Interviews

Bill de Groot

www.clickcreateshare.com
www.oneepicjourney.com

Vera Raposo:  Welcome to another episode of the ACT podcast and that’s Action Changes Things. I’m speaking today with my friend Bill who decided to do the ride to conquer cancer when his father was diagnosed with cancer. Of course, as you know my daughter endured quite a battle against cancer twice and she’s victorious and doing great and cancer free and this is year three for us so it’s very exciting!

I’ll probably be doing a big big party on her fifth year because at the 5 year mark they say you’re cured or as close to being cured as you can get. I’m pretty happy about that. Every day is a good day and every day is a gift. I am so thrilled and happy to be able to share with you the things that come to me in my life and hopefully will inspire you to take action. Life is short! We just don’t know how much time we have and I just want to inspire you to make that move. Make that decision that is holding you back and push forward with your life.

Without further adue here is my interview with Bill DeGroot.

Here we are. I am joined by my guest Bill DeGroot. Bill and I met a number of years ago and we’ve done a lot of business in the past but over the recent years we’ve developed a friendship and I managed to help him launch www.oneepicjourney.com site to really highlight what he was doing to raise money for the Ride to Conquer Cancer.

I’m very much looking forward to this interview today. I think it’s going to really inspire you into doing more than just going to work or going to your business and actually think about doing more in life. I’m very excited about this. Welcome Bill.

Bill DeGroot:  Good morning Vera. Thank you for having me.

Vera Raposo:  Bill, tell me what is it that started you on the business path? You’ve been a business owner for many many years, an entrepreneur. What is it that got you started?

Bill DeGroot:  I knew very early on in my teenage years that I wanted to one day own my own business.
Growing up as a teenager I was always very entrepreneurial and was always thinking of ways of raising money and making more money. I started working at a very early age and through my teen years and through high school I always had summer jobs. As a young man at the age of 20 or 21 I decided that I’d venture out and start my own business and I’ve been lucky enough that for the last 20 years I’ve been self-employed and have never looked back.

Vera Raposo:  You know what’s funny Bill? I just changed my about page not too long ago, you should have a read. But it’s funny that you talked about being an entrepreneur at such a young age and thinking about ways to make money. I used to sell shoe polish door to door!

Bill DeGroot:  Did you really?

Vera Raposo:  I did absolutely. It was like this cute little; you open it up and you could use it on any type of shoe, any color, and it was just like a one for all type shoe polish. I absolutely loved selling it. It was $3.00. I was about 12 years old and I loved selling it.

Bill DeGroot:  I learn something new about you every day.

Vera Raposo:  That’s funny. What do you think has been the key to your success?

Bill DeGroot:  Well that’s really easy. I have since day number one; I’ve always treated the customers the way that I wanted to be treated. To me a handshake is everything and my word is as good as being written down. And that’s it. It’s very simple – be very honest and be upfront and have a good quality product at a competitive price and customers will come to you.

Vera Raposo:  I remember thinking back to my store days. Even to this day I get invited to the kid’s graduations at high school. For me too it was about getting to know them and almost being like a second family. It was really neat.

Bill DeGroot:  You’re talking about your customers children? Their children?

Vera Raposo:  Yes. My customer’s children. We had a lot of teenage boys. I just went to a graduation this year from one of the kids that came in the store. It’s neat to get invited to things like that, that they would think I was that important part of their life to be invited.

Bill DeGroot:  And just like you, a lot of the people that I met early on have become lifelong friends and 20 years later instead of being just involved in business we are hanging out socially and are friends. More friends than customers now and that just goes back to what I was saying – just treat them the way that you’d want to be treated and those business relationships will most likely turn into friendships down the line.

Vera Raposo:  Absolutely. Let’s talk about your Ride to Conquer Cancer. That was a very big deal. I think about that and it seems like such a huge thing to ride a bike from Vancouver BC to Seattle Washington and you did that with a group of friends. What was the moment that you decided to get going with that and that you were actually going to do that because that’s a big decision.

Bill DeGroot:  Well I didn’t just wake up and decide to do the ride one day. As you know my father was diagnosed with cancer just a little over a year ago and during that time I was on my own journey of losing weight and trying to make myself a better person (inside and out). During my weight loss I kind of did a little turn around when I found out that my father had cancer and it put me back in the wrong direction of my eating habits.

So, it was actually my father that had suggested that the Ride to Conquer Cancer might be a good thing for three reasons. Number one being the main thing that you’re trying to do is raise money for cancer research and number two it would be an inspiration to him if I would do that for him and number three all of that training would be something that would be good for me to get back onto the bike because you don’t just wake up and ride 250 kilometers down to Seattle without a lot of training involved.

Vera Raposo:  For sure. Wow. I didn’t know that. That’s very cool that your dad suggested that. I’m sure he was very proud.

Bill DeGroot:  Very proud and we got a lot of exposure and we got a lot of great pictures taken. One of my favorite pictures I’m actually sitting here looking at right now is a picture of my dad and I when I presented him with my Ride to Conquer Cancer bicycle shirt. It was for being an ambassador and raising a certain amount of money and I thought if there was a real ambassador that deserved it, it was my father. So I presented that to him about a week before the ride. That was very special.

Vera Raposo:  Nice. What a nice keepsake for him and reminder for you. What surprised you overall about the whole journey?

Bill DeGroot:  What a great question. It was the stories. The ride wasn’t a race. The ride was just an epic journey to take a leisurely ride down to Seattle with thousands of other riders and there was lots of talking and getting to know each other along the way and lots of pit stops. And to hear everybody else’s story for their reason for riding; I don’t think I met one single person along the ride that wasn’t directly affected in some way by cancer whether it be a close friend, a relative or themselves. To hear all their stories was just a very special moment for me and it was a lot of listening. That’s something I’ll take with me for the rest of my life.

