Happy New Year 2011

Hello everyone, Jane and I just returned from New York where we spent new years week end with friends in Long Island. They are an Italian family and the party on New Years eve was awesome. The food was the best selection of Italian delights that I have ever experienced. We all stayed up partying past midnight, which is a feat for us. On New Years day Joe took all of us into the city to see the sights. There were thousands of people clogging the streets. We saw the tree at Rockefeller Center, radio City Music Hall, Empire State building, Shake Shack . Shake Shack is a resturant owned by Danny Myers. I recognized it in a book I am reading titled"Setting the Table" about Danny Myers and his resturants in the city. Great read if you are an entrepenur looking to be the best. It was a great tour of New York. Before we came home we stopped at Marino's in Bayside. This is the holy grail of Italian food. We purchased many delicacies for a party we are having Friday night. We built a snowman with Joe's children. It was one of the best New Year celebrations I have ever had. Jane and I are off to LA in a couple of weeks for our annual Piranha Marketing meeting. Looking forward to seeing some good friends. Until next time, have a great new year.. Ask yourself every day, did I live?, did I love ? and did I make a difference/ Make this the best year ever. Peace Don

Back from Vieques

Hi all, Jane and I just got back from the island of Vieques, which is situated off the coast of Puerto Rico. It use to be the the bombing training ground for the US navy. I believe the navy left in 2003 after a local was killed in a bombing miscue. The natives protested and they finally won. However, the navy left all sorts of unexploded ordance on the island that will take another twenty years to remove. That being said, the beaches are pristine. If you see four other people on a beach , it is considered crowded. The island has a very diverse animal and plant life. Wild horses wander the island and they are competely road savvy. I have seen iguanas up to four feet long and mongoose as well. The iguanas were introduced by people who had them as pets. When they became to large for them to be cared for they were released. Now they are considered a real problem for the islanders. They eat many of the local plants and they like to poop in swimming pools. How strange is that? We also went to the bio-luminiscent bay with a group of people one dark night. This was a magical experience. The bay lights up when the dino-flagelettes are disturbed. When swimming every stroke produces this blue light. Fish swimming through the water leave a blue light trail. The ride in was a trip unto itself. It is on a one lane dirt road through the jungle. About two miles long. We rounded a corner 1/2 way in and we met another outfitter towing a dozen kayaks. Welll, the bus driver was amazing. After slamming the bus into a couple of boulders he finally managed to pull the bus into the jungle. The other vehicle passed by scraping the side of our bus. No place to drive a new car. lol. Their are several great resturants on the island. This is probably the last place in the Carribean where land and homes are still reasonable. It won't take but a few more years before they totally discovered by the rest of the world. The downside is that the infastructure is really poor. When the navy was there they were responsible for the upkeep of the roads and such. When George bush was in office he closed all the military bases on the island and the main island of Puerto Rico and that devastated the local economy. There is a 60% unemployment rate. There are quite a few Americans living here now or that have vacation homes. Several friends of ours have homes here. It is nice to have good friends in the Carribean. Well Jane and I are home for a little while now. Until next post. Have a great holiday season and a prosperous and healthy New Year.

Setting up a Marketing mastermind group

Good day everyone, We are in the process of creating a marketing mastermind group of business owners in our community. I will set it up on a monthly basis instead of weekly. We will share ideas about marketing, whats working, whats not, different challenges people may be having. We have a wealth of knowledge of marketing that we will share with our peers. By starting our own group we can deliver the best to the best companies in town. I believe the dynamic of the group will be very beneficial to all because we all know, like and trust each other. We will be launching this in January 2011. I will keep you posted on our development. I will be asking 15 to 20 businesses in different industries to join. I have already signed 8 companies. This will be an exciting project. Wish me luck. Peace Don

Back from Palm Springs and LA

Hello everyone, Jane and I are now home from two amazing weeks away. Actually, we were gone for 6 days, flew home for one so that Jane could speak at the VSBR meeting and then flew back to LA for four days. The Masters of Influence event put on by Peak Potentials was a very informative time. We met some old friends and learned a lot of things that we could implement right away into our businesses. One speaker who had the greatest influence on me was a man by the name of Kevin Hogan. He is a master of reading people and persuasion techniques. I was so enthralled by his presentation that I purchased his program and have been listening to the cd's since they arrived. I believe it will have a great impact on how I interact with people. Another speaker was Greg Montana. He had made millions then gave it all away to study with the monks for about 8 years. He has sinced made millions more and is a very dynamic speaker. He is changing lives. We flew home and Jane spoke to a group of business owners from the Vermont Business for Social Responsibility's annual conference. Her passion is the Dream Manager program that she has started in our company and another company in town. She wants to take this program nationwide and believe me, she will. Then it was on to LA where we stayed at the Standard Hotel. Everything in this hotel has a sexual overtone. The bedrooms had retro furniture from the sixties with platform beds that were 8 in off the floor. Lots of mirrors and wide open glass showers so your roommates could observe you. Pretty funky stuff. There was a bar on the roof which overlooked the city. Lots of craziness up on the roof. We spent two days in Joe Polish's 25 k mastermind group. There were about 50 very successful business owners in attendance. They pay Joe 25 thousand a year to meet three times to mastermind with each other. Many million dollar ideas were shared by the group. It was a very humbling experience to be included in that setting. Thanks Joe. We also had our photo taken with Sir Richard Branson who flew in for his Rock the Casbah fund raiser for Virgin Unite that took place that night. We connected with people like Joe Sugarman ,who is one of the all time best marketers ,best known for selling many millions of the Blu Blocker sunglasses. He gave everyone in attendance a pair. Tellman Knudson who is a millionaire internet guru, best known for his list building site Overcome Everything. He is a Vermont guy and we will go to dinner with him to share ideas on our foundation. Brendon Burchard author of Lifes Golden Ticket. A must read if you want to turn your life around. Dan Sullivan , he owns Strategic Coach . A very high powered program for entrepenurs. Manny Goldman who is a personal growth coach as well as a warrior and wizard. I share the last two titles with him and I easily was drawn to him. Warriors and wizards are in tune to the world as no others. It was a fabulous trip and we are truly blessed. We hung with some of our dear friends from Piranha Marketing. Well thats it for now. Peace and may God spare your life. Don

