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Free Book: Make Money, Live Wealthy
Behind the Scenes – Book Launch
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My glass desk and Nana’s bear have been with me from broke to – hopefully – bestseller! 🙂
Writing:
Writing and releasing a book is one of the most rewarding things I’ll ever do… but it isn’t always easy.
There are 1 million details to wrap up, and the book will never be ‘good enough’ in our own eyes. Especially for those that are recovering perfectionists.
But here are some behind the scenes pictures and videos from the process…
The beautiful thing is that the early writing process is fun. You can do it from anywhere, any time you’d like. As I traveled around the U.S. and Asia over the last few months, I wrote the book wherever I could: on top of buildings, on boats, on the beach, on the Navy Pier, NYC, Chicago, etc. Any time you can escape the desk and be outdoors, you can lose track of time and let the words flow…
The not-so-fun part is the editing process.
Much like any worthwhile endeavor, there are some ups and downs that can’t be avoided. This is a great chart from @anxietyissue:
Doubt, fear, fatigue, carpal tunnel (lol), they all set in at some point. The way you get through it is the same with anything: a stronger vision than the challenges can break, and a badass team. My launch team, friends and network have helped prepare me for anything. I cannot tell you how grateful I am for all of the support.
Making videos in my favorite entrepreneurship attire: dress shirt, gym shorts, loafers. 🙂
Book Launch:
The launch is part fun with lots of hustle mixed in!
The formula for a bestseller is: strategy + hustle + marketing + network + more hustle + more marketing.
Creating videos, launching courses, marketing, interviews… It’s a final sprint to launch day!
Behind the Scenes of the last YoPro Wealth podcast:
10 Reasons Why You Need to Read Make Money, Live Wealthy
Some things will work, and some things won’t. Here is one of the best and worst $5 I ever spent. I think it is hilarious. It is so bad, it is hilarious.
How do you not want to buy a copy of the book after that? Haha. It’s ridiculous what $5 can buy you.
The pressure is on. The Cristal doesn’t get popped unless we hit bestseller! I need your support! 🙂
Be sure to get your copy HERE!
Cheers to an epic launch. Bottle of Cristal courtesy of my brotha-from-anotha-motha.
Check it out at MakeMoneyLiveWealthy.com.
Take Control. Make Money. Live Wealthy.
How to Start a Business Straight Out of College
{This is a guest post from regular expert contributor, Deborah Sweeney of MyCorporation.com}
Starting a business right after graduating might seem insane…
After all, that is supposed to be when you secure that first, real job of your career – when you begin climbing up the corporate ladder. But as a regent of a university near my company, I see a lot of entrepreneurial potential in our recent graduates. They have tons of good, novel ideas, and good schools always instill a solid work ethic in their graduates.
Now, you probably won’t strike it rich with your business straight of college, but running a business is an awarding, fulfilling experience. There are just a few things you need to do before you toss off your robes and get to work.
Steel Yourself
I’m going to be completely honest – you are going to face a ton of incredulity. Heck I still face skepticism, and I’ve been running my company for half a decade!
Be ready to answer loads of questions, because nearly everyone you talk to is going to want to know why you’re founding a company instead of working for one. Rather than begrudgingly answer the coming onslaught of queries, use it as an opportunity to perfect your pitch. Know your projections, your costs, and have a solid plan laid out. By the time you run the gauntlet of family and friends, you’ll be able to face any potential partner or investor.
Learn to Bootstrap
University is, unfortunately, expensive. And you probably have loans taken out already. Don’t take out any more if you can help it – you need to pay down your student loans as quickly as possible. Plus you probably don’t have a lot of credit history, so loans are either going to be hard to secure, or ridiculously expensive. Go without whenever you can.
I’ve always been a major proponent of bootstrapping, so make what you have work. Instead of hiring people, do as much for the business as you can. Rather than buying a new computer or renting office space, work from home and use the old laptop that got you through school. Save. Save. And then save some more.
Start Small
Running a business is exciting, and when you start to actually make money, you may feel the urge to expand or hire. But that isn’t a great idea when you first start out. A good rule of thumb is to have a few months of working capital in the bank before expanding. In the meantime, work like a freelancer. Run the company, do the work, and be your own marketer. The internet is a great resource for finding work as well, just try to stay local while you are first starting out. Build word of mouth, and you’ll find your market will
Keep Close to Your Network
Finally, and I cannot stress this enough, don’t underestimate the utility of your university. Keep in contact with your peers, your professors, and the other people you’ve worked with over the last four years. Tons of new business owners would kill for a network full of people as useful as an old business professor that can give you advice, or a classmate that can help close a good deal with a vendor they work for. Keep the network alive, and stay in touch with everyone you can.
