Let's say you've decided to add traditional business networking to your marketing mix. You find a couple of local groups, schedule the time and show up at the meeting with a pocket full of business cards and a well rehearsed "30-second commercial". Now what? Do you rush around handing out your cards to everyone else in the room (Spamming)? Do you monopolize every conversation talking about yourself and all the quirky, fun things you do? Do you give your commercial and then sit in the corner waiting for people to approach you? Is your idea of relationship building squirming in your seat waiting for someone to shut up so you can talk about your business? Probably not. And yet this is precisely how many people try to use "social media" to attract new customers and grow their business.
Back in the days when AOL was credible and MySpace was cool, and Facebook and LinkedIn were just getting started, this whole online genre was called "Social Networking". The recent movie fictionalizing the dawn of Facebook was named "The Social Network". And that is what they were about, people connecting with other people socially online. There are over a billion people using Facebook alone today, and dozens of other popular social systems online as well. So its not surprising that before too awfully long, businesses and their marketing arms moved in. This is not entirely a bad thing. Someone has to pay for these things to exists, and advertising is a well established way of funding "free" systems. It wasn't long after the arrival of the marketers, however, before things morphed from "social networking" into "social media". And the distinction is anything but trivial.
"Networking" is all about establishing connections and building relationships. Its the sort of thing salespeople understand and gravitate toward. "Media", on the other hand, is principally a means of mass communication. A way of taking your message and broadcasting it to as large an audience as possible. A vehicle for advertising. And it is the province not of salespeople but of marketeers.
These days it seems like everyone is clamoring for instructions for "using social media to grow my business". And there is no shortage of consultants and trainers stepping up to meet the demand. Hey, at least someone is making money on social media! And what advice do we usually get? Be active. Post cool, interesting things about yourself - often. Slip in ads for your business every now and then but don't overdo it. Make your profile look like this. Say that. Avoid doing this other thing. Wait till someone says something related to what you do and then pounce. More followers is better than less followers. In short, good marketing advice and bad networking advice. And manipulative.
Let's go retro and start thinking of it as social networking again and leave social media to the social media consultants. Start to apply the same principles and approaches you would use at a networking meeting. Don't wait to be found, reach out to others. Don't just connect with the people you know, or hope people will find you, make the effort to find them. Connect with people you share meaningful common interests with, business or personal, and build on that. Build relationships, whether or not they ever lead to a sale. Have fun and let it show. Be yourself. Look for quality connections instead of just a lot of them. Give back, contribute, offer to help.
I've taken this advice to heart recently and its making a noticeable difference in how I use Facebook and LinkedIn and for the first time ever it is even producing some real business results. Give it a try yourself and see if networking doesn't beat advertising by 2 lengths.
06 December 2013
20 November 2013
Does Your Downline Have a Game Plan?
Its no secret that the actual success rate for new distributors (lets call "success" a distributor who is still in the business 3 years later and satisfied with their progress and results) in many network marketing companies is dismally low. Ten percent or so is not uncommon. With such a simple business, its reasonable to wonder why this is.
First of all, let us not confuse "simple" with "easy". Network marketing is work, and those lacking the determination and/or work ethic to put some serious effort into making their business successful are nearly always going to fail. (There is simple random luck of course, more on that later.) But what about the people who really take a run at it, invest significant time and effort, and still end up disenchanted and dropping out?
Often it is because they go into it without any sort of game plan for success. In my opinion, this is a failure primarily of their upline/
sponsor, who's job it is to train and support a new distributor and show them how to succeed. But too often this comes down to "Here, watch this DVD, make a list of everyone you know, call them up, set an appointment and let me know when you need my help."
A better way is to have a specific process you use to help your new distributors get off to a good start and experience some success in their first month or two. Network marketing guru Eric Worre calls this a Game Plan. Sitting down with your new recruits and making sure they have a plan for success, that they understand it, that it connects with their own hopes and aspirations and that they know exactly how to get started will go a long, long way toward making them successful and not another droppout. And isn't that what you, their sponsor, want? Their success?
What should a Game Plan address? Just a few basics may make all the difference.
1. Reinforce their decision to join the business.
2. Clarify exactly what their role and your role are going to be going
forward.
