Author: Roosevelt

A Most Peculiar Celebration: A Humorous Halloween Speech from Gaia Calcaterra

Roosevelt Uncategorized

It was a delight to listen to my friend and fellow toastmaster Gaia Calcaterra share her Holloween story at the recent humorous speech contest in Fort Lauderdale. I am enthralled to have her permission to share the content of her speech with you.

Have a good read, and laugh.

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Gaia Calcaterra (right) with David Desposito

With all the political turmoil in the world these days, I wanted to highlight THE most pre-occupying issue at the forefront of everyone’s minds at the moment……and that is…. HALLOWEEN!

Mr President, fellow witches, werewolves and most distinguished pumpkin carvers,
I have lived and travelled all over the world and have witnessed many strange rituals and celebrations, but I assure you, nothing confuses me and is more peculiar to me than Halloween in the US!

AND apparently, I am not alone….

My story started when I arrived in the US 10 years ago, from South Africa, just in time to see people taking down giant inflatable snow globes or Santas in a helicopters off their roofs.

Then a few months later the giant inflatable bunnies appeared out of nowhere in front yards, after that, lots of little US flags….all good, but nothing prepared me for Halloween!
The first disturbing sign happened one day as I walked into the Home Depot. Where the patio furniture section was is now a zombie apocalypse!  Pirate skeletons, mechanical witches, green flashing eyes, AND boxes full of body parts for $9.99.

 Bargain!

 I’ll take 4 severed feet please.

“What was going on here?”
I turned to a gentleman in an orange apron cutting keys…
“Excuse me sir, what’s going on here?” 
“It’s for Halloween, Ma’am”. 
“Yes, but what’s if for?”
“To decorate your yard!”
“Why would you pay money to have this in your yard?”
“Not sure Ma’am.  Anything else, I can help you with?”

I left the store that day, certain that there were hundreds of workers in a factory in China somewhere, puzzled by the exact same question.
Then, a few days later, I went out on my daily walk through the neighborhood, turned the corner and I came to a screeching halt! 
As if by black magic, the corner house was completely transformed into a graveyard, complete with plastic tombstones.
 I read them:

“Here lies Fred, he is dead” – Who is Fred?
“Here lies Chris P. Bacon”  – Who the heck is Crispy Bacon?

On the porch, cobwebs everywhere (finally the ones at my house didn’t look out of place).
And the biggest hairiest spider I have ever seen. 
Now, I’ve been known to buy frivolous thing. But giant plastic spiders?  No.
Swaying gently from the tree, the skeleton of a little girl with pig tails holding her starving skeletal dog!
This was SO weird and very disturbing!

More houses started to pop up over the next few days.   I kept asking, but no one seemed to know why. The answer was always the same:  “It’s for Halloween,” or “It’s for trick or treating”.  No one seemed to be clear on the “why.”

I started to give up. The night of Halloween caught me completely off guard.
I was at home and heard a knock on the door.
I opened and was met by a lady bug and a Minion.
“Yes?”
“Trick or treat!” they screamed
“Excuse me?”
They looked at each other puzzled.
The Minion said “give us candy or we’ll play a trick on you.”
“Ah! Okay…hold on.” 

I ran to my empty kitchen and found two melted, sticky mints from a restaurant and a banana that was turning brown.  I had no other choice.
I presented it to Lady Bug and Minion.
They weren’t impressed.
“I don’t think she understands,” the one said to the other. They shrugged their shoulders and left.
Victory!  They were gone.
But the victory was short lived.
There were more coming up the roadin droves!
I darted around the house as fast as possible, turned off all the lights, the TV and took a dive onto the floor by the couch, just in time for the next  group yelling“trick or treat!”
Silence…
“We know you’re in there!  We saw the lights on AND your car is outside!”
I laid silent on the carpet in the dark, heart pounding.  They finally gave up and left.

I didn’t leave my spot for the rest of the night, which gave me a lot of time to think about how and why I was on the floor in darkness celebrating the most peculiar and  confusing holiday in the world!

Happy Halloween!

Madam Contest Chair!

_______________________

Gaia Calcaterra

Division B speech Contest

District 47

Fort Lauderdale

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I’m excited to be part of the upcoming LIFE UNIVERSITY Convention next weekend in New York!

Roosevelt Uncategorized

Yes, I am excited, enchanted, and thrilled to participate in the next LIFE UNIVERSITY Convention wich will be held from Thursday October 24th, to Sunday October 27th, 2019 in UTAH, Michigan, and New York.

