Tim Marks' new book Confidence of a Champion is making waves across North America. Tim's encouraging manner and writing style have led to two bestsellling books in just a couple of years. Indeed, Tim has become one of Orrin Woodward's goto guys in his quest for one million people in LIFE Leadership. Tim is a leader who has built a team of thousands of people to success. Tim shares his thoughts on momentum from his new book below. 

You’ve had days in your life when everything seemed to be going your way.  All the traffic lights turned to green.  You closed every sales call you made.  Every crucial confrontation was resolved in a way that strengthened the relationship.  Every step had a bounce in it.  Your spirit felt lighter, food tasted better, the sun was shining, and you were on fire for life.

When we are feeling good, we become people magnets.  Opportunity comes out of the woodwork.  People want to work with us.  If we are a coach or leader of some sort, our team responds to our guidance.  Things are clicking.  We just feel like we are on a roll.  It’s such a simple concept, but so often ignored: when you’ve had a victory, use that positive feeling to your advantage.  Take action right away, push the gas pedal down even further and create even greater results.

One teacher used the power of momentum to transform his students’ belief in themselves and ultimately their results.  In 1974, a Bolivian-born mathematics teacher named Jaime Escalante took a job at Garfield High School in East Los Angeles, an area more commonly known for producing gang members than math whizzes.  However, Escalante was not your average math teacher.  He had a ferocious love of the subject and of inspiring young minds.  He also had a rock-solid belief that these kids were smarter than they, their parents, or even the school administration thought they were.  Most people had written them off simply because they lived on the wrong side of the tracks.  Escalante knew better.

One of the first things Escalante did was raise the bar of excellence for his students.  He would demand they answer a math question just to be allowed into the classroom.  He made them do a test at the beginning of each day.  And he didn’t just offer basic math; he offered advanced placement calculus.  You can only imagine the reaction these C, D, and F students had toward this, let alone the status-quo principal of the school.  But Escalante started talking to the students about getting jobs in engineering and science.  He began to cast a vision that they would make it into university, that they could be at the top of their class, and they could change the entire direction of their lives.  He started to breathe belief into them that they could do something extraordinary.

After a few years of teaching, he laid down a challenge: the school would have students take the highly difficult Advancement Placement Calculus exam.  This was a very difficult exam, and no one wanted any part of it.  But this man was on a mission to change the culture of his school and to make a breakthrough for his students; he knew that he just needed a small victory to get the ball rolling.  If he could show the students that some of their peers were capable to taking the AP Calculus test and passing, he knew the other students would begin to believe in themselves a little more.

And so, Escalante rigorously pursued that first victory.  In 1978, he convinced five students out of 3,000 to take the test.  Two of them passed.  This was the first small victory that Escalante could leverage.  Building on that victory, he won over the minds of a few more students the next year.  In 1979, he convinced nine students to work with him and take the test; seven of them passed.  Word of his students growing success began to spread through the school.  Kids who thought they never stood a chance started to believe that if their friends could do it, maybe they could as well.  In 1981, Escalante attracted fifteen students, and fourteen passed the AP Calculus test.  The ember of belief had been nurtured into a small flame under Escalante’s guiding care.

In 1982, eighteen students passed the test.  In 1983, his class size doubled overnight, as did student success: thirty-three students took the AP Calculus test and thirty of them passed.  And by 1987, seventy-three students passed the test.  Escalante wasn’t just inspiring the students at Garfield; he was inspiring the entire country.  Everyone wanted to know what this guy was doing.  A book about his remarkable achievement was released, titled Escalante: The Best Teacher in America.  This inspired the 1988 movie Stand and Deliver, starring Edward James Olmos as Escalante.  Not surprisingly, having a Hollywood movie made about your high school math teacher is not a normal occurrence for most students, and only added further fuel to the fire.  By 1991, the momentum Escalante had created attracted 570 students to take the advanced math placement exams.

What was Escalante’s secret?  Momentum!  Lowell Thomas said, “Do a little more each day than you think you possibly can.  By pushing yourself a little farther, by stretching for that “impossible” goal and attaining it, you can create a tiny victory.  Each victory builds our belief and confidence that we can reach greater heights.  Never squander a victory; use the confidence it produces to take further action and build momentum, just as Escalante did with his remarkable students.

Posted by OrrinWoodward at 10:52 AM EDT

Updated: Monday, July 29, 2013 10:55 AM EDT

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George Guzzardo conveys why leaders have been speakers throughout history. LIFE Leadership builds leaders, speakers, and authors through a systematic process of learning. Thousands have benefited from the program and, knowing Orrin Woodward, millions will soon be reached. Here is George's article. 

A LEADER SPEAKS

Part of being a leader is conveying a vision with passion that connects with the audience. Over the last one hundred years less emphasis was placed on the importance of rhetoric in our school systems. In fact many people may not even understand the word rhetoric because of the loss of importance placed on it. Rhetoric is the ability to use language effectively. It was valued by past civilizations. They placed great emphasis on speech. This is a key component to leadership. That is why LIFE Leadership is committed to providing products that compliment a leaders presence, projection, and passion. You will find, however, that the element of a great speaker is more than good grammar and appearance. When you examine the great leaders of history you will find that they inspired their constituents.  They were great connectors and they had a message that they were passionate about. They had something important that was heavy on their hearts. They were passionate that their message would have an impact on not only those in the audience but on the times in which they lived. Great speakers are not necessarily loud, fire and brimstone speakers. Some were actually quite and calm and were difficult to hear. But, they had a message that connected to the hearts of those in the audience. When people heard their message it went from their heads to their hearts.

