GIVE MY REGARDS TO XOCAI

It's happening. The momentum phase that everyone in network marketing circles talks about, when a company is ready to explode with sales, popularity, recognition, and massive media coverage. Xocai, the healthy dark chocolate I've subtly and not-so-subtly been mentioning in these posts for months, is finally getting its due--at least in my humble opinion.

What else can you say when a product can dramatically impact your health--I personally have lost about 15 pounds, gotten my blood pressure to its lowest point in years, about 99 over 70, and been told by my very traditional doctor to lower my Warfarin prescription three times now, based on results from my monthly blood tests. And a product that is recession proof and increased its sales 45% in the first quarter of 2009 over 2008. And a business opportunity where, for less than $300, someone can have his or her own chocolate business, with a lot less work and much more profit potential than if they bought into a chocolate shop franchise for $200,000.

And now add snob appeal. Just look at what the New York Times said on May 9, 2009:

The little wrapped chocolates were passed around the upper West Side living room on a silver tray, plucked one at a time by the manicured hands of the guests perched on sofas and kitchen chairs.

"Probiotic," the hostess of the tasting, Patricia Watt, a theatre producer, told a group seemingly culled from the front page, gossip sheets and back copies of Playbill. They chewed and nodded with approval, among them a prominent 9/11 widow, a bankruptcy lawyer, an Argentinian investor and avid polo player, a Pace University student, and a former sister-in-law of the last president.

Xocai has found a foothold among the ladies who lunch--and the men who love them.

Of course, this coverage has both positive and negative aspects to it. One friend of mine and ardent fan of Xocai who has gotten her blood pressure to its lowest level in five years with her three-time-a-day dark chocolate regimen, said she might never have tried Xocai if she had read that article first--too snobbish by far. And others who aspire to the penthouse life, can't wait to get their hands on the healthy dark stuff to stimulate their dreams and upwardly mobile aspirations.

And because of the Times article, other media in New York City has been wooing Xocai distributors to attend these chocolate tasting parties, one even held at Trump Towers, where people turn up their noses at the mere mention of an apartment costing only a million dollars.  Talk about your niche marketing!

But the great thing is that anyone can not only afford Xocai, but for many who are struggling financially, it offers a tremendous means to start a business with immediate appeal, and an immediate customer base. After all, a billion people ate chocolate today and some people can't live without it, including yours truly.  And can the rest of the nation be very far behind this New York City phenomenon?  Last night, WNBC News (where I worked at 30 Rock for their sister radio station and

first fell in love with dark chocolate from Lilac Chocolates in the Village in

the early 1970s), had this piece:

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Chocolate_To_Help_You_Lose_Weight__New_York.html

And it appeals to the whimsical in me that around the newsroom, when other staffers referred to this story, they might call it, "Xocai by Pei Sze"

Pei Sze Chang is obviously one of the up-and-coming reporters at the local NBC station, and try saying "Xocai (show-sigh) by Pei Sze (pay-zay)" five times fast.

I must admit that living here on the West Coast, I do feel a bit left out. Since being paroled from Folsom State Prison, not a single soul has invited me to a penthouse chocolate tasting party.

                                                   Jerry

And by the way, if you would like to taste this same delicious healthy dark chocolate enjoyed by the hoi polloi of Manhatten, just send me your mailing address to jerrygillies@gmail.com

And if you think you're ready to work and play with me directly in building a multimillion dollar healthy dark chocolate business, just let me know.

GETTING IT ALL TOGETHER

I picked the title of this piece because it refers to an idea, a concept, maybe even a whole philosophy of life that seems to be working in mine. I'm reminded of how we were taught in school about  the eskimo whale hunters using every single bit and piece of that whale for something to help them have more comfortable lives. Nothing was wasted, not an inch or pound of that behemoth from the sea.

And what I am looking at now is whether the ultimate success for we human beings is being able to use every bit and piece and inch and pound of every single event in our lives to the fullest. Because, though I know many of us have paid lip service to the concept that "we are all one" and "everything is connected to everything else"...it is really true. And the more we use of all the connections, the happier and more successful we will be.

An example from my own very recent life. On Friday, May 15, I wrote the post that precedes this one. And for the first time ever, I mentioned Jesus, quoting his "Ask and Ye Shall Receive" as perhaps the most powerful prosperity sentence of all time. On Sunday, the 17th, as I do usually every other week, I went to Unity Church of San Francisco, where my friend Sonya Milton is the minister. And TJ Woodward, the ministerial intern, came up to me and said they would like me to deliver The Daily Word the following week. It's a nondenominatonal daily spiritual message you can check out at www.dailyword.com. I said I would be happy to do so--after all, I haven't spoken to an audience in a lot of years and it was time to start dipping my toe back in. And what was the word for that day?  Christ Light. (no, not a lesser version like Bud Light, but rather the light that Unity teaches shines within each of us) 

Now remember, I was not going to be going to Unity this past Sunday as I usually skip a week, and besides, Sonya was taking the day off to be replaced by a speaker named Patricia Ellsberg, with a message entitled, "Joy and Gratitude as A Spiritual Path." 

