1st Call BNI

Dear fellow BNI Members and prospective Fitness Evolution clients:
I wanted to tell you a little about my experience with Fitness Evolution. I started going to the gym in April of 2009. By September, I had lost about 25 pounds, and reduced my body fat from almost 20% down to about 10%.
I’ve been a member of four different gyms before I joined Fitness evolution and I can tell you, FE offers a truly unique experience. It has been nothing like the typical cookie-cutter gyms I’ve been to in the past. I think there are two ways FE’s small group classes helps individuals be successful in their fitness goals: The group classes make you accountable to show up. If you have a scheduled class, you can’t procrastinate on leaving for the gym. Either you leave on time and go, or you don’t go at all! The other thing the group classes help me with is pushing my limits to go further and do more than I would do on my own.
I typically workout 2 to 3 times a week at Fitness Evolution, and because of their level of expertise, I can see the results. In the past I would go to the gym 5 or 6 days per week for over an hour, and didn’t see near the level of results I see at Fitness Evolution.
Besides the results I’ve seen, FE is a fun and safe environment. I’ve made some good friends, and great business connections. It truly does feel like a “community of health.” If you’re ready to get your fitness goals on track, I can tell you that FE is the best way I’ve personally experienced to achieve those goals. What do you want to look and feel like in six months from now? Those six months are going to pass by whether or not you decided to do something about your health, so if you’re ready to start a new healthy you, go see Adam Wright, fitness professional at Fitness Evolution today!
Thank you,
Jeremy Hicks, 1st Call BNI

A Testimonial About Rich & DelAnn Lozzi
Realtor Prudential California Realty

There are few people in this world I care about as much as my family. So when they have a need you can bet I want them dealing with only the best there is. So when my mom decided it was time to retire and sell her house I knew she needed experts. Rich and DelAnn were the natural choice.

There was just one problem. My mom lives in Whittier and the Lozzi's are based a solid 40 miles south in San Clemente. I didn't want to ask them to do the listing themselves (especially with gas at the time in the high four dollar range). Knowing them of course they offered to do the work themselves because they knew how much it meant to me.

While I could not take them up on such a kind offer, they then went and did the next best thing (and really in my moms case the best thing) and not only did they round up a group of the top producers in her area to come and interview with my mom, but DelAnn got on the phone and talked to her at length about what kinds of things she should be asking any Realtor who claimed they could sell here house. For someone who has lived in the same place for the last 30 years and hasn't dealt with these issues for longer, it was a huge relief to me and my mother, who gushed about how helpful and knowledgeable the Lozzi's had been.

To me this was a true show of the character the Lozzi's posses. The extra effort put forth on a house 40 miles away, for a women they had never met really shows that they add a dimension of caring that most others in their field do not posses.

Thank You Rich and DelAnn For All You Do

Tyler Johnson

Rose Evans

Mortgage Broker

Cal Pacific Mortgage

I have known, worked with, and referred many friends and clients for their loan needs and wants to Rose Evans for over four years. During that period of time, I have always received positive feedback from all of these people.

Rose is one of the most honest mortgage people (If not the most honest) that I have ever known in the mortgage industry. She does not have to worry about the bad loans or Adjustable Rate Mortgages she sold to clients. She always gives all the facts, be it favorable or negative when she presents the different loans and rates to clients. Rose will lock in a loan for you, but still keep searching for a better deal prior to escrow closing.

Rose is not in the business just to make money! She wants clients for life, not just the deal that is in progress. Rose appreciates and values family life and thinks of clients as people with different needs and wants and goals. Rose endeavors to help people towards their financial goals.

Rose always checks the escrow closing paperwork with her clients prior to closing. On several occasions have I have seen her identify excess costs charged by the escrow company and actually call them to have the costs adjusted. It has been my experience dealing with other mortgage brokers that once the client’s rate is locked in, they’re off to the next client and do not have the follow through that Rose exhibits.

If you want the best loan person, call Rose Evans at 888 463 7673.

Rich Lozzi

Realtor®

October 13, 2008

My fellow BNI members, guests, and visitors,

I am happy to recommend to you and everyone you know the very best mortgage broker I have had the pleasure to know: Rose Evans, of Cal Pacific Mortgage Consultants.

In my professional life I have known and worked with many mortgage brokers and bankers. Many are clients of mine. My wife and I own several rental properties, as well as our own home. In all of our experience, Rose Evans is the one broker who really took care of our loan as if it were her own, and treated us like family.

The last decade of real estate prosperity brought lots of people into the mortgage business, looking to cash in on the big boom. Many just processed orders like fry-cooks, without any real understanding of or appreciation for the ethical demands of the industry.