Cicero, Edwards, Whitefield, Henry, Spurgeon, Churchill, and King to name a few all had something in common. They had a message they were passionate about that was critical to their times. Their message is still just as critical to our times now.

Marcus Tullius Cicero spoke about the fall of the republic from the corruption in government. As the Roman Republic was in decline, Cicero examined the causes of private and public confusion. “Long before our time, the customs of our ancestors molded admirable men, and in turn those eminent men upheld the ways and institutions of their forebears. Our age, however inherited the republic as if it were some beautiful painting of bygone ages, its colors fading through great antiquity; and not only has our time neglected to freshen the colors of the picture, but we have failed to preserve its form and outlines.”

Jonathon Edwards and George Whitefield awoke the people from their slumber to the importance of values and virtues. John Pollock wrote about the observation of “a prominent New Yorker who went to see Whitefield speak to a crowd of all denomination, Dutch and English; some Jews…Whitefield took his stand on a little hill, a natural pulpit. No notes, yet the discourse flowed logically and reasonably with a delightful simplicity: no long words, his delivery the product of art. Whitefield spoke directly to the crowd, his voice having a strange ability to sound as if he stood beside them, and they quieted.” They heard, “We are unprofitable servants, we have done not near so much as it was our duty to do.” “What have you been doing?”

Patrick Henry was passionate about holding on to the principles that are necessary for freedom. Jefferson once said, “I never heard anything like it. He had more command over the passions than any man I ever knew.” John Adams wrote that Henry was a man “of deep reflections, keen sagacity, clear foresight, daring enterprise, inflexible intrepidity, and untainted integrity, with an ardent zeal for the liberties, the honor, and felicity of his country and his speeches,” and his contributions to the Patriot cause would never be forgotten.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon convicted his audience about the necessities of timeless principles and the price that would be paid if the foundations collapsed. “There is a more dangerous spirit now abroad, entering into Nonconformist pulpits, and notably preventing the testimony of some…by those who reckon themselves to be men of culture and intellect…Their theology is fickle as the wind. Landmarks are laughed at, and fixed teaching is despised, “Progress” is the watchword, and we hear it repeated ad nauseum…It is progress from the truth, which being interpreted, is progressing backwards.”

Winston S. Churchill is best known for ability to communicate to his people what it would take to win the war of freedom. His speeches literally turned his country around.  In 1897 he said, “Of all the talents bestowed upon men, none is so precious as the gift of oratory…Abandoned by his party, betrayed by his friends, stripped of his office, whoever can command this power is still formidable.” He was also a staunch believer in the value of learning leadership from the study of history. “The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you can see.”  “Think what your actions now will mean, years hence, when you remember them again. What kind of person will you wish you had been, what kind of sacrifices will you wish you had made, when you or those who survive you look back upon this from the future.”

Martin Luther King was a man whose passion to pursue a dream led to the fulfillment of breaking the shackles of oppression and opened the door to freedom more than any recent leader. In 1968 he said, “Non violent resistance does not seek to defeat or humiliate the opponent but to win his friendship and understanding.” He knew the passionate pursuit of our dreams was the measure that would lead to confronting our fears. “First we must unflinchingly face our fears and honestly ask ourselves why we are afraid. The confrontation will, to some measure, grant us power. We shall never be cured of fear by escapism or repression, for the more we attempt to ignore and repress our fears, the more we multiply our inner conflicts.” 

Best selling authors Orrin Woodward and Oliver DeMille write about the need for leaders to step up in their new best seller ‘Leadershift’.  “You can try to fit in and to impress, or you can lead.” “In contrast, think of Lincoln, Churchill, and Ghandi – these are men who made the hard choice. They rejected trying to impress and instead they led.” Are we hearing the messages from those leaders from the past?  When you read you will hear those speakers, their passion, and their messages. They are singing in unison to us today. They are calling us out with the hopes that we will heed their warnings, “Will we lead?” God Bless, George Guzzardo

Posted by OrrinWoodward at 9:50 AM EDT

Updated: Saturday, July 27, 2013 9:52 AM EDT

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Claude Hamilton is set to release his first book Toughen Up through LIFE Leadership. Evidently, Orrin Woodward highly anticipates its release. Below is an article Orrin recently wrote on Claude's new book. This is Claude's first book so everyone is excited to read more about his success journey.

I have attached my foreword to Claude Hamilton’s first book Toughen Up. I am so pumped for everyone to read and experience what a tough life, lived with honor, can accomplish. The book will be released in another month so look for it on the LIFE Leadership site. God Bless, Orrin Woodward

Claude Hamilton

Claude Hamilton’s life ought to be written about in every North American newspaper and magazine. Not because of his amazing results in life, although they are mighty impressive, but more because of the nearly insurmountable struggles he had to overcome in order to achieve this success. Nothing has come easy for Claude and Lana Hamilton. Indeed, that is why I love the title of his new book Toughen Up, since that is exactly what the Hamilton’s did to win in the game of life.