When I arrived at the church, I was greeted by my friend, Kate Thornton, vice-president of the board. She said she'd heard great things about Patricia Ellsberg, and that Patricia brought her husband, who was remaining very low key, even though he is quite famous. It's Daniel Ellsberg, probably the most famous anti-war activist in U.S. history, and the man who was at the top of Richard Nixon's Enemies

List for releasing The Pentagon Papers to the media at the height of The Vietnam War. No mention was made of Daniel during Patricia's excellent and inspiring talk. 

I admit I peeked at Daniel Ellsberg a couple of times, but could see no resemblance to James Spader, the actor who portrayed him in the Pentagon Papers TV movie a few years ago. 

During my own little five minute presentation, I opened by saying, "Some of you know I was released from Folsom State Prison less than a year ago after 12 years of incarceration."

When the service was over, Daniel Ellsberg came over to me and said he enjoyed what I had to say, and then started to ask me questions about how I had survived prison. Nixon had tried to have him put away for the rest of his life, and he was arrested many, many times at various peace demonstrations, but only spent time in county jails rather than actual prisons. He was fascinated by the subject and we talked on and on. He is obviously a brilliant and articulate man, a PhD in Economics who at 78 is fit and alert and just a very pleasant and distinguished person--and he and Patricia make an eloquent statement about growing older together in a relationship.  

I gave Daniel some healthy dark chocolate, we exchanged email addresses and he said he wanted to send me his latest book, so I also gave him my home address. And on top of all this, during her talk, Patricia mentioned her sister is Barbara Marx Hubbard, a woman I met some years ago when we were both very involved in The Association For Humanistic Psychology. She also is a great speaker and has made a tremendous impact on our world in many different ways. I remember her TV series, POTENTIALS, from the 1980s, where she interviewed some of my friends and mentors like Norman Cousins and Ray Bradbury (interestingly, I quoted Norman in my short Unity talk on the subject of waking up each morning with "robust expectations."). And Barbara also made history by being the first woman whose name was placed in nomination to be Vice President of the United States. 

Throughout my professional life, I've met many famous and accomplished people, and befriended a few, but after 12 years in prison, to connect with people who have been making such a powerful impact on the planet in such positive ways is a special treat. And this serendipity thing going on in my life, with so many things leading to so many other things, is something I just find profoundly enriching.

It may be arrogant of me to put this thought down, but I've had it any number of times in my life and haven't really shared it before. When spiritual seekers and leaders talk of that ultimate state of satori or nirvana or bliss, there are times when I honestly feel I've passed that state and gone on to the next higher level. Yesterday was one of those (and I didn't even mention yet how good a vigorous round of applause after I spoke made me feel!) 

And even more connections inside connections--as I look at the impact of single sentences, and read the affirmation from yesterday's Daily Word:  "I am energized and ready to take on the day." (which is what lead to my referencing Norman's "robust expectations" phrase) Well, I'll end this by telling you that I woke up in the middle of the night early Sunday morning and was bursting with energy and ideas. So much so that I came up with a whole new book project. An e-book focused on powerful single sentences that can change lives. More on this down the road.

                         Jerry

and by the way, If you'd like to find out about joining me in my healthy dark chocolate venture, contact me at jerrygillies@gmail.com, or listen to my recorded message at (650)

589-8495, or check out my website at www.UnguiltyPleasures.net

THE POWER OF ONE SENTENCE

Here's a powerful thought for you to mentally and emotionally digest:  If you

don't find at least one valuable idea, statement, resource, or change to make in your current life in this single blog posting--then you may as well give up the idea of personal growth and becoming more successful forever!  And they

aren't all my ideas and thoughts and concepts by a longshot.  I'm going to share with you some of my mentors in this new life of mine. Only a very few,

the rest will come down the road.

And what, for me, determines true value and inspiration?  Someone who can boil it all down. Take all the wisdom and philosophies and positive thinking concepts and prosperity consciousness strategies, and create one sentence that will inform, delight, and inspire you.

Not an easy task, though a simple one for sure. Jesus, one of the all-time

great prosperity teachers, had it in one phrase:  

Ask and ye shall receive.

