They simply find the people who are ready for them.

As I sit here on the eve of another YTB / ZamZuu National Convention in St. Louis, I’m astounded how this company has changed my life to look for opportunity. How it’s prepared and molded my mind for business success. I’ve now overcome the fear of the word “no”, and in that same vein – it’s helped me help others who were willing and open to opportunity themselves.

Not everyone has taken advantage of the opportunities presented to them. I think it was Edison who said “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” There’s a reason why the word “work” is placed in this industry we call Net”work” Marketing.

If you really study the MLM model, and become a student of the industry you’ll find that this model instills a work ethic and business savvy that you won’t find in any school. It lays a foundation of real – practical business principles and practices that you just can’t find anywhere else.

That being said – I realize that there are so called “experts” out there who will attempt to argue the points I’ve laid claim to above. You (and they) know the ones that I’m talking about. The obnoxious loud mouths who believe they know better than we do – who have it all figured out. Keep in mind that these are the same jerks who warned everyone three years ago that YTB was going to be shut down by the California Attorney General on the eve of the 2008 National Convention. Their experience has taught them that a company that finds themselves in the midst of a $25 million lawsuit will fold like a wet noodle.

I’ve seen instances of companies actually crumbling for far less money and vicious accusations or monetary compensation – but then again, the examples I can recall are traditional business models – not Network Marketing companies.

Companies like Amway, Herbalife, PrePaid Legal, USANA, NuSkin, and YTB have all been victimized by lawsuits claiming they’re some sort of scam and survived because these so called “experts” who get their little panties in a wad aren’t the business minds, or protectors of industry and justice they claim to be. At most, they’re opportunists themselves who take advantage of people’s fears and insecurity instead of instilling rational and logical thinking. It’s simply a chance for them to grab the spotlight and make themselves feel important.

There’s an ancient Chinese proverb I saw just the other day. “Those people who judge a books by their covers…..have difficulty reading!” When it comes to my experience with YTB and critics, that’s about as close to reality as it comes. With some of the outlandish, bizarre and irrational statements I’ve seen over the years surrounding not only MLM but YTB specifically by these people, that proverb pretty much nails it.

Something else I’ve learned over the years about these “experts”. When it comes to owning up to mistakes, inaccurate speculation, or just plain lies – they’re cowards. Actually, their mind, (more accurately “ego”) won’t allow them to admit they might be wrong. This perception they have is the only thing they have to hang on too.

Let me give you an example.

Last week, I was talking with one of our Directors about the once infamous John Frenaye. If there’s anyone who’s fallen prey to speculation and rumors it’s John. The guy would fall for just about anything posted on the internet as “truth” or “fact” if it has a negative ring to it. Even when there nothing there, he’ll manage to create it just to grab some attention. You can only imagine how “excited” John must have been when word of the California lawsuit was announced the night before the 2008 Convention. You’d think the simple filling of this suit meant it was a done deal the way he sensationalized the cover of this suit.

But those of us who went beyond the simple cover, and actually read the verbiage and actually comprehend our business had a completely different take. So much so, that this Director made a bet with Mr. Frenaye.

Sometime after the suit was filed, the two made this gentlemen’s bet. If the suit was indeed accurate, John would get what he wanted. The total and complete illumination of a so called pariah in an industry he actually doesn’t own but merely works in.

If however the suit wasn’t successful in shutting down YTB like Jerry Brown boldly proclaimed he could do – there would be a public apology by John at the next National Convention in St. Louis.

While there was an attempt to make some sort of assurances that John would keep his word on this – according to the account of the Director who made this bet – John’s enormous ego wouldn’t permit him to even speculate any possibility that YTB could survive the cover of the claim.

The National Convention in St. Louis this week will be the third since the suit was first announced in 2008. Along the way there was a $100 Million Class Action filed which has been thrown out of court more times than a cat has lives, and another suit filed by the Illinois Attorney General that honestly just sat there collecting dust for two years before it quietly went away.

John being the gullible and clueless soul that he is obviously took the bet. In his mind – the cover matched his perception, and there was just no way on God’s green earth that he’d ever have to muster up any type of apology with these kind of stakes stacked up against a bunch of lowly MLM Yahoos.