Since age 12, when he joined the Royal Navy Sea Cadets, Claude has reached the top pinnacles of leadership in every field he has entered. The reason for his consistent success is described in detail in the book the reader is holding in his hands. The Eight Strengths will guide, challenge, and inspire anyone seeking the principles for longterm success. Moreover, the chapters are so engaging, that I finished the book still wanting more. How Claude taught so many lessons in so few words is beyond me.

The teaching, however, this is just the tip of the iceberg in this book. Claude’s personal stories anchor each of the Eight Strengths, helping the reader view the principles in action. If success is measured by how far a person climbs from where he started, then Claude Hamilton is one of the most successful people I have ever met. With so many around him making poor choices and living lives of quiet desperation, Claude’s set himself apart through the consistent application of his Eight Strengths.

On a personal note, I consider it an honor to have a front row seat in Claude’s life for the last seven years. During this time, I have watched him apply each of these principles in his life and business, choosing principles over short-term profits whenever the conflicted. His friendship, encouragement, and attitude have been a huge blessing to me. In the many hours of life and leadership discussions with Claude, I had heard many of his stories and all the core principles before. Nonetheless, reading them in this book while visualizing the joys, pains, and fears Claude must have felt in the moment moved me.

Accordingly, I warn you in advance that Toughen Up is a roller coaster ride of emotions as the reader empathizes with the Claude’s dreams, struggles and eventual victory. It’s a book that readers will turn back to again and again for information and inspiration on the success journey. Thank You Claude Hamilton for having the physical, mental, and spiritual toughness to “finish what you started.” Because Claude finished, others will be inspired to begin.

Orrin Woodward
Chairman of the Board LIFE Leadership
NY Times Bestselling Author of Launching a Leadership Revolution and LeaderShift

Posted by OrrinWoodward at 7:24 AM EDT

Updated: Friday, July 19, 2013 7:27 AM EDT

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Dan Hawkins shares a wonderful message on fatherhood and leadership in the post below. Dan has become one of Orrin Woodward's best leadership students and is leading thousands of people in his LIFE Leadership community. He is only in his mid-30s and the future is bright. 

I have been so blessed to have three beautiful daughters and have twin girls on the way! I truly believe being a father is a calling, a responsibility. One of my missions is to travel the world and reach fathers to help them understand how important they are to their kids. The statistics are stagering on how the lack of the presence of the father affects the lives of children.

I challenge you, father to father, step up and make a difference in a child’s life today!

Here is a short video from a talk I gave to a group of men at a LIFE business event. Our kids need us to be present and active in all areas of their lives. What better place to invest your time then into your kids who will be your living legacy for generations to come. How will you be remembered, what stories can your kids share about your involvement in their lives?

God bless,

Dan Hawkins

Posted by OrrinWoodward at 11:33 AM EDT

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Bill Lewis recently posted on Kouzes & Posner book Credibility. Bill, according to Orrin Woodward, founder of LIFE Leadership, is one of the best teachers of leadership fundamentals period. The post below is a good example of Bill's teaching ability. 

Story from the book “Credibility”

Once there was a village in Nigeria where the people made their living by farming.  The village lay in a large green valley that was lined with palm trees and bushes.  Surrounding the village were fields with crops of yams, corn and other vegetables.  Just beyond the fields was a deep river that the villagers called “Baba.”  In the rainy season, the river  overflowed and the people were fearful of its power.  So, at a place were the river wound beyond the fields, they built a strong dam to hold back the water.

There was a man in the village named Modupe, which means “I am grateful.”  Modupe was a shy, quiet man whose wife had died and whose children were all married, so he moved to the top of the mountain overlooking the valley and lived alone.  There he built a small hut and cleared a small piece of land to grow his vegetables.  The people rarely saw Modupe but they respected and loved him.

One year at harvest time, the rains were unusually heavy, but the crops had done well and there was much to do, so no one paid it any mind.  As Modupe stood by his house on the mountain, he noticed that the river, swollen from the rains, was straining the dam.  He knew that by the time he could run down to the village to warn the people of the flood, it would be too late and all would be lost.  Even as Modupe watched, the wall of the dam begun to break and water started to seep through.

Modupe thought of his friends in the village.  Their crops, their homes, and their very lives were in danger if he did not find a way to warn them.  Then an idea came to him: he rushed to his small hut and set it afire.  When the people of the valley saw Modupe’s house burning they said, “Our friend is in trouble.  Let’s sound the alarm and go up to help him.” Then, according to custom, men, women, and children ran up the mountain to see what they could do.  When the reached the top of the hill, they did not have time to ask what had happened – a loud crashing noise behind them made them turn and look down.  Their houses, their temple, and their crops were being destroyed by the river, which had broken the dam and was flooding the valley.

The people began to cry and moan at their loss, but Modupe comforted them.  ”Don’t worry,” he said “My crops are still here.  We can share them while we build a new village.”  Then all the people began to sing and give thanks because they remembered that, in coming to help a friend, they saved themselves.

Not sure if the story is true or not but what a great example of serving your neighbor.  There are many lessons we can take from this example but I would like to focus on two:  helping friends in trouble and a culture of serving.

