Volume IV • Number 8 • August 2016 • $97
Farewell to Our Beloved Emanuel
MANY’S BLOG: First in War, First in Peace, First in the Laps of His Countrymen
THE FASTEST PATH TO FREEDOM expert interview with
Baeth Davis
Igniting Your Business Passion
August 2016
ABOUT STEVE
About the Publisher, Steve Sipress If you want to grow your business slowly – or just maintain it as is, you’ll have to do that all on your own. But if you want dramatic growth in your income and lifestyle, then Steve’s out-of-the-box and time-tested strategies and tactics could be the keys to your dreams. You can benefit from Steve’s coaching experience and expertise to revolutionize your business – yes, even in this challenging economy – at one of the many in-person entrepreneur events he hosts, OR from the comfort of your own home anywhere in the world. You can also learn basic and advanced direct response marketing strategies and tactics from 150+ hours of video instruction, plus use any or all of Steve’s multi-million-dollar, proven “done-for-you” marketing materials at SSSMarketingUniversity.com. That website has been called The Single Most Powerful Client Attraction Program Available Anywhere, and you could be using it to skyrocket your income anytime you want, 24/7, along with hundreds of other sharp, successful business leaders. If you’re just starting up your new business, you’ll want to take advantage of all of Steve’s training, guidance and resources at NewBusinessAcademy.org. Steve is a successful and award-winning serial entrepreneur, who has created and built nearly a dozen successful companies of his own, and he can help you do the same – more quickly and easily than you’ve ever imagined. In fact, you can immediately use plenty of his simple and powerful strategies and tactics that work especially well in this current frustrating economy. You can discover the basics of Steve’s powerful “The WOW! Strategy™: How To Solve All Of Your Marketing Problems” by watching a short video at www.SteveSipress.com. Steve is a celebrated author, speaker and business coach who has established profitable businesses and helped thousands of ambitious and aggressive business owners, entrepreneurs, executives and sales professionals all around the world. He has written numerous newsletters and articles on sales and marketing for a wide range of publications and has appeared on radio and television, helping millions of people along the way. For over five years, Steve was the #1 “Dan Kennedy Certified No B.S. Business Advisor,” and was Runner-Up out of 25,000 members for 2010 GKIC Marketer Of The Year. If you want the very best, hard-hitting, no-nonsense, caring advice and help you can get, then “Straight-Talk Steve” could be exactly what you and your business need most. Whether you’re a current or future business superstar, Steve can help you get exactly where you want to go as quickly, easily and powerfully as YOU want – with massive results both short-term and long-term.
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www.SteveSipress.com www.SSSMarketingUniversity.com www.NewBusinessAcademy.org www.Facebook.com/SmallBizHelp www.Twitter.com/SteveSipress
When we first started, I was terribly in debt and we were just a few months away from bankruptcy. We started seeing a boost right away in our business, we took what Steve’s given me and we just started implementing and implementing, and it’s just totally transformed my business. Steve has helped me with my laser focus, he helps me implement, he’s taken my business to a whole new level. We went from a half a million dollars to a million dollars in two years. It’s just an incredible experience to know that where you think you’re just dead and things are horrible, to now anything is possible. I can see taking this to a whole new three or four types of businesses -- it’s going to be huge. Steve is all business, he is an unbelievably smart, brilliant man. I can’t say enough about him. Everything he’s told me, I’ve made so much money it doesn’t matter what it costs. They don’t make enough money in this world that somebody could pay me so I would stop listening to Steve. Steve is the exact reason why I have a retirement fund now. It’s probably illegal how much fun I’m having!”
Jon Bockman
Owner, Bockman’s Auto Care Sycamore, Illinois
l l e w e FtoaOrur Beloved Emanuel
By Steve Sipress
July 16th was a very tough day in the Sipress household. That night we had to say goodbye to our beloved doggie Emanuel. He went to sleep peacefully in our arms - one of the most difficult things I’ve ever had to experience.
