By Peter Greenlaw and Dr. Dennis Harper

Another failed diet.  Unfortunately, those words ring hollow and true for many Americans who are left wondering why diets consistently fail them.

There are many answers to this question, but a primary reason is the polluted world in which we live.  Major studies conducted by Mount Sinai Medical School and National Geographic have shown that our bodies are storing pollution, acid and impurities in fat cells.  The more impurities we ingest, the more fat cells our bodies create.  This is one of the main reasons why over 75 percent of America is overweight, and why 3 million Americans weigh over 500 pounds.

The answer would seem to be a diet with the proper amount of nutrition – eat healthy and cleanse the body.  However, in order for the body to naturally cleanse itself of impurities, it needs proper nutrients that contain trace minerals (by ingesting trace minerals and rare earth elements in a high nutrition diet, enzymes can more rapidly break down food and cleanse the body).  The problem with this solution is that there are no more trace minerals in our food.

In a report to the US Senate in 1936, it was reported that American soil had become “almost void of trace minerals” due to the use of pesticides and herbicides, and the fact that farmers no longer rotated their fields.  Today, in 2009, the problem has only been exacerbated, and America is considered to be the most overfed and undernourished society on the planet.  In fact, our food supply is so nutritionally bankrupt that it would take about 12 apples in 2009 to equal the nutrition in just one apple from 1976.  The nutrition in a bowl of spinach from 1957 requires 51 bowls of spinach in 2009.

It’s with this dilemma in mind that 21st century thinking is taking over when it comes to nutritional health.  Scientists, doctors, health advocates and other health professionals are backing the attributes of nutritional cleansing, a viable option that is rapidly gaining momentum among people who want a new way to lose weight and achieve overall wellness in their bodies.  They are discovering the benefits of flooding their body with massive amounts of nutrients, trace minerals, fats and proteins, leaving the body satisfied without having to overindulge on food.

While trendy diets and dramatic steps such as stomach stapling continue to be the solutions people are turn to for their weight and health problems, nutritional science is an option that cannot be overlooked.  As people become more aware of the value of nutritional cleansing, it’s likely the choice they’ll make to lose weight, gain energy and improve their lifestyle.

Peter Greenlaw and Dr. Harper have spent the past several years researching nutritional science and the health benefits of nutritional cleansing.  They are both considered experts on the subject, and can be reached at 303-589-7087

Mr. Greenlaw will be speaking at the Hilton Garden Inn/Allen, 705 Central Expressway, in Allen Texas on December 3, 2009 at 7:30PM..

For more information, please contact Kerry Erling at 214-295-7631 or you may pre-register for this FREE seminar at http://www.cleansing-coach.com/seminar-signup-form.htm

– Providing individuals with the opportunity to manage and organize their busy lives; R2 Business Ventures announced today that it has launched the website http://www.groupusup.com.

The website www.GroupUsUp.com. is a social networking community site focused on allowing individuals to form groups for anything or join groups such as clubs, family, friends, neighbors, neighborhoods, HOA’s, organizations, teams, co-workers, alumni, non-profit, jobs & career, business, social, charities, nightlife, sports and more.

Managing Partner Rick Erling adds; “Our early market gap analysis uncovered a need for an easy to use community social networking site that is focused on groups, rather than individuals. We wanted a way for people to organize their lives by having a place to socialize with groups that they have a common interest with.”

With the Group Us Up! concept of “groups for anything”, there is no limit to the benefits of having an outlet to organize your members. You decide if your own profile and the groups you create are public or private and you also decide who to invite. Groups can have multiple discussion forums, photo albums, file attachments and your members can also post blogs, organize events and keep track of who’s attending those events.

Mr. Erling adds; “We have neighborhood and HOA groups that are staying connected and sharing information about their groups and organizing social events. Intramural sports teams and booster clubs are also using it to organize and provide updates on when practices are, where the games take place and plan fundraising events. Businesses are getting onboard for internal corporate communications and reaching out to new customers and partners. There is no limit to the benefits of having an outlet to organize right from your home or anywhere, anytime you have web connection.”

As Mr. Erling and his team grow Group Us Up! they will be depending on their members to provide input on functionality to make Group Us Up! as user friendly as their members desire.

Membership is FREE and signing up is quick and easy at http://www.groupusup.com/.

While there is widespread disagreement as to if the U.S. economy is on the edge of a depression, a recession or is just experiencing an “anxiety economy”, no one can argue that the financial crisis is not having a huge ripple effect and its going to take years to work out.

Rick Erling, President of The CxO Group, LLC, a Dallas, Texas CEO Coaching and Business Performance Improvement firm adds “Today’s uncertain economic times are forcing all executives, managers, and business owners to adopt new strategies for navigating through the current business downturn. At times like these many companies prefer to move into a survival strategy to ride out the storm.

Survival strategy, while conservative, has one underlying problem. In today’s hyper-connected economy things can unravel quickly and when your business is not growing and improving it is falling behind and headed for extinction. Keep in mind that even though your business may be slow today, your business will return to profitability in the future, IF you do what is necessary to survive today. ”

The CxO Group specializes in CEO coaching and business performance improvement by integrating financial management, strategies, marketing, and sales to maximize corporate revenue growth. We use a copyrighted methodology to advise CEOs on action steps to take to grow revenues, consult with management staff on best practices and train sales and marketing teams on tactics and strategies that put your business value in front of you so your prospects see you differently than your competition and take action steps to buy.

