We live in a great country that allows us to make money without limits. Happy Independence Day to you all!

How do you celebrate the 4th? I will be spending time with my family and eating hot dogs and hamburgers.

By choosing a topic that is so polarizing, such as global warming, you can tap into a great resource of funding and support. It doesn’t matter which side you are on. If you believe in global warming, you will have thousands of people that will be on your side. If you are against global warming, guess what, you will have thousands of people on your side. There just isn’t a lot of middle ground when you pick a hot topic. Because of this, your target audience will be very passionate about what you have to tell them. Since they have a vested interest in the outcome of the debate, you will get the support you need.

Al Gore has figured this out. He is not the poster child for being green, but he took a stance and seized an opportunity to be the spokesman for being green. In doing so, he found his money maker in the tune of over $100 million.

On the other hand you have people that make money from taking a stance exact opposite of Al Gore. The point is, no matter what your opinion is of the subject, you can find your money maker.

So, if you find yourself being really passionate about a hot topic, try to find ways to turn it into a money maker and I promise that you will find the support you need from people that are just as passionate as you are.

One of the best ways to keep your money in your pocket is to think of anyone and everyone as wanting to steal your money from you, aka the Man.  When you go to the grocery store, they want your money so they strategically place items along the isles to steal as much of your money as possible.  When you buy a new car, the dealership is designed to get you to bend over while they steal your money.  When you turn on your AC in the summer and your heater in the winter, living in comfort is a way for the utility companies to steal your money.  Every time your money exchanges hands, the government steals your money in the form of taxes.

By having the mindset that everyone is out to steal your money, you will quickly find ways to keep your money in your own pocket.  Maybe you’ll drive less because you don’t want the gas stations stealing your money. Maybe you’ll tell your friends that you would rather rent a movie then go to the movie theater.  Whatever it is that you decide to do that helps keep your money in your pocket, the more money you will have as capital when you need it.

So remember that everyone is out to steal your money. The question is, are you going to let them?

This is important to understand and I think most people do. However, oftentimes I think we wish there were a magic food or pill that we could take to give us all the nutrients we need. It just doesn’t exist.

One thing that the article points out is to stay away from foods that give you too big of a high like coffee and sodas. They give you a nice boost, but the low that comes after causes you to loose concentration.

Just like eating a diet full of good foods takes some time to implement, figuring out how to stay focused on your money maker is a lifestyle that has to be learned. If you cheat a little here and there on your money makers, the lows may be too much to recover from and you may end up losing focus on the things that make you money.

Please post a comment and let us know who it is and why you like them.

Hit the jump to see our complete interview with this amazing person.

*Image courtesy of shanelyang.com

1. Briefly tell us about your money maker. (Some people have multiple money makers like stocks, real-estate, websites, businesses, etc.)

Right now my exclusive “money maker” or income stream is my blog, which is also my business. It’s not making much yet. But, I have plans to grow it to a sufficient size to attract advertisers and affiliate marketers to enable me to live comfortably again. I also plan to leverage the future popularity of my blog to engender interest in my future self help books.

However, my ultimate money maker goal is to have a cable or network TV show in which I provide personal development advice specifically for the intersection of teens, immigrants, and minorities. Although my blog doesn’t currently reflect it, that’s actually my ideal target group. When I launched my blog last year, it was designed only for that group. But, I quickly discovered that my blog would get nowhere fast if I focused on a group whose presence is as yet extremely limited on the internet. So, I broadened my original focus to include anyone who wants to hear self-help advice from a girl who came to this country when she was 5 years old, part of a very poor (only $50!), uneducated, immigrant family of six (from South Korea), who didn’t know a lick of English, and who struggled to find the American Dream, found it, pretty much hated it, and abandoned it all for the life of a struggling but very happy self-employed entrepreneur with huge dreams of success.

So far, I’ve done remarkably well with my blog in a short time, considering I had absolutely no computer skills or programming skills when I started. I am 100% certain I will succeed in all my goals — though I’m not exactly sure of the time frame it will take for me to accomplish all of this — because I have the requisite burning desire that all successful business people talk about and the intelligence, hard work ethic, and fantastic support group that I need to succeed. Most of all, come hell or high water, I will not quit.

Not to ignore the rest of your first question, I also plan to invest in real estate, index funds, and my own future businesses. But, I’ll need to study up on all of that as I go.

2. In your opinion, tell us what it means to stay focused on your money maker.

For me, staying focused on my “money maker” (That’s such a funny term! It always reminds me of that song, “Shake your money maker!”) is about how to motivate myself when I occasionally feel overwhelmed by these really big goals I’ve set for myself and the monstrous learning curve I sometimes stare up at, which looms over me like the huge stone ball that tried to mow down Indiana Jones in one of his movies.

But, the way that I do it is I remember myself when I was a confused little girl, or a frustrated teenager and all I wanted more than anything else was a mentor who could show me the way to do all the hard stuff. And there was so much hard stuff to learn in this strange, new country, when my entire family was literally depending on me for that information for their survival. It was a crushing burden, and I tried to be brave and carry out my familial duties.

