Today’s post is all about David Wood. His book is VERY much worth reading. He gives you some great things to think about and then some simple ways to take action. The ideas are inspiring and the action steps are manageable – my favorite kind of how-to book.

David is offering a very cool promo to boot – take a quick look and then go get his book. Save the rainforest, do well by doing good and live the life you choose. Now’s the time. Here’s to ya!

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Social Media - Be Yourself

Have you given some thought to your brand, your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) and what sets you apart? For the purposes of your business brand, if YOU are your business – a one-person operation like so many of us are – then your personality traits, quirks and characteristics are a big part of that brand.

What stands out about you: are you funny? Serious? Very personal? Friendly? Outgoing? Shy? What are your interests? What other things in your life define you? And, why is this important, and how is relevant to the world of social media?

It’s important because when you write for, and participate in social media, it’s about having a conversation. And having a conversation that’s interesting in social media is the same as it is everywhere. Some people we enjoy talking to and hearing from, and some we don’t. It’s the same here. You don’t need to have everyone love or even like you, or be your new BFF. You just need the people who you are a fit for to love you, or like you. That gives you permission to be yourself and not be so worried about what everyone thinks, which makes everything so much easier.

Here’s what Wikipedia says about conversation:
“Conversations are the ideal form of communication in some respects, since they allow people with different views on a topic to learn from each other. Conversation is indispensable for the successful accomplishment of almost all activities between people, especially the coordination of work, the formation of friendship and for learning”.

Mastering the art of conversation builds relationships. You don’t need to be all things to all people. Not everyone will like you, or me. That’s OK.  You want to be yourself, so that the people whose wavelength you are on, will tune into you, get to know you, like you, trust you, want to know more about you. They tune into your channel because your message or your style speaks to them.

You don’t need the whole world following you, you just need a group who your product or service is a fit for, and who, when they get to know you, feel comfortable with you, and ultimately grow to respect and trust you.

Translated to writing: it’s about learning how to write the way you talk. For us boomers, we grew up in the era of ‘business language’ where learning how to write in a distant, sort of corporate-speak was the way to be professional. It lacks personality and the message might as well have come from anyone it was so impersonal.

Social media is the exact opposite; it’s about expressing who you are, within reasonable limits. When you are deliberately using social media for your business, you have to think through that filter. Do you want clients, prospective business partners to know about the wild partying you did on the weekend? Maybe for what you do that’s appropriate. If it’s not – keep it out of your online social space – or configure your settings carefully so you filter what you share with who – that’s critical for your business. Some people call it the mom/boss rule: if you wouldn’t want you boss or your mom to see it, don’t put it on Facebook!

Consider your audience. For your safety, you don’t want to share every detail of your life (unless that’s part of your business). But, you do want to weave your story into what you’re telling, because stories are engaging, and getting to know you is interesting, and it’s what builds your base – people see who you are and how you operate through your transparency.

Learn to write how you talk – if writing doesn’t come easily, think about whether talking does. If it does, pay more attention to how you say things, or what other people respond to and write them down, just like you’d say them. Don’t worry about how ‘correct’ it is – just do it, and say it. You don’t have to be expert at first either, you can build over time. Have someone whose style you like read your stuff and give you feedback and just keep at it, over time, you’ll get better at it and people will see that too and we all like to champion a success story and someone who stays in the game, so that will build your business too.

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Make an aggressive plan for the next SIX WEEKS – October through Mid-November. This is one of three key times of the year for mlm business building. If you go out of your way to make A LOT of contacts in the next 6 weeks, your business will explode and you’ll have a rockin’ 2010….