He gave us his unconditional love, and brought joy and fun into our home for over 13 years since we brought him home from the Animal House shelter (as soon as I found out there was a shelter named after The Greatest Movie Of All Time, I knew our doggie would be there waiting for us). www.SteveSipress.com I RHINO MONTHLY
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August 2016
FAREWELL TO OUR BELOVED EMANUEL
Even in his final hour, he introduced us to some valuable business lessons…
He was as tough as they come, fighting through multiple serious health issues over the years - but never complaining. We knew that day would come the day we first met him - but that doesn’t make it any easier. My beautiful wife Michele took it especially hard. My sincere thanks go out to everyone who got in touch with us to offer some kind words and support. We love our doggie boy! Even in his final hour, he introduced us to some valuable business lessons… Around 5:30pm on that Friday night, Michele and I were headed out for the evening. Just as I was tearing myself away from the computer after a long week of getting a ton of stuff accomplished for myself and my clients, Michele let out a shriek the likes of which I had never heard before in the 15 years I’ve known her. I bolted out of my office to find our beloved Emanuel lying on the floor, having a seizure. My heart ached for him, and for her as well. I scooped him up off the floor and laid him on his doggie bed, where we both comforted him until his seizure ended a few minutes later. He was disoriented, but started walking around, and even wanted to go outside for a walk. Unfortunately, almost as soon as he got back inside, he had a second seizure. At that point, we knew we had spent our last day together, and immediately raced out of the house to the veterinarian office less than a mile away, looking to make his exit from this world as comfortable and painless as possible. We had long known this day would come, but that didn’t make it any easier for any of us. That’s when we got Business Lesson #1: The veterinarian office was closed for the day, but they had a sign posted on their door with a phone number to call
in case of after-hours emergencies. Do you make sure to have a live person answer your phone after hours? Do you have relationships with complementary businesses where you can refer people if they need help you can’t provide? Business Lesson #2 came as we arrived at the 24-hour animal hospital: As soon as we pulled in, a veterinarian assistant came out to greet us and hold the door open for us. When you know someone is coming to see you, do you go out of your way to have someone on your staff greet them and make them feel welcome? We got Business Lesson #3 when that vet assistant immediately led us to the front counter and launched into an obviously canned sales pitch. He pointed to a laminated sheet that listed $600+ worth of diagnostic services they wanted to perform on our doggie. I interrupted him to let him know that we just wanted to make our beloved doggie’s end of life as painless and comfortable as possible for him. He started to “overcome my objection” by telling us that “seizures don’t necessarily mean he’s dying” – but I let him know that Emanuel was old, lame, deaf, and nearly blind (later, the vet would console us by telling us that we made the right decision). Do you make it easy for your staff to make sales pitches, by having a system and script, complete with supporting signs, letters, charts, etc.? We were ushered into a room that I later looked around to notice was specifically set up for situations such as ours. There were comfortable leather chairs, “end of life” materials and brochures, a book about “Doggie Heaven,” etc. Business Lesson #4:
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Do you anticipate the different needs of your different prospects, and offer special environments to let them know you really care about them? (Example: Dentists with treatment rooms just for kids.) The vet assistant came in to the room and offered us a choice between paying for either a “group” or “individual” cremation – letting us know that if we chose the “individual” option, we would then receive an urn with Emanuel’s ashes for the extra $100 or so. Noticeably absent was a no-cost option of simply taking his body to bury ourselves (an option I would have chosen had he died back in the home he lived with us for almost his entire life – I knew just the spot where I would have laid him to rest near his favorite pond where he sniffed and explored every day). Business Lesson #5: Do your salespeople offer a “yes-yes” option at the end of their sales presentation? Here I noticed a glaring mistake this clinic made. I wondered why there was no high-priced option of a “doggie funeral,” complete with casket, flowers, eulogy, burial plot, etc. Business Lesson #6: Do you make sure always to include a high-priced, “first-class” option for your prospects? Studies show that 20% of people will always choose that option, so if you don’t offer it, you’re leaving a lot of money on the table. One thing I was not at all happy about was how long they left us in that room, with our poor doggie suffering and shaking from seizure after seizure, for what seemed like forever, until the vet assistant finally came in with paperwork for us to sign before the actual vet would come in and give him the injection that finally brought him peace. I know such nonsense is common in the medical world, but Business Lesson #7 is to always put your customer, client, or patient first, and make your “new client intake” process as quick and easy as possible – especially in an emergency situation.