When Modupe saw that his friends were in trouble he didn’t think, “Man, that’s too bad, I hope they figure out something, I wish there was something I could do, what if I burn my house and they don’t come up to help?   He immediately thought I have to help my friends and then he thought of a plan.  In life we see so many people who just turn a blind eye.  We could do something or we have information that could help but we don’t.  We are afraid of what that person might think.  We are afraid of what other people will think.  We are afraid of sacrificing something of our own.   Ninety nine percent of the negative things we think could happen, usually never do.  What usually does happen is we end up making a big impact in someones life.  If you see someone that you think you can help, be the good Samaritan.

The second lesson was they had a culture of serving each other.  Modupe wasn’t worried that burning his own house wouldn’t work because Modupe’s community had a culture of serving each other.  He knew they would come to help him and by helping him they ended up helping themselves.  There is an old statement that says, “If you help enough people get what they want you will always get what you want.”  If your organization has a culture of serving the customer, you cannot lose.  Even though you may not see the return, in the immediate, you will always see it in the long term.  Set your goals around how many people you need to serve to accomplish your goal.  Doing this accomplishes two great things.  You get to your goal but more importantly you model the serving attitude.  The compounding affect of a serving organization creates amazing results.

Are you serving your God, wife, kids, business partners?  If so are you serving them the way they want to be served or the way you like to be served?  What ways can you improve your service to your team? Can you be more patient, understanding, goal focused, give time, explain thought process, help overcome obstacles, give ideas or just listen.  Whatever it is, if you model the behavior I can guarantee that others will follow your lead.

Bill Lewis

Posted by OrrinWoodward at 9:03 AM EDT

Updated: Friday, July 12, 2013 9:05 AM EDT

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George Guzzardo has become a scholar of American/English history. His insights and leadership contributions have helped LIFE Leadership become one of the fastest growing leadership companies in North America. Indeed, George has been a business associate of Orrin Woodward's for over 20 years. Here is George's thoughts on liberty.

A lot has changed with liberty since celebrating our first 4^th of July in 1776.  The first settlers, leaders like John Smith in Jamestown and William Bradford thirteen years later in Plymouth came to the new world looking for freedom. They started laying down the roots of liberty. Are our roots today the same roots that were laid down in the new world?  How healthy are our roots today?  Those leaving everything behind for the opportunity to be free had only one chance of laying down roots in the new world.  They wanted to do it right.  Those roots still need care today to preserve the principles of freedom. LIFE Leadership thinks we have not only an opportunity to teach the principles of freedom back into our country but we have a duty. It’s our leadership that will be the necessary element to keep our freedom and liberty into the next century.

One hundred years after the original settlements were established, the colonists learned the principles of free enterprise while they worked the new lands. They were a God fearing people with established morals. The foundation of unwavering principles built the character that fashioned the nation that we read about. During the seventeenth – century the colonists learned from reading about past leaders who championed the notion that the natural rights we possessed were endowed by our creator. They learned from reading John Milton, Algernon Sydney, and John Locke. Cato’s letters were also widely read throughout the colonies. The colonists had the mind set that Liberty was synonymous with a republican form of government. From history they knew that the word ‘Libertas’, denoted the status of a ‘Liber’ or a free man. The population was educated with the classics that made them familiar with the writings of Livy or Tacitus.

Edmund Fairfield, President of Hillsdale College wrote on July 4^th 1853, “The history of liberty is the history of intelligence.” This collective intelligence in the colonies led to the Great Awakening. Foundational principles of liberty were brought into existence by the likes of George Whitfield and Jonathon Edwards during the mid 1700’s.  The principles they held had long – term effects toward the founding of a nation. Jonathon Edwards who in 1742 said, “We are now engaged in a more important war.” The emphasis was on how morality and virtue led to character development. This in turn led to a stronger family life and therefore stronger marriages. Children were cultivated with a sense of right and wrong. This education led to the citizen’s who learned leadership principles to govern themselves. These social virtues ascended at the time and created a political awakening.

As time went on, Britain became deep in debt from the Seven Years War with France. King George needed to fund this war effort and found an untapped source in the American colonies. King George III and the Parliament decided to tax America. But, because of the knowledge of freedoms and liberty that came from a well educated society, there was resistance from the people. Taxation was viewed as a way of taking away liberty when it was done without representation.  In those days the population stayed current with a system of pamphlets. This was when the people first became aware of the impending loss of liberty. Boston was especially hostile to government officials and formed a group called the ‘Sons of Liberty’ who became resistant to taxation. They were not disloyal but wanted to defend their freedom. Conflict erupted between the ‘Sons of Liberty’ and British soldiers when soldiers fired on a mob in what became known as the Boston Massacre. In the spring of 1775 the resistance exploded into an armed rebellion at Lexington and Concord. The Revolution had begun. When the Continental Congress adopted the Declaration of Independence on July 4^th 1776, this marked an end to British rule over the American Colonies. Leaders around the colonies rose up, ready to risk their lively hood or even their lives to preserve their God given liberty. One summary describing the leadership of George Washington was written, “in nothing transcendent he became a moral rallying point, the embodiment of the purpose, passion and determination necessary for the triumph of the revolutionary cause.”

