New Year, New Site, New Business

January 2, 2012 by Leave a Comment


With the coming of the new year, Doulos Marketing Group is changing. We are re-launching the company as a full fledged business development company whose purpose is to help entrepreneurs design success!

In order to make a clean break from Doulos Marketing, we are launching a new website that you can visit starting today, January 3, 2011. With all the posts that are on this site, we will be leaving the site up for some time to preserve the posts that are more easily found here than transferred to the new site.

On the new site you will find that The Doulos Group stands ready to help entrepreneurs with the desire to design success for themselves and their businesses. We believe that, you, your dream, and your efforts can, with the proper leadership and guidance, can make your business dreams come true. Let us show you how to design success!

Stop by and visit us today and don’t forget to tell us what you think!

Enhanced by Zemanta
Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

One Week to Go – Then 2012!

December 24, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Sweet Sunday

Image by storebukkebruse via Flickr

I have been able to enjoy this Christmas Eve watching football and spending time with my family. As the end of the Detroit Lions game is upon me and dinner being prepared, I am reminded again about the coming of the end of the year and the beginning of the new.

I believe that 2012 is going to be the most important year in my life and I am so excited about it that I wish it could start on Monday instead of a week from Sunday. What is going to make this year so important is that I am going to stop being what everyone tells me that I am supposed to be and become the person I was born to be.

The reason I am posting this on my business site is, that in order to be this person I am supposed to be I must become a friend and guide to people who want to live their lives and create businesses with passion and commitment. There is so much mediocrity in our world today and so many people who think that life owes them everything that passion and commitment are sorely lacking.

2012 is going to be a year of personal revolution for me as well as those who join me! I am so excited about what is going to take place that I am just about to jump out of my skin in anticipation! My question for you is, “Wanna play?”

Leave a comment, ask a question, join the conversation!!!!!

Enhanced by Zemanta
Filed Under: Boomers Helping Boomers Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Merry Christmas to All!

December 19, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Merry Christmas

Image via Wikipedia

As the vast majority of the world stops this week to recognize the Christmas holiday, I wanted to take time to say Merry Christmas to all who have graced this blog this year either by stopping by to read or by taking time to leave a comment. I consider you all a true blessing in my life.

This has been an amazing, eventful year for Doulos Marketing. As the end of the year comes upon us and we take a short break from the work to spend time with family and friends, I want you to know how important you are and how excited I am to bring you new things in the coming year.

Have a great holiday season, and enjoy what for most will ba a slower pace. Let’s all come back next week to finish out the year strong and be set for the beginning of the best year of our lives!

Merry Christmas to All!

Enhanced by Zemanta
Filed Under: Networking Tagged With: , , , , ,

Splashing Around in the Deep End!

December 13, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Are you just splashing around in the deep end?

 

English: A Private Swimming Pool

Image via Wikipedia

 

One of the most interesting things that I have learned this year is that the majority of the entrepreneurs that I know who have started businesses in the past year or so did so without a real plan in place. They began with a dream (or were living in a nightmare), they jumped into the deep end of the pool and splashed around trying to both get noticed and to not drown at the same time!

 

While this makes for a lot of excitement, it rarely ends with a strong and successful business enterprise. For those considering a new start-up in 2012, a few thoughts about splashing around in the deep end!

 

  1. Get your “dry land” work done first. When a person begins to learn to swim, an instructor will give them some instruction and safety advice before they enter the water for the first time. In learning ahead of time about things to know/do once you get in the water, you are more prepared in the event of trouble than if you simply “jump in” head first.
  2. Start out in the shallow end of the pool. The benefit here is that in the event of a problem or that you panic for any reason all you have to do is put your feet on the bottom of the pool and stand up. There is always a greater chance of survival in the shallow end that splashing around in the deep water!
  3. Challenge yourself to move into the deep end of the pool when your confidence and skills warrant the risk! Be careful (but not too careful) because success in the deeper water requires that you take the next step. With every step into the deeper water their comes increased risk, but with growth in confidence and skills you will soon be swimming like a fish!

