Network Marketing Journey

I haven’t published in awhile and its largely because I haven’t been able too.

For two and a half days I fought with Wordpress trying to figure out what the problem was, but had no luck whatsoever. Eventually I decided to contact Dreamhost support and find out if they could help me resolve the issue.

Long story short, they were able to publish something–you might have seen the post (Dreamhost Test) up for awhile if you stopped by last week. However, I was still unable to publish my article.

By this time I was getting frustrated and decided to try posting one of my drafted articles and see if it was just a problem with the post I intended to publish. After some tinkering I was able to publish and then unpublish one of my drafts (after all its just a draft for now).

I tried publishing the article a final time, and it still refused to be published, timing out every single time .

My last attempt was to copy it to a Word Document, delete the existing post and try to publish it as if it were a fresh start. Never know. There could have been an issue with the existing draft but still got nothing.

By this time its 3am, and I’m tired of tinkering with the obstinate post.

Then it occurred to me. For whatever reason, I’m not supposed to be publishing this particular article at this point in time. The universe (or God as I believe) often has a clear way of delivering a message but we rarely take the time to listen.

I exhausted every effort and did all the troubleshooting I could think of to resolve the issue and to this day, the only post I’ve been unable to publish, is that particular post.

Learning to listen is often just as important as learning to take action.

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You must unlearn what you have learned.

Right now, chances are you’re aiming for success in one area of your life OR another. The thrill of the small victories motivate us but what happens when we hit a road block?

Everything within burns for the desire to forge ahead but for some reason you stand still–sometimes even taking two steps back.

Frustrating isn’t it?

Thats exactly how I felt throughout my first year in Network Marketing, especially in the first six months. I was ready to throw in the towel dozens of times.

That is, until I realized why I was coming up against so many walls.

Our subconscious is often the source of these walls. Your subconscious isn’t trying to sabotage your goals, not really. The problem is the sum total of the lessons you have learned to this point in your life.

If you grew up believing you’d never amount to anything, you wouldn’t have much faith in yourself, would you? Especially if the people in your life were the source of that belief and continually re-enforced it by repeating it daily.

Guess what!? It’s a lie and as Yoda says, You must unlearn what you have learned.

I went through this myself. The people in my life didn’t treat me in the way described above, they were actually trying to be supportive in their own way but I was convinced I was no good and worthless–and thats how I lived my life.

When I joined my first company I decided I was going to make this investment count. I started investing time in myself by reading, writing emails to friends about my epiphanies and always correcting myself when I began to creep back into the mode of a pessimist.

As the days passed, and people began responding to my journey, I began to recognize my value.

You can do this too.

It isn’t about the latest system, technique, strategy or tool–its about whats going on within you. You can’t change a situation by pursuing the same way of thinking.

Yoda was 900 years old when he passed this nugget of wisdom on to Luke. Thankfully, I didn’t have to wait that long to pass it on to you.

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Leadership skills aren’t something you automatically don when given a management title.

While continuing the pursuit of my dreams and building my business, I continue to do something which can be very taxing. I maintain a job at Wal-Mart (Ok, so its always taxing…). Being self-sufficient and having the ability to step away from the position is well within reach but as I continue working I must also be realistic about my goals and current situation.

Then there are times when I wonder why I bother. The more time I spend knee deep in a business of my own making, the more I learn about the mechanics of what makes a business function. On top of that, leadership skills have been a big part of my growth in the last two years.

My intended plans for SOBCon08 were brought to a halt when management (a week description of salaried employ) informed me that I couldn’t have the time off–someone else in my group (I work in receiving) had beaten me to the days requested.

To make a long story short–I had put the request in months ago and most of the people on my team where new hires. It was impossible for them to have requested time of before me. I talked to each of them and they confirmed it. Nobody had requested the time off.

Confronting management was my first step. I was told that one of the new employees was given two days off in the time frame I was requesting–and their request had been approved. Several things are fishy by this point.

