MLM Talk Online

by Suzanne Falter-Barns
www.howmuchjoy.com

There was once a time (and there still is, to a certain degree) when I would say ‘Yes’ to every opportunity, request, suggestion, good idea, and even mediocre idea that came my way. And let me tell you, it was exhausting.

It was like I had this automatic, knee-jerk reaction to accommodate any suggestion that came my way - as if it were my karmic duty. I call this auto-response being a ‘yes-dog’. Perhaps you know the feeling.

When you’re a yes-dog, your entire being is all about making other people happy; you knock yourself out doing it. No task is too small - you figure you’ve always got room in your psyche, your schedule or your soul to squeeze in one more thing that someone wants to fit in. God forbid you should say no … for then that someone would be unhappy. Which would be unthinkable.

Like a lot of creative people, I’m naturally empathetic - so I could literally feel other people’s pain… an experience I simply wanted to avoid as much as possible. For many years, I thought it was up to me to please the rest of the world. I literally thought it was my job to be a ‘yes-dog’.

These days, I’m taking a much more circumspect view. I’ve come to the realization that I simply can’t live my soul purpose AND make the rest of the world happy all the time.

And I realize that being a yes-dog doesn’t always make the rest of the world happy - even in my little corner. The more well known I get, and the wider my reach, the more I can see it. There is always someone, somewhere, who has a problem with what I’m doing. And therein lay the breakthrough.

I’m no longer uncomfortable with other people’s pain. I mean, it’s not like I relish it; but I don’t run to avoid it. I’ve come to realize we all have a path, and a learning process we’re going through. This means my entire job is nothing more than to be authentic, listen to my gut, and act accordingly. Not only will I not make everyone happy … I can’t!

If someone is upset by this, it’s no longer a big problem. Rather, it’s simply the way their path is rubbing up against my path; it’s part of life, growth, and karma. So I have nothing to fear.

My friend Joan Sotkin has a saying, ‘I don’t always have to be the one who’s uncomfortable here’. Amen! Since I’ve given up being a yes-dog, and let go of the need to be ‘the one who’s always uncomfortable’, great things have begun to stream my way. My reach, my income, my productivity and my impact in the world have gone up in quantum leaps.

Best of all, I’ve relaxed as I go about my business. ‘No’ is not scary - it’s empowering. And ironically enough, the world has not turned on me in anger and resentment … it’s actually stepped right up to my door and truly embraced what I’m doing.

Are you a yes-dog? Take my handy quiz below to assess where you are. And may I suggest a step away from that easy little word, to one that can be equally empowering: “No”.

The Are You a ‘Yes-Dog’? Questionnaire

1. Do you find it hard to say no to your children, even when they’re making unreasonable demands.

a) Always
b) Occasionally
c) Rarely
d) Never

2. Do you long to be able to tell your boss exactly what you think … but you just can’t?

a) Always
b) Occasionally
c) Rarely
d) Never

3. Do you find it impossible to deny yourself ‘forbidden’ pleasures - i.e. Ben & Jerry’s ice cream when you’re dieting - even if you’ve made a decision not to indulge?

a) Always
b) Occasionally
c) Rarely
d) Never

4. Do your friends tell you that you’re a pushover, and advise you to stand firm?

a) Always
b) Occasionally
c) Rarely
d) Never

5. Do you get a queasy feeling in your gut when someone asks you to do something that’s just not a good fit for you … and then inevitably cave in despite your feelings?

a) Always
b) Occasionally
c) Rarely
d) Never

6. Are you uncomfortable asking for more money or more responsibility around your work?

a) Always
b) Occasionally
c) Rarely
d) Never

7. Are you always the person who volunteers even when you don’t want to?

a) Always
b) Occasionally
c) Rarely
d) Never

8. Are there things you long to do in life, but you simply can’t find the time or the courage to get to them?

a) Always
b) Occasionally
c) Rarely
d) Never

Rate your answers:

For every a) give yourself 10 points. For every b) give yourself 7 points. For every c) give yourself 4 points. For every d) give yourself 1 point.