We love ou r doggie bo y! Think of yourself as a firefighter when it comes to solving your prospects’ problems. Would firemen make us sit there and fill out paperwork before they started to connect a hose while our home burned to the ground? Business Lesson #8 came when we were ready to leave. The vet assistant offered me a towel, robe, and private room to change out of my soiled clothes for our difficult, lonely ride home. Are you prepared with whatever is needed to care for any and all needs your customers, clients or patients may have? This can be as simple as a divorce attorney having a box of tissues available for his or her clients.
. y o b , e c a e p n i t s e R . e c a e p n i Rest
Throughout his life, our beloved Emanuel taught us many Life Lessons, including how to live in the present, how to love unconditionally, how to always bring joy to others, how to keep things simple and focus on what matters most in life, and many more. Then, even in his final, agonizing hour of life, he introduced us to an experience with an emergency animal hospital, which was full of business lessons. He never stopped giving to us, and helping us to live life to the fullest.
To find out more about Steve Sipress and how he can help you have more fun and make more money with your business, see the Inside Cover Page. To get new money-making strategies and tips every weekday from Steve and other top business-building experts from around the world, go to: www.RhinoDaily.com
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expert interview with
Baeth Davis IGNITING YOUR BUSINESS PASSION Steve Sipress: Baeth Davis, I cannot convey to you what a pleasure it is to have you here on the Rhino Daily Podcast! Baeth Davis: Oh, it’s so good to be here. It’s awesome to be here, Steve. Thank you for having me. Steve: I am totally excited, and I also can understand that at this time you are undergoing a… You have a new course that’s out, that’s really, if I say so myself,
this is a life-changing course, and you’re in the midst, right on the cusp, of the launch. It just started. So I really thank you for taking these precious minutes out of your day. Just to share with the audience, I’m going to share my story of when I met you, or before I even met you. I’d heard of you, and saw a presentation by you in a marketing group for a “Marketer Of The Year” award, which of course you won. And I was flabbergasted that someone who… The joke was, “I’m a palm reader and I have a
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million dollar business.” [laughter]. You’re the person who did that! That’s a joke, but first of all, it’s no joke, because you do, and you have for years, and you’ve helped so many people. I’ve got to tell a story to the readers, if they indulge me, the first time we really met and connected. We’d met in passing, we knew of each other, but we were at another event, and post-event they had some kind of a networking connection event…
EXPERT INTERVIEW
Baeth: Right. Right! Steve: For the thought leaders. For the speakers, and the consultants, and the top people that were there. And we happened to be placed at the same table, and you sat down right next to me, and I was like, “Wow! Baeth Davis sitting right next to me. This is cool.” And I don’t know who said what first, but almost immediately, you were like, “Yeah, would you like me to do a hand analysis of you?” Because I don’t think I would have asked you, but you offered, and I was like, “Well, of course. Are you kidding? Of course!” And I can tell you that, still to this day, and this has got to be probably 10 years ago, I am still flabbergasted by how much you could tell about me, and how much you knew about me by just a few seconds of looking my hands. It works! And now this launch, and this new program you have, when I went and read the free report that everybody is going to get when they go to your website – RhinoDaily.com/hands – just read this report. I related to, I’m almost embarrassed to say, every frustration and problem in there. I was like, “Man, I can relate, I can relate, that’s me, that’s me.” Did she… Now I know, however, I can answer my own question: She didn’t write that free report just to me, because technically your market tends to be… You focus on women. So I didn’t see myself as wanting to be a “priestess,” [laughter], but I can tell any listener who happens to be male, who thinks when they go to the site, “Oh, it’s just for women,” then fine, be an idiot and click away from the page. But I’m telling you, Baeth does life-changing stuff. Baeth, how did you even get started becoming a scientific hand analyst? I had never even heard of the thing.
August 2016
In life, you’ve just got to say yes to what your soul wants, or else you’re just going to really, really suffer. Prosperity isn’t about how much stuff we have, it’s how happy we are inside ourselves. Baeth: And I was very good by my late twenties at asking for the money. I really didn’t have an issue with it, I really enjoyed collections, because I would use the integrity/moral obligation approach, and say, “How would you feel if someone did these services for you, and then they just didn’t pay you, and gave you some lame excuse? Would you be okay with that? How about we set up a payment plan? You’re going to feel so much better in your soul, if you clean this up and get straight with yourself.”