On the other hand, Rose Evans is a true professional with a depth of knowledge and experience you need, as well as care and concern for her clients above and beyond your highest expectations. I would not hesitate to recommend her to my family, friends, co-workers, and clients.

Sincerely,

W. Scott Eaton, EA

Alright blog readers I am back to work updating you on the latest goings on here in beautiful South Orange County (trust me it is really just as great as it sounds down here).
As you may have so astutely deduced by reading the title listed above this week we had the pleasure of hearing from our own Scott Eaton. Scott is another long time resident of San Clemente. Do you see a trend here? Our group is made up primarily of lifelong or long time residents of the cities where they do business. This says something about the way they do business especially around here where word about shoddy workmanship gets around fast, and the guy (or gal) in town to make a quick buck can do just that, make a quick buck before people realize how they do business. All they can do then is pack up and move on to the next place they can make a quick buck. The fact that Scott has been here for 15 years and people still trust him is a good place to start when talking about the type of work he does. Trust me I know. As the new guy here in San Clemente trying to build my practice with the goal of staying forever I know that the trust that builds over that period of time can only be purchased with quality workmanship over a long period of time. But let me move on before Scott complains that I am making old guy jokes about him.

Scott is an interesting guy with more life experience in his little finger than I have in my former offensive lineman frame. (there I go with the old guy stuff again....ok, ok I'll stop). But who else do you know who might think it was a good idea to climb Mount Kilimanjaro on his honey moon. He may tell you it was his wife's idea, but at some point he had to agree to go. Scott by his own admission is "perpetually curious". The more I get to know him the more I find this to be true as he is not only a wealth of information on a wide array of subjects, but is also full of questions when he feels like he has found an area where you may be an expert. It is this attitude that I believe has kept this lifelong thrill seeker excited about income tax accounting when lesser men (myself included) would have jumped from the tallest building in beautiful downtown San Clemente long ago rather than see another tax code change.

All that said Scott's presentation was geared to who needs an income tax specialist in a time when we may ask, "Doesn't everyone just use turbo tax?" Now there is no way I can do it justice, but Scott likened three of the kinds of clients that need his services by showing us a different small primitive weapon he had collected in his travels and telling us how the people who used each had a very specific purpose that was manifest in the design. (See what I mean - How am I supposed to compete with that.)
The first group included property owners and investors. The lay person who may have a second or number of properties as investments or otherwise. Through his experience he knows that these people have very specific questions that the answers to change all the time. Things like "What is my basis?" and other terms that if you are one of these people can make a difference in you income tax. They were like an African bush machete or something......see I told you I was going to screw this up. I see a shiny blade and my mind goes somewhere else. Sorry Scott.
The next group were sole proprietors and small business owners who need to know how to squeeze the very most out of their deductions and do things like figure out depreciation on things like equipment and such. The solution to their problems was represented by a curved Nepalese army knife. Kinda like the Swiss army knife for Sherpas I guess. Lots of uses of which I remember none. Must have been because all I could think about was - Dang those are all good questions for my business, I wonder what the answer is.
Finally he talked about how he could help a successful small business or corporation with very specific questions like, "Should I incorporate?" , "How can I cut self employment tax? , and "How can I put more money into my retirement account?". For this he had a very pointy knife used to pierce chain mail armor, dull on the edge, but very sharp at the point.
All in all a very informative keynote presentation that really illustrated the skill that Scott has when it comes to his field and a friendly reminder of who not to mess with in this group.

Great job Scott! I look forward to you preparing my taxes this year and hope I can get you to bring some props should I ever get audited.

Visit Eaton's Income Tax online at www.EatonsTaxServices.com or by Clicking Here

Okay so I am getting a little behind here but better late than never.

Our presenter for the week in question was Rich Lozzi. You may notice that it is not his name at the top of this post. That's because Rich did a unique thing in that he presented on another member of the group with whom he has had a long and successful business relationship with. This works so well in our group as there is genuine friendship and camaraderie between all our members and Rose I know could trust Rich to give an excellent presentation on the benefit of using Rose's services.

Let me start by saying that Rose is one of the true gems of our group and a huge reason why are known as such a friendly group amongst other BNI chapters. Really if Rose can't love you you might want to question whether your own mother can love you. Her exuberance is infectious and its absence is truly felt when she has to miss a meeting. But Rose goes even further. We all know people who are nice people maybe even great people as long as it is in a personal setting, but to them business is business and personal is personal. Kinda like in the Godfather movies, you know, "Tell Mikey it was never personal it was just business." when referring to their attempts on his life. But Rose truly goes above and beyond....but I am getting ahead of myself.

