Seriously! I can run  forever on this sort of thing:

“Your Dad’s work ethic is unmatched. I don’t know how that man functions on so little sleep. I’m excited about the future with him. Big things are going to happen.” Ryan B., North Olmsted, Ohio 44070

This was received last month during monthly billing. It came from a client who came on board two years after our initial consultation. I followed up often but not to the point of being  a pain in the a##. We became friends and then he became a client of The Ultimate Internet Image of Lakewood, Ohio.

And do you know what?

Ryan is right because I will never stop working for him!

My Relationship Formula and the Key to Suucess

Connection → Consultation → Follow-up → Acquaintanceship → Follow-up → Trust → Business Relationship → Friendship →Client for Life

By the time we get to Friendship, I can honestly say I am genuinely fond of my clients and care about their future. I am fully invested in their families’ futures, the future of their businesses, and the future and well-being of every employee attached to that business.

As I have said in the past, my relationship with my clients (i.e., marketing clients, tutoring, mentoring, coaching, education consulting, test prep, etc) becomes a scared trust!

I am forever grateful for the opportunity to serve and for clients who take the time to write things like the email above!

John Zajaros
The Ultimate Internet Image, LLC – Inbound Marketing Consulting and Social Media Management
Lakewood, Ohio 44107
216-712-7004 (office)

Change – Old Friends – The Old/New You

I had an interesting conversation with an old friend the other day.

However, before I talk about the conversation, I think a bit of an explanation, based on an observation, is in order.

The thing about old friends is, they knew you…before…way back when.

“Way back when!”

Before everything!

And then, very often, during everything else.

They knew you “way back when!”

When you were someone else.

When you weren’t the person you’ve, hopefully, grown into.

Grown up and into.

They knew the person before the person.

The person you had to grown into…just to get here…to where you are now…hopefully!

There’s the key word:

hope

hopeless

Hopeless

Hopelessness

hopelessness

hopeless

hope

Hope

Hopeful

Hopefully

HOPE

Unfortunately, most of our old friends will never see us as anything other than that old friend…the person who no longer resides at your address.

In your body.

Under your skin.

You know the one I mean?

The person who died…so you could live…hopefully!

Your true self!

Does anyone really know their true Self?

It takes a lot of searching to come to terms with the True Self.

Without getting all Eastern on you…

…I believe that if we are to succeed in life…

…I mean truly succeed…

…we have to come to terms with…

…come face-to-face with…

…our True Self!

And own him or her!

 …as the kids say, anyway.

It has been said that “You can’t change the spots on a leopard.”

At least that’s what everyone says.

You know everyone, don’t you?

Sure, we all do!

Do we?

People resist change.

That is a certainty!

Is it?

Yup!

Most, anyway.

People resist change with every fiber of their being.

Both in the singular…and collectively.

Religions, political parties, unions, administrators; they have all made it a way of being, the defining characteristic(s) of their organization or organizations.

Nuns and even many priests left their respective orders enmass after Vatican II!

Politicians have been decimated at the polls for flip-flopping once too often on a critical issue.

In spite of all that, people do change…and often.

All we have to do is watch the current presidential campaign, and particularly the Republican debates, to get a sense of just how crucial our ability to change is; and, how adept we have become at it.

When it comes to the mechanisms of change…and the justification for change…we have become inventive in a way that would make Thomas A. Edison proud.

Thank goodness!

We have to change….

While it’s more comfortable to believe that people…things…circumstances…everything…remain the same…constant.

Can you imagine a life of complete and utter certainty?

Sameness?

Permanence?

Forever?

I hope not…it sounds like death to me!

That brings me to the topic of today’s post. That conversation I had with an old friend.

Phew! Bet you thought I’d forgotten all about it, didn’t you?

You see, my old friend knows just how hard things have been since 1998….almost 14 years ago.

He knew me before.

He knows how it started.

He knows how sick I was.

He knows how hard it was to find a doctor who hadn’t written me off.

He knows how impossible my family’s situation became.

He knows just what we lost.

He has no idea what we gained.

He was too close to the loss.

The Pain.

The Depression.

The Addiction.

The almost utter defeat!

Thank God for those 2 words:

almost

&

utter

You see, I was addicted to paid medication. An addict!

In spite of our enlightened, outward attitude with respect to addiction, and particularly a medically supervised addiction, we are still quite Victorian just beneath the skin.

Maybe some things won’t be, can’t be, changed?

The debate will, undoubtedly, resurface here and from time to time.

Be that as it may, it is quite impossible not to develop an addiction given the illness, the amount of time, and the number of surgeries it required…just to survive.

