Connectedness ...

Over the past two weeks British Columbia has been host to the World Fire and Police Games. Luckily for me, most of the activities were located in the lower mainland - from Surrey to Vancouver to Whistler. I found myself with the unique opportunity not only to spectate at some of the events, but to participate as an official for the indoor volleyball competitions held in Vancouver at the UBC campus. I made some great new friends from Vancouver, Winnipeg, Finland, New York, Australia, and Germany. I also spoke with people from many other areas of the world. Until this summer, I was unaware of the existence of the games and was shocked to find out that few people in Vancouver knew as well. I mean, there were almost 11,000 athletes from all over the world right here, competing for medals in over 60 events, at over 40 different venues. This is the largest organized sporting event of its kind outside of the Olympics. Luckily, we also have the Winter Olympics here next February in 2010. Shockingly, this event had almost twice the number of competitors that we will see at the Olympics!

Also luckily for me, I came across this video from You Tube this morning. http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=138212288407&h=Qg_h4&u=KUkPR&ref=nf.

So what's the connection you ask? Well, both are examples of the connectedness we not only share as human beings regardless of our race, but the desire to express and develop it. The demonstration by Bobby shows how quickly we will grasp a connection with a total stranger and share it. The fact that 11,000 people will travel from all over the globe to delight in comradery and competition speaks for itself. Whether we try to deny it or hide it or not, we ARE all connected. At our very core we all seek the same things, even though we may go about it in a different manner. So what I would like to say with this post is simply this:
The next time you meet a stranger or even when you're with someone you know - try and find the connection you have with this person. It may surprise you to find out how much you share in common!

Have a great day!
Hugzzz :-)

Just hanging out ...

Well I hope everyone in this hemi-sphere is enjoying the summer! Here in Vancouver, BC it's spectacular! I don't know if you've heard the joke or not but it really is god's country! It's not too hot (although it's the hottest it's been all summer right now) and not at all humid. I used to live in Toronto but hated the freezing winters and really humid summers. Being from Jamaica I could handle the summer but not the winter. Anyway, it's the best being right on the Pacific Ocean as it moderates everything all year round. I'll have to take some pictures for my next post.

Today is day 3 of my 90 day Social Networking experiment/exercise. Even though it's day 3 I am stuck on day two as I have to get an auto responder account. I should have that set up in the next couple of days and will keep you posted on how it's going.

So today is just a day for chilling - watching the Jays. I really hope they don't have to trade the Doc, but I would understand if they do. Its a shame the bats have been as inconsistent as they have. Most people will say the problem has been pitching but I think it's been great considering that rookie pitchers have started almost 50% of their games. If they can weather the storm they still have a chance to sneak into the playoffs this year and have an excellent shot next year. We'll just have to see how it plays out.

I'll talk to you guys again soon!

Hugzzz,
Steve :-)

Back in the saddle ...

Hello there,

It's been a while and I apologize for not posting. I have an iMac and while I believe it's a vastly superior computer to the Window's based PC, it needs a hard drive. Unfortunately, there are still only 3 producers of hard drives in the world and as such, even Macs are prone to failure as a result. Yes, the dreaded happened ... my drive failed. It's now at a data recovery specialist and as soon as I can budget it, I will get back the 400GB of data stored on it. Why no back-up you ask? Well, my only answer is this - I didn't have a drive big enough to back up 400GB of data! When I get it back I will have to find a way to budget an external 1TB drive to do these backups. Remember when Bill Gates said that the average person would only need about 64KB of RAM?!!

Okay, enough crying into my soup. Now it's time to fill you in on what's happening in the world of Hugzzz. I am going to use this day as a launch into a new project. If you've read my other posts you know that I work from home in the field of Network Marketing. I have been doing extensive research in the last few weeks as to the best course of action to help develop my business. Like all NM's out there, I truly believe I have a top notch product. I really do as it helps you save money on a bill you have to pay anyway (more about that later). The funny thing though, is that I have found that almost everybody in the know (or so they say) say that you need to promote yourself, not your product. Well, as per a previous post, I say its a catch 22, but seeing as they're in the know, I'll try something grand and listen to them.

Now the first question that comes to mind is how do you brand yourself? I mean, I know I'm a great person and there's a few dozen people who I might get to agree with me, but I want thousands of people to know it. There are lots of systems out there that promise you that they'll do it for you, but when you read the fine print it gets a little cloudy. I have found one person that has a 90 day system that I think I am going to try. I will give you all the details on Monday, July 20th when I embark on this process. The plan is to follow the instructions to the letter so that by October 7th, I will have developed my business to the point I desire. This is a 90 day plan that I hope will work.

