Back From Salt Lake City 2008 Int'l Convention

Now that I've had more than a week to settle down from my trip to Salt Lake City and download my pictures, I wanted to share them with you. This was opening day to the convention. It was a perfect day, sunny and mid-80 degrees.



We also had the opportunity to attend a concert held by the company. They had Grammy award winner Colin Raye perform. He did a fantastic job and made it an enjoyable experience. These are some of the people that attended this concert.



I had a wonderful time and learned new techniques to grow my business. In fact, I had a chance to meet some of the top Business Entrepreneurs like, Robert Kiyosaki, Robert Allen and Tim Sales. I was even able to get a picture with Tim Sales, what a brilliant man. That probably explains why he came up with Brilliant Compensation. Here I am with Tim.



I've had the luxury to attend past conventions, but this years was unforgettable. They really stepped it up.

Since this is only a yearly event, I tend forget how powerful attending these yearly conventions can be for your business. It really recharges your business.

Whatever organization / industry you are a part of, make sure to attend your convention, it will change you and your business.

I hope you enjoy the pictures.

Dedicated to your success,

Jerome Ratliff
Visit JeromeRatliff.com to learn about the fantastic journey he's embarked through his business ventures.

Reset Your Life

Did you know what you put into your body can impact how you feel and act?

Foods high in fat...
Alcoholic beverages, soda, high in sugar drinks...
Etc...

Each of these can trigger different emotions. Emotions that are filled with aggression, unhappiness, and frustration. So, it's especially important that you watch what you put into your body. So, what can one person do?

"Reset Your Life!"

Declare that you will stop these bad habits, and incorporate good habits that trigger good, positive responses. When you watch what you consume, you trigger these positive feelings. At the same time, you stimulate your mind.

This is the same for your career or your business. If you notice you aren't getting the results you want, you "reset." You take a step back and acknowledge that things aren't working and it's time for a change. A change for the better.

Dedicated to your success,

Jerome Ratliff
Visit JeromeRatliff.com to learn about the fantastic journey he's embarked through his business ventures.

Get Inspired To Do Something Great

Do you find yourself having a hard time getting inspired in life, in your job or your business?

Before you get alarmed, I assure you this a normal feeling. Most people have either felt this way before or are currently feeling this way.

Let's face it, sometimes it's hard to get inspired.

I recently discovered this article about getting inspired from Entrepreneur.com, about Jim McCann, founder of 1800flowers.com and it really hit home with me. I hope it does the same for you as it has done for me.

By Geoff Williams at Entrepreneur.com

When you're a small-business owner yearning to be big, it's easy to get discouraged--especially if you compare yourself to the bigger companies that are already successful. But it's useful--for your morale, your sanity and your strategizing--to remember that most big businesses were once small, too.

So in that spirit, we decided to seek out Jim McCann, founder of 1-800Flowers.com, who symbolizes the idea of starting from an acorn and turning into a tree.

On his ubiquitous TV commercials, McCann may seem more like a spokesperson than someone unafraid to dig his hands in the entrepreneurial dirt--but that's exactly what McCann, 56, does every day and has, ever since opening his first flower store in New York City in 1976. Back then, it was called Flora Plenty, and McCann didn't even have a 1-800 number.

So if your business seems like a tiny acorn, how can you make it grow into a big, beautiful--rose bush? (Look, we wanted to go with oak tree, but that wouldn't have fit in with an article about the flower business.) McCann doesn't claim to know the secret, but looking back on how he did it, he does have some advice.

"Fire yourself right away, so you can hire people and focus on doing the things that you can do," McCann says. When he opened his flower shop, he was running a nonprofit for at-risk teenage boys, and he decided that he and his family would be better off financially if he kept his day job. So he hired someone to work at the store during the work days, and then from 9 p.m. to midnight, and during the weekends, he spent his time at Flora Plenty.

"My wife called these 'death-defying hours,' " McCann says."But it turned out to be good that I wasn't the only person in the shop." McCann says these hours forced him to work on the systems and processes of the business, not just run the store.

"Too often, you see entrepreneurs get hung up on doing the best job that they can, instead of creating an environment where their employees can do better," McCann says. "It was an accidental lesson."

Risk is part of being in business. Keeping his day job at the nonprofit and starting another business minimized his risk. But after 10 years, when McCann had about 15 stores throughout New York City, he took a much bigger gamble. It was, McCann says, his riskiest move in the history of his business. He bought the name 1-800 Flowers from another entrepreneur who hadn't been successful in owning the number.

"I found myself $7 million in debt, without realizing that it really was a colossally stupid deal," McCann says.

"But the good news was that Chris [his younger brother] had joined the company, and we paid down the debt over the next five years, and while it was a stupid deal, it was also the best thing we ever could have done."

It goes to show that taking a risk is a part of growing a business, but it needs to be a calculated one.

"You can be creative in your business without having a creative bone in your body," McCann says. He offers an example how years ago, he created a program called Fresh Rewards, where if you bought nine bouquets, that 10th one was free.

"People get a kick out of getting a free bouquet, and I remember people said that'll never work; nobody's going to use the card," McCann says. Of course, these rewards coupons are prevalent everywhere now.

