Archive for the ‘From the Desk of Melanie Jane Nicolas’ Category

5 Languages of Love for Kids – My Daughter Jayden

The #1 Money Mistake Parents Pass On to Their Kids

Labor Day, according to Wikipedia, is an American federal holiday observed on the first Monday in September that celebrates the economic and social contributions of workers. I remember in my nursing days when I looked forward to Labor Day because of a well-deserved day off. However, it didn’t take me long to realize that I can create my own days off as an entrepreneur. With continuous education and discipline in my work habits, I learned that I can create my own economy.

After “retiring” from my nursing career over 6 years ago, I’ve recently met with some of my previous co-workers who are now laid off or in fear of being laid off from their nursing jobs. Who would’ve thought that a shortage of nurses back then would lead to an abundance of nurses being laid off? My mom, in particular, was one of them. After working for a company for over 30 years, this hospital decided to give my mom’s position away 3 months before she was to retire. With continuous calls to the President of the hospital, the hospital gave her a leave of absence that allowed her to reach full retirement. At the end of her service, she received a nice pen:)

My mom was fortunate that she had people in her family that was in the medical field to insure her full retirement. She is now in the Philippines enjoying her life. It’s amazing to me that she had in her mind that she had to wait until she was 66 years old to enjoy life. This is a common practice for many. With the job loss of so many, I want to stress the importance of creating your own economy.

Having said this, here are 3 Steps to Creating Your Own Economy:

1. Change Your Focus:  Beginning immediately, stop talking about anything that is not working. Stop defending and justifying why you’re not doing better. Stop blaming the economy or whatever else you deem to be the cause of your troubles. If something is not working, continuing to talk about it will cause you to start seeing more things going wrong and continue the downward spiral.?Ask only, “What’s working?” What you focus on, grows. And that’s why it’s important to be mindful of what you are focusing on.
2. Mine the Gold That’s Already in Your Business:  Every business has “hidden” opportunities which can be mined, usually by either developing new markets for your products, creating new products, leveraging the relationships you’ve built, and joint venturing with colleagues, suppliers, customers and, yes, even competitors. Don’t get the “shiny object syndrome” in which you want to do so many new things and finish none.
3. Develop Systems and Follow Through:  The best way to do this is to hire a business coach or appoint someone in your organization to be your team’s “accountability partner” to ensure your renewed vision is being carried out and that you are steadily moving in the right direction. Many business owners think that they’ll hire a coach when they make more money. It is actually the opposite. You hire a business coach to make more money.

As always, the sooner you instill and model an entrepreneurial mindset utilizing these steps, the sooner you can create your own Labor Day. Avoid the practice of living and enjoying life when you “retire”.  I hope you enjoyed your Labor Day weekend!

Last month was one of the most powerful breakthroughs Kids Wealth International Club has experienced. With our Ribbon Cutting with Mayor Pradel in Naperville and the expansion of our new KWIC Minds, our company is significantly growing. I’d like to say that when running a success culture company with a vision which my KWIC Team shares, that stars align and everything goes smoothly. I mean, who doesn’t want to empower kids to a healthier financial future? 🙂 And with my passion to teach kids about finances and entrepreneurship, all “should” go well. However, as most of you may know, running a business isn’t that easy.

What matters most is your WHY. Most people don’t succeed because they don’t have a big enough why. So when the challenges arrive, they give up so easily. Or even worse, they give up when their company is about to reach exponential growth. It takes time to cultivate a success culture. It takes diligence to implement the things needed to monetize a business. And it takes the right organized knowledge to implement. You have probably heard the saying “practice makes perfect.” It is actually “perfect practice makes perfect.”

As I’ve watched the Olympics this past week, I wonder what those competitors are thinking to themselves. They, too, have their why and their passion and love of the game. They, too, have coaches like me to push them to grow, keep them accountable, and be successful. They, too, are diligent in their perfect practice. They, too, implement with calculated risks. They, too, take opportunities when they see them. It takes a winner to be in the Olympics. And that’s what our KWIC Kids are…WINNERS! They have played full out in our KWIC Money Camp to learn and better themselves. They are practicing the financial skills they have learned to be better managers of their money and financially responsible. They took the opportunity to go on our bank tour during our camp. Hence, they were prepared and rewarded with the opportunity to hold one of the 1996 Olympic torches held by the President of Naperville Bank and Trust, Tom Miers, who just happen to bring the torch into the bank that day. What are the chances for these KWIC Kids to be at the right place at the right time!?!