Then I went on a long, spiritual trip to India, I was gone for four or five months, and that was so incredibly eye-opening. So, we’re still talking in my late twenties. During that trip, I really got a sense of prosperity being a state of mind. Because here in the West… Steve: I’ve got to interrupt, because I’ve got to ask you: So, you left your work, or you took a leave, and you just took off?
Steve: My goodness, I don’t even owe anyone any money, and I want to... Where do I send the check?
Baeth: I just took off, yeah. I had worked at the detective agency, and then I was waitressing, boring, boring, meow meow meow, so not fun. So a boyfriend invited me…
Baeth: That’s right. Exactly. And so I found I really enjoyed having conversations with people about value.
Steve: Nobody does that! Nobody follows the prompting of their soul like that and actually does it!
Baeth: It’s such a great question. So, my background is in direct sales and marketing. From my mid-twenties, I was trained in cold-calling and networking, and collections. I did collections for a detective agency actually. Steve: Wow.
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August 2016
EXPERT INTERVIEW
Baeth: Well I do. I’ve always been that way. I went to college, and during my sophomore year at college I got in my car and I drove across the United States without telling anyone. I didn’t tell anyone – I just left. And I called my mom from my cousin’s house in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and I said, “I’m in Albuquerque.” And she said, “You’re where?” I said, “Yeah, I just drove here.” It was very freaky. I would stay in these little hotels like in Ohio, and I’d put a chair under the door, I was so petrified travelling by myself. But I did. I got all the way to California and spent the summer. And I realized: In life, you’ve just got to say yes to what your soul wants, or else you’re just going to really, really suffer. So, I went off to India, and I saw that prosperity was a state of mind, and that the people there were much happier, much more generous, even though they lived in conditions that we would consider squalor – many of them – there was this real sense of possibility, and just an appreciation for their families and for the food they had, and their wonderful chai tea and the morning prayers. And I thought, “Whoa! Prosperity isn’t about how much stuff we have, it’s how happy we are inside ourselves.” So, I came back from that experience and got a job – a marketing job at a design company. And I started to get very, very depressed. I got paid well at this job, I was very good at it, but I would come home from work, and I just would cry myself to sleep. I thought, “Something’s wrong with me.” So, around that time, a friend said, “You should get a hand reading.” And I said, “You have a mental problem, and I’m not going to get a hand reading, crazy lady. That’s so weird. Get your metaphysical stuff away from me.” Because I had – just to give a little background, I was a math science girl, I was valedictorian in my high school, I went to an Ivy league college, I was going to be a stock broker on Wall Street, but then I didn’t want to work at Goldman Sachs, because I just thought they were kind of unethical,
which evidence has proven they often are. And so I had this whole thing planned out. Steve: Very diplomatically said. Baeth: Really well said. Well, we know they’re on the boards of all these government agencies. When people talk about conspiracy theories, I always crack up. I’m like, “We don’t need conspiracy theories. People just help their friends. That’s how life works. So you can use it for good or for ill, right? Help your friends.” So anyway, I was like, “I don’t like how they help their friends, and I think I’ll be really bored and unhappy there. Plus New York City is way too intense for my sensitive nature. I need to be near trees.” So, I was like, “No, no, no.” So, anyway, I’m jumping all around here. Long story short, I finally submitted to this hand analysis session just to get my friend to shut up, because she would not… She must have bugged me eight times about it. So I finally did it, Steve, and like you – I did a reading for you – it blew my mind. And I went, “This isn’t Venice beach palm reading, this is the best personality profiling biometric tool that exists today.” And it blows Myers-Briggs, Kolbe, all of them out of the water. With all due respect, I’ve done them all, but the thing with most assessments is they’re just a person answering questions. And you know how we like to lie to ourselves, so they’re only partly accurate. But the map of the hand is a map of our biology. And so I was so fascinated by this. And at the time, the woman said to me, “Oh, you’re meant to be a speaker and a writer, and help people
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line up their passions with their job.” Steve: Come on now. First of all, she exactly said that. And second of all, you exactly became that! Baeth: I exactly became that. And I’ll tell you why: First of all, I was in tears through most of the reading, and at the time it was recorded – this is back in the late ’90’s – on a cassette recorder, and when I tried to play the cassette in the dashboard of my Ford Escort, it didn’t play. It sounded like the Beatles record going backwards, it just was an unintelligible “rrrr, rrrr, rrrr.” I couldn’t understand it. I went, “Okay, I guess I’m not supposed to hear this reading again, I just have to remember it.” Years later, in retelling that experience, I said to people it was the best thing I’d ever heard about myself. I felt that it was true, because it stirred me emotionally, it stirred me on a soul level. And I thought, “Why not try it out for a month? If I don’t like it, I can go back to being a cog in the wheel, and be status quo, and go to this job that bores the hell out of me. I can do that, or I can just try something new.” Because I don’t really care what society thinks. I care what my family thinks, or my friends think, but I don’t really care if I fit in or not. That’s never been a big premium for me. I’ve always been kind of a weirdo anyway. So I thought, I’ve always been the geeky… In school I got bullied and picked on because I was a geek, and I was a bookworm, and I was too smart. I would date guys and they would break up with me because they’re like, “You’re too smart for me, I don’t like that you use big words.” And I would be like, “You don’t
But the map of the hand is a map of our biology. And so I was so fascinated by this. The woman said to me, “Oh, you’re meant to be a speaker and a writer, and help people line up their passions with their job.”