Vera Raposo:  When I saw on Facebook; Wendy and even your wife Leah when they were posting about the journey and how it affected them and the thoughts that they had boy it made me think too. It brought me back to the journey that I had with my daughter and how we don’t choose to go through that. She didn’t choose that. It was very inspiring for me looking from the outside in. Yeah I was involved in the website and all that sort of thing but it was very inspiring for me after going and seeing my daughter endure that. Seeing you guys put the effort in and all that training you had to go through and everything is very inspiring.

Bill DeGroot:  Thank you very much. I’ll add one thing though. You mentioned Wendy and Leah and you also mentioned yourself and the website. You three, we would have never been able as a team to do what we did without you three. Even though you weren’t on the team per say as riders you were an integral part of what we did and how we got there. You with your website design for us – there’s no way that we would have reached our goal (or exceeded our goal). You talk about Wendy and Leah – they had the time of their lives volunteering and driving along in the car being a sweep crew so they were just basically assisting people who were either injured or needed a repair or needed help in any way. They couldn’t sign up for next year’s Ride to Conquer Cancer quick enough. They’ll be doing the sweep crew again next year and I sure hope that I can count on you to help me out with the website design again and maybe if I’m even luckier I may get you volunteering to be on the sweep crew or to actually ride in the ride. I’ll leave that up to you depending on how you feel.

Vera Raposo:  That would be a very thing for me to even think about doing the ride. But I think it’s a good point to make to is that there’s other ways for people to get involved. I have that option that oh I could be in the sweep crew if it seems too big for me to even think about training for something like that. There are other options that I could get involved with.

Bill DeGroot:  There’s literally opportunity for hundreds and hundreds of volunteers to help in many many different ways. You can either ride or you can volunteer or you can donate a little cash. Every little bit counts. And they wouldn’t say no to any type of volunteering opportunity.

Vera Raposo:  Wonderful. Bill, I don’t remember if it was like half way through your journey of all your training or what but I remember looking on Facebook and you had been rushed to the hospital. I was going what is going on this can’t be happening. What is going on? This guy is training and something is going on and he’s in the hospital having surgery. Can you tell us about what happened to you right in the midst of planning your ride?

Bill DeGroot:  You don’t remember the date but I sure do! It was Friday the 13th.

Vera Raposo:  Oh my!

Bill DeGroot:  It was January Friday the 13th of 2012 and I was playing hockey. You’re right I was just in the middle of all of my training. I had been training on my bike for a few months before then and doing dry land running training and elliptical and treadmill training. On Friday the 13th I was playing hockey with a group of friends just like I have for many many years and in the middle of playing a friendly no touch hockey game I was hit from behind and thrown very hard into the boards headfirst. I received significant injuries to my neck. I was immediately rushed by ambulance to the hospital where I spent the next 16 hours laying in the emergency ward not knowing what my future was before having surgery the next afternoon. I had spinal cord surgery that afternoon and went immediately into recovery mode.

But for the fact that my excellent physical conditioning before hand and the shape I was in it really took me in the right direction of my quick road to recovery. Unfortunately I knew immediately after the surgery that most likely I was going to have to have another surgery because even though I was much much better I still wasn’t perfect and back to the way I was before.

I had made a promise to myself, to my father, to my team, to my sponsors that I was going to do this Ride to Conquer Cancer on Father’s Day of 2012 and there was no way that I wasn’t going to do it. So I put myself into high gear and got myself back into shape or the best shape that I could be in knowing that the whole time I did have another surgery coming up.

On Father’s Day weekend just last month I completed the Ride to Conquer Cancer, the 250 kilometers down to Seattle and only a few days later after the ride on June 28th I went back into surgery at Eco Ridge hospital and had my second spinal cord surgery and woke up the next morning feeling pretty good. Even though I’m still not perfect we’re back knowing that I’m going to be back in great shape soon and looking forward to the next Ride to Conquer Cancer.

That’s it. That’s the story.

Vera Raposo:  Wow. Amazing. I just need to say this again. You had spinal cord surgery. Like you said, the whole fact that you were in really good physical health but I think that’s the power of the mind too because you had such strength to even; like you know – I’m still doing it and this is what’s going to happen and this is it, I’m doing the ride.

I think that’s just amazing. You would think most people their first thought would be well there’s no way I can do it. This is major surgery it wasn’t like a little hit on the head or something. That’s very good.

Bill DeGroot:  It definitely wasn’t a little hit on the head that’s for sure.

Vera Raposo:  No! So, how did that experience change you? That was a pretty massive thing to happen right in the middle there.

Bill DeGroot:  Well this is another really easy question to answer. It has made me realize how precious life is and how short this time on this earth is. I am just grateful every day now when I wake up and I’m able to walk and I’m able to grab a coffee mug and go out and drive my car.

I’m getting a little bit teary Vera because it really is emotional for me because sitting there for those 16 hours in the emergency not knowing what was going to happen. I was in really bad shape. There was a point where I really thought that I may not have use of my arms and fingers. My neck was in a spinal collar (I’m not too sure what they’re called) but I wasn’t able to move my neck for those 16 hours so I had no idea what was happening out there. All I knew was I was in excruciating pain and it was tough.

A lot of stuff goes through your mind and there’s a lot of things you think about. One thing I do know is that it just made me realize that I’m going to live every single day to the best of my abilities and I’m going to really appreciate my friendships and my family and just make the most of it.

Vera Raposo:  That’s why sometimes I’ll post (I know I’m going to Facebook a lot) where I say it’s a new day and I put a little heart. We’re so blessed and we’re so thankful that we just wake up every day and can make this day a good one.

Bill DeGroot:  You’re exactly right.

Vera Raposo:  What have you taken away from the whole experience when it came to doing the Ride to Conquer Cancer?

Bill DeGroot:  Well the first thing was literally about maybe five minutes after crossing the finish line myself and my teammate Roy we signed up for next year’s ride. So if you couldn’t already tell by that comment that we had the best time ever. But you just take away that you need to give back and you’ve gotta take a certain percentage of your time on this earth and give back to people that are a little bit less fortunate than yourselves.