I was annoyed and they refused to give me the time off because there wouldn’t be ‘enough’ people present to complete the work.

By this time I had already talked about the situation with a few people. All of them telling me I should just call it sick. Agreeing, saying what they did wasn’t fair. Believe me, I considered it. After all, everything was paid for and now I have to cancel hotel arrangements, which may also cost me.

But I got to thinking. To do so would be stooping to their level. I would like to believe myself to be better than to retaliate in such a manner but I admit, the thought was tempting. The problem is, I know better. And doing the right thing, going to work even though I’d be swallowing a loss, is the thing to do.

The more I thought about it, the more it became a matter of integrity and leading by example. This entire situation occurred because a so-called manager decided to give time off to the person he liked more. In other words, I don’t kiss his ass … never have been the type and never will.

I’ve always been taught that if evil is acted upon you, you don’t respond in kind. Instead, you offer them your other cheek and respond with kindness.

Hardly the easy road. This means that I will not be attending SOBCon even though I had been looking forward to it all year. And it turns out that many of my fellow JJLers will be present as well. Another reason to be disappointed.

There are to points you can take away from this story. First of all, no matter your title–if you are in a leadership role, you must be aware of the fact that your every action has repercussions.

By default, your position means the people under you will follow your example. If you want a strong team, with equal work ethic–you better be prepared to exhibit the qualities yourself. Lies, favoritism and laziness will beget lies, disgruntled employees and more laziness.

Secondly, when you’re the target of an attack OR occasion such as this one. Do yourself a favor and don’t allow your response to be the result of someone else’s actions. In other words, don’t be reactive. It will only eat away at you, and keep the cycle of ill will going.

Do I believe anyone will have a break through when I show up for work? No, I don’t. But I have learned something about myself and what sets managers apart from leaders. That is the important thing. Another lesson learned on the path of a Lifelong Learner.

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David is offering a chance at some pretty big exposure for your business.

If you can handle 500 words on a topic and 200 words on a bio — you have a shot of being in his next book.

Check out video if you’re intersted.

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The 80’s were an absolute blast if you were a kid and enjoyed watching cartoons. He-Man, She-Ra and the gang were one of my favorites.

Even though I often wasn’t allowed to watch it. Parents! ;)

Last night, while doing some research for an upcoming post on Joyful Jubilant Learning I came across the first episode. The nostalgia caught up with me–I broke down and watched the episode.

While the show no longer holds my attention as it did I discovered something I missed as a child. The lesson.

In He-Man’s own words:

In today’s story Skeletor was looking for a shortcut, a quick way to riches and power. You may know some people like that, always looking for the quick way to get ahead of everybody else. Well, it doesn’t work that way. The people who succeed are the ones who work for what they want, so don’t be fooled by those who say they have a sure thing, there is always a catch to it. Don’t sell yourself short. The right way is the best way.

I guess I was right after all. He-Man is good for you.

Take that mom!

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Scratch that …Today’s Network Marketers ARE Politicians.

We see the politics on the news, and in commercials all day everyday. Most of us are feed up with the name-calling and backstabbing long before the elections are done.

They often behave asses immaturely, don’t they?

At every turn they are trying to get the upper hand, win votes and if it means exposing the opponents underbelly–so be it. Sometimes I wonder if they go home feeling sick to their stomach for all the mudslinging.

What bothers me even more is that network marketers are the same way with all of the he said, she said drama.

Google Alerts keeps me on top of the things being said about me, my projects and any specific people I want to follow. This technique allows me to have a birds eye view of the situation and hear more sides of an issue than just my own.

However, there is one side effect. I’m inundated by email after email which points me to blog posts, articles and forum rants filled with the kind of poison you’d expect from an Anti-MLMer.

These individuals seize any bit of bad news about a competitive company in their niche and blab all over the net about how their deal is better because they don’t have that problem–or any other such nonsense.