If your score is 60-80, you’re probably saying ‘Yes’ WAY more often than you want to. Consider getting some coaching on how to say no from a good friend, life coach or partner.

If your score is 40-60, your ability to say ‘No’ willingly is spotty … try pausing and counting silently to five before you answer.

If your score is 20-40, you’ve got most situations pretty well in hand. Try saying ‘No’ just a little more often and see what happens.

If your score is 0-20, you’re doing great! Your ability to monitor when to say ‘Yes’ and when to say ‘No’ is truly inspiring.

©2005 Suzanne Falter-Barns LLC.

For information on how to find the time, energy, money to live your purpose in life, check out Suzanne’s free ezine, The Joy Letter. Sign up at http://www.howmuchjoy.com/joyletter.html and receive our valuable report, 35 Guaranteed Time Savers. And get a daily blast of joyful tips from the Blast o’ Joy blog at http://selfhelpsalon.typepad.com/blast_o_joy/

I’ve been working hard over the past week to move the MLMTalk blog over to the WordPress blogging software. I had been using Blogger, but after 4 months of no problems, I suddenly couldn’t post to the blog for some mysterious reason and Blogger tech support was AWOL.

So, I decided to bite the bullet and move to WordPress. I’m glad I did! You’ll find a new Search box that you can use to easily find posts on a certain topic. I’ve also added categories of topics so you can find all the posts on a certain topic fast.

If you are thinking about starting a blog for your business, you should consider WordPress as your blogging software. It’s free, but does require some technical knowledge to set up and use. But the best thing is that the software resides on your own web hosting site so you have complete control.

Blogger is free too, but as I found out, you get what you pay for!

Happy Holidays!

Linda Locke
Get your daily dose of inspiration here: http://mlmtalk.com

Have you checked out the new electronic magazine, TheNetworkMarketingMagazine.com, yet? Not to worry. You can take a sneak peak at their first issue (October 2005) for free. It’s there for everyone to experience at no cost.

This resource is from John Milton Fogg and the same people who published “Upline Magazine.” The October issue features 29 articles from 25 different experts and authors with more than 200 pages of articles and 10 ½ hours of audio programming. And they let you search and save everything. You can also share any articles via email if you like. Here’s the link:

http://TheNetworkMarketingMagazine.com

After you take your test drive, if you are interested in subscribing, TheNetworkMarketingMagazine.com is offering a special ‘Two for One’ bonus to “MLMWoman” subscribers.

When you subscribe for one year, you get the second year at no
charge! This is the special coupon code: MLMWoman/2years

This is all you need to do to take advantage of this offer:

1. Go to http://TheNetworkMarketingMagazine.com
2. Click on the SUBSCRIBING link on the upper right.
3. Read the page and click on the SUBSCRIBE link.
4. Follow the instructions and make sure to enter the
word MLMWoman/2years in the code box on the Payment Page.
5. Important!!! Be sure to click ADD COUPON before proceeding or
they will not know you get the extra year… and that’s all
there is to it!

And, by the way, an interview I did with John Fogg about MLMWoman is featured in their December Women’s issue of TheNetworkMarketingMagazine.com along with articles by Lisa Wilber, Wendy Weiss, Kim Klaver, Nicki Keohohou, Jackie Ulmer, Sue Seward and Bonnie Ross-Parker.

Enjoy!

Linda Locke
http://www.mlmwoman.com

by Cathy Stucker, IdeaLady.com

Do you think you don’t have enough time to market? Here’s a solution that can help you get started on marketing, or any other task you’ve been putting off.

Promise yourself you will spend 15 uninterrupted minutes working on one aspect of marketing. Edit the copy for your brochure. Update your email signature file. Make some phone calls. Revise a web page. Send a letter. Post a message to an email list. Or identify a media outlet and send your most recent press release to them.

You’ll be amazed by what you can accomplish in just 15 minutes. Think you can’t get anything done in that short time? How long does it take to clean your house? How long does it take if your mother-in-law will be there in 15 minutes? I rest my case!

