Tag Archives: People

It is Time for Financial Education

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Happy Friday everyone! It is just awesome here today in Dallas. We have had highs in 70’s all week. Who would have thought that, considering some 18 days ago we encountered the worst ice storm in 75 years and temps did not make it above 20 degrees. I guess they are right when they say, ‘If you live in Dallas, if you don’t like the weather, just wait a little bit because it will change.” Well, I am not here talk about the groundhog’s predication of an earlier Spring being correct, but what I am here to talk to you today is something that I am very passionate about, which is financial education.

For years, I have been studying and learning about money. I am not sure why that is the case, but I have always had a passion for business and money. So, as I read in one of Ken Blanchard’s books, “If you want to truly understand what you have read and learned you must go teach it to someone”, and that is what I intend on doing going forward. I know this is not for everyone or at least some people will think that, but you see, it does not mater what profession you are in or your financial status in life, if you do not have a strong financial education, you are going to be in trouble moving ahead in today’s economy. Shoot, I know some highly paid professionals, who yes, make a lot of money, but are uneducated when it comes to financial education. When the recession hit, they took a big hit in their savings. With just a little financial education that could have been prevented. So, the time is now to learn financial education if you want to succeed. Don’t let lack of knowledge keep you from being successful.

So, what am I referring to when I talk about financial education? It is the knowledge about how money works and how to leverage it to work for you. Some people have told me that they took economics and accounting in school, which is great but that is not going to help you be financially secure in this new economy. You need to understand how money works and how to make your money work for you. I hear all the time that the rich are getting richer and the middle class is getting squeezed out. You know what, they are right, the middle class is getting squeezed out and the rich are getting richer. Why? Well, they know how the rules of the game are played and they know how to use it in their favor.

Well, why should you care? Because I want to see you live the dream. I want to see you have everything that you want out of life. Money can’t buy happiness but it can help give you opportunities and freedom to do the things you want to do in life. I know there will be some people who will disagree with what I am going to be saying in these posts and that is fine but what I hope to do is give you just enough knowledge and education to stay competitive in this new world.

Here is what you can expect in some future posts:
What is your financial IQ?
History of money and how the decisions your leaders make affect your financial success.
Assets vs. Liabilities – why most people are wrong to think their house is an assesst
Should you stop contributing to your 401K?
Should you live below your means?

These are just some of the ideas I plan on sharing with you. If you have anything that you would like to talk about in regards to financial eduction please feel free to leave a comment. Also, I would love to hear your feedback good or bad on anything we talk about here.

Well, I have my daughter’s first soccer game this weekend. I don’t know who is more excited her or me :)!!

Make it a great weekend!
In health,
Coach Dave

How to get clients knocking down your door

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The question I get asked all the time is, “Dave, how do I get more personal training clients?” The answer is simple but few do it. Over the next several posts I am going to give you seven steps to implement to get clients knocking down your door. Today, I am going to show you one of the single best ways to attract cients.

Step 1 – Become a published author

Yes, you heard me correct. If you want to be known in this industry and get people flocking to you then you need to position yourself as an expert.

Now more than ever it is easier for the average person like you and me to have a voice and establish ourselves as an expert. No longer do you need a publishing house or major editor to accept your manuscript and publish your work. Technology has changed all of that. For instance, I wrote “Anatomy of Sales” and self-published it. This has allowed me to position myself as an exert when it comes to the business side of the fitness industry.

“But Dave, there are hundred of articles and books out there on fitness” is what you are saying right now. You are correct, but that should not stop you for coming up with a topic and writing about it. You are not trying to be a best selling author. What you are doing is creating a perception to the public that you are the expert in a particular filed or subject. Just the mere fact of having an article published in a major newspaper or magazine gives you more credibility, which takes away one of the barriers clients have when finding a personal trainer.

So, how do you get started writing a book? Well, that is another post but if you are interested in learning more and want my help then I can coach you through it. if you want to do it yourself then go to Amazon’s website Create Space and they have step by step tutorials on how to get published and use their network to sell your book.

If you seriously want to have clients knocking down your door then become an expert and start writing for newspapers, industry trade journals, and even your own book.

P.S. The second step to getting more personal training clients, is one that the fear of doing ranks as high as the fear of dying! You won’t want to miss this one!

