Thursday, November 26, 2009

Recession Buster Series breaks through the Recession

by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com 
417-224-3517

What can we apply today from the Great Biz Book Classics which got us out of the Great Depression? The biz classics... Think and Grow Rich, Success through a Positive Mental Attitude, The Greatest Miracle in the World, How to Win Friends and Influence People, and the Secret of the Ages.

The principles from these books, if applied today, will absolutely jettison us out of the Great Recession of 2009, like they did in the Great Depression which began 1929.The Recession Buster series is the Best of the Biz Book Classics which initiated the boom decades the rest of the 1900's... when the computer, internet, wireless technologies were founded.Their impact on business today will surpass what happened about a century ago.The industrial and technological worlds emerged then, now we will see a new technology... human relationship and a Spiritual expansion.

I saw a formula emerging that will advance us to the next phase, that supersedes the past, and empower us to a new greatness today. How can we learn from these Business Classics. Here's a few overriding themes. (Note the November 21, 2009 Recession Buster blog.)

1. Faith: Seeing new potential in problems.
All potential is based on God's Power. They all had unwavering faith in God.They all believed in God's Divine participation with us. So we share in a Supernatural partnership that can do all things. What God conceived He made and His Spirit continues to make. Believing that God conceives through His Creation, Mankind, as we live in His will and methods, He creates through us.

The result is we have earth creating Power available in our lives within this partnership. W. Clement Stone felt we should follow the will of God and all things are possible with this Faith, or what he called a positive mental attitude.

Faith is our creative vision of new potential.

2. Transform your mind.
A new mind is needed consistent with transformational ability. Our minds are naturally cynical, whereas this needs to be reversed to work in line with God's Mind (Faith, Hope, Love) that accomplishes all He sets to do, the Spirit of God is unlimited in what it can do. We must live like this too. So positive mental renewal programming is required. This has to be done daily to counteract what we get from the world around us daily.

It takes deliberate mental rehearsal to accomplish this.
Move the mind from negative to Positive,
from critical to the Possible,
from what's wrong to "How I can fix it!" way of thinking.
We do this by inundating our mind with Spiritual Thought, continually; by listening, thinking, speaking, reading, interacting... thinking in a positive, solution potential frame of mind. To do this the mind must be transformed, so it is natural in how it functions. And it requires a disciplined, constant renewal program.

Walk in the Image of Life God has for you, as Og Mandino expressed in the God Memorandum.
Transform your Mind.

3. Form Dreaming Teams.
A Dreaming Team is those who dream with you for positive solutions. Those who collaborate to find ways to carry them out to create new results. Napoleon Hill called them mastermind groups, Jesus said where two or three agree it will be done.

These Action, Dreaming Teams, formed among people we click with, requires a Spirit of Harmony. The Spirit of Love is the overriding quality that is continually expressed. This includes respect for each other, love and care for those on our team, practical help and constant encouragement, cheer leading and consoling, belief and proactive help, with a high level of cooperation and synergy among members of the team. Carnegie's relationship dynamics figured in heavily to instigate the power that surfaced.

The Dreaming Team is a creative opportunity group, who dissects problems and finds potential and opportunity in problems. They are problem solvers whose solutions become the new opportunity. They are opportunity inventors and creators.

It's a talent flow which creates economic flow.
Dreaming Teaming, or teaming to dream, is the new Power Cell that will Create Miracles.

4. Strategic Action
Hill, Stone, Collier all had Strategic Action in their plans. Although the strategic action included Divine Guidance as part of it. In other words, they relied on God-Inspired ideas and sought God orchestrated direction. They believed you could hear from God and have His High level of intelligence at work with you.

They combined knowledge with Divine Strategy and added cooperative action. The Other People factor played into all they did... other people's ideas, skills, resources and resourcefulness. Talent combined with an ability to get things done-well gets superior results.

It's important to improve personal skills and especially Spiritual skills; and where skills are lacking to solicit skills of others who do excel where you don't.

Today we see a move toward appreciating the value of Intellectual Capital.
A new move, or the new wave is toward Spiritual Capital... this will transform everything.
Spirit Creates Matter!

