LAW XIV - The Law of the Big Fish

LAW XIV - The Law of the Big Fish

"The Bigger the Fish, the Harder the Fight... and when Fully Throttled, the Greater Reward."

About two months ago CKMG was contracted to develop a couple web sites within the Real Estate and Land Investment verticals.

ReferMyClients.com allows Realtors the ability to offer land, ranches, ranchettes and other real estate throughout the country by referring their clients to the opportunities owned by AcreageAnywhere, LLC and other developers as relationships are formed.

AcreageAnywhere.com will be the sister site to ReferMyClients.com and will enable the Realtor the ability to promote real estate opportunities with a personalized site to their clients. Ex: BettySueRealtor.AcreageAnywhere.com.

As we move closer to the launch date of these sites I was asked to spend time with the leadership of AcreageAnywhere, LLC at their 13,000 square foot home away from home, El Villa Las Palmas within the Cabo San Lucas exclusive Pedregal gates. During Memorial Day Weekend, Cabo holds the World Championship Bill-Fish Release Tournament bringing the some of the World's top anglers to the gorgeous Cabo Coast to take part in the Million dollar tournament.

View of Cabo from the Pool...


Path to Front Entrance...










View of Pool Bar & Cabana...


Sunday morning we boarded Spartacus at Sea,
their 60-Foot Hatteras Sport Yacht. I've done a lot of fishing
off San Diego and this boat crew was by far the best
I've ever seen. Captain Steve, Vicente, Rudy and Memo all definitely have the force. Their work ethic and teamwork inspired the next law which will be posted later this week, LAW XV - The Law of the Boat Crew.

After a night of hammering Cabo Wabo and the No Where Bar we got down to the boat dock around 830am to head out to sea. There's nothing like heading out to sea at the break of dawn with the ill affects of a Cabo-Rita hangover... Of Course!

Fun and Games aside, we left the dock with one mission and one mission only... to do a little practice fishing before the big tournament the following morning. It was all business on the boat, Captain Steve was leading the way while Vicente, Memo, and Rudy were dropping hammers setting hooks, drag lines and bait.

A couple hours into to the adventure we came across the first sign of a big fish. Striped Marlin feed and feed and when they've fed themselves enough they'll float at the oceans surface to rest allowing their food to digest. The untrained eye is unable to notice or recognize what fishermen call "the sleeper" and first glance but once you've seen the it once your eyes become entranced on the ocean's horizon searching for the next sleeper.

Just as I was about to doze off on the upper level of Spartacus I hear someone yell, "SLEEPER"!... so we all raise up and check the bow of the boat as Memo and Vicente are the first to grab reels and launch bait toward the double peaking fins of the Sleeper. It's the wildest thing to see a Marlin get hooked, it's almost like the Sleeper is in some sort of trance and the moment the bait hits the water it suddenly snaps back to life and propels forward attacking the bait as if it's been stalking it for days...

The sleeper at the front of the boat takes a whack at the bait but nothing gets hooked. Within seconds of wondering what the hell happened I hear a squeal coming from the back of the boat. The right rear drag line starts to wind out and Rudy who is already at the back of the boat jumps on the rod with the quickness. I climb down to the back of the boat without hesitation as Rudy prepares to hand off the rod.

I strap on the belt and get dialed in... right when I get a hold of the rod the marlin takes off, all I hear is the rod wheel spinning out uncontrollably. I hear a "Start reeling that mutha!" as Memo jumps down from the top deck and starts to coach. I start winding down like Mayweather on a speed bag with a grip so tight the skin on my thumb, ring finger and palm begins to get red hot.

Back and forth I'm walking the rear of the boat, when the fish pulls... I hold strong and pull back, when he tires I start winding down again... This back and forth is almost at the 30 minute mark and I'm beginning to hit muscle failure. The whole left side of my back from my ass to my trap is burning up... My left arm feels like I've been walking for miles holding a 50 pound dumb bell as my grip begins to loosen up. Shea comes down from the top and offers me a swig of beer... I nod her off partly because I don't have the breath to say no and partly because one sip would lead to me wanting to slam the whole thing.

