Welcome To Mike's Blog (Web Log)

Visit Mike's other Blog entries 4/01/05 - 7/31/05 and 8/1/05 - 11/30/05 and 12/1/05 - 3/31/06 and 4/1/06 - 7/31/06 and 8/1/06 - 12/31/06 and 1/1/07 - 6/2/07 and 6/2/07 - Present Day
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My web site gives you a pretty good idea about who I am and what interests me. If you're reading this, odds are you're interested in some of the same things. In general, my blog will share lots of thoughts about entrepreneurism, writing, travel, western history, inspiration and the secrets of life. Oh, and Border Collies.

But enough about me. Let's start talking about what I think. :)

12/5/04 6:03 am

So starts my new blog. I've been thinking about starting this for months. As a Gemini, I'm a born communicator. My astrology chart has ten planets in the career house so just about everything I think and do relates to my career in one way or another. If I enjoy it, I figure out a way to make it generate income. This of course, drives my wife Margie nuts. She often awakens to me spouting off yet another plan, scheme or idea that is bound to turn our lives upside down if implemented. God bless her for going along with the good ones and pointing out the bad ones.

Up until the last couple of years, I'd been living my lifelong dream of being a professional writer. Been doing it since 1991 - and been feeding the family pretty much exclusively by writing since 1992. But our recent (last five years) real estate and business start-ups have forced me to mostly stop writing for others and concentrate on writing for our own companies and projects. Truth be told, I miss it. So here I am communicating to the outside world again from my modest basement office.

Gemini's, of course, are known as communicators. They often hold positions as writers, radio personalities or TV broadcasters. Some are public speakers, authors, columnists, reporters, ad agency copywriters, PR professionals, comedians or actors. I've done all of these except for television and acting, although my wife might tell you that when necessary, I can act like a pretty decent husband after she's given me THE LOOK.

Some of my favorite Geminis include Stevie Nicks, John F Kennedy, Andy Griffith, Gene Wilder and Donald Trump.

Anyway, expect reading lots about my latest ideas for generating income. I'm in that time of life (age 47) where I'm really concentrating on making Margie & I financially secure. With our real estate investments we pretty much have our retirement taken care of, so we are working hard to create enough passive CURRENT income to not have to actively work to create our next paycheck ever again. Of course we will ALWAYS work at something, and because of my unbalanced career urges, always find a way to make it pay, we just won't HAVE to work to eat.

Let me say a few things about real estate because I spend lots of time thinking about it every day. Listen closely because this is where you receive a gigantic reward for reading this far. Up until 2002, I had no retirement account at all. Zip, nada, nothing. Today, my real estate holdings alone guarantee I'll have about $2 million dollars in salable assets by the time I'm 65. With a little extra effort, I can make that happen years sooner. I acquired these assets by investing less than $20,000 of my own money. This is the power of real estate. I share this not to boast but to inspire you to get the same results for your family.

Yes, you'll have to work at it. You'll have to study various techniques and you'll have to devote time every week looking for properties that meet a select set of criteria. You'll have to confidently sell yourself and your ideas to others. You'll have to handle rejection and negative thinkers. Having good credit is also a big help getting banks and/or property owners to loan you money. But we were still able to achieve these results with a bankruptcy in our past so having imperfect credit doesn't have to be a game breaker. And finally, you have to have the courage to step out of your comfort zone and take action. The time is going to pass anyway, you might as well use it learning new skills to make your todays and tomorrows better.

Fear not, I'm not selling anything here. I merely want to share that the "magic" of owning real estate generates income four different ways. And if you buy it right, costs you absolutely nothing except for your time.

The four ways real estate earns you money:

Equity. Each month you make a payment on your loan, the value of your equity (the value that is yours if you sold for its appraised value today) goes up. If you buy right, your tenants are making this payment for you. This makes your investment FREE. Over time, when the mortgage is paid off, your tenants have handed you a gigantically valuable property that THEY paid for FOR you. Your net worth increases every month just by providing tenants with a property at fair market rental rates.

Income. If you buy right, the payments your tenants make for renting your property will more than cover all mortgages, taxes, insurance, maintenance and other costs. This extra amount is monthly income for YOU. Because you rarely have to be at a certain place or time as a landlord, this is called passive income. It rolls in every month with very little effort.

Appreciation. Real estate always goes up in value. This is always true in the long run and almost always true in the short term. Even during recessions and depressions, if real estate values drop they always come back. Typically, values increase at least at the pace of inflation. So just owning a $100,000 property earns you a minimum of $3,000 a year. This is $250 per month. Forever. If you live in an area with high growth, values can increase 20 percent per year or more. As owner of the property, this increased value is yours to harvest when you sell.

Depreciation. Real estate tax laws allow you to depreciate the value of the real estate improvements (buildings, fences, sewer lines, asphalt - everything except the land itself) over a fixed number of years. This value is deducted from your property's taxable income, greatly reducing the amount of taxes you must pay on your income. These tax savings go right into your pocket.

I'm so excited about real estate because it has assured my retirement after less than two years of making deals. In a prior life, I was an employee running 50 convenience stores for 7-Eleven. They had a wonderful profit sharing plan to accumulate savings for retirement. Even with their great plan, after 10 years, my account had only reached $30,000. I made that much in my first month of owning my first rental property by making a simple improvement. Real estate greatly compresses time. And time is all we really have.

There are many good free resources on the topic of real estate investment and I suggest starting at the Creative Real Estate Online web site at www.creonline.com. This site has hundreds of free, high-quality how-to articles and success stories. The success stories are very inspiring. They also sell lots of specialized courses if you want more information.

You can earn similar returns by starting your own business. I've taken this route several times too. However, this is rarely passive income like real estate. You'll have to physically and mentally work much harder to gain this value. The companies I own today generate the income I need to pay my monthly living expenses and to purchase additional, less demanding, passive income properties.

Or, you can purchase an already-operating business that generates enough cash to pay all the bills and SOMEONE TO MANAGE IT FOR YOU. These type of investments are much more passive. They generate income for you without you having to do all the work needed to generate that income.

Have you ever read the book "Rich Dad, Poor Dad?" I highly recommend it. It's written by Robert T. Kiyosaki. But here is the book's best advice boiled down to one powerful sentence:

"The rich buy assets, the poor buy liabilities."

In this description, an asset is anything that generates income FOR you. These are things that create income streams like rental properties, businesses, stocks, bonds or mutual funds.

Liabilities are things you buy that take money FROM you, without generating any income FOR you. Things like cars, furniture, boats.

The rich spend their money buying income streams first, and then use a portion of those income streams to buy the liabilities that make life fun.

Once the income stream from your investments exceeds the cost of your monthly bills, you have achieved financial security and independence. You no longer have to work for others so are free to spend your time as you like. The rich don't stop there however, they continue to allocate a portion of their income toward the purchase of MORE income streams. This allows them to easily purchase finer and finer liabilities WITHOUT lowering their monthly income. They don't buy a new toy until they have generated a new income stream that more than covers the cost. This is why the rich get richer.

The poor typically spend all their immediate income on items that DON'T generate income. They then have no money left to buy new income streams so they become more and more trapped in the world of employment. So they have less time and less money to break free. The poor get poorer.

I wish I had been taught this when I was a student in high school. I'd have been financially free by the time I was 30. But I know it now and am happily on my way toward financial freedom. If you're not already free yourself, I hope I've inspired you to get yourself on track too.

For inspiration about more general life issues, please visit my Free Inspirational Columns that I call "Consider this..."

12/05/04 7:33 am

We just returned from a research trip. Some would call it a vacation. Because we researched places that fascinate us, it felt like both. Twenty-one days, 16 states and 5,030 miles in our Winnebago.

If you are on this web site, you've likely seen that we own a trolley tour company. We operate in the western town of Cody, Wyoming, just 52 miles from Yellowstone National Park. The town was founded by William F. "Buffalo Bill" Cody, who due to his military scouting heroics and Wild West show, was the most well-known man on Earth in the years around 1900.

We started the business from scratch in 2001 with $2,000 of our own money and a convincing business plan we wrote while attending a Cody Chamber of Commerce-sponsored entrepreneur class. Our business offers 60 minute, 22-mile tours that share the story of Buffalo Bill and spotlight historical sites, scenic vistas, geology, wildlife and old and new west attractions. Our motto is, "Give us an hour and we'll give you 100 years." I drive, Margie is the tour guide and we both narrate while showing poster-sized historical photos, entertaining audio clips and pass-around relics choreographed to the sites outside the moving trolley. It's actually a 60 minute live performance that happens to be rolling on six wheels.

Some locals thought we were nuts. The defining comment from one naysayer was, "Who'd pay $11 to be driven around Cody?" The answer four years later is "More than 10,000 summer visitors." Today, that price is $15. Thank you very much. :)

Sometimes it takes an outsider to see the value of what is right in front of others. We moved to Cody eight years ago. It's become obvious to us that heritage sells. People love to learn and experience new things. We help them do so. Cody is a special place with a rare western flavor and fascinating history. To continually offer more value in our tours, we take annual research trips to deepen our knowledge about key elements.

Which leads me back to our recent trip. Tune in tomorrow to read what we learned about Buffalo Bill's home in LeClaire, Iowa and Annie Oakley's stomping grounds near Greenville, Ohio. Oh, and maybe a little about that Border Collie. :)

12/6/04 4:32 am

About this Border Collie. Millie is her name. She was a stray that we adopted 6 years ago. We already had a dog - a wonderful white German Shepard named "Snow." Snow was getting old and I had no desire to get another dog until Snow passed. However, since moving to Wyoming, I'd decided that my next dog would be a black & white Border Collie.

Be careful what you wish for. I've been called a physical manifester because what I think about tends to appear in physical form. Of course everyone is a physical manifester, some just refuse to believe it. Thoughts are things. And when you think about something often and with feeling, you become a magnet that calls forth the creation of that thing.

I sometimes think that the reason we are alive on Earth is because in a three dimensional plane, everything happens so slowly. There is a delay between what you think and what happens. Once we move onto the other side, I think that what we think happens immediately at the speed of thought. So working here on Earth - and its much slower dimensions - let's us practice the control of our thoughts so we don't create our own personal hells on the other side from uncontrolled thoughts.

Anyway, there are many, many books on topics of thoughts and how they create the quality of your life. I recommend anything by Vernon Howard . I also recently discovered a great book written in 1910 by Wallace D. Wattles, called "The Science of Getting Rich". Rebecca Fine has converted this non-copyrighted book she found in the public domain into an electronic book that she offers free of charge. Click here to access the free e-book .

So we're walking at the park one day and what runs by but a Border Collie with the exact markings I'd been imagining. The dog was skinny and running loose but close enough to other people that I figured it belonged to them. An hour later we're walking home and there lays the same dog in the grass on the side of the road. I thought it had been hit by a car. Closer inspection revealed the dog was obviously a stray. When she let me pet her I could feel her ribs and her hair was matted with dirt.

That was enough for me. We took her home, gave her food which she immediately devoured. We ran ads and reported the find to the Humane Society but no one claimed her. That isn't entirely true. I'd claimed her the moment I took her home. Turns out she was meant to be here.

It turns out that Millie had a great interest in catching Frisbees. With a little practice and training, she became a wonderful Frisbee dog - something else I'd been wanting for a number of years. We started entering Frisbee Dog contests across the west and did fairly well. Tired of traveling, we started our own contest here in Cody and have been running it and competing annually with Millie for six years. Millie finally won the Cody contest in 2002.

Click here to see photos of Millie and learn more about her contests and Frisbee Dog information and resources.

Back to the research trip

Our trip started in Cody, Wyoming and went as far east as Asheville, North Carolina. Asheville has the world-famous Biltmore Estate, the world's largest private residence. We wanted to take the Biltmore's audio tour (we produce audio tours and are always researching for ideas) and we wanted to take the Asheville trolley tour for more new ideas. Oh, and we have like a million relatives in the Ashville area.