I will be attending the one in Albany, NY. But, some of my friends will be in UTAH, and Michigan.

New York Times bestselling authors Chris Brady and Orrin Woodward, creators and curators of the life superapp platform, will be keynote speakers at these three locations.

This will be an “amazing life changing event,” they said in a video conference call broadcasted globally at a thousand locations for active field leaders who are promoters of the superapp platform and the business matchmaker concept.

We are going to have fun, learn in details about the super app platform, and will also have an opportunity to meet leaders who are on the field building communities of people who have the vision to live the life they’ve always wanted.

Woodward defines vision as “tomorrow’s reality expressed as an idea today.”

“When you have a possibility to define your vision, your full success depends on your ability to be totally in sync with your vision as it becomes your today’s reality, as if you can’t stand the thought of another reality,” he said.

“It’s not because conditions change leaders lead. It’s because leaders lead that conditions change,” Woodward told the leaders attending the call.

This leadership convention though the super app concept aims at creating a culture of visionaries who start imagining where they’re going.

Instead of looking for what is, the people who win look for what will be and start racing in that direction to change the world.

This convention is one piece of the super app platform to team up with visionaries to make their vision a reality and get ready to set the world on fire.

Oct. 25-27 will be much more than a weekend away from home. This LIFE UNIVERSITY Convention will provide the right foundation for the community to create a long-term, sustainable, and successful business through the superapp platform.

Life’s top leaders will take the stage and provide increased belief and inspiration, in-depth training, and a true picture for you to visualize the LIFE that you’ve always wanted to live.

Thousands of people will be in attendance at the different locations. For more details, you can download the superapp here to have your own experience of this major convention event that I can’t describe in words.

A ticket is required for admission and is available in advance at a discounted price on the superapp platform.


Charlotte Friborg invites you to “make your own money again,” and live your whole life now.

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Charlotte Friborg invites you to “make your own money again,” and to shine your light with purpose and balance.

What a delight! What a sublime call to you at this present moment!

Charlotte invites you to connect you with your own inner being, and act in the real world to use your gifts, talents, and abilities to the betterment of life.

Using the power of simple words to tell her own story, Charlotte challenges you to expand yourself beyond your immediate family space and time to reach your full potential and the wholeness of existence.

This a great book. I enjoy it. I read it in a trait flipping and tapping pages after pages on my cellphone. I had to pause, reflect, and ponder.

Although, Charlotte targets mostly stayed at home moms who want to get back on the market after years of fruitful family focus, as a man, I connect with her through reading her prose by thinking through, and pondering about my own life’s journey in my “own unique way in a Perfectly Imperfect world.

It’s always a pleasure to read a book from some one I know personally, or someone I can interact with beyond the written words.

It’s even more satisfying to read Charlotte’s work because for the last two years, I’ve had a front row seat to observe her growth, and achievement.

I’m even fortunate to have had several conversations with her which led me to connect deeper to her story, and testimony.

I went through the book from cover to cover. I completed the circle and kept my promise to the author’s request to read to the end.

My purpose, in this note, is not to resume the book. I want you to read it yourself and share the feelings, and emotions of the words sipping through you and calling you to act and to live the life you want.

“Make Your Own Money Again” is your navigation guide in the high seas of this “perfectly imperfect world.”

The book goes beyond money, fame, and power to shape an inner framework to make you you again.

Charlotte’s total “360 Degree Life Mastery” and profound references to wisdom, and leadership literature is the right instrument you can use to examine your wheel of life of these areas: intimate relationship, family, self-care (body, mind, spirit) , money, career, social life, society, home.

Sow the seed of reading “Make your own money again,” be ready to start reaping the rewards of a life worth living, and dreams worth pursuing.

To enjoy reading the book, here’s a link : Make Your Own Money Again. Shine Your Light With Purpose and Balance. Charlotte Friborg.