EXPERT INTERVIEW
August 2016
like that I use the correct word. I don’t know how to help you with that. I don’t even know what to say to that.” So, I was always being shunned and kicked out. Steve: Big mistake. That’s what I have to say to that. Baeth: Well, I agree. Steve: Just like Julia Roberts in the Richard Gere movie: “Big mistake.” Baeth: That’s right. And I have been compared to Julia Roberts, which I really appreciate. She’s actually one of my avatars, Julia Roberts. At any rate, I digress. It’s so fun talking with you, I think my green tea is kicking in too, I’m very energized. [laughter] So anyway, I decided it was the best thing I’d ever heard, and I thought, “I’ll try it out for a month, it feels really good. It feels like the skin that I live in, it feels like me.” So, I called up my mom, and I said, “Mom, I’m going to start a business. I need $10,000.” And she’s like, “Okay, I’ll loan it to you at 5%.” I said, “Great.” Steve: What a mom! Baeth: She’s great. She’s awesome. She’s funded me multiple times. I’ve paid her back every time. In fact, she gave me a loan not too long ago to fund a project, that I’m just now paying off. Yeah, she’s been phenomenal that way, and I know everybody doesn’t always have that. And I’m just so grateful. One thing I do want to say here is I know that I have – okay now, I’ll try not to get too emotional, but… The main reason a lot of people don’t succeed is they don’t have opportunity. And I think this is overlooked in U.S. dialogue, because going to India, they don’t have, most of them, access to an internet connection. A lot of the people can’t read. And I grew up upper-middle class, belong to the yacht club and the beach club, went to Dartmouth college, had a scholarship, I had to pay maybe 20 grand in student loans, because my mom felt it would be a good exercise. So they made me take out a loan just so I’d have to pay it back, which was smart. My mom was like, “I
don’t want her to think she’s just getting this for free. She needs to earn it a little.” Steve: Your mom gets another vote for Mom Of The Year. Baeth: She’s the best mom ever. My mom blows my mind. Steve: What we need is 100 million more moms like that, and we can turn this whole country around. Baeth: Exactly. So, where I’m coming from – and not to sound arrogant – I know I’ve been extremely privileged. I’m in that 1% of 1% where I had the best education with professors who would have office hours and they would go through my papers with me, or the math equations and they would explain stuff to me. The professor. Not a tutor – the professor. And I learned how to do didactic discussions and debates, and I learned foreign languages, and I got to
travel around the world. I know that I got this incredible opportunity. So, what I feel now, having learned all that I’ve learned with hand analysis, is that my mission and my responsibility is to bring this consciousness of life purpose to the most disenfranchised people in the world. And that’s what I’m dedicating my life to. One of the ways that I do that is by working with the most prosperous – the business owners. Because business owners have freedom. Business owners have the most opportunity of any person on the planet. Dan Kennedy says, “It’s the loneliest job. But it’s also the most fulfilling, because we have the most freedom to create jobs for other people, to create the lifestyle we want, to continually invest in ourselves, because we have the resources to do it.” So I came from privilege, and it was never lost on me. My family drilled it into me, like, “You’d better be grateful, because
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EXPERT INTERVIEW
not everybody gets this. So do something with your life. Make something of yourself. Don’t be a lame-ass slacker.” Pardon my language. And I was like, “Okay, okay, okay. I’ll get with it.” And now my mission is to empower our somewhat neurotic westerners. A friend of mine owns a charity in Africa. I mean he created a charity – he doesn’t own it. Right? He’s the founder, Don Smith. It’s called “Village Empowerment.” And Don Smith lives in Atlanta, Georgia, he’s in his seventies, he built a multi-million dollar construction business, and about 15-20 years ago, a friend invited him to Africa, to Malawi. And he went there, and he saw the poverty, he saw the lack of infrastructure, and he went, “This is crazy.” He also saw the superstitious beliefs that the people were living with, and that in fact their mindset… He has said this many times: He said the number one reason that those people are held back – or anyone is held back – is they don’t have prosperity consciousness. They don’t understand how it works. Steve: Don’t you think that governments help people to remain victims by thinking that the solution is to give them handouts instead of helping them step up? Baeth: That’s right. So, he went over and he started meeting with the tribal leaders. He’s now friends with like 250 tribal leaders in Malawi. And he created the “Pay It Forward” system. He would train a village on those five principles: running water, growing their own food, infrastructure, education, and employment. He said it only takes 20 grand a village to set it up.
