Special Offer Ellie Drake FREE CD click here for more information.	STEPS TO ABUNDANCE A Bi-Weekly Newsletter Published by Jim Rivas Release Date: March 17, 2007
	WE STILL HAVE TICKETS FOR ELLIE DRAKE'S "IT'S EASIER DONE THAN SAID " A 2-DAY EXTRAVAGANZA May 5-6, 2007 at Atlanta, GA WE WILL ALSO HOST A LP TRAINING & RECEPTION on Saturday May 5, 2007 in the Evening at the location of the EXTRAVAGANZA. ALL ARE WELCOME TO ATTEND!

Special Report:  Internet Detractor issues formal apology.
Read It Here

Farewell to Emerald Passport

As I often say on my Getting in the Game calls, once you reach you’re first island, many thousands of new ones come into view, that you could not see from the shore before you disembarked on journey in life.

After a little over 2 years as a distributor and leader for Emerald Passport, my timeline intersected with a new opportunity; a path to a new destiny. So on February 15, 2007, I submitted my resignation from Emerald Passport to take on a bigger opportunity with LP Unlimited. The decision was not easy.

My 2 years with EPI produced many great memories, much growth, and a solid introduction into a whole new industry. Gone were the days of flying to 3 cities a week, sweating $40,000 a week payrolls, and missing my family, as I ventured to distant lands to provide for my family. I had found a new way to live, a new way to prosper, a new way to feel.

But perhaps most importantly, I had found my calling. My previous 18 years of working crazy hours, risking huge sums of capital, and putting years of life on my body in pursuit of the American Dream had turned out to be the tune up for what was to come.

The massive success I experienced with EPI was the result of hard work, and a dedication to my customers in a way not previously seen in home business or network marketing for that matter. I knew I was raising the bar.

But as time wore on, having to hold the bar up by myself proved tiring and after 2 years in the EPI business, I had to be honest with myself in the mirror. I was having a blast no doubt, but I was also putting in 7 day work weeks, and back into the cycle that I was trying to leave. Change was in order.

For the record, I first tried to have EPI embrace many of the innovations that I had brought to the table only to realize that, at the end of the day, I was more of an employee than a business owner. The owners of EPI wanted it their way, I did not, something had to give. Over time I started losing the passion I once had for the EPI business. I had made a couple of promises to myself when I first ventured into home business. The first one was that if I ever felt I was not delivering value to the marketplace I would get out. The second was that if I ever felt like what I had to do to succeed was less that completely honest, I would also get out. I didn't need network marketing to succeed as so many of my mentors have told me and my prior business ownership success demonstrated. But I love it (this industry) nonetheless. By January 2007, I realized that the company was heading in one direction and me in another and that it was only appropriate that I move on.

At this point I had many options. I was not going to leave EPI for just some deal or money hunt. I was either going to start my own company, or focus on marketing my own products and training services.

I felt a desire to help my EPI customers and provide them an alternative should they so choose to leave also. So I was in the early stages of starting my own Networking Marketing company called Steps to Abundance.

Then, out of the blue, new opportunity revealed itself. I had become friends with Dave MacKenzie and Joe Neid in the limited time I had worked with them at EPI. They had both departed EPI just a few months before. When I learned of their vision and the impending launch of LP Unlimited, I decided to hear them out. I wasn't interested in changing zip codes, just for change's sake, as I was well on my way to opening my own company.

When I heard their vision, I quickly realized that what they were thinking and what I was thinking was almost 100% identical. I had learned during my time at EPI that the most important thing a new associate needed to break through to success in free enterprise was personal development and life skills development. Because of that, the STA product line was to be just that, a set of personal development and life skills development programs.

I was shocked and very presently surprised that Joe and Dave had the same vision. So instead of opening competing entities, it made more sense to join forces. After all, they had a much bigger more ambitious plan than I did, and the thought of running a company was not that appealing to me. I had fallen in love with teaching and helping aspiring entrepreneurs working in the field. I didn't miss sweating payrolls on Fridays or paying bank debt anymore either.