Now, I just didn’t learn all of these wealth principles overnight. I started mentoring with experts in finances and business over 10 years ago. So as I was teaching the KWIC Money Camps this past month, I have am certain that those KWIC kids’ lives have changed forever. People ask, “Aside from how to make, manage, and multiply money, what else do the kids learn?” Here are the Top 5 Values your kids will learn in our KWIC Camps:

1. Self-esteem: Studies show that 80% of your child’s belief system is established by age 8. By teaching kids about wInner beliefs, the kids understand how to build self-confidence and inner wealth. This is how my daughter Jardel was inspired to write her own book at age 7, “My wInner Self: How to be a winner from the inside out.”

2. Leadership skills: Stedman Graham focuses on identity, and his first step of finding your identity is Leadership. Kids Wealth International Club is focused on creating leaders of children so that others will not identify who they are for them and put them in a “box”.

3. Teamwork: Kids these days are so competitive. They are taught in school that helping each other is “cheating”. We teach kids how to rise people up because with a Team, Together Everyone Achieves Miracles.

4. Relationships: The quality of your life is directly proportionate to the quality of your relationships and the commitments you keep within your relationships…especially your relationship to yourself.

5. Fun: Kids Wealth International Club’s tag line is “Helping your kids get rich in a fun way.” When I say rich, it encompasses all aspects of wealth. When I say fun, our KWIC Team understands that your kids learn best when they are experiencing fun. Most financial literacy programs don’t understand this, and I’ve watched teachers struggle to keep the kids’ attention and retention. We don’t have this problem at our KWIC Camps.

Take these principles and apply them into your own lives and your kid’s lives.

Check out our new KWIC Minds, where your kids go out into the real world and apply the concepts learned from our KWIC Camps. You as the parents will also learn more on raising wealthy kids through our webinars. Click HERE.

Happy 4^th of July to you and your family!

This month is always special to me not only because of all the fun I have with my family, but because it is a reminder of how blessed we  are to have this freedom.  To think, we often take for granted that we are in America and we are given the freedom and benefits that most countries don’t have.  Some worked hard to come and live in this great land of liberty, and others have this freedom because they were born here.

I, myself, was born in the United States.  However, when I was 2 years old, my parents visited the Philippines, and my brother and I ended up living there for 5 years.  I am blessed to have been exposed to our culture because I am reminded of how grateful I need to be for what I have here in America.

For instance, I remember eating at Jollibee (the Filipino McDonald’s) with my mom when I was 4 years old.  There would be a group of homeless kids gathered at the window staring at the food we were eating.  I asked my mom, “How come they don’t have any food to eat?”  My mom would reply, “Because there are a lot of kids here who have no means of having a meal because their parents have no money.”  I felt bad for those kids and remember asking my mom if I can share my food.

My mom, who is nurturing, would buy a bunch of burgers and distribute them to all the kids.  She is an amazing role model, and she had taught me the value of generosity.  No wonder why I’m always feeding others even 32 years later 🙂  She would say to me, “When it comes to food…there is always enough for everyone.”  Food is never wasted in our home.

So living in America we have many freedoms…the freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of petition, and so forth.

What I’d like to talk about is Financial Freedom.  Why is it that some people lack financial freedom, and to others, financial freedom comes so easily?  Is it because some people were born in certain circumstances?  Or maybe some people are just lucky?  It is neither of these.

I have met many millionaires who started off with just a few dollars in their pockets and whose parents didn’t have much.  There are also those people who are “lucky” winning the lottery and then filing bankruptcy a couple of years later.  I believe it is the inner beliefs we have about money, the habits we have around money, and our ability to manage money.  So when I talk about inner beliefs, do you have an abundant mindset or  a limited mindset?  Do you say to your kids “we can’t afford it” (limited mindset) or “how can we afford it?” (which opens your mind to the abundance the world has to offer).