I’m always surprised at how much doubt new college graduates face when starting a company. After all, this is one of the best times to roll the dice and see if you can build a successful business. Student loans are an issue, but most college graduates are flexible, energetic, and ambitious. They also have four years of education and training fresh in their mind, and an indispensable network of advisors and peers at their disposal. If you feel an entrepreneurial call, treat it like any other good opportunity after graduation, and go for it.
About the Author:
Deborah Sweeney is the CEO of MyCorporation.com. MyCorporation is a leader in online legal filing services for entrepreneurs and businesses, providing start-up bundles that include corporation and LLC formation, registered agent, DBA, and trademark & copyright filing services. MyCorporation does all the work, making the business formation and maintenance quick and painless, so business owners can focus on what they do best. Follow her on Google+ and on Twitter @mycorporation.
Great advice here from Deborah. Entrepreneurship is the single greatest way to build massive wealth.
Take note: every single expert on the YoPro Wealth podcast has been an entrepreneur. Every single one of them! That should be a strong hint and push to make you go in that direction, as well.
So, ready or not, this is how you start a business straight out of college. As she says, entrepreneurship is both awarding and fulfilling. Do it! You won’t regret it.
Learn from some other great entrepreneurs in my first book:
Make Money, Live Wealthy: 75 Successful Entrepreneurs Share the 10 Simple Steps to True Wealth
How to Prepare for a Stock Market Crash
When I started investing heavily, the stock market was exciting to me. It was a game, and one heck of a challenge!
It was fun, but at the same time, it was also scary as hell.
I watched CNBC. I read the Wall Street Journal everyday. I had 3 monitors going and wanted more.
I was going to be a professional trader – the next Gordon Gecko or Jordan Belfort.
Then, I started, and it was hard. The emotions set in. The government was hitting the debt ceiling. I didn’t know what to do, and neither did anybody else in the world. I made money, then lost it all. I made thousands then I would lose $10,000 overnight. The market was in shambles, and so was I. I was spent. So, I stopped trading altogether.
And then I went to work. I learned the game. I became a student, and developed a plan.
Nowadays, my investing is the opposite of what it used to be. It is as exciting as watching paint dry. I watch the news literally zero minutes each month. I don’t worry about a stock market crash… because I’m prepared.
Now, I want to help you get prepared. I want to help you make your investing as exciting as watching paint dry so that you can 1) make more money, 2) stress less, and 3) go on living the life that you want to live.
Does that sound like a plan?
Good. 🙂
To get started, I asked a number of experts how to prepare for a stock market crash. Their advice will save you a lot of time and money, so read it closely and apply it today!
“First, we should define “crash.” To most, the term implies a decline of severe magnitude. The key missing element is the duration of the impairment, or how long does it take to recover?
A second consideration is whether the market was overvalued prior to the crash. There hasn’t been a stock market crash that began with stocks at historically reasonable valuations that persisted more than 5 years. The risk of a crash depends on valuation. The average PE ratio in 1929 was about 60 times earnings; 16 is considered average, and implies a 6.25% earnings yield. That’s reasonable.
Today, the PE for the S&P500 is 18.94 (as of 9/26/2014 according to the Wall Street Journal), and that’s a little above normal. It implies 
expectations that the economy and growth will continue to accelerate from the anemic post mortgage crisis recovery.
So how do you prepare, just in case? The conventional approach to hedging to stock market is to incorporate bonds into a portfolio. You own bonds for either of two reasons; either you need income, or you want to reduce the volatility of a portfolio. Currently the ability of bonds to generate income is diminished by Fed policy. While bonds may still provide some stability in the event of a crash, it is widely recognized that interest rates are likely to rise and that will reduce the value of outstanding bonds with fixed coupons. Choose your poison.
An alternative strategy is to focus on the likely duration of a downturn in the stock market, and plan for expected liquidity needs for that amount of time. A key benefit of financial planning is that it identifies liquidity needs. During this period of low interest rates, one can substitute a reserve strategy (often called the Bucket Approach) to provide for anticipated liquidity needs for as long as a crash/correction might be likely to persist. This frees the remainder of the portfolio for investment with a longer time horizon, and with focus of fundamental metrics like valuation and macroeconomic factors.
I share one other big thought. The conventional approach to investment management starts with a typical 40 question risk profile. The answers are scored and tallied to give a Risk Quotient. The profile indicates which model portfolio is used to manage assets, which puts the client’s emotional IQ in the forefront of investment strategy.
