Orrin Woodward on LIFE & Leadership

Inc Magazine Top 20 Leader shares his personal, professional, and financial secrets.

  • Orrin Woodward

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    Former Guinness World Record Holder for largest book signing ever, Orrin Woodward is a NY Times bestselling author of And Justice For All along with RESOLVED & coauthor of LeaderShift and Launching a Leadership Revolution. His books have sold over one million copies in the financial, leadership and liberty fields. RESOLVED: 13 Resolutions For LIFE made the Top 100 All-Time Best Leadership Books and the 13 Resolutions are the framework for the top selling Mental Fitness Challenge personal development program.

    Orrin made the Top 20 Inc. Magazine Leadership list & has co-founded two multi-million dollar leadership companies. Currently, he serves as the Chairman of the Board of the LIFE. He has a B.S. degree from GMI-EMI (now Kettering University) in manufacturing systems engineering. He holds four U.S. patents, and won an exclusive National Technical Benchmarking Award.

    This blog is an Alltop selection and ranked in HR's Top 100 Blogs for Management & Leadership.

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Archive for the ‘Life Training’ Category

True teams bring immeasurable joy through friendship and fun.

LIFE Business Leadership Seminars

Posted by Orrin Woodward on December 10, 2012

On Saturday, the LIFE business conducted its December leadership seminars. Numbers are up in December, and people are gearing up for the January Leadership Conventions. I had the honor of being in St. Louis in a packed house (standing room only in fact) and had the opportunity to hear Raymond and Tina Abernathy bring down the house! What powerful speakers for a couple that isn’t even RT level yet. I say yet because they will certainly zoom past this goal in the coming months. Posture, belief, and enthusiasm shined in every sentence spoken by this amazing couple. Impressively, St. Louis had a brand new 30-day Double Power Player. That is smoking fast new growth! In addition, there were new Turbo 25s and Turbo 10s. Many new LIFE pin levels were hit by participants as well, so a good day was had by all.

What seminar did you attend on Saturday? Who were the speakers? What were some key nuggets you took away from the experience? Indeed, that is the correct word. LIFE Seminars aren’t attended as much as they are experienced! I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Orrin Woodward

Posted in Leadership/Personal Development, LIFE Leadership, Life Training | 138 Comments »

LIFE Monthly Seminars

Posted by Orrin Woodward on November 12, 2012

In hundreds of cities across America and Canada, people gathered to attend seminars. Ranging in size from several thousand plus to ten or less, depending upon whether close to a live speaker location or tapping into LIFE’s streaming video technology, this was one of the best rounds of seminars in the history of the LIFE business. The community is growing at a rapid rate, and lives are being changed from the LIFE, LLR, AGO, EDGE, and MFC information. I was in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with the rowdiest seminar group I have spoken to in a while. Kirk and Cassie Birtles did a teaching segment on rotating the 5-step pattern that was phenomenal! I know many of the other LIFE founders were speaking around the country as well.

If you missed these seminars, then you truly missed a life-changing experience. The good news, however, is the LIFE business holds monthly seminars for under forty dollars and for the ridiculously low price of twenty dollars for first-time attendees. Why would top leaders provide life-changing content for twenty dollars? Simply because they know when a life is touched, that person can then go reach another. Since the goal is to reach one million lives, it just makes sense to make it as easy for new people to attend as possible. If you did attend LIFE’s monthly seminar, which one did you attend? What were some key points or magical moments for you? What specifically are you going to do differently now based upon the teachings and feelings from the seminar? Please share with us so we can all learn and improve.

Sincerely,

Orrin Woodward

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvZXoarOqjA

Posted in Fun, Leadership/Personal Development, Life Training | 86 Comments »

LIFE Business Major Function

Posted by Orrin Woodward on October 29, 2012

It’s Monday morning after an amazing LIFE Business Major Convention. Thousands of people were recognized on stage for achieving new pins, numbers, and vacations. From Thursday night through early Sunday afternoon, the LIFE community experienced its best information and inspiration weekend ever. The teams within the community have united together to create more Power Players than ever before.

With speakers the caliber of Chris and Terri Brady, Tim and Amy Marks, Claude and Lana Hamilton, Bill and Jackie Lewis, George and Jill Guzzardo, Dan and Lisa Hawkins, Mark McDonald, and Pastor Stephen Davey, I knew it was going to be a great weekend. However, what put it over the top was the enthusiasm and belief of the attendees. Never before have so many people advanced in the business, and that belief spread to everyone attending the event.