Just a moment ago I was going through these alerts and it lead me to a post criticizing a companies representatives for believing in their company enough not to freak out about a hiccup. A hiccup which got the company a lot of negative attention.

First of all, its negative in its intent to belittle another person (in this case a large body of people) and secondly the post was published yesterday and the issue he’s ranting over had become a non-issue before the new year.

I think the biggest paradigm shift for 99.7% of networkers is the notion of being helpful and working together, rather than attempting to pull each other down.

Networking is about coming together, co-existing for the betterment of each individual by doing the things we were put on this earth to do. Not spreading gossip, innuendo OR news flashes you really don’t understand yourself.

Recently Ty Tribble sent out an email via his newsletter recommending we reach out and get a hold of a networker we respect and offer to serve them.

He’s right. We need to make more of an effort to serve, teach and learn from each other instead of acting as if we are always at odds.

Who can you serve? Reach out to them. Get to know them and build a relationship without expecting to gain something from it.

Believe me, you get to keep what you give away.

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Hundreds of emails come in every week.

Some of them I’m expecting, a lot of them I’m not.

Because of my rankings I have the privilege of being slammed by everybody and their brother about how wonderful their deal is OR pitching me on how they can help me improve my search engine rankings–within hours no less.

I may not be a Ty Tribble, Kim Klaver or Mike Dillard (yet) but a quick search on Google, Yahoo or MSN [doing a search on my name] might suggest SEO training isn’t something I’m to concerned with at this point in time.

Know the people you are marketing too.

If they don’t have a need for what you offer.

Don’t waste your time.

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Hugh is often edgy but always very insightful.

He was one of the first bloggers I got hooked on all those months ago when I first started blogging. Hugh. And Robert Scoble.

As a marketer I have a lot of respect for the guy. He’s just great and Hugh actually helped me early on. A story I’ll be getting to in just a minute.

Hugh talks a lot about ‘Social Objects‘, ‘Social Gestures’, ‘Social Markers‘ and how they apply to marketers.

Social Markers are a prime form of social shorthand, that people use to STAKE OUT the ecosystem they’re occupying. So why do I find this such a useful term for marketers? Because obviously, if your product is a Social Marker in your industry ecosystem [the way the iPhone is in the mobile world, or Starbucks is in the coffee world, or Amazon is the book world, or Google is in the search world, or Whole Foods is in the supermarket world, or Virgin is in the airline world, or English Cut in the bespoke world etc etc] you will have an AMAZING competitive advantage to call your own. - Hugh Macleod, gapingvoid.com

An example of a social object, as Hugh mentions are our thoughts as we share them here on our blogs.

I was about a month old, in the blogosphere when Hugh found me. Commented on his blog was a common occurance and he decided to follow me to my blog. He read one of my posts and then quoted me with a few thoughts of his own, on his blog.

Those thoughts became a social objects.

The act of linking to me was also a social gesture.

What does all of this have to do with Network Marketing? When I saw the video above I saw many parallels with our industry. As distributors and representatives we are in the business of Social Gestures.

We give people free samples of our products (when applicable) and Hugh is right, if our business isn’t a Social Object–why are we in that business.

Watch the video and check out the links if you already haven’t. I’ve already got ideas for doing some marketing on broader scale and I’m sure you will too.

[Tim Draayer is a internet and network marketing entrepreneur. If you are reading this on any other website other than www.networkmarketingjourney.com. The content has been stolen.]

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Some time ago an article was published by Mike Dillard, a very well known networker in the industry. The article was about the abundance mentality in answer to a specific question.

Which Comes First–Personal Growth or Marketing?

His supposition says it is better to approach the marketing of your business first, then tackle personal growth. He wants you to market your business, talk with prospects and as a result see progress in business as well as a personal level. Combined with the successes and the flow of leads you are generating for yourself this would create a feeling of abundance and help to sustatin you through the ups and downs.