I was, some say always will be, an addict.

As a consequence of chronic pain, chronic depression, and crushing despair, the way my friend looks at me has been forever tainted.

Imagine that?

A double whammy!

Two stigmas neatly wrapped into a single package, a single self:

Me!

An addiction: To drugs

A mental illness: Depression

The funny thing about people…and the way they see you?

Very often, once someone has seen you at your worst, it is often impossible for them to get rid of that picture and see you for all you overcame…all you are now.

Instead of being able to look at all you’ve endured, all you’ve overcome, that stigma persists. Perhaps that sort of thing is hardwired.

Who knows?

So, imagine my friend’s response the other day when I told him I had taken on a client and had done so gratis…sans fee…on the cheap…for free.

Well, he looked at me as if I had just lost my last screw. He knew I had several loose, had to have. After all, I started my own business rather than find a safe job in academia or as a trainer somewhere.

Now I was in business for myself and taking on clients and forgetting to ask for the order and a check.

I could have said:

Think about it for just one moment, Bill. Think about the place I have to be at, with respect to my business and my family obligations, just to be able to consider taking someone on for less than a full fee.

I could have said:

I am thinking 2, 3, 4 years down the road. I know this kid will make it and, when he does, who do you think is going to be there?

I could have said:

I am getting paid in many ways. The intangible rewards will far outdistance any perceived losses. The set up fee and monthly maintenance fees will be recouped many times over…and within the next 12-18 months.

I could have said:

Bill, you should know me better by now. You should know that I have already thought all of your concerns through, many times over…and this is still a Win/Win!

Instead, I said:

Bill, I appreciate your concern, and your friendship, but let’s keep business and personal separate and distinct. I understand how you feel, I felt the same way, until I considered the intangibles. Bill, I have my reasons and, I am certain that when the time comes, you will see as I do, that this made good, long term business sense.

Bill looked at me, smiled, and shook his head. Then, he mumbled something about the “Feel, Felt, Saw” close I had just walked him through, smiled again, and patted me on the back. Bill was no doubt wondering, perhaps one last time, if I had lost all my screws or if one or two were still rattling around up in my head, somewhere.

It’s somehow sad that another man, a new client who’s known me for less than 2 years, aware of what I’ve recently overcome and seeing it as an advantage, was able to look beyond all Bill lived through. The former has placed his new business, and by extension his and his employees’ families’ welfare, in my hands.

Sadly, a man who has known me for years, knows first hand the battles I’ve fought and won…the war I won…was unable to get beyond the stigmas associated with a protracted illness.

Perhaps we haven’t changed that much after all?

I am still an optimist.

I am still hopeful.

How could it be otherwise after all I have been able to overcome…after all my family has overcome with me.

Thanks for reading. I’d love to hear your thoughts.

John Zajaros
johnzajaros@gmail.com (personal email address)
440-821-7018 (cell)

NOTE: Connie has a new garden. A new home. We have replanted ourselves and Connie no longer needs to feel sad. All summer and through the fall, Connie has decorated our new home with baskets of flowers. Life has returned to The Zajaros Household.

Kailyn and Grandpa: The Most Precious Moments are the Unanticipated Ones, the Intangible Rewards of a Magical Life!

Once in a while you have to stop everything and take a moment to take in all that truly matters. Grandchildren are the ultimate do-over, they provide you with one last chance to get it right, to not only make your life more meaningful but to touch the lives of all of those around you!

I was fortunate to have quite a few years between my son, now in his middle 30s and my daughters, all in their early 20s. That time span gave me the same sort of do-over mentality with the girls and I am carrying it over with my grandchildren. The opportunity to get it right rarely comes around twice. However, when it does, it is amazing and provides rewards beyond measure.

I just thought you might like to share a moment with me and my oldest granddaughter, Kailyn, as we visit our favorite hangout for strawberry sundaes, tin roofs, pretzels, peanuts, and some conversation!

John

John Zajaros
216-712-6526
216-539-7412
Skype: johnzajaros1
johnz@johnzajaros.com

Family First Entrepreneurship Isn’t Just a Catchy Phrase, It’s A Commitment to a Way of Life that Provides so Much!

Today I share what is possible when your family comes first, in all things!

The remarkable thing is that a year ago, had someone told me I would have had the kind of day I had today? I would have questioned whether they had been into my pain medication…or worse!