that village pays it forward to the next village. So, my point is that, what he said to me was, “Baeth, in the United States, our idea of struggling is having to drive a Chevy instead of a BMW.” Steve: It’s only having a brand new cellphone, gold teeth, gold chains, “We only have one car” or “We only have a two-bedroom apartment.” Baeth: Exactly. Even the people who live in “the bad side of town,” most of them have shelter and running water. Unless they live in Appalachia, which is still a problem. So, anyway, I don’t mean to go off on a big thing about this, but what my life to this point has shown me is: I had this great opportunity, and then I was introduced to something that even I thought was weird. And then I kept researching it. And now it’s scientific, because hundreds of thousands of hands have been documented in a system. It’s teachable, it’s learnable, it’s demonstrable, and it’s 99.9% accurate. I don’t have people going, “No, that’s not me.” They’re like, “Oh my God, that’s me!”
Steve: Because what it did is it confirmed something deep inside that I had thought or wished or hoped was what I would do. And then when you said, “That’s what you should be doing…” But then you also pointed out, “But here’s the biggest fault: You’ve got to watch out for this…” And I was like, “Oh my goodness, that’s just so, so true!” Okay, here’s the thing – because obviously we can go on forever – but I just see the clock on the wall. We’re at the end of today’s episode. I do have you for one more, and I would like to get into this, if you would: I have met, and consulted with, and I’ve run hundreds of events for business owns… I’ve met thousands of business owners over the years, and so many business owners are doing their business and get to a point – a “mid-life crisis” or whatever you want to call it – where they seem to have lost their spark, they need a second wind, the passion has gone out of them doing what they do, and running their business. And I know you have a message that can reignite the passion for people in their business. Can we get into that tomorrow?
Steve: I can tell you right away it was accurate to me. It was life-changing also.
Baeth: Let’s do it!
Baeth: It’s life-changing.
SteveSipress.com/magazine
Steve: And hopefully, he hooks up with some of these micro-lending sites… Baeth: That’s right, he does. Steve: …where you can put a woman into business for 50 bucks and change everyone’s life. Baeth: He does! And so, from there, 8 I RHINO MONTHLY I www.SteveSipress.com
To listen to the complete interview, go to:
Baeth Davis helps entrepreneurs who are experiencing a crisis of meaning find practical solutions for their dilemma. They are overworked, bored or overwhelmed. Their business isn’t necessarily reflecting their passions and soul’s desire. They want to know and live their life’s purpose and bring that into their business. Baeth uses a tool called scientific hand analysis to help you understand your unique design. She’s been in business 18 years and works with entrepreneurs all over the world. Get your free report and free video series at: RhinoDaily.com/hands
Steve Sipress The WOW Strategy™ Creator
To find out if The WOW! Strategy™ Results Group could be right for you, go to:
www.SteveSipress.com/results
Jon Bockman Sycamore, IL
“Steve is all business. He is an unbelievably smart, brilliant, brilliant man. I can't say enough about him. Steve has put probably more, I would say, thousands, and thousands, and thousands of dollars... I mean, I probably can't even put a true figure on it, because it keeps coming back, and keeps coming back, just more and more money all the time.”
