I know most book reviews give a summary of the basic plot of the book, but I’m going to skip this part. While the story is both funny and compelling, my purpose in reading the book was to discover Woodward and DeMille’s proposed solutions to America’s problems. The reason I was/am so interested in hearing their opinion is that I know that they are both devoted students of history, economics, and human nature. Before reading Leadershift, I was hoping that it would be different than the majority of the books discussing America’s problems in that it would focus on the root of our problems, not the symptoms while, at the same time, being completely non-partisan. They delivered.

The solutions they offered, 28 in all, are refreshingly simple. I’m not going to list them all here. You’ll have to get the book and read it if you want them. However, most of them rest on a few simple premises. First, Woodward and DeMille argue that unless we have limited government, we will have limited freedom. Second, that no government is limited if its taxing powers or money printing ability are unlimited. Third, taxes are only effectively limited when a hard limit to taxation is set and checks and balances are created between the local, state, and federal level.

As a student of history and economics myself, albeit a relatively new student, I was pleasantly surprised at the boldness of the proposed solutions. A few of them, however, didn’t settle well with me at first.  I would be surprised if you immediately agree with all of them. Agreeing is not the point though. The point is to get you thinking and hopefully inspire you to dig further into the topic of freedom.

If you’re anything like me, by the end of LeaderShift, you’ll be chomping at the bit for more. Those of us that already like reading into politics, history, and economics will probably want more depth. Take heart though, LeaderShift is the first of three books. Think of it as the primer for a much larger discussion on freedom in America. In the mean time, go the LeaderShift website and get some of the free downloads, follow Orrin’s blog and sign up for newsletters from The Center for Social Leadership for more discussion around the topics introduced in LeaderShift.

Overall, if you are truly concerned about the future of freedom in the United States (or anywhere else), pick up a copy of LeaderShift. Read it, digest it, argue with it, discuss it, and share it. Don’t stop with LeaderShift though. It is not the end-all, be-all of books on freedom. However, it is a significant addition to the Great Conversation and one that I strongly recommend everyone read.

Here is a fantastic interview with Orrin and Oliver discussing LeaderShift.

Update 4/26: It looks like LeaderShift hit the New York Times Best Seller list at #12.

Update 4/30: It looks like LeaderShift hit #2 on the Wall Street Journal Non-Fiction Hardcover best-seller list.

Update 5/2: Leadershift not only hit the New York Time Best Sellers list, but has climbed to #9.

God Bless,

Clint Fix

I decided to take a bit of time to write down what I’ve found to be the most effective way to meet new people and continually grow my names list. If you’ve been building your LIFE community for any length of time you have likely run into someone that’s new to the area and “doesn’t know anyone.” Maybe you feel that way yourself. I know, because when I moved to Colorado Springs, I felt like I didn’t know anyone. I’ve also ran into many people in Colorado Springs that are new to the area. Neither situation need be an excuse for inaction in growing your community.

Thankfully we all have access to the Life Training system. I’m going to lay out some specific techniques for meeting new people, but know that it is all based off of what I’ve learned from the training system. Here are a few CDs and a book that you’ll want to dig into to understand the principles behind what I’m about to teach.

• SOL 279 – I Ran Out of Names – Mark Haas
• MVS 111 – Cold Contacting – Claude Hamilton
• LT 7 – Contacting: Own It! – Marc & Kristine Militello
• TEAM 619 – The Beginning Vital Behaviors – Chris Brady
• How to Have Confidence and Power in Dealing with People - Les Giblin (particularly chapter 8 on how to strike up a conversation).

Another principle that helped me become effective with meeting new people comes from Chris Mattis. In one of his CDs (I can’t remember which one) he mentions that people have a much higher level of trust the second time we see them, even if it is only a little while after the first time. If one of you can remember which CD it is, let me know in the comments and I’ll update this.

One of the best resources you have available for learning how to do this is your moving on upline. Chances are if they have a couple of big teams that they’ve gotten good at some form of what I’m going to share with you. Make sure to run things by them and get their wisdom!

Before I head into the details of what I do, here are a few rules of thumb that I like to stick to when I’m meeting new people.