Along the way we also visited Wall Drug, South Dakota, the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library, Buffalo Bill's childhood home in LeClaire, Iowa, the Archway Monument in Kearney, Nebraska and the Cabelas in the same town, a museum and I-Max-like theater in Hastings, Nebraska, Abraham Lincoln's home and burial tomb in Springfield, Illinois, and Annie Oakley's birthplace, deathplace, museum and grave in and around Greenville, Ohio. We then visited relatives in Cincinnati and headed down to Asheville. On the way back we stopped at the just-opened Clinton Presidential Center in Little Rock, Arkansas and at gained lots of ideas at another great western town, Dodge City, Kansas. The Boot Hill Museum there is great.

Buffalo Bill Cody was born in LeClaire, Iowa on February 26, 1846 in a log cabin not far from the Mississippi River. The cabin no longer stands. However, Buffalo Bill's father, Isaac built another home in 1847 that does still stand and housed the family for several years.

The Buffalo Bill Homestead is owned by Scott County and open to the public during summer months. The caretakers live right on the property in another dwelling and appropriately, graze three or four buffalo right on the grounds.

We arrived in November but after a phone call to the caretakers, were graciously allowed in for a tour. To see photos of the home, visit Buffalo Bill's Homestead.

During the tour, we were guided into the basement. We were told that the foundation had started to collapse so the limestone rock wall in the basement had to be rebuilt. They used modern concrete inside the wall which left no room for hundreds of rocks that filled the inside of the original wall. Margie saw the pile and with her usual charm, talked the caretaker into giving us one. Trolley tour customers will now be able to hold an actual artifact from Buffalo Bill's boyhood home. Click here to see a photo of the basement where the rock came from.

Annie Oakley

Annie Oakley, (Phoebe Ann Moses, Mosey or Mozee) was born on August 13, 1860 in Darke County, Ohio. Her father died when she was six years old, throwing the family into severe poverty. The family struggled financially so badly that Phoebe's mother turned Annie over to the county orphanage because she could not afford to feed all her children.

Here, Annie learned to sew and gained an education. But the severe poverty left a permanent mark. Despite her fame and riches, Annie would remain frugal her entire life.

Upon returning home from the orphanage Annie helped feed her still-poor family by learning how to hunt. Ammunition cost money so Annie was motivated to make every shot count. She was soon shooting more game than the family could eat and began selling the excess to local restaurants. Restaurants preferred buying from Annie because her clean headshots left the meat in perfect condition.

Before long, Annie was considered the best shot in the area. Her sale of game was so successful that at the age of 15, was able to pay off the family farm with her hunting proceeds.

A restaurant owner in Cincinnati knew of Annie's skills and invited her to enter a shooting contest against well-known marksman Frank Butler. Butler was traveling with several other marksmen and had a standing challenge to compete against local shooters. Butler is said to have laughed when he learned that a girl had paid the $50 entry fee to challenge him in a contest.

Annie won that contest hitting 25 of 25 targets while Butler only hit 24. The two began a relationship and were married in 1876. By 1882 the pair had formed a shooting act and were traveling around the region. Annie then took the stage name of Annie Oakley, (some think the name was inspired by the nearby town of Oakley, Ohio) but in private, she always called herself Mrs. Frank Butler.

It didn't take Frank Butler long to realize that the novelty of a woman shooter was the better attraction and Frank was man enough to step back and let Annie get top billing. From that point on, Annie was the star of the show and Frank became her manager and did all the legwork to get things ready for Annie's performances.

The pair were signed by Buffalo Bill's Wild West in 1885 and Annie & Frank traveled with that world-famous show for 17 seasons. "Little Sure Shot," as Annie was known, soon became one of the most famous women in the world.

Annie died at the age of 66 on November 3, 1926 at her sister's house in Greenville, Ohio and is buried in Brock Cemetery near Willowdell, Ohio. She died just three weeks before Frank. Her body was cremated and the urn was then placed in Frank's casket which is buried next to Annie's grave marker.

We visited the cemetery on a rainy day in November, 2004 and had the place to ourselves. Located on a quiet two lane road in the middle of Ohio farms, it is a simple and no-frills resting place befitting Annie's no-nonsense approach to life. This is a significant contrast with Annie's great fame and fortune.

Click here to view Annie and Frank's Gravesite

Click here to read Gravesite Historical Marker Side One

Click here to read Gravesite Historical Marker Side Two

Click here to view Gravesite Headstones

The house where Annie died still stands today in the old part of Greenville. The three story Victorian home is now a rental dwelling. Those with serious interest can get the address from Greenville's Garst Museum which displays a nice room full of Annie Oakley possessions and memorabilia that we greatly enjoyed viewing. Click here to visit the Garst Museum.

Finally, we tracked down the historical marker that points out Annie's birthplace. It is located on Spencer Road outside the little town of Willowdell. This is located within about six miles of the cemetery. The marker is about 1,000 feet from the original location and no dwelling remains. Today, the spot is near a large farmhouse and out buildings. Still, it was electrifying standing there, looking at the nearby woods and realizing this was where Little Sure Shot learned her shooting skills. Click here to see the birthplace marker

Please return tomorrow for the next entry!

12/7/04 4:39 am

Well, the trolley battery is dead. It's only 18 months old so that seems a bit premature. Hopefully it's under warranty. I'll make some calls today. It's not your normal car battery, this monster is built to power RVs and has 6 fill caps on it. Lots like several hundred dollars to me.

This is the type of stuff you face when you're an entrepreneur. You have to navigate through a regular diet of obstacles. Some are easy, some are very difficult. Many are weird. We are always asking people to create something, or find something that is unusual, unproven or very rare. The best ideas just don't stay within the norm.

The challenges of replacing the battery are several that are typical when you run businesses. First there is time pressure. We promised to run a church group to an event tomorrow. We learned the battery was a goner yesterday. That gives us today to find and install a new battery. Next, it's an unusual battery so it might not be available in Cody. Third, we'll need a mechanic to make the change to verify it actually IS a battery problem and not the alternator, which would cause another series of problems. Fourth, we'd already scheduled today to help our daughter move into a new place.

So you adjust and do what you have to do. It's situations like this that prevent most people from owning their own businesses.

But when you think about it, a job presents the same challenges, you're just performing the solutions for someone else within the framework and policies of THEIR business. The difference is your rewards are smaller. But your pay is guaranteed at a certain level. This guarantee must keep most people happy because most people still work for someone else.

An entrepreneur, however, wants far more than a salary. He or she wants equity. Net worth. And more than money itself, loves to create something from nothing. Loves the business of doing business. Loves dreaming up ideas and then implementing them in reality. And when they work, the rewards can be very great. But when they don't, the losses can be very great.

We own 9 or 10 different business entities. People occasionally ask what a typical day is like for us. So let me share a few things we took care of yesterday.

I started at 4:30 am writing yesterday's blog. I'm sharpest in the mornings and like to "eat dessert first" by doing things I enjoy to ease into my day. Lately, that's writing this blog.

After that, I worked up a deposit for the trailer park. Yesterday was the 6th so the payments that arrived on the fifth needed to be banked. The fifth is the last day tenants can pay without getting a late charge. There are still a few lates so I wrote up that list and gave it to my park manager. We charge a $25 late fee and $3 per day for each day late after the fifth as a motivator to pay on time. It works. I recommend it to other landlords. When the few still pay late, you at least appreciate being compensated for the extra hassle.

Then I reviewed responses from some Realtors I'd emailed questions to about some properties. The new Real Estate Guide just came out and I scanned every listing over the weekend. I keep a cabinet with files on about 50 properties I'm watching at any given time.

My criteria for purchasing a property is very stringent: it must generate enough cash to pay all its bills, including its new mortgage and its management and still have extra income left over. If it doesn't have this type of positive cash flow, I don't want it. Which means I end up not wanting most of the properties I review.

It's like mining for gold, you have to go through a lot of rock to find the nuggets. I enjoy penciling out potential properties immensely so it doesn't seem like work. When you find a nugget, the real fun starts - visiting the property, meeting the owners, learning their ownership problems and figuring out ways to solve those problems while making the deal a winner for yourself as well. Then you have to sell your plan to the owners and your bankers to line up financing. Once you get the property, you have to put management in place and develop systems to keep things operating profitably. It's a lot of work, but to me, a lot of fun.

Once a new rental property is set up, it takes very little of your time. This passive income keeps you free to explore other activities and other properties.

But back to the trolley. This is a very time-demanding business for about half the year. But the rewards are there. How many people can work half a year and generate an income that is much higher than most employees make by working a full year?

During June through September we're like carnival people - we work every day. Margie & I give 90% of the tours ourselves and have a relief team fill in on Sundays. But Sundays are taken up by paperwork and other activities that couldn't get done during the week while we were giving tours. So summers are pretty much survival mode for us. It won't always be this way but it works for us now.

We then take an extended vacation in October or November and come back to perform Holiday Light Tours during Christmas season. Seating is limited to 40 so we must keep track of seats like an airline. This requires customers to call us for reservations. In December 2002 we had 500 people take a light tour. Last December it was over 1,000. This year we expect another large increase. Do you know how many phone calls it takes to make 1,000 reservations? Lots. During December we carry a scheduling clipboard and portable phone with us wherever we move in the house.

We also start to sell advertising inside and outside the trolley during the fall and winter for the next season. This generates income for us over the winter while there is little or no tour income coming in. We get the occasional off-season charter but for the most part, we have a very busy 4 summer months, a very busy December and a month or so of busy prep work. Six busy months and six quiet months where we come up with new ideas and projects for the next year.

Other activities I performed yesterday:

* Negotiated with two tenants living together who had to break their lease. They were good people who sincerely wanted to meet their obligation so we were happy to work out a payment that was acceptable to us all. You don't have to be cutthroat in business. Just try to solve the situation so it's fair for all concerned. You sleep better at night and you aren't creating bad karma you'll have to face later. Plus, you're creating fans that may help you in ways you'd never expect in the future.

* Checked the thermostat at a vacant rental office I own. I hadn't been in there in a while and with the cold weather, wanted to make sure the heater was on to prevent pipes from freezing, but at the lowest setting to keep costs down. Another advantage of buying your rentals right is that you can handle vacancies. Sure you'd like the additional rental income, but you still generate enough so you're not worrying about being able to pay the bills. If you make sure that every deal you buy can more than pay its own way, you'll always be increasing your wealth without greatly increasing your risk.

* Used the Internet to research anti-fogging products for the windows of the trolley. With 40 bodies in a heated, enclosed trolley, all that exhaling fogs up our windows during the light tours. I think I finally found a more elegant solution than handing out hand towels to wipe the windows.

* Completed an annual operating report for the COLT bus that is required by WY DOT. We've been operating the public bus system for the City of Cody for the past two years and this report is required because the state and city fund the operating costs. The ridership is not as high as we'd like so it's possible the state and city will not continue the program in 2005. We started the program from scratch for the city in 2003, so would hate to see it die. The people who DO ride greatly appreciate the service. We'll meet with the city soon to make some decisions.

* Had a meeting with a friend and colleague who works for the city. We discussed everything from Christmas decorations to visitor and convention centers. The fun of being entrepreneurs is learning all the opportunities that are available. Every time we speak to someone we listen for problems they mention. Solving their problem could be our next business opportunity.

* Fielded half a dozen calls for Holiday Light Tour reservations. This resulted in another 30 people signed up. Bookings are strong this year and historically get much stronger the deeper we get into December. We have newspaper ads, radio ads and window posters out there spreading the word. But most important, we have 1,000 evangelists out there who rode with us last year. We try to give great customer service to everyone who deals with us and it pays off. I'm such a fanatic on the topic I wrote a book. Click here to learn more about my book, "101 Ways to Provide Exceptional Customer Service Today"

* Tossed the football with Margie for an hour discussing our various businesses, opportunities and to-do lists. Yes, we throw the ball inside. One of the advantages of being an adult. :) I love this activity. She has a busy life with her many volunteer activities so it's a treat to make a football tossing session possible. These sessions clarify our thoughts, reduce stress and refresh our souls.