The lineage of faith, reprogramming, master dream teaming with Divinely Inspired strategies (which they produce) is the facilitating factor for recovery from anything. It's well executed, strategic, cooperative systems that matter.

5. Making Noble contributions to a society is what motivated them.
They become cause based and labored in a strong sense of purpose. All problems that they solved had a Higher purpose. The Opportunities which become evident were an important contribution to society and the needs people were struggling with. Living a life of contribution has the character of unselfish ambition, with a noble desire to make the world a much better place. Find that magnificent obsession, the cause you can live and breath that you would want to create millions of dollars to solve and activate.

Miracle Faith evolves. Take your problem... and make a cause out of it.

Jesus outlined, in Matthew 25, the Spiritual process.
Keep your lamp full... stay Filled with the Spirit, and let that rule you.
Use your talents to their highest level and make the most of your gifts... don't accept mediocrity, develop your talents to be exceptional in using them.
Help those who need help in ways that bring transformation into people's lives, especially those less fortunate than you.

Study the Power Principles of the Scriptures...
http://www.biblegateway.com/
Learn from the Classic Christian writers...
http://www.ccel.org/

Our commission then is not to build business but use business to build the Kingdom of God... this creates commerce.

Make the Kingdom of God be your Primary aim.
Rebuild a new society that is run by a Spiritual Drive Train.

In Summary, these Classic Authors recognized God as part of their lives and active in fulfilling their heart's desires.
--They believed the very Power of God was at work through them.
--To be highly effective we must transform and discipline our thinking. This requires transformation to Spiritual Thought.
--What's crucial is to unite in forming dreaming teams with others. This creates an Infinite Power, or as Jesus said, what you agree on will be done.
--All effort takes Divinely Guided Action. it requires following the principles of the Body of Christ or the joint venture of Believers in Jesus, to morph to being One and be united in love and purpose.
--This includes exercises of Faith for the impossible and diligence in the practical, things we know to do.
--The major difference is being involved in Noble causes and seeking wealth for Great Causes. Motivation is centered around Contribution, not personal gain or recognition, reflected in the teachings of Jesus and the Apostle Paul in the Bible.

A Transformed Business is about establishing a Spiritual economy.
When this is done, all other things are accomplished around the Spiritual economy. So the core of any highly effective business is a Spiritually-Driven, and Empowered Business or Economic stimulating system.

This brings us to a new awakening of the importance of investment in Relationship Power.
Relationship Power will convert the intangible, ideas, into tangible results.

Spiritual Power creates intelligently and Supernaturally. What Spirit creates works in extraordinary precision.

The bottom line is being a living sacrifice, transforming our minds to Spirit thought, exploiting our gifts to fulfill noble purposes, working in harmony and cooperative effort, establishing disciples of other businesses to the same method.

Become a Spiritual dynamic force in the community in which you serve, and re-create the Kingdom of God in the marketplace. 


This is a Recession Buster!


Saturday, November 21, 2009

The Recession Buster series... Greatest Biz Classics of all time

by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com 
417-224-3517

What did we learn from the Great Depression that we can apply to recovering from the Great Recession as the first decade of 2000 comes to an end. Five great business book classics of that recovery era have relevant principles for us today. By applying these principles, we can learn more and move America to an even higher plateau as a civilization.

As the USA was pulling out of the Great Depression, Think and Grow Rich was published by Napoleon Hill in 1935. His first work, the Laws of Success, first released in the mid1920's, was republished as Think and Grow Rich. It became a bestseller and still is today. Following that, W.Clement Stone had great success with Hill's works. Stone and Hill collaborated to write Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude. Og Mandino kept the ball rolling. He was highly influenced by their works and added The Greatest Miracle in the World. Then going back to the post Depression time, Dale Carnegie released How to Win Friends and Influence People still highly read today. The Secret of the Ages ran ahead of all of them. Author, Robert Collier, released his works in the mid 1920's.

Here's the high points and power principles of their works that we can use even more influentially today. The complete summaries of these great business classics are archived on this blog from September-November, 2008.

Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill is probably the achievement classic of all time. His interviews with the wealthiest men of the early 1900's, commissioned by Andrew Carnegie, resulted in this comprehensive, most thoroughly researched success manual ever written. Hill, before writing Think and Grow Rich, interviewed over 500 multimillionaires of his day introduced to him by Andrew Carnegie.

Thoughts are things. What we think about frequently and with emotion, good or bad, eventually materialize in our lives. When thoughts are mixed with purpose, persistence, and a burning desire, they are translated into riches.

Desire has no retreat... the first step to riches. The way your desire is transmuted into its financial equivalent consists of six definite and practical steps.
1. Fix in your mind the exact amount of money you desire.
2. Determine exactly what you intend to give in return for the money you desire.
3. Establish a definite date when you intend to possess the money.
4. Create a definite plan for carrying out your desire, and begin at once, whether you are ready or not, to put this plan into action.
5. Write out a clear, concise statement of the amount of money you intend to acquire, name the time limit for its acquisition, state what you intend to give in return for the money, and describe clearly the plan through which you intend to accumulate it.
6. Read your written statement aloud, twice daily, once just before retiring at night and once after arising in the morning. You must believe that you are already in possession of that money. And read the statement with emotion.
"With the power of desire backed by faith, I have seen this power lift people from lowly beginnings to places of power and wealth. Nature wraps up in the impulse of strong desire 'that something' which recognizes no word as impossible."

Faith...visualization of, and belief in, attainment of desire is the next step. When faith is blended with thought, the subconscious mind instantly picks up the vibrations.

Autosuggestion, the third step, is the method for influencing the subconscious mind. Autosuggestion is the term that applies to all suggestions and all self-administrated stimuli that reach your mind through your five senses. By allowing certain thoughts in the conscious part of the brain, it programs the subconscious to do what it suggests.

The fourth step to riches is specialized knowledge. Specialized knowledge is from personal experiences or observations. Knowledge alone will attract little money. Knowledge alone is not power, but a potential to power. It becomes powerful when organized into definite plans of action and directed to a definite end. Acquire specialized knowledge related to your idea... through study, other people who know, other resources you can tap.

Imagination then is the fifth step to riches. This is the workshop where all plans are created. The impulse and desire is given shape. What we can imagine, we can create. Two forms of imagination prevail... synthesized imagination, and creative imagination. Synthesized imagination recreates and re-arranges old ideas, concepts or plans into new combinations. When this doesn't solve a problem, then creative imagination steps in. Creative imagination creates a connection to Infinite Intelligence which produces new, creative ideas.

Organized planning is the sixth step to riches. Those who can assist you with organized knowledge, through the coordinated effort of two or more people, who work toward a definite end in a spirit of harmony.

Decision, not procrastinating, is the seventh step to riches. Procrastination, the opposite of decision, is a common enemy which practically every person must conquer. Most people who have made millions have a habit of reaching decisions promptly.

Persistence, sustained effort necessary to produce faith, is the eighth step to riches. It's a power of will to keep moving with your desire. Lack of persistence is one of the greatest causes of failure and one of the greatest weaknesses among a majority of people. To accept defeat as only temporary, we must have persistence. Then through persistence defeat is finally turned into victory.

The ninth step to riches is the driving force behind the master mind principle.To make practical plans that work, align yourself with people for the creation and carrying out of the plan. Form, what Hill calls, a mastermind group. The key ingredient is that each person has a benefit or advantage for being part of the group. And, maintain a spirit of harmony in the group. If this part is not carried out, the group will meet with failure.

Sexuality, charisma and creativity, is the tenth step toward riches. The influence of a mate or lover affects sexual energy which can then be transmuted to acquiring great fortunes. Genius and creative imagination also are induced by sexual energy. Love and marriage are powerful forces in achieving wealth.

The Subconscious mind is the connecting link and the eleventh step toward riches.When you plant desires in the subconscious mind mixed with faith and emotional feeling, it goes to work night and day to fulfill your desire.

The brain, the twelfth step toward riches, is your broadcasting and receiving station for thought. Your brain both receives and broadcasts information. It picks up vibrations from other brains across the world. The brain with emotion and at a rapid rate picks up thoughts and it transmits thoughts to others.The subconscious is the sending station of the brain. Autosuggestion stirs the sending part and imagination activates the receiving part.