Why am I putting it on my blog? Well, it's a major part of the world of Hugzzz to begin with. Secondly, it's a goal and it will help me attain my goal to have some sort of accountability for it. I will update my progress here and by stating that I will force myself to commit to it. If anybody reading this wants to do it with me, send me an e-mail at mrhugzzz@gmail.com and I'll send you the information before Monday so you can start. If you read this after that and still want to do it, no problem. Send the e-mail anyway and I'll send you the info. The great part of this course is not only that it's free (unlike the majority of the ones out there), but that the lessons are daily and you can go at your own pace. I will do my utmost to do it day by day, but if you want to go faster or slower, be my guest. good luck to us all and I'll see you later.

Have a great day and remember to back up!!

Hugzzz,
Steve :-)

How I can help you ... get 1 month's free gas!

Hey everybody, thanks for taking the time out of your day to read by post. Hopefully you'll find a little something in each of them to make you want to follow me and/or come back. I send out a TWEET each time I update this, so if you want to know when that is you can also follow me there! My twitter name is MrHugzzz - surprise - lol.

So, about today's topic - How I can help you! First let me tell you straight up front, this is what I do for a living and helping you helps me. Yes, I'm the type to just help you anyway, but this is truly a win/win/win situation. Who's the third win? The environment and everybody connected to it. So how can I help you?

I market a product that you add to your gas that is actually costing you money not to be using! Bold statement - huh? Well, it's actually true. Let me give you a brief lesson about your car - or what drives it - it's engine. Your car is powered by an Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) unless it is an electric car (very few of those around). Most of them (over 98%) use either gasoline, diesel, or some sort of bio-fuel as fuel (the others use propane). The ICE is only 80% efficient at best! What does this mean? The best way I can explain it to you is this:

Out of every $100 of fuel you put in your car, $20 of that goes out your tailpipe!"

That hurts, doesn't it?

What's even worse is that it goes out of your tailpipe as environmentally harmful carbon emissions that are destroying our environment. Now if it was just cars, we could say to simply use transit, carpool, or find other means of transit. The thing is though - it's every ICE on this planet. Think about boats, trucks, lawn mowers, chain saws, weed whackers, leaf blowers, motorcycles, etc. I think you get the picture. Even if you don't use one of these machines, you know someone who does and are affected by it in some manner.

So how can I help you?

Well, about the product I market. It does a few things to help improve the efficiency of your engine (ICE). I know you've heard it all before, but this one has over 11 years of commercial and consumer testing, is CARB and CEE certified, 99.99% bio-degradable (non-toxic), and guaranteed to work. These are some of the benefits you will see when using this product:

1. An improvement in your gas mileage from 7% - 19% or more (that's like getting one month free gas at 8.3% increase)
2. An improvement in the efficiency of your engine (a reduction in maintenance costs)
3. An increase in the life of your engine (you won't have to replace your vehicle as soon)
4. A reduction in tailpipe emissions of 30% or more
5. An overall savings in the amount of money you spend on fuel!

I would like to point out that for #5, you will also save if you are currently using premium or a high grade fuel. With this product you can use the lowest grade of gasoline without and damage to your car and it will NOT void your warranty. That's a savings of $.20 per gallon of fuel before you even finish filling up your tank!

Okay, if you're interested in finding out more about this product, send me an e-mail to this address: ethossteve@gmail.com and I'll send you the information. Please put ethos blog in the title so I know where you came from. I look forward to hearing from you and helping you out!

Hugzzz,
Steve :-)

Social Media - a New Perspective

Hello there - I know its been a while since my last (first) post, but I had to do some research. Now if you're like me and trying to get ahead in this world, you're probably tired of all this stuff out there that promises to show you the holy grail. It tells you that in order to build your business, you have to brand yourself. It goes on by telling you exactly how to do that, for a fee. Here's what I have found out:

1. Brand yourself - create a website (of course you're doing this through a link that someone has provided you so they get a commission on the fees you pay).
2. Build a list - Sign up for an e-mail ad responder to capture the e-mails of the people who visit your website so you can inundate them at a later time with the same types of e-mails that got you going on the merry-go-round (again through a link you got so they get a commission from your monthly subscription fee).
   
3. Generate traffic - if you haven't been promised traffic from the "free" advertising that your sponsor will do for you, you'll have to sign up for pay for click advertising.
4. Sell either your sponsor's products (information) or your own once someone is on your site. You'll be convinced how much easier it is to sell their's though, again so they get a commission of your sales of their product!
   