3. Set realistic objectives for their first 15, 30, 45, 60 and 90 days in
the business.
4. Map out, precisely, what they are going to need to commit to do in
order to reach those goals and what you will - and won't - be
doing to support them.
5. What their immediate next step is going to be, how and when
they are going to get it done.
6. How they want you to support them when you see them starting to
slip or backslide.
At the end of the day, it is entirely up to your new distributor how they are going to run their business. They don't work for you. But if you want to be successful yourself you need to maximize the chance that the people you bring in will be successful too. Having a clear, realistic plan for getting them a few wins quickly will go a long way toward keeping them out of the failure column. And remember, hope, luck and good intentions are not a plan.
First of all, let us not confuse "simple" with "easy". Network marketing is work, and those lacking the determination and/or work ethic to put some serious effort into making their business successful are nearly always going to fail. (There is simple random luck of course, more on that later.) But what about the people who really take a run at it, invest significant time and effort, and still end up disenchanted and dropping out?
Often it is because they go into it without any sort of game plan for success. In my opinion, this is a failure primarily of their upline/
sponsor, who's job it is to train and support a new distributor and show them how to succeed. But too often this comes down to "Here, watch this DVD, make a list of everyone you know, call them up, set an appointment and let me know when you need my help."
A better way is to have a specific process you use to help your new distributors get off to a good start and experience some success in their first month or two. Network marketing guru Eric Worre calls this a Game Plan. Sitting down with your new recruits and making sure they have a plan for success, that they understand it, that it connects with their own hopes and aspirations and that they know exactly how to get started will go a long, long way toward making them successful and not another droppout. And isn't that what you, their sponsor, want? Their success?
What should a Game Plan address? Just a few basics may make all the difference.
1. Reinforce their decision to join the business.
2. Clarify exactly what their role and your role are going to be going
forward.
3. Set realistic objectives for their first 15, 30, 45, 60 and 90 days in
the business.
4. Map out, precisely, what they are going to need to commit to do in
order to reach those goals and what you will - and won't - be
doing to support them.
5. What their immediate next step is going to be, how and when
they are going to get it done.
6. How they want you to support them when you see them starting to
slip or backslide.
At the end of the day, it is entirely up to your new distributor how they are going to run their business. They don't work for you. But if you want to be successful yourself you need to maximize the chance that the people you bring in will be successful too. Having a clear, realistic plan for getting them a few wins quickly will go a long way toward keeping them out of the failure column. And remember, hope, luck and good intentions are not a plan.
15 November 2013
Lost Jobs "Not Coming Back"
"These jobs are going, boys. And they ain't coming back." - Bruce Springsteen, My Hometown
One of the things I hear a lot when out talking to people about my network marketing opportunity is that its just "too risky" to work on what amounts to a 100% commission basis. But more and more its starting to look like the real risk lies in traditional "time for dollars" employment. In fact, "having a job" has been the norm in America only for the last 60 years or so. In 1900, about 90% of the US workforce (including farmers and agricultural workers) were self-employed, held multiple part time jobs, or was a mix of the two. By 2010 that had fallen to nearly 10%. As this Morning Edition report on NPR illustrates, perhaps the pendulum is beginning to swing back.
More and more people competing for fewer and fewer full time jobs paying less and less money with fewer and fewer benefits is not a recipe for worker prosperity. For network marketers, the future has never look brighter.
One of the things I hear a lot when out talking to people about my network marketing opportunity is that its just "too risky" to work on what amounts to a 100% commission basis. But more and more its starting to look like the real risk lies in traditional "time for dollars" employment. In fact, "having a job" has been the norm in America only for the last 60 years or so. In 1900, about 90% of the US workforce (including farmers and agricultural workers) were self-employed, held multiple part time jobs, or was a mix of the two. By 2010 that had fallen to nearly 10%. As this Morning Edition report on NPR illustrates, perhaps the pendulum is beginning to swing back.
More and more people competing for fewer and fewer full time jobs paying less and less money with fewer and fewer benefits is not a recipe for worker prosperity. For network marketers, the future has never look brighter.