A Learning Call on Purpose, Trust, Character, Leadership, and building Communities against the Financial Matrix

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I am so glad to be part of the learning call every Saturday where a group of leaders share their insight on leadership education based on a book worth reading recommended by New York Times bestselling author, INC. Magazine 20th leadership guru, community builder and Chairmain of the LIFE organization Board, Orrin Woodward.
The learning call is a private invite- only community call led by Orrin & Laurie Woodward and Turbo 5 and up leaders in the Life Organization (those who have at least two teams of 5 people attending local seminar sor major events with The LIFE organization).
Leaders Turbo 50 & up are selected to share comments, and their applications of the content in developping their business community.
We started this Saturday, April 20, 2019, with the first two chapters of Les Csorba’s book : “TRUST, the one thing that makes or breaks a leader.”
We have previously covered Simon Senek’s book: “Start with Why: How great Leaders inspire everyone to take action,” and Martin Lloyd-Jones : ”Studies in the Sermon if the Mount.”
This is an opportunity for Orrin Woodward to share the foundation of the principles that have shaped his life with the front line leaders of the Life Organization. Each book resumes the concepts he elaborated in his all time opus “Resolved: 13 resolutions for life.”
We started last summer with the “Studies of the Sermon on the Mount” to lay the establishment of Christlike principles leadership as Jesus stated in the Beatitudes.
Then we covered Senek’s Start with why as the footing of Woodward described in “Resolved” as PURPOSE which aligns our passion, potential, and profits.
We are reading and commenting Trust from author Les Csorba to move along with Woodward’s Resolved Character Chapter.
In introducing, this ongoing community learning, Woodward stated that we need to prepare for the upcoming One Million People organization that we are aiming for.

A quest for Freedom & Liberty

He quoted Peter Senge : “The only sustainable competitive advantage is an organization’s ability to learn faster than the competition.”
This is a huge opportunity for us, as an organization, to learn together and to share real life’s lessons based on our learning and how we can better ourselves to build bigger communities of people free from the financial matrix (a concept coined by Woodward) and to live the life they want with total freedom and liberty.
My goal in this post is not to resume the books. You may go ahead and read ithem yourself. I want to share my notes, comments, and feelings on the conversations I heard, and how they impact me to move ahead in this journey to build compensated communities around the world.
In kicking off the learning call today, Orrin Woodward quoted the author Les Csorba : “Leadership is character in motion.”
“Without motion,” Woodward pointed out, “you’re not in action. And if you don’t act, how can people know about your leadership ability.”
Leadership is a personal choice. Some will start with you, others will quit, other ones will stand by waiting to see the results.
“Make the least of those who quit, and the most of those who come”, Woodward said.
In our case, the LIFE organization’s goal in to reach ONE MILLION people assisting our seminars, and major functions , and connecting to our app platform learning system teaching them the three keys to wealth: literacy (spiritual, financial), leadership, leverage.
Our design is to promote, and defend Freedom, and Liberty from the financial matrix which Woodward said is the “greatest evil which caused the greatest harm to more and more people in the world.”
We are building communities with regular weekly, monthly, and quarterly meetings and events to set an environment where common courtesy, appreciation and respect are the norms.
We want to meet people where they are, listen to their stories, and influence them to join us in the rebellion against the financial warfare.

The right sound & the right tunes
“For if the trumpet gives an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle?” 1 Cor 14:8
One of our leaders on the learning call repeated the above verse saying as “leaders we need to give the right sound, play the right tunes, lead the right way for the right reason.”
God bestowed us a magnificent gift which is a beautiful mind to think, to create, and to defend ourselves.
“Use it purposely. Don’t feed it with garbage,” O. Woodward said mentioning “we are living in a dumb down culture where we are entertaining and amusing ourselves to death.”
“Amusing,” he said, is part of the word “muse” which means “thinking.” The prefix “a” means “no.” Amusing means no thinking.
” This is a denial of the use of the beautiful mind gifted to us by the Creator. Let’s stop amusing us to death, and start musing us to life,” Woodward said.
To which Laurie Woodward added her enjoyment, delight, and satisfaction to see “husbands and wives responding present together on this call, reading, growing, and leading together.”
“You don’t train warriors to stay in their comfort zone. Warriors are trained to go to war. Our war is against financial evils”, she added.
Our combat is the battle of the mind to develop self-trust , and to defend our plan one conversation at a time, one presentation at a time, and one influence at a time to make a dent, a crack and dismantle the matrix.
It starts with us having good character in our private and public lives.
“If you don’t have character in your private life, how can you have character in your public life,” Laurie Woodward asked.
There’s no compartmentalization. There’s only one you. Wherever you go , there you are.
We need to constantly check our motives, the motivation of our heart. Self-Examination, introspection are very important to our growth.
O. Woodward shared a couple of stories of his softball’s games playing with his pastor Scott. He won some, and lost some. But, his losses are more interesting for him as a winner. They are his learning crucibles.
“I can’t stand losing so bad, that I’ll do anything to win,” he said adding “fatigue makes coward all of us.”
Woodward invited us in the call to “take our losses personally so that we get better professionally.”
In building our community, we have 3 specific goals we focus on each month:
1.- build 10 levels in depth
2.- new team ten at the bottom
3.- new 1000 PV’s at the bottom