I think you get the gist of it. What I have found is that there are a few people out there who got onto this thing a few years back and have built up a pretty good thing through a lot of hard work and some really gullible people. Now they're telling everybody else how they too can make 40K per month by doing what they did - for a fee. Don't get me wrong, I think these guys are pretty smart. They've analyzed the numbers and are doing a good job of getting their slice of the pie. The thing is, that pie is getting stale very quickly.

So here's where I have a real problem with all this costly (sorry - free) advice out there. A little aside here - Ferengi rule of Acquisition #? : Free advice is never cheap! The basic principle behind all this is that people will follow you and buy from you not because of your product, but because they have built up a relationship with you! Does this sound like a load of CRAP to anyone else? How are you going to have a relationship with 50,000 people??!! When you go shopping, do you shop at the store because you know the owner of the company? If your neighbor Bill is selling you a garden hose for $50 that looks like it cost $.50 and some guy named John (who you don't know) is selling you one for $10 that looks like he could get $75 for, which one are you going to buy? Obviously, the one with the better quality - regardless of whether you know John or not!

That is how you end up building a relationship with someone. HELP THEM! Deal with them in a fair and honest manner! Chances are if I sell you a product you are pleased with, you will buy a second product from me further down the line. You have had a positive experience with me and are willing to continue that relationship. If I have a good relationship with you and sell you a lemon, you'll probably recind that relationship.

So you see here, it's not a matter of one or the other - its both! You have to have a good product to build a good relationship - then you have to keep it with consistency!

So how does all this fit in with this Social Media craze out there? Well, everybody is telling you to get 50,000 followers on Twitter and your sales will explode. While that's true, it's not for the reason you're thinking. The way it works is this:

If you have 100 followers and 2% buy your product, you will have 2 sales.
If you have 50,000 and 2% - you will have 1,000 sales.
The percentage remains the same, but the sales exploded. What you don't see though is that you have 49,000 dissatisfied followers. If your product isn't good, you also have a large percentage of that 1,000 that will be dissatisfied as well.

I would rather sell a good product to 40 - 50% of a smaller group of people than a bad product to 2% of a larger group of people.

BTW, what exactly is the product being sold? I know you have your product that you're hoping to sell, but do you? Or do you end up selling the product the sponsor wants you to sell? How many e-books and websites and ad responders do you need to have? How many money making secrets DVD's do you need to have? Have you watched any of them?

This is why I disagree with the current trend of peddling information that seems to have engulfed the internet. If you can get 50,000 followers that's great. Make sure that if you do though, when you do try and sell them something, that you are doing so HONESTLY! If you don't, you'll lose them just like that. You know the saying - "what have you done for me lately?" You're only as popular as your last good deed.

If you can find a product that will truly help someone, Social Media can be your best tool for spreading the news. If you don't have such a product though, it can bury you just as easily!

Hugzzz,
Steve :-)

Welcome to my world!

Hello there,

This is Mr. Hugzzz and welcome to my little corner of the internet. I m a brand new blogger as of today (June 22) and hope you will enjoy the journey with me as I seek to utilize this amazing piece of technology for various reasons. In the future I plan to post things that will divulge more about who I am and hope to become in the future. I hope to make it interesting enough that you will want to take a minute or two out of your day to read it and/or comment on it.

I also want to use it as a way of developing my business as it seems that all the rage these days is Web 2.0 and if you're not involved in them you're apparently missing out. So part of my blogging will be an experiment. I am involved in a MLM company (Network Marketing) and I hope to develop it through this blog and other social media available on the internet. If you stay with me you will be able to see the results of my efforts. Unlike other people who only tell you about their successes after they have achieved it, I will keep you posted on my progress as I go along. This way if it is something you're thinking about doing you'll have a better idea of when/if to jump on board. I'm hoping to help out some people along the way because i feel there are way too many ads out there for this system or that system to market products and people.

Despite my outgoing nature, you'll find I am a very private person with only my very closest friends knowing very much about me. I hope to break away from that tendancy a little bit (or maybe a lot) through this blog as well. I will spill the beans on myself from time to time and give out little tidbits of wisdom that I have collected over the years. I will also share ideas/dreams/things as they come along. I love to cook and will share recipes and techniques as I go along as well. I will also tell you my opinions on numerous subjects and such. Basically I hope to become your online friend and have you be the ultimate confidant.

There will be no regularity to my posts as my schedule is itself not regular at all. I will update my Twitter account everytime I post something on here so if you like you can follow me there to get updates about this and other things. My name on Twitter is MrHugzzz. I will be happy to follow you there or on your own blog as well.

Okay, that's it for my intor post. Thanks for reading and welcome aboard. I'm looking forward to a great exprience in this blogging world!

Hugzzz,
Barrington :-)