When you first examine a mentor/protégé relationship, it may look abusive on the surface. In other words, the mentor may seem to be using the protégé to accomplish self-serving tasks. It’s like the “paint the fence” scene in “Karate Kid.”

Mentors may have the protégé do activity that on the surface seems demeaning or belittling to the protégé or like the protégé’s being taken advantage of. In some situations I suspect that is true. However, once the protégé accomplishes the activity, the mentor will spend time explaining the lesson to make sure the protégé understands.

Other mentors in my life like Mark Victor Hansen taught me how to understand marketing. Mark always encouraged me and told me I had a great mind for marketing. When those words came from such a respected icon, I believed them, and today I lead some highly successful marketing campaigns.

Because Floyd’s mentor was Zig Zigler, I had the pleasure to meet Zig and work with him on many occasions. The relationship was not as deep as my relationship with Floyd, but I still learned a lot from Zig in a short amount of time. One of the things I learned from Zig was to build a wall of fame. Put pictures of people who had profound influence on your life on a wall in your office so they look at you every day and remind you of their lessons.

One of my mentors that I never met is Napoleon Hill. The lessons I have learned with him are too numerous to list here. Mr. Hill’s mentor was Andrew Carnegie, who assigned Mr. Hill a task that today would seem extremely unreasonable. That task was to interview 500 of the world’s most famous and successful men and write about what they had in common to make them successful. The result of his years of research and interviewing is the book Think and Grow Rich. If you never read it, I strongly suggest you purchase a copy to add to your success library.

I don’t know for sure, but suspect Mr. Hill had many protégés.

Another of my mentors is Jack Canfield. I had the pleasure of interviewing Jack for his demo video that my company Primeau Productions was producing. Jack taught me about how to tame my ego and look at relationships—past and present—as learning experiences and learn from them instead of letting negative relationships bring me down.

I have worked with Jane Fonda, Marlo Thomas and Bob Seger. Even though these were not formal mentor protégé relationships, I still learned from them when spending time with them. This knowledge pulled me up to the next level of my success.

Today my new mentor is Mark C. Thompson. We have yet to solidify a mentor protégé relationship, but I see it coming. I have learned a lot from Mark. Mark’s mentor is Sir Richard Branson. I have learned a lot about business from Mark and I suspect he has learned a lot by hanging out with Sir Richard. Mark has worked very hard to prove himself a value to Sir Richard just as I have worked very hard to prove myself of value to Mark C. Thompson.

It’s easy for people to think negatively of mentor protégé relationships because on the surface some activity looks negative. However, I understand the mentoring process and believe as my first mentor Floyd Wickman said “if everyone had a mentor and everyone were a mentor we could solve a lot of problems in this world.”

I will continue to earn Mark’s respect and work toward earning a protégé relationship with Mark. Can you imagine the knowledge I will glean from knowing and spending time with Mark? It’s probably very similar to the knowledge Mark has learned about delegating and building business from Sir Richard.

If you are reading this blog post and do not have a mentor, I strongly suggest you seek one out. It’s the puzzle piece that helps life and success make sense.

The interesting thing about tequila is that most Americans who have drunk tequila have drunk an impure variety that’s not one hundred percent blue Agave tequila. In other words, they have bought the brands popular in the US that are mixed with corn liquor—which is why a lot of people have experienced hangovers from drinking tequila. There’s a lot of corn in Mexico—it’s one of their number one crops and it is used for many different things including corn tortillas and corn chips—so it’s natural to make corn liquor through the same fermentation process that they use for just about any type of liquor. However, many of the tequila brands that Americans have drunk are made from tequila that is mixed with the corn distilled liquor, which is what makes you sick. So if anyone reading this has drunk tequila and has sworn it off and said they would never drink it again, consider the fact that true tequila consists of one hundred percent blue Agave and is made only in certain regions in Mexico.

