Well, in a USA Today article on October 28, 2016 there was an eye catching article titled:” Religion may be a miracle drug”.  And the subtitle was: “Church attendance is correlated with longer life and a sense of meaning.”  Wow,  studies have shown over the years that health and religion are very much connected.  Now I personally believe that having a relationship with Christ is the key, but you can’t argue with the results!   I always feel better after attending.  My wife and I always wonder how people can live in this world without attending church! The article goes on to say that the benefits of attending church regularly have the following benefits:

1. More Optimistic
2. Lower Rates of Depression
3. Greater Purpose in Life
4. More Self Control
5. Greater Likelihood of a stable marriage
6. Expanded social network
7. Greater Charitable Giving, civic engagement and volunteering

So the next time you are feeling sad or depressed or just need some help….I recommend you go to church!

Last week I spent a week in San Diego developing new skills to help CEO’s, entrepreneurs and small businesses.  In the upcoming months, I will be improving these skills and looking to launch an exciting new product.  But what happened last week really resonated with me regarding my favorite topic: “Holding onto your Career for a lifetime”.   The single most important concept learned was this: “Hang out with the right PEERS”!  Peer groups, masterminds and associating with high energy professionals is extremely important in building your platform. It is also extremely important to make sure you are continually investing in your continuing education and taking action towards your purpose and passion.

As I write this blog post today, I have learned many secrets (called wisdom) at 50!  Actually I am 57 but like to think positively!  I have boiled them down to the most important ideas that I think are essential to holding onto your career for a lifetime!  Lets look at the 5 most important secrets:

1. Learn to “Overcome Anything” because the longer you live, the longer you need to learn how to come back from your disappointments.  When I was in my 20’s I didn’t realize that shocking things can happen to you while living your life.  First, loved ones die.  I remember the first time I experienced death.  I can still remember the day I learned my grandmother died and how it affected me.  I can still remember those moments and those feelings of complete sadness and longing to see her once again.  Just the very thought to walk into her house and hear her voice again makes me long to someday be with her again.   She has been gone for more than 30 years and I still miss her the same as the day it happened.  While I have moved past that day, I still get tears in my eyes just trying to write this post.  The point is, things happen to us that we sometimes don’t necessarily deserve, but it happens.  And some things that do happen are what we have caused as well.  Living a full life means we must learn how to overcome tragedy and find a road-map through the wilderness.
2. Learn how to “build your platform for a lifetime of service”.  I believe that God has put greatness on the inside of every human being.  And it is our job to access that greatness and to use that greatness to solve problems for others.  I think so much about this as I rebuild my platform now at 57.  So much of what I learned in graduate school in the 90’s about business and marketing and sales has completely changed in many ways.  The way we go to market today is so different.  And today, more than ever, our platform is critical to our ability to have our voice heard and to help others succeed. Today, the concept to building and marketing a business requires first hand knowledge and experience using the technical tools that are available to establishing or rebuilding your platform. I often give advice to younger friends of mine, that the single most important focus of a career is to understand the infrastructure of platform building.  Everyone needs to start very early building their brand online and offline if they want to succeed at holding onto their careers until they decide to finish.
3. Learn the concept of “adding value” to yourself and to others.  We are the only species on this planet that has been given the ability to create words that impact another’s life.  So, our words, are the key to adding value.  We must always think about our words before we say them.  Because God has intended us to use our words to build his kingdom, and not to tear it down.  Looking back on most of the problems caused in our family, I can honestly say it has been caused by words that should have never been said.  So, our ability to add value is directly related to the words we chose and the thoughts that we think.  When we fundamentally change our thoughts, our words change. In terms of business, it is very important to use our words to add value even to our company or the company we work for.  I love teaching others about how to add value through words.
4. Stop drifting and start designing your life for success and significance.  As we go through life, life happens and all of a sudden, we are 50, 60, 70 and 80!  This is something your don’t fully realize is happening and how quickly we are running out of time to fulfill our mission and purpose in life.  That is the reason why setting goals for you life based upon your dreams, passions, divine intersections and experiences is so important.  Because one day you will wake up and ask yourself: “What happened to my life”?  Where has it gone and did i do what God intended me to do!
5. Find peace, joy and significance in everything you do.  When I watch the current convention in Cleveland, I sometimes think that I should be doing more with my life at 57.  I see men up there my age and really doing something significant. (Or so it seems anyway)  But my point is that we all have to look at our lives and find and make peace on where we are in life.  The most important thing to do first is to build a foundation that is solid as a rock.  When you build a solid foundation, no matter what storms come through, you will be prepared to make it through.  So, that is why it is so important to take time to read God’s plan for your life.  When you understand and fully comprehend that you are designed for greatness and not torment, you begin to build your platform on solid rock.  It is so simple and yet I see so many people struggling.  There is no racism when your brothers and sisters are in Christ.  Christ is the only way and only foundation that will get you to where you want to go.  I suppose people may ask why do I talk about Christ. The answer is God has given me this gift in a dramatic and life changing way for a reason.  And so, I must share it with you.  I know to many, you won’t understand or will be blind to these words.  But hopefully, God will use it to shine his Glory on you in some way today!