1. Relax. Don’t be too anxious.

2. The goal is to make a friend, not get a number so you can build your business.

3. In conversation, if someone asks what you do, it is not an invitation to bury them in details and chase them down. Come up with a simple answer or question like Marc Militello does on the CD listed above. Turn the conversation back to the other person. If they keep asking more about it, say something simple like, “Now isn’t really the time and place, but why don’t you give me your number and we can meet up at a better time and discuss it.” There are many things you can say here. Remember, it’s not the exact words as much as it is your posture.

4. You have nothing to lose when meeting new people. Even if they ultimately don’t ever become a customer or member in LIFE, you may just make a great new friend. In fact, it has happened to Kait and me a few times.

Ok, let’s get into some of the specifics of how to meet some new people. There are basically two different ways that I routinely meet new people. I’ll order them based on the frequency in which they produce plans.

The first and main way that Kait and I meet new people and grow our names list is just by being a friendly customer. We are out-and-about a lot. Lately, we’ve found ourselves in jewelry stores quite a bit because I like watches and want to find one that I really like. In the process we’ve met a handful of people, a couple of which have become members in LIFE. Want to know the secret? It’s simple: be a good customer! You’re not there to recruit them or tell them about LIFE. I’m interested in watches, so I ask about watches. In the process of trying some different watches on I might throw in a question like, “So how long have you been working in jewelry?” There is not any specific technique to this. You’re not playing 20 questions. You’re not trying to steer the conversation. You’re merely engaging in small talk and discussion about whatever you’re looking at. In this example it happened to be watches. If I’m done looking, I’ll thank the person for their time and ask if they have a card. If you know you’re at a store of some sort that doesn’t utilize business cards, simply remember their name. That’s it. Just be a nice, friendly customer that hopefully brightened their day and put a smile on their face.

Now, I get cards like that a lot. I don’t call all of them. But when I do, here’s how I’ll get in touch with them to book a plan. Usually, I’ll call them the next day or two after I met them, otherwise they may have completely forgotten all about you. Call the number on their card or the store number if they didn’t have a card and you remembered their name. Ask for them. If they’re not working, try again a different time/day. Once I have them on the phone I do a few things. First, I remind them of who I am and when I was in. Second, I sincerely compliment them on something they did. Third, I ask if they’re open to doing anything different. Fourth, I book a plan and get their personal number. Here’s an example:

Them: “Hi, this is Fred.”

Me: “Hi Fred! This is Clint. I was in your store yesterday looking at that sweet Invicta watch with my wife and newborn.”

Them: “Yeah! I remember! How are you? What can I do for you?”

Me: “I’m doing great! There are actually a couple reasons I wanted to get in touch with you. First, I just wanted to thank you for your service. You are one of the most helpful and knowledgeable people I’ve met in a jewelry store. I could tell that you put in considerable time into learning your product and picking out the best fit for what a customer wants!

Them: “Thank you!”

Me: “You’re welcome. That actually leads to the other reason I wanted to get in touch with you. It’s rare that I run into people like yourself and I was going to kick myself if I didn’t at least call and ask, do you keep your options open for doing anything different?

Them: “Well yeah, what do you do?”

Me: “I work with a leadership development company. We’re expanding right now and looking for some sharp people. I can’t promise anything, but why don’t we grab a coffee, discuss some of the details and see if it’s a fit?”

Them: “Yeah, that sounds great!”

From there, book a time and place like any other plan and make sure to get their personal number. If they aren’t open to doing anything different say something simple like “Ok cool. I just had to ask! Again, I appreciate all your help and wish you the best. Have a great day!”

I promise you that if you get good at this, you will never have to worry about not having a growing names list. In the process you’ll meet many great people, some of which will join your community and others that won’t, but will still become great friends. Just have fun with it!

The second main way that I meet people is very similar to the first, but with one main tweak. In this case, instead of calling them after I leave the store, I go back into the store and contact them face to face. This one works very well and is based off of the concept shared by Chris Mattis that I mentioned above. The first time I meet someone when I’m out-and-about I don’t try to get their number. I’m just a friendly, smiling customer. After I leave the store, I may go to a different one, to my car, whatever. But usually I leave the store for at least a few minutes. After that, I’ll head back into wherever I met the person and walk up to them and say something like the following,

Me: “Hey Fred! I was going to kick myself if I didn’t come back in here to ask you a question.”