You can have all your secrets and books and seminars about the law of attraction--this simple phrase says it all. You could spend a lifetime studying all its facets and permutations, but all you really need is the one

phrase to get you started.

I remember when I was out promoting Moneylove, I came up with one sentence to describe what the book was about:  "It's about loving yourself enough to only do work you love that loves and serves other people and

will attract all the money you want."  I know, it could probably be shortened

and use a comma or two, but that's the book in a nutshell. In the past, I

often thought we are too constricted by our constructions. What I mean by that is that we, for hundreds of years, have had this idea that the heftier a book is, the more packed with information, the more valuable it is. It's been

a very limiting concept. I've often thought it would be a great idea to distill everything important I have to say and teach into a handful of pages, put it

between a nice front and back cover, and charge the same as a 400 page book. The difference would be that people could get the essence of it right away without ploughing through all the flora and fauna of verbal filler.

And the Internet has started moving people in that direction. I recently paid Amazon.com $9.95 for a one page research paper--in fact it wasn't even

a full page. And the Internet gurus who teach people how to produce a successful e-book, all agree that 20 to 49 pages is about it. And these may be in big print. And may cost from $19.95 to $199.95.  Sometimes, of course, if technical details are necessary, a book should be longer. But that's

the point--its size should be determined by what the author has to say, not by some predetermined length everyone agrees should be the official standard of book length. And don't you find, as was true with Jesus, that

the best communicators are the ones who can spell it all out for you in as few words as possible?

Let's get to a specific example of this. As part of my life of discovery since

coming back out into the world from 12 years in prison, I recently discovered Timothy Ferriss, who wrote a bestselling book, 

The 4-Hour Work Week. How's that for putting it all in a nutshell? Can anyone have trouble figuring out what the book is about after hearing or seeing that title? And especially after reading his descriptive subtitle: 

Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich.

Anyway, Tim has one of the most entertaining and informative blogs I read

regularly. And I really am very picky about choosing blogs.  Check it out at:

www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/feed/

And I just read an article by Tim that has a life-changing, game-changing title. And it's all contained in one sentence: 

 Start-Up Strategy:

To Change The Game, Change The Economics Of How It's Played.

I'm not going to attempt to paraphrase what the article says, read it for yourself. But it's one of those ideas that you have to juggle around in your head, spend some time processing, and then use to stimulate your own innovative thinking in relationship to your own business.

And, finally, at least for this post, let me mention Attila Hevesy. He's one of the top distributors and trainers in MXI Corp, who produce the healthy dark chocolate called Xocai that I help promote and am totally addicted to.

Attila (and I love the nerve it must take to walk around in that name) has come up with a single sentence that addresses all the desires, concerns, and questions someone might have about Xocai healthy dark chocolate.

It's a one-sentence question,

and so simple it can be applied to countless other business models:

"How would you like to solve that with chocolate?"

I meet someone who is struggling financially (right now, almost everyone), or has a major health issue, like high blood pressure, diabetes, a heart condition, periodontal disease. And I just say, "How would you like to solve that with chocolate?"

I guarantee it gets someone's attention. The irony of it. Here's an item that was heretofore thought of as a confection, an indulgence, a guilty pleasure--and now I am outrageously suggesting it could solve someone's biggest problems. And I'm right, it can. The sentence itself is so mind-boggling as to put someone a bit off-center for a moment, and more receptive to whatever I say next. 

I'm getting hungry right now, just thinking about it, so I'm going to solve it with a yummy Xocai Nugget, which I will allow to melt slowly in my mouth as I think about what to prepare for lunch.  There will be lots more about some powerful sentences, blogs, and mentors' websites in upcoming posts over the next few weeks.

                                                                               Jerry

And, of course, it's time for the commercial. Short and not-too-sweet, if you want to find out more about my Xocai dark chocolate prosperity team, contact me at

jerrygillies@gmail.com,

or check out the short video at my website,

UnguiltyPleasures.net

Your sample awaits you when you let me know where to send it.

MAKING THE MOST OF THE WORST

     People who have known me a long time and people who just meet me and hear my story, about having been released a few months ago from Folsom State Prison after a 12 year sentence, both ask the same basic question. "How did you do it?" Meaning, how did I survive, how did I keep my sanity, how did I come out strong and creative and happy? 

Well this is, as always, one basic simple answer: I built up a very powerful inner life to deal with the debilitating, dehumanizing, destructive physical reality all around me. 