I hope you enjoy the video as much as I enjoyed making it. Well, most of it. Connie helped with the ravine stuff, I was kind of busy! I thought I would give the ravine a shot. It looked a lot more precarious than it was. The sack of potatoes, Kailyn, loves being thrown around and has complete confidence in my ability to keep here safe. I don’t know the same was true of Connie?

Once again, and I can’t state this forcefully enough, Family First Entrepreneurship isn’t just a catchy slogan, it’s a life commitment, and a way of life, every day!

This is just a short note to mention we took Sunday off and spent the day with our two little granddaughters, Kailyn and Brynn, and it was wonderful!

If you would like to share a moment with the Zajaros/Purdy Family, there are other moments on my YouTube Channel and I am currently building my channel at isofa.tv, a really cool video platform.

Ultimately, the rewards of a Family First lifestyle are myriad!

If you haven’t read the book ONO: Options not Obligations pick up a copy today, you can find it at bookstores or there’s a link to it on many of my blogs! It is a fast read but you will want to read it more than once. It will change your life!

Another great book, along the lines of accumulating wealth in a responsible manner and not through any of these new wave, hyped methods being espoused of late, is The Millionaire Next Door, while a bit dated the principle and concepts are as robust today as they were in the mid-1990s.

Apply the above works to your life and you will have charted a course to a life of successes. Apply the Family First Entrepreneurship ideal and you will be a complete success!

Contact me anytime!

John Zajaros
216-712-6526 (HOME)
216-539-7412 (BUS)
johnz@johnzajaros.com (contact me anytime)

The Meaning of Life and The Definition of Success

Life is funny sometimes!

Life is funny…as in peculiar, perplexing, uncertain, difficult, a conundrum. And yes, sometimes life is also funny, as in ha-ha, amusing, and downright hysterical! Very often, it is somewhere in between.

Success in life, on the other hand, is elusive, perplexing, rewarding, frustrating, and amazing. In other words, success is the ultimate paradox, disconcerting and awesome, often all in the same moment, at times in the same breath.

Success is elusive because most people don’t understand what success is, perplexing because they are chasing something they think will define success, without actually understanding that success is nothing close to what they envisioned or imagined.

Success is rewarding because, when it comes, and regardless of how fleeting it may be, it validates our efforts and is one of the most amazing experiences we can have as human beings…providing we recognize it along the way!

Success is a paradox because it is often accompanied by incredible heartbreak, even failure; and, it tests our mettle in ways we never imagined, in the fires of life.
While exploring the rain forests of Central America we used to say Heaven and Hell were one in the same, around every bend, in every experience, in each and every moment.

The reason for this?

We had to endure incredible hardship on our way to amazing experiences. We had to endure incredible physical trials in order to get to pristine locations, places where few people had been for hundreds of years, untouched and unspoiled by humans. We had to endure bugs that would literally turn any exposed skin into sores, sores that, if scratched, increased in discomfort exponentially, all the while taking in some of the most incredible experiences of our lives. We had to endure intense heat and humidity, enough to stagger many in our party, only to jump into a river, clothes and all, a river so clean you can drink from it without fear of any of one hundred possible diseases or infestations. Imagine snakes and tarantulas along side of the most amazing lightening bugs imaginable, as big as silver dollars lighting up the sky. Imagine one hundred different tests each and every day while experiencing the time of your life, in each and every moment!

Life is like that!

Success is like that!

We often hear people say that life is a process, a progression, but deep down inside many still assign success to things instead of to experiences. Success, like life, is experiential!

Why is success experiential? Because it is a process!

That’s why people say it is a progression. Success is very much like life, in that as we progress through it we can either live one year 30 times or we can live 30 years.

Life, like success, is a process, a learning opportunity we are not meant to survive…but it can be amazing along the way. The end result is the same! It is up to each of us how we progress, how we experience the tests along the way.

I often mention Tony Robbins when I talk about success because I have been listening to Tony and people like him for decades. Napoleon Hill, then Earl Nightingale, Zig Ziglar, J Douglas Edwards, Wayne Dyer, and others all have the same message, enunciated in different ways…but there is a common theme.

The theme?

Build one day upon the one before!

*Whether as a template for a lifetime, as Napoleon Hill suggests.
*As a 30 day all out quest, repeated again and again, as Earl Nightingale challenges us to do.
*Or as CANI! Constant and never ending improvement! as Tony Robbins suggests.

The result is the same, an incremental approach to life. The method is similar, using forward motion, baby steps to build something amazing!

Baby steps?

What About Bob? is one of my all-time favorite movies and does the whole baby steps thing in such a great way! Take the time, Bill Murray and Richard Dreyfus at their best!

