plan a project to get it done.  I was OUT OF CONTROL to put it nicely.  How many of you feel like this right now?  So, you ask, what is the solution: DECLUTTER YOUR MIND  Decluttering your mind is like doing a spring cleaning of your house or storage shed.  You look at the mountain of clutter and slowly break it into groups of KEEP, THROW AWAY or DONATE.  The same goes for your mind and the endless list of ideas and to-do’s.   So, what are the steps to DECLUTTER our mind.  Here are the steps to making this happen:   STEP 1 - DO A BRAIN DUMP  Plan for an hour to two to get this done; I spent 2 hours the most recent time I did this  Sit in a quiet room with no interruptions (family, friends, technology, etc.)  Get multiple blank pieces of paper to note what comes from your brain dump  Now sit down with a pen/pencil   Note down everything in your brain you need to accomplish (personal, professional, social) that you are responsible for now and in the near future and/or believe you are responsible for making happen. I mean note everything you think you need to get done over the next 3 to 6 months.    It should take time to go through every recess of your brain and identify everything you need to do and/or believe you need to do personally, professionally, socially, etc.   I considered myself to be well organized and yet my last brain dump took up 5 pages of the all of items floating around in my brain that were each flashing signs of pick me, pick me!     It should take you time (an hour or more) to get your brain dumped.  If you can’t get it done in an hour, schedule another hour to get it done.    STEP 2 – NOW ORGANIZE THE BRAIN DUMP  Now that you have the multiple pages of to-dos and you should have multiple pages of items from your brain dump; if you don’t you aren’t thinking hard enough and searching every area of your brain.    Once you feel comfortable that you have emptied your brain, let’s look at the list and categorize each item into one of these three groups:  Keep    Donate  Throw Away    Look at each item you identified intensely and decide what to do with it (keep, donate or throw away).    KEEP items are those that are key to making you successful in your life personally, professional or socially and align with your vision of who you are and want to be.   You have to get these items done to succeed.    DONATE items are those you thought you needed to be responsible for but can donate these to someone else to do and take off your hands.   For those of you who take on too much responsibility or try to do everything yourself, you should have quite a few items in this category.     THROW AWAY items are those that have no bearing on your life and level of success personally, professionally or socially.  There may be items you shouldn’t be doing and are caustic to you and your life (scheduling time to meet with negative people, etc.)   Get rid of them like the plague.     STEP 3 - IDENTIFY THE NEXT ACTION STEP  You have dumped your brain and organized it into Keep, Donate and Throw Away piles.   We only need to focus on the Keep and Donate piles.    For each item in the KEEP and DONATE categories:   What is the immediate next step for each item; is it an email, phone call, schedule time to assess/plan, etc.?    Can I get it done in 2 minutes or less? If yes, do it and get if off your list right this minute.  Do I need to schedule a time to address it? If yes, schedule it right now.  Will I need a project to get this done? If yes, schedule a time to build a project plan right now.  Who can I identify that I could donate the item to get off my list and let them handle it for me?   You will be amazed how many items can be completed in 2 minutes or less and/or progress made towards completing.  A lot of good can be accomplished in 2 minutes or less, so use the time for good not bad.   STEP 4 – INTEGRATE KEEP AND DONATE TASKS INTO YOUR SCHEDULE  You have dumped your brain, organized it by need and identified the immediate next step for each item. Now that have your cluttered brain dump is organized you can take the KEEP and DONATE tasks and integrate the items into your daily schedule to be completed.    Break out the lists into manageable pieces and put the items with high priority into your daily and weekly schedule for completion before those that have a medium or low priority.  It’s not about getting everything done all at once; it’s about getting something done every day.  Consistency in daily action leads to future success; it’s that simple.  Build on small pieces of success every day.   STEP 5 - REFRESH THE BRAIN DUMP   Dumping the brain of its contents, organizing it and acting on it is a liberating feeling that gives you back control of your life.   You eliminate worry because it’s now organized in a way you can focus on what is right for your life.    So, how often should I do a brain dump?  I would recommend that you dump your brain on a regular basis at least every couple of months. I personally do this once a month but that works for me and the number of areas I am working in personally, professionally and socially.  So, I leave you with a quote from Lisa Shultz who specializes in decluttering your life:  “We all have a million things vying for our attention. If you tell yourself that you don’t have enough time to clear out your junk, you might be delaying the well-being and relief you could experience by tackling it. If not now, when?”   ― Lisa J. Shultz, Lighter Living: Declutter. Organize. Simplify.  Go out, lighten your mental load and focus on building a better life.  

Today’s episode #039 is titled – THE REALITY OF SUCCESS. In this episode, we will discuss the REALITY of SUCCESS and its dark side.  We all strive for the gratification that comes with achieving success in life. For me, I get a natural high from the simplest tasks to the biggest wins—everything! I am achievement and success orientated in every aspect of my life.     But, there are the not-so-glamorous aspects as well. The truths about achieving success are quite similar. I’ve spent some time on this in the past — there is always the other side, the dark side.    