* Went to bed about 7:30 to read the newspaper and watch a little football. I was out cold by 8 pm. I love the advice given by CNN founder Ted Turner: "Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell and advertise!"

Thanks for reading! I hope you tune in again tomorrow. If you have any specific questions, feel free to email me at

  • E-mail Mike

    12/8/04 5:43 am

    It was the battery. We got it replaced ($344). Originally Ford said it was covered under warranty but once they saw the 1500 amp battery they realized theirs had been exchanged when the trolley manufacturer converted their motor home chassis into our new trolley. The trolley company's warranty was only 12 months, 12,000 miles, so we have to eat the bill.

    We did get the thing replaced within our tight time limit so we are still happy. It's just another cost of doing business. Business owners deal with unexpected bills all the time, which is one more reason why prices steadily increase. Small businesses have to operate with a wide buffer of cash flow or the unexpected eats them alive.

    We also got our daughter moved yesterday. She had lots of help from her mother-in-law which made it easier on us all. I installed 6 window blinds there and have more to finish today.

    We attended a city council meeting last night to support a friend's idea to build a new miniature golf course. The rub is that the location is on city land. The city owns a small course and has a professional services agreement with a private citizen to run the operation in exchange for a share of the revenue. The agreement expired and the city invited the public to provide them with new proposals.

    Only two people did - the old operator and our friend. The old operator proposes no changes to the facility and our friend offers to invest several hundred thousand dollars in a new facility IF he can get more land to place it on. BIG issue in town.

    Dozens of people showed up to speak for each side. To the good of Cody, the exchanges were very civil. I support our friend's proposal because we know he will enthusiastically operate the thing in an impressive manner, and we think his proposal has a far better chance of enticing visitors to stop. We think he'll attract more locals too - both kids and adults.

    Being in the business community, I think anything different is good. Anything unique is good. After just traveling 5,000 miles, most towns look the same. Cody, with our western buildings and attractive downtown is one of the few that shout, "We have personality." The beautiful mini-golf proposal will be one more eye-catcher to stop more of the 4,000 visitors who drive through our town each day in the summer.

    I asked the city council to ask themselves a question as they considered the two proposals. "What would Buffalo Bill do?"

    Because our town founder Buffalo Bill Cody was a showman, entrepreneur, risk taker and visionary, the answer was obvious.

    Life is funny. It has a way of shaking up the status quo to make you grow. Sometimes you get to coast, but mostly you have to share opinions, choose sides, sell ideas and handle rejection. When anything new comes along, peoples' initial default position is usually "no." It's far easier to do nothing and avoid the whole hassle of getting involved, weighing the problems and benefits and making a decision.

    Very few people make profound changes without a crisis forcing their hand. This is why I admire entrepreneurs. They have the courage to face the hassles of change head-on for no better reason than they know they can make situations better.

    This morning we go on the radio to promote our Holiday Light Tours. I hope people don't hold my opinion about the mini-golf issue against our company. When you share an opinion, you're basically telling lots of others that you don't agree with their opinion. This doesn't have to become personal but unfortunately, often does. This is why the larger a company grows, the more politically correct they become. No one wants to alienate customers. In an ideal world, sharing an opinion should not alienate anyone. But, in the real world, I'm afraid too few can separate an opinion from the person sharing it.

    During our recent trip, we also stopped in Springfield, Illinois to tour Abraham Lincoln's house and tomb. Click here to get lots of great history about Abraham Linoln, including a 360 degree tour of Lincoln's tomb.

    Margie is reading a Lincoln biography and is learning how political Lincoln had to be to get anything done. To gain support, Lincoln learned to solve the other fellow's problem first. The man handled massive resistance to change. Which is what you face (hopefully in far less quantities than Lincoln) when you operate a business. I'll share more about Lincoln after I get that book from Margie.

    12/9/04 3:30 am

    Let the fun begin. Today marks the start of 15 straight nights of Holiday Light Tour activities. The actual tours start Friday night but we need to map the route and take photos of the homes and businesses that have entered the decorating contest tonight.

    We also have to decorate the trolley. We ordered a new anti-fogging product but there were shipping snafus so we won't have it for the first few days of tours. We've been told that in the meantime, it's best to run the air conditioning and the heat at the same time. The heat will supposedly overcome the A/C and the A/C will help pull moisture out of the internal air which sticks to the windows causing the fogging. I guess we'll provide hand towels just in case.

    It's difficult jumping back into an ocean of must-do activity after we've been out of it for 9 weeks. But once you get started, the fun of the season takes over and before you know it, the days have flown by. Margie & I have a saying, "Everything comes and goes." No matter how far off something is scheduled, no matter how large and difficult the event, it always arrives and you're soon looking back on its completion. Just keep on swimming.

    Scheduled activity does at least solve the problem of deciding what to do next. I guess we could just ride out the duties of our current businesses and be just fine, but I'm obsessed with starting multiple streams of income during our off-season. We have so many opportunities that it's difficult to prioritize. Right now I'm putting more weight on studying online business opportunities.

    Online costs are typically low, the business doesn't require you to be there on demand, your universe of customers is most of the world and you don't have to deal with people face-to-face which saves gigantic amounts of time and stress. But the learning curve is steep. There is soooooo much to learn. I'm fairly web savvy and I can maintain my own web site, but the avenues I'm looking at require a giant leap in knowledge about web design, databases, e-newsletters and more. I may just sign up for some college adult-ed courses if they are targeted enough.

    I have set up one online store through a vendor who handles everything. They pay me a small commission for every sale made by customers who arrive by clicking through my link. The prices are very good - for example, most books cost less than Amazon - and the selection is huge. My store offers books, music, videos and video games, cameras, computers, electronics, sports equipment, office supplies and much more. More than 600,000 items! If you have shopping needs, I'd appreciate you purchasing from my online store named Feed Your Soul.

    I'm also a domain name speculator. Generic domain names (like EverythingJapan.com) are inexpensive to reserve and register but can be developed to attract traffic and then resold for huge prices. I own about 130 names that could be developed into portal sites for large industries. The upside is huge for a relatively small investment.

    For example, Loans.com recently sold for $3 million. I own EverythingLoans.com. I know that if I develop the site with content and links or even just sit on it for awhile, some large financial institution will see the value of that name and purchase it from me. Domain names are the real estate of the Internet.

    You can learn more about establishing the value of domain names and review the list of names I offer for sale by clicking Domain Page.

    I'm off to other duties! I hope you stop by again tomorrow.

    12/10/04 7 am

    I'm up late today because we were up late last night mapping the Holiday Light Tour and taking photographs of the contest entries. Don't have much time to write this morning because we have a meeting at the city at 8:30.

    I had to tape "The Apprentice" last night but was able to watch it when we got home. You save some time when you can fast forward through the commercials. Although, I am one who generally enjoys watching commercials if they are clever and funny.

    I love The Apprentice because I really admire Donald Trump. He's a lot more hard-edged than the management style I use, but then he's a heck of a lot more successful than me too. His style may be suited for New York, but it would not go over too well in Wyoming. I wouldn't trade places with him but I admire the size and success of his deals. He does real estate at the very top end in the toughest market in the world. But, he did launch his career with building and operating low income, government-subsidized housing units with his father. Donald just decided he'd rather cater to the well-heeled, top-end market and has become a legend.

    Trump has several books out and I've read them all except his latest, "Think Like a Billionaire," which is on my Christmas list. To learn more about Donald Trump, click here. To learn more about his show "The Apprentice" click here. For great articles about Donald, click Trumpery.

    Speaking of television, my brother and his wife were on "Good Morning America" yesterday. Rick and Alanna are pretty heavy into E-Bay and Alanna gives E-Bay how-to seminars. Apparently the local Nashville ABC affiliate spent a day at their home filming them as they worked their E-Bay business. Their segment was to be shown with an interview of the E-Bay CEO. Charles Gibson teased the story as coming up after a break and a short clip of Rick & Alanna appeared with them working at their home. Pretty cool.

    But that was the extent of the coverage because when they returned from break, it was all the CEO and Diane Sawyer and no more Johnsons. Alas, their best stuff was lying on the cutting room floor. That's the way it works sometimes. An editor has to juggle 50 different demands on a show that large so I'm sure other items must have gotten a higher priority, leaving less time. Still pretty neat though.

    Tonight we start the the Holiday Light Tours and run for 14 nights straight. We ease in with a charter for the radio station crew tonight and then participate in the parade tomorrow night followed by public tours.

    The tour route will be similar to the last two years based on the most well-lit neighborhoods. We're challenged by time and density of decorations to set the best route. If a great looking house is surrounded by several blocks of dark neighbors, we usually can't justify adding it to the tour. Which is a shame. We just can't hit everyone in the 35-40 minutes we have. So here I am in the editor's shoes, leaving someone's well-lit house on the cutting room floor.

    I'm out of time so I'll report in again tomorrow. Thanks for reading!

    12/11/04 5:52 am

    I went through a period when I worked at being a comedy writer. I even attended a comedy writer's conference in Los Angeles that was organized by Gene Perret, who wrote for Bob Hope for 30 years. Gene lined up some successful comedy writers to make presentations and participate with our class of about 30 people.

    Joe Medeiros was then Jay Leno's head writer and he made a presentation, as did Liz Sage, who had written for The Carol Burnett Show and several successful sitcoms. Both had interesting comments but Joe's really stuck with me.

    Joe described how his team created each Leno show. A large board was posted on the wall with a place for each minute of the 60 minute show. Slips of paper noted the segments of the show that took care of themselves like "interview guest," "advertising commercial" or "musical act." All portions of the show that the comedy team had to create were marked on the board by yellow slips of paper. These were the parts of the show that had to be created from thin air by Joe and his 13 writers.

    For example, for Jay's monolog, more than 250 jokes had to be written to come up with the 25 or so jokes he uses each night. After the monolog ends and they return from commercial, there are other comedy segments written for Jay. Joe said that if the writers couldn't come up with anything great, they'd fill the time by doing a "Jay Walking" segment where Jay goes downtown and asks random people questions. Jay's spontaneous humor then makes the segment funny.

    After many years of writing for the show, Joe said those yellow pieces of paper represented a feeling of foreboding wondering how they were going to fill them tonight. Being an aspiring comedy writer, I'd have seen those yellow slips as a huge opportunity to present my stuff to the world.

    So even a dream job feels like work if it's on your back all the time.

    I sold some jokes to a club comedianne but didn't get any farther. To make the real money you really need to live in LA or New York where the decision makers are. That wasn't for me. And it's next to impossible to get the nationally known comedians to even look at your stuff because they are afraid you will sue them if they later write a joke that was close to something you sent them they decided not to buy.

    I'm not saying this can't be overcome, I'm just saying you'd have to be 100% committed to make it happen. In my case, I wasn't willing to make it my entire life. The difficulty of selling your stuff to others is one of the reasons people become stand-up comedians who deliver their own material.

    I guess I was too lazy to do that so I perform my own material online as a sit-down comedian. I "perform" in a couple chatrooms that attract other writers and an over 40 crowd. It keeps my wit sharp and the free flow of online chat topics presents unlimited opportunities to create new oneliners. I monitor crowd response and save the best ones for later use. You can see some of my better comedy material here. It's also DATED material because this comedy page hasn't got much of my attention in recent years.

    Three years ago I joined the local Rotary Club that has been putting on an annual satirical show about our town for the last 50 years. The first year I joined the writing committee and last year I moved up to chairing the writing committee. The show lasts about 2 hours and includes skits, musical acts -- both serious and parody -- and lots of comedy.