Take your goals for above and put numbers to them by mapping out the next six weeks on a calendar. Can you do something every day for the next six weeks? If not, why not? Can you find 30 days in the next 42 that you can commit to do something each day? Choose actions for each day. Yes, each day for the next 42 days, using at least 30 days of the 42. Each day you will do SOMETHING to move your business forward

Make your goals something you can actually stick to and get done. Big goals are great, but if you can’t realistically reach them, you’ll set yourself up for disappointment

Be realistic and set yourself up for success instead – don’t worry that your goals are too big or too small. Commit to what YOU know YOU can do, you’ll win more often that way

Tell someone else what your goals are. Be bold, clear and totally honest. If you can share your goals with someone else and hear those goals spoken aloud, you’ll be more committed, you’ll also get a sense of how realistic you believe they are. And, you’ll be more likely to follow through if someone else knows what you’ve committed to

Ask yourself (and answer honestly): What is the one thing you could do, that you’re not doing now, that would move your business forward if you would just do it? If you honestly answer and act on this one question, you could change your entire future

Add one method that you are not currently using and try it out for the six week period. Most industry experts agree that you should be working 2-3 methods at once

Don’t feel you have to change up everything you’re doing. Be realistic and hold yourself accountable, consistency is more important than bold new initiatives

Help one other person take these steps with you, preferably someone on your team so that their effort benefits you both

Set up a small reward you’ll give yourself if you successfully complete a six week plan. And remember it takes 30 days to establish a new habit, so you’ll have revolutionized your entire business in just 42 days

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Network Marketing List = $

This brief article is about that all-important tool: THE LIST. Most of us, when we get started, make a list of people we want to contact and share our business with. The list should be a work-in-progress in several ways. Let me explain. First, make your list without any mental editing – I know, it’s almost impossible, but just do it as an exercise – you do get permission to edit later!

Your list is something you want to be continually adding to over time. You want to keep it with you, as you get into the mindset of building your business, people will pop into to your mind as you go through the day. Writing them down is essential. It’s a valuable resource and you must keep track of it!

Make your list as far-reaching as you possibly can. Go through your personal phone book, your cell phone, your rolodex, your email list, your kid’s school directory, the directory of any organizations you belong to – all of it. There is no one over the age of 21 that can’t come up with a list of 100 people. These days, it’s probably anyone over the age of 10 (!).

Use the Yellow Pages of a phone book as a memory jogger – there’s an alphabetical list in the beginning of the Yellows – go through and really think (AND WRITE DOWN!) who you know that’s an accountant, or a barber, or a chiropractor or a dentist or dog groomer. Write them down, and they’ll lead you to think of others. You’ll think of a dog groomer and that’ll remind you of a dog you once had and how at that time you were friends with Sheila whose brother used to be a friends with some people you knew and he was always so outgoing, what’s he up to these days? You get the idea – it’s a really worthwhile exercise. WRITE THEM ALL DOWN. You won’t be calling them all, but it’s an important part of the process.

You’re not going to contact everyone, but it starts to help you see how many people you do know, and what the potential is for talking to people who are ‘warm’ or ‘lukewarm’. And it will be invaluable later when you get to the referral part of your business.

I encourage you to set aside time to really do this properly – think of it like you would inventory in a retail store – it’s the main asset you have to work with – at first. So, spend the time to do it thoroughly, at least on your first run through. Take a quiet hour away from everything going on and really concentrate with all your resources (for names) on the table in front of you.

Once you have the list built, you’re going to do a skills assessment on the people on your list on a scale of 1-10 in different categories. 1 being the lowest score and 10 being the highest – grade them on the following:

Are they well regarded in the community or in their profession?
Are they successful?
Do they have a good attitude?
Are they focused?
Task Oriented?
Is this person a get-things-done type?
Are they friendly? Easygoing?
Do you like them?
Would you enjoy working with them?

And, if you don’t like someone, rate them, but know you never have to contact them. The good news in this business is you get to choose, so you don’t have to bother with someone you’d rather not spend any time with.

Score each person for each question and then total the score for each person. The 12 people with the highest score are your best prospects. Take the next 10, and those are who you want to start with. You don’t want to cut your teeth on your very best prospects, unless you’re experienced and feeling bullet proof. But this is ONLY TRUE if you are committed to calling all 22 – the top twelve and the next 10. If you’re only going to ever call 5, you better make them the best 5 you have a way to reach.