I start thinking in my head how bad this fish just wants to go home... he's 150+ of pure muscle fighting for his life while I'm on the other end of the rod thinking about how bad I've always wanted to catch a marlin and how horrible it would be to fight this long and lose due to the mental aspect of hitting muscle failure. For a split second I have a thought cross my mind that it may be best to hand this off to someone with some more juice. Just as fast as the thought comes it leaves as I continue to fight on.

At this point I'm completely drenched with sweat as it's almost noon and the sun is reflecting off the water and boat like heat lamps of a tanning bed set to "burn that ass". Finally the big blue fish is against the ropes... I'm thinking "don't break that line, please fish don't break it".

Vicente grabs the line, Memo grabs the gaff, Rudy grabs the bill, I step back with my hand tight on the wheel just in case this fish goes for one last run... and within seconds the exhausted fish is pulled on deck and the biggest rush of adrenaline rushes through my body reminding me of the days when I was jumping out of C-130's at Bragg.

WOW... what a beautiful fish! The blue stripes look florescent in the suns direct light as Memo gracefully knocks the fish into submission with the pummel stick. An abrupt way to go but this fish is no trophy, this big boy is going to be cut into filet's to feed the troops. A honorable way to go after a 45 minute battle in the calm blue waters off the coast of Cabo San Lucas. Home of the Beautiful Striped Blue Marlin...

The Law of the Big Fish can be applied to many challenges a leader may face in his/her life. If something is worth having, it's worth fighting for and those that have the mental and physical fortitude to fight the good fight will receive one of life's greatest rewards. The memorable reward of accomplishment, one that you never forget. Thanks to Shea and Gary for allowing me to have this awesome experience.

LAW XIII - The Law of the Family Feast

For the love of the Thanksgiving Holiday...

When your MBS is in need of rejuvenation remember LAW XIII, the Law of the Family Feast.

Having the family over for dinner is always special; good food, stiff drinks, funny stories and no clean up detail. It's great!

This year had to be one of the top 3 Thanksgiving Feasts I've ever had. Not so much because of the food, which was phenomenal, but because of the way we started our meal. Every family has a different way of starting their meal and typically my family would start the meal with a prayer of thanks. This year we all took turns telling everyone why we were thankful and what we were thankful for. It reminded me of how important sharing what you are thankful for truly is.

My mom and my nephew both had me choked up. My mom rarely shows her emotions but when she does you can really feel the caring energy that she possesses and when she shared how thankful she was that I was back in Arizona it definitely touched me. My nephew Gabriel was the last one to share and it was so cool to see how intuitive he has become. He obviously sensed the open honesty from everyone who shared and was trying to come up with something profound to be thankful for but the only thing that came out was a choked up, "I'm thankful for my family".

For me spending time with family and those you care about is energizing. It reminds me of what's most important and motivates me to continue working hard on my goals.

Breaking bread with those you care about is an essential part of the personal development process. The conversational observations that occur during family get togethers allow you to learn from others ascents and boners.

This was my first year cooking the turkey and thanks to David Gagne's "Perfect Turkey" recipe it turned out great.

I told him that Julie had me reading Rachel Ray recipes to get myself schooled up and he quickly responded with a "Screw Rachel Ray, I've been cooking the turkey for the last 10+ years in my family... ".

As you can probably imagine, that was all I needed to hear. Someone dropping the hammer on me with their Turkey Recipe, of course I'm going to use his recipe. Of Course...

The night before I gave the turkey a little rub
down. His shoulders were looking a little tense
so I put the ole zip lock bags on and greased him
up a bit.

The next morning I prepared the turkey following DVG's detailed instructions and 4 1/2 hours later, of course... PERFECT TURKEY.

Notice the strategically placed can of Bud Light. This turkey was one thirsty mutha; he took
down 4 cans of bud before I finished my first "Caucasian".

Thanks for the recipe Dave, my family loved it.

LAW XII - The Law of the Appointment

A close friend of mine recently hit me up on the AIM with a simple, "only 16 days"?

I didn't know what the hell he was talking about so I responded with a smart remark. Of course...

-"16 days and no new LAW"?

I've been so consumed with work coupled with the fact that I've just relocated to Prescott, Arizona that I just haven't felt like my normal self. I haven't been feeling the force. This feeling came about last week when I got back from my trip to California. I was out there for a week taking care of a bunch of stuff re: our new office in Santa Monica.

