Tag Archives: Mom

Niche Marketing: How to profit from it Part I

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I thought in preparation for my upcoming to talk to the Frisco YEA (Young Entrepreneurs Academy) I would go ahead and write out my presentation here on the blog for practice but also to share with everyone else who is interested in making money from Niche Marketing.

The title of my presentation is going to be “Riches in Niches.” The reason I have chosen that title is because if you were to study almost every successful company you will have seen that in their beginnings they focused in on a specific niche and once they conquered that niche they grew and moved on. Don’t worry I will explain more later but let me start off by telling you a little bit about me.

My Story

Well I wish I could stand up here and have some great story about how when I was 12 I started a baseball trading company out of my room or how I started College and dropped out to start up a high tech software company from my parent’s garage but unfortunately that is not the case. Actually I took a different route. Starting a business was the last thing on my mind when I was growing up. I was concerned with only two things: One, playing sports and two, hanging out with my friends. The only real business or entrepreneurial thoughts I had was how was I going to have money to pay for my car insurance and going out money.

Now, what was also engrained in my head was that college was not a choice but a necessity. You see, I had three siblings and none of them including my parents went to college, so from an early age my mom put it in my head that I was going to be the first one in the family to get a college degree.

So after high school off I went to the University of Florida to study sports medicine. I wanted to be an athletic trainer or physical therapist after graduating. That was not in the cards or should I say not in the grades. Now, I did not do bad in school I just focused more on hanging out with my friends and going to Gator football games then studying enough to get the grades I needed to make it into PT school.

Okay, so after I graduated I did an internship with the Cooper Aerobics Center in Dallas and met several personal trainers who were making some really good money training members of the club. Also, I saw that they had a lot of flexibility with creating their schedule and they dictated how much they made by the amount of hours they wanted to train. Those two things really appealed to me, so that is what I pursued right out of school.

Now, I am from Florida so I went back home to Orlando and worked for a guy who owned his own private PT studio. It was at this point after graduating from school that I started to get the bug for learning and business. So fast forward a little and as you can see in the picture that is my wife who at the time was living in Dallas and wanted me to move out there.

So, I packed up my stuff in my car and drove out there. I started a job as PT at a club in Dallas called the Premier Club. It was located right by SMU and Highland park. One of the best moves I ever made because my clients were successful business men and at the time the economy was booming and people were creating internet companies and selling them for a lot of money. Mark Cuban was working out there and I got to see him sell his company and become the billionaire he is today. Hanging around all these successful guys got me to thinking about creating my own success story but I felt I needed some business background, which led me to pursue an MBA from UTD.

After I graduated from UTD with my MBA a friend of mine asked me to come help start up the brand new Cooper Aerobics Center at Craig Ranch. I jumped on the opportunity because at the time the economy was doing great and this gave me a chance to work with a start up with any of my capital at risk. Well, let’s fast forward agin and five years after I had built a thriving personal training department the housing bubble burst and the club suffered. I won’t bore you with details but the project turned south and the bank and investors wanted a change at the top! That left me and the other managers out.

For the first time in my life I was unemployed and not sure what I was going to do, but after soul searching and talking it over with my wife I decided it was time I bring out that entrepreneurial spirit in me and since then I have not looked back.

I currently run two businesses. The first one is an information marketing company where I sell products to different niches, like my Working Mom Workouts site which is  membership site that provides weekly fitness workouts for moms. Also, I have written a book on how to profit form blogging where I target people who are looking to make passive income from their blog. The second company I run is a local internet marketing firm where I provide marketing services for small local businesses.

That is my story which now leads me into the discussion of Niche Marketing and will be part II in this blog series.

 

Top Ten Lessons Learned From Climbing NY Mountain

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I figured I would get a lot of people responding to my post yesterday and I want to thank everyone who had kind words and well wishes for me. Mom, don’t worry I am totally fine 🙂 I mentioned yesterday that I was going to provide you with a series of three blog posts about the trip, so today is number two. Today’s post is way more important than my overall story about the trip because today I am going to tell you what I learned and how to apply my learned lessons into your business and personal life.

Here are the top ten things I learned and in no particular order!

1.) Prepare
I should be ashamed of myself for not being more prepared. The last time I did a six hour endurance trip was almost 10 years ago. Mentally I was ready but not physically. So, remember in order to accomplish a demanding task in front of you, especially one that involves taking you out into a different element and environment, you need to be physically and mentally prepared.

2.) Get the loser out of you
I am a big fan of Robert Kyiosaki, author of “Rich Dad Poor Dad”, and this is something I picked up from him. you see over the last eight months I have had my ups and downs and in all honesty I have no business to ever feel sorry for myself. I live in the greatest country in the world, have the best family, and live in my own little bubble in Frisco, TX, so there is no need for me to feel sorry for myself. However, that being said, there are times I get down and after experiencing this trip I got the loser out of me. Now, I am not bragging but there are not many people who can or are willing to fight through 6 hours of climbing to reach a place in the mountains. And that is perfectly okay, but for me accomplishing that task will always be something I can look back on and be proud of.

As I mentioned climbing 6 hours to the top of a mountain may not e your thing and that is okay but here is what I want you to get out of my lesson. If and when, because we all do at some point feel sorry for ourselves, create a challenge that is out of your comfort zone and go for it. Get the loser out of you! Use the experience to build confidence in your future endeavors!

3.) Connect/Re-connect
One of the benefits of having a good size group on the expedition was the ability to connect with other people from different backgrounds and careers. The unique part about this group I was with was the fact that everyone was an entrepreneur and owned their own business. I took so much away from talking to everyone about struggles they have had and visions of the future. The suggestions and information they gave me I could not have gotten elsewhere. Also, I say re-connect because being up at 11,300 feet I had the opportunity to reconnect with myself and my surroundings. It was so peaceful without constant TV, Internet, and my I-CRACK (remember CRACKBERRY well I call my I-phone ICRACK). Anyone I was able to reflect and think about the things that are important to me.

