Realize Your Dreams...

This is meant to be short and to the point. And part of the point is that the actions we need to take are often simple, easier than we think. We sometimes spend more time thinking about what it is we need to do than we do getting that thing done. Implement ANYTHING on this list and you’ll get results, and quickly. Implement them all if you can, or if you will (!)  YES, they are simple, but they’re powerful …

1. Ask yourself: What is the ONE thing that IF you did it would bring you more business, but you’ve been avoiding thinking about and doing.
2. Be honest with yourself about what you’re not doing that you could be doing and make ONE change. Just do ONE thing differently.
3. Find one time slot every week that you can dedicate to furthering your business. What one thing could you give up that would give you 60-90 minutes of focused time? A TV show? Time spent commenting on Facebook? Reading irrelevant email? Commit to that being a business building window of time and do it for 21 days. Sounds dead simple, but it could revolutionize your business and your income.
4. Build a dream board. Give yourself permission to think about why you are building your business. What will the money do for you? Are you longing for a vacation? Where? Cut out pictures and put them on your dream board. Use words, images, things that make you feel the place you want to go. Are you envisioning new clothes? A better car? Put pictures of them on your dream board and put it where you can see it. Every Day. Our mind processes images much more quickly than words – they put us in a feeling state instead of a thinking (read: judgmental/analytical) state and our mind buys into that feeling. With words, we come up with all the “yeah, but….” statements that don’t help us.
5. Spend TWO- THREE minutes before you work on your business to visualize exactly the outcome you want. Maybe you already have some kind of practice where you’re used to doing this. Maybe it’s totally foreign. Look at your dream board if that helps. It may sound crazy; you think 2-3 minutes won’t make the difference. It will make a huge difference. Will you commit to trying it for a week? Even if you think it’s crazy? Be open-minded and see what happens.
6. Make ONE – Just ONE call you’ve been putting off.
7. If you’re feeling motivated and in a good frame of mind, share that with one other person. Call them and tell them you were thinking about them and how you admire: and tell them two things you genuinely admire. If you’re feeling uncertain, find someone who believes in you (that you’re working with) and ask them to share 2 great qualities they see in you. Make yourself ask, even if you don’t feel like it, or you feel shy. The point is to get out of your comfort zone.

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My Two Cents

I’ve been spending a LOT of time on the internet lately, hanging where the networkers hang – letting you know about my blog and learning what it is you want to know about these days.

I’ve noticed a trend toward the quick connect and the desire to be a bit blatant about whatever people are promoting. The key on the internet is to cultivate relationships. The web makes it really easy to find people, but connecting still has to be done the old-fashioned way: considerately and in the time it takes.

One of my favorite Zig Ziglar quotes: ‘People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care’ resonates here. May sound corny, but it’s true. And, you need to know who you’re dealing with to know how to approach someone. I’m a seasoned networker, and although I’m not actively building a network right now, I get multiple offers to join things every single day.

Very rarely do any of those offers have anything to do with me, or does anyone take the time to try and ‘get in’ with me so that I might be interested in them or what they’re doing. The culture on the internet is cultivate, cultivate, cultivate. In-your-face doesn’t work any better on the net than it does anywhere else.

In fact, it might be more of a turn off than it is in person. To ‘play’ on the web, try and conform to the culture – it’s a give to get world out there and the more you give, the more you get. You can’t go out asking and looking for what people can do for you. You need to find people and visit their world a bit, get to know them, see who you’re dealing with, and contribute if you can.

Basically it comes down to being businesslike and professional. You want to make an impression on someone. I know, there’s a lot of in-your-face stuff out there, but the real pros, almost to a person are turned off by all that NOISE. They get pretty good pretty quickly at knowing what’s for real and what isn’t and who just wants what they can get, but isn’t offering to give.

So, think about that when you’re sharing your business with someone – how can you add value for them? What will compel someone to feel good about you and then grow interested in looking at what you’re doing because of who you are?

Don’t be looking to show up and put a sig file with a url on every site you visit – webmasters don’t appreciate it UNLESS you’re offering something of value, and that usually has to happen over time – I’m not saying huge amounts of time, but going in for the one shot post ain’t gonna cut it on most websites. Make an impression. Be the person who shows up and adds value without looking for something in return. Network. Cultivate. Be a little patient (not always easy for this writer!) and you’ll get way more mileage and better results out of the time you spend on the web.

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Is It a Pyramid?

The Pyramid Question (Objection)

I was talking with a very smart, relatively new networker yesterday and we were discussing how he was going to present his business to cold market prospects (internet generated leads) on the phone. I was helping him come up with his script.

He’d already been beat up by his family and a few friends and he was ready to start to talking to some people he didn’t know. His friends and family had hit him with the ‘pyramid’ question and he wanted some help knowing how to handle that when it came up.

Here are a few things that might be helpful if you’re asked that question in any one of the many forms it gets asked in.

First of all, when someone asks: Is this a pyramid? Or comments: That sounds like a pyramid or something along those line… Here’s the best thing to do. Ask them: what do you mean? Then be quiet and listen. People will tell you all kinds of things. Usually along the lines of: oh, yeah, that’s when one guy gets in at the top and gets all these people under him and makes money on all of them and leaves the guy at the bottom hanging.

That is true – in a pyramid scheme! Not in a legitimate network marketing business.

Or, someone might say: Oh, yeah, that’s where you have to talk to all your friends and family about buying stuff they don’t want or need.

Or: Oh, that’s when someone gets other people to sell stuff for them and they get paid on all that person does and so you work really hard to make someone else money.

So, here’s the deal. I listen to what they say, and in 99% of all cases my answer is: Well, this is nothing like that. This is a solid legitimate business. But let me address the pyramid question for a moment if that’s OK with you.

A pyramid is one of the most inherently stable structures – there’s even one on the back of the dollar bill. In fact, most organizations are structured as pyramids. Take the corporate structure for example. CEO at the top, President(s) next, then Vice-Presidents, then middle managers, then the ‘regular’ workers, and then there are usually some people a bit lower on the totem pole, the ones that provide services to all the rest, but are employed by the company too. Educational institutions use the same model.

In our business model it’s a bit different. Primarily because in the corporate structure, there’s only room for one top dog. And, because I don’t want you to take my job, it creates a competitive, and sometimes less than helpful environment. Here, we can all be CEOs, it’s essentially up to each individual. You can be successful, I can be equally successful – IF – and this is a big IF – I work as hard as you do. It’s about what you decide you are capable of and want to take on. Not what some boss decides you’re worth.

And, I might take another question from them at this point. And, I might go on to say : That’s why I call this cooperative capitalism. If you see this and it makes sense to you like it does to me, and you decide to build a business, and you do well, I’ll do well. But – I have to help you – teach you what I know, spend time working on your behalf. And, if you do better than me, good on you! This business works for those who like getting ahead, but like doing it by seeing other people succeed, better yet, helping them to succeed. Instead of dog-eat-dog, it’s a dog-help-dog world.

Does that make sense to you? You must ask that in a very non-threatening way – no tone of sarcasm or impatience. You’re genuinely trying to educate them about what this is so they can see why it might make sense AND be a fit for them.

Once you’ve had this conversation and they get it, it’s time to ask: Now, would you like to know a little about what has me so excited about this company?

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