“One suggestion that Steve gave me, well, without question, put $300,000 more in my bank account. And we are going to be using it forever. This is not a one-time deal. We’re going to be using this idea that Steve helped us with... and we’ll be using it until it doesn't keep working like it is. And so, the value over time could literally be way over even the $300,000 number.”
Mary Forte Bensenville, IL
Keith Lee Seattle, WA
“He's helped me learn how to market my business, and today I can say that we're more successful than we've ever been… I needed to learn how to market the business better to create more revenue, and that's what Steve has helped me with. The financial difference is considerable. We've probably close to doubled our revenues. We're on track now to do another close to $500,000 more than we did last year. So that's awesome. I do owe all of that to Steve.”
THE FASTEST PATH TO
FREEDOM
By Robert Skrob
I had a job for six years. I started as a bookkeeper and quickly became the company’s controller. Within two years, I had become the director of business affairs. Then I bought the business.
July holiday learning how to program Microsoft Access databases, building my own CRM systems to track member contact information, dues payments and conference registrations.
worse, I was building his business, his machine to generate profits. If he fired me, I’d have to walk away, and everything I had built would be out of reach. I knew I had to work for myself.
I used employment as an opportunity to learn as much as possible. I set up the network server. I loaded Novell version 1.0, a program that, back then, came on about two dozen 5¼-inch floppy disks. I spent an entire Fourth of
While my job was a great learning ground, I soon figured out I’d never get paid what I was worth. My salary took money out of my boss’s pocket by lowering the amount he could take out as dividends from profits. And what’s
I met my boss for lunch on Labor Day, made him an offer for his business and within a few weeks I owned the company.
10 I RHINO MONTHLY I www.SteveSipress.com
I started working more than 90 hours
THE FASTEST PATH TO FREEDOM
a week. I flew more than 100 flight segments around the country, meeting with clients and building important relationships. Yes, I was working a lot harder, but it was my company now. To keep my family time in balance, I’d come home for dinner every evening I was in town, except Fridays. On Fridays I’d stay at the office and work until dawn on Saturday. This way I missed as little family time as possible. I was woefully unprepared to take over a business. I had a lot to learn, and I had to learn it on the job. While I had a good team assembled, with employees who wanted the company to succeed, I also had others who were bitter and frustrated that the previous owner had sold the company to me. Often it was difficult to tell who fit into which category. After a lot of tears, frustration and angry fights, I had things running smoothly within a couple of years. Most important, the business was mine; I owned the keys to the door. It was my responsibility as well as my opportunity to succeed. I learned more in a week as an owner than I did in a year as an employee. This was my company. Most days it felt like we were “building the airplane while flying it,” but I was going to do whatever it took to make it work. None of us are prepared to know everything it’s going to take to run a business until we do it. There’s never a way to get enough experience until you take the plunge and do it. Sometimes when I see my friends who hold regular jobs, I get a twinge of envy. Many of them make great money, $200,000 or even a lot more. With jobs they have a whole lot less to worry about. While I’m negotiating salaries, running marketing campaigns, innovating to stay current and working
August 2016
The only solution is to create a business for yourself. To create a business you own. To learn on the job and build it as you go. You’ll have a lot to learn, but you’ll never get your freedom and become successful until you make it happen. to keep customers happy, they work their jobs and get several weeks of vacation a year.
freedom and become successful until you make it happen.
Yet I know my friends’ high salaries can disappear in a second. Businesses close without warning, law practices break up and new business owners come in to clean house. When it’s sunny and 73 degrees outside, it’s hard to believe the weather forecast predicting a bad storm will arrive tomorrow morning. It’s the same when you have a good job. It’s hard to imagine that tomorrow it can be gone, but experience proves it can happen to anyone. The only solution is to create a business for yourself. To create a business you own. To learn on the job and build it as you go. You’ll have a lot to learn, but you’ll never get your
Many coaching clients have come to me with feelings of being overwhelmed because of the pressure of business ownership. Some are overwhelmed because the success of their marketing has created fulfillment and customer service challenges. Others have achieved one level of success and are looking to make the next leap. While I understand and implement today’s most advanced marketing systems, I also understand the processes that need to be implemented to fulfill your promises and give you that great business owner lifestyle everyone wants. Has business ownership given you personal freedom? Do you long to have your own business? Or do you have the perfect job?