For me to take a few hours out of my day over the next couple months to try and raise a couple dollars for my favorite charity and to get off the couch and go out and train a little bit to do next year’s ride is in the whole scheme of things it’s really very minor and insignificant and it’s going to be no problem.

So that’s what I’ve taken away is you’ve just gotta give back. That’s rules to live by.

Vera Raposo:  Yeah. When is your planning going to start for the next ride?

Bill DeGroot:  It’s already in the works. We’re looking for sponsors, we’re looking for donations, we’re looking for volunteers, and we’re looking for riders. You can ride as an individual or there’s lots of great teams you can ride on. We’re always looking for donations, I’ll take a dollar or if somebody wants to call me up and tell me that they’ve got some pop cans in their garage that they want to donate if it’s not too far away I’ll send over one of our teammates or myself (if it’s in my area) to come pick them up. Every cent counts and any donation over I believe $10.00 you get a tax receipt so why wouldn’t you give ten bucks?

Vera Raposo:  For sure. What is one thing you would say to someone about doing something they would be fearful of doing? Whether it be starting a business or doing something big like a ride.

Bill DeGroot:  You have to do what makes you happy. The two are so different because there’s a little bit more of a risk starting a business. But if you just want to talk about business for a second, if you’re at the point where you’ve got an idea or a thought or something that you can run with if you’ve got the money and the energy and the time to go 110% into a business venture and if you can afford to take that chance do it! Talk to people and get their impressions of business, get their thoughts because if your friends aren’t going to buy your product most likely the rest of the world’s not going to buy your product or idea or service.

If you’re talking about the bike ride or another type of epic journey, stuff in your life you’ve got to check off your bucket list. You’ve got to make decisions every day about what you’re going to do tomorrow or next week and next month. Make a list of all those things that you want to do because life is too short. And just go ahead and do it because sometimes there is no tomorrow!

Vera Raposo:  For sure.

Bill DeGroot:  Just surround yourself with wonderful great people and good things will happen and you and I both know that for a fact.

Vera Raposo:  Absolutely. I will just end that on that note. I’m very happy and excited for the following year when you and your buddies and everyone who is volunteering is going to put effort into it. I’m excited to be along for this journey.

You can follow Bill over at www.oneepicjourney.com Thanks so much Bill. I really appreciate you sharing your thoughts today on everything.

Bill DeGroot:  Thank you Vera and just to make sure everybody knows that oneepicjourney.com is spelled out. It’s not the number one. Its oneepicjourney.com

Vera Raposo:  Very good point. Awesome. Thanks Bill.

Bill DeGroot:  Thanks for having me Vera.

www.clickcreateshare.com
www.frank-mckinney.com

Vera Raposo:  Hello and welcome to the Action Changes Things podcast. I’m so excited and very happy that you are here with me today.

I am thrilled that this is the first podcast to the Click Create Share website. The reason I’m so excited is because I took a couple of years (about 2 1/2 years) off. I sold my entire online business and took a break from it all and just wanted to really let God direct my path. This is the first of many interviews that you’ll be hearing. It really represents and reflects what I believe we’re all here to do and that’s to spread the message of Jesus Christ out to the world and to inspire people to increase their income (know that it’s ok to increase your income) and make a very big impact on the world.

I’m just excited to get this going with you today. I would love for you to explore Click Create Share (http://www.clickcreateshare.com) and check out our text interviews and all the different articles, blog posts that I’ve put on there and just really get inspired because after inspiration comes acting and just getting going with your business and doing great things for the world.

That’s about it. I’m very excited to introduce to you Frank McKinney. He will be joining me right now.

I am speaking with Frank McKinney who is a Real Estate Artist, 5-time international bestselling author with 3 books he’s just released. His books include Make It BIG!: 49 Secrets for Building a Life of Extreme Success. Another book is Frank McKinney’s MaveFrank Approach to Real Estate Success.  Then he has Dead Fred, Flying Lunchboxes, and the Good Luck Circle. Another book he has that is International best-selling (they’re all International bestselling) is Frank McKinney’s Bubble-Proof Real Estate Strategies. And his latest book is The Tap where he talks about how God taps us on the shoulder many times in life, answering prayers and presenting life-changing opportunities.

He is a super hero meets Robin Hood, philanthro-capitalist, risk-taker, ultramarathoner and visionary who sees opportunities and creates markets where none existed before. You can follow our interview along and see his site over at www.frank-mckinney.com.

Welcome Frank. Thank you so much for coming on the Podcast today.

Frank McKinney:  That was quite the introduction. I don’t know what we’ve got left to talk about. Actually we’ve got a lot to talk about in very little time so let’s get right to it. Thank you for inviting me on. I’m excited to spend some time with your listeners.

Vera Raposo:  Awesome. You’re book, The Tap, is inspired by Luke 12:48 which says from those to whom much is entrusted much will be expected. Can you tell me about your book The Tap and what compelled you to write it?

Frank McKinney:  Sure. And I’m sure for the person who heard ‘inspired by a Biblical passage’ is thinking oh boy here he goes, he’s going to pound on the pulpit and he’s going to try to convert me. Listen, I am a sinner saved by the grace of God. I’m a business man who happens to believe that that passage is a great life mantra regardless of what your religious preference is or even if you have one. To whom much is entrusted much will be expected.

Imagine if people listening here; if you pray (and let’s assume most people do take some sort of prayer) inventory your prayer today or tonight and I bet you it contains some form of more – more health, I’m praying for more wealth, more happiness, more love, more peace, more enjoyment – for ourselves or those we love. That’s pretty much what we pray for if you think about it.

The book teaches you (a) how to recognize life’s great tap moments – when God taps you on the shoulder and calls you to more – and (b) how to act on it. And God does reward the responsible steward who is a responsible steward for the more that he or she already has. God tends to reward those people with the more that they pray for.