    Last year's show revolved around all the transportation issues the city had been fighting over. The largest issue was whether or not to build an alternative route roadway that many thought would become a bypass around Cody's business district, hurting merchants. After lots of controversy, the road was never built. We called the show, "Road Kill, Or 100 Years of Bypassing Progress."

    For the show, I wrote and arranged professional production of a humorous audio segment called The Cody Bypass Horse Race."

    We start writing this year's show next week.

    Last night we provided two light tour charters and they went well. We decorated the trolley yesterday afternoon and the job was easier because temperatures were in the 50's. Our warehouse isn't heated so we appreciated the warm weather. In fact, it was so warm I had to run the air conditioning a little bit during the charters.

    Tonight our public tours start. We still have openings because we increased our number of tours this season to handle 2,000 riders. Last year we had 1,000 riders and filled every tour we offered. This year we're offering lots more tours to determine the size of the market. We'll work harder but be able to provide tours to everyone who wants one.

    We do have a trolley web site located at CodyTrolleyTours.com .

    The trolley business is doing well and we have lots of ideas to increase the number of riders next summer. We brainstormed a great list of improvements while traveling in the Winnebago. We're even considering franchising our system because it works so well. So many opportunities, so little time.

    One thing we are doing is updating our Cody Keepsake book that we give to each party of trolley ticket buyers. The 64-page book includes the Historical Downtown Walking Tour, the Buffalo Bill Burial Mystery article, lots of information about Buffalo Bill and advertising from leading Cody merchants and attractions. It sells for $5 if you do not take a trolley tour. You can order one by emailing me.

    Anyway, the book is a great value-added premium but needs to be updated, which is a major job. This year's version will be created to last two years, will have a glossy cover and more pages. This job is on our spring to-do list. We'd also like to create another audio tour this spring. Once we get through the light tours, we'll start looking for another venue. I wish I had an administrative assistant to help me chase down all these opportunities. I just know I could generate more than enough income to pay the person's wages through new income. I may look into getting a cyber assistant that charges by project to get started. But I'd rather have someone local who I already know and trust. I also have a vacant office building just crying for my use so I'm thinking of new ventures I could launch in case I can't get it rented.

    That's it for today, thanks for visiting!

    12/12/04 5:43 am

    It's snowing! About time. Cody only gets 3-6 feet of snow per winter which isn't very much for a mountain town. It usually falls 3 to 6 inches at a time and then melts in a week or two.

    Yesterday was Cody's big Christmas celebration. Lots of events all over town culminating with the lighted Christmas parade down our main street, Sheridan Avenue. Margie serves as president of the Cody Events Committee and helped get lots of those events organized. She tells me our parade is the largest lighted parade in Wyoming. The trolley participated, with the Absoroka Assisted Living Center folks riding along. Because the center had less than 10 people ride, we invited anyone else aboard who wanted to take a trolley tour right after the parade. We got about 20 takers. We gave three Holiday Light Tours after the parade and they went well.

    We probably offered too many light tours this year because the next several days are light on reservations. The times closer to Christmas are packed though. I think the snow will put more people in the mood. I just hope they don't wait much longer or they will miss our open days and wind up without a seat.

    I've been silently identifying people I'd like to work with and have been lamenting the fact I don't have a job to offer them. I spend time thinking of a business I could start that would generate enough revenue to get them into our growing empire. The thought just struck me that I may be going about this backwards. Perhaps I should organize a meeting with these folks and ask them to brainstorm business ideas that they'd like to manifest and then find a way to fund or organize the effort. If you get the right people you'll get the right results. Hmmm...

    I have a showing at our trailer park this morning. Our park manager is caretaking a ranch for friends and is away until Monday. I'm a little rusty because Chris has been handling showings for more than a year. But we have four vancancies out of 32 so I'm eager to fill them. It's always a balancing act -- you want tenants but you really want qualified tenants. So we screen applicants pretty well and reject a certain percentage. It costs us money to say "no," but it saves us money, time and hassle in the long run. We also have a responsibility to protect our current tenants from getting bad neighbors. Our park has earned a good reputation during the past two years and vacancies or not, we insist on keeping that trend going.

    If we enter January with vacancies, we'll offer to sell a few trailers and carry the financing for the buyer. This locks in a new tenant while helping someone become a home owner. It's true they will still rent the lot from us, but it's better to get some equity from your rent payment then no equity. We'll then be marketing to renters AND buyers, giving us a larger pool of potential customers.

    We try to provide a high level of customer service in everything we do. I've been a fanatic on the topic since I became famous for it when I was a McDonald's store manager in my teens and early 20's. Most people don't extend themselves for others, so it's easy to make a good impression by doing so. Plus, it's the right thing to do.

    Most people's definition of customers is just too narrow. Customers are anyone you encounter -- vendors, family, coworkers, friends, prospects, your boss, your employees and yes, customers. All deserve the very best customer service you can provide.

    When I left the corporate world to become a writer, this customer service passion helped land my largest writing client, Clement Communications. Clement hired me to write an 8-page, bi-weekly newsletter on the topic of customer service. This how-to publication was sold to businesses all over the world. I kept this assignment for six years until Clement decided to take the writing in-house to save money.

    The assignment allowed me to interview executives at the most service-renowned companies in America and capture their best advice on customer service. I also researched the topic incessantly, publishing over 800,000 words on the topic.

    I've boiled all the best advice down into a powerful, 16-page booklet titled "101 Ways to Provide Exceptional Customer Service Today"

    If you serve customers or oversee people who do, you simply must click here and read a great article about empathy, titled, "You Never Know What Crisis Your Customer is Facing."

    12/14/04 6:48 am

    I skipped writing an entry yesterday. Got up too late and the day was upon me. Part of the fun of working for yourself is that you can either have a routine, or change the routine at your whim.

    I just completed the writing of our annual Christmas newsletter. I know they can be about as popular as sending a fruitcake, but I think most of the people we mail to enjoy it. We spice ours up by sending a page of photographs. We've been doing this since at least 1997.

    The letter forces us to reflect on everything we've done the past 12 months, which always looks a bit overwhelming. We have this passion to compress time by doing as much as possible in as short a time as possible. We lie to ourselves that all this activity is bringing us closer to the day we can slow down and just enjoy the life we've created. I imagine we'll always stay busy, but I sure hope it's far less busy.

    I'll say this though -- we truly are creating our own life and most people can't say that. We get to research the things that interest us and dump the things that don't. We have no morning commute, no dress codes, no job that can be taken away (I like to say I work for myself, my boss is a real SOB) and we get to work at things we enjoy. And if we get tired of a project, we can sell it for its value and move on. You can't sell a job -- the value you've created goes straight to the company. The value we create goes right in our pockets. We truly are blessed.

    Scott Pederson got the death penalty yesterday. I love keeping up with cable news and have a TV over my desk to stay current. I'm a FOX News guy. I'm also on the move all the time and don't want to miss anything so I have 6 TVs placed throughout the house. None in the bathroom yet but we put one in there for our Super Bowl party.

    I have satellite TV so I can get the NFL and NHL packages. I had to get city cable TV too this year because satellite started blacking out NFL games carried by local cable channels. So you need cable AND satellite to get every game. Cable lets me watch the city council meetings from home too, so it's money well spent. The information technology is just amazing today. What a great time to be alive.

    I feel sorry for the people who aren't up to speed with current technology. They are missing so many opportunities and will never know what they miss. I just spent a week with relatives in Asheville and they have far more electronic gadgets than me, so I looked clueless next to them. They exposed me to TIVO and cell phones and fancy cars and RV's that had controls I'd never seen before. So I've reached that point where I know enough to know I have far more to know.

    To keep track of news throughout the day, I usually just read The Drudge Report . It's an eclectic mix of hard news, political news, entertainment news and the weird and bizarre. Right up my alley. :)

    That's it for today. Thanks for reading!

    12/16/04 5:59 am

    In three weeks we've owned the trailer park for two years. Time flies. The park was a real fixer-upper when we got it and we've plowed all profits back into repairs and improvements. I can't count the number of stoves, refrigerators, water heaters and furnaces we've replaced. Well, that's not true, I COULD count them, I just don't. The good news is that we've completed over 75 percent of our "to-do" list. So in less than a year, we'll start getting a nice passive income from the park.

    Furnaces are the killer because they run $1,400 installed. I authorized the replacement of another one last night. This one was especially painful because it is in a trailer that the tenants have applied to purchase. But at least if the sale goes through, I'll feel good that they will be getting a very solid unit.

    We occasionally sell trailers and carry the financing for the buyer. Banks won't make loans on 30-year-old trailers so we do. It helps the buyer, earns us a good return and is a safe investment because if payments aren't made, we can repossess the trailer and resell it or make it a rental again. It allows the buyer to build home equity while helping us lock in a lot-rent tenant. Everyone benefits.

    After the first of the year, we'll offer some more trailers for sale to maintain a 100% occupancy rate.

    We had a meeting the other day with folks from Yellowstone National Park. Margie & I sit on the parks committee of the chamber and have been discussing road construction projects. The roads have been neglected there for decades and they finally are receiving the money needed to repair/replace them. There is about a ten year backlog of work and since the weather is so bad there in the winter, forces construction to occur during the busy summer months. This of course, reduces the number of tourists who use our entrance, hurting Cody businesses. We have two or three more years of construction scheduled just inside the east entrance to the park which is the one 52 miles from Cody.

    Last year the park leaders had agreed to our ideas of creating a "Construction Delay Care Package" that would move to the places where traffic was stopped during the rotating 30 minute delays for construction. This package would include a porta-potty and a low power FM radio transmitter that provided entertaining interpretation of the surrounding area and animals. We wanted to take the sting off the delays by providing bathrooms and special information to visitors trapped by the delay.

    Ultimately, these care packages could be provided by the road contractor and included in the project's specifications and bid. In fact, we thought contractors nationwide should be required to include this at all road projects that caused long delays.

    Well, at the meeting this week, that all went by the wayside, so to speak. Actually, nothing will go by the wayside because the park service isn't doing any of it. Apparently they made the decision last year and neglected to inform us. The porta-potties would cause dangerous conditions if traffic started and someone was in the bathroom (understandable) and the radio interpretation had some obstacles the park leaders decided they couldn't solve.

    So it's business as usual -- visitors will face delays and the park service will not extend itself to make the waits any more palatable. We love the park, we like the leaders, but we are extremely disappointed that they think it is OK to invite 3 million guests into the park and then make them drive over rough roads and face 30 minute delays, and then give up on ways to make the situation better for visitors. It's a customer service issue.

    Yes, the roads have to be fixed. Yes, it has to happen in the summer. But there is no passion there to soften the pain of the 30 minute delays. In the grand scheme of things, a 30 minute wait in Yellowstone isn't the end of the world. But when you multiple a half an hour times tens of thousands of people, you've stolen a significant amount of time. And the park service leaders don't see it like this. Which is disappointing to me.

    The private sector would have solved the radio problems and come up with a better porta-potty plan. The government sector just isn't motivated to provide extra energy or creativity to create something better than the status quo. They apparently believe they have all they can handle already.

    Which leads me to my "are you one of us?" theory. After years of promoting new ideas and projects and businesses, I've come to realize that most people are not "one of us." It takes a special breed to have a positive, open, creative and supportive attitude toward new ideas. I figure the percentage of people who have these qualities is only about 5 percent of the population. The other 95 percent are either too busy with their own lives to care, or too busy not having a life so they make it their mission to become an obstacle to yours.

    Albert Einstein said it this way, "New ideas always face violent opposition from mediocre minds."

    Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonald's, said it like this, "When you're green you're growing, when you ripen you rot."

    The truth is, most people don't support change. Most people are wired to only change when faced with a severe crisis. Few people voluteer to change. But the few who DO embrace and seek out change are the people who are "one of us."

    I've written a column about this topic called Change Will Never Change .

    I'm off the soapbox until tomorrow!