Learning the dangers of splashing around in the deep end will provide you with the ability to be survive the difficulties and be successful for the long term. While others are just splashing around making noise and hoping to survive, you will be enjoying all the opportunities that confidence and skill brings.

 

So, as you consider your business start-up you must decide three things: where you are now; where you need to be to gain both confidence and skills; and how long will it take to gain it so that your business will be both safe and successful in 2012!

 

Enhanced by Zemanta
Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

What is the Next Step After Breaking All the Rules

December 5, 2011 by Leave a Comment

OK – now that we have the whole “breaking all the rules” thing out of the way,

Income tax

Image by alancleaver_2000 via Flickr

the question becomes: “What is the next step after breaking all the rules?”

Well, to be honest with you, this is where it gets a little tricky. To begin with, what one person might think is a crazy idea, another would think to be perfectly reasonable, tame, and just the right thing to do. One person might move to Central America and enjoy his new life as a photographic artist working to relieve suffering in the third world, while someone else might create a “safe” accounting practice in their basement while helping young people set up and run their own businesses right here at home.

The path is not important. The passion is! Let me challenge you with three thoughts that will help answer the question:

1. Who are you really and what do you want to do with your life? After a life-time of work to make things happen at home and at the office/job, you just might have a more difficult time answering this question than you think. Take the time, find yourself (your core, your essence, or whatever you would like to call it) and in finding you, find your passion. This is the real starting point for the next step!

2. How can you live your passion? Some can develop a business that directly compensates them in their passion, while others have to find a business model that allows for an income that can be created around their passion. Consider carefully which way will work for you. Then do your due diligence. There is nothing worse that starting and then stopping to drain one’s passion!

3. Put the blinders on and get at it, now, even before you “retire.” Too many people wait till they are in a situation that if income can’t be produced immediately, they have to fold up shop and go back to work. This happens most often because you didn’t start while you still had work income. I would plan for 1 to 3 years before your income will carry you. So, don’t quit the job too soon and do plan to do some double duty before you retire!

Deciding to break the rules is simple, but learning the next step is where the victory is won! Don’t forget to follow through with the next step.

 

Enhanced by Zemanta
Filed Under: Boomers Helping Boomers Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Break all the Rules!

December 2, 2011 by 8 Comments

Have you ever been tired of just about everything in life? I mean so tired of the way things are that you thought about how wonderful it would feel to just break all the rules? Just to strike out on your own and end up where you want to be rather than were you are expected to be!

Boomers across the world seem to be collectively struggling with these very thoughts. Our sense of freedom from the ordinary that carried us through our youth has given way to our sense of responsibility to a system that more and more makes little sense.

Most of us have worked hard, been responsible, and followed the rules, only to be the first to be laid off and the last to be rehired. Our years of efforts have been overlooked and the value we bring to our society has been minimized. It seems that the greatest worry society has today is that we are getting old and who is going to pay for our old age.

So here we sit, getting older fast and being minimized by the society that we spend our lives building for ourselves and the generations to come. Did we make mistakes? Yes!! Are we to blame for some of the failures in our society? Yes!! Could we have done better? Who couldn’t using hindsight as a measuring stick?

Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to break all the rules and strike out again to reinvent my life and reshape my future! Wanna come along?

If you do, I think that there are five things that you are going to have to consider:

1. To reinvent your life and reshape your future you are going to have to set aside the notion that everything in life that is bad is someone else’s fault. Personal responsibility has to trump everything else in life. I can wake up on a given day and make life great or make it unlivable no matter the circumstances. The choice to react or to respond is entirely up to me! So it is with you as well.