And while I had stumbled off my chosen path in life for a few years, largely due to the

emotional/mental damage being done by a nutritional product that was legal and thought safe at the time, I found myself back to my old mental state and creative capacity once I was in prison and unable to get any kind of nutritional products, good or bad. That may have saved my life, as I also developed a heart condition, atrial fibrillation, after five years on that unhealthy health product (it contained huge amounts of ephedra, the primary building block of methamphetamine--and I only realized it was the culprit two years into my sentence when I compared notes and symptoms with my meth-addict cellmate.) 

So it all comes down to perspective. One way to look at it was to bemoan my fate, "Oh

woe is me, how could my life have gone so wrong as to end up broke and in prison?"

Another way was to see this as a temporary aberration, as was my dumb crime of trying to hijack a motorhome, and prepare for the return to normalcy and a productive, creative, loving, healthy life.  Viktor Frankl, in his masterpiece, MAN'S SEARCH FOR MEANING, about his concentration camp imprisonment by the Nazis, said that what destroyed hope most among the prisoners was not knowing when they would get out, of if they ever would get out. Not having a release date, something to look forward to.

Well, while my release date was 12 years away, it was there and I could focus how to work my way toward making it a good time to be free and alive. 

I don't really think my harebrained scheme to steal a motorhome and live in it was a cry for help--I don't think I was self-aware enough at the time for that. It was just the good fortune I had enjoyed most of my life finally catching up with me. Before the so-called health product killed me as ephedra did a number of people before it was banned, before my brain cells were

totally scrambled on a permanent rather than temporary basis, and before I graduated to more self-destructive acts.  Yes, I spent 12 years in prison, but the alternative might have been a lot worse. I don't know that for a fact, but think about this for a moment--isn't my imagining it

was a fact a lot healthier, more life-affirming way of looking at the situation?

Though sometimes it is hard to see, we always have choices when it comes to how we view what is happening in our lives. The whole underlying theme of human psychology is realizing that

what matters is not what happens to us, but how we choose to view it, to react to it, to remember it.

I was so blessed to have so much training and practice in doing inner work, in meditating,

using affirmations, journaling, reading positive books, being able to focus my imagination like a laser beam. And choosing to see the humor in it all. The staff members and corrections officers really were like the old silent film Keystone Cops. Limited in intelligence and education and any kind of mental challenge in their work, their brains atrophied, and there were daily laughable demonstrations of this. Sure some were sadists and most treated inmates like animals and part of a hated group of "others," as has often been done in totalitarian countries.

We weren't individuals, we were collective scumbags. The few officers who didn't buy into this

view soon left the Department of Corrections, some even committed suicide.

I've never believed that you had to experience great pain and suffering and adversity in order to be successful and have a happy life. But there's no doubt that prison is a masterful teacher of what is really important and profound in life. And its greatest lesson is that human beings have the internal capacity to triumph over evil in all its subtle and not-so-subtle forms. Whether it's

an abiding faith in a higher power, or the picture of an exotic breed of pet chicken that one of my cellmates at San Quentin kept on the wall, something outside ourselves can always keep us going,  And where it keeps us going is inside, to that deep reservoir we all have of vast wisdom and eternal optimism that distinguishes us from every other species.

To find out more about Jerry's healthy dark chocolate venture, in which you can work with him to achieve substantial residual income, get in touch at jerrygillies@gmail.com, or check out the short video at his website, www.UnguiltyPleasures.net

FIFTY POSTS DOWN AND A NEW BLOG TO COME

I never thought I would get here so fast. Here being my 50th post for this blog. The tone and texture of this blog has evolved in ways I never expected. More than just a journal, or a way to promote my healthy dark chocolate business, or slowly emerge back into the real world, it's become a testing place. A forum where I can put out ideas about life and prosperity and self-realization that can be further explored by others for personal development and satisfaction, and by me as themes and building blocks for future  projects

And I'll choose this milestone posting to announce a decision I've made after long and careful thought. Sometime in the next ninety days, I will be starting a second blog. Thereafter, one blog will be focused on the health benefits of dark chocolate and the business opportunities those present--and ChocolateLove, the book I'm now writing on the subject. The other will be focused on MONEYLOVE and my projected next book on personal growth and prosperity consciousness, and sharing some of my adventures as I re-enter the enpreneurial life.  I just got the publishing rights to Moneylove back from the original publisher, and seeing the interest level on the part of readers and fans even when I had disappeared for twelve years, I will be exploring ways of updating, upgrading, and sharing this work of mine.

And the two blogs will cross-reference each other. People have asked me, by the way, why I am putting so much attention and intention in the healthy dark chocolate business, when I have  had so much recognition and success with Moneylove and other books and tapes and seminars.