    12/19/04 7:34 am

    I got the good news that we have another tenant for the remaining office in the Pioneer Building we own in Lovell. This has been a sweet little property. It was empty when we bought it from a motivated seller who had inherited it. She was tired of trying to be a landlord from 50 miles away so was eager to just sell it. We got it at a bargain, she financed the sale and we only had to come up with 10 percent down.

    The property has two offices, a large shop, three garages and a large fenced yard. Everything is now rented except for the fenced yard. My Realtor in Lovell manages the property for me for 10 percent of rents so I never have to go there for showings or problems. The building is throwing off over $600 profit a month after all expenses and the mortgage.

    I could now sell it for up to three times what I paid for it and the new owner would STILL have a positive cash flow after mortgage and expenses, from the existing rents. As I get a feel for the tenants, I may offer to sell the building to one of them.

    Have I mentioned that I love real estate?

    Now all we need is to rent the Pioneer Complex vacancies and we'll be financially free. We've been advertising the vacancies for months as a package deal or as individual rentals but no takers yet. I share this so you know that real estate is not effortless. You DO have to work at it and be able to carry some vacancies.

    But the Pioneer Complex has so many parts to rent that the pieces we have rented are already paying for the property. The rest are just profit waiting to be collected.

    We purchased the property on a lease option because we could not find a rental building large enough to store our two trolleys, the COLT bus and a motor home. This property had been on the market for years with no takers. It included a house, office building, apartment, five warehouses, fenced yard storage and half acre of open yard storage. It's located in a prime industrial area just north of Cody near the Coca-Cola and Budweiser distributorships. Coke & Bud never put facilities in lousy locations.

    The largest warehouse on the property is 50 X 80 with 30 foot ceilings. This was just large enough for all our vehicles. I did have to install a wider and higher door to get the vehicles in.

    Anyway, our deal was to lease the large warehouse for $700 per month for 18 months and then have the option of buying the entire property. To seal the arrangement, I had to put down a $10,000 deposit. If the deal wasn't made at the end of the 18 months, I'd lose the deposit. If I DID purchase the property within 18 months, the deposit was applied as a down payment.

    The 18 months gave us time to get through two more trolley seasons, generating enough cash to qualify for a loan (the owner agreed to carry 25 percent on a second mortgage, making qualifying for the bank easier). The lease option allowed us to immediately gain use of the large warehouse we needed.

    We exercised the purchase a month before the expiration date and have rented the house, apartment and some warehouse space to generate enough income to pay the mortgages. So the large warehouse we rented for $700 per month is now ours for free and we also have a free office building, four warehouses and fenced and open yard storage. I prefer to rent these pieces for income but because they are "free" to me now, I could use them for my own needs or as a base to start another business.

    Anyway, it's a nice position to be in. And if I hadn't done the work over the past 4 years to get here, the time would have gone by anyway and I'd be sitting here with nothing to show for the time.

    Real estate is like making ice cubes. It takes a little work to get the process started, but once you've started the process, something of value builds on its own. Click here to read my column called "The Ice Cube Theory.

    The Holiday Light Tours are going well. We're on track to exceed last year's number of riders. I think our 7:45 tour last night had the best moment of the season for me. All the kids were singing "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" in their little, enthusiastic voices, the lights were spectacular and the dark trolley had just a hint of chill. It was a Norman Rockwell moment.

    We have five nights of tours left and about 75 percent of our capacity is booked so far. This is our third year of Light Tours and we're honored that so many have already made a Light Tour part of their holiday tradition.

    Less than a week left before Christmas and as usual, I haven't started to shop. Margie makes it easy on me by taking care of all the people on our list herself. That leaves me with shopping for her. One of my daughters usually helps me or I'd be buying her a household appliance or power tool. Sadly, when it comes to shopping, I fit the male stereotype to a tee.

    I DO pick up my socks, wash my own laundry and dishes and put the seat back down, so I do have SOME redeeming qualities.

    That's it for today! Please come back tomorrow!

    12/20/04 6:55 am

    I just finished a song parody for the Rotary Show. I love writing those and have always been good at them. I've been told I'll never be truly happy until I'm fully immersed in the entertainment industry and I tend to believe that. I can tell because when working on parodies I easily get "into flow" and lose myself for hours.

    I have the resources to start a parody business and that is yet ANOTHER opportunity sitting out there for me. I know people with production studios, have created several successful audio products and have some funds to launch the thing. Plus I have that empty office if I needed to create my own studio.

    With all my web site plans, free parodies that can be forwarded via email would be a great "viral marketing" technique. People love the parody so they eagerly forward it to friends until hundreds of thousands of people have heard it and seen your message attached to it.

    So many projects, so little time.

    I'm going to do something similiar with my "Consider this..." columns. Make them free and allow anyone to post them on their web sites as long as they include a paragraph that I provide pitching me and my sites. In fact, I'm going to go make that change right now. Be right back.

    Well, that was easy. Except for the part where I now have to format 101 columns for the web and add 101 more column links to the web site. But, I'm now offering a free resource that will help get my name out for my future online activities. So, it's worth the extra work. Especially when I start using the columns in my own e-newsletter.

    I'm also planing to start a free customer service e-newsletter. I have enough content for that to last a lifetime.

    Nothing you do is ever wasted. It's a good idea to look back on the volume of work you have already created and look for ways you can reuse it or tweak it for a new audience or new project. It may be old material to you, but it will be new and valuable to someone else. There are often "acres of diamonds" in your own backyard.

    Click here to read Russell Conwell's world-famous inspirational speech titled Acres of Diamonds.

    These links to valuable information are my way of thanking you for investing your time here on my site. I will continue to offer similiar gems everyday. I hope they become as valuable to you as they are to me.

    See you tomorrow!

    12/21/04 7:11 am

    Twice a day the clock reminds me I am free of employers. I spent 10 years working for 7-Eleven. The first three years were pretty awful but the last 7 were wonderful. The difference was that I was in charge of my own projects the last 7 years. During the first 3 years I was learning the system and building credibility by working toward other people's goals.

    When I enter a new situation, my strategy is to blend in, learn the standards and accepted techniques and then become the "rabbit" for the boss's #1 priority. By "rabbit," I mean I become the passionate champion for that priority. I find a way to spectacularly achieve the results. The boss then points to me and tells others to do it like me. This makes the boss my fan and builds my credibility throughout the organization.

    I then start to suggest my own ideas and projects which puts me on the offensive. I'm no longer being managed by a boss, my ideas and passionate actions wind up managing the bosses. This allows me to set my own work agendas. The difference is huge. Instead of being a minion to others' projects which I might not enjoy, I get to become the leader of the projects that light me up. And it makes me famous in the process, which leads to promotions and salary increases.

    I can't recommend this process highly enough because it worked for me in two of the largest companies in America -- McDonalds and 7-Eleven. I'm just a high school graduate. This strategy and passion earned me the position of McDonalds Store Manager by the age of 21. I had full responsibility for a $1 million dollar restaurant and 50 employees, many who were much older than me.

    At 7-Eleven, by the age of 29 I worked my way up to responsibility for an entire 55 store area that reached $60 million in annual sales while directing the efforts of 550 employees. So in my opinion, education is nice, but passion, attitude and my strategy are much better.

    You can pay a college to teach you knowledge, or you can work for a company that pays YOU to learn. I believe the second avenue is faster and more cost effective. I'm not against college, it just takes four years and costs tens of thousands of dollars. You better know what you want out of that huge time and money investment before you sign up for it.

    The next year of Donald Trump's show, "The Apprentice," will be organized with teams of "book smarts" and "street smarts" competing against each other. I'm putting my money on the "street smarts."

    Anyway, I'm delighted I have broken free of employers. I now get to decide what I do, who I do it with and how much I get paid to do it. There are no limits on my work life in any direction. I can start any project or business I want, or I can enhance any aspect of my career that gives me joy. No one can lay me off. No one can fire me. If I lose a client or business partnership, I have dozens of other opportunities to make up for it.

    Creating multiple streams of income is the best way to live. It keeps life interesting and insulates you from downturns or unexpected calamities. It provides a constant stream of creativity and testing that can reveal the next homerun income stream. I love knowing that I am only one idea away from turning my career in an entirely different direction.

    Margie and I frequently ask ourselves if we can imagine where we'll be in five years. We always answer "no way" because of how far we've traveled in the last five years. I'm not talking geography, I'm talking career and personal growth. Because of how much we accomplish, five years to us is like 25 years to many other people. Five years ago we had no idea we'd be running a trolley company, or being landlords or creating audio tours. I find it a fascinating way to live not knowing what opportunities we'll dream up and embrace next.

    Now of course, living like this is easy. But I do remember how difficult it was when we first broke free of employers. Scary. Uncertain. And man was I raw. My corporate management experience did not come close to providing all the skills I needed to make it on my own. It was a major struggle. I selected non-productive projects and then I held onto them far too long. One even sucked us into bankrupcy. But we learned so much by being under crisis. You quickly learn how to market and sell when success means you get to eat and failure means that you don't.

    Hopefully, you'll make the transition smoother than us. Perhaps you can start a business or project on the side while you keep your job. Perhaps it will then grow large enough to easily quit the job with no revenue loss.

    I'll complete this thought by saying this: For me, poor planning made transitioning from employee to entrepreneur pure and total hell. And I'm so glad I did it.

    Click here for a tremendous resource for entrepreneurs, Entrepreneur Magazine .

    12/23/04 6:58 am

    One more night of Holiday Light Tours. Last night was really challenging because our windows froze up. Through using a new fog spray on the windows and running the heat (to keep people warm) and air conditioning (to remove the moisture created by people's breathing), we were able to avoid fogging for the first ten days of tours.

    That all went by the wayside last night. The temperature dropped about 30 degrees and we had reapplied a new coating of fog repeller and the windows FROZE. Riders had to use credit cards to scrape off the ice so they could see the lights. If it wasn't us going through it, it would have been funny.

    By the end of the night, we were running full heat and the windows unfroze, but there was still normal fog due to all the moisture people exhale. So we passed out towels. Better to wipe water off windows than chip ice. Welcome to the wild and wacky world of running a business.

    It is 10 below zero this morning. This is by far the coldest day of the year. Forecasts say it will only last a day or two and then pop back up to the 30's, which will seem balmy.

    I always worry about pipes freezing at the trailer park on below-zero nights. But my park manager knows how to unfreeze them and we've taken precautions with heat tape and reinsulating the underbellies of trailers, so we've done all we can.

    Our friend's mini-golf proposal was shot down by the city council on December 21. It was a tough issue for them. It's a small town so council members had to make a decision that affected many friends and business clients. There was no way to please everyone.

    In the end, asking for a larger location at city park was too much for them to agree to. It definately would have been an attractive facility and would have gotten greater use. It would have earned more income for the city too. But the visual change of increased square footage, closing part of 9th Street and having to redo the parking at the Chamber of Commerce proved too large a vision for the council to embrace.

    I know my friend is disappointed but he'll rebound. Likely come up with an even better idea that has less risk.

    I've decided I'm going to study up on Billings, Montana. The population of the area exceeds 100,000 which makes for many more business opportunities. It's also growing far faster than Cody's 1 percent a year. It's only 100 miles from Cody so passive investments there seem do-able. I pretty much have a handle on Cody opportunities so I can watch both areas.

    I am not a fan of the Christmas season. I don't like the conditioning of having to buy gifts just because it is expected. Margie & I buy ourselves what we want all year long so we don't need a special holiday for that. As for the spiritual side of the holiday, I've long ago answered those questions for myself. I'm not saying I have the right answers, but they feel right to me.

    I spent at least 10 years reading hundreds of books to search for an understanding of the big questions of life. Why are we here? Where did we come from? What is our purpose? Who put us here? Where are we going after death?

    I'm not in the mood to share my answers with you, and besides, when you feel you truly know, you have no need to convince others that your path is the only path. Nothing bothers me more than people trying to "save" me. What they are really saying is that their way is the only way and you are too stupid to realize it.