The other interesting thing that I discovered about this 75 year-old business is that they supplied tequila to many major bottlers including Cabo Wabo; which is a tequila marketed by Sammy Hagar. EL Viejito also supplies Patrón; one of America’s most expensive and most pure blue Agave tequila with about fifty percent, of what Patrón bottles and distributes, sold in the United States. One of the reasons Patrón costs so much money is that it is made with one hundred percent blue Agave. Agave is an almost Aloe Vera type looking plant. It’s not a cactus, but the Agave do grow in the ground., It almost looks like a pineapple when it’s cleaned up. I actually had a chance to film EL Viejito’s entire process, from delivery of the Agave, to splitting the Agave, to putting it into a room filled with steam supplied from a boiler (which pressure cooks it). I even tasted some of it. It’s very sweet—there are a lot of bees in that area because of the sweetness. From there the Agave is loaded onto a conveyer belt and goes through four distinct presses that squeeze all of the syrup out of the it before it becomes compost. These four presses squeeze the juice out and the juice is what goes into the tequila making process. The remains are put back into the ground as fertilizer.

The fact that I would like to share in this blog post that is probably the most amazing is the work ethic and the family-like environment of EL Viejito. Some of the workers have been employed with this distillery for up to 30 years. People on an assembly line fill the bottles by hand. The tequila then goes to the next part of the assembly line where the labels and the caps are actually put on by hand. They are then put into the box which is sealed with tape. The box then goes onto a skid and it’s hand wrapped with saran wrap to keep it from falling off during shipment. Even more interesting, EL Viejito’s sales have increased by one hundred percent in the last year. Their great success could probably be attributed to their work ethic.

Working with EL Viejito was a wonderful experience. I hope that going away from reading this blog post, you give tequila another try. If you do, look for the one hundred percent blue Agave tequila.

A quote from one of his songs that I personally love goes, “Spent the last year Rocky Mountain Way, couldn’t get much higher. Look out John Denver.” Joe Walsh is also big part of my childhood because after listening to the James Gang for so many evenings and at so many parties during high school, I gradually fell in love with his music.  Then his solo career was a blockbuster with “Rocky Mountain Way” and after the Eagles connected with him, this took that already successful band to another level. Now as I look back at Joe Walsh’s career I’m absolutely impressed with his expertise and eloquence with the way he writes and composes music.

One thing in particular, though, that I didn’t know about Joe Walsh was that he lost his young daughter in a car accident and he composed a song  for her, which was similar to what Eric Clapton did with “Tears In Heaven.” In my opinion, when a songwriter can use their craft like Joe Walsh did to work though a major tragedy in their life, my respect for them increases tenfold.

Continuing on with Joe Walsh’s history, he completed his career with the Eagles and then took some time off for himself. I remember this because the first time I ever saw him in concert was with the Ringo Star All Star Band, which is composed of many performances of different musicians who had been in retirement and had come back again. Joe Walsh absolutely kicked ass with the rest of Ringo’s band.

When I saw this ad on Facebook and clicked on it, I was taken to Ticketmaster which gave me the opportunity to search for tickets. I then called a friend of mine who always goes to see shows of this nature with me. He also thought it would be awesome to go to the show. I clicked the best two tickets available and up popped some incredible seats. I thought this surely this had to be a mistake, and as I followed though the purchasing process I realized that the ad must have just come on Facebook. It was all very serendipitous and we ended up getting two front row seats to go see Joe Walsh at the Toledo zoo amphitheatre.

In a way it’s kind of sad that such a legendary talent has to resort to playing at such a bizarre location. I’m sure there was a reason behind it that might become clear between now and May 31^st when I go to the concert. But initially, it’s a very strange situation. Now it looks like it’s outdoors, so it’s rain or shine and there’s probably some kind of an overhang above at least part of the pavilion seats. I have to admit, I’ve never been to the Toledo zoo before, but I’ve heard a lot of good things about it so this is going to be an interesting experience. I might even go early and take in some animal viewing before we go to the rock show that night.