When it comes to habits, do you actually have a system (such as the one in my FREE report “The #1 Secret to Your Kid’s Financial Success”) to allocate your funds? Or do you just go about your month living paycheck to paycheck and not knowing where your money is going?  How does financial freedom look like to you?   Here is my definition of financial freedom.

Financial Freedom is when your passive income is greater than the cost of your CHOSEN lifestyle.  I say chosen because there are many people who make 7 figures and are drowning in debt.  While others who understand this concept, earn less money and are financially free.  They know how to create wealth by investing in the 3 Pillars of Wealth (business, real estate, and stocks) that give them passive income (where you do the work once and earn income over and over and over again).

So choose a lifestyle that will allow you to reach financial freedom!  With all the freedoms we have here in America, why not Financial Freedom?

Be safe on the 4^th of July, and be grateful for what you have!

As we go into the summer, I’m sure that many of you are busy preparing for your kids’ activities, vacations, and family outings. It is very easy to get caught up in the doing and less in the enjoying. I know that I myself have this problem, having four little ones to take care of and a business to run. This is where I need to take the leadership role not only with my kids, but with myself. Here are some things I do to keep sane 🙂

1. Work smarter – Don’t start every project from scratch. In my business, I’ve developed standardized forms and steps, called systems, so that once a project is done, it is duplicatable. For example, as you noticed, you receive a monthly KWIC Newsletter every first Monday of each month which has already been created once and all I need to do is write my special letter to you to plug into the pre-formatted header.

2. Debrief your activities – Take the time after each activity or project your staff organizes to talk about how it went before jumping into the next project. Lead a discussion based on three questions: What happened? So what? Now what?

3. Do less – People always ask me how I get so much done. Answer: I delegate. Think about how much your time is worth. Having four kids, I would rather spend my precious time with them than do things I don’t like doing. So I hired a house manager who takes care of the every day activities that I would otherwise be doing without her ie. laundry, dishes, cleaning, etc…

4. Collaborate more – How can you collaborate more with other groups in your community to have a bigger impact? Is there a way to involve some of these groups in some of the activities you have going on? Collaboration is a great way to enjoy more.

5. Get organized – I once heard that people spend 20% of their time looking for things. Can you imagine wasting this much of your life? Take some time to reorganize your computer, email, files, calendar, and storage closet. It may take a huge effort when doing this, but imagine all the time you’ll save in the immediate future.

6. Put technology to work for you – I can honestly say that I am not technologically savvy. However, I do know the basics, and I hire people who are great at programs and digital tools that will make my life easier for me.

7. Improve communication – Look for ways to improve the way you communicate with your staff and family members. We often run into difficulty with people because they don’t know something, so you can head off problems by keeping them informed. The quality of your relationships is directly proportionate to your ability to communicate effectively with people.

8. Stay away from negative people – Cultivate the friendship of positive people and keep clear of people who always have a negative approach to things. Negative people have a way of pulling everyone else down with them.

9. Lose weight – Instead of the typical resolution to start dieting, consider what issues or problems are weighing you down. A person typically has 15-17 messes in their lives. It may be a mess in a relationship, a mess in the trunk of their car, or a mess with their taxes. Make a list of these messes and determine which mess you want to tackle for the month. Get some people together to help you come up with a solution and implement it. You’ll feel less stressed with that mental weight off your mind.

10. Set the stage for the summer – Plan ahead of time how your summer will look like. I personally do this by having a huge calendar with all the activities and work days scheduled so that my entire family and staff can see them. This way, everyone is on the same page which causes less confusion and overwhelm.

11. End the school year on a solid financial footing – Check your family and business budget to see if your revenues and expenses are as planned. For more information on how to do this, come to one of our KWIC Mini-Camps www.kwickids.com/camps/minicamp

12. Network – Build great relationships with like-minded people. They will help you keep going when your motivation is dwindling or you need some new ideas regarding family or business.

I hope these leadership tools will help you enjoy your summer to it’s fullest!

This past week has been the most inspiring days of my life.  As many of you know, I have had the pleasure of being a part of the Top One Coaching family, and I just came back from Dallas at an event they provide twice a year called Mega Partnering, The World’s #1 Wealth Networking Conference.  To be in an environment with a common vision of entrepreneurial success, I yearned to share this experience with you, wishing you were there with me to experience all the greatness each individual had to offer.  To have conversations with Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple, and Eric Trump, who raised $650,000 for his foundation that helps kids with cancer, I did not want the event to end.