Honestly, I felt like shit. I was tired from all the hustle in LA, stressed out because I hadn't worked out and just wasn't feeling "it". I didn't have wireless at the place we were staying at so when I got back home I was basically under water with work.

Last Wednesday I told myself to snap the hell out of it and I hit the gym pretty hard. I felt better but still wasn't right. The next night when I was running on the treadmill I was trying to figure out what could be wrong when mid stride and mid wolfmother lyric (of course I rock the iPod while pummeling the treadmill) it came to me.

I haven't been taking time for myself. When I first got into sales I used to drive to work in the mornings listening to sales tapes to get fired up. I'd listen to Zig Ziglar, Tom Hopkins, Brian Tracy, Tony Robbins, basically anything I could get my hands on. I was thirsty, I was hungry, I was fired the hell up is what I was... :) Anyhow... there was one part of a Tony Robbins CD set that really stuck with me. I believe the lesson was on Peak Performance and how to live your life at a level 10 (basically pedal to the metal with your arm out the window dropping hammers at the passerby's type of living).

He was talking about the most important appointment of anyones day is the appointment that you make with yourself. Of course, I didn't get it initially but as Tony went on it became more apparent. Tony explains that in this 15 - 30 minute appointment, however much time you can spend, you take a break from everything going on around you to think, to visualize, to read, to put yourself in a state of personal growth.

Think about what you are trying to achieve and why you are working so hard. Remind yourself why you are sacrificing time and energy every day. Visualize where you want to be and what you want to be doing once you've hit your goal. Read books that help to develop your mind to prepare you for obstacles that haven't arrived yet. Put yourself in a state of daily growth where everyday you are improving a little bit whether it be with clearer vision or with new found knowledge from a book related to what you are about to go through.

OF COURSE... I know you know that we all know these things. Anyone reading a blog about the 21 laws of force knows about these fundamental strategies. But we all have to be honest with ourselves. It has been a long time since I've practiced these personal growth fundamentals. I do know one thing; when I was rocking as a green horn sales rep I hammered every sales goal that was put in front of me. I was reading a new book every month, working out every day and had pictures of all the things I wanted up on my walls to remind me of what I was trying to achieve.

That being said; you bet your ass I went on Amazon.com and ordered some new books.

"Leadership Secrets of the World's Most Successful CEO's" - Eric Yaverbaum
"The Art of Project Management" - Scott Berkum
"The 360 Degree Leader" - John C. Maxwell
"Fundamentals of Technology Project Management" - Colleen Garton

Long blog post short: LAW XII - The Law of the Appointment is a law that must be practiced every day.

That's the thing with these books, they don't seem like much fun til you start practicing what you read. ;)

LAW XI - The Law of Dropping the Hammer

After bearing witness to the largest Acquistion that Google has ever made, I was inspired to publish a new law for the 21 irrefutable laws of force. I even posted on my CKMG blog about the event today.

Steve Chen and Chad Hurley started their company YouTube a little over 20 months ago in Chad's garage. They were running their company on credit card debt up until the time when they secured venture capital funding. To keep things slim they have been running their 65 person team in an office space above a pizzeria.

>>> Fast foward to October 9th, 2006.



This is the Law of Dropping the Hammer...

This was a great move for all parties involved. YouTube has become one of the stickiest sites on the web. There are people that spends hours viewing user generated clips. People are spending more time on this site than they are watching TV.

YouTooble is going to drop some serious advertising hammers on the networks and the networks will be out of their minds not to leverage YouTooble's readership to promote new programs, movies, etc...

Ahhh... you must love the power of great content!

Content on the Internet will continue to improve, it will continue to become more interactive and the amount of time people spend online will continue to increase. Every new page of content adds another valuable piece of organic real estate to your site. Just like every new video clip added another piece of organic real estate to YouTube.com.

The companies that truly understand this must take an aggressive posture to get positioned to reap the fruits of this explosion. It is stories like this that keep one motivated to continue building and coming up with creative approaches for ones business.

The Google Founders, Steve & Chad, and Sequoia Capital will be forever recognized as the group that inspired LAW XI, the Law of Dropping the Hammer.

They have seriously set the tone for the next 12 months. Let's see which social network is next to be scooped up by a search engine.

Facebook?