One thing I realized I love about coin collecting, or numismatics as the hobby is titled, is that unlike stocks and mutual funds, coins are available to visually enjoy, touch and feel every day. Another thing I love about collecting coins is they always gone up in value if know what and how to collect. Personally, I love toned silver coins. I have a collection of Bust Half Dollars and Morgan Silver Dollars that are among my prize possessions.

If you collect or are thinking about collecting coins, I strongly recommend that you buy coins that are third party graded and authenticated. eBay has some great deals, but do your homework before buying. Here are some reasons to buy only third party graded coins:

• Third party graded coins are authentic and genuine based on a third party’s expertise
• If you ever want to sell your coins, having them third party graded maintains their value
• There is no doubt about the grade of your coin since the third party grading is credible
• Third party professional coin graders have no emotional stake in the value of your coin

Having a coin graded by a third party professional grading service will cost you about $35 on average. Let’s use a Morgan Silver Dollar for sale on eBay for $100. You can research the value of this coin on the PCGS website and confirm its market value. If the value of your coin is $100 and is in a third party graded sealed plastic holder like the one in the picture, then you can add at least a $35 value to your coin and have made a profit before you receive the coin. The price to have that coin graded by any of the reputable coin grading services like ANACS and PCGS is $35-$50 depending on the type of grading service you request. The PCGS website has a price guide and grades coins as a service.  ANACS is strictly a third party grading service.

Now, if that coin is for sale on eBay for $75, you just made a $60 profit!

Considering the facts that silver prices generally go up in value over the years and other investments do not bring as much enjoyment because you cannot touch and see them on a day to day basis, collecting coins is not only fun but also profitable.

I strongly urge you to stay away from buying coins that are not third party graded because your coin grade is based on an emotional opinion and value. You cannot confirm the coin grade and mishandling that coin may have had in the past.  Plus the person selling the coin may have priced it at a higher grade that the actual grade of the coin. Cleaning for example will lower the grade and value of a coin. Learning how to detect this mishandling is hard for the beginner. Then, when and if you ever try to sell that non-third party graded coin, you will more than likely lose money.

I plan on enjoying my coins throughout my life and passing some onto my family as well as selling them in on line auctions as I need the money in my later years. I will continue to keep them in a safety deposit box and on hand for future enjoyment. I love watching the value increase over time and especially love thinking about the coins history: who owned the coin?  Was it used in a transaction or in a civil war soldier’s pocket? Not knowing where the coin has been or who owned it adds more adventure to the hobby for me.

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Looking for an Audio Forensic Expert?

Ed Primeau-Audio & Video Forensic Expert
Telephone: 800.647.4281
Email: Ed@PrimeauProductions.com 
Address: P.O Box 71220
Rochester Hills, Michigan 48307

There are several additional facts after further voice analysis. First, I am greatly concerned about why Zimmerman did not listen to the 911 operator and wait for police. Could it have been because he didn’t want a suspicious character that may have been guilty of a breaking and entering crime to “get away with it”? I am also forensically concerned about how Zimmerman’s voice changed during the 911 call: specifically, the concern he expressed to the 911 operator which is recorded “these assholes always get away.” He made this statement in a very resentful vocal tone which is different from the sincere vocal tone he had at the beginning of the call.

Then after giving police directions, he mumbled something under his breath (which I believe is not a positive phrase and is derogatory). Why the altercation? Police were less than 5 minutes away and would have handled the situation.  Zimmerman could have just followed Trayvon and helped police apprehend him.

Then the big question, why did Zimmerman shoot to kill? He could have shot Trayvon in the shoulder or foot to maim him and keep him from getting away. Instead he shot to kill him. This is not a theory, this is a fact.

So since there have been no formal charges, the people of the United States have taken sides. This is exactly what we did not want to happen. Protests continue across the country. The media has taken over as our judicial system because our legal system has failed us.

I believe it is important to know who cried for help. This single development may be the most important piece of information authorities have about the Trayvon Martin killing. If this were Trayvon crying for help, then why did Zimmerman lie and say it was him? Was he worried about the charges?