That’s the premise behind the book. It’s not just a premise. It’s something that I’ve experienced myself and that thousands of other people who’ve read the book have also written and said they’ve experienced as well. Recognizing life’s big tap moments, acting on them and standing back the more that you’ve prayed for come.

Vera Raposo:  What is the biggest takeaway that you like readers to have?

Frank McKinney:  It’s really just that – that God rewards responsible stewards who are responsible stewards with the blessings they already have. I know it’s a podcast but the image of the book kind of says it all where you’ve got the finger of God coming down tapping you on the shoulder as taken from the Sistine Chapel where you have Michelangelo’s painting of God touching Adam’s finger. We removed Adam from the picture (we had permission) and put you the reader in its place.

That is the takeaway. I want the reader to recognize when God does come down and tap them on the shoulder, calling them to more and then once they say “oh yes now I know, Frank, what a tap moment is” how do we act on it?

Vera Raposo:  How do you define success?

Frank McKinney:  Boy, success for most people has a financial connotation. I don’t believe that. We’re all in the business of life. That’s the business we’re all in. You could be a business person listening to this or not a business person but we’re all in that business of life.

To me success is recognizing when God is calling you to more, acting on it, seeing the impact of that action have a very significant impact on the lives of those who are less fortunate than you.

That’s the prototypical definition of success.

Listen, success you think brings you happiness. Happiness is fleeting but joy lasts forever. When you recognize a tap moment and then you act on the tap moment and you’ve impacted somebody who’s less fortunate than you, that brings about joy. And that joy lasts forever.

Vera Raposo:  That joy is really just within your spirit, everything about you. It’s not something that lasts a day and is gone. It’s overall.

Frank McKinney:  Yeah, it’s something you can call on. You can call on that and guess what you’ll want to do it again. It can be something as small as I’m in a hotel right now and every morning when I leave for the day I write a little thank you note on the hotel stationary for a clean room and I leave a five dollar bill. That’s a tiny little tap moment.

My daughter when we go out to eat at Denny’s or something when we’re done I have her walk back into the short order cook’s kitchen and hand the guy a five dollar bill and say thank you for a nice meal.

This isn’t saving the world by building villages in Haiti, these are small small little tap moments that present themselves. I look for them; now I don’t really even have to look, they present themselves to me on a daily basis. You exercise kind of your tap muscle.

It started out with God tapping me on the shoulder asking me to just serve meals out of the back of a beat up old van to the homeless on the streets of Florida one hour a week.

Vera Raposo:  Wow.

Frank McKinney:  If I hadn’t answered that tap moment we wouldn’t have built 18 self-sufficient villages in Haiti.

Vera Raposo:  And made such a change in other people’s lives.

Frank McKinney:  Indeed.

Vera Raposo:  That’s awesome.

Frank McKinney:  When we build a village there is no coming back to the well for more money. It’s made very clear to our partner’s over there or the villager’s that we’re really good at the infrastructure, we’re really good at the master planning, we can fund the villages and get them built but once they’re done you’re on your own. If they fail, they fail then we move onto another location. Well, we always move onto another location succeed or fail. To this day we have had none – zero – of the villages fall into ill repair. They’ve all flourished because of that self-sufficient element.

Vera Raposo:  What is the Death Valley Badwater Ultramarathon and why are you a part of it?

Frank McKinney:  On your Podcast your people are saying what is this guy? Does he have a functioning multiple personality disorder or what? We’re bouncing around a lot here. We have plenty of time. We’ll slow it down a little bit.

Vera Raposo:  Ok.

Frank McKinney:  The Caring House Foundation is my spiritual highest calling. Everybody has a professional highest calling, yours may be being a writer or whatever it is you do for a living. My professional highest calling is that of a creator of some of these beautiful homes on the ocean on speculation – beautiful mansions – that I build for people and they buy them from us.

Now, everyone has a spiritual highest calling and the Caring House helped me identify what my spiritual highest calling was and that is to provide a self-sustaining existence for the desperately poor homeless in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere that being Haiti.

We need to fund those organizations and certainly by the sale of our homes do we partially fund them but we have a lot of donors that really enjoy being a part of the creation of these self-sufficient villages. As a matter of fact we have a lot of Canadians that are a part of the Caring House Foundation.

Vera Raposo:  Oh yeah.

Frank McKinney:  What we do is we don’t do black tie events, we don’t do cocktail parties, we don’t do golf outings, we do experience events. And be that taking people to Haiti to experience firsthand what their donation has gone to, in other words they get to go see the villages and see the houses that they’ve donated to build.

But I also do this race called the Badwater 135 mile Death Valley Ultramarathon. That’s a mouthful. It is, according to the National Geographic, the toughest foot race in the world. That’s not my claim, that’s their claim! It’s a race that starts at the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere 282 feet below sea level in the Death Valley Desert in July. Right now the race is getting ready to start here shortly.

As the name says it is 135 mile non-stop race run on blacktop pavement. So the daytime temperatures in the air are 130 degrees Fahrenheit and the temperature on the blacktop pavement will exceed 200 degrees Fahrenheit. I must run along with 99 other invitees 135 miles non-stop and I have to finish in under 48 hours or I’m disqualified.

Vera Raposo:  Wow!

Frank McKinney:  Our mantra is pretty simple. It’s: selectively suffering a little for those who are suffering a lot involuntarily in Haiti.

I bring this on. I sign up for it. I send in my application. I was invited to participate – it’s an invitation only race. So I can’t complain about all the suffering that I go through. But I do it for the benefit of those who are suffering a lot without choice in Haiti.

Vera Raposo:  Right. You know something you may not know about me, Frank, is that my daughter endured cancer twice and I just got behind a campaign of some rider’s who are doing the ride to conquer cancer from Vancouver BC to Seattle Washington. That’s the one thing I took away from the whole entire experience between watching my daughter endure cancer twice and going through the whole ordeal of these riders of what they’re going through is that there’s no choice for the person enduring it (the person going through the pain). There’s no choice. You just have to go through it. So the fact that someone is willing to come along side and say ok I’m going to honor your battle and step in and do something for you I think it’s pretty amazing.