Cash Creation Conference Phoenix Az

Hello Everyone, Jane and I are back from Phoenix. We were at the annual Piranha marketing conference last week. It was an incredible event. Every year Joe Polish and his team out does the previous one. We were able to spend some quality time with Lisa Wagner who is the CEO of Piranha as we drove to and fro to Sedona. Jane and I were finalists in Piranha's Better your Best contest which incidently was won by Steve Nash ,who is a remodeling contractor from New York. A brilliant guy who turned his business completely around this past year. Do you believe that there is a recession going on? Not our group. Well, Joe, in his truly giving way , has invited all the finalists to go to LA in November to participate in his 25K group. This is a group of high powered entrepenurs who spend 25K per year to mastermind with each other under Joe's tutelage. We will have an opportunity to meet Sir Richard Branson, Paula Abdul, and many brilliant people from the business world. Thank you Joe. We learned many cutting edge marketing stratagies this year that will enable us to increase our business substantially. Next week Jane and I are off to Palm Springs where we will be attending the Master of Influence program that is put on by T.Harv Ecker and Peak Potentials. We will come home for two days because Jane is speaking at the annual meeting for the VSBR group. Vermont Business for Social Responsibility. Then we go to La. Awesome. Thanksgiving week will be spent on the island of Veiques off the coast of Puerto Rico. We have friends building a home on the island and it is a beautiful place. If you see more than four people on a beach it is considered crowded. Looking forward to the sun as it snowed here in Vermont last night. Well that covers our recent travels and activities. Until we meet again. May God spare your life. Peace Don

Back from Salt Lake and Michigan

Well the leaves are about gone and with the torrential downpour forecast for tomorrow it won't be long before they're gone. Jane and I spent a great week in Salt Lake City with Garrett Gunderson and his staff. While there we visited with Sean Stephenson, who is an amazing guy and we also met Bo Eason. Bo is the brother of the Patriots ex quarterback Tony Eason. Bo played for the Houston Oilers as a defensive safety. He has written and starred in a one man play called "Runt of the Litter". It was riveting performance. He has done over 1300 shows. Soon to be a movie and there are several actors vying for the lead. We all went to dinner at Zoom which is Robert Redfords resturant. It was great. Thanks to Garrett. Jane flew home and I headed to Michigan to play golf and play in the casinos for a week. I played 99 holes of golf in 5 days and made a nice sum playing poker. I got home Monday and have been extremely busy with the businesss. It is nice that it is an ELF business. That is Easy, Lucrative and Fun. Thanks Joe Polish and Piranha marketing as well as our fabulous staff of co-workers. The next trip planned is Oct 13 - 17th. We are going to Phoenix to the Cash Creation conference put on by Piranha Marketing. We are taking Nancy our office manager with us. She is very happy. Well thats it for now. Peace and prosperity Don

Summer closing to quickly

Hi everyone, Sorry about not posting for almost two months. It has been a very hectic and wonderful summer. Our trip to Brewster on Cape Cod was a very cool trip. We stay in a two bedroom condo with about twelve family members for a week. There are bodies everywhere.This is the best time of all our yearly travels, because it is with family. Jane and I just returned from a trip to Toronto, Detroit and Niagra Falls back on the Canadian side. We visited with friends in Toronto who we met at the Wizard camp and they stayed with us last year in St. Martin. It was a great time and David and I played golf on a beautiful course located on the shores of Lake Ontario. We then drove to Canton, Michigan to go to a 50th birthday party for Janes cousin and my friend and ex business partner Tony Minichiello. It was fantastic with about 120 friends and family partying. Our next leg of the trip took us to Niagra Falls to visit a friend and business. Annette Mariconda and Len Hume. Unfortunately Len was out of town but we had a great visit and dinner with Annette. She is one of the smartest marketers I know. Jane and I continue to network with other companies and it is paying off. We had another breakfast presentation with a property management company this past week. We are looking for another employee right now. Our next trip is coming soon in September. We are off to Salt Lake city again to spend time with our friend and mentor Garrett Gunderson. Check out his books . "Killing Sacred Cows" and "Jack Rabbitt Factor/Portal to Genius" Jane flys home from there but lucky me goes off to Detroit for four days to golf and let loose in the casinos. I love this life that we have created. It seems like we can manifest anything we want. Remember you get what you focus on. Be it good or bad. If you want to Change Your Life Change the Way You Think. It is as simple as that. May God spare your life until next time. Peace Don