Robert Skrob is the author of the five marketing books including, “Your Association Shortcut: The Definitive Guide for Generating Customers Through Associations”. Watch a special free training video, “5 Easy Ways to Solve the 7 Biggest Marketing Problems by Marketing Through Associations” by visiting:
www.Your AssociationShortcut.com
www.SteveSipress.com I RHINO MONTHLY
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August 2016
MANNY’S BLOG
First in War, First in Peace, First in the Laps of His Countrymen It has been strongly suggested that I do my patriotic duty and volunteer my services as “first dog” to whichever candidate wins the presidency in November, so I am officially throwing my hat into the ring. (Hey, Charlie Chihuahua, you don’t have to dance around the hat.) Of course I would still be Steve and Michele’s faithful pet; but for the next four (or eight) years I would jet back and forth to Washington, be a four-footed good will ambassador, and help heal a wounded nation. My pal Tripper got all excited about this gig. (“You’re going to be the first dog???? Dude, I knew time travel was for real! So you’ll get to go back to the dawn of time? Adam and Eve would be so happy to have you as their pet!!”) Yeah, my first job as first dog would be to have the DEA check out exactly what Tripper’s master has been smoking. In a way, I really should have been born in a different time. I could’ve come in handy when William Henry Harrison was running for president. (“Tip a canoe and get that wet dog smell, too!”) When President Ronald Reagan did his “Morning In America” re-election campaign, we could have broadcast idyllic scenes of fetching the morning paper, chasing the mailman, digging up the Rose Garden… I would really put my Secret Service agents to the test if I became first dog. I would see if they were really valiant and dedicated enough to throw themselves between me and a dreaded flea dip. I would not be just a figurehead if I became first dog.
(“I’ve got a pen and a phone and I’ve got a conveniently unattended Lincoln Bedroom toilet…”) I know my canine constituents would expect me to influence policy. Instead of strategic arms negotiations, we could have strategic opposable thumbs negotiations. Then maybe humans wouldn’t feel so doggone superior all the time. I would also get the band to play something besides “Hail To The Chief.” I’m afraid that if Tripper heard “Hail To The Chief,” he would go into panic mode and start screaming, “Circle the wagons! Here come the bows and arrows! Where is John Wayne when you need him?” Don’t be coming to me looking for presidential pardons. Considering the way I’ve been slandered over the years, I would expect to receive the exact opposite. Everyone from the chief of staff on down would be saying, “The first dog did it! The first dog did it!” Although there have been “first pets” other than dogs (remember Socks, the Clinton family cat?), I still like the Ike Eisenhower admonition, “Beware the feline-industrial complex.” And if you really want to talk species that are wrong for the White House, let’s discuss lemurs. They’re still trying to erase all memory of the brief stint that King Julien (from the “Madagascar” movies) pulled during the George W. Bush presidency. The irrepressible Julien took one look at Mount Rushmore and launched into “I’d like to move it, move it!” If you have any recommendations for Significant Others, pass ‘em along. But please – Grandpa aside, let her roaming be with Verizon and not buffalo!
Manny (full name Emanuel or “Dog With Us”) brought non-stop joy, affection, and energy into the lives of Steve and Michele Sipress for over 13 years. He also shared his wit, humor and insights with readers here every month. Thankfully, as he got on in years and knew that his time on this Earth was growing short, he poured himself into his writing, leaving many, many columns behind, so that his fans can have the continued pleasure of being entertained and enlightened by him for a long time to come. He is no longer physically with us, but his memory lives on…
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PETER’S LAWS
July 2015
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RHINO MONTHLY www.SteveSipress.com/magazine
Volume IV Number 8 | August 2016
CONTENTS:
1 10
Farewell to Our Beloved Emanuel By Steve Sipress
in War, First in Peace, 12 First First in the Laps of His Countrymen
The Fastest Path to Freedom
Manny’s Blog
By Robert Skrob
4
INTERVIEW WITH
Baeth Davis Igniting Your Business Passion
Publisher Steve Sipress Successful Selling Systems, Inc. 20701 N Scottsdale Rd Ste 107-509 Scottsdale AZ 85255 (p) 773-236-8134 (f ) 847-232-1535 Questions? Comments? Suggestions?
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Layout & Design Bobbie Miltcheva www.33graffics.com
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