Make a commitment to work through your list as quickly as you can, it will help you build momentum and you’ll have some successes which will motivate you. You can call 20 people in a day, or you can stretch it out over a month. The faster you’re able to do it, the more likely you are to get it done, procrastination is the biggest killer of forward movement. So be proactive and make it happen – the potential rewards are SO well worth it.

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Plan Your Work, Work Your Plan

We all have different learning styles – some of it personality based, some based on the way we best absorb information. The two most common styles I’ve run into are the learn-as-you-go style (that’s me all the way) and the learn-it-all-first style. There are some who fall in between, but most seem to fall in one camp or another.

Both styles have their strengths and weaknesses and I’ll get to those in just a moment. When you’re coaching others, it’s very important to learn what their style is and teach to it. Don’t try and teach them the way you learn, or expect them to do as you do. It can put the kibosh on the whole relationship, it can even keep people from moving forward.

Since most people come from a job, rather than an entrepreneurial environment, they’re fairly used to people telling them what to do. In fact, the measure of their success is sometimes related to how well they follow instructions and work according to a pre-established plan.

That being the case, they may accept whatever you teach them as the ONLY way things are done. That can work against you both, because they’re not accountable to you for their paycheck and they may just decide it’s won’t work for them.

I think the best approach is to ask someone right out – what’s your style? Are you someone who likes to study every detail before you get something started, or do you like to learn as you go? Then I would tailor my training to their answer. Both have their risks.

For the person who likes to learn as they go, they risk getting out of the gate without enough knowledge, coming across as sheer enthusiasm with no substance and turn some people off. Especially if they’re talking to someone that needs a lot of info up front – they won’t have it yet to give.

That’s OK and I like to encourage that style and just be sure you’re there to help them when necessary – doing 3 way calls to get questions answered, filling in the information blanks for them so they can learn from listening to someone else answer questions. This works well and the person is out there talking to people. It avoids procrastination and gets things moving, which is what needs to happen anyway.

The ones who study every detail run the risk of never getting started. There’s so much to learn, that they may hide behind the information and so much time goes by that know a lot, but have dampened the sheer enthusiasm and excitement they had when they first got started. I’ve worked with people that worry about every detail and what someone might ask, or want to know, and they worry about the gaps in their own knowledge. The truth is, most people don’t ask every question anyway AND more importantly, “I don’t know, but I’ll find out” is a great answer too. You can be new at something and still speak intelligently – and you need to make sure people know and understand that and have access to the information or people who can help them when they get asked something they can’t answer.

So, how do you, as the coach, handle these differences and make it work for everyone? It’s genuinely helpful is to get good at communication – in other words, just ask them what they need – what will be most helpful to them, and as they move along asking them how the process is working for them, and what would help them to improve, to feel more confident and then point them in the direction of that learning.

You want to establish right at the door that the goal is to feel confident enough to start talking to people. Find out what they think that will take and how long. Then find out when they can devote that time and establish a plan, and a date to ‘launch’.

If you’ve got measured expectations, and you both know what they are, it gives you a basis for checking back in and holding them accountable. And, you should have a good idea of the steps of ‘initial information mastery’. Perhaps there are 6 videos to watch and a few things to listen to or read. Say that it going to take 5 or 6 hours, or 10. You ask them – is this something you can get done this week? Today is Saturday, can we aim to get underway by the end of this week?

You might even go as far as to lay it out for them (you don’t have to custom create this each time, it can be the sequence everyone follows), such as: OK – first watch this video – it runs about 45 mintues, get that done day 1, then day 2, you’ll want to read this and listen to a webinar. Whatever the sequence, lay it out and get a commitment. You’ll never get hurt by getting too specific, but you could suffer from not being specific enough. After all, if you establish what needs to get done, and someone doesn’t do it, it’s an indication of their work style and what you might expect down the road. And, if someone is a non-starter, it’s way better to know sooner rather than later.