Up to this point, I have not been paid a dime for my time or my preliminary testing. I did this preliminary voice identification work in an attempt to help a difficult situation.

Here are the forensic steps I have taken to analyze the 911 audio recordings. First, I critically listened to the calls and made several observations about the voices in two of the calls (George Zimmerman’s call and the woman’s call with the screaming and gunshot) and noted speech and voice characteristics. I immediately believed that the cries for help were not George Zimmerman’s.

The following day I conducted further testing. I created a back to back edited digital audio file using sections from the Zimmerman call and the screaming male. This is how I confirmed my initial opinion that the cry for help is not Zimmerman.

Next I applied light equalization, noise reduction and compression to the Zimmerman call so that I could hear his words more clearly. I was listening for anything that might help me understand more about the audio recordings. This is when I observed the mumbling by George Zimmerman after giving the 911 operator directions. I also noticed how his attitude and mood changed while talking to the 911 operator.  These observations were all noted as I continued to make observations.

Think about it, why would a guy with a loaded gun who was stalking someone suddenly turn into a victim? That’s what the Zimmerman team is claiming. Whatever Trayvon did was in self-defense. Heck, perhaps he tried to stand his ground too (of course 17 year old kids know all the laws that protect them, right?) And, silly him, he didn’t have a gun. A young man is dead, there is evidence that needs to be examined and additional testing that should be conducted.

For forensics investigation to proceed, an exemplar needs to be created. If the court would step in and order Mr. Zimmerman to cooperate, an exemplar or sample of Mr. Zimmerman’s voice could be recorded and analyzed against the original cries for help. This sample would be created to be as identical to the original as possible. For example, place Mr. Zimmerman in the exact location where the altercation took place. A forensic expert would help orchestrate this exemplar recording process and direct Mr. Zimmerman to scream like the cries for help in the recorded 911 call. Those voice samples would be recorded using as many of the same electronics that were used in the original recording as possible.

In a perfect world, the same phone and 911 call center would cooperate and help facilitate the recording. When complete, an audio forensic expert would conduct a formal voice identification test and report their findings.

If Trayvon were alive, the same test could be conducted on his voice. It is my understanding that there are no Trayvon media (audio or video) recordings available other than his cell phone (which is better than nothing).

Voice identification is an art and a science and is a valuable tool in litigation. If you would like to learn more about voice identification, one of my mentors, Mr. Steve Cain, wrote a great article which is published on Expert Pages: http://expertpages.com/news/voiceprint_identification.htm.

I was not a huge sports fan back then, nor am I a huge sports fan now. It takes a lot to get me to a ball game. But Joe and I really hit it off while working on recording interviews with some of the great people around the history of Tiger Stadium: Denny McClaine, Senator Jim Bunning, Sparky Anderson and, of course, Ernie Harwell. I had known and worked with Ernie because he was a paid spokesperson for many local Detroit businesses.

Joe and I went on to produce “Echoes of Tiger Stadium” which sold a whopping 23,000 units in Detroit and surrounding cities in Michigan.  We sold CDs to Harmony House and other boutique sports shops.  Pete Karmanos, a great friend of Joe’s, bought 10,000 copies to give his employees as a gift.

The media ate it up because the theme was timely.  Joe was interviewed on about 35 radio, TV and news papers during the course of the four weeks around the final game at the stadium.

I had the pleasure of following Joe around with my Cannon XL1 to video record many of his appearances.  The video below are segments taken from nearly 5 hours of footage recorded that week that I will never forget.

We had a lot of fun together but Joe also taught me a few life lessons that I want to share with you.  First, he always wanted to play and have fun.  This was a great lesson because at the time I took life too seriously.  Joe taught me to have fun and play more.  I also learned how to write from Joe.  He didn’t teach me formally, but he taught me through tips.

Joe taught me two lessons about writing that I will never forget and that I still use to this day. First, always write on a sixth grade level.  It makes your article easier to read.  Secondly, after your first draft, go back and remove superfluous words. We all have the habit of writing like we talk.  Too many words make for a boring read.  Remove unnecessary words to tighten up your article and stick with the facts.  When you are done tightening up, read it from an outsider’s perspective and make sure your message is clear.