Set a timer (so you don’t watch the clock) and focus on your task for 15 minutes. Don’t answer the phone or get distracted by anything else. When the timer goes off, you can stop. Of course, if you are on a roll, you might want to keep going for a little longer, but don’t keep at it for so long that you lose focus.

There is nothing magic about 15 minutes. Make it 20 or 30 minutes, if you wish. Just commit to spending that time intently working on the task at hand.

By the way, this technique can work for anything else you’ve been putting off. Tackle filing for 15 minutes a day and watch the stacks of paper shrink.

Schedule your 15 minutes every day and see how that 15 minutes affects your results!

About the Author
As the Idea Lady, Cathy Stucker can help you attract customers and make yourself famous. Get a free tip every Tuesday when you subscribe to Bright Ideas at http://www.IdeaLady.com/.

Copyright 2003, Cathy Stucker

Wow, that’s a good one. Actually, it’s a great question without an equally great answer.

In any network marketing program, of course, one of your major goals is to establish a viable income through the sales of products to an increasing list of customers. When you add a Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) plan to the mix, things get a little more complicated.

A pure network marketing program without an MLM component will have to be able of assuring the business owner (you) of a reasonable income strictly from the sale of product. Not too many businesses can do this. Unless you are selling some big ticket item, such as a car or a refrigerator and getting an equally impressive commission per sale, you are probably going to have to run your legs off to make enough sales to make your business worthwhile.

Unfortunately, big ticket items don’t normally lend themselves to network marketing, most people in network marketing lack the skills necessary to sell big ticket items, and there is very little opportunity for residual income in the form of sales to the same customer at a later date.

However, it is obvious to anyone that the only way to survive in a network marketing situation without MLM is to sell, sell, sell. There’s just not any other way for your business to survive.

When the MLM component is introduced into a network marketing business, a new set of questions arise.

Probably, the income from the individual items sold is not going to be large enough to create a large enough income to reward you sufficiently, or at least not to the extent you wish to be rewarded. It will soon become apparent that the way to grow your income is to grow your business. Since there are only so many hours in the day, and since you probably got into a network marketing business in hopes of having some free time for yourself and your family, it will quickly become obvious that the most effective way to grow your business is going to be by growing your downline.

Of course, some companies dictate that in order to participate in effective levels of income or in deeper levels of override commissions, you must make a certain amount of sales yourself. This takes care of the question in many instances. To survive you must sell first and then recruit.

In the case of a company that does not have this requirement, however, it can be very hard to decide which goal to work for, particularly in the beginning…more sales, or more downline.

Although there probably is not a single perfect answer for every situation, I do have my own favorite answer. I would prefer to make sales at first. The reason for this is simple. If I am trying to recruit others into my business, my downline, the easiest argument is the tried and true, “…if I can do it, anybody can!” In fact, like most people, I was very uncomfortable asking people to join me in a network marketing program until I actually had checks coming in myself. For me, this is the deciding factor for the decision to begin concentrating on recruiting.

Another point is that one of the most important functions a “recruiter” can have for his or her downline is that of training. I am going to be better able to assist my downline in getting their new home businesses off the ground if I have some personal experience myself. I would like to add at this point, although it is slightly off subject, that, if at all possible you should use the product yourself and encourage your downline members to use the product themselves. As I have often said, one of the best network marketers you have, whether in your downline or not, is a satisfied customer. Satisfied customers cannot say enough good things about you and your product, and if you or your downline IS that satisfied customer, you probably don’t really have to worry that much about your network marketing skills or those of your downline members. Enthusiasm and conviction go a long way.

Having said all that, let’s talk about my friend, Danny.

I said that there is probably not a single perfect answer to the question, “Should I recruit or sell at the start of my MLM business?” I also plopped down on the side of selling first and recruiting second.