Steps 4 and 5 of “5 Secrets to Owning Your Career actually deals with the essence of your gifts and talents.  It is about defining your “sweet spot” in regards to your passions and talents and determining where you can add the most value in an area of need in the marketplace.  After you have established your namesake URL and hosted on WordPress, you now have to start building pages that can later be used in your product suite.  If all this sounds confusing and you don’t know where to start, here is what I recommend:

1. Your WordPress Site must function as your career hub.
2. You need to determine what your passion is and how your tell others about what you are an expert in and start building pages within your wordpress site that might be of value when you figure out exactly what your niche will be.  I have roughly 50 pages of material that I just put on blind pages in the hopes of one day being able to use it.  But it gave me experience posting and creating and navigating through wordpress.  This in itself was a worthwhile experience.
3. Find someone to hold your hand.  This is very important because there is far too much to learn if you go it completely alone. And, it is manditory that you learn how to this, otherwise you will go broke trying to hire individuals that probably aren’t going to understand what you truly want to do.
4. Learn what an OVO is.  By this I mean, you have to learn how to collect email addresses and to build your list.  Building your email list by niches is very important.  There are levels of complexities when putting your OVO together, but it is important to think and work towards your OVO everyday.
5. Finally, you need to build integrated product suites of products that are of interest to your email list.  This could be training, speaking, self help products, or any type of product that your email list or lists wish to purchase.
6. Use social media to drive potential customers to your OVO and get their email address. This can be done using various software like one shopping cart of infusionsoft.  There are others as well that are worth investigating depending on how much you are willing to spend.
7. Learn copywriting, video and speaking.  This will allow you to exploit the various platforms that are available to you today and will allow you to create products for yourself.  The name of the game is “Customer Acquisition”.  And when you master that, you can own your career the rest of your life!

The third step in “Owning Your Career” is to Design, Develop and own your platform.   Don’t let someone end your career before you decide it is time.  Here is what every person should do to start this process:

1. Own your namesake URL.   By that, I mean, you need to go to a hosting company, like godady, and purchase your namesake.  For less than 12 dollars per month, you now have your name reserved and can start to build your online identity.
2. Put up your own wordpress blog site!  Once you have  purchased your own namesake URL and launch your wordpress site, you are well on your way to building a “digital” identity that no one can take away from you.  That is why I recommend using wordpress and hosting it yourself verses using other blogging platforms that are controlled by others.  You want to “OWN” your own platform.   This platform will serve as your “Hub” for all of your activities.
3. Learn and do for yourself.  You cannot and should not delegate learning how to build your brand to someone else.  You need to be able to master the technology even if you are not a “technical” person.  I did it and so can you!
4. Create your embassy plan. Your embassy directs your potential followers to your home base.  Your Social media plan are your embassy’s!  They represent “YOU” out in the market place and send messages out and gather information and direct it back to you.  If you work for a company, you are developing a set of skills that you can send out to your embassy’s. That may be facebook, twitter, linkedin, pinterest or whatever. But these embassy’s reflect and promote your career, your brand, your purpose, your skills, your story!
5. Consistently build your brand.  So you have your home base, your wordpress namesake URL, you have your embassy plan in place and your now begin to CONSISTENTLY communicate to your market, your followers and your potential clients on your unique product, story, sweet spot, unique voice or whatever you want the world to hear!.  Begin to develop a weekly content plan that you consistently deliver.  This is so critical while you are working and building your email list!  You have to think in terms of building customers that eventually  will be buy from you.  But the secret is Consistently, Consistently, Consistently!   I hope I said that enough, because that is the single greatest downfall by not delivering content consistently. Long term acquisition of customers requires a consist delivery of content to the world through your platforms and embassy’s.
6. Master the technology.  Every person today has to master the basics.  You have to learn how to publish.  That can mean anything from writing good copy, to learning how to do videos to pod casting.  But the fact is, you don’t have a choice any longer if you want to remain relevant and in front of your customer. If you want to own your career for a lifetime, you need to follow a different plan.  And that requires learning how to publish.
7. Finally, learn how the value creation process works.  Building a platform for lifelong success is transferable.  You must understand that working for someone else has to benefit you and your career long term.  Every skill that you take away from your workplace is transferable to your brand. So, you have to think in terms of that daily.  Ask yourself: “What am I learning today and what can i incorporate into my story that I can send out to my embassy?”                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  IF YOU WANT TO RECEIVE THESE POSTS DIRECTLY TO YOUR EMAIL, CLICK (HERE)