The more I research and study nutrition, the more amazed I am to find there are an increasing number of products being made that allow us to make healthy choices.  As adults, we have more awareness, and hopefully, a greater degree of “sense and sensibility” than our children in making those daily decisions about what we eat and drink.  It is also critical that we begin sharing our knowledge with them and helping children make healthy nutrition choices as well; that we put in front of them products to choose from that are going to become part of living a healthy lifestyle.  We all know kids think Gano Excel’s Cafe 2.0 Schokolade is great – but did you know it’s also great for them?

That’s right: every packet of this belly-warming, chocolatey family favorite is packed with vital nutrients and focus-boosting “brain foods” that make it a “hit” for kids’ health: body and mind!

So, why should you make Gano Schokolade a regular part of your child’s diet? ·

NO CAFFEINE!

Unlike other hot chocolates, Schokolade is 100% caffeine-free. Numerous studies indicate that children’s intake of caffeine should be strictly limited to no more than 45mg/day (if that). Wouldn’t it be great if you could satisfy your kid’s sweet-tooth without sugary, caffeine-packed cocoas? ·

POWER OF EXCELLIUM!

On his recent trip to the States, our company’s founder, Mr. Leow Soon Seng, confirmed that Gano Excel Cafe 2.0 Schokolade contains Excellium, a potent health-boosting formula made from the mycelium of Ganoderma lucidum. Mycelium is classed as a top-flight “brain food,” special edibles that boost mental activity and focus, because of its high-concentration of polysaccharides. Who ever heard of a cocoa that might help your kid achieve even more!

MAKE NUTRIENTS GO FURTHER!

The same mycelium that gives Schokolade its brain-boosting power may also help your kids absorb nutrients better! Unlike your old cocoa – all junk, no food – Schokolade helps the nutrients in your kid’s other food do more. Imagine pairing a cup of Schokolade with a packet of Gano Spirulina C’Real Oats for your child’s breakfast: that’s a powerhouse combo that can’t be beat! Oh, and Schokolade just happens to contain a gram less sugar than standard grocery store cocoa! No caffeine and less sugar means calmer kids…and makes Gano Schokolade a parent’s best friend for those long winter “inside days”!

You know my intent with my blog is to provide you with rich content; information that is powerfully impactful in the lifestyle choices you are then able to make.  Once in a while, however, giving you that information may require giving you a call to action so that you at least give some of these nutritional items a try; reading about it won’t make a difference in your life!   With that in mind, I encourage you to place an order and let your kid’s try a chocolate drink that will take the chill from a fall day, boost their focus and increase their ability to absorb other nutrients – all without the intake of caffeine!

Click here to place your order

Identity Theft in the News….

According  to the Spokesman Review, two Spokane, Washington women   received over $40,000 in good and services using stolen identity information taken from local vehicles and mail boxes.  One would have to question why the potential risk of 20 years in prison and fines edging $250,000 fail to deter this type of crime.  Instead, the incidences just seem to get more frequent and more colorful.

For example, the story that broke in The Province  about an investigation into a ring of thieves using stolen credit card infor ation to purchase over $130,000 of online auction items.  These electronics and jewelry items were then resold on other online sites for a significant profit.  Imagine the shock of Vancouver police who found six young  twenty-somethings with a plethora of identity-theft  – shall we call it paraphernalia – items, following  an intensive and complex investigation that is still not complete.

My understanding has always been that one of the reasons people buy Mac computers is the safety features far exceed those of PC users… that may no longer be the case as we see headlines today that FaceTime has a glitch that will allow hackers to access FaceTime accounts and steal personal account information.   Does the recent report on CIO mean that Apple will stand side by side with Microsoft in creating online protection? 

No state is exempt from thieves – Maryland AP News reports a Delaware man, under the guise of securing home loans for clients, spent close to three years stealing client financial information to commit identity theft.  Although Carl Gail turned himself in and is out on bail, he is facing over 30 counts in his indictment.   Today’s headlines also include reports from Florida, Georgia, Wisconsin, and many others.

Continuing a quick scan of today’s news, I have to be even more passionate about the support I offer to counter these ongoing offenses by representing a product offered by Pre-paid Legal.  In LaGrange, Texas, a 34 year old woman received a 10 year sentence for conspiracy to commit identity theft, in Milwaukee, another woman is in court facing similar charges for the part she played in an identity theft scandal, and NewsNet5 reports over 11 million people were victimized in 2009.  The numbers are staggering – the implications are horrifying.