The thirteenth step to riches, the door to the temple of wisdom, is the Sixth Sense. The sixth sense is somewhat of a mystery too. It is based on mastering the other 12 steps and is tied to the creative imagination. It's an innate quality of knowing without knowing, much like a guardian angel is with you.

Hill concludes from his research that this is the defining link between the finite mind of man and Infinite Intelligence. It is the source that prayer can be transmitted into tangible answers to prayer. As we do and master these things we are connected to Infinite Intelligence or the Spirit of God, the creator of all things.

Success through a Positive Mental Attitude by Napoleon Hill and W. Clement Stone is the civilization rebuilding sequel to Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. In 1951, Stone met Hill and they collaborated on Success through a Positive Mental Attitude. A life and business revitalizing work unprecedented in its long term contribution to the growth of wealth in America.

S. B. Fuller was one greatly influenced by Think and Grow Rich. Believing that poverty was only a mind set.
He said three books highly influenced his life as he established the Fuller Brush company.The three books were the 1) Bible, 2) Think and Grow Rich, 3) and The Secret of the Ages. Fuller said, "you have everything to gain and nothing to lose by trying. Success is achieved and maintained by those with a Positive Mental Attitude."

With a positive mental attitude, you live life believing that every adversity has a seed of an equivalent or greater benefit. Greatness comes to those who have a burning desire to achieve high goals. Success is achieved and maintained by those who try and keep on trying with PMA.

Man's greatest power lies in the power of prayer.

Create a positive picture of your future along with a definite purpose. What is your goal? What do you really want? When you fix this in your mind, it pushes into your subconscious mind. Then Universal Law goes to work for you. So with PMA all along your way, you begin attracting wealth.

When faced with a problem that involves another person, "I must first clear that up. This then opens the way for other benefits to make their way to me." Honesty is inherent in PMA. It takes positive, conscious autosuggestion to train your subconscious to be ready to receive the wealth that will come its way. You can then do anything, if you believe you can.

So what the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve through PMA.

With a Positive Mental Attitude we move from complaining or blaming to problem solving and idea innovation.
When faced with a problem use PMA...
1. Ask for Divine guidance. Ask for help in finding the right solution.
2. Engage in thinking time for the purpose of solving the problem. Remember that every adversity has the seed of an equivalent or greater opportunity, when you maintain a positive mental attitude.
3. State the problem, analyze and define it.
4. State to yourself enthusiastically... "that's good!"
5. Ask yourself some specific questions: What's good about it? How can I turn this adversity into a seed of equivalent or greater benefit; or how can I turn this liability into a greater asset?
6. Keep searching for answers until you find at least one answer that can work.

The key to motivating yourself is hope.
You attract wealth by giving of what you have
. The more you give, the more it reciprocates in a greater number back to you.

Riches beyond your wildest dreams will come when you have a Magnificent Obsession. Your magnificent obsession is developing an obsession to serve others. Share yourself without expecting a reward, payment, or commendation. Keep your good turn a secret. Be part of a great cause.

With a positive mental attitude you awaken the giant within you. The highest ideal of man is the will of God. Hill and Stone conclude Success through a Positive Mental Attitude with a biography of must-read books to stay in the positive frame of mind. The first recommendation is the Bible followed by 64 other titles.

Og Mandino was then extremely inspired by Hill and Stone.
The Greatest Miracle in the World by Og Mandino is one of several of Mandino's inspirational business achievement books written a decade later. We are all miracles and Mandino shares insight from the conversation he had ongoing with a "ragpicker.".... an unusual person we would not quickly recognize as a mentor.

The hand of God is on you and He can bring you out of living death.The ragpicker, Simon, found in stacks of old books the works of the "hand of God" that can help immensely to bring great miracles to your life. Control what you allow to enter your mind. What we put in our minds will then bear fruit. By hearing and reading a thought or an affirmation over and over again will eventually imprint our thoughts and they will become a permanent part of our personality, and we will act on it in the future.

Our lack of self esteem has produced failure and is a universal sickness which always originates from anxiety, guilt or inferiority. Then people thrown themselves on the junk piles of life thinking no one cares about them. Although there are still two who care: "God and me; one in Heaven and one on earth," said Simon. Be the one on earth who cares with God in Heaven.