Well, Danny was retired military when he became aware of the possibilities with a new MLM company in Texas. You may have heard of it. Ameriplan. There were two unfortunate facts when it came to selling Ameriplan, at least as far as Dave was concerned. First, he was retired military and had no need of the services it provided. Second, a large part of his “established network” was made up of retired and active duty military as well. They too had no need of the Ameriplan services. That didn’t stop Danny. He lived in an area with two major military bases within about seventy miles of each other. He realized that many young military spouses were looking for some sort of additional income for their families and many of these were young women with children at home. It was a built-in market. Danny opted for recruiting and never looked back. He shortly built a large network of military wives, and managed to scrape together enough sales himself to make quite a respectable showing.

Danny learned one other thing that he shared with those of us also trying to make it as Ameriplan distributers. He made many of his sales WHILE he was trying to recruit. Once, for example, while speaking with a young military wife, she mentioned that while she was not interested in pursuing the opportunity, she would send his material to her parents who would be able to use the program. Shortly thereafter, they did sign up for the services. In fact, Danny was of the opinion that if you tried to sell to someone and they weren’t interested that was the end of the conversation, but if you tried to recruit someone and they weren’t interested in the business opportunity, they might still be interested in the product itself.

So, as you can see, while I may prefer to try to sell first and recruit later, it is not the final answer. You will have to make the choice for yourself based on your own situation and the program which you have chosen to promote.

About the Author

Donovan Baldwin is retired from the Army after 21 years of service. He has worked as an accountant, purchasing agent, optical lab manager, restaurant manager, instructor and long-haul, over-the-road truck driver. He has been a member of Mensa for several years, and has written and published poetry, essays, and articles on various subjects for the last 40 years. He has been an active internet marketer since 2000, and now makes his living online.
To learn more about improving your marketing performance, please visit http://marketingsecrets.xtramoney4me.net

By Michael Angier

Success is simple. Just be clear about what you want and go after it. That and a few million details and you’ve got it made.

Let’s assume that you already know what you want in your life and what it would take to make you feel successful.

But how do you make that happen?

It takes a clear and impassioned focus on your dreams and constant and diligent attention to what you do, how you do it and ways in which you can do it better. Sounds simple, doesn’t it?

It is, but it’s not easy.

I remember a conversation I had with a friend awhile back about reaching a financial goal. I was undecided about which of many projects I should focus on–which one should get my limited time and energies. He looked at me very calmly and said, “Follow the money.”

I thought, “Gosh, that’s good advice.”

It made total sense. It was a goal that involved finances, so why not go for the projects that produced the most bucks. It was simple. It was right on. And I wasn’t seeing it because I’d lost my perspective. I was too involved in busyness instead of paying attention to business. I was caught up in the thick of thin things.

It’s not uncommon. It’s easy to confuse activity with accomplishment. Unless we’re really paying attention, we can be very busy doing the wrong things. As we dig our hole deeper and wider, we often find out later that we’ve been digging in the wrong place.

What was right yesterday, what worked last year, what was innovative a month ago may very well be obsolete today. If you can’t pick your head up and survey the landscape once in awhile, you’re going to get beaten by a competitor who does.

Our most valuable commodities are time, energy and knowledge. How we apply these is critical to our success.

Make a list of everything you do and what your intended results are from those efforts. You’ll find the 80/20 Rule alive and well. About twenty percent of your efforts will be producing eighty percent of your positive results. Look for ways to reduce or eliminate the other eighty percent and do more of the twenty.

Some things we do produce no results at all. We just keep doing them because we’ve always done them and didn’t really question their usefulness.

Question everything! If you had to justify your investment of time and energy to a boss or a board of directors, could you? Are you sure?

You wouldn’t invest money unless it was giving you a return.Why should your time and energy be any different?

Persistence is a great virtue, but it must be balanced with the ability to see a better plan and put it into action. Learn to cut your losses.

We’re not entering the Information Age, we’re already in it. It’s not enough to work hard. We have to work SMART. Being a good steward means making good use of the talents and resources we’ve been given. It requires thinking. It requires close attention.