Them: “What’s that?”

Me: “Well, you have been one of the most helpful people I’ve ever worked with. You listened to what I said I wanted and helped me find something that would fit rather than what you liked. I appreciate that. It’s rare that I run into people like yourself. I work with a leadership development company and we’re looking for some sharp people, so I have to ask – are you open to doing anything different?”

Them: “Yeah!”

Me: “Well I can’t promise anything, but give me your number and I’ll give you a call sometime and we can get a coffee and discuss some of the details.”

Hopefully you’re catching the principles behind what I’m doing with these methods. The wording may change based on the situation, but the principles won’t. I just took the principles taught in the CDs and books above and found some wording that works and that I’m comfortable with. It took me a lot of practice to be able to do it with posture and without thinking about every word that I say. It will take some time for you too.

Understand that this post is not meant to be a replacement to the information in those CDs. If you go out and try to use techniques with people to get their numbers without the right heart and principles, you will fall on your face. Be genuine. Be friendly. Focus on the other person. Brighten their day. If you do those things you may find someone that wants to be a part of your community. Even better, you may find someone that becomes a lifelong friend.

I’m sure some of you reading this have some great stories or methods on how you meet new people. I’d love to hear about them. Share them down below in the comments!

I hope this helps!

God Bless,

Clint Fix

Dr. Os Guinness: “A Free People’s Suicide”

Os Guinness, in the above speech, reviews the recipe for freedom as laid out by our founding fathers, what changed that caused us to lose sight of founding principles and the solution needed to return America to its former greatness. It is a magnificent speech that should be shared with everyone you know!

I want to highlight the solution that Dr. Guinness gives us in his speech and how you can play a part. He tells us that three things are needed to restore the U.S.

First, he tells us that we need strong leadership. He describes the type of leader we need as people who “stand out with a deeply American vision of what could be for all Americans.”

Second, Dr. Guinness believes that we need a restoration of civic education, or what once was called a classical liberal education. This is a type of education that digs into what America is about and what is required of us as citizens. Many people are quick to demand their rights, but are quick to dismiss their duties. To remain free, we need to educate both the next generation and immigrants about American values, what made us a great, and the actions that are required as a citizen to keep us free.

Last, we are told that we need a re-opening of a civil-public life from people of all faiths. To understand this one, make sure to watch the speech.

What excites me about Dr. Guinness’s speech is the optimism he has for restoring our great country. I am optimistic as well because I happen to be associated with a community of people that are focused on acting out the solutions that Dr. Guinness presented to us. LIFE, a business founded by incredible leaders and men of character, has a mission to build leaders that are above the partisan divide; leaders that have a deep passion for our country and a vision for what could be for all Americans. We are filling that vacuum of leadership of which Dr. Guinness speaks. Through LIFE’s educational material, we are restoring civic education. One person at a time, we are building a massive community of people that have a hunger to learn, courage to stand on principle and, by God’s grace, restore America to its former glory. I hope you join the battle of freedom.

As always, leave your thoughts below!

God Bless,

Clint Fix

In 2004 I realized that the lifestyle I was leading would eventually lead to permanent health problems or even premature death. I was obese and had been for as long as I could remember. With the help of a stack of books on nutrition and exercise and some friends who were in excellent shape, I began a journey to overhaul my health. I set some goals and began the painstaking process of losing weight the healthy way (after trying out the crash diet thing.) Over the course of a few years I lost 85lbs and dropped my body fat to less than 10%. I achieved my goals. I thought I had it all under control. For a few years I thought I was “maintaining,” but in reality, I was slowly packing the pounds back on. I was still working out, but less consistently. I was still eating right…most of the time. By the time I realized what was happening my body fat percentage was peaking over 15% and I had packed on enough fat that I no longer fit in my clothes. What happened to me? The same thing that happens to us all in every area of our lives. I tried to coast on my past efforts. I didn’t have the next goal set. I wasn’t focused on moving forward. As a result I slacked in my effort and in my education on the subject. In the end, I learned a very important lesson:

If you’re not moving forward, you are going backwards.