Simon created a "memorandum from God." This is a condensation of all the books he had stacked along the walls of his small apartment. He said to take 20 minutes every night and read it right before you go to sleep. Each day when you wake up these will be more and more the imprint of your mind. Each day you will change more and more and get more and more ideas, taking actions that will transform your life. Your miracle will show up. Read the God Memorandum, what God thinks of you. And you will be a miracle.

Gradually over days, then weeks you will see changes emerge in your life.
The God Memorandum has four laws that will, over time, influence these changes:
Count your blessings.
Proclaim your rarity.
Go another mile.
Use wisely your power of choice.

This version of the God Memorandum includes the Biblical Scriptures each thought is based on:
http://famguardian.org/Subjects/Spirituality/Inspiration/GodMemorandum.htm

Dale Carnegie found the biggest issue people were concerned about was how to get along with each other. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie was first published in 1937. Carnegie conducted years of research in fine tuning the principles in how to deal with people. Of all the books on effective business skills this one is being read even today as the best... tested, tried and proven. Here are the fundamentals to winning loyal friendships and influence with people in work and life.

Principle #1: Don't criticize, condemn or complain.
Principle #2: Give honest and sincere appreciation.
Principle #3: Arouse in the other person an eager want.

Six ways to make people like you.
Principle #1: Become genuinely interested in other people.
Principle #2: Smile.
Principle #3: Remember names.
Principle #4: Be a good listener and encourage others to talk about themselves.
Principle #5: Talk in terms of the other person's interests.
Principle #6: Make the other person feel important... and do it sincerely.

How to win people to your way of thinking.
Principle #1: The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it.
Principle #2: Show respect for the other person's opinion.
Principle #3: If you are wrong admit it quickly and emphatically.
Principle #4: Begin in a friendly way.
Principle #5: Get the other person saying "Yes, Yes" immediately.
Principle #6: Let the other person do a great deal of the talking.
Principle #7: Let the other person feel that the idea is his or hers.
Principle #8: Try honestly to see things from the other person's point of view.
Principle #9: Be sympathetic with the other person's ideas and desires.
Principle #10: Appeal to nobler motives.
Principle #11: Dramatize your ideas.
Principle #12: Throw down a challenge.

Part four and final section of the book deals with how to be a leader and change people without giving offense and arousing resentment. The leader's job includes changing your people's attitude and behavior.The nine principles in a nutshell are:
1. Begin with praise and honest appreciation.
2. Call attention to people's mistakes indirectly.
3. Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person.
4. Ask questions before giving direct orders.
5. Let the other person save face.
6. Praise the slightest improvement and praise every improvement. Be "heartfelt in stating approval and lavish in praise."
7. Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to.
8. Use encouragement. Make the fault seem easy to correct.
9. Make the other person happy about doing the thing you suggest. To change attitudes or behavior. Be sincere. Know exactly what you want the other person to do. Be empathetic. Match the benefits to the other person's wants and that he understands how he benefits.

The little known Secret of the Ages was written before all the above, but with a strong influence on each of the above business classics. The Secret of the Ages by Robert Collier is a book that those who were reading Think and Grow Rich, had right along side it. It was somewhat lost in the shuffle since first published in 1925, but has been re-published. As you look at the success series of Napoleon Hill, W. Clement Stone, and Robert Collier they all make frequent mention of Spiritual and Biblical principles. They saw Spiritual power as the deciding edge to exceptional accomplishments.

Life Principle is Collier's theme throughout. We are dynamic beings who create and can do it at much higher levels than we realize.

Our minds are made in three functions...
the conscious mind, the subconscious mind, and the superconscious mind. The most powerful are the subconscious mind and superconscious mind. They work effortlessly, but we need to know how they work to reap the benefits of their power. Referring to the superconscious mind as the Universal mind, Collier points out the Universal mind is omnipotent. In the beginning was the "Word." God with the word, an invisible image of the God mind, created everything in the universe.