    Let them invest ten thousand hours studying the questions like I have and then we can have a nice discussion. Just because someone else -- or even the majority of others -- tells you things operate a certain way, doesn't mean that is the truth. The truth can always survive the scrutiny of questions. If it can't, it isn't the truth.

    Anyway, another thing I don't like about the Christmas season is the mess and clutter. So many people, so much cooking, so much present wrapping and unwrapping, that there is stuff everywhere. I find it difficult to function in disorder. I let it cause me great stress. I suppose that reveals that I need more practice controlling my own peace of mind. So be it. Peace of mind is the most valuable asset you have and the world is full of stimulous trying to shake it.

    I have a saying, "No meal is worth the mess it leaves behind." I'd truly rather eat fast food than cook if it means I'll be faced with a messy kitchen. It's a cost-benefit equation. I do that a lot. Before I do a thing, I ask myself if the payoff will be worth the effort. I suppose that with this attitude, over time, I'll eventually never leave the couch. :)

    But I do like the magic moments you find in the Christmas season. Kids singing "Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer" on the trolley. A lighted Christmas tree in a dark living room at 4 am. The warmth of an electric blanket when you crawl into bed with some Christmas cookies. So I'm not a grinch, I just think all the busy-ness isn't worth the payoff.

    Life is funny. I spent a good ten years trying to capture inner security and now I am spending another ten years trying to capture it on the outside. The truth is, when you say you have security, and believe it, you do. Claim a thing and it is yours. Search and ye shall find. It's so simple. Yet so hard.

    I just finished a book called "Upstairs At the White House." It's about 30 years old and I got it at the local thift shop. Every so often I go there and buy about ten books. There is no greater investment than a book at any price. At 50 cents and a dollar, this is about 10,000 times better than real estate.

    What you learn can never be taken away. I could spend 10 years reading and be perfectly delighted.

    Anyway, I'm fascinated by the presidency. I read about the men and the office frequently. I've also been a rabid investigator for all things regarding the JFK assassination. I have enough new info to write a book but have chosen not to. The time and energy committment is too great for the payoff. Besides, I have answered the questions I had to my satisfaction. No need to become a lightening rod. But if you must categorize me, put me in the conspiracy category. If you must read one book on the topic, I recommend David Lifton's Best Evidence . This link takes you to Amazon's used book section since the book is no longer a "mainstream" selection. Lifton doesn't have all the answers, but he has enough to make you realize everything you know about the topic is wrong.

    What studying this event has taught me is that what you think you know, you don't. We rely so much on the media for what we think we know, that we only know what we watch on TV or read in the newspaper. It's the lazy way to "learn."

    When it comes to this 1963 event, the media does not present the most basic facts of the case accurately. The location of the wounds, the relationships of the people involved, the description of evidence, etc. What has occurred is that editors have paraphrased and edited and simplified and changed the event, which totally changes the story. Yet we accept that story as fact.

    You can see how this happens by watching a live event on cable news as it occurs. Then watch the summarized news story of that same event on a different network later. You know what you saw, but the editor's description will be different. The language he uses to describe the event adds emphasis or minimizes emphasis, changing the event from what you saw, to something very different. Sometimes it's subtle and sometimes not so subtle.

    So, if you truly want to understand something, you need to do your own research. And always, question the sources of your information. Ultimately, no amount of research will prove truth because you are getting the information secondhand. Truth remains a feeling that you have embraced what is right as you sift through information. It's a weird world.

    Another resource I can recommend to expand your thinking is Illusions by Richard Bach. I bet I've read it 50 times. If you're reading my ramblings this far, I think you will enjoy it too.

    One more night of light tours and we are done for the season. We added a fith tour tonight because of demand. I hope the windows don't freeze. Everything comes and goes.

    I've been wanting a heater for our partially finished basement and finally bought one of those TwinSun portable heaters. I left it on all night and the basement is a bit warmer. It's supposed to cost pennies a day to operate. I plan on testing that.

    It is amazing to me that over time, my want list always gets filled. If I put it on a mental list, the day soon arrives where I have the item. If you own a house, you know about "want lists."

    This past year we added evergreen landscaping, ripped out a clothesline and cement slab in our backyard and sodded the area. We then finished off the backyard by installing 6 foot tall cedar privacy fence across the back of the yard. We then painted the entire fence a redwood color. Now the heater.

    Next year it's new windows and replacing the driveway with a new cement slab. Everything comes and goes.

    As do I. Hope to see you tomorrow!

    12/27/04 1:57 am

    I hit the rack about 8 pm last night and woke up at midnight. I read the new Donald Trump book, Think Like a Billionaire (yes, I got it for Christmas) for an hour and was motivated to come work in my basement office.

    I fired off an email to a Realtor in Red Lodge who sent me the latest Real Estate book. There are four properties I want to learn more about. Three are income producers and one could be a weekend retreat. I don't have any deals in the hopper at the moment and am itchy to get one started.

    Besides, with the Light Tours over, I now have the time and money to start a new project. In fact, the time between now and May when trolley season fires back up, is the only time I have to get a new project rolling.

    I want my new projects to be much more passive than the trolley business. Or at the least, one-time expenditures of energy like creating an audio tour. I've come to realize that time is my major currency and with it, I can create many more passive income streams. The goal of course, is to become totally free of having to be somewhere for extended periods of time.

    It is nice to have assets that perform for you. And I am proud of how far we have come in four short years. But truthfully, we are really just getting started. The properties and businesses we have now will be the springboard to larger, much more profitable projects. What we have done so far has been tremendous training and confidence building. We've learned the basic strategies and techniques that can now be applied to larger projects. We've also generated the net worth nestegg needed to accelerate our progress.

    I can't wait to see what we embrace next.

    I had an inquiry about a domain name over the weekend. I named a price and am awaiting a response. I look forward to having more time to devote to selling domains and my service booklet. Both have huge potential with a little attention on my part. My problem is that I see opportunity everywhere. I wish I had a staff to help pursue everything I can envision. I know that day is coming, it's just a matter of when.

    Actively pursuing these opportunities really motivates me. But if you need help in getting motivated, I highly recommend you visit Nightingale-Conant.

    This is the world's leading provider of motivational audio tapes. Turn unproductive driving time into priceless learning time. They call this type of learning, "Dashboard University."

    For four years, I used to have a 45 minute commute each way. I always had a tape playing while I drove, which turned a boring commute into a "I-can't-wait-to-get-behind-the-wheel" experience. I credit these tapes for giving me the courage, inspiration and knowledge to leave the corporate world and start on my entrepreneurial lifestyle.

    I rarely drive long distances today and greatly miss those hours of Dashboard University. I make up for it by reading at least one book every week.

    Funny how the quality of your life is determined by how you spend your time. And time is all we have.

    To learn how much time you have left, visit Death Clock. This site uses actuarial tables to determine your exact date of death. It's creepy, but motivating. Life is not a rehearsal! You're on stage NOW. It's your time. Are you spending it in the best possible manner?

    12/28/04 6:02 am

    We're driving up to Billings today. I need a new Daytimer calendar and I want to look at a building that is for sale on the way and pick up some Billings Real Estate Guides.

    We've now arrived at that great time of year when we have time to relax and consider what project we take on next. I'm ready for some time off. We basically worked right through last spring with my kidney stone (lasted all of February) and then creating the Buffalo Bill Dam Audio Tour. That work lead right into trolley season and we've been going full speed ever since.

    Yes, I'm ready for some time off from on-demand activities.

    I made an offer for a trailer park yesterday. It's out of town and has been on the market a couple years. It needs lots of work to bring it up to potential so my offer reflected that. I only buy properties if they generate positive cash flow and don't eat up my cash resources to get into the deal. This strategy has worked well for me so I'm not changing it. It does eliminate about 98% of the properties I look at though, so I have to watch lots of properties.

    I called another trailer park owner we'd spoken to four years ago. It turns out his park is STILL for sale but he thinks he finally has a buyer. It it falls through, he'll call me and we'll talk again. As I look at my notes from that visit four years ago, I see I was incredibly thorough back then. I still am, but I know so much more that I don't have to ask as many questions to learn it.

    Based on the figures in those notes, it was wise to pass on his park back then. It would have been my first property and it is 50 miles away. The positive cash flow was pretty low and the development needs to make it more profitable would have overwhelmed me back then. Now that I have more resources and knowledge, that park could be a nice asset for us if I could buy it at the right price.

    I keep files on all the properties I investigate and suggest you do the same. The longer they sit on the market, the more motivated the seller and the better chance you can acquire a profitable property. You solve the seller's ownership problem and you are rewarded with a profitable asset. Everybody wins.

    I finished the latest Trump book last night. I enjoyed it. Trump offers lots of general advice but doesn't get into the nuts and bolts of how he closed specific deals like he did in some of his past books. He has accomplished a lot and I admire him. I'd love to be his Apprentice but not enough to move to New York and wear suits. I guess you have to question my level of committment. :)

    If you want to get into the nuts and bolts of specific Real Estate deals, I once again highly recommend reading the success stories at Creative Real Estate Online . The writers of these stories -- the people who have actually purchased an income property -- take you through all the numbers and techniques they used to make the deal happen. This information is gigantically valuable because you can use the same techniques in YOUR deals. It's a great way to learn quickly. You might even recognize one of my success stories in there.

    I keep other files on business opportunities that interest me. I have 50-100 different files. As I read magazines, I clip articles and advertisements that reveal interesting or creative new businesses that haven't yet made it to Cody -- or in many cases -- Wyoming. Being the lowest populated state is an advantage and a disadvantage. New ideas get here last, so if you read and travel, you can be the first to bring the idea here. But, with there being less than 500,000 residents in the entire state, you don't often have enough customers to make the idea work.

    Cody is wonderful because you get the quality of life offered by a small town, yet you get lots of Yellowstone National Park traffic June-September to help make a business work. So, most new businesses I am considering are seasonal in nature.

    Seasonal businesses also have a plus and minus. On the plus side, you don't have to work it all year. On the minus, you only have about four months to pay all your annual bills and generate enough profit to make the venture worthwhile. Fortunately, the trolley business easily justifies its existance.

    When you go through life looking for great business ideas that could be brought back to your town, life becomes fascinating. At least it does for me. I always ask myself, "Would that work in Cody?"

    Another good question to ask yourself is "What's missing?" Look around your town to discover what is missing. Larger towns may have already had city assessments and actually have a list of businesses its citizens have said are needed. Just check with the local chamber of commerce, economic development agency or city government.

    Creating your own businesses and income producing projects is an exciting and fascinating way to live. I highly recommend it.

    Tomorrow, we talk about writing.

    12/29/04 5:15 am

    I'd wanted to become a writer since 6th grade, when I gave a funny oral report and the class broke up laughing -- just as I'd wanted them too. The teacher, Mr. Snyder, gave more positive feedback and I was hooked. Unfortunately, I never really took my talent seriously back then.

    I still have papers graded by my 11th grade creative writing teacher, Trudy Grimes, that implore me to do something with my talent. I was lazy back then, coupled with an inferiority complex, the double whammy that is sure to stop any dream cold. Fortunately, I had an inspirational teacher.

    Click here to read a column I wrote about her called Angels In Disguise. I bet you've met someone like her too.

    So anyway, I got a part-time job at McDonald's, gave it my all and soon found myself getting raises and promotions. Soon I was injested into the work-sleep-repeat treadmill. McDonalds found me an asset to help them achieve their dreams, but I never consciously considered whether McDonald's was an asset to help me achieve MY dreams. Like most young people, I just went to work and my real dream fell by the wayside.

    After six years, I quit McDonalds to become a writer. And quickly crashed and burned. I knew nothing about the trade and naively thought I could just write brilliant material and anyone would buy it. I knew nothing about matching material to specific markets or how to professionally approach those markets. And frankly, my material was rotten. I cringe today looking at it.

    Married three years to Margie, we became pregnant so it was time for me to go back to a "real" job.