I could spend days answering that one. But let me offer just one perspective on it. During 12 years in prison, I did much meditation, and

much introspective thinking about how I wanted to live my life once I was back out into the world. One thing I absolutely promised myself was that I would not be involved in just doing or teaching ways of moving money around. These ways included giving investment advice,

playing professional poker, or selling information on how to get rich.

While I may do small pieces of all of these, I want my major focus to be on creating useful models that will actually make a difference, and not just a financial difference, in people's lives. Those of you who attended my Moneylove seminars around the world, will remember that I talked not just about money, but prosperity and abundance in all things. Having more time, more love, more peace of mind, less stress, even less busyness. Prosperity has always meant for me the ability to spend my time in a way that gives me pleasure and satisfaction. And most of my life has been spent that way. Even in prison, I got to spend most of my time reading and writing and thinking--three of my very favorite things to do. As you can imagine, this made me quite an anomaly as an inmate.

In my next posting, I'm going to talk about one of the subjects of an upcoming book--making the most of the worst.

I got off on a tangent there, but to return to the original point...The reason I put so much energy into this dark chocolate

adventure is that a bunch of serendipitous events described in earlier posts led me in that direction. My closest friend getting involved was one. And Susannah, though I haven't explored this with her yet, just may have been predisposed to the subject by the many references I made to missing dark chocolate while at Folsom, and asking her to taste new brands as I read about them, so I could decide which ones to try first when I paroled. Then, my literary agent hearing the enthusiasm and passion I had about the subject of dark chocolate, and himself an afficionado, suggesting there was a book to be written about the health benefits.

And even George W. Bush (and I can't think of a better place to be during his two terms than prison) entered into the equation. By so completely screwing up the economy and disappearing the surplus, he created a lot of financial anxiety among people who never paid much attention to job security or the possibility of losing their homes before. 

And having studied the 1920s and 1930s

extensively in bygone years, I knew that one of the very few growth industries during The Great Depression was chocolate, and that was likely to be true again. Also, it appealed to me that this Xocai brand was being sold by a network marketing company. An industry I had sharply criticized and swore never to be involved in again. But in such a new way that I think their calling it "relationship marketing" is more accurate. What appeals to me about this is the opportunity to show people who have the old-fashioned pre-Internet mindset about network marketing and MLM

that things can be different now. That it can actually be a preferable way of doing business. Where else can you have your own very profitable business with just a few hundred dollars start-up costs, and almost no overhead or need to stock inventory, again thanks to the magic of the computer and the Internet? 

And it also appeals to my sense of accomplishment and irony to tell people up front that I am starting out poorer than they are, broke and just out of prison and living on my Social Security check, and am planning to make a substantial income in the next year or so--and how would they like to join me and learn exactly how I do it. (Don't you sense still another book coming out of this?) And I get to eat all this delicious Belgian healthy dark chocolate, which has already lowered my blood pressure and allowed me to cut down on my warfarin for my atrial fibrillation, and helped me so far lose 12 pounds of the 65 I put on eating the super-starchy prison food.

     And when I do talk or write about prosperity in the future, I will have a model of how real people doing real people-to-people business (something else I highly recommended in Moneylove) are creating real passive income for themselves. Plus more case histories of customers getting major health issues solved with dark chocolate for my book.

And, finally, I do not feel comfortable going out in public or online and telling people how to improve their prosperity consciousness without also telling them my personal financial bottom line. No assets, period.

I'm even eligible and getting food stamps. I know some of my former colleagues who are basically broke are now out there selling courses on how to be a millionaire. But my reinforced commitment, arrived at in my dingy cell, to tell not only the whole truth and nothing but the truth,

but an expanded version of the truth, the deeply buried stuff we usually leave out even when we tell the truth, prevents me doing what they are doing. It may be more truth than people want to hear, but I'm going to tell it anyway. And not because it will make me a better person, or because it's the right thing to do, but because I have learned it's part of manifesting all the good stuff I desire.

Oh, and one correction already in looking over this post. I made a comment about telling people I am poorer than they are. Well, I have tried to eliminate that word from my vocabulary. I'm certainly broke right now, but never poor. I am experiencing a temporary lack-of-funds challenge, soon to be dramatically alleviated. I never knew why the title of an old Red Skelton movie intrigued me so much, but now that I can apply it to my current momentum and robust expectations, I get it.

That title?  Excuse My Dust! 

                                               Jerry

And by the way....if you or anyone you know loves dark chocolate and/or is looking for a way to produce long-term residual income, and would like to work directly and personally with me to build a thriving healthy dark chocolate business, contact me at:

jerrygillies@gmail.com  You can check out the short video on my website, too, at:

www.UnguiltyPleasures.net.  And you don't have to beg to get me to send you a

few delectable pieces to taste.