Coach Dave

New Year’s Resolutions is a waste of time

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It is the 3rd of January and most of you may have already broke your New Year’s Resolutions. I am not trying to be negative or a Debbie Downer but the reality is, most people who set New Year’s Resolutions never see them through more than a few weeks. The reason I believe is simple. You see, when you set a resolution you only have one part of the equation and are missing the second and most powerful part to making the resolution stick. Today, I will give you the second part of the equation and this time around setting a New Year’s resolution will not be a waste of time.

Several years ago I decided that I was done setting New Year’s resolutions. I came to the realization that I, like everyone else, fall into the same trap and dismal disappointment of falling back into my bad habits. This got me thinking to myself, why is it that some people seem to have more success than others when it comes to achieving something that they set out to do. Well, being that I love to study successful people I came to the conclusion that, successful people do not set resolutions but set high goals for themselves. Now, you may be saying to yourself, “what is the difference between a New Year’s resolution and a goal?” Well, this is where the second part of the equation comes in. Goals typically have a “why” behind it, as where resolutions, in my opinion only have a “need to stop doing something” in it. Sure, you want to quit eating out to lose weight, but why do you want to lose weight? By defining “why”, you give yourself a strong reason for changing a behavior. I know you still are saying, “well I had that in my head as the reason for my resolution.” Good, but goals need to be written down and need to be set up in such a way that you have it specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely (S.M.A.R.T Goals).

Now if you have bought into my theory of setting goals,instead of resolutions, here is what I want you to do next.

First, I want you to write down ten things you want to accomplish this year.
Second, I want you to write down below it why you want to accomplish it.
Finally, set a time table as to when to accomplish it.

I will be sharing with you some of my 2011 goals this week. Until then, get rid of the theory of setting New Year’s resolutions and start setting up S.M.A.R.T goals for this upcoming year!

To your Success,
Coach Dave

What has been holding you back?

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Hello everyone!

Welcome to another edition of “Open Blog Friday.”

Today I want to briefly talk to you about barriers. This post probably is more for me than anyone else but I know there are many of you who struggle with some of the same things I do. I guess what I am trying to get at today is, what are the thoughts that you have in your mind that are holding you back? Do you believe that anything is possible with hard work and determination or do you believe that you could never achieve that because of reasons such as, I do not have enough money, enough time, enough resources, etc… I know first hand how these thoughts can creep into your head and how destructive they can be, but if you want to be successful you need to develop mental toughness. Many of us work on being physical tough but we do not focus on challenging our brains to be mentally tough.

Here are some ways to train your brain to be mentally tough:

Set a goal to do something that is totally opposite of what you are currently doing. An example might be to learn how to set up a fully functional blog. For those of us in the fitness area we typically focusing in on learning about Anatomy and Physiology, so getting into the tech world will challenge your brain to learn something new.

Volunteer to speak. People rate public speaking as the second most fear to dying. Get up and speak in front of crowd and you will see that you develop courage and mental toughness.

Become a “What’s Next Kinda Thinker.” When something goes wrong try thinking about what can you do now or think okay what is next for me. Always, be looking forward and leave the past behind.

Finally, get around the right people. If you constantly are surrounded by people who do not believe anything is possible and are always negative than you will not grow and will more than likely get sucked into their negative state of mind. Get around people that cause you to think and grow.

If you are having troubles moving forward take some time and think about what is it that is causing you to not move ahead. Embrace it and then you some of the above strategies to become mentally tough!

In health,

Coach Dave

Do you have a plan for 2011

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I have a simple question for you today and that is. “Do you have a plan for 2011?” I am referring to a specific, detailed, goal approach to having a better year personally and professionally in 2011. I know what you are saying, “I have my goals for next year up here in my head.” Sorry, that does not work. If you really want to have a great year in 2011 you need to take some time over the next couple of days and reflect on what you accomplished this past year and what you want to accomplish next year.

Every year I use a technique that I learned from the great Jim Rohn. What I do is, I take all my journals and goals that I have written down and review them. I ask myself the following questions:

Why do I write that down as a goal?
Did I accomplish it? If not, why not?
What areas of my personal life do I want to work on?
What areas of my business career do I want to grow?
What are my income goals for the next year? 3 years? 5 years?
How do I become more?
What people do I need to meet and network with to achieve my goals?

Those are my top 7 questions that I ask myself before I begin to set up my plan for the next year. And yes, I write it down!

So, take the next couple of days before the holidays and reflect on what this past year has been like and set up your 2011 plan.

I will be sharing with you my 2011 predictions and my plan real soon, so come back to see the big things I have planned.

P.S. If you need some coaching on this I am available to help. We all need someone to help us from time to time and now is a great time to get some. Click here to join my coaching program.