There is no maintaining. Momentum may carry you forward for a time, but you will inevitably slip backwards. Discipline is not a choice; either we discipline ourselves now or outside forces will discipline us later. If I hadn’t done the hard work of disciplining myself with regards to my health, eventually I would have lost the freedom to eat certain foods and may have been forced to take certain medications. I use the example of my weight loss journey, but the principle is the same in every part of life. It’s my experience that if we aren’t continually focused on the hard work of improving ourselves in the most important facets of our lives, life is eventually going to get much harder.

To question this wisdom is near heresy, but that’s what I’m doing to do. Why? Because the results from the “go to school, get good grades, get a safe, secure job” advice are in, and they don’t look good.

Before I dive into the meat of the post, here’s a quick disclaimer: I am not against employment. There are many important roles. My reason for posting this post is to (hopefully) put a crack in the conventional wisdom that, whether consciously or unconsciously, seeks to push our youth into college and employment. This post is aimed at those that DO NOT have a passion for their job, which seems to be the vast majority of people.

An Employee’s Lifestyle

Since most people don’t think that there is any alternative to working until retirement/death, they never even question how much of their life that they are spending to make a buck. The reality is that most people spend a tremendous amount of their life doing something that they really don’t have a passion for just to make some money.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ American Time Use Survey, the average employed American spends just over nine hours a day working and commuting, followed by sleeping at just under eight hours. Check out the graphic below to see how the average employed American’s spends their time.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics
Credit: Lam Thuy Vo / NPR

The normal retirement age in the U.S. is 67. To be conservative, let’s assume that the normal person starts working full-time at 22 years of age. That’s 45 years! Based on the above time study, that means that the average employee will, assuming a 5 day work week, spend 107,640 hours working, 125,651 hours sleeping, and 96,725 hours doing essential things like grooming, cleaning, eating, grocery shopping, etc, which leaves just 64,184 hours of leisure (or time with your kids/family) left. Here’s how it breaks down:

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to work the best hours of the best years of my life for a paycheck, especially when the paycheck is rather weak.

The BLS also publishes median incomes by age. What you’ll see here is that for all that work, the effort does not pay off at the end.

Graphs like that make me wonder why retirement was ever called the golden years. It looks to me like they’re the tin-foil years at best.

Seeing information like this really just confirms the feeling of hopelessness that most of the working populous feels; the feeling of not being able to get ahead.

The good news is that this doesn’t have to be your reality. There are many ways out. The principles to follow that will get you onto the correct path are as simple as asking the question I started this post with in a different manner. Instead of picking our ‘Do’ first, we need to define the lifestyle that we want to have. How much of that leisure/family time do you want? How would you like your income to be at 35? 55? 75? Ask yourself, “What do I want my lifestyle to be like?” The next part is to find someone that has the lifestyle that you’d like. This step is perhaps the hardest, but is worth the effort. The last step is simply to ‘do’ what the person from the previous step coaches you to do. The best thing I’ve found to help people through all three steps is LIFE.

You will most likely find that to get results that are far different than the picture painted above, the coaching you’ll receive will have a foundation in three very important principles of wealth creation:

1. Delayed Gratification
2. Long Term Vision
3. Utilization of the power of compounding

If you follow those principles, find the right mentors and do the work required, you will live a life that most will never experience. You DO NOT have to work for someone else the rest of your life. You DO NOT have to work until you die to make ends meet. Freedom is yours for the taking.

You have the power to define your lifestyle, so start today!

God Bless,

Clint Fix

I’ll highlight each part of the MFC (in no particular order) and give my thoughts. If you’re taking the Mental Fitness Challenge, I’d love to hear your feedback on it so far. As I get feedback, I’ll incorporate it into my review.