Emotional investing does not lead to the best investment results. I believe a goal of an advisor should be to help clients overcome emotional biases and invest with an eye toward a more cognitive approach, rather than pander to clients’ weakness. Plan for liquidity for 3 to 5 years. Notice the market recovered from the mortgage crisis in about 5 years. Depending on one’s circumstances, one might extend the reserves if market valuations (risk) rise; and even reduce reserves during a post-crash period when equities may be cheap. As Buffett said, be greedy when others are fearful, and fearful when others are greedy.” – Robert Dalton Higgins, Principal, Dalton Financial LLC
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“Should you prepare for a stock market crash? This depends on a few things. First, what is your outlook?
Stocks have come a long way since the economic meltdown of 2008-2009. One could argue that US stocks are ‘fairly valued’ at this point.
Secondly, what is your current asset allocation, and when you will need the money you are investing? If your stock allocation is fairly low and you are a younger investor, you may not need to make much of a change. [Read more…]
A Secret to Wealth: Finding Your Passion
Passion…
This is something that so many talk about, but who the hell has passion? Work is supposed to suck, right?
Wrong.
A key element of becoming truly wealthy is being in a career that suits your goals. The wealthy know where they want to be in life, and they figure out what the best way to get there is.
That best way is by finding your passion, and implementing that into your work. The wealthy do work that they love. (This is the 3rd way to retire super-early, as well.)
Below is an excerpt on the role of passion from the book to be released this November, Make Money, Live Wealthy. Snag your free copy today before it’s too late!
Don’t just work for a paycheck. If you have a passion or a dream, there’s a way of integrating that with what you’re doing.– Ruben Rojas
How Do You Become the Best In the World?
It’s simple, really… but we often neglect most answers we hear because we hear them so often. The secrets for success still start with things like hard work, dedication, and time.
Source: NFLWallpaperHD.com
Yes, there are shortcuts – and this what I hope to give you – but the shortcut doesn’t avoid some hard work for a short period of time if you want to make well into the 6-figures each year, or ‘retire’ 3+ decades too early.
Defensive end J.J. Watt of the Houston Texans is the best in the world at what he does. How does he do it? Simple. Watch this 2 minute video from SI.com and see the highlights of what he said below: [Read more…]
Why Clarity is Power
{This is a short excerpt from the book coming out this November! The first 1,000 get a free copy sent to them on launch day by clicking here!}
What I’ve learned from the wealthy over the years is different than what most of us think. When you really want to get somewhere fast, the first thing you need to do is go, go, go, right?
The answer is actually, No.
As usual, the best step toward success isn’t the obvious one. What you need to do is to stop and get a firm grasp on where you’re headed and why.
Slowing down and actually stopping for a second is so hard for us to do. If we’re not being busy, we feel like we’re wasting time. In a world surrounded by never-ending communication and distractions and a record amount of ADHD diagnoses, we don’t know how to stop.
However, the goal isn’t to be busy; it is to get the results that you want, which starts with being intentional about where you’re headed and how you intend to get there. Stopping for a second allows you to work smart, not just hard.
This step is critical, because it makes sure you focus on the things that matter and get headed down the right path. It puts you on a direct line to success.
Without this clarity, you will run into many dead-ends and ultimately cost yourself a lot more time and heartache along the way.
If you remember just five lessons from this book, remember this one: clarity is power.
“Step #1 of the Ultimate Success Formula is clarity. Know the outcome of exactly what you want and say, Yes!”
– David Wood [Read more…]
5 Things That Will Change Your Life
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Money, success, happiness, relationships, and everything else start with one thing…
The mindset.
It is in our beliefs or how we’re programmed that everything begins with.
A formula that you’ll always want to remember is this:
Your thoughts lead to feelings, which lead to your actions, which end up as your results. If you want better results, you have to go back to the root cause and change your thoughts. As a result, the mindset is at the root of everything that I talk about on YoPro Wealth.
So, these 5 things that I mention in the podcast are all things that will change your mindset… and thus your life.
The 2nd thing at the center of it all is money. Once you have your financial situation under wraps, everything else is much easier. As a result, this is the other major focus of YoPro Wealth.
Everything else falls into place. So, if you do two things, focus on these: your mindset and your money.
To help you do just that, I am offering the True Wealth Master Class for a limited time. This is a game-changer, so be sure to take action right now before it is too late!
Protected: The #1 Action to Take in the Next 24 Hours That Will Make You Rich
Savings Tip #2: Avoid the SOS Mentality
After all, it’s not how much you make; it is how much you keep that matters.
Whether your income is $500,000 or $50,000, you can’t get ahead unless you live below your means. The best way for many to make progress with how much you save is by avoiding the emotional (see: regrettable) purchases As a result, savings tip #2 is to avoid emotional spending.
Get rid of the SOS (shiny object syndrome) mentality – the feeling of going out and having to buy stuff. – Mike Kawula on the YoPro Wealth podcast