If you want to have further discussion about protecting yourself from identity theft, email me at jan-vitale@cox.net and let me know the greatest fear you might be experiencing so we can talk about how I can provide you the most information and the best protection.

Today is the 13^th of October, 2010 – the International Day for Disaster Reduction stemming from a campaign having the theme, “Making Cities Resilient: My City is Getting Ready!” coordinated by the United Nations National Strategy for Disaster Reduction.  And we thought it was a big deal to having September as National Disaster Preparedness Month!    The International Day serves to highlight success and stimulate creativity in achieving higher levels of disaster preparedness.  According to the PIA Daily News Press  the Philippines joins many other countries in this day of recognition.  If the world at large is taking this matter seriously, does it not make sense that we ask ourselves what part we need to play in preparing our families for disasters?

My intent is always to educate and inform you – bringing resources before you is a significant part of that.  Since the UN spear-headed this event, it also provides a number of links to everything it does to support disaster preparedness that should prove valuable to you as you participate more in disaster preparedness, such as Emergency Relief – Tools and Services, UNESCO’s Natural Disaster Reduction, and the World Food Programme’s Disaster to Development, and many more. 

In the news today you will see that Armenia is participating in the celebration; that China, Nigeria and Afghanistan are assessing their own programs, and finding them lacking – making a firm commitment to make serious modifications in their response to the seriousness of disaster preparedness within their countries.  The underlying focus:  save lives, reduce risks, and preserve health.  ReliefWeb provides coverage, on this day set aside to recognize disaster preparedness, to the many losses experienced in the Caribbean.  According to this article, “Each new disaster leaves in its path overpowering evidence of how poor planning and investment decisions contribute to vulnerability and increase the risk of future disasters.”  What  a powerful statement that we as a family, a community, a nation and a world, must be assertive and unrelenting in early response to potential disasters – not wiping up the aftermath that comes at a much greater cost in resources and lives.

Yes… in Africa and Iowa – in New Zealand and the Dominica… news headlines shout “International Day for Disaster Reduction!” Reuters AlertNet  reports with a focus on flood prevention in Pakistan, Myanmar and India, reflecting that “Every Euro we spend on disaster risk reduction does not only save lives but also helps us save five Euros which we would have to spend for emergency relief later on.”

How exactly is this day being celebrated?  I am sure there are a large number of lunches and conventions, but you will also find that trees are being planted in Lebanon , drawing contests are “drawing” attention to the children who need to understand the value of disaster preparedness, and the press, of course is supporting in a myriad of ways with compelling headlines!

What will you do to celebrate this International day?  What are the disaster plans you have for your family?  If you want more information how you may start – at home, please visit my website.  There you will find the PortaVault, a portable storage unit for all your vital documents, checklists and a plethora of resources, to which I add frequently.  You don’t have to do this alone – Vital Enterprises can be the one place you can count on to provide you the latest news and best resources for disaster preparedness… you see – I celebrate this need all year long!

If you look at the power of using network marketing as a business model, it comes essentially from the basis of leverage.   It doesn’t matter if you are amazingly talented or get paid a huge per hour salary – there are still just so many hours in the day and you will only reach maximum productivity and profitablity if you learn to leverage your time, and benefit from other people’s efforts.

How do you effect that leverage?  In a number of ways that might surprise you – especially with the technology to which you most likely have access.   The fact that I can be on the beach at my favorite resort, and you can be reading my blog somewhere else in the world is a good example of how I can leverage my time and not be sharing your physical presence in order to bring value to you or teach you important lessons about building a business using a network marketing business model.

It is no longer necessary to build a business where the employees work hard to benefit the owners and stockholders; everyone has the same opportunity to succeed and invest only a fraction of the time and money of a frachise or bricks and mortar store.  Leverage happens naturally because you have a vested interest in mentoring and training others to succeed… leverage happens when you choose to receive 5 percent of the work effort of 100 people over 100 percent of the effort of one person.

• Leverage happens because your income is never dependent upon one person; your income is never significantly impacted because one person takes a long vacation, becomes ill or decides to retire. 
• Leverage happens as many frustrated professionals, overwhelmed by the lack of balance in their lives, decide to leave corporate responsibilities to pursue and live a different lifestyle – with you as their mentor! 
• Leverage happens… with a small network marketing organization created over time, through which you can ultimately produce the equivalant of working 24/7 putting in only a fraction of individual effort.