LAW X - The LAW of the "Take Away"

For you to hone the force of negotiations, it is imperative that you master this law. I don't care if you are buying an over-priced designer t-shirt or closing a multi-million dollar deal, the same rules apply. You must be able to walk away from the table stating your demands for consumation.

LAW X - The LAW of the "Take Away"

When thine deal is on the line
and you feel the nerves clench your spine.

Though shalt call out the forces within
and pull thineself out of the spin.

You must hold steady your ground
and flip the script something profound.

You must be able to walk away
for you will cause fear of loss in your prey.

Once you have imposed your inner force
your target will begin feeling remorse.

You will have won the cranial hand to hand
and sealed the deal for your inner brand.

Etching out another notch on your belt
to further strengthen your business savvy pelt.

Tom Elliott

Very few Laws will inspire me to pummel out a poem but this Law holds a special place with me and here is why:

1) If you truly believe in what you have to offer or what you do, there is absolutely no reason why you should acquiese just to close a deal. If the person you are dealing with doesn't understand or "get" the value of your offering, you must walk away.

2) If you are pitching something or if you are being pitched, you must walk away to test the level of seriousness in the opposition. If they are quick to walk as well, it wasn't a good deal in the first place and most likely they weren't even listening to you.

3) If you have invested countless years and 14+ work days for god knows how long building something, why would you lose all sense of force when you know what you have is a "killer app" or a "no-brainer".

How many cats do you know jump in the air and go heads with you when you chase them with a ball of string?

Not many...

How many cats do you know chase a string when you are pulling it away from them?

Exactly!!

We don't make these rules of Force, we just identify them and implement them with subtle tenacity.

The LAW of the "Take Away"

OF COURSE!

LAW IX - The Law of the Hog Farmer

This Law is dedicated to a Hog Farmer that runs one hell of a tight ship. I learned so much from my tour of his farm that it forced me to hop back on my blog and create LAW IX, The Law of the Hog Farmer.

LAW IX - The Law of the "Hog Farmer"

"When thine business is run tighter than a bull frog's ass, thou shalt be in a position to buy assets to increase the overall value of the company"

I spent some time in Minnesota this past weekend visiting with my Girlfriends family over Labor Day. I had the absolute pleasure of spending some time with her brother in law who happens to own a Hog Farm. For those of you that have never had the pleasure of visiting a Hog Farm, I suggest you put that on your list of "to do's" because it was really a great experience.

We drive up in our rented Chrysler... of course! and find Libby(her sister)
and Vic(Libby's boyfriend) out front of the house standing next to their Chrysler... of course! It was a really funny sight; Libby, Vic and Julie all live in LA and I live in South Beach Miami. Here we are 4 "typical city folk" all standing outside of this ranch house in the middle of corn and soy fields stretching as far as you can see. The moment I get out of hte car I get hit with this overwhelming sweet stench that I would quickly but unwantingly learn to recognize as "normal".

The sweet stench was coming from the 5 hog bins/containers, I forgot the proper nomenclature of what they are called but they are basically the houses which hold 100 hogs each. I would later find out that this is only one of 5 sets of 5 that the Kohlenhofer's own.

So... as you can probably imagine, I needed a beer. Not just so I can handle the stench but also because I just got off a 5 hour flight and an hour drive... come on, I'm not that much of a wuss. So I grab a couple Busch Lights(I was thirsty) and head over to the patio to relax a bit and take in the scenery.

Julie has me hyped up to go on a tour of Jeff's farm. The whole drive down I was getting prepped on it and I have to admit, I was pretty excited about checking out Jeff's operation. While I wait for Jeff to get back to the house, I kick back with Vic and pound a few brewski's. We small talk a bit about business, what's new, what's old and the overall scenario of us being on this farm with our country girls.

Fast Forward >>>

Jeff and I are in the Yukon and heading out. Jeff tells me a bit about what he's been dealing with over the last few months. Basically, he's been buying up all the farms surrounding his. From what he tells me, the banks are throwing money at him so he is taking it and using it to build his assets. Jeff and his brothers run a tight operation and they are very profitable so it's no doubt that the banks want to give them more money to re-invest into additional pieces of land. According to recent articles, the real estate bubble is real and it makes sense for financial institutions to aggressively seek business right now, especially when they are investing in a proven business.