Rose is another 10 year veteran of this rough and tumble town of San Clemente. She is a family first super-mom (especially since its apparent the rambunctious gene is obviously not recessive when you meet her boys), and you may never know how much of her time, talent, and effort she gives to various causes until you try to schedule her some time for an adjustment or a massage to keep her running.

With that you also get the skill and tenacity of a seasoned veteran of the mortgage business. Rose isn't just sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows. She has been in the business for years and has seen trends in lending come and go and with each wind of change has stayed on top of her field. Why is this so important now? In a time when the field of mortgage lending is rapidly changing it is nice to know that there is someone with skill and principle who can guide you through. In the last 5 years mortgages may have been something that many people got into because of the ease of the process. As things tighten up though you may find that many of those people who were in the business have now moved on to the next boom market or easy buck. But for Rose, as someone who has always done the extra work to get people the best rate and the right loan for the situation the extra understanding and effort are just part of her quality service.

This was Rich Lozzi's point in his presentation. As a veteran realtor himself he has watched as lesser men and women have come and gone only to find Rose continuing to do those things that really set her apart, and make us glad she is on our team.

Hey blog readers welcome back to another edition of the Posideon BNI blog. Its been a busy week and so I am a little behind but I finally found my notes from group president Kristy's keynote and wanted to make sure I brought you all up to date on the goings on here in beautiful South County.

Kristy as I mentioned above is our fearless leader in Posideon BNI and she brings a unique set of skills to our group. Kristy really sets the tone at our meetings and I'll tell you why. More so than some of the other groups of business professionals I have been around (including other BNI groups) ours can be quite lively...to put it mildly. It is one of the things that attracted me to this group as I immediately felt a genuine level of care for each other that the members exhibit through the, at times, loose and friendly atmosphere. As someone who has never been a "schmoozer" I could feel comfortable right away here because people treated each other like old friends or family members and not just a stale group of business associates. I say Kristy sets this tone because more than anyone else she has the ability to be light and easy going (often self deprecating in her sense of humor) and at the same time she has the ability to be the consummate professional when called upon. And we need that side of her otherwise I wonder if we would ever stop mingling before meetings. Having dealt with her professionally at "Strategic Staffing" and socially as captain of our co-ed softball team I can say without a doubt that her ability to be both professional and personable make her a joy to be around.

Kristy's keynote was focused on the reasons that using a staffing agency makes perfect sense for the business that is looking to hire a quality employee. "Strategic Staffing" is a family owned and operated staffing agency specializing in temporary, temp to full time, and full time placement. With a location in San Clemente they have the ability to serve the Los Angeles, Orange County, and San Diego areas with ease. They work with all kinds of businesses but specialize in corporate services and IT / Telecommunications (including setting up new offices with computer and telecommunication networks).

So you ask why use a staffing agency? Don't they cost too much? Why can't we just pull 10-15 resumes off monster and be done with it for free? These are things we tend to think when it comes to hiring employees. There are some fundamental flaws in that line of thought as Kristy pointed out. First sites like monster and careerbuilder don't fact check each resume. There really is no way of knowing by looking at a resume online if it is truthful without checking on each reference and qualification personally (often times after an initial interview). There is also the time and resources required to physically interview those 10-15 (or more) applicants. Strategic does this all for you. Their goal is to speak with you about your needs and then send you one applicant who is right for the job because they have spent the time checking resumes and interviewing applicants including putting them through evaluations that make sure they are experts in the areas they claim to be. With this in mind the savings in time and energy are already apparent, but as anyone who has done hiring can tell you there is so much more that goes into hiring each new employee.

There is also the issues of payroll taxes, work comp, and unemployment liability. And what about if its just not working out? With Strategic they handle it all. When your employee is temporary or temp to full time their payroll is with Strategic and therefore the liability is theirs. Another huge advantage come when things aren't working with an employee and you need to let them go. Instead of being back at square one a 30 second phone call can get you a replacement there tomorrow.

Still don't believe that a staffing agency is right for you? Still want to ignore what large Fortune 500 companies already know. Kristy and the staff at Strategic Staffing will sit down with you and show you the savings in 15 minutes. Once again it has really been eye opening to see that things we may have seen as cost cutting acts (like not hiring the interior designer or the staffing agency) really have cost savings built into them when seen with the right perspective.

Thanks Kristy for the informative keynote and for your "Stellar" leadership.

Visit Strategic Staffing Online @ www.jobs-staff.com