25 October 2013
Study Links Diet & Lifestyle to Cellular Aging
We all know that eating the right foods and getting regular exercise is good for us, even if we don't always do it. Sort of like flossing. But a recent study by researchers at the University of California San Francisco might give you the bit of additional motivation you need.
The study concluded that relatively small changes to diet and lifestyle can have a major effect on aging down to the cellular level. And perhaps can not only slow it, but even reverse it. Our body's ability to produce a steady supply of healthy new cells to replace those that wear out is perhaps the primary factor in determining how quickly we age. Not in a chronological sense, of course, but in a biological one.
“So often people think ‘Oh, I have bad genes, there’s nothing I can do about it,’” said Dean Ornish, MD, study author and a clinical professor of medicine at UCSF, said in a statement. “But these findings indicate that telomeres may lengthen to the degree that people change how they live. Research indicates that longer telomeres are associated with fewer illnesses and longer life.”
That seems like quite a bonus for doing a few things you really should be doing anyway.
The study concluded that relatively small changes to diet and lifestyle can have a major effect on aging down to the cellular level. And perhaps can not only slow it, but even reverse it. Our body's ability to produce a steady supply of healthy new cells to replace those that wear out is perhaps the primary factor in determining how quickly we age. Not in a chronological sense, of course, but in a biological one.
“So often people think ‘Oh, I have bad genes, there’s nothing I can do about it,’” said Dean Ornish, MD, study author and a clinical professor of medicine at UCSF, said in a statement. “But these findings indicate that telomeres may lengthen to the degree that people change how they live. Research indicates that longer telomeres are associated with fewer illnesses and longer life.”
That seems like quite a bonus for doing a few things you really should be doing anyway.
22 October 2013
How Much Time Have You Got?
I have a real problem with procrastination. Working from a home office compounds this, as there always seems to be some distraction or other that offers an excuse to put something off. And, well, there is always tomorrow, right? Wrong.
We all know we are not going to live forever. But we often seem to live day-by-day as though we were. Would we see things differently if we head, literally, a deadline? If we knew how much time we had left?
The internet is a marvelous place. Frighteningly so at times. I recently was introduced to something called The Death Clock. By completing a very brief survey on your lifestyle and current situation, it makes an actuarial forecast of the day on which you will run out of time. It sounds gruesome, but I have found it to be quite the opposite.
First, I was gratified to learn that I had nearly 20 years left to go. And second, knowing this, I am starting to see "today" through a whole different lens. 4, 500 days might seem like a lot of time if its the time till your next vacation. But when that is the time remaining in your life, each of those days assumes a whole new level of urgency and importance.
If you'd like to take a look into your own future, any of the links below will be a good place to start. You can even get a clock widget for your PC or phone - just in case you don't want to miss a second.
http://www.deathclock.cc/
http://www.death-clock.org/
Moble Widget
You can also find apps in the Apple or Google stores. Or just Google "Death Clock".
Have fun with this and I will see you around. As long as its before March, 2030.
We all know we are not going to live forever. But we often seem to live day-by-day as though we were. Would we see things differently if we head, literally, a deadline? If we knew how much time we had left?
The internet is a marvelous place. Frighteningly so at times. I recently was introduced to something called The Death Clock. By completing a very brief survey on your lifestyle and current situation, it makes an actuarial forecast of the day on which you will run out of time. It sounds gruesome, but I have found it to be quite the opposite.
First, I was gratified to learn that I had nearly 20 years left to go. And second, knowing this, I am starting to see "today" through a whole different lens. 4, 500 days might seem like a lot of time if its the time till your next vacation. But when that is the time remaining in your life, each of those days assumes a whole new level of urgency and importance.
If you'd like to take a look into your own future, any of the links below will be a good place to start. You can even get a clock widget for your PC or phone - just in case you don't want to miss a second.
http://www.deathclock.cc/
http://www.death-clock.org/
Moble Widget
You can also find apps in the Apple or Google stores. Or just Google "Death Clock".
Have fun with this and I will see you around. As long as its before March, 2030.
17 October 2013
Does High Cholesterol Really Cause Heart Disease?