    So I repeat the same process at 7-Eleven. I last ten years there until I can no longer contain the writing dream. I quit again, throwing myself upon my wits. This time I had a little nest egg to buy time. It still wasn't enough but it gave me more time.

    This time I studied the trade. Learned how to make submissions. Learned how to determine what editors wanted and how to provide it. I learned that some of the best freelance money available was writing for trade publications.

    In the meantime I wrote inspirational columns and finally made a sale to a small RV newsletter. I still have a copy of that first check for $7.89. That small token and the editor's hand-written letter of encouragement that accompanied it, gave me the motivation I needed to re-double my efforts.

    Soon I'd successfully pitched my services to a convenience store trade publication and had some steady "real" money coming in. I started by writing case studies, evolved into features and was even given my own column. The company that owned that magazine had others and soon I was writing for those too.

    I learned and adapted my skills from each editor's suggestions and my confidence grew.

    I started our own newspaper and that led to earning steady work for a how-to newsletter company writing entire issues on the topics of customer service, cost control, sales, marketing and small business. I was selling 10,000+ words a month and earning a fulltime living as a freelance writer. I was free to live anywhere in the world with a phone, Internet connection and post office. So I chose Cody, Wyoming.

    That's my story. You can hopefully take an easier, far more effective approach.

    I suggest taking classes at the local community college or adult education facility. Subscribe to Writers Digest magazine. Purchase their Writers Market annual directory of publications that gives editor contact information, what material they need and what they pay. Invaluable resource.

    Read biographies about successful writers. Look for writing clubs in your area with members who are paid writers. Surf online for answers to your questions. Buy grammar books. Buy how-to-write books. Volunteer to perform writing tasks such as press releases, presentations and writing your service club newsletter. Treat any workplace memos you write as high-paid writing assignments. Practice interviewing authorities whenever you can. In short, immerse yourself in the trade and learn and adapt as you go.

    The technology today allows anyone with desire to earn an income by writing. The Internet makes research easy. In addition to the traditional published products like newspapers, magazines, newsletters and books, millions of web sites are also searching for content, so there has never been a greater demand for content in the history of mankind.

    And one more piece of advice. Write about what you know and enjoy. Everyone is an authority on something. And anyone with passion about a topic can quickly become an authority. Your knowledge can be written and shared -- at a price that rewards you for your work. Once you start to specialize in certain topics, you'll find hundreds, if not thousands, of places willing to pay you for your efforts.

    Each piece you sell can then be used to help sell the next one. As your portfolio grows, your confidence grows and you'll begin selling to higher paying buyers with larger circulations.

    With work and persistence, you can earn a fulltime income by working part-time from home, freeing you to live anywhere you like.

    If this sounds good to you, I have to say that it is. To me, it was very, very good. It takes work, but doesn't anything worthwhile?

    Another benefit of sustaining yourself from writing is that you are now a small business owner.

    There are a million tax benefits to being self-employed and as you learn them and embrace them, you'll see the amount of money you pay in taxes plummet. Anything you purchase that relates to your writing can be deducted from your taxable income. Every penny you save in taxes, is a pay raise that goes right into your pocket.

    Today, I mostly write for my own businesses. I'm able to charge myself the high market rate I earned when I wrote for others, giving me great flexibility to move income into the companies I own that need it the most. This allows me to control my tax liability even more. I now use a CPA for advice and bookeeping because my business accounting has become more complex and time consuming. She keeps me 100% legal and the fees I pay her are a drop in the bucket compared to the money she helps me save.

    I can thank my writing career for leading me to the education of how to minimize the largest expense most people pay -- taxes.

    So it turns out that all those years I spent working rather than writing, did pay off. Because the first "real money" paychecks I received from writing came to me because of my knowledge about business. Nothing you do or experience is ever wasted. You're just collecting material for later use. And even if you'd rather be doing something else, the time you spend doing it is merely calibrating destiny for your next adventure.

    Writing may not be your dream. But something is. And this dream is evidence that you have talents in that area. And you owe it to the rest of us to use those talents. Share them. Let them shine. Because if you don't, we ALL lose.

    To remind you of how much we all lose, please read my column Are You Using Your Talent?"

    See you tomorrow!

    12/30/04 5:19 am

    Windy this morning! That's nothing new for Cody, especially in the winter. No snow though yet and that is a bit unusual. It typically snows a little and melts quickly here. We normally have more grass visable than snow on the ground, unlike Minnesota where I grew up. There, once it snowed, it stayed until March.

    I used to have paper routes as a kid in a suburb of Minneapolis. Some were morning routes which put me outside during the worst weather imaginable. To read a bit about it, click When I Was Your Age .

    I got a writing assignment from the local chamber of commerce yesterday. Details will follow as will deadlines. It's funny that now that I'm not chasing writing assignments any more they still show up unsolicitated. Especially after writing about writing as a career in yesterday's blog. Just being who you are attracts those who need your skills.

    Our writing committee for the Rotary Show met last night and we had lots of fun coming up with concepts. It's a good group that will get better when the rest of the group can make the weekly meetings. There is no shortage of material and we have some tremendous ideas. This year we may expand our horizons into making some film clips.

    I started the meeting by playing our radio commercials for the show from last year to get us in the mood. I wrote the spots and they were performed by various club members. The radio station even earned an award for "Best Series of Ads" from this campaign. Click the links below to hear how we pitch our satirical show.

    Rotary Show Radio Ad #1

    Rotary Show Radio Ad #2

    Rotary Show Radio Ad #3

    Rotary Show Radio Ad #4

    Rotary Show Radio Ad #5

    Rotary Show Radio Ad #6

    Our Billings trip the other day went well. It was fun to take a road trip again, but without the anxiety of traveling 5,000 miles. We are 90 miles from the closest Interstate and I always feel like I'm in a new place when I get on that highway.

    Getting a new car is moving higher on our list. It is getting close to becoming a need, rather than just a want. We haven't had car payments in years so I hesitate to jump into that again. But, we can handle them if needed, so as I type, I know I am attracting the perfect vehicle to me right now.

    Margie got her new computer hooked up yesterday. We really rely on these machines and she seems delighted to have a new speedy Dell to get her work out. She's a great designer and makes most of our marketing materials and forms. Her first job is to get our Christmas letter and photo page designed. Her next job is designing a logo and letterhead for the city assessment team we're serving on.

    We're always creating something out of thin air and our skills mesh really well. I can write and come up with catchy slogans and names and she can make it all look good.

    Computers help make our lifestyle possible. The funny thing is that I resisted learning how to operate computers for years. When I was at 7-Eleven, I always had a secretary check email for me because I didn't even want to know how to use it. When we started the newspaper, I HAD to learn. Necessity is the mother of invention -- and learning.

    Today is a light day. Rotary meeting at noon and no other "have-to" items on the to-do list. We have finally reached that time of year where we get to work on the projects of our choice. Here is a list of potential projects I can initiate. Which would you choose first?

    * Find another audio tour venue that wants to partner with us
    * Market my customer service booklet in bulk quantities to large companies
    * Market my domain names to large companies
    * Set up each of my 130 domain names as "portal web sites" to attract traffic and increase their value
    * Start an online affiliate business
    * Start a print or online publication
    * Start an e-newsletter on a topic I am passionate about that could help others
    * Write and sell e-books on profitable topics
    * Start a campaign to get a giant buffalo placed on top of Cedar Mountain to fulfill Buffalo Bill's wishes
    * Create a series of "Burma-Shave" type signs to promote the trolley as you enter Cody
    * Purchase low power radio transmitters and place them throughout town to promote the trolley
    * Build a multiple panel billboard on our property by the trailer park to promote our businesses and rent to others
    * Find or build an electric trolley that will circle the roof of our trolley ticket booth
    * Create audio parodies and find a way to make them earn income
    * Create a business in the vacant office building I own next to our trolley warehouse
    * Write a manual on how to start a trolley business and sell it to entrepreneurs in other cities
    * Franchise the trolley business
    * Get to work on updating our "Cody Keepsake" souvenir book that goes to trolley ticket buyers
    * Learn to play the guitar
    * Take a Real Estate course so I learn what brokers know
    * Create, market and present local how-to business seminars

    Nice to have options isn't it? I certainly prefer going through life doing what I WANT to do, rather than what I HAVE to do.

    And the ideas and opportunities never stop flowing. Just take action toward one opportunity and you see 20 more just by becoming involved in something new. I could live a thousand years and never make a dent in the list of opportunities. I guess I've arrived at the age where I'm beginning to understand that time is far more valuable than money. The question is no longer, "What can I do successfully?" but "Where do I want to spend my limited time and energies?" Choices, choices, choices.

    Enough rambling for today. If you'd like me to address a certain topic, just shoot me an email. Thanks for reading!

    12/31/04 5:48 am

    Here is some free advice organized by category, as a reward for making it to the last day of 2004.

    Cost Savings

    Gasoline. Would you like to save 15 cents a gallon on gas? Just sign up for an account at one of those automated gas stations. Because they don't have to pay for employees and fancy facilities, they can sell you the gas for far less than a normal gas station. Discounts can easily run 15-20 cents PER GALLON and you don't have to pay until the end of the month.

    Insurance. Have you checked your deductibles lately? If you can afford to increase them, you save big money immediately. Have you shopped your insurance around lately? If not, it's almost guaranteed there is money to be saved. This is your money and your savings. Most people never file an insurance claim so most people don't need the highest rated (and most expensive) companies. Insurance brokers are a good place to start because they will shop many companies for you.

    Buy Your Treats in Advance. Do you spend $3 a day on coffee? $2 a day for soda? $1 a day for snacks? Now multiply this by 30 days and be amazed at what you're spending. Buy these treats at a grocery store or discounter and then carry them with you from home. You'll easily cut the monthly bill in half.

    Income Generation

    Think projects, not paychecks. If you're still employed, be on the look out for projects you can complete on the side while continuing to hold your job. Ideally, these projects involve things you enjoy. For example, if you enjoy photography, offer to shoot photos at a party, company event or friend's wedding. This earns extra income while forcing you to get more involved with something you enjoy. Do enough of these projects and you may no longer need the main job.

    Think of employment ads as project ads. When businesses run employment ads they are saying they want to pay someone to complete various tasks. They need the task completed, but they don't necessarily need to hire an employee to do it. Pitch yourself as an independent contractor who can complete the work for a flat fee without having to be hired. This saves the company at least 30% the cost of an employee because they won't have to pay for your equipment, work space, training, vacations, holidays and employment taxes. They also gain flexibility by not having to pay another employee during slow times. You're helping them acquire a project mentality. Now you are not begging the company for a job, you are educating them on how they can get their work completed at a huge cost savings. You are doing them a big favor by pitching your services! This also puts you in the world of the self-employed where you gain freedom and enjoy huge tax savings.

    Give Something Extra. Whenever you complete a job or project throw in additional value. For example, if you shot photos of the corporate event, hand them over displayed in a photo album. Include hand-written comments from some guests at the event to make it personal. Blow up one of the best photos of the person who ran the event. By doing a little extra, you create more value than the amount you were paid. This turns a happy client into an evangelist who will recommend you everywhere.

    Give Yourself an Immediate Raise. Do you always get a tax refund in the spring? Do you really want to give Uncle Sam an interest-free loan every year? Just ask your employer for a blank W-4 and increase the number of exemptions you claim. This will increase your take home pay on your very next check. In effect, you're getting your money NOW rather than waiting a year for Uncle Sam to give it back to you. Now INVEST this extra money into something that generates extra income for you. Perhaps photography equipment for those side jobs?

    Self Development

    Read. Cut back your TV time and read a book a week. Over the year, you'll be 52 books smarter. Chose topics of interest that will make you a better human being and help you meet your goals and aspirations. Think you don't have enough time? Get books on tape and listen while you drive, walk or workout at the gym. Why just be entertained when you can be entertained while you learn?