The Mental Fitness Challenge is a success system designed around the 13 Resolutions as laid out in Orrin Woodward’s book, Resolved – 13 Resolutions for LIFE. The 13 resolutions, broken down into three categories are,

Private Achievements

1. I resolve to discover my God-given purpose.

2. I resolved to choose character over reputation anytime they conflict.

3. I resolve to have an attitude of gratitude.

4. I resolve to align my conscious (ant) with my subconscious (elephant) mind towards my vision.

Public Achievements

5. I resolve to develop and implement a game plan in each area of my life.

6. I resolve to keep score in the game of life.

7. I resolve to develop the art and science of friendship.

8. I resolve to develop financial intelligence.

Leadership Achievements

9. I resolve to develop the art and science of leadership.

10. I resolve to develop the art and science of conflict resolution.

11. I resolve to develop systems thinking.

12. I resolve to develop Adversity Quotient.

13. I resolve to leave a legacy by fulfilling my purpose and vision through living the 13 Resolutions.

Each week focus is put on one of the resolutions starting with the first and finally making it through all 13. Check out my review of Resolved: 13 Resolutions for LIFE.

The Components of the Mental Fitness Challenge

Self-Assessment Test

The self-assessment test included in the MFC is composed of 130 questions (10 for each resolution) in random order where you rank yourself between 1 and 10 (10 – totally describes me, 1 – doesn’t describe me at all). The results are then plotted on a circular graph. An anonymous test result is shown below:

There was obviously a great deal of thought put into the self-assessment test. For me, it did a great job at highlighting blind-spots and weaknesses. However, many of us fall into one of two categories: either we severely overrate ourselves or, like the example above, we’re overly hard on ourselves. As just a self-assessment, there can be a lot of error. To get more accurate results, the MFC also includes unlimited, 360-degree feedback.

360-degree Feedback

If anyone is familiar with any sort of corporate review practices, many include a form of 360-degree feedback. 360-degree feedback basically means having your peers review you anonymously (to get honest answers). Typically this is a very tedious process and extremely costly. Surprisingly, the Mental Fitness Challenge includes unlimited 360-degree feedback. So far I am a big fan of how it is structured. Inside the MFC webpage, which you have full access to when you purchase the challenge and even in the 7-day free pre-challenge, there’s a link that allows you to enter the names and emails of the people that you’d like to have take the challenge on your behalf. In their email they get a message inviting them to take the assessment on your behalf and that all answers are anonymous. This feedback has been huge in my experience with the challenge so far! It is eye-opening to see how other people view me in the 13 Resolutions. After you send it to a good handful of people, you get a very accurate view of how others see you since all 360-degree feedback responses are averaged and shown alongside your self-assessment results. In the picture above the light grey are the averaged results from the person’s peers. The red represents the self-assessment results. Overall, I’ve very impressed with the self-assessment as both a tool to identify your blind spots and also in its ability to convict the person taking it to start the self-growth journey.

Goal Setting and Tracking

Creating any sort of positive change requires knowing where you want to go and where you’re starting. The self-assessment test does a good job of the latter. The former is handled by the goal setting sheet. The closest most people ever get to any sort of personal development goal is a new year’s resolution. We all know how well those go. Why do they usually fail? Well one reason is that most will probably never write their goals down and track their progress. I was excited to see a goal setting and tracking sheet included with the MFC. Just the act of writing down goals drastically improves one’s chances of achieving that goal. These sheets are meant to be printed off so they can be looked at and filled out every day. This may seem like a trivial part of the MFC, but if you’ve ever studied the differences in the success rate of achieving goals, writing them down and tracking them versus just thinking about them is a night and day difference. This is a critical part of the MFC and, again, is well put together.

Accountability

I think the accountability system built into the Mental Fitness Challenge is as important as the previous few parts of it. When you’re accountable only to yourself, it’s much easier to justify why you didn’t do what you needed to do. When you have people you respect as accountability partners, it’s a lot harder to make excuses. A key point here: to make the accountability portion of MFC work how it is intended to work, you need to pick accountability partners with whom you have a high degree of respect, and that won’t let you lower the bar on yourself. You’re not going to feed someone you respect dumb excuses as to why you’re not doing what you said you were going to do. The system is managed through the website. You can shoot a quick email to those that you want to be your accountability partner. They can either accept or decline. When they accept they can choose how to receive updates on your progress – either a text or an email. It’s an easy, streamlined process. Well thought out and put together.

Mental Fitness Challenge Modules

This is the meat and potatoes of the Mental Fitness Challenge. There are three Modules that make up the MFC. The modules are broken down to match the different categories of Orrin’s resolutions: Private Achievements, Public Achievements, and Leadership Achievements. There are 16 CDs included in the set, most of them are exclusive to the Challenge and have never been released before. There are also three books included – Resolved: 13 Resolutions for LIFE by Orrin Woodward, Rascal by Chris Brady, and Launching a Leadership Revolution by Orrin and Chris, a NY Times, Wall Street Journal, Money Magazine, Business Week, and USA Today best seller.