McCann got the idea after walking into Dunkin' Donuts and buying some tea and a donut with his own loyalty card. He thought: How is this shaping my behavior?

"I'll look to other categories and industries and see if it's something I can try in my category," McCann says. "It's always helpful when you get three or four trade magazines from another industry, and look at the stories and their issues and think, 'How can I adapt that to my world?' Let someone else do the creative thinking for you."

Use paranoia as a business strategy.

McCann attributes his paranoia to Andy Grove's book, Only the Paranoid Survive. It compelled him and his brother to pay off their debt promptly and splurge on creating a website when the internet started getting popular.

"Staying paranoid is a good thing," asserts McCann, who mentions that recently, he had a meeting cancelled and used that time to rework a list he has of technology projects and plans for the company.

"I'm feeling like we're in a 1990 re-do actually," says McCann, who notes the next step is mobile technology. "We're in the business of helping people express themselves and connect, and we do that with floral and other gifts, by helping them act on their thoughtfulness. So if we can help them with mobile technology act more frequently on those thoughtful ideas, it's better for them, it's better for the people they're giving the gifts to, and it's good for us as a florist."

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Dedicated to your success,

Jerome Ratliff
Visit JeromeRatliff.com to learn about the fantastic journey he's embarked through his business ventures.

Are You A Work In Process?

With all of the downsizing occurring in Corporate America, increasing cost of gasoline, and the mortgage fiasco, how can one not worry as to what is in store for their future.

Well, there are no guarantees in life and to say where you will be in five years, no one will know for sure.

Unless, you are a work in process!

What are you doing today to prepare yourself for tomorrow? Are you increasing your value? Are you sharing what you know with others? Do you have a plan to prepare for the uncertain moments that occur in one's life?

If you haven't thought these elements of your life through, perhaps you should. By becoming a work in process, you are making dramatic improvements to your life and professional career. You are never standing still. You are always doing. For example, let's say in your personal life you have a difficult time with organization. Well, what can you do to fix this? Do you hire an organizational consultant? Do you read all about organization? Whatever you choose to do, what's important is that you accept the dilemma, and work on changing your situation. When you decide to do this, this is when good changes happen.

So, what's the value in improving? By constantly improving yourself, you demonstrate then when you face a situation, you are able to overcome it. Just like you did with the organization issue. You accepted the problem by facing it head-on, and came up with a solution. You didn't throw your hands up in the air and agreed to failure. No, you were determined to come out of the situation smelling like a rose.

A true professional knows that in life we are faced with adversities, but what makes them different is they do something about it to change their situation for the better. Professionals that live like this are successful in their work and with their personal life. Can you imagine if the rest of the world was faced with adversities, and decided to stand still? Life as we know it would come to an end. Nothing would ever change. Nothing would ever improve. All that would happen is absolutely nothing.

So many people decide to sit back, wait, and watch their life fly by. For me, as well as for many other successful people, we do not sit back and wait for anything. We enjoy the 'doing part' of living our lives and consider everyday a true blessing. We are always improving ourselves. We are always helping others. We live our lives in expectancy. We understand what we put into our life we will get back tenfold.

Make changes in your life and when you are faced with a situation, no matter how difficult it may seem, deal with it head first. This is not easy to do, but it will save you from future frustrations. It is well worth dealing with it right away.

If you are not a work in process, don't worry. Just make the change so you are a work in process. Do you have a situation that you are afraid of the end result? This is your opportunity to overcome your dilemma and deal with it head-on.

The next time you are faced with a situation, deal with it and become a work in process.

Dedicated to your success,

Jerome Ratliff
Independent Associate

Can I Be Successful?

If you're a determined, career oriented professional, then I'm sure you've thought of this question once or twice before. How did you answer it?

Has your past accomplishments shown that you can be a success?

Earl Nightingale had discovered the following definition of success. This definition couldn't have been more right on.

--- "Success is the progressive realization of a worthy goal." ---

It simply means, anyone working towards the accomplishment of a goal is a successful person.

You may or may not think of yourself as a success or one that hasn't been successful, but I assure you. You have been or still are successful.

Did you get that job you wanted? You are successful..

Did you buy that car you wanted? You are successful..

Did you buy your home? You are successful...

You see, we are all successful, but most tend to concentrate on their failures instead. Failures are good, but they are to be treated as learning experiences, that's it! Whatever you learned from your failure, you make sure not do it again.

Some tend to think that success is determined by how much you money make. This is not the case and based on the definition nowhere is it mentioned about money. Well, money is important, but that's a goal in itself. Isn't it?

So, what can you do to be more success-oriented?

Try the following approaches:

Acknowledge when you are successful. - When you find yourself meeting a goal, stand up and declare, "I am successful." You don't necessarily have to use those words, but what is important is that you reward yourself with something very simple as a thought or a tangible item.

Detach from your failure mentality. - When you find yourself meeting failure head on, stand up and declare that, "I'm grateful to have discovered that this is not working, but I will not result to failure. I am successful." Break this cycle of failure by interrupting what has happened and turn it into something you've learned from it.

These approaches, as corny as they might sound will get you on the fast track of constantly thinking like a successful individual.

If you think you're not successful, YOUR WRONG!

Dedicated to your success,

Jerome Ratliff
Independent Associate