This is the riddle to be solved. When we do, our organizations explode and we impact positively more lives.
Edge and Certainty
Woodward said he woke up with those two words in his mind this morning. It was very early around 3:30 am when he texted them to his spouse Laurie.
He told us that we need an edge. “We are better than this,” should be our self-talk.
“When I lose, I can be very honest with myself, and confront brutal reality,” he said.
“We need to have a reason, a why,” he continued but “we also need to act.”
To know and not to do is not to know. With all of what we know, if we don’t act, we won’t have results, and without results and fruits on our trees, we become like professors of theory on leadership, and not leaders.
Woodward called for boldness, assertiveness, and a winning attitude. That’s why we have this learning call.
To develop our mind, we need to emulate more successful people, pour their brains into our brains, learn their thinking process, and act as they do to be successful.
Woodward invites us to listen constantly to the classic series in our marvelous system of audio learning. He announced that more and more quality audios will be available on our app platform after the upcoming major Week End of Entrepreneurs scheduled from April 26 to April 28 in three locations Massachusetts, UTAH, and Michigan.
“What happens first”, he asked: “do you become a millionaire and have the attitude of a millionaire, or have the attitude of a millionaire and become a millionaire?”
It takes time to develop the right mindset. It takes a conscious effort to get the edge, and to develop the certainty of the winner.
We are going to this upcoming major with one focus in mind: to start with why, to be certain of our why.
Starting with why does not mean, we will end there. The next step is to act with certainty of our just cause with 0 excuse given, 0 accepted.
Woodward concludes the call with a quote from Alexander the Great: “I am not afraid of an army of lions led by a sheep; I am afraid of an army of sheep led by a lion.”
“You are a lion,” he told us. “Remember who you are. There are lots of sheeps out there wainting for us to free them.”
“We’re going for them, “he said annoucing that” There are some lions who are ready to do their charge.”
Fired up!
Start the process. Download the free app on your cell phone now, be part of the rebellion, and better, lead the rebellion.

God bless!
Roosevelt

Follow me on twitter: @rooseveltjf
Instagram: @rooseveltjeanfrancois

#haitishift

Wally Franckel Jeanrisca ‘s Story: Dreaming Big from Robin, Haiti, to Building Wealth in Santiago, Chile.

Roosevelt Uncategorized

Wally is full of life. His captivating smile was reverberating on the abstract paintings exposed on the walls of the little Haiti Cultural Center in Miami where I met him last Saturday in a public gathering.

He gave me a firm handshake and told me about his growing WallyExpress business locking his eyes on my pupils.

We exchanged numbers and agreed to meet last night, Sunday, at his friend’s house in Hallandale Beach, South Florida. He welcomed me with a cold beer and food.

Moving things around the kitchen table, Wally invited me to sit. He turned on his Ipad, ajusted the light and the AC.

“Tell me about you. What’s your story,” I asked him.

He talked while I was eating rice and beans with fried fish, and siping my beer.

“I was born in Robin,” he said, repeating his full name and spelling his last name Jeanrisca which he told me is written in one word.

Wally is the eldest of a family of eight. They grew up, played , and lived in Robin, a small locality in Kenscoff, up in the mountains of Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

His business veture started when he was 12 helping his mother in her little commerce.

“I remember as it was yersterday waking up at 4:00 in the morning to accompany my mom in the market to sell goods, and to spend the whole day putting sugar in small bags for resale,” he said.

“My mom was not able to count her money. She assumed money had been taken away from her and she could not explained she had been selling lots of crops and buy less and less items”, Wally said.

His ability to sudy math in school brought calculating the cost of goods sold, and the costs of items purchased, and to start a balance sheet for her mother’s business.

He went to high school in Petion-Ville. He invited a couple of friends to join him in investing $100 / each in a clothing ambulant store.

“We bought pants, shirts, and resold them,” he said adding “we made great profits,” but the partnership did not go far because those friends wanted to spend the capital-seed money in recreation.

“Then, I understood it was not easy to do business with other people”, he argued. While going to school, he created an organization called “Mouvement Paysans de Robin”, which became “Mouvement Paysans de Kenscoff” to help peasants in the locality to live a better life.