There were many magic moments in Columbus. If you attended the event, please share your magic moments and the key nuggets you are taking away from the Major to help you grow. The LIFE business is changing the world one person at a time!

Sincerely,

Orrin Woodward

Posted in Leadership/Personal Development, Life Training | 113 Comments »

Power Player Top Gun

Posted by Orrin Woodward on August 16, 2012

Shortly before the LIFE Summer Leadership Conference, Claude Hamilton and I spoke at the Michigan Mens Leadership that was broadcast around US and Canada. In Claude’s talk, he challenge each of the PC organizations to build more depth and break more Power Players than ever before. The challenge itself was fantastic, but only the way Claude can, he went further and publicly stated that Kaizen organizations would win hands down over the next year. Clearly, Claude Hamilton was not fooling around with his business and had placed all his focus on building depth and breaking Power Players.

Power Sweep to Power Player

Personally, while listening to Claude’s talk, I was getting more and more fired up because I know the level of competitors we have within the LIFE team. In fact, I couldn’t wait to get up to speak after him to ensure that everyone heard his message loud and clear. Claude’s talk reminded me of one of my favorite sayings, “True competition creates cooperation.” Indeed, the best way to make teams cooperate is to give them some honest to goodness competition. Claude’s talk provided this in spades. 🙂

Evidently, the other PC who were not on location were receiving hundreds of text, because all of them reached out to me saying Claude’s claims of depth dominance were greatly exaggerated. 🙂 With this, the spark of our current explosion was born. Chris Brady, Tim Marks, Bill Lewis, George Guzzardo, Dan Hawkins, and, or course, Claude Hamilton, all have as many Power Players in the first two weeks out of this major as they did the entire three month cycle previously. This is FANTASTIC growth and reminds me of our original Power Player explosion that catapulted the Team from 200 people at major to over 12,000!

 

Our next major, in Columbus, will be the first opportunity to see which specific teams responded to Claude’s challenge. Every organization will be counting Power Players and which teams finish in the Top 5 for the Power Player Top Gun. Most importantly, all eyes will be on the Top 5 to see which team broke the most Power Players and above for this three month cycle! I haven’t had this much fun stirring the pot in a long while. 🙂 All kidding aside, I have never been prouder of the leaders within LIFE who have stepped to the plate and hit homeruns.

Man, with all the excitement around this Power Player Top Gun, I think I am going to add even more fuel to the fire. This is crazy, as I haven’t even talked to Laurie or the rest of the PC about this one, but I am sure they will love it. The winner of the Columbus Power Player Top Gun is invited down to Laurie and my (I’m sure she won’t mind 🙂 Florida property for a 24 hour check-up from the neck up and (weather permitting) a day of yachting, shark fishing etc. There now we have set the stakes properly. 🙂 Perhaps we ought to make that part of the normal reward for winning the Power Player Top Gun? Since, in my opinion, its the biggest award outside of PC, I think I will.

Ok, let’s wrap this post up. What team are you part of? Are you out sharing 15 plans a month so you can contribute to your teams Power Player totals? Why not step up to the plate and give it all you got for the next three months? LIFE has a goal to reach one million people and we can do that through honest win-win competition with the greatest group of leaders in the world. Today is the day! Isn’t it worth your personal best?

Sincerely,

Orrin Woodward

Posted in All News, Fun, Life Training | 80 Comments »

LIFE Teams Gather Across America

Posted by Orrin Woodward on July 30, 2012

For the last two weekends, teams from across America and Canada gathered in Springfield and Milwaukee for the LIFE Conventions. Guest speakers Mark Macdonald and Oliver DeMille, along with the LIFE Founders poured out the best step by step plan for growth period. With the numbered packs to learn the basics, easier sign-up procedure, and the Power-Player depth focus, the team is rolling. In addition, Chris Brady rolled out his recently released A Month in Italy book!

There were so many teachable and magic moments that it might be difficult to narrow down to a few for the comment section; however, I have to ask the question. If you attended the convention, what were your magic moments and what are the key take-aways for you to move ahead in business and life? I personally have never been prouder of the PC leaders for the continued drive to grow and change for the good of their teams. Today is the day!