So, what are you going to do? Let employees go?  Cut back on marketing?  Squeeze your current clients for more money? Yes, you can do all of this, but is that going to help? What can you specifically do during a recession to grow your business profitability?

Receive our COMPLEMENTARY SPECIAL REPORT titled “10 Tips To Grow Your Business in a Recession or Economic Downturn” that will help answer those questions. You can download your copy now at this special link  http://growth.thecxogroup.com/ . Alternatively, you can contact us by email at  info@thecxogroup.com, or call (972) 727-6880 to request your copy.

“A recession is when your neighbor is out of work. A depression is when you are out of work.” Rick Erling - President The CxO Group, LLC

First instinct for me is vote for Hillary. I actually like her and I’m sure there are a lot of people disagreeing but I would like to see her be the president. Sad thing is, I actually don’t think she will win. I do think she lives her life to do what she does and I think she will do a good job at it. I think she will also do something about health care that would benefit more people. The latest news is that Hillary is mad at Obama for some campaign literature that said “her health care proposal would force everyone to buy health insurance, regardless of ability to pay, a charge Clinton vehemently denied.” (See the article on cnn) I just can’t imagine that she would do such a thing and force people to buy health insurance. I think she might make health care more available to people who might not be able to afford it, but to force people to buy it who can’t???

The health care issue is very close to me. My grandmother who just celebrated her 90th birthday today has to spend SO MUCH money per month on prescription drugs and some things are just not covered that well…meanwhile someone who just came to the country and/or has not worked if any can get the medicaid and get lots of coverage. She’s worked all her life and now still has to make sure she saves up just for her prescription drugs. I think it’s completely unfair. We also have a close friend with 3 kids who are trying to make ends meet since they were both laid off few years back. Now they do not even have insurance except catastrophic coverage for themselves…which is scary. The kids gets coverage from the state as long as they do not make too much but just low enough…which is like dumb since if they make just a little more they will have to pay for it themselves and they will not be able to at this time. There has to be a kind of health care available for families like them. Why should a family that does not try to work or try to earn money get the full help from the government while families that do, sometime can’t.

Whatever, I don’t even want to talk about it anymore since there isn’t much I can do. Anyhow, I think Obama might win since he’s got the young crowd. My husband said people are in a Obama high since they want something different so badly, but their high will come down…but might be too late when that happens. I don’t have too much against Obama (unless if the campaign literature is actually false…then it will be shame shame), but I think Hillary will be a better President since she knows how to nudge her way around to get things done since she’s been in the White House before and I agree where she stands on some of the issue. I do like Obama for some things and if I keep thinking too much, I will just need to toss a coin.

Still…vote for Hillary!!!

Will Your Sales Team Finish 2007 Strong? If not, perhaps it’s because the prospect’s perception of your business value, and the actual value delivered of your offering are mis-matched.

As Sales Training, Marketing Advisement and Strategy Specialists for growth-directed companies in Dallas, we have identified five steps of prospect value identification that take place during your sales cycle. Using these will help you close deals already on the table for 2007 and applying this to your 2008 forecast will help shorten those sales cycles.

Prospect value identification is an integrated process of perceived and actual value delivered based on your offering and your customer’s perception of that offering at various stages of your sales cycle. There are five steps of prospect value identification that take place during your sales cycle and they include:

1. The Vendor’s Perceived Value
   This is a vendor presented value and is based on how you see your value and how you communicate its status to your prospects or existing customers during the pre-sales cycle through your firm’s marketing communication and sales step process.
2. The Customer or Prospect Transitional Value
   This value happens in tandem during the discovery process where the prospect matches or rejects your perceived value (vendor’s perceived value) with their perception of your value. This is a value conversion step during the sales cycle.
3. The Prospect’s Perceived Value of Your Offering
   This value happens when your prospect or your customer finalizes their perception of your value relative to your competition and makes an assumption (correctly or incorrectly) of the value of your product or service relative to price, the business results it produces and the alternative options they have for purchase or non-purchase.
4. The Prospect’s Actual Value
   This is the alignment by the prospect or customer during their post-sale decision process to determine if the perceived value communicated by you in the pre-sale matches their perception of your actual value in the post-sale.
5. The Value Gap
   This is the measurement or gap between the vendor’s perceived value believed during the pre-sale steps and the prospect’s actual value calculated after the first sale.

Prospect value identification by its very nature is a layered, intricate process that must be aligned with your sales and marketing communication as an integrated approach. Prospect value observation starts at the beginning of your sales cycle and your position is often determined based on your entry point into the organization.

Enter into a prospect’s organizational chart below the title of Vice President at the beginning of your sales cycle and you are entering into the commodity zone of buying. Prospects below the title of VP generally make business decisions based on your offering’s features, functions or price.