In 4^th grade Sister Mary Joseph tried to teach me to tell the readers what you want to tell them, tell them and tell them what you told them.  Thank goodness she was wrong.  Joe really taught me how to write.  Thank you Joe Falls!

Marketing is the activity of getting your business name out there. “Out there” has different definitions depending on who you ask. To your public, those persons or businesses that need your goods and services. How will these future buyers know about your business if there is no marketing plan in place?

Businesses need to have staff or an outsourced marketing person to help carry out the marketing plan. One of our clients is an extremely successful training company that cannot seem to designate a marketing person within their company.  In fact, the CEO will not spend the annual investment for an on staff or outsources marketing person. As a result, a lot of face to face contact is necessary to close deals and a lot of opportunities are missed.

The day to day activities of marketing personnel include creating Internet content, managing social media activity and developing strategies for inbound and outbound campaigns.

This content creation is where my perspective on Thought Leadership begins.  Creating content is the capital ‘T’ most important activity for any business that has a marketing plan in place. If that content includes great website content, blog postings and audio and video podcasts, you have a much better chance of impressing your audience “out there” so they do business with your company.

Thought leadership is the strategies necessary to position your company as a leader in your industry.  Do you know the answers to these questions?

• What does your business know that your competitors don’t know?
• How much more experience and customer reviews do you have than your competitors?
• What differentiates you for your competition?
• How long have you been in business?
• How do you communicate this information across all marketing platforms? Do you use media relations to leverage your expertise?
• Are you happy with your website?

Your company website is the first place to begin building your thought leadership. You are a thought leader when people look to you for answers they cannot find anywhere else.

Your company website is also your virtual storefront. I believe a website is never done. Rather, it is a work in process since nearly every industry has been through reinvention (including the Funeral Industry). Having the ability to easily change and modify your website today is more crucial to the survival of your marketing strategy and ultimately your business than anything else (except maybe for customer service and quality product).

So how do you position your thought leadership in your marketing efforts? Start with these three tips:

1. Make sure your website is 100% perfect to attract customers.  Continuously post new content in the form of blog posts and audio and video podcasts.  This 1) gives your visitors a reason to want to come to your website, 2 )gives your visitors a reason to do business with your company, and 3) gives Internet spiders a reason to crawl your website. Inbound marketing numbers exceed outbound marketing numbers in order of importance. Inbound marketing is the activity of people finding you rather than you finding them.  I hate to oversimplify but the effort and money you put into outbound marketing like email marketing, ad words, advertising and direct mail will yield you much LESS business than a well organized and strategized “thought leadership” based outbound marketing campaign.

2. Work on Link building: get as many organic links to your website as possible. .ORG, .GOV and .EDU are the best link builders.  .COM is valuable too. We are asked regularly for permission from organizations to link to our content and/or republish. In my humble opinion, nobody needs permission to link to articles and blog posts.  Outside links are a good thing.

3. Drive traffic in social media communities and Internet marketing campaigns to purchasable content across all communication channels. When you give away advice, business will come back to you.  I have been working with people coaching and consulting since the day we met.  They call when they need help. These excellent clients know that we will deliver for them.  Many were referred by other clients; others found us on the Internet.  At least 20% of our business each year comes unsolicited from the Internet. That number may jump to 40% this year since we are experiencing rapid growth.

Marketing is how you can get your message out there and content creation is an important component of marketing. When creating content, focus on thought leadership to help you position your company as a leader in your industry. Making sure your website is perfect, working on link building, and driving traffic from various Internet channels to purchasable content are three ways to help you establish thought leadership. Our line is open for your feedback and questions.