Today this is prayer.
An image implanted of a desire, with faith that you ARE RECEIVING it, the thing you asked for, is fulfilled by Vital Force (or what the Bible calls Spirit) and brings it into being.

To create anything of good requires four things:
1. The mental image of what you want.
2. Knowledge of the power you can consciously draw and pour that power into your mental mold.
3. Faith in your creative power, the ability to create, until what you see in your mental mold, the invisible, becomes reality.
4. Do something to make the subconscious believe that you have received what you believed. Taking a step, in this faith, about what you prayed for as if it already exists.

Successful prayer has within its formula.
1. Center your thoughts on the thing you want. Warm it with faith and nurture it with belief.
2. Read Psalm 91 and the 23rd Psalm that remind you of God's power and create a readiness in you to receive your answer.
3. Be grateful for God granting the favor you are asking for.
4. Believe and see it accomplished as fact. Remind yourself that "God is attending to that" and know that He is.

During the day see things as you desire them, not as they are. Daydream through out the day of what you want them to be. Practice daydreaming with a purpose. Get the picture fixed in your mind, see it. There is no limitation, only supply. But constantly throughout the day see it being carried out as you wish.

We are Temples for the living God. Ask and receive and your joy will be complete, believe it.
Keep yourself in a state of receptivity and constantly be expecting good. Know that you can do it, and you will. You must see yourself doing it. Understand and believe. The chances of success are always measured by your belief in yourself.

As you go to sleep, concentrate on your thought of the thing as you desire it. Believe that you have it, see yourself possessing it, feel yourself using it. Do this every night until you actually believe that you have the thing you want. When you reach this point, you have it.

There are three requisites in business.
1. The confidence in yourself and the knowledge of your power.
2. Initiative or courage to start the thing.
3. The faith to go ahead and do the thing in face of obstacles.
We have the right of dominion over everything. Whatever you work for wholeheartedly, confidently, with singleness of purpose... you can get it.

Say aloud,
"the Holy Spirit within me goes before me and opens the way. Infinite wisdom tells me just what to do." Say it and believe it. Keep your tracks clear in your thinking. A River of Life wants to flow continuously and abundantly through you... supplying fresh water constantly.

The greatest book ever written is the Bible.
http://www.biblegateway.com/

In everyone of these great business classics, The Bible stood out as their #1 reference book.

Our greatest leaders leaned on the Bible for guidance and wisdom. It is an unmatched book of power as these renowned authors have cited.

It has been reported that the Bible is the most quoted book by CEO's when giving speeches.


In a survey, managers were asked which current business book was one they most often gave to their staff. The survey had the Bible as #4 on the list... especially the New Living Translation.

The Bible is full of Spiritual and predictive intelligence, wisdom, human relationship principles, faith to overcome challenges and encouragement for all people in every situation. It is one of the Best resources to go to when needing encouragement to over come insurmountable challenges in life.

Needless to say, to be able to live with God's Supernatural Creative power with you is an awesome way to live.The Bible has God's Very Precepts shared through the ages at different times, in different events. It gives us invaluable resources for Greatness in life, business and relationships.
Isaiah, a prophet from the Old Testament in the Bible, said..."Search the book of the LORD, and see what he will do. He will not miss a single detail... His Spirit will make it all come true." (Isaiah 34:16)

The Spirit (that Isaiah mentioned) that makes forecasts come true is the same Spirit we have access to... we get Divine impressions from reading, pondering a Scripture in the Bible, giving us supernatural abilities and intelligence. They are custom designed, specific premonitions just for us.

These impressions we get many times come about, when inspired to us while reflecting as we read the Bible. Spirit creating matter becomes our reality.


Saturday, November 14, 2009

Crush It!... the Golden Grain of prayer

by Dale Shumaker
4spirit@gmail.com

Crush It! by Gary Vaynerchuk is about how Gary took his parents' wine distributing company from 4 million in sales to over 50 million in eight years using the new potential in Internet communication.

He says the Internet is one of the biggest culture shifts since the printing press. It also represents one of the biggest shifts in how we do business. Where are the people today... they are in the social networks such as Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, Tumblr, and Twitter. If this is where the eyeballs are going, this is where business should go. Learn to live your passion and you will have all the money you need plus total control over your own destiny.