When you sell management at the Vice President level and above, they buy based on their perceptions of your business offering’s value. This is a variable option that you can manipulate if you can sell correctly.

Often there is a gap between what firms believe in themselves and what their prospects actually experience.

It is not what you sell, but how your prospect positions the value of your offerings against the alternative buying options they have that must be managed.

To sell more, sell above the commodity line, manage the prospect’s perception of your business value, and control the value gap between their perception of your value and your perception.

Would you like to Evaluate Your Revenue Capture Success in more detail? Visit this link and request a copy of our Sales and Marketing Scorecard. It is a management business assessment tool designed to help you to evaluate your firm’s revenue capture success and compare your current operating model against industry best practices to help your company achieve its peak performance. The scorecard contains 100 questions on your sales and marketing methodology and supplies recommended best practices to increase your business success.

So I’m a little late, but I think you can still vote online. Not sure when they cut off the time for online voting. Right, intro…this is voting for Mark Cuban on Dancing With the Stars. I missed it tonight since I just woke up from napping/catching up on sleep with my 7 months old, but now I’m wide awake.

Anyway, I’ll probably catch the showing on abc.com since they’ll have it up by the next day. That’s what’s great about the internet now. I miss something and I can still watch it…at least for some shows. Why not Tivo? I guess I can do that, but really I’m on my laptop so much, I can work on things and watch things at the same time (in bed though). ABC has actually got some of my favorites shows, at least for network TV, it’s pretty good. Ugly Betty - I love. It actually makes me laugh at times and last week was just sad and a good surprising ending. LOST - I also love and it’s probably the only thing my husband and I would watch together on time. We Tivo other shows like Weeds and Flight of the Concord (it’s nerdy funny).

Oh right, so vote for Mark Cuban and here are the reasons why:
1. If you start reading his blog more. He’s actually more real and human (like everyone else with a family…except he’s got billions).
2. He’s passionate and determined.
3. He’s 49 and still dancing (and in front of the world). Plus the fact that he just had hip replacement a few months ago and still keeps going and going…like the energizer bunny…
4. He seems very down to earth and a good family man (he’s got 2 daughters).
5. He uses a Apple Mac now (Love Mac!)
6. He lives in Dallas as do most of us here.

That’s not voting for his dancing you say? Well, on shows like these, personality goes further than the actual dancing, but I haven’t seem tonight’s dance so I can’t really say too much about the dancing part. I only know he’s to do the Mambo, which supposedly is all about the hip.

You can also vote up to 10 times each line, or each online account you have (online voting ends noon on the day of the result show):
Register or go straight to the site if you already have an account with ABC.

David Hanson has done it again. He’s made international news with Handson Robotic’s new creation Zeno. “It’s a representation of robotics as a character animation medium, one that is intelligent,” and “It sees you and recognizes your face. It learns your name and can build a relationship with you.” Zeno is different from his previous creations which where more life like - it instead is more Anime looking perhaps to capture the young market since Zeno is reported to be in market in the next 3 years for about $300 according to local Fox news.

David Hanson obtained his Ph.D from UT Dallas’ School of Arts and Humanities Arts & Techology Program and was already making news with other creations. He’s no doubt a very talented, what makes him stand out to me is that he is actually artistic too.

His previous creation:

According the dallasnews.com, the Bushes are planning on moving back to Dallas. People are just guessing where they will be, but no confirmation has been made. Among the possible neighborhoods are Park Cities or Preston Hollow (where he use to live), but they are just predictions and it can be anywhere in Dallas. Since his library will be at SMU, it may be around there. Anyway, read the story yourself. I’m just not going to say anything more…………….

Actually I guess he’s the star and some professional dancer (Kym Johnson) will be dancing with him. It’s a little surprising I suppose. Kym Johnson was put with Jerry Springer and Joey Fatone in the past seasons, so I don’t know what that means. I don’t watch the show consistently, only maybe once or twice a season. The last time I watched it was only because Apollo Ono was on it…and he actually won.

I wonder if Mark Cuban knows that they kinda wear funky tight clothing! Our grandma (a great grandma) said “He’s done well in the past with everything else…he’s such a nut, he just might do ok!” I guess we’ll see…

Dancing With the Stars will premier on Monday, September 24th 8/7 c on ABC.

Meanwhile, you can also check out his view on Politics.

UPDATE: You can read about Mark Cuban’s experience on Dancing With the Stars and vote for him.

Actually I didn’t know this was happening, but Mark Cuban had hip replacement (left hip) surgery on Friday June, 29th. He is expected to recover just fine. The funny thing is I just found this out because people had been searching for Mark Cuban’s hip replacement, so I looked into this and found out this had just happened. Told you he’s not just big in dallas. People just seem to want to know everything he does.

You can read the press release here and maybe he’ll soon post something on his blog maverick site once he gets better?!

All the best and hope for a fast recovery to him from Dallas!

UPDATE: Since Mark Cuban will be on Dancing With the Stars, I’m sure he’s recovered super well…

ANOTHER UPDATE: You can read about Mark Cuban’s experience on Dancing With the Stars and vote for him. If you’ve missed the first show, you can watch it on abc.com. It even shows his scar from the surgery - OUCH!