Frank McKinney:  I think if it was all about just finishing this prestigious race I wouldn’t have knocked it off my bucket list in 2005 when I ran the first one. It would have been about me and the challenge and if National Geographic says it’s the toughest in the world well boy I’m going to be a part of that and then be done. But I realized boy what a great way to raise monies for our charity is to have people – a lot of people donate a dollar per mile or more and we raise a good amount of money from me getting out there and trying to endure this debilitating test of human will.

Vera Raposo:  For sure. What would you say to someone who wants to step into more in their life but is nervous to take those steps? They have a business and either they’re a workaholic and they aren’t taking the time and like you said it’s like a bug on their shoulder that they’re trying to flick off or they’re really thinking maybe I can do something. What would you say to someone who’s just nervous to take that step?

Frank McKinney:  Let’s just kind of break down the thought process for something like that. The first thing is when we contemplate a significant change or challenge in our life be it physical, relational, spiritual, diet wise, mental, change or challenge (significant change or challenge) in life always involves taking a risk! It does.

When we contemplate that four letter word the other four letter word moves in and takes over and that’s fear.

So,

Change or challenge =’s risk =’s fear

And most often when we get to that stage of fear we stop. We don’t undertake the significant change or challenge.

Listen, I was a one step from the couch every other day six mile runner when I stumbled across this 135 race. I’d never run a marathon in my life. So, of course it was a big change, a big challenge, it was a huge risk and I had a lot of fear. But when you realize that fear is oftentimes associated with risk and a great opportunity to change or challenge yourself in your life we must push through!

You’re going to have regrets in your life. Everybody listening to the podcast has regrets. I would rather regret what I did not what I didn’t do. And so why shouldn’t we?

Listen, I’m afraid every day of my life. I’m terrified of this race coming up. It’s my seventh time doing it but I still feel like it’s the first.

Vera Raposo:  Wow.

Frank McKinney:  The difference is I don’t want to let fear stop me. I don’t want to let it get in the way. I’ll recognize it for what it is. I recognize that it’s associated with risk and I recognize that it’s always associated with change or challenge.

In your life if you’re contemplating, it doesn’t have to be running across a desert change or challenge but it can be a significant alteration to the way that you’ve been living, embrace the risk that it’s going to bring in the fear (I should say the fear associated with the risk) as a great opportunity to make a change.

The way to make it stick is; there’s a big difference between inspiration – somebody listening to this might be inspired like if Frank can run 135 miles I’m going to run 5, I’m going to get myself in shape or what have you. What I hope that you can do is recognize the difference between inspiration and aspiration.

Aspiration can change and alter your DNA. Aspiration can, once it gets inside you aspire to be more. Aspire to be more like somebody, aspire to be more with regards to your potential.

Inspiration wears off, Vera, but aspiration stays forever. It’s rare to find and the time that you do tap into it are the times that you want to stay with it, embrace the sensation because that’s where (going back to that change or challenge equals risk equals fear) you can make lasting change or challenge is through aspiration.

Vera Raposo:  Wonderful. I’m just so thankful that you came on the podcast today because I think it’s going to, like you said not only inspire but actually maybe move some people to action in doing some greater things than what they’re capable of doing on their own.

I believe too that when we bring God into the mix and there’s a scripture that says that God has not given us a spirit of fear but of love and of sound mind. So I think it’s important to recognize that. That we’re not actually born with that and it’s important to walk in that sound mind thought process.

Frank McKinney:  When you’re thinking about hey this guy sounds like an overachiever I can’t do all those things. Here’s what I would tell you. I’m nothing more than a sinner saved by the grace of God. I have the same fears that everybody else does. I get lazy and complacent like everybody else does.

What I ask people to do is just identify one small, small, change or challenge that you can close the loop on. With the information that’s available to us out there today, there’s the bombardment of Googling our lives to death (we’re researching our lives to death) be an executioner in the sense that I just want you to just execute on one, one, small change or challenge. And close the loop on it because too often we start something, we become an idea person, we become a hey I’ve got a new idea, Frank, let me share with you all these ideas I have. I’m unimpressed by idea people. I’m impressed by the person who comes up with the idea and executes to completion on the idea.

So, that’s what I want your listeners to do is identify one, close the loop on the one, be the executioner (not as in killing but as in executing) on the one and you’ll begin to build confidence in your ability to make a small change or challenge in your life.

Vera Raposo:  That’s wonderful advice for not only life but also business which a lot of our listeners are business owners. I’m really excited to share this with everyone. Thanks so much Frank. I really appreciate you taking the time and speaking with us today.

Frank McKinney:  You’re very welcome Vera. It was my pleasure. Make sure when you are closing out your podcast you do go to www.frank-mckinney.com and read more about the books. You can actually read some sample chapters that are free and see if you like the books. You can see some beautiful pictures of the houses that we built on the ocean (the beautiful mansions) and also the villages that we’ve built in Haiti.

Vera Raposo:  Nice.

Frank McKinney:  And learn more about the Death Valley race and all that. It’s a nice place to spend a few minutes or a few hours at frank-mckinney.com.

Vera Raposo:  Absolutely. It’s a great site. I’ve been on it. Lots of wonderful things to read there. Thank you. That’s at frank-mckinney.com. I am speaking with Frank McKinney and I hope you have a wonderful week.

Please welcome Bill de Groot!

My good friend Bill and I met many years ago and have done business together for years. The cool thing about our business relationship is that we have gone from exchanging dollars back and forth to wanting to see great change in the world with our efforts.

Sadly Bill and I have both been affected by cancer and that’s how we joined up in our life missions. Bill’s father endured cancer treatments and responded well to treatment and is doing extremely well now. Also my daughter endured almost a 3 year battle and is now cancer free, praise God!