Social media equals business, period. Do what makes you happy. Keep it simple. Do the research. Work hard. Look ahead.

Gary's parents came to America from the Soviet Union in 1978. Times were tough at first. His dad was given a job by his uncle as a stock boy in a liquor store in New Jersey. His dad learned the art of hustling and moved up in the store and by 1983 bought a liquor store the size of an office. Gary became good at baseball card trading... a natural entrepreneur. At sixteen he became a cashier in his dad's liquor store. Even though he was too young to drink, he learned about liquor. Then he saw the wine business was much like the baseball card business in how people collected information. He learned the art of the business quickly. As people were ready to check out with a bottle of wine, they would end up buying three with Gary's sales finesse. Storytelling is one skill he learned well, and he saw it as one of the most underrated skills in business.

Build your brand. Branding is all about quality. Quality of content is what draws them and keeps them. Content rules over technique. Be yourself and put out awesome content. Getting people to talk is the whole point. Building your brand is the same thing as living and breathing your personal resume.


It's a whole new world with the middle man becoming closer to extinction. You don't have to ask permission, just get it out and those who like you will be there. Plan your future now... are you happy with your present job? Do you work for a company that allows you to have a public persona. If you can't keep a public persona at work you can do it at home.

Create great content. Tell your story and be a good storyteller. You can monetize your passion. Know yourself, choose the right medium, create awesome content, allowing them to come to you as they discover it. Enter other people's conversations as much as you can and create a lasso that brings them back to you.

Gary recommends using these platforms and how to use them inter-relating your blog with Wordpress and Tumblr, the social network of Facebook, following with Twitter. If your blog is your home, Facebook and Twitter are your vacation homes. For photo sharing add Flickr. For video sharing Youtube or Viddler. For video that allows you to interact with your audience consider Ustream.tv. For vitamins to work you need to exercise, along with good nutrition. It's the same on social platforms.They are used to support and enhance each other strategically. But you must then move on to being real along with your great content and platform access.

To be real, be true to yourself, be who you are, be authentic. The closer you come to being your true self, and perceived as real, your content will advance. Instead of fancy productions, the driving force on your platform is being genuinely passionate about what you believe in. Your efforts must come from your heart and show your heart.

Gary says you got to hustle to springboard your message. It takes effort and Gary responds to all who inquire as well and comments on blogs of interest. You must be patient. In six weeks to six months you may not take off, but stick with it. Hold off as along as you can until you come into demand. Build your brand in terms of a marathon not a sprint.

Creating community is where the bulk of your hustle is going to go. Creating community is about starting conversations. Read blog posts, leave comments. Create a blog post, distribute it through Tube Mogul (video) so your content appears on every social networking platform available. Start paying attention to others' content. Comment on all the Tweets, blogs you find via Tweeter Search. Then capture them. If your content is as good as it should be, people will want to read more, see more, get to know you more. Don't take people for granted. One reader is important, so connect. As more come, connect.

Chapter nine is a great chapter... it has one word on one page: CARE.

Continuing to chapter ten, Gary's process includes get a web domain name, start a Wordpress or Tumblr account, hire a web designer, get a video camera, create a Facebook fan page, open a Twitter account, start pumping out content, Tweet or post your content via Ping(.fm) or TubeMogul, search Twitter for accounts on your subject, blogsearch at Google, search your subject on Facebook... repeat.

Start to monetize. Be patient. Wait as long as you can so people get really committed to your content. The longer the better. See who pays for Google AdSense. Get on the lecture circuit as demand increases. Link to others as an affiliate, create or add products you can sell. Consider articles, seminars, books and TV, consulting. Gary elaborates more on this.

Reactionary marketing is adapting quickly to change. Let people talk and learn what they are really thinking. When patterns develop be ready to re-adjust. Be a trend spotter and take note to the meaning behind cultural change. You have access to real-time, streamlined data.

Move to legacy. Making connections, creating and continuing meaningful interactions with other people is why we are here. Set the tone. Leave a legacy.

