Thursday, December 24, 2009

New year always brings new perspective

With the arrival of the Christmas season, and the approach of the New Year, we often find ourselves looking at things with a slightly different perspective. During the year we have a tendancy to get busy with the day to day business of life. One thing that is so great about the Christmas season is most of us take a little break from that day to day grind and have some time to refocus on energy on the direction we would like to see our lives take over the next year. The reality is if we would all make the time to take this break monthly, or better yet weekly, our lives would be lived in a much more guided fashion.

Why is it most people spend more time planning their summer vacation than they do their lives? Think back on your last year and compare that to the time and effort you spent planning your last vacation. I would venture to say most of us spent a considerable more amount of time planning out that vacation. Take the time to put a little effort and planning into your life. Choose the direction you would like to go. Too many of us spend our time relying on the income from a job that is very much out of our control and quite frankly in these economic times could be gone tomorrow. What are you doing to take control of your life over the next year?

Saturday, September 26, 2009

Phone a Friend

No, you haven't warped onto the Millionaire show! I want to start bringing up some important points to consider and items you need to be successful in any MLM program.

It is absoulately vital that you find a friend you can rely on. For many people, that person will be your sponsor at least in the beginning. I know I've been taught this from day one in this industry, and trust me I have to be constantly reminded with situations that have arisen in my career. I've had many instances where for various reasons, my sponsor or upline friend needed to be replaced.

One of these instances is a classic case of what has and can happen in this industry. I was paired up with an individual because we were both looking to trying to find a company to utilize another friend's software that had been developed to help build a great business. This individual I was paired with was a "heavy hitter" in the industry in that he has created a huge income over the years in the industry. He has the gift of being able to build very large groups in a very short amount of time. (Which leads into a blog topic for another day on the different types of individuals in the MLM industry - but back to our main topic.) We spent months looking for a good fit for the software. We investigated companies, we talked to executives, we met with distributors, we flew to visit headquarters, the whole spectrum. We ended up joining a few companies we were positive about because the reality is you can't really get to know the inner workings of a company until you can see it from the inside through experience. Through this whole process we found some great companies and great people. During this search we found our current company, and our upline friend, decided to move on. My wife and I decided that our best course of action was to stay with our current company. That lead us to go in search of finding a new "friend". In all honesty we had to go upline quite a while before finding a good fit.

When you find that person, you need to find ways to keep in contact with this person. There are so many great ways with current technology to accomplish this. There are conference calls, phone calls, email, Twitter, Facebook, blogging, etc, etc, etc. The key is you need to keep in touch with this person and allow them to help you. One thing missing from many "organizations" in this industry today is a solid SYSTEM (which is a topic for another time again or this posting will get much too long! :) This is the first key in creating a successful team is to create the communication that allows you and your upline friend to be on the same page.

Do you have an upline friend?

Thursday, August 06, 2009

Red Time vs Green Time - Using time effectively in your business?

Are you using your time you are investing in your business wisely? Recently I heard some great points on this topic and it really spurred on some thought process between my ears.

We all have a limited amount of time available to spend in our businesses. It doesn't matter if this is 2-3 hours a week or 20 hours a day, there is a limit. Are you using this time wisely? Are you being the most productive you can in this time frame?

What is the key skill in our business? Making contact with people correct? It is this contact and exposure to people that helps us distribute product and grow your busines and in turn your income. Take the time you have available to invest in your business, and divide that time into red time and green time.

Red time is that time frame that it would not be appropriate to be calling or otherwise directly conversing with people. For example, making a call to a potential business partner at 2:00 am would not be a real productive idea. There are things that can be done during this red time. Things such as composing email, writing blog entries, reading, etc. These things are a vital part of the business, but can be done during your red time as it doesn't involve others.

Green time on the other hand is that time of the day when contacting potential partners is exactly what you should be doing. This could take the form of meetings, phone calls, messenger or other means, however it's direct interaction with potential partners. Green time is NOT the time to be taking care of the items listed above that can be done during red time. You will be much more productive if you spend your green time working on being in contact with others.