[caption id="attachment_691" align="alignright" width="125" caption="Leverage... the power of doubling"][/caption]

• Leverage happens… from geometric growth and the power of one.   My grandfather amazed me at age four with the math concept of doubling your money every day for 30 days.  He sat me down after breakfast and, having started with a penny – he added the second penny the next day… then four… then eight… quitting at the end of the week, having laid $128 out on the table and having some discussion with me that by the end of the month, if I was able to continue that doubling, I would have saved over $5 million.  Seemed unfathomable to me then… and I still have to do an Excel spreadsheet to validate the concept; a concept that is at the heart of network marketing. 

Does that seem strange?  Let’s look at it this way… if I teach you – I have doubled; if we each mentor another person, we have doubled again.  And the process continues naturally, and easily – producing results beyond your belief.

Leverage happens only when you use the process of building people, bringing them to their highest potential; it does not happen when the process is manipulated by working with people who look for the easy money and are not willing to build a successful business themselves.

Leverage.. is it worth the risk?

Are you intrigued by the potential of leveraging your time, talent, money and skills?  Check out my Income Opportunity Marketplace where you will find a plethora of information that will help you decide if this is a business model for you, a directory of the many opportunities possible in network marketing, and resources to help you with managing your business – using best business practices.

Embrace all possibilities – all opportunities…

This has been an interesting and rewarding series of posts; I hope I have shaken up your thinking and provided a few new thoughts that will stick in your mind as you are out in what you might previously have viewed as a jungle!  Does it seem a bit more friendly?  Do you have a tad less angst about the process?  Today, I am going to ask you to push the edges of your comfort zone at another level… never pass on an opportunity to make a long-term connection!  Take an assertive position and make it happen – for you and for all the potential it promises.

Know no regrets…

What I am asking you to do is to shift your thinking from one of making that connection somewhere in life and not following through with getting enough information that you can re-connect.  How many times have you visited with someone at an airport, in line at the store, or even at some sports event or concert – only to leave, thinking what a nice connection that was, but making absolutely no attempt to ask for any contact information?

I heard a story once about former PR professional Joe Martin having a perfectly wonderful, unexpected opportunity to visit with NBA star, David Robinson, and did nothing to make himself memorable, nor give himself the privilege of following up with him.  Joe simply didn’t think to ask – and based on how many times he recounted the story, something he forever regretted!

Step into your place of courage…

James Malinchak also shares a story of having met the actor, Dennis Hopper, at a social event and mustered the courage to stop and visit with him over supper.  Unlike Joe Martin, however, James also stepped up with another show of courage and asked Dennis Hopper for his contact information so that they might reconnect.  He was surprised at how easy it was to walk away, having exchanged their information on napkins!

If you don’t ask – you don’t get…

Both of these stories remind me of a statement I must have heard a thousand times from my Mother:  “You will never know if you don’t ask; and you always have a 50/50 chance of a yes!”  Add to that the age old philosophy of nothing ventured/ nothing gained and there you have it… Go for it – step right up and ask for the connections you want in life.

Create a formula/phrase that you can count on to work…

The process doesn’t have to be painful or uncomfortable, all you have to do is to craft a little “formula/ phrase” you can practice and use over and over again that will get you exactly what you want… contact information of someone you want to build a relationship with!  My formula is as follows:

“Gosh, the time has just flown, Ted.   I had such a great time visiting with you and surprised at how many things we have in common!  I really like building new friendships – how about exchanging information so that we can stay in touch?”

This may be a bit uncomfortable the first three or four times you say it, but as you refine the message, and express it authentically at the end of a truly great conversation with someone, you will find that your request is equally authentic.

Action Step:

Make a concentrated effort, first – to design your own “formula/phrase” and then… use it on the next three to four people you meet.  After the meeting, and having made the request, take a few minutes to embrace exactly what transpired.

1. How did you feel in making the request?
2. How did the person respond to you?
3. Were you more excited about the outcome than nervous?
4. Do you feel there is something you can modify to make it more natural… more authentic?

By the way, I have really enjoyed spending time sharing this series of messages with you!  It is obvious that we both share a genuine interest in the power of networking, and since I enjoy building friendships with like-minded people, perhaps you would like to email me at Jan-Vitale@cox.net and connect with your next “future friend!”

Jan Vitale, building my business, one relationship at a time

Vital Enterprises, LLC