Many nights, I stayed up and prayed and wished for a friend, a teacher, a guide through it all. I once saw a “Land of the Lost” episode in which Holly, the little girl, was magically visited by a beautiful woman who saved her and her family’s lives. It turned out that woman was her older self come back through some sort of time warp. She gave her words of wisdom and strength to carry on. I always wished that would happen to me. So, where I draw my strength when I feel weak is I remember how I felt back then — and I think of all the little girls out there now, who are immigrants, minorities, or otherwise disadvantaged, who are desperate for someone like me to help them by sharing what I know with them. All the little things that people whose parents speak English well, had great educations, and so on, take for granted. That’s how I stay focused on my “money maker,” which to me means my dream of helping as many of those kids as possible, which of course means a TV show. Nothing reaches as many people literally and figuratively as TV. My people don’t read or go on the internet much, but they watch a whole heck of a lot of TV. That’s where I must end up to finally reach them.

3. Most people have a mentor that they look up to and seek advice from. Tell us a little about your mentor and what sort of influence they have had on your life.

I have many mentors, but they don’t know me yet. Oprah Winfrey. J.K. Rowling. Steve Jobs. Andrew Carnegie. Napoleon Hill. Dale Carnegie. What these folks have in common is they were very poor — outsiders, if you will, from people who were born without the advantages of wealth, education, or even a stable home — until they decided to follow their hearts and do what they love and give it all they had. Then, when they “made it,” they gave back as much as they took and then some. I am following their lead.

Warmest regards,
Shanel

A big thanks to Shanel for allowing us to learn from here. Make sure to check out her website at shanelyang.com where you can learn more about her and get a free copy of her eBook.

In the process of trying to get people to profile, I had an interesting response come back from one individual. The E-mail reads like this:

Hello! I love being profiled, but I’m a terrible financial example. My
website makes no money, my paycheck goes to bills, and I never seem to
be able to get out of debt. So…I really appreciate your kind
request, but I think I’m probably not what you’re looking for!

All the best,

I felt saddened by the response. This person has a great looking website and a nice little niche in the market. I really felt that they had something to offer the community. The sad part was, this person didn’t see it.

This site is not about debt elimination. There are plenty of other sites that already tackle that subject. We aren’t focusing on the stuff that makes us poor. Our only goal is to focus on our money makers, not our money takers.

No matter what stage you are at on the path of financial freedom, whether you are dead broke or uber rich, you have a story and we want to learn from you.

Starting next week, we have our first profile of a money maker, so make sure to come back and check it out.

I began to ask myself if they could really support the whole world with their money or if there is a limited amount that even the richest of the rich can do for mankind.  Call it the Robin Hood theory.  Take from the rich and give to the poor.

Can $41 trillion really support all of mankind?  I took the $41 trillion and divided it by the worlds current population of 6.7 billion people.  The answer is a measly $6119.40 for each person. I can’t even survive two months on that amount.

Granted, my cost of living is a lot higher than someone in remote Africa.  I understand that.  $6119.40 might be more than they could ever make in an entire lifetime.  However, I think it’s fair to say that it would be impossible for the richest of the rich to take care and support the worlds population with money alone.  So the question then becomes, whom do they take care of first?

This question alone has made me realize why the richest just don’t give their money away for free.  They are taking care of themselves first, family second, community third, and so on until they get to the remote places of the world.  Though they might be over the top with taking care of themselves first (I still don’t see the point in a $20 million home), I believe that most of the wealthy are in fact helping a great number of people.  Can they help more?  Yes, but they can’t help everyone so someone has to be left out.  So who do you leave out?

What is the worth of a song?  According to Portfolio.com, $572 million plus.  That’s right, Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin is estimated to be worth $572 million and counting.

Led Zeppelin have found their money maker in a single song.  Sure they have a portfolio of great hits, but Stairway to Heaven is by far their biggest cash cow and they know it.  It is their image.

So how did they turn a single song into the money maker it is today?  First, its a great song.  It is one of the most requested songs of all time.  Every time the song gets played on the radio or otherwise, they make money.

Second, they didn’t whore it out.  They were very selective of when and where it was released.  It was never made a single because Zeppelin wanted to make people purchase the whole album.  By purchasing the whole album, Zeppelin made more in royalties.

Third, they use it to generate sales of their other songs.  Cadillac targeted baby boomers in a 2002 ad featuring “Rock and Roll”, another song of Zeppelin.  Cadillac knew that baby boomers would be drawn to an ad that had Zeppelin playing.  Zeppelin could have used Stairway to Heaven, but instead keeps it close to home for the perfect deal.  Now that companies know that Zeppelin is licensing their songs, the longer Zeppelin holds out on Stairway, the larger the price it will fetch to the lucky bidder.  In the meantime, companies are licensing Zeppelins other songs.

There are some important lessons you can learn from Zeppelin.  Once you have your money maker image, take care of it and you will reap the rewards over the long run.