You will be much more productive in the time you have available if you reserve green time activities for green time and red time activities for red time. You will notice yourself feeling much better about what you are getting accomplished and in all honesty you will be much more productive in your business. A pleasant side-effect of this is that your income will grow as well. Ask yourself - "Am I using my time most produtively?"

Thursday, July 02, 2009

BlogTalkRadio Share Show Widget

Ageloc = GAME OVER!

This company has found scientific discoveries that will declare game over in the anti-aging market. With gene clusters and the science surrounding them, AgeLoc will not only stop the aging process, but actually reverse it!

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Who is your target prospect? (AKA MLM Mistake #1)

There are so many people that get involved in the MLM industry and make a big mistake in who they are looking for. I have to admit I have often made this mistake myself and that's how I can speak from experience here.

Let's see if you can relate to how this plays out:
You get involved with the SuperPower GoGo Juice company. You get excited and love the product. You immediately go out and try and find others that you think will love your SuperPower GoGo Juice as much as you do! WRONG! That is where the downhill slide starts. You don't find others that love your GoGo Juice as much as you do and you can't understand. Then you begin to get frustrated and eventually just use the product yourself or quit altogether. Even worse many move on to tell everyone they know through word of mouth or now even the internet for all to see that "SuperPower GoGo Juice" is a fraud and doesn't work. The reality is there is nothing wrong with the company, but instead your approach.

Who are you really looking for? Why did you get involved with the company you are with? Were you originally looking for SuperPower GoGo Juice? Probably not. What you were looking for was a chace to make a change in your life. What you were looking for was a dream and a possibility of making a better life. So, why not look for those same people? You need to find people that are looking for a better way of life. Establish yourself as a leader that people will want to follow. Find people looking for more out of life. Where do you find them? They are everywhere. It's just a matter of finding enough people that believe in you and the dream you are following and selling to follow you.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

The mainstream media coverage continues

I've been involved in network marketing/direct marketing for 12 years or so now. Products appearing in the mainstream media is a rarity. Quixtar Global is one company that has started pumping quite a bit of money into commercials for prime slots to help promote their products. However, this product keeps finding itself being covered at no cost through local television reports and even featured in segments on National Television such as the Today show! This product is simply amazing and there is a new ingredient being released very soon that will work hand in hand with the Galvanic Spa to actually help reverse the effects of aging! Take just a few mintues and check out this video clip from a local news station.

http://www.wxii12.com/video/19387502/

Saturday, May 02, 2009

Is there more than one way to skin an MLM cat?

It's interesting really. I've met so many different "types" of people in the industry. They are very distinct types. The few extremes that I have seen are:

There is s die hard. They have a tendancy to get involved with one company, learn how to build that company, and stick with it. They may go through a few different companies to find the right company, but then when they find a "home", will stay there for a very long time. I've also experienced people that when they get involved in a very good "system", they will stay in that system, travel across the country for meetings, and keep plugging away, even if there is zero movement or profit in their business.

Then there is the company hopper. They change companies every 6-12 months. Don't get me wrong, this is not necessarily a bad thing for them. These are people that see the opportunity with each new company they are exposed to. They find the next greatest thing. The majority of people that fall into this category, end up company hopping, spending a lot of money on signups and initial products. They have a large inventory of products from companies they used to be in. They will contact their friends and family with the next great opportunity they have found and are convinced this is the one. Understand, there are people that make huge profits that do fall into this category. However, you need a very specialized skill set in order to accomplish this. Those that can build groups very rapidly, do very well in this business model. They move to a company, build their group rapidly, and once things appear to really get rolling, move on to another company for one reason or another. Some of the people they had in their old company will follow them, and they will begin the process all over again.

It was interesting a few years ago to spend some time with an individual such as this going through some companies. We were wined and dined by many of the companies we went through and I could see where it could be a great lifestyle. However, we found it just wasn't for us. We are more "home" and "system" people.