I’m not going to review each CD separately, but I will say that I am impressed with the quality of each. These are definitely not recorded in a garage. Some of them are recorded from large, live events, made obvious from the audience heard in the background. Others are done in a studio and sound professionally done. I enjoy both formats, but find the live talks inspiring and lively. They speakers on the CDs are all polished, engaging and when appropriate, humorous. I’m pretty blown away by the quality of the content as well. I’ve found that as I listen to them I want to take notes and listen to them over and over again. Each time I listen to them I learn something new. There is a lot of subtle nuance. I found out that as I grow, I hear the material at a higher level and get even more meaning out of it. It’s much like when you read a book for the second or third time and pick parts out that you didn’t even notice the first time around. Again, I’m impressed with the forethought and effort put into making quality recordings with a wide variety of speaking and teaching styles.

Videos

Everyone learns differently. Some will learn best from a book, some through audio and others through video. By the time I discovered the videos that supplement the reading and listening, I wasn’t surprised. There are 22 videos in all. They are emailed out to participants in the MFC regularly. They are more frequent at the beginning of the challenge and taper off near the end. The videos are professional quality videos with great content and visuals to help bring the audio and reading to life. As the videos come in they are stacked in the media tab of the Mental Fitness Challenge website if you want to view them again later. Outside of the CDs, the videos are my favorite teaching part of the MFC.

Overall Thoughts

Throughout my career as a Mechanical Engineer and self-employed business owner of a software development company, I’ve been through a lot of management and leadership training. Some of the stuff I’ve been through include hanging from ropes with peers, learning leadership through working with horses and coworkers (while at Spectranetics), multiple 2-week, $2000+ public speaking courses, a $4,000 leadership training course with LTF, and multiple classes on leadership and management at Kettering University (minor in management). At this point in my life I have not come across anything as powerful as the Mental Fitness Challenge. I was honestly blown away at the $220 price tag. Perhaps what I like best about LIFE’s approach with the MFC is the idea of small bits of information, in multiple formats, presented over a reasonable amount of time by different personalities. This approach allowed me to dig deeper into the topics and implement them into my life before moving on to the next. It wasn’t about blasting me with information, but giving me bite size nuggets of information with which I can build positive habits into my life. After all, habits will determine where we go in life. If a self-development program isn’t designed to develop lasting habits, it isn’t worth any amount of money or time. The founders of LIFE, Orrin Woodward, Chris Brady, Tim Marks, Bill Lewis, Claude Hamilton, George Guzzardo, and Dan Hawkins did a fantastic job in putting together a quality product designed to help people finally create the change in their life that they’ve always wanted.

I hope you found this review helpful. Here’s some more reviews/feedback on the Mental Fitness Challenge. Joce Dionne also did a fantastic introduction to the Mental Fitness Challenge.

God Bless,

Clint Fix

Today, I pulled an updated list from the Twitter directory WeFollow that lists out the top people on Twitter in the area of Leadership. Since Twitter grows followers organically, I find it as a great barometer for who’s actually reaching people and making a difference. Here are some screenshots of the results:

There are a lot of great leaders on these lists, but one thing that I noticed is that only one person on both of these lists actually mentored someone else onto the list. That person is Orrin Woodward. He personally mentored Chris Brady (RascalTweets) into the top ranks. If that’s not a sign of great leadership, I don’t know what is. Of course, it’s not the first time Orrin mentored Chris into the top leadership ranks.

I just wanted to post this as a congratulations to Orrin Woodward and Chris Brady for continuing to climb the ranks. Their leadership content both on and off the web is incredible and it is continually getting better.

Here is Orrin Woodward’s bio if you want to know more about him:

Orrin Woodward is celebrated as an international, NY Times best-selling author and ranks among the world’s top ten leadership gurus. As a recognized leader in team leadership, success coaching and executive management training, Mr. Woodward is a much sought after motivational speaker.

