Dear Mom,

When I think back to my childhood, one memory in particular still makes my eyes well up with tears…

While other parents were driving Mercedes and BMW’s, you were driving the school bus. And you did it with a smile on your face!

And work ethic isn’t the only thing you gave me. You are the definition of “Super Mom.” You have taught me that…

1) My word is my wand.

In fact, I can still hear your voice: “Phil, your word is your wand.”

If I was angry and complaining, you taught me that I would attract whatever I was focusing on. If I continued to use words of frustration, I would attract more frustrating things in my life. But if I used words of gratefulness, I would be given other things for which I would be grateful.

And guess what? My word is my wand, and that is why my life is so great right now.

Thank you, Mom.

Sometimes, all you have to do is ask.

This is one of the major themes of my credit course. If you want lower interest rates, if you want your banks and credit card companies to wipe away penalties or forgive some debt, sometimes…

All you have to do is ask.

But even though I teach this in my course and in my book, I messed up.

See, I help a lot of non-profit and for-profit companies with their marketing strategies. And I neglected to ask…

I didn’t ask one of them enough deep questions to make sure that our interests were aligned.

So after several months of being frustrated, I finally realized something. I wanted them to make as much money as possible. If they made money, I made money.

But that’s not what they wanted—not in their heart of hearts. They wanted to grow slowly. When it came down to it, they weren’t comfortable with the same explosive growth that I was trying to help them achieve.

There isn’t anything wrong with either of our goals – they just weren’t aligned. If they didn’t make money—and fast—I wasn’t going to make money.

And if I pushed them too hard to grow, the corporate culture they wanted and loved would be non-existent.

So the relationship that we initially established was doomed from the start. We had (and still have) great rapport, and we are trying to find a solution so that we can continue to work together, but it sure would have saved us a lot of time if we had made sure our interests were aligned from the get-go.

So what’s my point?

From now on, I’m going to make sure my interests are aligned every time I enter a professional relationship, create a friendship, or sign a contract.

In fact, if I’m working on a solution with someone, the first thing I’m going to do is make sure our interests are aligned. If they aren’t, we will only be frustrated when working together.

Having aligned interests is a big part of making any area of life work.

It works with professional decisions, personal relationships, and it works with financial decisions as well.

And it also works on a big scale…

Imagine if the banks had disclosed their interests to the people who bought houses pre-2008! If people had known what was in the banks’ “heart of hearts,” would they have entered into an agreement with them?

And on a small scale…

Would you sign up for a retail store credit card if the cashier disclosed the store’s true interests? Imagine that a cashier said, “Would you like to sign up for a retail store card and save 10 percent on today’s purchase? Our goal is to lure you into signing up for the card so that buy more from us over the long-haul and pay a ton of money in interest rates.”

Heck no! You wouldn’t sign up!

So ask away… before you enter a relationship, make sure you know the true interest of the person (or business) you are going to work with.

As always, let me know your thoughts below. Have you recently realized that a relationship isn’t working because your interests weren’t aligned?

It’s true. I’ve written about being a failure here.

And guess what?

My list of non-accomplishments grows longer and longer every year…

So the following quote from President Theodore Roosevelt’s speech “Citizenship in a Republic” spoke to me. And because I know I’m not alone in stumbling a time or two, I thought I should pass it along…

“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better.

“The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”

That’s it for today… short and sweet because I don’t want to try to compete with those powerful words from President Roosevelt!

As always, be sure to share your thoughts below. Did the quote inspire you to rise above some of your stumbles?

I’m talking about my business. It’s an ugly, tough, dirty one. Despite the fact that a lot of people desperately need my service, most people think credit is boring…

And those who aren’t bored by credit repair are often scared. They bury their heads in the sand because they just don’t want to deal with their credit problems.

So getting the word out there to the 10 million people who need credit repair?

Well, like I said, it’s a tough and ugly business.

But recently, I had an epiphany that I know will help you get out of a financial mess.

First, some background…

Because I spent so much time figuring out how to spread the word about my program, a lot of my friends and colleagues ask me to help them with their business models…

After all, if a credit guy can do it, a “prettier” business can do it!

So I was recently meeting with a colleague of mine to discuss his marketing strategy. My company has been writing the weekly emails he sends to his list …

And after sending just six emails, he earned an additional $60,000!

Wow! That’s $10,000 per email.

And all he had to do was ask his existing clients and colleagues for referrals.

All he had to do was ask.

Now, this guy is really sophisticated. In fact, he’s one of the smartest people I know.

But he wasn’t asking for referrals (at least not often and not strategically).

When he did, he earned $60,000 in six weeks. And all he had to do was push the “Send” button on his computer.

So what’s the lesson in this?

You have to ask for what you want. If you aren’t calling your creditors and asking them to lower your interest rates or waive the penalties, they aren’t going to.

You have to ask.

That might be all it takes. Call up your credit card company and ask for the hardship department. Then tell them your situation. See what they say.

The worst that will happen? They will say “no.” But I’m willing to bet that 99 percent of them will work with their customers to provide at least a little wiggle room. Maybe they will let you skip one
payment.

Or maybe they will settle your $15,000 credit card bill for 40 cents on the dollar, like they did for my friend.

You will never know unless you ask.

In my program, I teach people to call their credit card companies at least once every six months to negotiate lower interest rates or better terms.

Why not make today the day you call ‘em up and ask?

As always, let me know your success stories by posting a comment below!

How about your home? Your office? Your yard?

I’m a little embarrassed to say “yes, yes, yes, and yes.”

Or, at least, that was the old me. I’m a hyper, busy guy, so everything was a mess.

When was I supposed to find time to organize my stuff when I was constantly rushing to do the next big thing?

But then I started noticing something…

By training my mind to give every physical thing a purpose, I started making better decisions about my time and my finances.

The floor of my car is not a trashcan. That’s not its purpose. Its purpose is to stabilize the car, keep me from falling through, hold the seats in place, etc. It was not created with the goal of holding my garbage.

So I don’t put garbage on the floor of my car. If I must store garbage in my car, I place it in a bag whose purpose is to hold garbage.

Now, you might be thinking that organization and cleanliness are irrelevant to credit or financial problems…

But I disagree.

If your physical space is sloppy, your life will most likely be sloppy…

Training your mind to give everything its purpose and its place allows you to make better financial and spending decisions.

If your mind is not trained to examine everything, decide its purpose, and then put it in the right place, you will make purchases that do not honor your long-term goals.

You will make buying decisions that do not have a purpose.

Your budgeting will be sloppy…

Giving things a purpose, and then placing them where they belong, gives you control over your life. It allows you to immediately eliminate dead weight and garbage.

It also gives you the opportunity to accept things that will improve your life.

Imagine the impact of training your brain to put things in its place.

You can immediately eliminate expenses that are silly. You can immediately accept ideas that will help you become more frugal.

You can immediately stop yourself from making purchases that don’t have a purpose…

What do you think? Am I crazy? Spot on? Let me know your thoughts below!