Social & Political Activism

His organization was very active when he was introduced to Chavannes Jean-Baptiste who was the national leader of the popular organization called MPP (Mopuvement Paysans de Papaye.)

“I became Chavannes’ protege. He offered me the opportunity to be trained in several countries, and I was elected in 2000 Secretary General of the whole organization who had more than 200, 000 members in the country.”

“I spent 6 months in the Dominican Republic learning Spanish. I traveled to France, and several other countries,” he said.

He created the first savings and credit mutual cooperative in Kenscoff with 15 family members, having his aunt donating a room, his uncle some chairs for the comunity bank, known by its Creole name Sere Chofe. This cooperative reached 300 members and was very useful during disasters and emmergency. After the passage of hurricane Georges, the giovernment sent a truck load of things to give away. But, “we decided to monetize the items with the total agreement of the population using the funds for reforestration and other social services,” Wally said.

Growing his free enterprise mindset, Wally opened a restaurant, and a soda warehouse in Petion-Ville.

His social activism, and leadership at the helm of the peasant organization led him to politics. He became an actve member of the Group 184 which led to the overthrown of Aristide’s power in 2004.

A Sourjouner in a new land

He left Haiti shortly after and emigrated to Miami to start a new life. He went back to school to learn English, while ajusting to his new environment.

“I found a job in a moving truck company,” he said.

“I became a great asset with the company. With my smile, and ability to communicate in Spanish, Creole, and French, I became a manager with the company,” he said.

Then, a wealthy customer who followed him, and appreciated his attitude offered him a job.

” You Franckel, I remember two years ago, when you started moving for us, you could not say a word in English. Now, look at you, you lead a team, you work hard, and you still have a smile on your face, how much money they pay you, do you want another job?, Wally told me while I walked away from the table to put my plate in the sink.

Wally was hired on the spot working for this businessman in a company selling airplanes.

“I spent 10 years working there. I had a good salary, a car, an apartment on Brickell Ave in Miami,” he said. But “he did not want me to have my own business.”

“I stated looking for other ways. I travelled to Brazil, Argentina, and Chile looking for opportunities”, he said.

“Most of the time I did not tellmy boss about my pursuits untill I decided to start something in Chile.”

“He looked at me and said ‘where will you find the money to invest in a business?”

I replied: ” the very same way you find money to buy your planes.”

I resigned.

Santiago de Chile: WallyExpress for a wealth community

“I travelled to Chile. I started losing money. I met the Haitian ambassador. I lost money. I met other Haitians living in Chile, I lost money'” he said.

“I travelled a second time. I stayed a couple of weeks before I found a Chilean business person who wanted to start a business with me. Then, one of my haitian associates met him on the side and begged him for personal help,” Wally recounted.

He decided to stay for a longer time in Chile, learning from the school of hard knocks, adjusting to the environment, and making his own assessment.

“I introduced a money transfer service helping the community to send money back home with with good customer service,” he said.

“I hired my brother as my managing partner, and another key guy as my business partner with an ownership percentage in my business.”

Today, after less than one year of operation, his business WallyExpress has a network of 220 agents selling minutes phones thoughout Chile.

“80% just own a phone. Others own mom & Pop shops, Walllyexoress has been teaching them to do business in community,’ he said..

Wally’s mindset is to build a community of entrepreneurs.

“Let’s build business together and when the Chileans talk with us, they will be talking with a community of businessmen with a cash flow of more than $ 20 millions, paying taxes in Chile and to organize a representative force,” he said reinforcing the idea of an organized community.

“My dreams,” he said, is “to build a community, a diaspora like the Jews have done, like the Cubans have done, to create wealth when we die, we can live a legacy, an inehitance for our kids and for the next generation to continue on the path of success and significance.

I was elated to listen to Wally’s story. I introduced him to the life digital and mobile app platform through our compensated community with the matchmaker project launching a global consummer rebellion with active members participating in a leadership revolution teaching the three keys to wealth: literacy, leadership, leverage.

I left him with set of books and loading his phone with content understanding we need to read, listen, associate, and apply to create wealth through compensated communities.

“All our dreams can come true, if wer have the courage to pursue thrm. Dreams do come true, if only we work hard enough. You can have anything in lifeif only tou sacrifice everythig else for it. A dream doesnt come to realti though mag; it takes sweat, determination, and hard work.”