It’s up to us–and only us–to be consistently analyzing our actions and the results they produce. Do it, dump it or change it.

Do what works and stop doing what doesn’t.

Copyright Michael Angier & Success Networks.

Success Net’s mission is to inform, inspire and empower people to be their best–personally and professionally. Get their free report Keys to Personal Effectiveness by sending an email to keys@SuccessNet.org No-cost subscriptions, memberships, eCourses, eBooks and SuccessMark Cards are available at http://SuccessNet.org email: InfoPlease@SuccessNet.org

Is it tough for you to ask for help in your business? How supportable are you really? Take this quick quiz at Suzanne Falter-Barns’ Blast O’ Joy blog and find out.

Linda Locke
http://www.mlmtalk.com

By Biana Babinsky

Why should you expand your marketing efforts during the holiday season? Because doing so will benefit your bottom line. Naturally, you should not ignore marketing during the remaining 300+ days of the year, but you should redouble your marketing efforts as the holiday season approaches.

Many businesses earn as much as 50% of their annual revenues in the fourth quarter of the year; that figure increases to 60-80% for some specialty businesses. Thus, focusing on aggressively growing your revenue during the relatively short holiday season can have a dramatic impact on the overall annual revenue.

Here are three marketing suggestions you can use to generate more revenue this holiday season. These techniques can be used for both retail and service businesses. Retail businesses usually focus on marketing their products as gifts, while service businesses can use gift certificates for the same purpose.

1. Create a section on your web site that lists all holiday-related items (or items that would make great holiday gifts). Be creative — almost any product or service can be packaged as a gift. Place prominent links to this section from your home page and other major category pages. Give the link to the holiday section to your newsletter subscribers and other potential customers who are looking for holiday gifts. This will ensure that your customers will not have to search for holiday products on your web site - they will be taken to the gift section immediately! Remember, make it easy for the customer to find the product!

2. Offer a volume discount. Do you know anyone who needs to buy just one gift for the holidays? Neither do I. Encourage customers to purchase more then one item on your web site. Discounts or shipping specials that kick in when multiple items are ordered are an excellent inducement to buy in bulk.

Examples include: 20% off an order of over $100 (where $100 is more than the cost of a typical single item), free shipping when you buy two items, buy one get one free, etc. Make it worthwhile to your customers to treat your business as a one-stop gift shop!

3. Offer Gift Certificates. This is particularly important for service businesses, since there is no tangible product to discount. While this is somewhat unorthodox, a gift certificate is a great way to gain a new customer who would never find out about your business otherwise.

Naturally, you should offer superior service when the certificate is redeemed to ensure that your new customer uses your services more than once. Encourage your current customers to buy gift certificates for friends and colleagues who could use your services. Offer a special on buying more than one Gift Certificate — it’s a win-win situation for both you and the customer.

Remember to give your customers a reason to come back to you once the holiday season is over. Provide great products or services, focus on excellent customer service and invite your customers to sign up for your mailing list to receive information from you in the future. Happy Holiday Marketing!

Biana Babinsky has been helping business owners just like you gain more customers, obtain more online publicity and increase the bottom line. Learn more and subscribe to the Online Marketing Newsletter at http://www.avocadoconsulting.com/

Many newcomers to MLM are guilty of chasing after people to join their business and immediately overwhelming them with their sales pitch. If you’ve used this method of prospecting at all, you know that it just doesn’t work. You can’t force someone to do a business, and if you have to drag them kicking and screaming into your opportunity, they will run for the nearest exit as soon as they run into their first challenge.

Dave Stone’s recent post on his MLM Today blog really nails this topic. Read it here.

Linda Locke
Get your daily dose of inspiration here:
http://www.mlmtalk.com

Your attitude is one of the most important indicators of your success in business and life. Here’s an excellent quote from Chuck Swindoll that says it all on this topic:

“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company, a church, a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you. We are all in charge of our attitudes!”

- Chuck Swindoll

Linda Locke
Get your daily dose of inspiration here: http://mlmtalk.com