He origninally started out with a small piece of land given to him from his father along with a small tractor and a few hogs. His brothers and he built the operation up and began expanding, coming up with creative ways to improve the living standards for their hogs, allowing them to grow bigger, healthier and keeping more of them alive during the growth process. He then began growing his own corn to feed the Hogs cutting out the local graineries from that revenue.

He then began using his own fertilizer, monetizing the hogs manuere to feed the soil of his fields improving the quality of his crops. As time went on, he started expanding his operation by investing in new equipment and newer technology making his operation the most streamlined operation in all of Minnesota. To further improve the quality of his corn operations, they created their own storage facilities also allowing them to sell their grain and manuere to other local farmers. In doing this they added additional revenues streams to their operation.

Next they decided to start growing Soy Beans because soy beans put nutrients back into the soil rather than suck them up like corn. This enabled Jeff and his brothers to flip flop their crops from area to area moving corn to the soy field and soy to the corn field further slimming and optimizing their operation.

The whole time Jeff is showing and telling me this I am thinking to myself about all the similarities I have in my own business.

1) Improvements in Process
2) Improvements in Product
3) Additional Revenue Streams being created by cutting suppliers out
4) Keeping a tight clench on spending allowing us to reinvest into the company technology
5) Constant Optimization always looking for ways to slim things down while increasing productivity

Everytime he showed me something new I was thinking to myself what it would be equivalent to within my own company.

Segway>>>

Here is something that I thought was so interesting, I couldn't leave this part of the story out. Jeff even has a Hog Fertility Technician. This guys house is set up literally right next to this lab that houses all of the male Hogs. HUGE CREATURES... that have but one purpose; to pass their genes on to continually produce top quality hogs that eventually become "the other white meat".

Every day, this guy goes into the lab and gathers "milk". About a good quart to be exact. :O!!!

I had no idea Hogs had that much force. A whole quart... good god!

I apologize for the visual but we must give respect to force when recognized. Moving on...

At the end of the day the most important thing I learned was that the fundamentals of running a business are the same whether you are managing a hog farm or a start up internet company.

Quote of the Weekend:

"I'm not trying to buy everyone's farm, just the ones that are butted up next to mine".
- Jeff Kohlenhoffer, Hog Farmer & Entrepreneur

**Jeff tells me this after his wife just got done telling me that all the neighbors are pissed at Jeff because he keeps buying up the neighboring farms to continue building his massive operation.

LAW VIII - The LAW of "Peak Performance"

LAW VIII - The Law of "Peak Performance"

"When thine mind, body and soul are working like a fine tuned machine, it is much more fun to earn and enjoy all of your GREEN..."

I'm sure you've noticed by now that being an athelete growing up and my military background have played a big part in my life. Most of the fundamentals I apply to my daily activities have come from lessons I've learned on the ball field/court and during military training.

LAW VIII plays a large role in my life and it's one that I've utilized even before I really knew about any of the other LAWs.

My father was a salesman when I was a kid growing up in Fremont, CA. He used to work tirelessly and I'd see him because he's set up a home office next to our kitchen. Every Sunday, he'd be setting up appointments for the week. I didn't realize then how big of a deal that really was until I got my first start in Sales when I was 22. He made what was really difficult seem easy and we often laugh about it now whenever I get the chance to see him.

What I didn't realize was that the reason my dad was so motivated to make those calls on Sundays, go on sales calls every night of the week and do it so well that it would allow for middle of the week boat vacations to Lake Don Pedro was that he kept himself in great physical condition.

I'd get home from school and he'd be in the front lawn stretching getting ready for a run and on Saturday morning when my sister and I were watching cartoons eating pancakes, he'd be in the back yard doing push-ups before doing yard work.

What I didn't know then that I completely understand now is that he outperformed the other sales guys in his office because he had more energy and he felt better about himself than others. When you are in great shape, you carry around a sense of confidence that is attractive to other people. You speak with a great sense of conviction and small obstacles don't seem like much because an obstacle to you is usually a leg cramp on mile 8 or hitting muscle failure when you are on your 3rd set of 50 close hand push ups.

Energy Level + Endurance = Longer hours of Focus, More Productivity and... More importantly a Healthier Overall Well Being.

ou can make all the money in the world but if your health is not where it should be and you don't feel good about yourself, none of it matters...

Recommended Reading: "Skinny, Happy and Rich", by Ridgely Goldsborough