How far have we gone to get to the point where that nation is hardly recognizable today? Alexis de Tocqueville wrote in his ‘Reflections’, “My only aim was to protect ancient laws of society against innovators.” How far have we gone from the foundation of our roots?  Russell Kirk wrote, “A man without principles is an unprincipled man. A nation without principles is an uncivilized nation.” With a loss of a principled centered people come the national trends that we now see:

• Teen pregnancy rates for girls 10 – 14 has increased 460% *
• Sexual activity among fifteen year – olds skyrocketing. *
• The percentage of teen births to unmarried women soared over 400%. *
• The United States now has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the industrialized world. *
• Sexually transmitted diseases now reaching previously unrecorded levels. *
• United States share of the world economy down from 50% to 25% since WWII.
• Former US comptroller David Walker reports the massive entitlement programs will go bankrupt as the baby boom generation retires.
• National debt upward from $15 trillion.
• A decrease in the US credit rating.
• Inverted morality, Hollywood style.
• All out assault on the Biblical standard of morality.
• Average child watches up to 8,000 made for T.V. murders and 100,000 acts of violence by the end of grade school.
• Supreme court justice Ruth Ginsburg published position: The traditional family concept of the husband as a bread – winner and wife as a homemaker must be eliminated.

* Source: national census bureau.

In his book  ‘The Meaning of Culture’, John Powys said, “Culture is the essential quality and character of a nation, and the principle that defines it.” Charles Reich wrote in ‘The Greening of America’, “America is becoming one vast, terrifying anti – community.”  According to authors Orrin Woodward and Oliver DeMille in their new best seller, ‘Leadershift’, “Once Americans knew these issues intricately. They were raised reading and absorbing this stuff. Will we continue to forget the enduring principles that our country was founded upon?” In the waning days of the Roman Republic Livy wrote, ”Trace the progress of our moral decline, to watch first the sinking of the foundations of morality as the old ways were allowed to lapse then the rapidly increasing disintegration, then the final collapse of the whole edifice, then the dark dawning of the modern day when we can neither endure our vices nor face the remedies needed to cure them.”  What kind of America do we want to move toward? This year when we partake in the festivities, whether a cook out or a parade and watch the fire works lets reflect on our past and those leaders who stood for the principles of liberty and freedom. Let’s ask ourselves if we are finally ready for the call to stand up and lead?  God Bless, George Guzzardo

Posted by OrrinWoodward at 10:10 AM EDT

Updated: Tuesday, July 9, 2013 10:12 AM EDT

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Chris Brady and Orrin Woodward have teamed up for 20 years now in producing world-class leadership information. LIFE Leadership, however, is by far the best teaching and training yet. Check out Chris's blog post below on why. 

LIFE

The Impetus Behind the Life Leadership Business

There is something really right about a business that allows people to get started for a relatively small amount of money, work at their own pace, be their own boss, experience the responsibilities of business ownership in an actual business endeavor without huge downside risks, have the potential for high upsides, and get the tax advantages that come with business enterprise. These attributes (and others) are what originally attracted me to the profession of networking. However, as I experienced more and more of what goes on in certain parts of this industry, I quickly realized there were several things I hated about it!

I was not alone. Along with my friends Orrin Woodward, Tim Marks, Bill Lewis, George Guzzardo, Claude Hamilton, and Dan Hawkins, we founded the LIFE company in an attempt to build a business to not only be the model of what could be in this profession, but what should be, as well. In other words, we launched LIFE to fix what we didn’t like about the industry while preserving the parts we felt were right about it.

What the Life Leadership Business is Doing 

Below is a list of my beefs with the industry, and what we are doing at LIFE to make it right.

1. No True Customer Focus – Our fix: at LIFE, we not only have a customer focus but a customer requirement. If a LIFE member does not develop at least 50PV in monthly customer flow after a brief apprenticeship period, he or she will not be paid any bonus on group volume. Also, we have the 3 for FREE customer acquisition program, in which any LIFE member, and even any customer, who gets three customers subscribing to the same or higher value package gets his/her products the next month for free! Also we have sales competitions with bonuses for the top finishers, as well as special bonus incentives on sales of particular products. We are also about to announce a sales bonus chart designed to give the smallest participants in the LIFE business a huge sales margin on products sold to help them begin earning more money sooner!

2. Gaudy Lifestyle Representations and Outrageous Income Claims – Our fix: in our business presentations we give only basic scenario-based income representations (as in, “if  you build a business that looks like this, the way the pay plan works, it would result in X amount of pay for that month”), with the largest scenario depicting approximately $9,000 per month in income. (See our Compensation Plan brochure for this). We don’t show cheesy lifestyle pictures or videos, bikini-clad girls on yachts, or shiny bling to try and attract people to a false expectation. Our presentation focuses upon things such as obtaining more free time, better financial security, more focus upon family, travel, church and charity, etc. (We don’t go as far as talking about more time with in-laws, however!) Also, being a new company, we’ve just now completed our first full calendar year in business (year 2012), and therefore can now release an Income Disclosure Statement to inform prospective participants and properly manage their expectations (look for this in the coming weeks).

