Preface
Written Sept 30, 2011
I was recently reading in "Think and Grow Rich by Napolean Hill copyright 1937" about goal setting and Faith with Visualization.Then with Theonlinesystem and YJ I was asked to write a vision of when an event was taking place and to record it. This was to include some pretty high goals and in both cases of instruction it was to include a lot of detail and then be reread every morning and night so that it became transported into my subconscious mind where the processes to accomplish this goa; would be set into action. Well I am doing it and so I wrote this story yesterday. It is over 11 pages long and the first 8 or 9 is just a recap of what has gotten me to this point in writing the story. I am putting in my blog to make it a part of my history, a part that if I continue each day with the instructions to visualize it as though it had really happened that one day 5 years from now it will not just be a story of what I wanted but rather a story of what I accomplished. So this is written as it is to be read in 2016 , thus the date above on the title, it is not a mistake.
This is my Story.
Songs that give me inspiration:
How Great Thou Art, Because I have Been Given Much, The Impossible Dream, I Can Go The Distance, Headed for the Future Angels Among Us, Be Still My Soul, Mama
On April 20th I was photographing some product samples at Provo Craft and happened to go back to my desk about 1 pm. I checked my email and there was an email stating we were to all finish what we were doing and be ready to leave at 3 PM and no later. Well having received emails like this once before the office began to buzz, not with excitement, but worry. The last time they had done this there were several people that were invited to a conference room away from everyone else and kept there after 3 then told they were being laid off. Well we knew it was happening again so as we watched people being approached by their supervisors we knew who was going and I was also one of them. I said goodbye to my co-workers and left for the training room. Provo Craft had been doing well but economy forced a restructuring of the company with 26 of us being let go. Well there was a lot of crying going on and a lot questioning how they were going to make it without a job but for me for some reason there was almost a feeling of peace. (I hated the forty mile commute one way each day through major construction.) I had been through this with Signetics in 1993 and knew from that experience that the Lord had a plan and I needed now to just trust in that plan.
I came home with a box full of personal belongings and Marie knew instantly what had happened but she took it as well as could be expected I guess. I had two months severance so I decided not to look for a job right off the bat but instead attended some classes and a counseling session at the LDS job services. At the end of the counseling session the missionary said something to me that seemed rather strange.
We were looking at job listings on line and then he said, as he was getting ready to close the window, “Oh, you ought to also keep your eye on the home based business opportunities.” Well that hadn’t crossed my mind and I kind of put it on the back burner of my memory and thanked him for his help and left. I attended classes on job hunting, interviewing and resumes during the next couple of weeks. During one of those classes we had a fellow who had no self-confidence and I witnessed one of the greatest changes that I have ever seen. He had been sitting next to a salesman who was very confident and we watched as through the day he coached the young man like no one else in the room could have done it. He went from no confidence and wanting to skip the next class because we were going to be videoed during a mock interview to something no less than miraculous.
I went first that morning into the interview exercise and then had the opportunity to take each person to the room for the interview. As I took him to the room I was sure he was going to have a heart attack and couldn’t wait to see how he did. As he came back to the room following his interview he exclaimed that he was number one and could do it, anything he wanted. We all clapped and were amazed at the change we had seen in him. It was no less than a miracle and I had been blessed to be a first hand witness of it. Later as we each saw our interviews I remember watching him during his review and at one point he spun his chair around and just looked out the window behind him then after a particular moment in the interview where he hadn’t done so well he returned his chair to the front and again watched with great interest to the rest of his interview. As we discussed his interview later we asked about that moment when he spun toward the window and he exclaimed that he knew he had really messed up at that point and didn’t want to see it.
Then he bore a testimony to us of his experience during the last two days. He told us how he didn’t feel like he was worth anything the day before and after the interview he suddenly knew that he was worth something special and that he could now go forth with a belief in himself. He said thanks and at that point not many eyes were dry in the group. I then exclaimed to the instructor how I felt that the Lord had placed him next to the young salesman for a purpose and we had just witnessed the Lord’s hand in this class. Well He had been with more than just those two because I too had felt His help specifically for me.