But just to be sure that what I was hearing was real, I jumped on a plane and flew out to Oregon, to Landmind Studios where the LP Products were being filmed and developed. Upon arrival, I instantly saw the reality that was LP. These guys were for real; they were spending real money, and doing it right. But more importantly there seemed to be a place for me to help them, and to help shape the company in ways that would be centered in concepts that I have found to be very successful.

Within a couple of meetings, we had the patent pending comp plan NLA (get paid now, later, and again) on the board. It is a hybrid cross between what Joe and Dave were thinking, and what I was thinking for STA. I quickly saw that the environment was going to be different here. That instead of my ideas being rejected, they were being embraced. After all, they had produced a top industry result over the previous 2 years, so there had to be merit in them.

We were also on the same page when it came to marketing systems, my personal expertise. While the company was looking at other vendors, I was able to introduce them to the company that is back boning the LP Pro platform. This is as state of the art as it gets.

There was 1 more area that was near and dear to my heart that I felt was real important, meaningful training. It is a travesty that most home business entrepreneurs are faced with having to purchase outside training products and services in order to be successful in a particular business. The reason I set up Team Falcon with EPI in the first place was because I felt the company training was in-adequate. So with LP, offering a training program that get's it done was very important to me. To that end we are introducing a comprehensive training system in LP Pro, twice daily real trainings on the conference bridge, and Saturday trainings hosted by paid speakers that are part of the team of contributors on Discovery, some of the very best and brightest minds in personal development and sales today.

I had proven that community building and social internetwork marketing was effective; I had proved that building a community around providing expensive support and training enhanced customer results and their experience. Most important, I had proven that this model could change the industry, taking direct sales out of the basement reputation that it had obtained from years of Grab the Money mentality, and sink or swim training.

With EPI my ideas were discarded, with LP, they are embraced. Dave, Joe, and BD have but 1 mission, to build the biggest most successful networking program ever. From what I have seen, I believe we will do just that. Why? Because I have witnessed that LP Unlimited is a market driven company; that the mission is to provide real value to all customers, and real opportunity to our marketers. And it's not just Lip Service either. LP could have done things much cheaper than they did. But the standard of excellence that the company is built on, would not allow that.

So I obviously had a very difficult decision to make. And the difficulty in the decision was not in whether to leave EPI, it was the difficultly of leaving my customers, my team, Team Falcon. We had built something special. To accommodate my customers from Team Falcon that wanted to make the move to LP, I had made special arrangements for a painless migration, and several of my Team Members took advantage of it.

Many chose to stay with EPI; which is totally OK with me also. Everyone has their own likes and dislikes, and EPI is a good program. I just felt it was time for me to move on to bigger opportunity. Anyone from EPI wishing to follow me or other ex-EPI leaders to LP are welcome here. But I don't believe in cross recruiting, and therefore will not be contacting any of my prior customers in EPI.

So on February 16, 2007, I said my goodbyes to EPI, and accepted the position as a top Visionary with LP Unlimited, and never looked back. This was not a lateral move, as I have had the wonderful experience of helping a new company get off the ground, and the opportunity to continue in my own pursuits in a parallel synergistic manner.

Any success in Free Enterprise is a WIN for our industry, and it doesn't matter if you're selling travel, financial literacy, nutritional products, or personal development, as long as you are doing it with integrity and honesty. It's all-good.

I wish everyone in Emerald Passport the best of Luck, and for many of you I look forward to crossing paths again in the future. Just remember, the world is small, and mis-information is abound. If it doesn't "Feel" right, then it probably isn't. Just be true to yourself, put forth your best effort, stay in the game, and success will be yours!

James (Jim) Rivas

JimRivas.com
JimRivas.info

Special Offer Ellie Drake FREE CD click here for more information.

WE STILL HAVE TICKETS FOR ELLIE DRAKE'S "IT'S EASIER DONE THAN SAID" A 2-DAY EXTRAVAGANZA May 5-6 2007 Atlanta, GA WE WILL ALSO HOST A LP TRAINING & RECEPTION on Saturday May 5, 2007 in the Evening at the location of the EXTRAVAGANZA. ALL ARE WELCOME TO ATTEND!