Rich Dad meets Carnegie in the land of the Phoenix Sun!

WOW, Jess and I just had such an amazing experience out in Phoenix, AZ. Below is a little background as to why we were going in the first place and some of the highlights from our trip out west.

As many of you know, Rich Dad Poor Dad literally changed my life. Thank God for that little black and purple book. It’s helped shape my business life in so many ways and snuck some personal lessons in as well. A few years ago, we invited some of the Rich Dad executives out to Michigan to collaborate on an online reinforcement program for the book. One of the executives that came out was Phillip Lechter. Phil is the son of Sharon Lechter who co-wrote Rich Dad Poor Dad. Phil and I hit it off immediately and became very good friends. For reasons that I won’t bore you with, the product never came to life, but the friendship remained.

Fast forward a few years later, both Sharon and Phil have decided to separate from their business partner and follow their passion of providing financial literacy for young people. They had a powerful brand in Rich Dad, but needed a powerful vehicle to reach thousands of teens across the world. Enter Dale Carnegie. Phil is a Dale Carnegie graduate and has a great affinity for the course. He and I have spoken about it often and he knows I’ve worked with the Dale Carnegie Franchise network for years. He called me and asked if I could help them get a program off the ground that would combine the courage and confidence course from Dale Carnegie with the financial literacy material from Rich Dad Poor Dad. WHAT?!?!?! Two passions that run so deeply in both me and Jessica and they are looking to join forces? Too good to be true. I was ready to help any way I could.

Sharon had already made strides by speaking to Dale Carnegie corporate, but in order to gain momentum, she needed to win the crowd! That crowd was the franchisees and I introduced her to the best and brightest. People like John Rodgers, Bob Herrera, Aaron Kent, Dave Rust, Herb Escher, Phil Zeller, Rick Gallegos and others. She won them all over and the financial literacy, personal development and confidence course was born.

This trip was to kick-off the content and marketing development for this powerful program. Sharon invited us out to Phoenix for three days of intense brainstorming and green light thinking.

Oh yeah, she also offered to sit down with me and discuss the book I recently wrote about internet marketing for small business owners. Yes, the author of the book that sold over 13 million copies was going to give me her ear for as long as I needed. I had died and gone to heaven.

So we arrived in Phoenix and, of course, I was battling a cold. Classic. Nonetheless, we headed over to Sharon’s house for a welcome dinner and to get to know each other. She had already gathered a group of great people. We were first introduced to her husband, Michael Lechter, who is a successful businessman in his own right. He is a patent attorney and helped the Cleveland Browns keep their name when the team was moved to Baltimore.

Next was Kevin Stock, the guy behind the design of Rich Dad Poor Dad and created the brilliant purple and black brand.

She had this wonderful, brilliant high school teacher (Dave) there who’s been teaching financial literacy to his students for years. They have joined forces to create this content for the new program.

And of course my buddy Phil – ready and excited to launch this powerful new course with his mom.

Side note – Sharon is so passionate about teaching kids about financial education. She can’t get through talking about it without crying. It’s really wonderful and inspiring to see someone so passionate about their professional mission in life.

Of course Sharon lives in a gorgeous house looking out at the beautiful Arizona Mountains. She had a personal chef there, Eric, who was also a wine sommelier. That’s French for “knows way too much about wine.” Needless to say, we ate the most amazing food all three days.

The next two days were intense and absolutely fantastic. The time we spent with just her group was very productive and then the next day we invited all my franchise contacts to work on the course content and marketing. These guys came with phenomenal ideas, comments and suggestions and Sharon was so pumped and so excited about the future. She also was so very thankful for what Jess and I contributed and we both felt so honored just to be able to participate. That’s the thing about Sharon -- she’s hugely successful but she’s as real as they get. She makes you feel like part of the family the minute you enter her home. But not part of the family enough to let me drive her Aston Martin roadster. Phil told me he's not allowed to drive it either so I didn’t feel so bad.

The last day was about my book. I was humbled and honored that Michael (her husband) sat in on the conversation as well. They both were very complimentary of the book and gave me great feedback. Sharon capped it off with an official endorsement and quote for my book and they both promised to assist me on bringing it to market. Can you read the giddiness in my writing? Unbelievable.

Here’s the quote!

“Do you want to ignite your sales and drastically increase profits through the Internet? This is the first book that gives practical, easy-to-follow action steps proven to increase traffic to your Website. You’ll think Corey Perlman wrote Internet Marketing for the Small Business Owner just for you.”

Jess and I are on the plane heading home with hearts filled and heads flowing with ideas and thoughts for the future. I’m also heading home with badly burnt shins. We got a few hours at the pool on our last day and Jess told me to put sunscreen on, but I informed her real men don’t wear sunscreen. This real man is now very uncomfortable and is using his apple-cranberry can to cool the burn. Nice.