At the time, I agreed. My marketing efforts for YTB were at an all-time high. My travel related websites were getting several hundred hits each; per day, my forum was active with discussions and my squidoo lens ranked #200 overall.

While all of this was happening I was struggling to understand (sometimes to accept) all of the positives happening in my life. Being told you are a Marketing Master and Mentor at a time when you don’t think or feel the same way can be confusing…

On the surface I was the perfect example of his theory.

The feeling of abundance in life and business really does exist in those moments when everything is working and going forward. However, the ‘which comes first’ mentality is a sort of psych-up psychology or quick fix.

Rally the troops. Get them out in the field doing their marketing, and hope the rest comes out in the wash.

The truth is they happen simultaneously or neither happens at all. In order to succeed, feel abundance and manage to maintain a marketing campaign we need to make a committed, true decision. The focus, leadership and work ethic, which keeps us going and in the profit margin, are a function of personal growth and enlightened principles.

Where Do I Start?

First, you need to decide what you’re going to focus on. When you focus on something you give it power. Makes sense, right? If you are thinking of something that particular thought has your attention–so good, bad or indifferent … you have given it strength to go on.

You can decide to make OR break a business in a split second–with a single decision. Which one do you want to get behind?

By focusing on your decisions and making a committed effort to seeing it through you give them meaning in your life.

Secondly, start looking at who you have become. You already know who you want to be, so isn’t it about time to start drawing the map to get from Point A to Point Z, with all the stops in between? Only you know what you want from life but if you’re starting a home business you’ll know some things right from the start.

For instance, you automatically know which skills and experiences you already have–which ones do you need/want to acquire?

What about the Marketing?

Take action from day one.

While you are taking inventory on a personal level, you can begin to spread the word about your business. There was a time when parties and one-on-one discussions were the biggest and best way to build a network marketing business. However, that is no longer true.

These techniques still continue to work and many people do very well with these methods but the advent of the internet and creative thinking has brought many other ways to explore building a successful business.

The only ‘right way’ is the method which works for you.

I believe the key to having success is to always remain true to who you are. And if you are introverted that doesn’t mean forcing yourself to be the life of the party. Do what comes natural to you. This is why understanding yourself is just as critical as your marketing efforts themselves.

Tell people when you have the courage to speak and start a blog online where you can freely express your thoughts and opinions without feeling pressed to do so (This is how I started and yes, I’m also an introvert [Introverts make phenomenal Network Marketers]).

It doesn’t matter what you do (within legal parameters) as long as you are taking a step forward in telling others about your new venture.

Bringing Personal Development and Marketing Together

This blog and the articles within are often described by Network Marketing leaders as being Network Marketing related. I disagree. If you want to be something more than you are, you must grow. Without growth you will not move forward.

“The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we are at when we created them” -Albert Einstein

This is why I talk about personal development so much. Most of the people who get involved in networking do so because there is something burning within them–a need for change. But as Einstein so succinctly states, without changing your model you cannot change your circumstances.

Focus on seeing it through, digest all the information and knowledge you need along the way and take one step at a time towards establishing change.

Believe it or not, this is all you need to do in order to succeed in this industry. It doesn’t matter if you make it happen in a month, a year or five years–you define your future, you hold the key to your genius and only you can move forward when others quit.

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Itadakimasu literally translated means “to receive and consume a life” and is customarily spoken before eating. [Note: This was the only video I could find where its actually pronounced properly]

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Eating a meal may be a simple, every day process, but I believe that the more we are able to appreciate life’s simplest things, the more fulfilled we become.

Itadakimasu is a statement of gratitude, spoken to show respect for the provider and also to the food itself.

As I researched deeper into the meaning I was reminded of the need to show gratitude. Not just for the food eaten each day, but for the people, work, roof over our head and the shirt on our back.

Its easy to get caught up in our days and forget all of the work and the people involved in the creation of our possessions.

Make it a practice to say ‘thank you, I will receive’.

Say it out load each morning as you greet the day.

Say it because you mean it. Say it with love.

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