The best way I can share this experience with you is to share with you some of the words of wisdom the speakers had.  28-year-old Eric Trump, in particular, spoke about his principles to live by, with PASSION being the number one.  He said that without passion, one will not be successful to his capacity because he will give up at the first sign of challenge.  “If you don’t have passion, you’ll never be good at it.”  Here are Eric Trump’s principles, and I wish for you to utilize these principles in your journey in life as you see fit.

Eric Trump’s Principles to Live By

1.  There’s no substitute for Passion – “If you don’t have passion, you’ll never be good at it.”

2.  Create & protect your Brand – You stand for your brand in business and in your personal life.

3.  You don’t get anything you don’t ask for.  Negotiate EVERYTHING.  We are so scared of rejection and the word “no” because it is the first thing we learned as kids.  However, you will never know the answer unless you ask for it.  So don’t be scared of the word “no”.

4.  Go with your gut.  Have passion.

5.  Put up your guard.  Protect Yourself. – Whatever you have, there is always someone who wants what you have.  And instead of asking you how you achieved what you have, understand that he may “try” to bring you down.

6.  Fight to the death.

7.  Never let your emotions cloud your judgment.

8.  Think BIG!  Be a Winner! – Successful people always think big.  Donald Trump wrote the book on this – “Think Big.  Kick Ass.”

9.  Get EVEN! – It makes people less likely to do something to you again.  As you can imagine, many people tried to test Donald Trump by threatening to sue him.  They would ask him for $25,000 trying to convince him that it is cheaper to give them the money vs going to court.  Donald Trump would choose to go to court.

I hope this glimpse of Mega Partnering inspired your day.

To You and Your Kid’s Wealth, 
Melanie Jane Nicolas 
America’s Leading Authority In Raising Wealthy Kids 
CEO and Founder of Kids Wealth International Club, 
Helping Your Kids Get Rich in a Fun Way

Yesterday, I celebrated my 36th Birthday. Some friends took me out to dinner at Bob Chinn’s Crabhouse, where we feasted on three, 6 lb dungeness crabs.

As I sat there amongst my friends, for a minute I looked around the table and got a glimpse of what is most important in my life. You see, having four kids in school and what seems to be 20 different activities, a large extended family, many friends from different walks of my life, and a business to run, sometimes I get too caught up in my never-ending to do lists. Then there’s this over-achieving, control freak inside me that “needs” to have things done right away the right way. I always want to produce!

And sometimes, I feel that just relaxing, having fun outside of my kids, or even just sitting around makes me feel unaccomplished. However, in that minute of silence (to me at least) during my birthday dinner, I realized that having fun with friends and family or sitting around and doing “nothing” is producing. It is producing intimacy and friendships. I told my friend that turning 36 wasn’t too exciting for me because I know it’s past the halfway mark to 40. Yet, I can honestly say that “I am loving life.”

I am loving life not because of the monetary and superficial accomplishments, but because of the relational accomplishments I have had throughout the years. My mom once told me when I was 9 years old that in a lifetime, one is blessed with only one or two TRUE friends. You know, the friends who are there for you and love you no matter what. The friends who won’t question your integrity or character when other people try to make you look bad by making false statements. The friends who applaud you when you are successful and encourage you when you think you’ve failed. The friends who will stick up for you when the mass is against you. You know who I’m talking about. Well, I am blessed with more than two true friends, and so I consider myself one of the “lucky” ones. 

So as my kids grow up with the outside influences of the world, I wish for them to learn early in life that life is about the quality of relationships they cultivate. It is not about the materialistic things they have, nor is it even about the success they create in their lives. Life is about living a life from success to significance. Significance is where the true riches are. Whereas the 3 F’s in success is fame, fortune, and fans, the 3 F’s in significance is faith, family, and friends. And I wish for you and your children not only a successful life, but a life of significance as well. As parents, let’s work together in creating a life of significance for the future of our world…our children. 

To You and Your Kid’s Wealth, 
Melanie Jane Nicolas 
America’s Leading Authority In Raising Wealthy Kids 
CEO and Founder of Kids Wealth International Club, 
Helping Your Kids Get Rich in a Fun Way