3. The Host Company Keeps Too Much of the Money – and as a result, the people in the field get to fight over the scraps. Our fix: our pay plan is currently putting approximately 70% of gross product volume (PV) into the field in the various forms of compensation. The company was not just founded by people who had come from the field, but from people who have determined to stay in the field.

4. High Sign Up Costs: We have heard of companies charging hundreds upon hundreds of dollars to join. Our fix: keep it low! Our recommended sign up cost, including sample products (three CDs, a hard cover book, a sticker, access to the LIFE business management website, and two tickets to a LIFE Live event) is just $89.99, in which the products are optional. Our goal is to keep it “less than the cost of a tank of gas!”

5. Poor Guarantees: some are confusing, very limited, or difficult to enact. Our fix: simple and straight forward, a 30 day no-questions-asked money back guarantee for all our products, including the sign up cost.

6. Trips for Top Performers: While there is nothing wrong with this, we wanted to do something a little different. Our fix: we put two very exciting trips into the compensation program for people with relatively early progress up the performance bonus chart. One is at the 6,000 pv per month level, the other is at the 15,000 pv per month level. Also, these are not business trips in disguise, but legitimate vacations. The recipient selects the trip of his/her choice from the list of available options, and takes the trip when he or she chooses. (See Incentive Trips for more information).

7. High Priced Products – our experience is that many networking companies charge super high prices for their products and then give some of this back to the field and claim that this is their “profit margin,” when in fact, the products are so overpriced no one could ever sell them for that price to begin with. Our fix: keep the prices low! For the type of informational products that LIFE specializes in producing, our competition is almost always 20 to 200% higher. For instance, our CDs sell for just $10, while most on the market in each of our “8F” categories (Faith, family, fitness, finances, friendship, freedom, following, and fun) can be found for sale from $12 to $67! Also, in our subscription packages that include books, we almost always sell the book in that month’s subscription for ten to twenty five percent below list price, as it is just rolled into a standard subscription price that doesn’t fluctuate based upon that months’ book price.

8. Inferior Products – what does this mean? It means that specific products that can easily be commoditized (produced by someone else at a cheaper price or better value, over time) stay in the company’s portfolio long after they are no longer competitive in the marketplace. This leaves those in the field leveraging their personal reputation to sell a product that is no longer the best on the market. Our fix: Informational products such as those LIFE produces cannot become commoditized because they are unique – meaning, by specific authors and speakers whose communication styles, delivery, humor, entertainment value, etc. are not duplicate-able. While the information can perhaps be mimicked by another, the brand cannot be copied.

9. Products that Don’t Matter: The other part about representing commodity products is that they really have no ability to make someone’s life better. Why spend your valuable time and energy working at something that doesn’t do any good? As my friend Tim Marks said, “I don’t want to waste my life selling tube socks and lawn chairs!” My favorite quote is attributed to D.L. Moody: “Our greatest fear should not be that we won’t succeed, but that we’ll succeed at something that doesn’t matter.” As for me, although it’s possible to make money selling commodities, I want what I do to count in the lives of people (and  yes, I understand that we all need commodities to survive, but you get what I’m saying).  I want to make a positive difference in the world.  So our fix: sharing information such as LIFE produces has helped people get out of debt, repair broken relationships, grow personally, break addictions, grow spiritually, and, as the tag line says, “live the life they’ve always wanted.”  To me, THAT’s something that matters.

But the Life Leadership Business Isn’t Perfect

Now don’t get me wrong. We don’t have the LIFE business perfected yet, as that would be impossible. But we are working daily to make it better and better, in an attempt to deliver exactly what people want and expect in an informational product company, and for a potential business enterprise for many. Also, while we believe that our products are for everybody, we DON’T think the business building aspect of LIFE is for everybody. It is only for those who are prepared to work hard, who are looking for something more in life than they can currently accomplish, who enjoy working with and helping other people, and who have a long-term vision and can stay the course.

Thanks for reading!

Sincerely,

Chris Brady

Posted by OrrinWoodward at 10:44 AM EDT

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Bestselling author Tim Marks shares his thoughts on the self-help industry. Tim, along with Chris Brady and Orrin Woodward led the launch of LIFE Leadership in late 2011. The explosive growth of this new leadership icon speaks volumes for the hunger of people to grow and change if given the right information. Here is Tim's blog post. 

On November 1^st, 2011, eight business partners and friends, spearheaded by New York Times best-selling author Orrin Woodward, launched a brand-new company called LIFE.  I was blessed to have earned my place amongst these men, and together we flipped the ignition switch on a nearly two-decade dream: a company that would not only offer a life-changing business opportunity, but would market life-changing products.

Results speak for themselves: in our first year of business, our products through LIFE and LIFE TRAINING sold a combined total of $53 million.  As well, we give a financial incentive for people to change.  We for those individuals who build a thriving community, great financial rewards are around the corner.  It shouldn’t come as a surprise that we have achieved early success.  First and foremost, we have a high-performing team of business leaders and a thriving business community.  These folks could sell ice cream cones to Eskimos.  But we’ve been saddled in the past with clunky, overpriced products that would thrill your great-grandmother but were decidedly not “red-hot” or “cool” in any way, and still managed to break sales records.  With LIFE, we went a decidedly different direction.  Our LIFE products, including the books, CDs, DVDs, and seminars created and delivered by LIFE fit by definition within a niche industry that has best topping the best-selling charts for years: the self-help industry.