2. To reinvent your life and reshape your future you are going to have to decide what it is that your life is supposed to be and then commit yourself to that end! Do you believe that your life really has purpose? Have you ever considered what that purpose is? Are you moving in the direction of that purpose everyday? If your life purpose is not clear to you, you will never really move with confidence or inner strength. The desires of others for you will always take precedence to that nagging urge inside that tells you that something isn’t right.

3. To reinvent your life and reshape your future you are going to have to seek guidance from those ahead of you on this journey. Now I don’t mean follow them like zombies or lemmings, but watch them as they journey and pattern your journey according to the principles you find in them. Ask questions, listen closely to their answers, think carefully (pray if that is what your life is about) and then move in the direction of your life purpose.

4. To reinvent your life and reshape your future you are going to have to stay focused through all the storms that lie ahead. No one that chooses to break all the rules will be able to do so without creating some waves. These waves will often increase in size and magnitude until they become full-fledged storms. It is these days of what appear to be darkness and despair that the greatest victories can be found. Stay focused, keep your eye on the prize and let your dream dispel every wave!

5. To reinvent your life and reshape your future you must start! This is where the rubber really meets the road! It is not enough to be tired of what you see in front of you. It is not enough to wish you could develop the courage to strike out. It will only happen when you make the first move. You are the catalyst! You must make the first move and then commit to the next and the next and the next.

I am not going to let a broken world system determine whether I live a fulfilled life. Are you?

Enhanced by Zemanta
Filed Under: Boomers Helping Boomers Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Tired of all the “gurus”!

November 29, 2011 by Leave a Comment

When I first started blogging and working in the area of social media, I read everything that the “gurus” were saying about social media and how to get noticed online.

After several years of reading and following these “gurus” I have come to the conclusion that I am tired of all the “gurus”! It seems that, for the most part, they are self-serving and only want to sell their wares. I’m not opposed to “selling your wares” as long as they have real value to individual clients. I struggle with so many people calling themselves “gurus” when all they have done is “parrot” what everyone else is saying.

For we Boomers who are looking for ways to reinvent retirement, these “gurus” can hook us early and we end up trying to create businesses that look like everyone else. These bland and unimaginative businesses fail as often as the averages suggest. And the “gurus” just keep on “teaching” the same worn ideas to another set of honest, hard-working people.

What Boomers need as they consider creating retirement businesses is for those who would be business/life coaches to consider them first. To help them think through and investigate what they want and how they want to do things. They don’t need “gurus” teaching tired systems, but rather they need honest people looking to help them find the business that makes their retirement years all that they have hoped for them to be.

So, if you are tired of all the “gurus” then take time to look for the right help that will help you help you reinvent retirement in the way that makes the best sense to you!

Enhanced by Zemanta
Filed Under: Boomers Helping Boomers, Social Media Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Business Between the Holidays

November 25, 2011 by Leave a Comment
Christmas lights on Aleksanterinkatu.

Image via Wikipedia

As I sit here this morning, the day after Thanksgiving, I have been thinking about the next five weeks or so that will bring an end to 2011. I have to admit that I, like so many other entrepreneurs, have been considering: How it is best to do business between the holidays?

When I first started selling real estate back in 2004, one of the most interesting things I learned was that for some agents the end of their year came around the 15th of November. Most of the agents who “shut down” were the “average” agents who never had much going anyway. However, among those were agents who were, at least in my eyes, successful and well known agents whose production numbers were always among the best in the office.

But, there was always a few who seemed to do as much business between the holidays as they did throughout the rest of the year. These were the real professionals whose business usually topped that of everyone else in the office. They were the one’s who were in the office nearly every day and worked with more buyers and sellers than anyone else.

I worked in the real estate world for five years and found that no matter the office or the brokerage, there were always those professional agents who always had business between the holidays. What I found in them I want to share with you in hopes that their success principles will provide you with the knowledge to do business between the holidays:

  1. These business professionals worked all year to finish each year as strong as they had started it. The challenge for them was to make their fourth quarter bigger than their first.
  2. These business professionals learned that part of business success was setting the stage for future sales and when things were slow they were working “behind the scenes” for the next sale.
  3. While it is true that office hours were limited during the holiday season, that did not stop these top producers from making use of the office when no one else was around. They worked when no one else did, did what no one else would and were rewarded like no one else was!