    Make Some Goals. You'll never get what you want if you don't focus on getting it. Writing down goals is the best way to get them manifesting. This doesn't have to be complex. Just write down everything you want for 15 minutes. Now prioritize it. Now pick the one goal you want the most and ask yourself, "If I achieved this goal in a year and looked back on how I did it, what steps would I have taken to get there?" This becomes the list of steps you must take to achieve that goal. Now break these steps into pieces small enough so you can do something each day to advance toward your goal. Now take the first step.

    Start a New Hobby. You know what you've always wanted to do. Learn the guitar. Start a model railroad layout. Plant a garden. Reward yourself by starting one new hobby that has been calling to you. You deserve it and the new knowledge will provide opportunities you can't even imagine.

    Happy New Year! I hope these ideas help you have a happier and wealthier 2005. Thanks for reading!

    1/02/05 6:40 am

    I don't make New Years resolutions because I'm chasing new goals all the time. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

    Sometimes I think I am too driven because I don't spend much time at recreation. But then I am ALWAYS "re-creating" something. I find it natural and enjoyable to get "into flow," focusing so tightly on the activities of creating something new that I lose myself for hours. But when I drop that focus, and once more see the world around me, I see so many choices that I sometimes lament I don't have the time to partake in them.

    Have you ever seen that movie City Slickers? There is a scene where Billy Crystal asks Curly (Jack Palance), the grizzled cowboy, his secret of life. Curly slowly holds up one finger and says, "One thing. You focus on one thing and the rest doesn't mean shit."

    The point of course, is that if you focus your attention on what is most important to you, you'll succeed famously at it if you don't dillute yourself by getting distracted by everything else at the same time.

    I can focus on one thing long enough to get it going and then I have to move onto something else. I'm sort of like one of those plate spinners. I love to get a project up and going and then move on to another plate. Then I rotate through the projects giving each another spin to keep it going, using any extra time to start a new plate. How do you use your focus? Are we similiar or are we very different?

    I've been adding my "Consider this..." inspirational columns to my web site and have been delighted to reacquaint myself with the points they make. We are our own best teachers.

    One column reminded me that I am a Firewalker. Yep, I successfully walked on red hot coals without getting burned. Margie did too. We attended a Tony Robbins seminar in Orlando back in the early 1990's. I invite you to read about the experience by clicking The Firewalk.

    I highly recommend Tony Robbin's book Unlimited Power.

    Today is another light day. Margie continues to work on the "Christmas" newsletter that has now become a New Years greeting. Once that's printed, we'll be stuffing and addressing about a hundred envelopes.

    The Minnesota Vikings play today. I've followed them since I was a kid. I'm not much of a fan because they break my heart every year. They've been to the Super Bowl four times and never won. They always choke. Lately, they can't even make the playoffs. They always have some talent but never play up to their potential.

    But I'll watch them anyway. They need to win today to make the playoffs. But even if they do make it, they'll exit early because they have no defense. And their coach is horrible. He costs them 7-10 points every game by making bad decisions.

    I also follow the Denver Broncos. They gave me a couple of glorious Super Bowl wins with John Elway at the helm. Unfortunately, they haven't been good since Elway retired.

    Now I love to watch Peyton Manning. What a class act. The man is a brilliant quarterback and extremely modest. Always puts the team first. No big ego. So I find myself rooting for Manning's Indianapolis Colts.

    My favorite sport is hockey. But the league is on strike and it looks like the entire season will be lost. I follow the Colorado Avalanche who are always good. They won the Stanley Cup in 1996 and 2001 and always go deep into the playoffs. The owners have locked out the players because the players' union refuses to allow a salary cap. The players make an outrageous amount of money, which continues to increase every year, so I can see a cap is needed. Fortunately, the Avs are like the New York Yankees -- the franchise is so profitable that the owner can afford to pay the bucks to get the star players. I hope they resolve this soon.

    Anyway, the rest of my day is "want-to" activities.

    I also want to prepare for a meeting I have scheduled with a trolley advertiser tomorrow. It also happens to be one of my banks and I have some ideas about partnerships concerning our audio tours I'd like to present.

    One thing about being an entrepreneur is you don't worry about asking for things from others because there is always a way to make your request profitable for them too. When you create a win-win package, you are actually doing the other party a favor by offering it. This is a huge mindset change. Rather than asking for something of value, you are GIVING something of value. When you package your requests so that everyone benefits, you start hearing "Yes" much more often.

    That's it for today! Thanks for stopping by.

    1/3/05 12:42 PM

    Wow. My first entry made during DAYLIGHT. It's a Monday afternoon and I feel like dogging it, so here I am. Yet ANOTHER reason to be in business for yourself.

    Over the weekend I was researching a property online and stumbled upon a web site for True West magazine. The owner, Bob, has a great web blog that recounts the trials and tribulations of keeping his magazine going. All the gory details. I found it fascinating. He too wondered if he was revealing too much in his blog.

    I was happy to see someone else out there sharing lots of personal nitty gritty and am inspired to continue doing the same with mine. I sent him an email saying so, and he sent a gracious response.

    I just got a call from a tenant who is buying a trailer from me tomorrow. We're set to close the deal tomorrow afternoon. Since I am carrying the financing, he asked me for an amorization schedule. I said I could do that, thinking I could ask my bank to run one for me. Then I got to thinking and hopped on Google. I typed in "amorization calculator" and sure enough, there's a zillion hits. I click the first one, type in the length of loan, interest rate and amount financed and there's my schedule all ready to print. I'm holding the schedule within 60 seconds. I LOVE the Internet.

    Earlier I wrote and sent a letter to a past tenant who still owes me money. The life of a business owner has lots of highs and lows. The best one-day example I have of that occurred a couple years ago right after we bought the trailer park. In the morning I was crawling under a trailer dragging out dead cats and in the evening I was shaking hands with the state governor for participating in a commercial shot for our trolley business. In case you're wondering, I did wash my hands. After the cats, not the governor.

    We met with our bank representatives this morning to discuss advertising packages with our trolley. They've been advertising with us since we started the business in 2001. They've switched to a zero-based ad budget (everything has to be justified) so they wanted to better understand our offerings and how it will help them.

    They've been running an ad on the outside of the trolley, on the inside of both trolleys, a full page in our Cody Keepsake book and a 30 second slide show on the trolley's monitors before each tour departs. We hope they maintain that same package this year.

    The outside trolley ads are a pretty easy sell. Most people just renew their ad so it isn't really selling at all. One or two clients each year decide to drop out or increase the size of their involvement. It's a nice, dependable income stream that helps us get through the winter and spring while the trolley is mostly parked awaiting the summer season. But it works for the advertisers and informs riders and town visitors about what Cody offers, so it's a win-win-win situation. We're blessed to have earned a stellor reputation so that's another reason people want to wrap their company around us. Plus, it's neat for companies to see their rolling billboard on the side of a trolley.

    We'll hear the bank's decision later this week.

    We also gave them copies of our Buffalo Bill Dam Audio Tour and planted the seed for future sponsorship opportunities. This bank is very history-oriented and it would be a great partnership for all concerned if we produce any more local audio tours.

    I haven't heard anything on my offer for the out-of-town trailer park yet. Over the holiday weekend, the Realtor emailed me that he was still trying to contact the owners. I'm not living or dying over the deal which is a giant change from my early deals. The truth is I don't need to buy the park so I have no tension about it at all. If it's meant to be, it will happen with favorable terms. If not, my toes are still tapping.

    I need to get a skit written by our next Rotary writing meeting on Wednesday night. Lots of material, I just have to knuckle down and do it. I'll save that for a morning when I am at my best.

    I'm sending the retiring mayor a thank you note written on our trolley "Appreciation-Gram" postcard. He was defeated in the election and had been pretty supportive of all our activities the past four years.

    The new mayor used to be my boss at the radio station and always treated me well so I think he'll turn out to be fine too. My yard sported an election sign for the old mayor, however, and I took the initative to tell the new mayor why during the campaign. Once again, I hope taking a public position doesn't hurt me down the road.

    I started reading the Lincoln biography yesterday and got through about 100 pages of the 600-page, small-type monster. It really helped to have visited his old stomping grounds in Springfield, Illinois.

    So far, I only like Lincoln more. I made the realization that even an exceptional life seems quite unexceptional to the person living it. You have to leave the planet to gain the perspective needed to evaluate a life. The Rocky Theme only plays in the background of everyday events in the movies. Although, I may try it the next time I type a blog entry just to see what it does to me.

    The email alert just went off. A piece of advice: NEVER fill out an online application for a mortgage quote. I did that a year ago to better arm myself with information before refinancing our house for a 15-year better rate with my local bank. Twelve months later, I am STILL getting ten emails a day telling me to click here for my home loan approval. All these spammers are paying good money for some very old information.

    The Vikings lost yesterday but still lucked into the playoffs. The coach cost us a time out by challenging an official's call that was clearly right. We needed that time out late in the game to get within field goal range to tie. This coach really needs to read the following thought of the day.

    Todays thought for the day: "In any group of eight people, there is one idiot. If you can't recognize who it is, it's you."

    1/5/05 8:04 am

    Had a pretty good day yesterday. Sold that trailer. The bank renewed their trolley advertising, as did the museum. The tenant who owes me money even called and promised payment on the 14th. Life is good.

    Had a little situation over the weekend with the trailer park. We are hooked to the city water system but because we bill each tenant for water, we must do a monthly bacteria test on the water supply each month. The tests always prove the city water is safe but we have to keep doing them.

    Well, we didn't test until December 31 and shipped it "overnight" to the testing lab over the New Year's holiday so it didn't arrive until Monday for testing. By then the sample was deemed "out of code" so we have to re-test. No big deal except if you miss a calendar month you come up on the EPA's radar screen. Knowing this (experience is a bitch) I immediately called the EPA to plead my case and they graciously allowed me to re-test today and credit it to December.

    One MORE reason why most people keep a job rather than run a business.

    We are also working with the city to get the trailer park annexed so we can hook up to city sewer. They say it will cost about $250,000 to do so which is money I don't have. So I plan on going after a low-income housing grant of some kind and getting the city to sponsor the application. I could likely spend $25,000 - $50,000 to get our septic system repaired/replaced but that's not certain either because we are right on the river and regulations may have changed since the last time it was built 20-odd years ago.

    So getting on city sewer is the better, more permanent solution. Rebuilding the current system will be our "Plan B."

    When you're an entrepreneur, you have to operate on faith lots of times. All the solutions to your problems don't appear at once. Sometimes you have to make decisions blind, and just trust you'll figure out the details later. This type of pressure has a way of making you find a solution. Necessity is a mother.

    I got a request for a free copy of my customer service booklet today. It's my way of getting the product in prospects' hands so they'll consider buying hundreds or thousands for their company. It worked with several local companies and KOA Kampgrounds bought 2,000 copies to train their worldwide workforce. So I know if I give the booklet more marketing attention, I can do much better.

    Yesterday I submitted the booklet to tipsbooklets.com which is a web site that sells tips booklets of all topics. It'll cost me 97 bucks to have it posted for sale there. Visitors can buy it for $4.77 right online and it is immediately sent to them electronically. I get half the proceeds but more importantly, I'm hoping some key decision makers find it and order a zillion from me. I will customize the writing or add the company logo to the cover so it looks like it's coming from company leaders.

    If the booklet starts making real sales, I can write others for other topics. Nice to have options.

    Today is dedicating to writing. The Rotary writing team comes over tonight so I want to have some material ready for them to critique. Also have to write a classified ad for selling more trailers and I already polished off a 100-word promo for my service book that will appear on that tips website.

    Also on the plate is writing a "success story" about our Lovell office building for Creative Real Estate Online. Their success stories have inspired me so much that I want to share mine to inspire others.

    I also need to write a letter to trailer park tenants announcing a rent increase coming up on March 1. We only raise the rents once a year becaus