Mr. Woodward co-wrote the NY Times, Wall Street Journal, Business Weekly, USA Today, and Money Magazine best seller Launching a Leadership Revolution along with a number of other critically acclaimed leadership books.

As a natural leader, Orrin noticed that communities are suffering and have no longer safely anchored to solid principles. Concerned that our nation’s communities are beginning to drift without clearly defined, principle-based focus, Orrin founded LIFE.

Systematically crafted around life’s eight main categories (the 8 F’s): Faith, Family, Friendship, Freedom, Finances, Fitness Following and Fun, Orrin’s goal is to help communities and individuals grow and achieve.

LIFE fosters the leader led development of businesses by bringing together four financially successful industries: Home Based Businesses, Personal Development, Life Coaching and Community Building.

Orrin and LIFE’s goal is to help 1 million people effectively change their lives forever.

Early in his career, Orrin recognized any business not built on a solid, purpose-focused foundation of true principles is doomed to failure. However, a purpose-driven business can be the vehicle to drive change in people’s lives.

Therefore, Orrin and LIFE’s stated purpose is to change lives by helping individuals grow into purpose-driven leaders as they grow successful community-based businesses.

Co-Founder of LIFE: As the founder of LIFE, Orrin is committed to bringing lasting, personal change into the lives of thousands of families. By providing timeless truth and education in each of the 8F’s of LIFE (Faith, Family, Friends, Freedom, Finances, Fitness, Following and Fun) in entertaining, interesting and personal ways, lives are changing for the better.

The LIFE Business is not only an effective way to rekindle hope and learn to dream again, it’s also an amazing business opportunity that’s experiencing tremendous growth!

Most Impactful Accomplishment: Following the launch of LIFE, Orrin, along with his co-founders, introduced their most popular and admired product yet, The Mental Fitness Challenge (MFC). Designed to help you “Live the Life You’ve Always Wanted,” this enjoyable and stimulating 90-day program is selling off the shelves! Raved about by new and returning customers across North America, the MFC is, by far, Orrin’s most impactful accomplishment to date.

Latest Publication: RESOLVED – 13 Resolutions for LIFE by Orrin Woodward. Orrin Woodward’s first solo project is a book that takes us back in time to recapture the essence of what made America great while at the same time beckons men and women to step up and recapture those principles and begin living them today. It is at once a book of resolutions to assist a person in forging himself a true leader, a textbook of instructions to serve as a guide in tackling life’s toughest challenges, and lastly, fully inspirational in capturing the heart and soul of leaders who have lived and achieved using the principles in this book. Resolved: 13 Resolutions for Life, is a must read for anyone desiring to capture, in one book, the essence of the proven leadership principles of Orrin Woodward.

Publications: Orrin co-wrote the NY Times, Wall Street Journal, Business Weekly, USA Today, and Money Magazine best seller, Launching a Leadership Revolution along with a number of other highly sought after leadership books. (Purchase his books here)

Orrin was honored to be listed as one the ‘Worlds Top 25 Leadership Experts’ at www.topleadershipgurus.com, which highlights the top 25 leaders in the world. Orrin also was named one of the 30 top Leadership Professionals for 2010 at Leadershipgurus.net, and one of the Top 10 leaders by the IAB (Independent Association of Business). In 2011, Orrin was awarded the Top Leadership Award by the Independent Association of Business.

His highly popular leadership blog www.OrrinWoodwardBlog.com has received international acclaim as an Alltop Leadership Selection, HR’s Top 100 Blogs for Management and Leadership, and a Universities Online Top 100 Leadership Blog.

You can visit Orrin Woodward’s Leadership Blog here

Make sure to check out Orrin’s material and follow him on Twitter!

God Bless,

Clint Fix

Throughout the 2012 election cycle we’re going to see numerous arguments regarding jobs and the economy. Unfortunately, most of the mainstream media falls into a demand-side or Keynesian view of the economy, which history has thoroughly disproven (even before Keynes wrote the General Theory).  Below is a quick article from Peter Schiff, who famously predicted the housing bubble years before it happened, summing up the mainstream beliefs on how the economy works and why those beliefs are wrong. He goes into detail much more in his books, which I recommend.