4.) Push through it
I really had no choice but if you remember my story about getting to the point where I wanted to quit I had no other choice but to keep pushing ahead. It might have been one step at a time but I kept moving closer to the top by pushing through the physical pain and emotional struggle.

5.) Be Thankful
I learned so much from so many different guys on the trip that I really was thankful for everything I have in my life. I was reminded once again that the things that happen in my life that may seem so terrible to me happen to everyone and it just gave me a better appreciation for the people and things I have in my life.

6.) Attitude
Things could have been really bad had I not had a great attitude. I have been told this is one of my strengths and it served me well. The lesson here is you have a choice when things get tough. You can either be negative and make things worse or be positive and make the best of the situation. Sure I had my moments but I realized that if I was going to make it to the top I needed to not waste energy on being negative. Negativity would only use up more energy and I needed all the positive energy I could get to reach the top. Are you wasting energy by having a bad attitude? If so, know that you can easily change that by thinking positive and making the best of the situation.

7.) Purpose
I would probably rank this up at the top in terms of lessons learned. I made it to the top and back to the bottom of the hill because I had one purpose in my mind, and that was to get back to my family. My “Why” was so great that it gave me my incentive to be smart throughout the trip. As I was laying on the bed trying to bring my heart rate down all I could think about was my family. I knew I had to focus and concentrate on brining my body core temp and my heart rate back down as quickly as possible and the reason was so I could see my family again. What is your purpose? Do you have a big “why” for doing something. If you want to achieve something your “why” has to be there!

8.) Believe
I have a saying that I use in my cycling classes. I tell my students, “You have to believe. I believe in you but you have to believe in yourself!” I finally had to use this on myself. When I hit that 1 mile mark left to the hut I wanted to quit. I did not think I could do it but something clicked in me and I started to think about my teachings. Of all the things I would tell my students belief is what I needed to tell myself and it worked. What doubts do you have? Confidence and belief can get you through it. Start believing today in yourself!

9.) Visualize
Visualization is so powerful and I realized this at the end of the hike up. As I was one of the last ones left to get to the top I could see in my mind the other guys up there sitting around waiting for me. I visualized my self crossing the finish line and getting up to the top so I could sit around an recover. Imagery is so powerful and it helped me on my journey. Grant it you can’t just visualize it and assume it will be. You have to work at it but the more you visualize something being of reality the more likely you are to obtain it.

10.) Never Quit
Simple statement and simple lesson! Too many times in life we give up. Had I given up the result would not have been good for me or my family. Yeah, the stakes were high but so was the reward. Same goes for you not matter how big the challenge. You will never know if you are capable of doing something if you quit and don’t see it all the way through. Tie a knot at the end of the rope and hold on and NEVER QUIT!

Those are the lessons I took away from an amazing trip. I know it is not for everyone and the company that puts these trips on knows that as well, so that is why they have a number of different options. tomorrow I am going to put together a post that will talk a little bit more on the expedition retreats and how to learn more.

In health and prosperity,
Coach Dave

Change your Attitude or Else?

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Okay, it happened to me again. I found myself getting sucked into all the doom and gloom talk that is out there. I have carried the label of optimism with me for as long as I can remember but there have been times in my life I have lost my sense of hope and fallen victim to all the naysayers out there. However, I have been able to pull myself out of the dark hole time and time again due to the fact that when I find myself feeling negative I find something positive to read or listen to so that I can break the negative cycle. As Zig Ziglar says, ” Motivation is like taking a bath, you need it daily.” I could not agree more with that quote and I can tell you that when you read or listen to something positive your attitude will change. This is the key point I want to make is that your attitude is everything and if you want your life to be great then you need to start with attitude!

Attitudes of successful people

I. I can attitude

I played sports as a kid and there were numerous times that I would tell my mom that I just can’t do it and almost every time I remember my mom telling me that if I set my mind to it I could accomplish anything. You know of course at the time I was like “right mom, whatever!” However, after reflecting back on the things I have accomplished in my life so far she was absolutely right. Sure I have had failures but when I believed I could do something I went after it and did it. If you have “I Can’t” in your mind and vocabulary you will never reach the potential that you are capable of reaching. 

II. Long term outlook

We are a “I needed it yesterday society.” All too often I hear people say well I tried to do it for a couple of weeks and it did not work out. As the saying goes, “Rome was not built in a day” well neither is long term success. If you were to study people who have had great success you will notice that it did not come over night. It also did not come without setbacks and hard work. So, if you set your attitude to thinking long term you will not be disappointed if it doesn’t happen overnight.

III. Being flexible is key

This is pretty self explanatory. If you are too rigid and not willing to adapt to the situations around then success is going to be hard to come by. When times get tough, and trust me they will, you need to have a positive attitude. Your attitude will be the determining factor in how well you weather the storm.

IV. Turn away from yourself and help others

I have found that one of the most gratifying times in my life is when I have focused on helping others and putting their needs ahead of mine. Numerous times I have had a great sense of satisfaction after seeing one of my clients reach their goals. After seeing success from someone you helped it creates a positive vibe and attitude that allows you continue to help others and make an impact in this world.

So, if you are falling into that trap of negativity then focus on those four strategies above to keep you thinking positive. Let me tell you the longer you stay in that vacuum of negativity and let others influence you with negativity then you will squander opportunities to be successful. Remember you have a choice and I hope you choose to implement these strategies to get you moving in the right direction .