Much love to you all!

corey and jess

Welcome to Team Perlman

In an effort to stay more connected to friends and family, Jess and I will write summaries about what is going on in the world of Team Perlman. This might include updates on us, our parents, famlily...or even you! So thanks in advance to checking us out from time to time and we look forward to seeing you in cyberspace!

much love,

Corey and Jess
Team Perlman

Gilda's Club

Jess has done a great job in seeking out opportunities for us to get involved with our community and with great organizations. This one was no exception. Gilda's Club (named after the great Gilda Radner) is a country-wide organization that supports people and their families who are stricken or affected by cancer. They live by the mission that Gilda did which is through love, support, community and laughter, you have control over the cancer, it does not control you. This was such a perfect match for us as I think my mom and Gilda were soul sisters and this is exactly the way my mom dealt with her cancer - by surrounding herself with the friends and family she loved.

Specifically, we were approached to help get the adult-youth program off the ground. Many people under the age of forty are battling cancer and may not even know that there is a community of people in their backyard waiting to help and support them. Even with two battles with cancer in my own family, I had not even heard of Gilda's Club. We are out to change all of that. I'm excited about this opportunity to help create awareness about this phenomenal organization. More to come!

Corey
Co-Founder, Team Perlman

A Place to Worship

Jess and I have been searching high and low for a place where both a Catholic and a Jew could feel completely comfortable and close to God. We think we've finally found that place at Renaissance Unity Church. We went to services last week and it was such a diverse crowd - we loved it! The message centered around working to align our soul, thoughts, feelings, words, actions, etc. and to concentrate more on alignment than on the outcomes we are searching for. That message reminded us to not worry as much about the results of running a pottery business, rehabbing homes, writing books, etc. but instead to do them as who we are and what we value. A good reminder as we continue our journey toward inner peace and a stronger connection with God.

Much love,

Corey and Jess

My Latest Winter Challenge

As many of you know each winter I select an athletic challenge to support a worthy cause. This year I selected the St. Anthony's Triathlon in St. Petersburg Florida on April 27th. I have been training very hard for this event since November and can't wait to cross the finish line! Over the past few months many of you have donated and I wanted to THANK YOU for that. Every donation means so much to me and goes directly to help support the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and anyone suffering from blood cancers.

Fundraising can be tough especially when you have to raise over $3,000! So this year I took a different approach and started marketing my fundraisers to my customers and tying a little publicity into my business at the same time. So far, the exposure opportunities have been great! I was published in the local paper (see Pic above) when I held a fundraisier in my storefront window. It was called Spin for a Cause, and I rode on my bike for 4 hours straight while collecting donations and the attention of anyone on the street walking by. The amazing thing about this event was that customers would come up and tell me about a friend or family member that they lost to the disease. I even had a few of my regular customers come up and share this with me, I would have never known they had a family member suffering. I had no problem pushing through the pain after I heard some of those amazing stories. I also had an interview today with another local paper that plans to do a story on my efforts so I will be sure to post that when it runs within the next week!

Interested in donating? There's still time to visit my site and make a donation for this great cause: http://www.active.com/donate/tntmi/teamperlman

Project Hwoods!

Project hWOODS! Ok, we have started work on our second project - hWOODS! This was a foreclosure and was pretty rough when we arrived. As you can see, nasty carpet, interesting paint colors and no toilets in both bathrooms!?!!? Well you know what they say, where there is no toilets, there is opportunity! As always, we busted out the sledgehammer and took care of the demo...take a look!

And here's the after!

Project Bham!

This was our first rehab project. Such a cool house in a swanky neighborhood. The previous homeowner was in love with glass block and had it scattered throughout the house. He even had a glass block wall that went directly through the middle of the house (you'll see in pics below). With the help of my bro-in-law John, we took them down peice by peice and sold them on craig's list for a buck a block! Can you believe we had over 800 glass block pieces when all was said and done? unbelievable. With my partner (Andrew Tocco) we spent many days breaking and tearing down anything we could get our hands on. It was my first time demoing anything and, if you haven't had a chance to smack a sledgehammer through a bathroom wall, I'd highly recommend it. I think i busted every stress bubble in my body. It was awesome.

We let the professionals put it all back together and below you'll see the finished product. Enjoy!





And the after of the front yard!





Here's the glass block wall!



The old master bath and my theraputic demo!






And the NEW Master Bath:





Old Guest Bath (It was vintage and cool, but didn't go with the new flow...it had to go):





And the NEW Guest Bath:


And the old backyard:



And the new (we got rid of the deck and put in new brick pavers, new sod, and built that structure off the house from the ground up!):




And finally, the official flyer! What a ride it has been...



Much love,

Jess and Corey
Team Perlman