Last day for the Golden Aspen Rally

Tomorrow will be the last day for the Golden Aspen Rally in Ruidoso, NM. Today was considerably dryer than the last few days. We only had a few rain showers prior to noon. The day warmed up past 60 (very nice for us desert rats...) and the sun was out more than 10 minutes at a time.

I did not have time to get any riding in today, mainly because we were open by 10 am (it rained prior to opening) and we didn't close until 8 pm. Tomorrow will also not be a riding day, we open at 9 and the rally officially ends by 2 pm. I have mixed feelings about the rally's end. The people here are wonderful, but it is nice to move onto a new location. Even with the rain most of the event, it is very nice not roasting in over 100 degree weather.

As we work this show, I am also thinking about our friends in Kerrville, TX. They are having the Run for the Wall "unofficial" reunion the same weekend as the Golden Aspen Rally. One of these years, we may be lucky enough to attend the "unofficial" reunion. Otherwise the only time we get to see our Run for the Wall friends is during the RFTW event in May. Hopefully they all had a good reunion and will begin the trek safely home tomorrow.

This will be a relatively short blog, it is already getting late and I have been running the generator past our 9 pm curfew. Tomorrow after 2 pm we hit the road for Reno Street Vibrations. I will be able to blog in more detail about other topics as we go bouncing down the road towards Reno, NV. If any of you are in the Reno area next week, please come by to see us. We will be located at the Reno Harley-Davidson Dealership in Reno. If you need more information on the specific location, please feel free to contact me at hawgwash1@yahoo.com or check out www.hawgwash.net for details.

Until tomorrow...

Golden Aspen Rally

Hi everyone. I know I have not been posting again, but I really do have a good reason. We are currently at the Golden Aspen Rally in Ruidoso, NM. We are dry camping (camping without electric, water or sewer) and have a very small window in which to run our generator. Running a generator can be a noisy experience, so we make sure our generator is turned off by 9 pm each evening. The problem with blogging is that I need the generator to keep the laptop running, the show ends at 8, so I have less than an hour to eat, take care of the dogs and then get the laptop running. Last night, we didn't get out of the booth until after 8, so my time got really squished.

Right now, I am in our booth, just before the show opens and trying madly to let everyone know what is going on. I guess I will have to beg to get inside the event early (we are provided electric to our booth, but we can't get into the facility until 8 am) and talk to you all before they open the doors for the general public. I feel badly about not blogging more regularly, but will continue to work on getting more consistent. Please bear with me a little longer so I can get a pattern going even when I am working at shows.

Now, if you are wondering about the Golden Aspen Rally, it is a really great rally. As I mentioned earlier, it is sort-of indoors (there is a huge covered rodeo arena and they put sides on it so we are basically indoors without any heating or cooling) and a lot of fun. The people here are awesome, the weather has not been so nice.

It has rained most of the day for the last two days. Hopefully the weather will clear up later today. On Wednesday (the first day of the rally) we got a massive rain and hail storm and luckily no damage to any vehicles or people. I want the rain to stop because it is dangerous to the riders coming to the rally. I have no doubt that the motorcycle rides can handle the rain, my bigger concern is the 4-wheelers who have problems driving in the rain bumping into the motorcycle riders. As far as I know, there have been no problems with bikes in these wet conditions, but I really want the rain to stop because the riding around here is beautiful.

The rally is held in Ruidoso, NM, up in the mountains. Even if it is over 90 in El Paso, it is much cooler up here. This is a great rally to attend, they have a large selection of vendors, the promoters are careful not to have more than 2-3 duplicate type products so there is a wonderful selection and not all the same stuff. The prices of the products, food included, are very reasonable. I would like to discuss the riding around here, but as I said, it is raining, and I have to work the booth. I will look up some of the riding around here and let you know what is available in my next blog (hopefully tomorrow morning).

My next blog should not be as disjointed as this one is. I am madly trying to get information out to you before I have to work at the booth.

Right now, the gates are open, people are streaming into our area, so I need to get to work. I look forward to talking to everyone later. Take care.

My Ongoing Weight Loss Saga

I know I haven't been talking much about my weight loss. That is not because I haven't been losing weight, I have just had so much else to do and talk about, I plain forgot to keep you all updated.

I am now really down to my last belt notch. I had been able to access the last hole off and on for some time now, but finally, when I buckle my belt, I consistently go into that last hole. My actual weight has been holding, but I am re-discovering my waistline.

My hips are not quite as big also. I notice that in particular when I am chasing the dogs around the house or running with them outside. I don't notice the bouncing of the lard (blubber, or whatever else you want to call that extra fat stuff) along my hips and butt anymore. Please don't get me wrong, I don't run like runners, I just run with the dogs occasionally. I am not and never will be a runner, so don't think I am taking up a new past time.

