Poison - Not Just a Pretty Face

When we look at folks in the entertainment business we usually just see a pretty face.  Thanks to my mentor JT Foxx, I have learned that some of those pretty faces have some really amazing business minds behind them.

Last year I met Gene Simmons of Kiss and discovered a man who is a branding genius and a phenomenal businessman.

 Pictured left to right, JT Foxx, Gene Simmons, Tom Sheppard

This year, JT Foxx (www.JTFoxx.com) and the folks at Top One Coaching (www.TopOneCoaching.com) brought Bret Michaels, the lead singer and guitarist from Poison to speak to hundreds of successful entrepreneurs at Mega Partnering V in Dallas, Texas.  Sitting in the front row for the entire event, I was able to capture the last few words of advice that Bret Michaels gave us on a short video.  Listen and learn!

Bret Michaels offering some really solid business advice.

I hope that you find that as valuable as I do.  The music business is one where you can be "here today and gone later today." Because most of us don't work in an environment with such a tiny attention span, our "products" and our triumphs tend to win a bit more breathing room for us in our careers and with our customers.  Unfortunately that can often lead us to complacency and the misguided belief that just because we did great things for our clients or our company last month (or last year), they will take care of us into the future.

The harsh reality is that whatever good we have done for our clients often fades very quickly.  And, if we don't do something of real value for them today, they will probably be knocking on the door of our competitor tomorrow.  This isn't disloyalty, it us just reality. 

Every day a business needs to make money.  Every day, people need to earn money.  If they don't businesses will close and people won't eat.  We can never afford to rest on our past accomplishments for more than a nano-second.  Instead, we need to always be looking for ways we can add value to those around us - our employer, our boss, our coworkers, our clients.

At Charlotte Wealth Partners (www.CharlotteWealthPartners.com) we are always working hard to bring value to our partners and clients.  Working with members of The Gold Seal Homes Group (www.GoldSealHomesGroup.com) we make sure we are investing only in quality, affordable homes where our partners and clients will have a reasonable expectation of making a good return on their investments.

Like Bret Michaels, we know we cannot expect to endure unless we keep doing good things for people.  So, even if we hit a home run on a property last week and made a great return for our partners and clients by providing a quality affordable home to a home buyer, we can't stop there.  We keep looking for great deals and we keep delivering value.

As the stocks and bonds crowd has to say, "past performance is not indicative of future results."  Even though the government regulators make everyone say that, we all know that no one in their right mind continues to invest with someone who keeps picking losers.

Chatting with Bret Michaels and listening to him speak I discovered a guy who both enjoys his life and doesn't let his success blind him to the need to continually deliver value to his clients by giving them music that they enjoy and which has enduring value.

That is a tune I believe everyone should be singing.

Thanks for Being a Good Friend to me.  Let me Give something back to you!

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Tom Sheppard is the author of "Fire Yourself: Get the Job You Want" available from XLibris Press. Tom has been successfully investing in real estate since 2001 while working part time. In 2008 he left a six-figure job as an enterprise project manager with a major national bank to manage his real estate business full-time. His goal is to help 100,000 people find peace of mind by finding quality, affordable homes. He is currently looking to expand his network of funding partners who are helping him achieve this goal. If you would like to know more about how you can Do Well By Doing Good (TM), go to www.CharlotteWealthPartners.com

What Gene Simmons of KISS Taught Me About Business

You might be surprised at what you can learn about business from a guy who wore more makeup and bigger high heels than his mommy.

Pictured below, left to right, are JT Foxx, Gene Simmons and Thomas K Sheppard.  This picture was taken February 12, 2011 at Mega Partnering 2011 in Los Angeles, California.

June 10 through 13 of February 2011 I attended the JT Foxx Mega Partnering event in Los Angeles.  If you have ever attended a celebrity business event, they are typified by headline speakers punctuated by 90 minutes pitches for programs that promise you wealth and happiness, each easier than the programs touted before.  That is NOT what happens at these JT Foxx events, especially the Mega Partnering brand he has built.  In these events you get a collection of powerful, unarguably successful speakers who teach you their secrets to living the life they want.  They don't pitch you on products to make you happy, healthy, and wealthy.