So three months later and 15 lbs less (yard work can be pretty good for a behind the desk guy) I had pretty well accomplished what was needing to be done to get the yard ready for a reunion here next year with Marie’s family. I was starting to worry a little about finances and I began in earnest to do my job searching. I applied at several places and never got any response from any of them including BYU and UVU. But I was finding out that my education was more of a problem than anything and even though several jobs were coming up for minimum wage that wouldn’t help either. Then I remembered the comment and decided to look at job opportunities that I could do from home. I needed a job that would give me some flexibility so I could keep doing photography and with 10 grandchildren we wanted to be able to take more than two weeks vacation a year. I also needed to find something that would bring in enough income to help us prepare for retirement, something that I knew could not happen with just another 9 to 5 job especially at minimum wage. Plus I was wanting something that would provide a residual income.
So this was where the rollercoaster ride began. I started looking at job opportunities and registering for some and finding out that as I would register that of course it would cost not “$1,900 or $1,500 but $99 and if you signed up today we would give it to you for an unreal price of $49.” (that is just about what everyone of them say.) Anyway I did follow up on a couple of them and ended up all of a sudden getting toll free calls up the ying yang. Marie and I had stopped answering toll free calls for a long time now but I knew that I had better start answering some of them at least. Well I ended up with one business that actually sounded OK to me even though it was an MLM (Multi level Marketing) structure because they didn’t depend on just your family and friends to market the products. I had been involved in numerous MLM’s in my career prior to this one and knew that I just wasn’t cut out for it. However one thing in this one sounded OK to me so I decided to try it. They have an online referral system instead which sounded a little better to me.
Then I ended up getting a call from a company that needs testimonials for their company and after some major confusion with it I ended up having a coach assigned to me, but he never called. I also ended up with two websites from other sources and of course it is all getting confused in my mind because the four things that I was just looking into have now blossomed into a whole bunch of things including needing a website and pay pal account and another credit card and another web-site and it just kept coming at me so fast that my head was swimming. I was getting so confused that I didn’t know who came from where or why I was even talking to them at all.
Finally I start working with the MLM because it had a product called Youth Juice that is filled with essential vitamins and I figured that it might go well in a Health and Wellness niche or something like that. I had a coach and mentor there (or I should say I have a coach and mentor there) and I went through the process of trying to figure all of it out as well. It took me some time before I would actually get it going. However I was going to be coachable regardless of my fears for what was ahead. I went through several sessions and then Joanne told me that the next step was mine and to write my goals and give her a call when I was ready. It took me a couple of weeks during which time I kept listening to some of the calls including all of the Carpe Diem calls each Monday through Thursday. I even broke down and listened to a couple of them at night which was hard due to my schedule with family events and a daughter and son-in-law that were remodeling a home to move into in just a few weeks.
Then almost the same day I began working with Youth Juice I received a call from Horizon Learning and they accept me into their program (I think you have to really be bad to not get accepted). Anyway I go through the process with them but they want Marie to be in on the conversation and this is not sitting well with her but we do it and I am assigned the coach who didn’t call. I waited a couple of days and emailed them and got no response but shortly after that I answered a Toll Free number that has been very persistent and I got assigned a coach from ImpactKi and his name is Tom and he would call me next week at the time we set up on that call. So I am really getting confused but she explained that this was a referral from Horizon so I am thinking OK I guess I had better talk to this Tom guy. He called me the following Tuesday at the appointed time and before we could even begin the conversation he asked me if I am the Kent Poulson who lives in Mapleton, Utah, the cousin to his wife. I explained that I was and I could have never guessed it would be him since all I had was his first name. Be it known though that in all this I finally felt like the Lord was really directing this mess so I just needed to enjoy the ride. Tom was the key point in that decision since I then had a connection with someone with whom I had already established a trust factor and knew the Lord had sent him to me.
I then get another call after I had talked to Tom a couple of times but still didn’t have the whole Horizon thing ironed out in my mind since I still hadn’t talked to the other coach that was assigned at Horizon. This guy asks me, (after I tell him that my head is swimming and that I already now have two coaches with a third one assigned and I don’t need to have him right yet,) if I had done my due diligence on Horizon. I had to admit I didn’t and he proceeded to tell me from a list that he pulled up on scams that Horizon has over three pages of scamming complaints and that I had better call and get my money back. Well Marie is listening to my half of the conversation and gets that worried look. So I tell her since it was after 9:30 PM when the call ended that there is nothing I can do tonight so I will call Horizon tomorrow and find out what it is all about. But I have also got another call from an accounting firm who was suppose to call me tomorrow and so I had to take that call first. Well I finally had someone who really knew what was going on at Horizon and he explained that Horizon sells Home Based Business opportunities and that they contract with Impactki and with his firm to do the business legal side of things and that the coach that hadn’t called me back was just a qualifier and I had already been through that process. Suddenly I was totally relieved about the call that I had received the night before and wished I had known the connection with Tom prior to that or I could have told him I already was in the coaching part of it and felt great about the process so far. (He had told me that one of the things that was giving Horizon bad spamming reports was because they promise coaching sessions but then never give them so he asked me to ask how many sessions I was suppose to have had and then tell him I hadn’t had any. Luckily I now knew that I did have them and they were on schedule.)