Now I can understand the absence of a full-fledged apology in 2009. While John had certainly speculated that bankruptcy or the YTB Founders riding off into the sunset with everyone’s money was an absolute certainty by the time we all got together in St. Louis at the time, none of the facts about our model had really come to light a year later. Nor were any of the suits either settled or thrown out of court outright.

I’ll even let 2010 slide. He was after all holding on to a thread of hope that the laws as they’re currently written in Illinois would magically change or be re-written in his favor.

However, it’s now 2011 and all three suits have either been settled both legally and monetarily or been pummeled to death by the court system as being “redundant, immaterial, impertinent, or scandalous matter”.

So that begs a very serious question. Could this be the year that YTB gets the apology from this once infamous critic who now finds himself on the wrong end of this bet?

Honestly, I doubt it. Cowards like John and the other critics who have quietly removed themselves from the soap boxes they once stood on just don’t have it in them. The opportunity to correct the years of slander, malicious abuse and misleading information posted on No Travel MLMs will never go away.

Unfortunately, I don’t see John being ready. A far better alternative is to just quietly fade away like he has. However, because YTB will continue to hold National Conventions like the one this week in St. Louis – the opportunity for him to man up and do so will never go away. ;-P

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At the end of yesterday’s post I asked the following question.

What do the following companies have in common?

• Carlson Wagonlit Travel
• Choice Hotels
• CruiseOne, Inc.
• Discovery Map International
• Hotel Indigo
• Microtel Inn
• Passport Health Communications
• Thetravelacademy
• Uniglobe Travel International
• Your Travel Biz

They’re not all host agencies, but they are all travel related in some form or fashion. No big deal, until you go pick up a copy of the November issue of Inc. Magazine and take a gander at the middle of page 138. There you will find “Candee’s Picks” for Leading Travel Franchise Opportunities.

“Ask Candee” is a column written by Candee Wilde specifically written about the franchise business and you can find some of her former columns on the internet where she has featured other franchise opportunities.

Q.  In these rocky financial times, is it wise to purchase a franchise in the travel industry?

A. There are few barriers to entry, in terms of cost or past experience, and even when people are tightening their belts, they continue to take vacations.

Travel is a solid industry, and the cruise business in particular just continues to grow. An investment in travel can be lucrative and, not to be underestimated, fun.

It’s important to note here that the actual article is written around CruiseOne, Inc. and the opportunity it has to offer. I could note here what some of the similarities and differences are for you here concerning CruiseOne and Your Travel Biz, however, I’ll let you pick up a copy on your own to decide for yourself.

What I would like to highlight and find interesting to say the least is that Candee noted Your Travel Biz with these other companies. To be listed among and associated with names on this list is a nice feather in the cap, especially when you consider the credibility of a magazine like Inc.. In addition, you can’t consider this listing one of those “paid endorsements” that YTB is accused of all too often. Nope, this one was even a surprise to Home Office.

Speaking of accusations, I have to wonder how critics will take this listing now that it’s been made public. I can just hear the ranting now.

Don’t they know what’s going on in California?

Have they not looked at the Financial Statements?

Have they not seen the stock price?

They’re not a “franchise”.

What does “Inc. Magazine” know about travel?

About all I can say about the excuses that are bound to come up, is this.

Not everyone has to agree with the negative perceptions and obsession about Network Marketing the way the critics do. Inc. Magazine is written for the entrepreneur, the business owner, the capitalist in this country. What a couple of broke critics who do nothing but post all day long on message boards, forums, and blogs with the intent to malign and slander a company they have never been associated with, nor never will have any involvement in, isn’t something the editors of Inc. are all that concerned with.

Furthermore, if in fact Candee was not fully aware of all the trappings some critics are concerned with, they might not doing a very good job in getting the word out. (Remember our Underground Shopper yesterday?) While I agree that Your Travel Biz is something critics seem to be up to their eyeballs in, very few people take it to the emotional extremes they do.

I can (and will) contend that the excuses brought up to minimize this association with other Leading Franchise Opportunities are just that, excuses. I’ve written about Pre-Paid Legal before, and it’s 31 lawsuits totaling $745 million back in 2002. I’ve also written about USANA and Herbalife in more recent issues and while our critics simply ignore how these companies not only overcame the obstacles set before them, they’re all thriving today.

While some would like to point out that profits from Your Travel Biz are not common place with the company, digging into the financials does show substantial purchases in land, support systems, technology, training, expansion into International markets, and a very large home office where they will reside when my kids have kids.