The political left wing has long tried to cast doubt on the fairness, and even the efficacy, of free market capitalism by branding it as a “trickle down” system.  This epithet is meant to show how the middle and lower classes are dependent on scraps of wealth that happen to fall from the buffet table of the rich. This characterization of an unfair and inefficient system has helped them demonize policies that lower taxes (if they also extend to the wealthy) and reduce regulation on business.

To correct these supposed problems, they have long called for policies to redistribute wealth or for government to inject funds directly into the economy.  Either mechanism puts money into the hands of everyday consumers who they claim to be the true engines of economic growth. They believe that consumer spending lies at the root of the economic pyramid. When people spend, business owners are able to sell more products, hire more workers, and reap more profits. In essence, they believe in a system of “trickle up” economics, whereby prosperity flows upward from government into the lower and middle classes and ultimately to the upper class.

Conversely, they argue, if consumers aren’t buying, business sales decline and workers lose jobs. The jobless spend less than the employed, putting even more pressure on businesses. This leads into a vicious cycle of falling sales and increased unemployment. They believe that if a shock is not applied to reverse the cycle it is possible for an economy to regress, in theory, right back to the Stone Age. Using such logic, it is easy to identify the foundation upon which the economy rests: it’s the spending, stupid. Some progressives have likened this process to a natural ecosystem wherein government spending is the rain that makes grass grow. The grass attracts zebras and antelopes (consumers), which then offer sustenance to the lions (capitalists).

If this is your diagnosis, then your prescription should be patently obvious: restore the demand lost through unemployment and get people spending again. How to accomplish this is also equally simple: take the money from the rich who really aren’t using it anyway. Without entering into a parallel discussion of fairness, demand side economists simply see the redistribution of money from the rich as a way to generate economic growth, which benefits society as a whole. As they see it, the rich have more money than they need to satisfy their own personal demand. No matter how rich, a single individual can only eat in so many restaurants, buy so many cars, or go see so many movies. The money they don’t spend is saved instead, thereby sucking needed demand out of the economy. In contrast, the lower and middle classes spend a much higher percentage of their net worth. To break the vicious cycle, all that is needed is to direct these idle funds where it will be spent rather than saved. In a June 19th Wall Street Journal cover story, reporter Jon Hilsenrath underscores this point in explaining why the impact of the Fed’s low interest rate policies are being weakened by the current preference for high credit score borrowers. Says Hilsenrath, “Financially secure households are less likely than lower-income households to spend their interest rate savings. Wealthier households are more likely to save or invest.”

A policy prescription such as this is seductive. It allows people to advocate a moral position (it’s a shame that the poor don’t have as much as the rich) in purely practical terms (redistribution creates economic growth). And if spending is the panacea, then government can easily wipe out suffering, even if they lack the political ability to raise taxes. After all, what stops them from printing all the money needed for people to spend the economy back to health? According to Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman, only the political cynicism of Republicans, who try to wring votes out of Americans’ misplaced hopes for upward mobility and their stubborn fixation on thrift, prevents this painless and readily available cure.

But as usual, they have it exactly backwards. The savings that they find so unproductive is actually the foundation upon which the economy rests. Nothing can be consumed until it is produced. The act of spending is meaningless without something to buy. The savings of the rich forms the capital that funds business investment which increases productivity. The more that society produces, the more that can be consumed. The key here is the supply, not the demand. The grass that feeds the zebras comes from seeds, not rain. Capitalists provide the surplus seeds that are planted.

Demand always exists and does not need to be stimulated by cash redistribution. 21st century Americans are no more desirous of cell phones than their parents were. But in 1980 cell phones were in very limited supply and were therefore very expensive. They were the trophy possessions of the super-rich. The reason why they are now as ubiquitous as key chains is not that government stimulated demand, but that industry figured out how to supply them far more efficiently. The supply satisfied the demand. Investment in the telecom sector, which came from real savings of Americans, allowed for that increased productivity.

In this example, the savings of the wealthy and the innovation of entrepreneurs combined to create a huge benefit for society. Call it trickle down if you want, but it would be more honest to simply call it effective. This is the system that built this country. Relying on trickle up will surely destroy it.

Please feel free to excerpt or repost with the proper attribution and all links included. 

God Bless,

Clint Fix