Anyway, even though I have not been the most diligent at using the Cheat (I keep forgetting it at home if we eat out), I have been taking at least one Flush nightly and taking at least one Accelerate daily. I started drinking the Lean again as a breakfast replacement and am pleased with how I feel in the morning. I don't feel as sluggish as I used to. I have found that taking one Accelerate in the morning and one around 1 and 2 pm keep me going better than drinking 3-4 cups of coffee. I still have my mug of coffee in the morning, but that is now more for the taste than for the caffeine. My energy levels overall have been much better than they have in the last 6 months. And..that is on the heels of our 5 month travel schedule.

Usually, after a month on the road, I need to rest for several days before I can get motivated and start working again. This time, I never really stopped working. I was a little slower, but I was not sleeping for a solid day. Losing weight and being on the Core4 has definitely helped me.

If anyone has questions about the Core4 system and what it may be able to do for you, please feel free to e-mail me at hawgwash1@yahoo.com, or check out our website at www.hawgwash.net and click on the Core4 button. I am currently working on a new website, dedicated purely to the Core4 products, www.weightrenegade.com. It is currently pointing to our Core4 site, but hopefully in the next few days, I can get the revised site up and running.

Take care and I will continue to keep you posted on my continued weight loss.

Review of 4-Corners Rally and beyond

Wow, I can't believe it has been 10 days since I last posted here. We have been busy, busy, busy. As I am sure you all know, last time I blogged, we were set up for Ignacio Bike Week (formerly the 4-Corners Rally).

This year we were blessed with wonderful weather. It rained Friday late afternoon/evening and that was it. Last year we had rain almost every day, lasting almost all day long. This year we even had relatively cool weather too. It got into the upper 80's or low 90's, but at night it cooled off to at least mid- to low 60's. Great riding weather, great rally weather.

Attendance was pretty good at this show. the town of Ignacio did everything they could to make it a biker friendly event. The town people were very welcoming and many came out to visit the vendors.

The bike parade on Sunday was great, many people came out to watch the (Steve included) bikes first ride up the main street, and then return back on the main street. If you have time next year during Labor Day, I highly recommend spending some time in Ignacio, Colorado for the annual Ignacio Bike Week.

We managed to find our way home early Tuesday, the day after Labor Day. We got to spend a whole 5 days at home (wooo whooo) madly catching up on mail, weeding, cleaning, washing, grocery shopping, etc. It is amazing how much work needs to be done when you get home, even though we are in our home away from home. I did get a reasonable amount of weeding done, but there is still quite a bit more to accomplish.

We also managed to find time to attend the weekly Bike Night at Arizona Joe's on Thursday night. If you are in Apache Junction (AJ), come on by for the Thursday night bike night. We will not be there for the next 3 weeks, but they are still holding the bike night in our absence.

We are on the road again. We left late Sunday and are already bouncing through New Mexico on our way to the Golden Aspen Rally in Ruidoso, NM. I am already looking forward to the cooler weather that the higher elevations offer. It has been in the mid-100's at home. As much as I don't mind the heat, when you are working outside, anything over 90 is just plain hot...and don't try to convince me about the "dry heat". Arizona is still in monsoon season, so we actually have 2-digit humidity which for us desert rats, is quite muggy...

I will chat at you guys more later. It is good to be back in the saddle again.

Until next time....

Another great reason for having your own Home Based Business

For the record, just because you may be interested or have a "home based business", it doesn't mean that you have to physically stay at home to work your business. We are all over the country promoting our home-based business for a good portion of the year (by choice).

As I have discussed before, there are quite a few good reasons for why you want to be in business for yourself. Obviously, the income you make can be as much or as little as you wish. The income is determined by how hard you work for it. The only limitation is you.

Some of the not-so-obvious benefits of being self employed is getting to meet the neatest people. Yesterday we met a gentleman who is a Silver Star recipient and earned two Bronze Stars. His name is Al, and he served two tours in Vietnam. We had a wonderful discussion with him and got to hear some great stories about some of his time in Vietnam. This man served our country when serving in Vietnam was not appreciated, and he is not resentful in any way, shape or form. He is a true warrior, not taking anything for granted, but grateful to have been given the opportunity to serve his country and help his fellow soldiers.

Al told us the story of how he earned the Silver Star and how he felt that he was just doing what he was trained to do. He believes that he had done nothing different than anyone else would have done. What I find interesting is that when talking with most of the soldiers who have earned these type of commendations, they feel that at the time they did nothing spectacular. These soldiers are very humble about the service they performed. I guess that is what makes them true heroes, they only see what needs to be done for their fellow man, not what might happen to them.

After having the opportunity to talk with Al for some time, he very kindly asked if Steve could accompany him (Al) in the motorcycle parade in Ignacio on Sunday. Al has lead this ride for several years, and felt strongly that Steve should also ride with him. This is an awesome honor for Steve and again proof about how big Al's heart truly is. For those of you who may be in the 4-Corners area for the rally this Sunday, please come out to see Al and Steve leading the annual 4-Corners Rally Motorcycle Parade through the town of Ignacio, CO. We hope to see some of you there.