I have serious doubts that a publication like Inc. Magazine would even consider reading comments on some of the boards and forums out there to collect data for its publication. Although entertaining, smart business people don’t associate, nor do they care about this type of information. There’s no substance, it lacks verification, and it reeks of spinning.

It’s good to see a publication like Inc., and a writer like Candee picking Your Travel Biz as a leading opportunity.

Hummmmm, wonder what they know that the critics don’t?

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I realize there seems to be a tremendous amount of focus on YTB in past months. Being publically traded can be both a blessing and a curse for MLM companies. The blessing is that it’s a way to legitimize our model when we report to someone like the SEC and makes this notion of “illegal pyramid scheme” harder to promote. The curse is that it brings out the nut cases who want to ignore the Government is aware of who we are and what we do, but still try to push the issue of MLM being “illegal”.

I caught an interesting development on Monday that I wanted to pass on concerning a number of other publically traded MLM’s that are also getting some heat from some very deranged and shady characters. (“Shady” meaning he’s already a Convicted Felon.) What’s even more amusing to me is that two of the better known Anti-MLM Zealots, Robert FitzPatrick and Jon Taylor appear to have been caught in their own lies and MLM myths. Court probing may find that Robert Fitzpatrick and Jon Taylor were also involved in some way for shorting MLM company stocks.

In June of last year, Judd Bagley of “Deep Capture” (a hunter of illegal short sellers) concludes that convicted stock manipulator Sam Antar and securities class action litigator Howard Sirota were working in concert with convicted stock manipulator Barry Minkow’s Fraud Discovery Institute (FDI) to manipulate the share price of USANA, a public company. You may or may not know about several law suites filed last year concerning USANA, but it got so bad that even the SEC and Distributors themselves got in on the act in California. The SEC never found any wrong doing and closed its case nor did the Distributor suite go anywhere after cleaning off the mud that Minkow attempted to throw out in the press via his bogus report.

Now these same idiots seem to be after both Pre-Paid Legal and Herbalife. The Herbalife story has gotten so much attention in recent weeks that it even made CNBC’s Mad Money in which CEO Michael Johnson came on the show to assure investors that there is no lead found in their products.

There was never any health or safety issue with Herbalife products. Inaccurate and misleading information released to sensational media and online news coverage is nothing new to any of us in YTB. There is always an ulterior motive and it’s been found that FDI (Federal Discovery Institute) founder Barry Minkow admitted profiting from “puts” on Herbalife stock.

All these attacks on publically traded MLM companies have gotten so bad that USANA has already decided to take the company private after being public since 1996, and it was also suggested by Jim Cramer of Mad Money for CEO Michael Johnson to take Herbalife private. (My take is that Johnson doesn’t like the idea according to the video I watched.)

While it’s yet to be determined if FitzPatrick and Taylor will be convicted in all this mess, this investor would love to see these two idiots have “Convicted Felon” on their resume for all the lies and myths they promote about MLM. Having these two busted for illegal activity would certainly help those of us who know from experience that MLM is a viable business model and an excellent entry level for anyone looking to get into a business of their own.

While I can’t say the YTB has remained under the radar by any stretch of the imagination, at least our company stock has remained fairly clean compared to USANA, Pre-Paid, and Herbalife. Let’s just hope these nut cases are actually convicted for doing what they have done to these other MLM’s before they decide to set their sites on YTB.

It does make me wonder however just who was doing any “Pump and Dumping” with our stock. “Rumor” has it that Directors were doing all this “Pump and Dump” in an attempt to hurt the “little guys”, but after all the positive press released after our Annual Report back in April, me thinks the Pump and Dump was nothing more that Day Traders who knew how to take advantage of such positive press in a small stock like YTBLA.

If you don’t know Rod Cook’s MLM Watchdog site, you should. He’s one of the good guys in MLM. (Even if he has come out against YTB at times.) If you’re an investor like I am in YTBLA, you should keep an eye on this developing story, it could prove to be huge for us and put a stop to Zealots who promote nothing but myths and lies about MLM.

PS - If you're involved with YTB, sign up for our FREE Newsletter. As a Website Owner or Website Seller, we'll keep you up to date with all the latest news, acquisitions, and developments with YTB.

PPS - Subscribe to the Just Picture It Now RSS feed, (including e-mail) for all the latest posts and updates found right here!

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