Well if you are not totally confused now then I must have explained it too well because I really was confused. At one point when Marie got home from her school job on Friday afternoon she wanted to take me over and show me something in town that was really big that neither of us knew about. (A big reservoir.) She drove since she knew where she was headed but after we looked at it I got into the driver’s seat and took her to the top of right hand fork of Hobble Creek and we spent three hours sitting in the shade, listening to jets and cattle, and just talking about all of this since it was requiring some major financial layout and we needed to be on the same page before I jumped into it. Finances were starting to be a major concern.
It was after that when I put two and two together and suddenly began to wonder if Tom had been assigned to me by the Lord first because I needed to know I trusted somebody in this whole mess and second maybe I was suppose to send Youth Juice to my cousin for her health. Tom had told me she was not doing as well as she had been when they first went to St George due to the illness. I really didn’t know but I sent four bottles anyway just in case. I have been praying pretty hard through this whole process to know what the Lord had planned for me and to help me have the patience to follow through with it. I have never really liked MLM’s since I have been in a lot of them and the money always seems to be made at the top. But something in this one won’t let me forget about it.
I then talked to Joanne again and in our conversation she mentions a lady with a medical condition similar to one a niece of mine was suffering from at that same time. I suddenly realized that the Lord has sent me to two people and I had the feeling the list would grow. It did and I started giving bottles to several people whom I figured could benefit from it.
Then around this same time I received an email from the LDS Social Services missionaries suggesting that I look into a new job that had just come into their office. It was a business needing someone to post an ad on Craigslist three times weekly. I brought up the link and was greeted by a video from Nathan Woodbury of Bluejay Website Designs. He explained that the job would only require 5 minutes three times a week and what was really refreshing to me is that I didn’t have to pay him to start working for him. So I began watching the videos on how to post an ad on Craigslist. It was simple enough but not at first for me. It took me over an hour to get the first one right. Then after three I find out that all of them had been ghosted by Craigslist and no one had even seen one. I emailed Nathan and he sent a reply explaining why they were probably being ghosted so I went back and redesigned the ad. Wow I really felt great when the next one went live. You see I didn’t get paid unless someone bought a website from Nathan and no one would be buying unless they could be seen. Well I figured that since it had worked that I would use it again two days later. When I posted it however Craigslist popped a screen up and explained that this ad was like one I had just posted and their customers didn’t like to see the same ads all the time. I again went back and quickly redesigned an ad only I added an image to this one as one of the training video’s had suggested. It didn’t work and I didn’t know until it had also been ghosted. I went back to redesigning the ad and trying to figure out why it had not worked. I suddenly found the problem and could hardly wait to post it again. It worked that time and from then on I was able to put in the ads every time scheduled.
Then one Sunday morning at 1 AM I awoke out of a peaceful sleep and began thinking about all of the things that were happening to me and trying again to get to all make sense to me. I thought about the ads that I had been placing and then the light came on in my mind and I had the thought that the Lord had sent me to Nathan to get trained on how to place ads on Craigslist. You see I had thought that in order to place an ad I would have to do it in my local community but Nathan had given me the area of Los Angles and not only that area but a specific part of that area only. I suddenly realized in my dazed half asleep condition that I could place ads on Craigslist that would be able to advertise my websites all over America and in every single state. I could potentially get a person in my organization from every state in the union. I could not go back to sleep at this point because my mind was so caught up in the thoughts that I had been having.
I also then began to think about another dream that I had been having for some years that up to that point in time I had basically figured that it would really never happen anyway. I also thought about Aaron Parkinson when he told us to write a list of 100 things that we have always wanted to do as he presented one of his Carpe Diem calls. For years I had wanted to go to every town in Utah, find the oldest living person, interview them for special places that were close to their heart in the surrounding countryside and why they were that way. Then I would go out and photograph those areas and print them into a book complete with a picture of that person and their story. I had developed this dream from a story that my father had told me about when he had proposed marriage to my mother in a little known place called “Little Egypt” by the locals. I got up and went out to the computer and brought up a list of all the towns in Utah. I found over 500, Yes, five hundred. It suddenly seemed like an “impossible dream” so I decided to change the parameters just a little since I couldn’t see my self living to be old enough to do it for every town and city in Utah. Well I decided to limit it to the small cities and of course I removed the ghost towns from the list since there would be no living person there to interview.