A decade ago, the global economy was in pretty good shape, but my personal economic situation was a disaster.  I had over 33 rental properties and my property manager had behaved in an unfortunate way with how she managed the books and the money.  I was caught holding the bag and faced crushing debt.  But I had discovered an amazing author and Christian motivational speaker, Zig Ziglar, when I stumbled across his audio cassette titled Goals.  That tape opened the door to my changing the way my mind thinks.  I devoured every book and cassette from Zig I could find, and even had the opportunity once to shake his hand and get his autograph.  I owe so much to that man and am so grateful he captured his positive message in books and tapes that I might one day stumble across and begin to change my life.

I believe so much of the success of the self-help industry is stories like mine: people who have had success point backwards in time saying, “My life was changed when I read Greatest Salesman in the World, Think and Grow Rich and Dale Carnegie books.”  However, there is a downside to the self-help industry that the LIFE business has worked diligently to address.

First of all, a lot of the stuff on shelves at your book stores is written by authors who aren’t walking their talk.  For one example, I know of a best-selling relationship book whose author has been divorced multiple times!  This is not true in the LIFE business.  All of our authors and speakers have been vetted through a very simple formula: results.  If someone hasn’t done it, they aren’t teaching it from our stage.

Secondly, the self-help industry grants the average guy on the street access to wisdom from successful people they might never meet, (which is a positive thing,) but with no follow-up action steps to guide them, the reader is left floundering as to what steps they should take!  You might buy a great book from a successful author who gets you pumped up, thinking, “Yeah, I can DO IT!”  But in the next breath, you are caught wondering, “Do what, exactly?!?”  Our books, CDs, DVDs and seminars leave people feeling motivated, but with the critical element of a GAME PLAN.  We have a franchised strategy that gets repeated over and over called POWER PLAYER.  LIFE combines the “One-two” punch of motivation with clear action steps to follow through on.

Third, the self-help industry is HUGE.  When someone walks into a bookstore, they might be overwhelmed, thinking, “Where do I begin?”  The LIFE business solves that problem by having teams of leaders scour the landscape for the brightest, most powerful, most credible advice captured in print or audio, sending the best books and CDS out each month in our SUBSCRIPTIONS.  This saves you the time of sifting through a riverbed of silt looking for the golden nuggets of wisdom.  Our leaders save YOU time so that you can get busy on learning to be a leader.

And fourth, the self-help industry promotes too much of the “self” in self-help.  Because the average person doesn’t have access to a mentor, they really are left to fend for themselves and figure things out through trial-and-error.  Our LIFE business brings that critical component of MENTORSHIP, when high-performing protégés can earn access to mentorship with the people who have massive results.  Mentors can trouble shoot with you as you attempt to apply leadership wisdom in books to real-life situations with all of the variables involved.  If a protégé can’t humble themselves to follow the advice of someone more experienced, they are in for a long and painful journey.  As a leader once said, “If you are too big to follow, you are too small to lead.”

Folks, the self-help industry is booming, just like the food industry is booming.  But just because you can eat something doesn’t mean you should.  By combining results-based teaching, a strategy of Power Player, the specific selection of books in our subscriptions, and application under the guiding hand of a mentor, anyone can take the LIFE products and create the LIFE they’ve always wanted!

God bless, Tim

Posted by OrrinWoodward at 1:13 AM EDT

Updated: Tuesday, July 2, 2013 1:15 AM EDT

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George Guzzardo continues to shares his insights and perspectives of life on his blog. George is one of the founders of LIFE Leadership and a massive success story from the backwoods of the U.P. of Michigan to founder of a mult-million dollar leadership company. In the article below, George describes how Orrin Woodward teaches that winning in any field has similar principles, whether it be company leadership, societal leadershift, or sports.

 I learned a lot about winning after watching the Chicago Blackhawks win the Stanley Cup last night. Understanding more about winning was reaffirmed after attending the LIFE Leadership convention last weekend.  It seems like winners share similar attributes.

Posted by OrrinWoodward at 8:48 AM EDT

Updated: Thursday, June 27, 2013 8:52 AM EDT

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Orrin Woodward shares thoughtful articles weekly for free on his blog. Why would a two-time NY Times bestselling author provide a classical leadership education just by reading his blog? Because he believes ideas make the difference in life. Here is a case in point. Below is an article that the LIFE Leadership founder Orrin Woodward wrote on Walter Lippmann.

Last night, while bouncing between research and watching the NBA championship with my son Lance,  I stumbled across a writer (Walter Lippmann) that explained succinctly why freedom in necessary in a good society. On many issues, Lippmann and I disagree, but his explanation here is impressive. Indeed, I am humbled when I think of all the great thinkers who have studied, pondered, and wrote about the challenges facing Western Civilization today. The book LeaderShift was an attempt to awaken the Western world of its impending peril when liberty is sacrificed for the illusion of security.