How to let people know you are in business - Part 3

This is an ongoing thread about how to be noticed once you get into a business opportunity (second income) for yourself. A few days ago, I continued the conversation about talking with people about your business. In this post, I would like to explore other avenues of getting noticed without spending a lot of money.

Everyone knows that advertising will get you noticed...mostly, but if you just start up in business for yourself, there is a high probability that you do not have a lot of cash to throw into an advertising budget. If you do, then great, otherwise, I would like to provide some other ideas on how to get your business noticed without a huge expenditure.

If you have started a home-based business, you want people to know you are actively in business. Another way to get noticed is to print up your own business cards. That way, when you start a conversation with someone, and then need to leave, you can provide them with your business card and some basic information for them to get in contact with you. You do not need to go to a formal Printer to have your first set of cards made up. You can purchase business card blanks (in 8 1/2 x 11) that can be printed at home. You can even use a basic word processing program like Microsoft Word to create those first cards.

On your cards, be sure to have your name and phone number that you can be reached at. You may want to include some type of picture or logo (if you have one) on your card, but don't go overboard. This card is a first impression for the person you are handing it to, you want it to be neat, not cluttered, and easy to read (even for us old folks). Only hand out the cards if the person you are talking to is genuinely interested in your opportunity. I have found that if you just hand out cards willy nilly, those same cards tend to get thrown out, which then became a waste of your time and materials. You may also have on the card a website to get more information on the business you are in, and an e-mail address. Keep in mind, there are still a lot of people out there that are not necessarily computer savvy. They may prefer a phone conversation to an e-mail conversation. On the flip side, I have met some that would much rather communicate through e-mail than talk on the phone. Again, be sensitive to the people you are talking with.

I do not recommend that you put your home address on the card unless you are willing to host anyone and everyone winding up to your home. If you have a shop at the house, then that would be different, but personally, I would rather give my home information out only to very specific people. You really don't know where your business card will end up, you don't want just anyone picking up a card that may have been discarded and then have that person appear at your home. (Just a word of caution)

Another way to advertise is to print up (again from home) some basic flyers about your business and what it can do for prospective clients. You can go into your local grocery stores and get the blessing from management to place your flyer (or flyers) on the community bulletin board. You would be amazed with how many people read those flyers. If you do that, be sure to go back on at least a weekly basis to be sure your flyer is still there. You cannot assume that the flyer will always be in the same spot. Be sure to provide a means for people to take the information, they will probably not want to write everything down, so you may want to create some type of tear-off at the bottom of the flyer so people can tear-off your name and number to contact you at a later time.

Depending on your business, try to submit flyers to the stores that may benefit from your services. If you are involved somehow with motorcycles, then go to the local motorcycle shops and ask to post your flyers. Usually, the management has a community board or kiosk for information and flyers. Again, be sure to check periodically if you need to add more flyers. You may also talk to those same local businesses about what you have to offer, perhaps they can also send you in the right direction, or offer someone who would be interested in your services. You never know what can happen if you don't talk to people.

In the next few days I will cover some other ideas on inexpensive advertising... until then...

How to tell people you are in business for yourself - Part 2

I tried to post this last night, but was having one heck of a time with the Internet connection.

To pick up the thread I started a few days ago, we were talking about how to tell people you are in business. I talked about how to open a conversation with a complete stranger in the last post, stressing that you do not want to push your business hard, you want to give them just enough information to be curious and interested. Do not scare them away with too much information at the initial meeting.

Once you have peaked their interest, I strongly recommend that unless they are willing to talk business (which is most unlikely) right now, offer to call them in a few days to talk. If they don't have time in the next few days, offer to send them some e-mail information. You want to keep their interest peaked, but don't go overboard. You want them to come to you. Once that occurs, you are no longer Selling, you are now offering information and possibly a solution to their particular problem or concern. You want people to see you not as a salesperson, but as someone who cares about their interests and needs and may have something to offer them that might just help with a particular issue they are dealing with.

Always keep the conversation light until the other person starts getting specific. You do not want to scare them away with your intensity (I do have a problem with that sometimes) but you want to be enthusiastic about what you do for a living. You want them to come to you, not for you to chase them. You want them to look at you as offering a solution to a particular problem they have, not that you are trying to sell them something they don't need.

Some of you may feel this is too soft of a sales approach. I have found though that this approach works well for me personally. I am more interested in building relationships with the people I do business with rather than making money off of them. The people you talk to are sensitive to that, and I believe it pays dividends in the long run. I want to be in business a long time, I am not interested in making a "quick buck" off an individual, I would rather be there to offer solutions to their issues or concerns. Once they realize that you are not going to take advantage of them, there is a much higher probability that they will tell their friends about you and what you do. This way, the people you interact with will be more willing to tell others about you and will portray you as a trustworthy source.

In the next few days, I will continue discussing how to let people know you are in business... until then...

If you are interested in exploring second income streams or alternative business opportunities, please check out www.hawgwash.net. If you have any questions, please feel free to comment here or e-mail me.