After leaving real estate (the only job I ever really missed after leaving) I kinda bounced around a little, looking for what was right for me now. Having found my place again, I am working, like those top producers to make the holidays a great time for family as well as for business!

Have a great holiday season, but don’t forget that your business and your clients need you too!

Enhanced by Zemanta
Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Boomers Can’t Wait!

November 18, 2011 by 2 Comments
The corner of Wall Street and Broadway, showin...

Image via Wikipedia

As I have been working on the changes to Doulos Marketing for 2012, I have come to one undeniable conclusion:

Boomers Can’t Wait!

With all that is unfolding right before our eyes (Occupy Wall Street, a Congress that cannot function, an economy that cannot rebound, a housing market still reeling, manufacturing jobs gone for good, etc ….) it is time for average Boomers to once again step up again and lead the way to better things. Better ways to work, to serve our communities and to strengthen our families as well as ourselves.

Add to all of this that we Boomers are the largest group of chronically unemployed and I say again: Boomers can’t wait!

So, here is a simple plan that is filled with risk, excitement, fear, and, in the end, a way out of these dark times to a brighter day:

  1. Get up every day with a desire to be significant. Now I am not suggesting that everyone has to have a master plan designed to “change the world.” What I am suggesting though is that we don’t just go through life like it is an exercise in futility. We are here on this planet at this time for a reason. Find yours and live to bring it to pass!
  2. Go out every day to be the best person that you can be. If you have this “best person” mindset, you will treat others with dignity and respect (even people you don’t agree with or even like); you will work hard in everything you set your mind/heart/body to do; and you will continue to look to the benefit of your efforts to your company, your customers, your community and your family. You will see the dignity in everything you do and be able to end each day knowing you did what was right for you.
  3. Give back to those whose lives are not where yours is. One of our biggest struggles we have in this country is realizing how much we really have on a world-wide scale. So many of us have so much and so often we see what we have as “rights” instead of the blessings of liberty. When we recognize that we are truly blessed we will be much more willing to step out and help others so that they can have what we readily enjoy.

Now we can debate a lot of things these days, looking for the right people to blame, demanding that others “pay their fair share”, or shouting from the roof tops “its not my fault.” But, in my view, its time to stop that because too many of our generation will be destroyed without remedy looking for the mouse in the cookie jar. Boomers simply can’t wait any longer! We must choose to step up, step out, and be counted again.

The “new” Doulos Marketing is dedicated to charting a course for this to happen. I hope you will keep reading, keep passing the message on, and keep looking for ways to reach out to other Boomers who like sand at the beach, slipping through the cracks. (And the older we get the harder this task will become.) It’s really up to us. Will you join the effort?

Enhanced by Zemanta
Filed Under: Boomers Helping Boomers, Networking Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

New Things Coming in 2012

November 1, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Doulos Marketing is making big changes for 2012. There and many new things coming in 2012. I am working very hard on these changes and because of that I have not been posting lately. Beginning this week, I will get back to posting regularly.

My greatest hope is that the changes will benefit the greatest number of readers and that you will build better, stronger, and more successful businesses in 2012.

I really believe that success in this current economy will come to those who do three things:

  1. Take on a sense of personal responsibility and use your skill set in ways to benefit you, your family, and your business.
  2. Decide to develop new skills that will make you stand out from the crowd in whatever area you choose to work.
  3. Look for opportunities to help others find their stride in life so that they will develop to the best of their abilities.

Stay tuned … I will be releasing much more information about our new direction throughout the remainder of 2011. As always I appreciate your comments, questions, and suggestions.

More later …. Stay tuned!!

Enhanced by Zemanta
Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , ,
«Older Posts