Sincerely,

Orrin Woodward

Posted in Life Training | 112 Comments »

Conquer, Fortify, Domesticate

Posted by Orrin Woodward on July 17, 2012

Strategies for Compensated Community Building

World War II Europe

Both Chris Brady and I love studying history. War history, in particular, is a fascinating way to study leadership, strategy, and courage. Since business is basically economic warfare, where the company who best serves the customer wins (at least in a true free enterprise setting), Chris Brady and I developed a warfare analogy to describe the building of communities. First, one must conquer new territories through building depth. Second, one must fortify the territory through education and LIFE skills. Third, and the final step, one must domesticate the new territory by producing volume within the community. These three simple, but not always easy, steps produce long-term growth.

Reflecting over the years of building communities, no analogy does a better job of describing the keys to building communities – Conquer, Fortify, and Domesticate, or put another way: Depth, Numbers, Volume. When a person builds depth, he can build numbers, which ultimately leads to building volume. The majors in both Springfield and Milwaukee will covers these concepts in more detail. It reminds me of a talk I gave many years ago – Depth is not an Option. Looking forward to seeing everyone at the Majors.

Sincerely,

Orrin Woodward

Posted in Leadership/Personal Development, Life Training | 52 Comments »

Power-Player Promotions

Posted by Orrin Woodward on June 12, 2012

It’s summer time in Michigan! Enjoying our properties in both Florida and Michigan, Laurie and I find it difficult to determine which we like better. In truth, when I am in Michigan, I don’t want to leave; however, when I am in Florida in the wintertime, I am glad I did. 🙂

My goal for this summer is to shake hands with every Power-Player on the team. Since Power Player is the most effective way to build communities for the long haul, I am running mainly power player promotions this summer. Of course, some of the groups are double Power Players and above because of the size, but the objective is the same – to keep the main thing the main thing.

The Team is on its way to 1 million people through the LIFE Business because we keep Power-Player the main thing. The Mental Fitness Challenge, LIFE & LLR subscriptions, and the EDGE series are all amazing, but they are not the main thing. Only Power-Player ensures the community grows through depth which leads to numbers and then volume. LIFE has nearly 9,000 customers (not including the tens of thousands of members) since November 1, 2011, mainly because anyone out starting conversations about LIFE and the MFC will stumble across customers. Even so, the number one point of focus for anyone desiring a long-term business plan for success is Power-Player.

This is going to be a wonderful summer and I hope you are planning on going Power-Player and introducing yourself at one of the summer time promotions. The Team has one play that scores a touchdown every time we call it: Hut 1, Hut 2, Power-Player!

Sincerely,

Orrin Woodward

Posted in LIFE Leadership, Life Training, Mental Fitness Challenge (MFC) | 100 Comments »

Why I LOVE Team

Posted by Orrin Woodward on June 1, 2012

Do not pray for easy lives. Pray to be stronger men (people). Do not pray for task equal to your powers. Pray for powers equal to your tasks. – Philip Brooks

I love the Team for many reasons, but the month of May was a huge confirmation in many ways. The LIFE Business had its best volume month since the LIFE launch, despite rolling out three huge initiatives that each required massive learning curves for the Team communities. I am impressed because the Team community made it look so easy. However, I know it wasn’t easy because what is easily done is seldom excellently done and what the Team accomplished was excellently done. It only looked easy because a great deal of leadership experience and emotional intelligence was applied by so many leaders within the community.

As the leader of the Team community and LIFE Business, I can promise everyone that the leaders will not take the easy path, but will, to the best of our abilities, take the proper path needed to grow! Changing open meetings to personal development seminars and challenge groups, along with rolling out the Mental Fitness Challenge are each, by themselves, enough change to discombobulate the best of organizations; instead, the Team responded as only leaders do, growing their numbers and volume in the midst of three major programs!  All I can say is WOW! The LIFE Business through the Team community is now prepared to march onward to one million plus people because we have transformed ourselves from a networking company into a personal development/leadership company with compensated communities, practically overnight.

People who seize change grow into winners, while people who resists change shrink into whiners. I have seen both responses in business, but I am thankful only the winners and people wanting to grow into winners stay with the Team. Consequently, the Team seized these changes and displayed by their actions, rather than words, that they are champions on their way to one million people. I, and the rest of the PC, congratulate you on a first-class example of how communities should thrive through change!