Be up front and direct with people in these instances. If they don’t get the work done, ask them outright what got in the way? And remind them that the goal was getting started with Phase 2 (talking to others) by the end of the week, so we’re off track – what do they see happening now? Get a sense of what’s going on. Things come up, and sometimes there are good reasons for not getting something done, and sometimes there just aren’t. Don’t judge them, don’t get an attitude, just provide some direction and see where things go.

I genuinely believe that you can’t motivate anyone to do anything. You can inspire them by your own actions, but no one is going to do anything because you want them to. They do it because of their own inner motivation. You can guide them, you can teach them, but you can’t make it happen. You know, it’s that old ‘you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink’. It really helps to be aware of that, so you don’t feel like it’s your fault or responsibility. It’s not.

That’s why we work with the willing and let the rest come around if and when they will. Knowing and understanding this early, and following these guidelines will save you time and heartache (and sometimes a headache too…) and will help you to become a better coach and mentor. At first it may be difficult to ask people to follow a certain course and to have expectations, but you’ll get better over time, and expecting things of people helps them to rise to their potential.

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Network Marketing with Posture

Years ago, when I was building very actively, working my business full-time, some days I found I was good-to-go, completely motivated, knew what I needed to get done and I’d do it. Other days I felt distinctly not motivated, sometimes a little blurry about what I should even be doing.

I was committed though, to showing up and getting the job done, and that meant going to work every day, even without the structure that although it can be restrictive, guarantees you suit up and show up. I had a good friend – we weren’t connected financially, who was also working full-time and while she was a little more consistent than me emotionally, she needed the support to keep focused and working as much as she needed to.

So, we buddied up. We became accountability partners and it was a life saver for me. When we started, I really needed the help pushing myself. I was so grateful to have the structure it provided. I do what I say I will – it’s very important value to me. There was no way I was going to promise to show up and work and do anything less than that. So it was my guarantee.

Every day we would get on the phone and start making our calls. We were both working the cold market, mostly calling leads. We’d usually spend about 45-60 minutes dialing calls using our 3-way calling. I’d make a dial, she’d listen in quietly, then while I was making my notes on the call, she would make her dial. It wasted some time, listening to the other person, but we also each learned things from one another by listening. We picked up language and ways of talking or saying things, and we were also able to critique each other and constantly improve our game.

Calling together, the inevitable effect was after a while you’d start to feel like you were wasting time and you were anxious to get off and start working on your own. So, we were each off and running and launched for the day. We’d often check back in once or sometimes twice at scheduled times to report what we had accomplished and keep on track. Just knowing there someone else was there to report to keep us going. It keeps you from thinking: well, I’ll just go and: you fill in the blank – make a sandwich, check the news, walk the dog, sometimes even cleaning the refrigerator sounds better than picking up the phone!

You might still think those things, but you don’t do them, because you know you have someone else to account to. It really works – in a way I guess you’re sort of tricking yourself psychologically, but who cares? If you get the work done and it results in growth and building your bottom line, you’re where you need to be. Doesn’t matter if you psyched yourself out to get there!

You need to choose the right person – it has to be someone whose skill level is on par with yours, or one of you needs to be OK with acting a bit as the coach and answering questions as you go. Your buddy needs to be someone you can count on, and who is really motivated. And you have to have rules. We did NOT get on the phone and chit-chat or catch up on each others lives. Not that we weren’t interested, but it’s not productive. Think of how you limit that in the workplace, and you stick to that here. You both have to be committed and determined. Working with the wrong person could be worse than working alone.

If you start this system and your partner doesn’t show up regularly or on time, or if their attitude or energy brings you down – get out of the situation immediately. Find someone else.

Finding the right person however, and really working your plan will help you overcome procrastination and will really help you on the days you’re doubting yourself or are feeling disorganized. It will also keep you from doing the things that don’t build your bottom line, and keep you focused on the activity that builds the network: working the numbers, exposing people to your concept, following up, finding the right ones, and getting them started.

If you don’t feel self-motivated and get done what you need to at least 80% of the time, try finding a partner to work with for 30 days and see how much more you get done. I think you’ll be really pleasantly surprised.

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