Bill decided to do something about it and he joined up, got a team together and did the Ride to Conquer Cancer from Vancouver, BC Canada to Seattle, WA USA. I knew in my gut that I needed to be a part of it. The day of the ride was very emotional for me, it was something I put my hands to and I knew lives would be changed because of what I did.

Just before Bill embarked on his journey with the Ride To Conquer Cancer, he received this shirt in the mail.

Bill says…

“In yesterdays mail I was pleasantly surprised to see my Ride To Conquer Cancer Package had finally arrived.

Like a kid on Christmas Morning I ripped it open and found a whole bunch of great stuff inside including a sweet Ambassador bike jersey. I am very touched that the ride office has given me such a beautiful shirt for my hard work thus far but I definitely would not be where I am in fundraising right now without the rest of my amazing team, generous friends and strangers and most importantly without the support and encouragement of my Dad.

Saying that there was only one thing to do with the Ambassador bike jersey…….fits him pretty good I think.”

List to the podcast coming about this journey we had and the surprising battle Bill had to face of his own during the new adventure. You’ll be very shocked to hear what happened!

You can continue to follow Bill at www.OneEpicJourney.com

Action Steps for You

1) Think of how you can make a big step in your business.

2) How can you make your customers more like friends?

3) If you enjoyed this podcast, please feel free to share this with your friends & family with the social icons above.

4) Please post a comment, I’d love to hear from you!

Don’t forget taking action changes things in your life. 

Click the ACT graphic to listen to more…

Listen to our growing library of podcasts that will inspire you to take some serious action in your business. The goal of our podcast is educate and inspire you to act for not only yourself but to help make the world a better place.

… Listen to it here

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Would you like to know what podcasts we have in the works?

I’d love to share with you the people that I’ll be interviewing and why. It’s an exciting experience to interview people who are literally changing the world for the better.

These are confirmed interviews that are scheduled on my calendar so you can expect them to go live soon here on the blog. Just wanted to share my fun with you as I get ready for them.

Amy Lee @ The Connection We Share

I met Amy at a business networking event here in Surrey, BC and we both feel that it was a definite moment in our lives that we connected.

Amy is a very creative entrepreneur who is creating special moments in time with mothers and their children.

It’s far beyond a “photography session.”

I’m thrilled to present this very random, completely unscripted interview that I shared with Amy.

Amy’s Website: www.TheConnectionWeShare.com

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Alana Hermsen @ WoolyBabes.com

ah…. my beautiful niece Alana. Yes, I loved holding my little baby niece when she was born. She is the first of the grandchildren and she made me an auntie for the first time at only 12 years old. Boy did I love hugging and holding her!

Now as her Aunt, I’m super duper proud to share with you what she’s up to. She runs an amazing small business where she creates these beautiful wool dolls and then donates 15% to the local children’s hospital. She also raises money for people who are going through serious life illness.

You can check her out, you’ll be hearing our interview soon where you will discover where her passion came from.

Alana’s Website: www.WoolyBabes.com

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Adie Horowitz @ Licenders.com

(picture coming soon!)

Adie Horowitz is the founder of Licenders, a professional service for the natural removal of head lice. Her company is experiencing huge success and has reached its million dollar mark!

When Adie’s kids were diagnosed as “having lice” she was determined to solve her pesky problem without using highly toxic products, but was not able to find anything so she decided to create her own product, Licenders. She immediately saw a high demand for her line and decided to expand and also offer in-home services.

Licenders products are 100% natural and are formulated using natural herbs making them completely non-toxic. Even Kelly Ripa and The Real Housewives of New York swear by her innovative service. She now has 5 offices and is planning to continue this growth.

I’m excited to interview her because she’s making such a difference in the lives of parents, lice is not a fun subject.

Adies Website: www.Licenders.com

Here we are with another post in our Summer Sizzle Biz Tips, if you missed the first blog post about it, you can access that [here].

The weather has been so incredible here in Vancouver, BC that it is very tough to stay disciplined to my work when I know there isn’t a boss over my shoulder.  But I know that I must work on my business to keep things flowing nicely.

Please enjoy Anna’s next post on staying focused.

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Summer should be about enjoying yourself, getting outside and hopefully getting away from it all. Of course, most of us don’t have the luxury of avoiding work all summer long.

Sometimes, we’ve got to roll up our sleeves and get busy, but it’s not always easy if you work from home. I’m sure just about any home or Internet business owner can relate.

For me, the distractions are the nice weather, having the kids home from school and the desire to just be out camping or even sipping drinks with friends on a patio.

One of my best friends is a teacher with summers off and she’s always trying to corrupt me!

Even though summer can be great fun, I have learned to set my limits and turn off the distractions as needed.

Here are some tips for you…

Set your work hours

It’s business organization skills 101, but it’s an important aspect to staying focused. If you set your work hours, not only will you know what’s expected from you, but so will your friends and family. Take out the calendar and figure out what will work for you from week to week, so there is no confusion for anyone, including yourself.

Reduce your work hours

If you work 5 days a week the rest of the year, you might consider whittling down to 3 or 4 in summer. Even if we have the best intentions, we’ll always find ourselves looking out at the beautiful sunshine, thinking about how we’re like to be out there too. Give yourself a break and just don’t work so much. You can achieve this by cutting down your schedule (for example, don’t blog as much), doing a lot of work ahead of time or hiring some help.

Plan your work week, in detail

Now, don’t overload yourself with tasks, but make a list of items that absolutely need to get done and put them on your schedule. If you know what you need to do each time, you can motor through those items each day and perhaps you can even knock off early if you complete your list quickly.

Plan your vacations

Just like you should plan your work hours, plan those vacations ahead of time. Knowing when you’ll be in town and out of town, will help you plan your work better and get all the necessary tasks done before you leave.

Try multiple short trips away from home

While there shouldn’t be anything stopping you from taking an extended vacation, if it does cause you stress or you don’t have the help you need while you’re gone, try a few short trips. A few days away here and there can be a whole lot of fun and can reduce the overwhelm when you return to your computer.