So after we left the area unharmed, I decided to call the city of Detroit to learn who owned the home.  I was transferred from one department to another, left on hold for long periods of time and finally given another 313 number to call for the “real estate” division.  I tried calling but nobody answered the phone.  I must have written down the number wrong. So I called back and spoke to the same lady who gave me the “real estate” division phone number.  She read the exact number I was trying to call again.  I told her nobody answered the phone when I called, she asked me to hold on a minute.  With no message on hold music, I waited patiently.  The same lady picked up the phone and answered “real estate.”  I asked about the home at 15091 Mayfield, the home where I spent the first 12 years of my life.  She replied, “please hold”…3 minutes later, she came back on the line.  “The home is owned by the City of Detroit.” I replied, “Okay, how can I buy it?”  She said, “It’s very hard: you have to come down to 65 Cadillac Square 11^th floor and fill out an application, which is very long, to get the home on the ‘BID LIST’.”

I asked if the form was available on line.  She replied with a blunt “NO.” Not only did she have an attitude problem, but she also spoke volumes for the City of Detroit’s attitude problem.  “No wonder there are so many abandon homes in Detroit,” I replied, and wished her a good day to which she silently hung up.

Why can’t we offer homesteading in Detroit? I would gladly pay $5000 to buy my childhood home and begin removing the rubble and tear down the burnt portions to gradually rebuild the home to the best of my ability.  If just one home on each block in that square mile of urban plight were repaired, not only would we begin to heal the city but we could also easily put $500,000 into the city’s depleted operating capital.  That’s just one square mile! If we did that to the entire city, we could generate 5,000,000 and start to clean up the city.

I believe we have to think about what we want to come about instead of thinking about what we don’t want to come about. “What the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve” was a great line that Henry Ford would quote from his friend Napoleon Hill.

We have weak leadership in Detroit and that leadership needs our help.  If a program were in place for organized homesteading, (not a drive down to 65 Cadillac Square which nobody from the ‘burbs will ever find let alone spend the time to drive to) Detroit would have a chance to heal. Perhaps contractors would begin purchasing these homes and turn them for a small profit!

Perhaps not-for-profit organizations would help place homeless citizens in these homes and occupy the city with healthy families instead of crack houses and scum. Churches would flourish because people would be living in their districts who had jobs and the ability to donate in the Sunday collections.  Once churches became stable and vacant houses occupied, local businesses would improve because of the need of the local residents.

All it would take to get started is one person on the city council putting a plan in place for organized homesteading in the City of Detroit.  My company Primeau Productions would conduct the advertising and marketing for this initiative and help create awareness of the new plan to rebuild Detroit.

When was the last time you visited the east side of Detroit and witnessed the number of vacant homes?  Wouldn’t it be nice to know that our once thriving city might stand a chance to heal itself by reconstruction? This is not a pipe dream; this is a plan that can work.  It has worked in other countries and it can work for Detroit too.  All it will take is action.

Earlier this week I went to the best chiropractor in the world, Dr. Bowler, at the Essential Chiropractic in Ferndale Michigan.  I have been a patient for 20 years.  Dr Bowler only adjusts the top three vertebra because it is her belief that if your head is on straight, the rest of your body will follow accordingly.

I had a few sore spots and thought for sure my neck was out of alignment.  It was not and Dr Bowler began asking questions.  One big question was “What type of water do you drink?” For about 6 months, we have been getting reverse osmosis water by the gallons.  Dr Bowler said that reverse osmosis water is almost like poison to the body because it robs us of our minerals.

She went on to say that more people suffer from mineral depletion than vitamin depletion. So why the pain? The body is depleted of trace minerals faster with reverse osmosis water because when drank, the osmosis process strips every mineral out of water and our bodies.

Her prescription: stop at any health food store and buy some liquid trace minerals. Add three times the dose to a shot of real water (bottled) and slam it down.  “If you are in touch with your body you will feel immediate relief.” So I did and I did.  It was instant; the pain in my neck went away as well as the lower back pain.

Mineral testing is my next goal to maintain my health. At 53, I completely understand the importance of prevention. I now add a few drops to my bottled water several times each day.  My mood has improved and my body feels a whole lot better.