I then went back to bed and after a few more thoughts and another few minutes added to the three hours that I had been awake fell asleep. I was tired the next day but somewhat excited too.
I still hadn’t written my goals and called Joanne so that I could start the next phase of my training with her. I knew it had to happen soon because I was following my genealogy line and could see where she had put someone in my down-line. She was on my right side and no one on my left side. I had already purchased the business pack, 18 cases of Youth Juice, and could not get any finances coming in from it until I got my down-line working on both sides. I started trying to figure out what I wanted to do and then during my scripture study later that week I read where the Lord told us to help other people and we would be blessed after we would do that. Then I also read where He gives us weaknesses to make us strong. And of course that night I again woke up at around 1:30 AM. (I blamed it on the Youth Juice giving me too much energy. I explained that later to my daughter and she replied “That’s not a good thing.”) Anyway again my mind was dwelling on the things I had learned from my studies with Youth Juice and ImactKi. I then thought though that I maybe shouldn’t write my goals as a dollar figure but rather a person figure because if everyone that would start with me were in the same type of financial bind I was in then I would be helping them and by helping them then the money for me would come. About that time I could smell the distinct odor of a skunk floating on the air through my window and of course each one of you now can smell that same smell whether you have been hit by it personally or just smelled it on the road while driving past one where some other poor person had hit one. Anyway a quick analogy came to mind as I was pondering and I realized that my journey would be filled with many foul odors or experiences but as I lay there the smell dissipated or I became used to it and the effects were no longer there. Well trials in this journey have proved to be just like that as they have hit with foul odors but as I have worked through them I realized they were only for a small moment of time and I learned from each of them. Well I got up and wrote the things down that I had written and was finally able to again get to sleep around 5 AM. (7 AM came far too fast that morning.)
As I pondered later that morning in my den I found a copy of an old paperback book that I had kept in my library for several years called “Rich dad Poor Dad”. It quickly reminded me that I had not followed the advice given in it through the years and that I had better start doing it. Then Aaron came again on his calls teaching us how to set goals and how visualizing them had to be a part of it. So after that call when he had challenged us to take 5 minutes trying visualize one of our goals and to make it real in our minds I went to one of the rooms in our house and left the lights off so it would be dark and laid down on the bed there to try out the exercise. Thirty minutes later I got up and decided it was time to write my story and how it would take place over the next year. I knew there was a convention being planned for sometime early the next year and so I decided to write my story for that event and even beyond to five years later.
I sat down and went through a list of music that I would listen to as I wrote which might give me inspiration to accomplish the task. It took me about two hours just to get my story written to the point where I was currently living it. I had almost been through the entire list of music and was sure it was about to start over again. That was Ok though since it was helping me to keep focused on my thoughts and helping to blot out background noises. It then took two more hours to complete the story and another day of reading through it to correct the mistakes.
I determined at that time that as soon as I had my story written that I could then reduce it to the pertinent events that would lead me to this point where I would be telling it to you. I would then write those events as I had seen them in my mind while writing and that would be the goals that I would then give to Joanne. I knew that I might have to rewrite parts of it after I had talked with her because I knew the next step for us was to make my 90 day plan and even though I had studied out a good share of it and basically knew what would be required I also knew that I didn’t really get it yet. I still decided to keep writing and to make this a reality so that I could come to you and for those of you who might be struggling give you a story of someone who had been there in your shoes maybe even a little worse since I had vivid memories of sitting in my seat at a similar convention with excitement running high and knowing I wasn’t going to pursue it. My friend who I had ridden with to the conference ran down on the stage when they invited everyone down who was going to be a big success in that industry by that time the next year. He asked me as we drove home (a four hour ride) why I hadn’t gone down onto the stage and I frankly told him that this one wasn’t for me and I knew that when they asked and wasn’t going to lie to myself about it. Well he didn’t go down on that stage a year later either and I have always wondered if it was because of my answer to him in the car that day. However I have felt since then that it was the right answer because he went on to follow another dream and became an airline pilot like his father had been. Who knows he might have even been your captain as you traveled here by air to this convention.