Sincerely,

Orrin Woodward

Posted in LIFE Leadership, Life Training | 94 Comments »

Birds of a Feather Flock Together

Posted by Orrin Woodward on May 30, 2012

The older I get and the more I study the more I realize the full truth of the statement – Birds of a feather flock together. Indeed, I learn as much, if not more, about a person from his associations than I do from spending time with him personally. Why is this so? Because people can play a role for a period of time, but their association gives them away their true interests.

One of the most significant reasons why the Mental Fitness Challenge (MFC) is sweeping the nation is the power of the community groups to help the changes stick. In other words, even if a person works on his attitude, if he still associates with whining, complaining, stinking-thinking attitudes in his free time, he will struggle greatly in his personal transformation. In contrast, Will Rogers stated, “A man only learns in two ways, one by reading, and the other by association with smarter people,” so a person must associate with others who sharpen him.

Roger’s quote explains how a person can overcome tough personal circumstances and still succeed in life. Simply put, by changing his information and association inputs, he or she will start to change the result outputs. This doesn’t mean a person should ditch his old friends, but it does mean he should be discerning of the environment so his new inputs influence his friends, rather than the old inputs influencing him. The LIFE Business is a step-by-step program to change the inputs, association, and outputs, in order to win in life thanks the the LIFE Business Compensation Plan.

Success isn’t easy, but then again, neither is failure. However, the price of success is paid in easy monthly installments of desire, discipline, and deeds, while the price of failure is ignored until it becomes an unmanageable mountain of debt, destruction, and despair. I walked down the failure path for years; but thankfully, by God’s grace, I was turned back from the precipice of purposelessness and detected my magnificent obsession. Laurie and I want to reach one million people plus with life-changing truths that make a difference in their lives. What is your magnificent obsession?

Sincerely,

Orrin Woodward

Posted in Life Training, Mental Fitness Challenge (MFC) | Tagged: | 93 Comments »

Challenge Groups & Community

Posted by Orrin Woodward on May 16, 2012

The Challenge Groups kicked off around the country this week, and the feedback has been amazing. Communities are essential to the health of individuals, families, and society. The LIFE business builds communities and bonds them together through the Mental Fitness Challenge. If you attended a Challenge Group last night, please share your thoughts and highlights.

Here is one of several articles I have written on community.

Sincerely,

Orrin Woodward

The Desire for Community

The more I read, the more I realize the true secret to success in business and life is related to the strength of relationships within a person’s community. The myth of rugged isolated individualism, although enduring, is, in truth, only a myth. Economic, educational, even political effectiveness are all improved when people work together. Please don’t misunderstand me; I haven’t turned to economic communism; however, I do comprehend better than I previously did how so many people have been drawn into this evil illogical doctrine. Specifically, most people, if given the choice between being alone or in community, will choose community, even if the association is Biblically wrong, thus communism’s growth. In fact, a cursory look at organizations as diverse as communism, the mafia, and gangs will exhibit the enduring need for community.

If community is essential to human beings, then the question is: How do we incorporate community into a society without sacrificing life, liberty, and property? Since liberty cannot exist where the State dictates, the idea of community and freedom precludes State control. Therefore, free communities are misnomers unless they are voluntary organizations. However, although the non-involvement of the State is essential, it isn’t sufficient to create community. The other side of the equation is for people to learn how to work within a community setting. Consequently, the atomistic rugged individualism of American myth must be replaced by men and women who work within a Biblical framework of ordered liberty and love. In other words, the greedy, self-centered capitalist is not a true picture of a free-enterprise Biblical community. In fact, this caricature of American freedoms pinpoints what is plaguing America – the loss of community roots and liberty (Social Power), instead, replaced by today’s (State Power) crony capitalism.

State Power vs. Social Power

Murray Rothbard, the late dean of Austrian Economists, wrote in Conceived in Liberty:

My own basic perspective on the history of man, and a fortiori on the history of the United States, is to place central importance on the great conflict which is eternally waged between Liberty and Power, a conflict, by the way, which was seen with crystal clarity by the American revolutionaries of the eighteenth century. I see the liberty of the individual not only as a great moral good in itself (or, with Lord Acton, as the highest political good), but also as the necessary condition for the flowering of all other goods that mankind cherishes: moral virtue, civilization, the arts and sciences, economic prosperity. Out of liberty, then, stem the glories of civilized life. But liberty has always been threatened by the encroachments of power, power which seeks to suppress, control, cripple, tax, and exploit the fruits of liberty and production. Power, then, the enemy of liberty, is consequently the enemy of all the other goods and fruits of civilization that mankind holds dear. And power is almost always centered in and focused on the central repository of power and violence: the state. With Albert Jay Nock, the twentieth-century American political philosopher, I see history as centrally a race and conflict between “social power” — the productive consequence of voluntary interactions among men — and state power. In those eras of history when liberty — social power — has managed to race ahead of state power and control, the country and even mankind have flourished. In those eras when state power has managed to catch up with or surpass social power, mankind suffers and declines.