Limit social media to down time

While I see the value of social media for business, I think most of us waste a heck of a lot of time on Facebook, Twitter and the like. I’d challenge you to keep your social media usage outside of your work hours and leave it for any downtime you have. Perhaps, while you’re relaxing on the couch in the evening or just soaking up some sun by the pool. Reserve your work time for…well…work.

If you have kids, get them busy

There’s no reason kids shouldn’t have fun all summer long. Get them involved in summer activities in your local area. Whether it’s summer camp or activities at the local library, there’s always plenty to do. And for goodness sakes, send them OUTSIDE to play often. If your kids are young and need supervision, consider organized activities or swapping babysitting favors with your neighbor.

Again, if you have kids, get them involved in the business or their own business

If you can’t always get the kids to entertain themselves, get them busy working with you or on their own business. There are plenty of business tasks that children can handle and what they do will certainly depend on their age and abilities. We’ll be talking more about summer business ideas for kids in a future post too.

Turn the phone off

If you don’t have to answer calls from clients or customers, turn your phone off while you’re working. That means no text messages or personal emails too. If you do have a business line that you need to answer, don’t give that number to your friend who keeps trying to get you to head to the beach or a patio to sip margaritas.

Outsource more

It’s been mentioned before and I’ll have plenty more tips in future posts, but you’ve got to help for your business.

It doesn’t mean you have to hire employees or people need to come to your house, but running everything yourself means being chained to your business all the time. At minimum, you should have a virtual assistant that can help you with administrative tasks, keep you organized and can handle most of your business communication.

Keep the fun in summer, but don’t sacrifice fun for productivity. If you’re organized and focused, you can most certainly have both.

Now, I admit, being focused can’t come without a whole lot of motivation and that’s what we’ll be talking about next.

Talk to you again soon.

This summer is going to be a busy one for me, so I’ve enlisted the help of Anna Morgan to help me out a bit. Anna is one of our “CCS Crew” so she will pop in to keep you on track for the summer.

She’s got a ton of ideas for your business this summer. Whether you want to take a vacation or rev up your sales, she’s got you covered.

I hope you’ll enjoy her posts…I know I will.

Without further ado, meet Anna Morgan.

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Hi folks, I’m so glad to be able to visit over the summer and share some strategies that have worked for me and others.

Keeping business going through the summer isn’t always easy, but if you approach it right, you can still have fun and keep the cash flow coming.

My house is always filled with kids in the summer (my own and, it seems, all the neighborhood kids), so I can relate.

Add to that, we love to go camping and get ourselves right off the grid for days at a time.

I know, it can be a shock to the system to survive without Facebook. Regardless, somehow I always manage to make it through and I’d love to help you too.

A few things we’ll be talking about:

• Avoiding distractions and staying motivated.
• Even if it’s your slow season, how to keep business moving along.
• Going on vacation, even when you’re a solo operation.
• Generating traffic, staying on top of social media and keeping your content fresh while you’re busy having fun in the sun.

I do hope you’ll join me for the journey. If you haven’t already, I’d recommend signing up for the RSS feed or email updates, so you don’t miss a thing.

I’ll be talking to you again soon.

Take The Steps To Help Change The World Today

Welcome to the very first ACT (Action Changes Things) Podcast. I’m excited because I truly feel like this is God leading the direction that I’m going in life and business.

Meet Frank McKinney: Real Estate Artist, 5-time International Bestselling Author (3 new books just released!), super hero meets Robin Hood, philanthro-capitalist, risk-taker, Ultramarathoner and visionary who sees opportunities and creates markets where none existed before.

Let me tell you a bit about my experience interviewing Frank McKinney, he is an artist who creates amazing homes that are sold to the ultra rich. But what impresses me about Frank is that he lives out what we are all called to do.

1) Share God with others.

2) Help those who need it.

Frank takes what he has in his hand, (building incredible homes) and uses that to create villages in Haiti.

That is what I want my own life to reflect and it just takes one tiny small action to change things and make a difference. Sometimes those BIG things we want to do truly start out with one small action of faith and stepping into something that makes you a bit uncomfortable.

I was very blessed by my time with Frank, I hope you enjoy the podcast and listening to someone who is making a huge impact in the lives of others.

Frank has been on 20/20 and even interviewed by Oprah twice so I was definitely nervous, however I feel that it was one of my own God’s “tap” moments.  By interviewing Frank I stepped into something I feel called to do and trusted that God would meet me there.

I remember at my daughter’s graduation ceremony the principle said these words,

“When you walk in your life’s purpose, you release those around you to walk in theirs.”

I hope it inspires you to make changes for the better in your own life and business.  I’m so thankful that I get to do this and look forward to spreading the news about this interview with Frank.

I’ll be receiving my copy of Frank’s book “The Tap” and I look forward to reading it and sharing my thoughts with you here about it.

You can find him at http://www.frank-mckinney.com.

Action Steps For You

1) Think of one small thing that you can do to make someone else’s life a tad bit better, big action starts with the small things first.

2) What is something you’ve been putting off that you can do in your business today?

3) If you enjoyed this podcast, please feel free to share this with your friends & family with the social icons above.

4) Please post a comment, I’d love to hear from you!

Don’t forget taking action changes things in your life. 

Click the ACT graphic to listen to more…

Create Blog Income With Advertising

There are many ways to have an income around your blog but advertising is one of the easiest ways to generate income. You offer up advertising spaces on your blog, charge an amount and voila, you have a monthly income. However, its not as easy as you may think.

I met Yaro Starak back in 2009 when he did an around-the-world tour. He came to Vancouver, BC and when he did I was so happy to go and meet up with him along with some other bloggers.

Yaro is also the lad that I purchased a website from that I flipped later on.

We are friends and I love sharing my friends when they do some pretty cool stuff.

Yaro has been making a massive income just on advertising alone and I can tell you from my own experience that advertising can get difficult when you have a ton of emails flowing through and campaigns to launch.