Gary likes to talk to people. He invites you to email him with your questions to gary@ at his website:
http://vaynermedia.com/

From Golden Grain by John Wright Follette, he talks about prayer, intercessory prayer.
Follette has a unique view on prayer. You can read more about this author at the Christian Classic Ethereal Library. Here's an excerpt from Chapter 32 on intercessory prayer from CCEL. The complete chapter is at:
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/follette/golden.xxxii.html

Touch Him when you don’t know how to read the Bible, but touch the Word—touch Him; know His will; know God; know His purpose. Keep up a wonderful fellowship with the Son of God.

You can read a lot of books on prayer, some of which are quite materialistic, but no one has a form of prayer which is adequate for you. Every soul has to develop, and work out his own technique and method of prayer. Don’t try to work it out by somebody else’s method—it is good only for suggestions. We learn to pray by praying.—We can’t change God by prayer. Prayer never made God do anything. Prayer helps us become more adjusted to His will.

Look at Jesus; talk to Him; if you dare to, be informal with Him. Don’t be stilted and pray, “Oh, Thou, My God!” You can’t get very far that way. How many know He is very real; very tender. Do you know that the best prayers you ever prayed never had words in them? They are so clumsy; they don’t have words, because there is an understanding there; a deep, lovely, rich, inner fellowship that needs no words.

We don’t know prayer: the vocal prayers, and prayers of contemplation, all the different types of prayers. It is such a vast field! We just go clattering along, saying the best we can . . . “for Jesus’ sake, Amen!” To me it’s such a lovely, open field we ought to get into.

What prayers are answered? Prayers that fall into the category of the will of God. We can pray all we want to, but John says, “When we pray according to the will of God He heareth us. ”In the end, all that great big prayer has to be censored in the will of God. The Holy Spirit prays according to His will.

Jesus said, “Peter, Satan hath desired to sift you . . .” This should actually read: “Satan hath obtained permission of God to sift you—all of you, but I’ll stay over here and pray for you:”—Don’t pray now, and ask the Lord to kill the devil. He is going to use him. On the power of Jesus’ prayer, Peter got through. Prayer is never wrestling with God, but wrestling with the powers of darkness. The “unjust judge” is not a picture of God. Our heavenly Father wants to answer us; His whole heart wants to bless us. He is not the “unjust judge”.

Another prayer pattern we find, is the man asking for bread at midnight. Sometimes we have to ask many times before the answer comes, but we must ask in faith. Hungry? He doesn’t tease us; He feeds us.

Jesus prayed because He had to, to keep that contact with the Father.Think of Jesus interceding for us this morning before we got out of our beds! That is how I wrote that hymn: “My High Priest is Interceding for Me.” He said to me, “You have faith that I am your Savior, so if you have faith in Me as your High Priest, My intercessory prayer will carry you.

”There is no prayer just like intercessory prayer. It is not saying prayers; nor is it just weeping, but He says, “With groanings that we can’t utter.” It is past words. Why? Because the Holy Spirit makes intercession in us, and through us according to the will of God, and we can’t make Him do anything else than that. We are yielded as an instrument; the Holy Ghost is praying—we aren’t praying.

He has a vehicle that is pliable, surrendered, and He comes in and takes possession of us. Isn’t it sweet how He dares to do that? Very costly, and terrifying at times, but it’s real. How is this intercessory prayer formed? It is formed according to the will of God, “with groanings which cannot be uttered”; it cannot be expressed in our language; not even with tongues, because it becomes too intense.

For whom is this intercession made? It is made for the saints. Did you ever have the Holy Spirit moving through you? What did He say? I haven’t the slightest idea. He speaks secrets to the Lord. That’s scriptural. I don’t have to have an interpretation of what the Holy Spirit is saying to God through me. We don’t have to have an interpretation every time He speaks through us. It is unto the Lord.

Did you ever get into the agony of prayer when you were identified with another’s need? That is intercessory prayer. We, in the Spirit, become identified with a need until we are united with it, or with a soul, or with a condition. No one in the flesh can pray a prayer like that. This is where intercessory prayer comes in. The Holy Spirit can pray prayers like that, because we can’t. He wants the vehicle; He wants the instrument tied up with the condition. That is real intercessory prayer.

There are all kinds of prayer. The best prayers never have words.