In sum, wherever State Power flourishes, Social Power declines. Thankfully, however, the reverse is true as well. By standing on the intellectual shoulders of both Nock and Rothbard, we see that societies can be organized around two competing philosophical choices:

1. State Power: Top down external discipline and the subsequent loss of liberty endured.
2. Social Power: Bottom up internal discipline and the subsequent ordered liberty enjoyed.

Restoring Social Power – Volunteer Communities

The first option (State Power) is the real-life history of America since around the Civil War, with State Power moving ahead and Social Power in subsequent decline. Since 1913, however, the battle has become a full-fledged drubbing, with State Powers triumphing in the Federal Reserve Act, the Federal Income Tax amendment, and the democratic election of Senators. In truth, it’s hard to fathom a worse mix of legislation (as related to Social Power) in one year, in one country, than what occurred in America in that disastrous year of 1913. In other words, 1913 wasn’t just (to use Oliver DeMille’s term) a freedom shift, it was a freedom rout. DeMille’s soon-to-be-released book 1913 will elaborate further on these fateful events.

The second option (Social Power) is America’s (and the West’s) best hope for freedom. America needs a community restoration, starting, not from the top down (State Power), but rather, from the bottom up (Social Power), in order to revitalize America. Social Power is fueled by social capital – a sociological concept which refers to the value of social relations and the role of cooperation and confidence to get collective results in any endeavor – to paraphrase Robert Putnam, in is classic Bowling Alone. Putnam explains the key role of social capital, “A society characterized by generalized reciprocity is more efficient than a distrustful society, for the same reason that money is more efficient than barter. If we don’t have to balance every exchange instantly, we can get a lot more accomplished. Trustworthiness lubricates life. Frequent interaction among a diverse set of people tends to produce a norm of generalized reciprocity.” Furthermore, Putnam argues, “Does social capital have salutary effects on individuals, communities, or even entire nations? Yes, an impressive and growing body of research suggests that civic connections help make us healthy, wealthy, and wise. Living without social capital is not easy, whether one is a villager in southern Italy or a poor person in the American inner city or a well-heeled entrepreneur in a high-tech district.” Social capital matters, in other words, both personally, professionally, and politically.

Converting Dreams into Realities through Communities

Putnam goes on to list five specific areas where the trust and understanding inured by social capital helps translate aspirations into realities:

1. Social capital allows citizens to resolve collective problems more easily through improved teamwork.
2. Social capital greases the wheels that allow communities to advance smoothly through improved trust.
3. Social capital helps widen the awareness of fellow citizens that their fates are intertwined through improved understanding.
4. Social capital serves as conduits for the flow of helpful information and resources to accomplish community and individual goals.
5. Social capital improves individual lives through psychological and biological processes. In fact, numerous studies suggest lives that are rich in social capital cope with trauma and illnesses significantly more effectively.

Despite social capital’s overwhelming advantages, Putnam acknowledges its decline, writing, “Americans have had a growing sense at some visceral level of disintegrating social bonds.” Furthermore, he writes, “More than 80% of Americans said there should be more emphasis on community, even if it puts more demands on individuals.” In sum, social capital isn’t just the fuel for Social Power – a necessary check on State Power – but it also enhances individual lives through the sense of belonging engendered within communities. Strikingly, then, the decline of social capital, not only attacks society’s freedoms, but also attacks an individual’s well-being. Simply put, America cannot remain free without a revival of Social Power through building social capital in voluntary communities. With so much at stake, why aren’t more people focused on restoring voluntary communities throughout America and the West? That question will be answered in further articles on Social Power and communities. Sincerely, Orrin Woodward

Posted in Leadership/Personal Development, Life Training | Tagged: | 79 Comments »