While we are on the subject of movies, and Bill Murray, watch Groundhog Day! Talk about a message cloaked in comedy! Do it over until you get it right, can you imagine? Can you imagine being given the chance to live every day until you get it just right?

You do!

You are!

Each and every day is a major do-over!

We have two choices, we can go on into the next day, week, month, year, decade in the same way as the one before…or we can have a do-over. Because every day we live is in essence a chance to reshoot the day before, to get it right…Groundhog Day!

If you haven’t watched those two movies, do so! They will not only make you laugh until you cry, therapy in and of itself, but you will learn something about life and do-overs! We all get them each and every day…it is all about perspective and about living each moment and building upon the one before, learning from our successes and our failures on the way to CANI!

Constant and Never Ending Improvement!

Well, enough for now! The video below will help you get a sense for the mindset I have been developing over a lifetime. I thought I might share a little of it.
Remember! Build, remember, and make it better each and every day. Your life will be amazing and success will be a done deal!

John

Professor John P. J. Zajaros, Sr.
216-712-6526
Skype: johnzajaros1
johnz@johnzajaros.com

johnz@ultimateinternetmarketing.info
Video Title:
Life, Success. and a Sculpture on Halloween!

It seems like only yesterday and it’s been over 5 months already! Time flies by, particularly as we age!

I treasure every moment I am able to spend with my grandkids. The silver lining in all the health issues I lived through was that I was able to spend a lot of time watching my kids growing up and being a part of their lives. Now, I get to do it again with my grandchildren! Talk about an awesome do-over!

Nothing big here, just a very special moment and a proud grandfather showing off his newest addition to the Zajaros Family! Actually, The Zajaros/Purdy Family!

New blog post later today on a more serious note…shifting perspective. I hope you enjoy both this one and the one to follow!

John

John Zajaros
216-712-6526
Skype: johnzajaros1
johnz@johnzajaros.com

You may or may not be aware of the fact that almost two months ago I initiated a marketing campaign based on my passion to help people suffering from neck pain, back pain, and sciatica. The marketing campaign has been quite successful for a variety of reasons, most of which have nothing to do with leads generated and sales made!

The biggest benefit derived from the marketing campaign has nothing at all to do with income. The most significant payout has been in terms of life-shaping energy, in fact a whole new perspective on life, including my firm belief that I am indeed the captain of my own ship.

I have also come away with a new and very powerful commitment to my burning desire…my life goal(s)!

If you subscribe to The Internet Marketing Quest Revealed, The Ultimate Internet Image and/or the Ultimate Internet Marketing Newsletter(s) you know my formula for success. If you do not currently subscribe to one of them or this one, please do so today, particularly if you hope to make a living, or simply supplement your income, online. I can assure you it will be well worth the effort (i.e., typing in your name, email address, phone number [optional] and then confirming it, that’s it!).

BURNING DESIRE + EMPATHY + DETERMINATION = PROSPERITY

Well, something very remarkable happened once I started my most recent marketing campaign. Actually, quite a few somethings occurred!

The marketing campaign, still running actually, deals with how anyone (man or woman, young or old, working or disabled), regardless of the severity of previous neck pain, back pain and/or sciatica issues (e.g., I’ve had 14 spine operations, a compressed vertebrae in my neck, a rebuilt shoulder complete with plates and screws, insulin dependent diabetes, and a myriad of other health issues and complications, including being overweight) can, if properly motivated and equipped with the right knowledge and advice, change his or her life!

In fact, he or she could, in short order, live a relatively pain free existence…just as I do!

So, on June 29, 2009 I initiated a program that has changed my life. And, from what I am told, it has also transformed the lives of many other chronic pain sufferers who are following me in one way or another as we take back our lives. Some people who started walking with me, even if it was only to the end of their respective driveways, have achieved neck pain, back pain and/or sciatica relief for the first time in years! How exciting is that?!

Talk about amazing, albeit intangible, results!

Yes, the results are anecdotal and difficult to quantify, much less track, and there are no metrics (to use a Goobledygook term), yet they are so rewarding that being paid with a piece of paper pales in significance. How wonderful to not only be able to transform my own life, but the lives of people who are, or were, suffering from neck pain, back pain, and sciatica just as I was! There isn’t a check you can write that will pay me like the last 59 days have…in every conceivable way!

And yes, I have made money!

Want to know something? The money doesn’t matter, it simply isn’t as important as the intangibles are. The intangibles provide meaning, as well as real and lasting value here…everywhere! The intangible rewards are where the true meaning of success is to be found!