If you are just starting with advertising on your blog, here is an interview I am sure you will love.

What inspired you to launch Cranky Ads?

The original motivation was twofold -

1. Create an ad management tool that is really simple, but has a couple of key functions where the software actually goes to work to help you sell ads. These were concepts I had come up with for my own blog, like having an advertise here page for example, which I wanted the software to create for me.

2. Create a marketplace of available adspace from all the people who use the ad management tool, thus helping them secure sponsors and giving us a leveraged business model

What has been the problems you experienced working with advertisers?

The greatest challenge with advertisers is managing expectations. What an advertiser wants and expects from a campaign must align with what is really possible, or you will have disappointed advertisers. This has a lot to do with targeting as well, since advertisers need to find the right audience for what they offer, or they will waste money.

How does Cranky Ads fix things?

Haha, I’m not sure “fix” is the right word – what we do is automate and manage the process of setting up advertising on your blog and make it easy for advertisers to purchase the ads. It’s designed so that software handles the management the ad media and the payments, making everything run smoothly.

How long should someone wait to start advertising?

I think advertisers can begin advertising as soon as they have a means to make a return on what they spend. That doesn’t have to be about making money directly, it could just be attracting people on to an email list, which you can use to make money with over the long term.

For publishers, adding advertising to your website will only work if you have traffic, so obviously build up your website audience first. I think if you have 500 daily visitors or more, that is a good time to start looking for sponsors and expect a result. The more traffic, the more you can charge too.

What are the best spaces someone should sell first?

For banner advertising, the medium rectangle 300×250 and the 125×125 banners are the most popular on my own website. I also sell quite a few paid text links and video ads.

If you want more details, have a look at the official IAB standard sizes here -

http://www.iab.net/guidelines/508676/508767/displayguidelines

How to you base your prices vs. the traffic you get?

There’s no perfect answer to this question, but as a rough guide I recommend charging $50 a month for the top banner position on your website if you have 500 daily visitors. If you have 1,000 daily visitors, then you can charge $100 a month.

For more details, you can read my pricing guideline article here -

http://www.crankyads.com/advice/how-much-charge-for-advertising

What are advertisers mostly looking for?

That really depends what size company they are. Often large corporations are looking for brand exposure. They want a wide spread of their brand message on the most popular websites relevant to the demographics they want to reach.

More likely if you have a smaller site, you will have smaller advertisers, in which case clicks are important. Advertisers who want to sell their product either directly or via an email sales funnel will look at how many clicks you send them and use that to value their ROI.

Please share anything else you’d like.

My advice with advertising is to look at it as a steady, nearly-passive income stream, that with the help of a service like CrankyAds can be set up quickly and managed very easily.

If you are running a website that is about creating content on a regular basis, advertising is going to be your main source of income. Even for those publishers who have products or services they sell, adding advertising to the mix is a valuable additional income stream that really you are crazy to say no to.

If you are putting in the work to build an audience, why not earn some return for your hard work.

Thanks for the interview Vera!

Yaro Starak
www.crankyads.com

—- and thank you Yaro, I enjoy chatting with you and seeing what you are up to. 

Next Steps If You Want To Start Advertising On Your Blog

If you want to start advertising on your blog then you can easily just set up a quick advertising page, you can see Yaros page here for reference. You will also need a service that can easily rotate your ads, I have used others but from what I can see Cranky Ads really is a good bet to use.

The one thing that I think is neat is that Yaro is also developed a market place of ad space so people can see what you have available.

It is a free plugin that you can download and upload inside the back end of your wordpress site. He even has a video over there to show you how to do it.

As always, I am thrilled to share a resource that I know will help you!

How about you?

Do you have a passion for a market that is quite competitive? Do you own an online business and find that you’re struggling to differentiate yourself from your competition? If you’re in a competitive market you may find that podcasts provide the best solution.

What Is a Podcast?

A podcast is a form of audio broadcasting on the internet, which is so much easier to do today than 6 years ago. It’s usually created as a series and made available on a website and/or an online directory like iTunes. A podcast isn’t that much different from a blog post or an autoresponder series. The only real difference is that instead of reading the content, your audience will hear it. Podcasts can also be video posts which adds a visual element to the conversation.

Why Podcast?

Video is huge and more and more people are consuming their content in the form of audio and video. They can listen while they work, drive, or walk about town. The information is easily accessible from their mobile devices and it provides a quick way to learn on the go.

Podcasts are more readily shared as well, which means you can grow your audience quickly. Additionally, podcasting may be a much faster way to reach a huge audience. You don’t have to compete with the thousands of other websites and blogs online. It’s not uncommon to reach the top of the search results when you have a podcast.

Research and Planning

Creating a competitive podcast is much like creating a competitive blog. You want to research what information is already out there and available for your prospective listeners. You want to research keywords. Then you want to plan your podcast. What information will you provide your listeners? How often will you podcast?

Also consider the goal of your podcast. You might use it to drive traffic to your blog or to sell your products or services. Outline your goals and how you’ll use each podcast to achieve that goal. Remember, information is what will keep your listeners coming back for more. Keep promotions to a minimum. Finally, decide if you’re going to monetize your podcast and how you might want to do that – what monetization model makes the most sense for you, your audience, and your goals.

Start Creating and Recording

Fortunately it doesn’t take a lot of expensive equipment to create a podcast. You may be able to record your podcast on your cell phone! The important thing to remember is to make sure you are easily heard and understood. Consider writing your podcast down and reading it aloud a few times before you record it. This way you won’t sound like you’re reading a script.

Distribution

ITunes is one of the easiest ways to begin distributing your podcast. You can also include a link to each podcast on your blog. There are also other podcasting directories to consider. When you’re adding your podcast to the directory, be sure to include your keywords. Make your content easy to find!

Podcasting can be one of the fastest ways to achieve notability in a competitive market. It’s a marketing tactic that you can use independently or as part of a larger online marketing strategy.