So I stand here, as I have for four years now, to tell you that this one was for me but at first I had the same feelings that I had felt with the other one. The difference came though when I thought about the scripture about helping others and my weaknesses becoming strengths that I knew I had to visualize those things in my head and put them into writing and action. And that if I were to get finances sufficient for my dream and to have the time where I could go to every small town and write my book, that I would have to write that into my story as well.
I then wrote the rest of the story and wrote the goals, called Joanne and made my story a reality. I started by getting all the details from her and deciding that I would run my business as Aaron had suggested and that I would also put into action the things I was learning with Horizon Learning and ImapctKi. I was still only three lessons out of ten into that process but I had a lot invested into it and the things that would come from it, namely a website with training on how to best get it seen in search engines, would end up making it possible to expand my efforts with YJ. The lessons were all complimenting each other and I knew I was on the right track. I was also thankful to hear that Minon, my cousin, was grateful to me for sending her YJ since she was now able to drink small portions of it during the day and it was staying down unlike other things which contained vitamins.
It was now the day before Oct 2011 and there was a contest that I had previously told myself I wouldn’t even try for since I never do well in those things. I had another wakeup call so to speak when into my mind I saw myself winning one of the top spots in the contest. I knew I was being helped and I completed my lessons which took several more weeks but in the meantime used Craigslist every other day to get my first person in Ann Arbor Michigan onto my team. I then went to Florida, Wyoming and New Mexico and placed ads in Miami, Wyoming (since it didn’t list it by towns,) and Cortez and El Paso. I had several leads from each ad and was able to place with help from the Lord my first 6 people that I had personally recruited within the next three weeks. I continued to place ads in Whittier CA, New York NY, Kansas City Kansas, and Fort Worth TX. For the sake of this story I continued each month writing the next part of my story inserting the next areas and the names of the people whom had contacted me due to my Craigslist ads and I started also using the paid leads from TOS since I now had a budget that would support that part of my advertising plan.
I continued to send people whom I knew would benefit from drinking YJ and also was able to build my retail side by having my down-line consuming it also and they helped me to build every side of my business by doing what I had also done. Again it took some coaching to get them to write their story but each of them followed the TOS course and my course and we were able to build this group as a united effort. I personally want to thank each of them for their efforts that have been spectacular at the least. By Dec 31, 2011 I was making $7K a month but knew that it was only going to keep escalating and by March 2011 when I first presented my story at Theonlinesystem convention in Vegas I was pulling in 14K per month. Then by Sept 30, 2011 I had made my first $150,000.00. I was still putting ads on Craigslist, I was still just filling the 7 blocks on my white board per week on a bad week. I had limited my old photography business and started to visit small towns in Utah. But I not only was photographing people and places for my book but I was also sharing YJ with them and their families which was only increasing my retail sales while I was just having fun and fulfilling my dream.
Now as I stand here five years later in March 2016 I can hold up the first edition of my book first book. You see my dream is a reality and even though I only have 150 towns in this book the dream has started rolling forwards like I could never have imagined when it was only a seed that I shared with my closet friends and told them it would probably never happen since all the old people are dying off faster than I could get to them. Well I have learned that even if that oldest person is just my age they still have memories like mine when dad would tell me about “Little Egypt” pictured here on the front cover of this edition, the first of several to come.
This also shows images of my parents who put my dreams into effect by teaching my to take pictures and to love the world that was around me, right down to the smallest insect or detail of a flower. I have also included in the foreword of this book a letter written by my mother the day after dad passed away. It will always bring deep emotions into my mind as I even think about it. I put it there for my grandchildren to read to learn about their great grandparents who gave me so much. The first chapter of this book is about Duchesne, Ut where I was born. It seemed only fitting that I should stat my book with my story. The next two are of Holden and Centerfield Ut, the birthplaces of my parents. Mapleton, my current home comes next and from there I systematically took each county and picked five towns to add to the book. Each time I would complete those sets of towns I would start over. This has been a fun journey and it hasn’t ended yet as I only have the first 150 towns in this book. I still have over 300 to go and I want to add ghost towns to it now as well since I have visited and photographed many of them as I was getting the first towns recorded. My story and my journey has only begun.
Thank You for reading my story.
KP
Written 9/29/2011
Other notes to add to my book:
Mentors:
Kermit Poulson, Ilean Poulson, Doug Binks, Rod Petersen, David Nemelka, Siblings, Children, Grandchildren
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