The event this February (JT holds two of these each year), featured Gene Simmons, the legendary rock star from KISS and the star of Family Jewels (yes his wife Shannon Tweed of Playboy fame did make an appearance).

I openly confess here that when JT told me he was going to get Gene to headline this event, I asked him why?  I really couldn't imagine what I could learn from a guy who made himself famous wearing more makeup and taller heels than his mother while puking up blood and sticking out his tongue.  In case you don't release it, most rock stars end up broke and destroyed almost as soon as the passion of their fans for their music fades away.  So, when JT told me that Gene Simmons has a worth in excess of $700 million and is considered a branding genius and a formidable businessman, I was intrigued.

I was not disappointed.

Gene Simmons is more than just a guy with a long tongue.  Although I cannot tell you all that he taught us over the course of about two hours, because I would probably get a call from his lawyers, I can share a couple of nuggets that I took away from his conversation with us.  Yes, it was a conversation.  He came down off the stage, mic in hand and walked up and down through the audience asking pointed questions and challenging our thinking.  He pulled up several different members of the audience and on the spot taught them how to brand themselves and their businesses - a quick consultation that would have cost them at least $100,000 if they had approached Gene and asked for a consultation.

In case you didn't realize it, Gene is an immigrant to America.  His mother was Hungarian, a holocaust survivor and he was born in Israel.  Did you know that immigrants to the US are 4 times more likely to become millionaires than native born Americans?

Here are some nuggets he shared:

• You cannot fail in this country.  You can rack it up and then go broke, declare bankruptcy and then start all over.
• Don't rely on just one business for your money, build several.
• Learn to speak English with a mid-Atlantic American accent - that is what you hear from the new folks on TV and the most successful people in the world.  American English is the speaking pattern and accent of success in the US.  English is the language of money.  Although learning Mandarin (not Cantonese) is a pretty good idea right now.
• Use trademark laws to protect your brands and use lawyers to enforce your trademark rights, or you will lose them both - by law.
• Operate your business like a Navy Seal.  Come in below the RADAR.  Minimize your exposure by having a lean and mean operation.
• Educate yourself, don't rely on the drivel that passes for education in our schools.  Go to the library and take advantage of the best free education in the world, reading library books.  And now we can get a lot of that over the internet too.
• Be nice to rich people because a poor person never gives you a job.
• Be a rock stat - walk into the room and own it.

Although I could go on with what he taught and fill up several entries in this blog, I will leave it at this, feeling it is sufficient to illustrate my point.  I am glad that JT Foxx had the good judgment to look beyond the comic book image of KISS to bring to his friends and students the knowledge and influence of a business and branding powerhouse like Gene Simmons.

Likewise, I am glad I had the good sense to trust JT and not turn up my nose at the prospect of expecting to learn some serious business from someone who wore bigger high heels and more makeup than his mommy.

ON THE PERSONAL SIDE - Gene asked if anyone there spoke Spanish.  I raised my hand and he asked me to translate how his Puerto Rican students greeted him each morning when he was a school teacher.  Although I was able to translate it, I couldn't bring myself to translate that without being prepared to fight to the death.  I later determined a tactful way to convey it which I include here and leave to you to struggle through my deliberate obfuscation to get to the reality of what they said.  Here is my sanitized translation, "Hello my odoriferous Jewish friend who mates with boys. I want you to know that I really enjoyed getting to know your mother, in a very Biblical way."  Yes, that IS cleaned up. Sorry Gene, I hope I didn't ruin the effect you were after.

Tom Sheppard has been successfully investing in real estate since 2001 while working part time. In 2008 he left a six-figure job as an enterprise project manager with a major national bank to manage his real estate business full-time. His goal is to help 100,000 people find peace of mind by finding quality, affordable homes. Why pay retail when you can buy a home at below market prices? www.buybelowmarket.com. He is currently looking to expand his network of funding partners who are helping him achieve this goal. If you would like to know more about how you can do well by doing good, contact Tom at TSheppard@ADBProperties.com