  Like all bad habits, excuses are easy. They allow you to box yourself into your comfort zone and be “okay” with your life. After a while, you’ll find this way of living isn’t enough for you. You can either accept where your life is (which is the excuse-coated version of “give up”), or you can eliminate your excuses by taking responsibility for where you are now and more importantly, why you created the excuses in the first place.  To help you get started, this episode will lay out 7 ways to eliminate your excuses.  

This is one of the harshest facts I have encountered, but it is unquestionably accurate. At first it seemed impossible to agree with, but the more I see society’s entitlement mentality, the more this fact becomes true. The reason this fact is true is even more shocking.    Let’s get something straight; I was a member of the 98% club until April 1999 when I decided to take charge of my life, become my own boss and take responsibility for what was going to happen to me.  I was no longer going to be making someone else’s dreams come true.  That day was the starting point of my personal road to wealth and achievements. There is nothing great about being members of the 98% club.      So, are you a member of the 98% or 2% club?  Be honest with yourself and where you stand today.  Remember life is no dress rehearsal.   

Running your own company is immensely gratifying but also terrifying. There is no better feeling than watching your vision take off and become a living, breathing entity that changes your life and those around you. I believe running your own company is like being a professional athlete. Many of us look up to professional athletes, fantasizing about being in their shoes, in all their moments of glory. However, many don’t often think about is the enormous amount of dedication, willpower and the failures that they had to overcome to achieve success.  Strangely enough, this same phenomenon occurs when people look up to entrepreneurs. 

  Remember Every Struggle is a reminder of the question…How Bad Do You Want it?  If I asked you right now to rate how bad do you really want to change your life on a scale of 1 to 5 with 1 being a maybe and 5 being all in.  Where are you at; be honest with yourself because most people go through their lives as 1 or 2.  How do you get to success? You want it more than breathing. Review your list of excuses, and make a decision to stop sabotaging yourself with this week's episode.      

Have you ever had a slip of the tongue?  Put your foot in your mouth?  Or had that moment when we wish we could take back something we’ve said?  Communication experts agree that our vocabulary contains many word traps that can impact how we are perceived by others and destroy our credibility.  What is interesting is these words are so commonplace, you may not notice it but it can instantly trigger negative reactions from your listeners. This is especially true in high-stress situations or where there’s a lack of trust, causing sensitivity to these word traps to be heightened.  Find out how the words we use impact us in all areas of our lives and how words can hurt you. In this episode.

The most in-demand skills that employers crave are the elusive "soft skills"--the intangible but important qualities that enable you to work and interact with the people around you effectively. Having great soft skills can be a huge game-changer as you go through your career and life. It can be the difference between getting people to believe in you or being forgotten, the difference between advancing a project or having it rejected, the difference between getting a promotion or finding yourself in yet another disappointing lateral move. These skills teach you not just to be a better employee but a stellar human being as well.

If you want to be unsuccessful in your life; you came to the right place today; here are the top 7 traits of highly unsuccessful people. I hope you can take a look at your life and see if any of these 7 traits are impacting your journey to a magnificent life. We are not perfect and throughout your life, these traits will have a way of creeping back into your life.  You need to recognize it and eliminate it from your life.  Remember: Behind every successful person there are a lot of unsuccessful years.

We all have heroes, people we look up to and inspire us to be the best we can be.  Heroes come in many ages, shapes, and sizes. Many of our heroes are everyday folks like you and me.   Everybody’s heroes are different for each and every one of us.  The definition of a hero is a person who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities.  My Dad, Alfredo (Fred) Herrera, is my hero.  He was a first-generation American who was born in La Union NM,  growing up on a farm. He was a self-made man who with a 6th-grade education and limited means raised himself to become a highly successful businessman, politician and most importantly a monumental person, husband, father, and grandfather.    

Let’s make one statement right now.  Everyone deserves to be at the highest levels of the Wealth Pyramid.  The Wealth Pyramid does not care what color you are, where you came from, what level of education you have or what gender you are. It does, however, mandate as a condition of membership that you be willing to transform your life, commit to the transformation, build an action plan/daily routine and execute it every day like your life depended on it.   So, let's talk about the 5 levels of the Wealth Pyramid and what it means, and how to climb it.   

In this episode, we will discuss my three lessons regarding excellence,  complete with my own experience and examples that you can relate to in order to understand the nature of excellence and what it takes to achieve it. Think of that day where you did everything you wanted to in terms of being disciplined. Now imagine doing that every single day. Going to the gym may be fun for a day, 2 weeks or even a month. But how about 3 months, 6 months, a year? Two years? Most people will have a surge of initial motivation and commitment, but its grinding past the feeling of boredom of doing the same thing over and over is what ultimately compounds into the achievement you sought in the first place. You MUST learn to embrace the boring parts of the process. Accept the fact that being the best version of you means doing the daily stuff that doesn’t show immediate benefits.