As one of the founders of LIFE Leadership, I believe my role is to continue leading and learning until God calls me home. In this vein, I want to share just a segment of Lippmann’s writing so the readers can see the wealth of information available to those who invest the time to learn. Like I have said repeatedly, we cannot defend what we are ignorant of. Here is Lippmann’s thoughts on the value of freedom to Western Civilization and his concern in the current (1937) direction of events that he witnessed at the time. Today, his words resonate even louder than they did when he first wrote them.

Sincerely,

Orrin Woodward

Concentration has its origin in privilege and not in technology. Nor does technology require high concentration. For technical progress, being in its essence experimental, calls for much trial and error. That means that if industry is to advance technically, it must be flexible, not rigid change must be possible because it is not too costly; managers must be free, as technicians are free, to make many mistakes in order to achieve a success.

Those who do not like such a program, who would prefer industry stabilized into routine and administered by corporate or public bureaucrats, are entitled to their preference. But they must not pretend that they are the spokesmen of modern science seeking to make more effective man’s mastery of nature. If what they are seeking is a social order in harmony with the genius of the scientific method and of the modern economy of production, they should look with the profoundest skepticism upon the claims of the collectivist movement. Whatever form collectivism takes, whether the great corporate structures of private enterprise, or the national collectivism of the fascists, of the communist or of the gradualist parties, its adherents claim to be adapting the organization of industry to the progress of technology.

Against that claim there is a strong presumption. For these great centralized controls which have to be governed authoritatively by corporate officials or by public officials are unsuited to a system of production which can profit by new invention only if it is flexible, experimental, adjustable, and competitive. The laboratories in which the technic is being developed cannot produce the inventions according to a centrally directed plan. The future technology cannot be predicted, organized, and administered, and it is therefore in the highest degree unlikely that an elaborately organized and highly centralized economy can adapt itself successfully to the intensely dynamic character of the new technology.

. . . The events we are witnessing should not allow us to remain blind any longer to the truth that our generation has misunderstood human experience. We have renounced the wisdom of the ages to embrace the errors the ages have discarded. The road whereby mankind has advanced in knowledge, in the mastery of nature, in unity, and in personal security has lain through a progressive emancipation from the bondage of authority, monopoly, and special privilege. It has been through the release of human energy that men have lifted themselves above the primeval struggle for the bare necessities of existence; it has been by the removal of constraints that they have been able to adapt themselves to the life of great societies; it has been by the disestablishment of privilege that men have risen from the status of slaves, serfs, and subjects to that of free men inviolate in the ways of the spirit.

And how else, when we pause to ponder the matter, can the human race advance except by the emancipation of more and more individuals in ever-widening circles of activity? How can new ideas be conceived? How can new relationships, new habits, be formed? Only by increasing freedom to think, to argue, to debate, to make mistakes, to learn from those mistakes, to explore and occasionally to discover, to be adventurous and enterprising, can change be more than the routine of a recurrent pattern. If those who happen by inheritance, election, or force to achieve the power to govern are not the sole originators of new ways, it follows that the energy of progress originates in the great mass of the people as the more gifted among them are released from constraint and stimulated by intercourse with other free-thinking and free-moving individuals.

This was the faith of the men who made the modern world. Renaissance, Reformation, Declaration of the Rights of Man, Industrial Revolution, National Unification — all were conceived and led by men who regarded themselves as emancipators. One and all these were movements to disestablish authority. It was the energy released by this progressive emancipation which invented, wrought, and made available to mankind all that it counts as good in modern civilization. No government planned, no political authority directed, the material progress of the past four centuries, or the increasing humanity which has accompanied it. It was by a stupendous liberation of the minds and spirits and conduct of men that a world-wide exchange of goods and services and ideas was promoted, and it was in this invigorating and sustaining environment that petty principalities coalesced into great commonwealths.

What reason, then, is there for thinking that in the second half of the nineteenth century the tested method of human progress suddenly became obsolete, and henceforth it is only by more authority, not by more emancipation, that mankind can advance? The patent fact is that soon after the intellectual leaders of the modern world abandoned the method of freedom the world moved into an era of intensified national rivalry, culminating in the Great War, and.of intensified domestic struggle which has racked all nations and reduced some to a condition where there are assassination, massacre, persecution, and the ravaging of armed bands such as have not been known in the western world for at least two centuries.

We belong to a generation that has lost its way. Unable to develop the great truths which it inherited from the emancipators, it has returned to the heresies of absolutism, authority, and the domination of men by men. Against these ideas the progressive spirit of the western world is one long, increasing protest. Thus we have rent the spirit of man, and those who by their deepest sympathies seemed destined to be the bearers of the civilizing tradition have turned against one another in fratricidal strife.

What could be more tragically and more preposterously confused than this choicer Must men renounce all that their ancestors struggled to achieve, or abandon the hope of making the world a better place for their children? Must they disregard as so much antiquated nonsense the principles by which governments were subjected to law, the great made accountable, the humble established in their rights? Shall they not remem-. ber the experience by which the violence of civil factions was subdued? Must they forget how their forefathers suffered and died in order that tyranny should end and that men should be free?

It is the choice of Satan, offering to sell men the kingdoms of this world for their immortal souls. And as always, when that choice is offered, it will be discovered after much travail that on those terms not even the kingdoms of the world can be bought.

Posted by OrrinWoodward at 8:50 AM EDT

Updated: Tuesday, June 25, 2013 8:56 AM EDT

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