Why am I telling you this? Well, there are myriad reasons. However, and let’s get this one out of the way right up front, it is not to toot my own horn!

One of the primary reasons has to do with the fact that I am in a business that equates success with million dollar days, fancy sports cars, and mansions. Just recently several of the main guys, the “gurus” in the field got together and during a video equated the first million dollar day online with Sir Roger Bannister’s 4 minute mile. I suppose in one sense they’re right, or rather Tony Robbins is right, he made the analogy. Yet, when you think about it, does making a million dollars in one day online come anywhere close to breaking a record that stood from the beginning of recorded time? I suppose it is a reflection of priorities and perspective…two things I am big on!

Another reason is that the marketing campaign has had such an incredible life of its own, I had to tell someone, so I decided to tell everybody! The premise behind the campaign, initiated as a way to reach out and help people with their neck pain, back pain and/or sciatica, while making money at the same time, is not a new one. I suppose other campaigns have had an equally profound impact on both the marketer, in this case yours truly, and the target audience, those of you who read the blog posts, the articles, watched the videos, etc. It’s just that the results have been so amazing, utterly unexpected, and have benefited me to a far greater degree than those I was trying to help…I have indeed received my efforts back ten-fold! In every way but money! Yes, as I have already said, the money came too…but this is about so much more than just money.

The real payoff? The real payoff has been in the area of what I set out to do, help people suffering from neck pain, back pain, and sciatica! I had one gentleman with arachnoiditis call me from across the country, in California, to tell me what an impact my videos had on him. I had a sciatica sufferer from Florida email me and contact me on twitter to tell me how much my message had helped her. I had a facebook friend tell me about her experience with the right shoes for walking with neck pain, back pain, and/or sciatica, and so on.

There are many others who have contacted me. Many more who just dropped me an email, called and left a message on my voicemail or Skyped me! Talk about getting paid!

I saved the best for last! Here are just some of the many benefits I have experienced personally as a result of my marketing campaign to help others overcome their neck pain, back pain, and/or sciatica!

1.) I have dropped several inches off my waste. I actually had to buy new belts, pants, underwear, and even shoes! Dropping over 20 pounds in 59 days will do that to a wardrobe. Must have had fat feet too!

2.) I have incredible energy and work and play for hours each and every day (18 to 20 hours a day)!

3.) One of my doctors, the one I’ve consulted the most, for a variety of issues over the last four years, said last Wednesday that he has never seen me look and sound better.

4.) My blood tests came back perfect for the first time in years, I am illness free for the first time in forever. Some of the people I have mentored over the past year know just how much of a victory that is…it is nothing short of a miracle! An absolute miracle!

5.) Having been diagnosed diabetic in the early 1990s, I was put on insulin in 2004 and had to test myself 4-5 times a day. I took 8u of Novolog before every meal, plus a sliding scale (you diabetics know what I mean, I was sick!). I also had to take 30u of Lantus, a long lasting insulin at bed time every day, just so things would stay regulated over night. I no longer have to take insulin at all and my blood sugar stays right at 100 plus/minus 5! For the uninitiated, that’s very, very good…in 59 days!

6.) I now walk over 5 miles a night with TuffGuy, my walking buddy and second-best friend! Connie and the kids come first in all things!

7.) I workout every day or every other day, depending on how I feel and what the demands of the day are, I hadn’t picked up a weight in years!

8.) I ride a recumbent bike up to 65 minutes a workout, in addition to my weight training. This, after a total shoulder replacement/rebuild in 2007, and a pulmonary embolism that almost took my life…on top of the 14 back surgeries and the osteomyleitis (staph infection in the vertebrae and much of the surrounding tissue from T-12 to S-1) that almost did me in too! I think I am running low on lives!

And many, many more benefits…but that will do for now. Once again, the purpose of this post/article is not to toot my own horn but to give you an idea of just how successful one can be…way before money every enters the equation. In fact, had I been fixated on the money, I doubt I would have realized that the true potential for success here was as much about what it was doing for others, and for myself, as for how much paper I could accumulate per transaction.

I hope this provides a window into the true possibilities, way beyond those we traditionally think about and fixate on. In other words, it ain’t always about the money! In fact, it is rarely about the money! In this case, while attempting to put my passion into action and help people suffering from neck pain, back pain, and sciatica, I helped myself in a way money never could have! Ever!

Now that is real success! That, and the 4 minute mile! Tony Robbins et al. notwithstanding!

Best wishes always!

John

Professor John P. J. Zajaros, Sr., The Bad Back Guy
216-712-6526
Skype: johnzajaros1
johnz@johnzajaros.com