Total cholesterol level is probably the health related number that most people are familiar with. Many people know their number and accept as an article of faith that lower total cholesterol improves their odds of avoiding cardiovascular disease. But is it really so?
In fact cholesterol (both the "bad" LDL kind and the "good" HDL) play important roles in the body. Cholesterol is required for the building of healthy new cells, and is closely involved in the production of Vitamin D and several hormones. It functions as an anti-oxidant as well as catalyzing the production of bile - which allows us to digest fats. It helps us absorb calcium and is involved in effective synaptic function in the brain. None of us would live very well or very long without it.
More to the point, cholesterol, specifically LDL cholesterol, is used by the body to repair inflammation induced lesions in the vascular system. "Dr. Mary Enig, suggests that blaming cholesterol for heart disease is something akin to blaming firefighters for fires. The key to stopping heart disease is to stop the lesions (fires) in the arteries from occurring in the first place (Full article)." And the key to that is reducing inflammation, not lowering cholesterol. The famous Framinghan Heart Study results show that about half the participants who had high cholesterol levels suffered no coronary events, while about half the people who did had cholesterol levels well within the normal range.
Meanwhile, the evidence that lowering cholesterol levels reduces the incidence of cardiovascular disease is at best mixed. There is some (although not conclusive) support for the idea that people with existing cardiovascular disease benefit from lowering cholesterol (primary prevention), but little support for the proposition that it lowers risk in people without any pre-existing condition (secondary prevention). The primary medical treatment for high cholesterol is the administration of statin drugs and "the National Cholesterol Education Program revised its guidelines to recommend statins as primary prevention. Although the panel cited randomized trials to support statin therapy for primary prevention of cardiovascular disease, a report in Lancet notes, "not one of the studies provides such evidence." Journalists have questioned the interests of the doctors who made such recommendations, as eight of the 9 doctors on the panel were discovered to have been paid by statin manufacturers. (Full article)" More recently, AstraZenica, the manufacturer of the statin Crestor, has petitioned the Food and Drug Administration for approval to recommend Crestor as a preventive measure to people as young as 25 with no personal or family history of heart disease. According the the Journal of the American Medical Association, the use of statin drugs has increased 10-fold in people 45 years of age or older.
Statin therapy involves known risks and numerous serious side effects. It is one thing to take this risk in exchange for a significant benefit - avoiding cardiovascular disease. But if in fact the culprit is inflammation, then the whole cholesterol obsession starts to feel like a scam - albeit a very profitable one. As always, educate yourself and make up your own mind. Caveat patientes.
In fact cholesterol (both the "bad" LDL kind and the "good" HDL) play important roles in the body. Cholesterol is required for the building of healthy new cells, and is closely involved in the production of Vitamin D and several hormones. It functions as an anti-oxidant as well as catalyzing the production of bile - which allows us to digest fats. It helps us absorb calcium and is involved in effective synaptic function in the brain. None of us would live very well or very long without it.
More to the point, cholesterol, specifically LDL cholesterol, is used by the body to repair inflammation induced lesions in the vascular system. "Dr. Mary Enig, suggests that blaming cholesterol for heart disease is something akin to blaming firefighters for fires. The key to stopping heart disease is to stop the lesions (fires) in the arteries from occurring in the first place (Full article)." And the key to that is reducing inflammation, not lowering cholesterol. The famous Framinghan Heart Study results show that about half the participants who had high cholesterol levels suffered no coronary events, while about half the people who did had cholesterol levels well within the normal range.
Meanwhile, the evidence that lowering cholesterol levels reduces the incidence of cardiovascular disease is at best mixed. There is some (although not conclusive) support for the idea that people with existing cardiovascular disease benefit from lowering cholesterol (primary prevention), but little support for the proposition that it lowers risk in people without any pre-existing condition (secondary prevention). The primary medical treatment for high cholesterol is the administration of statin drugs and "the National Cholesterol Education Program revised its guidelines to recommend statins as primary prevention. Although the panel cited randomized trials to support statin therapy for primary prevention of cardiovascular disease, a report in Lancet notes, "not one of the studies provides such evidence." Journalists have questioned the interests of the doctors who made such recommendations, as eight of the 9 doctors on the panel were discovered to have been paid by statin manufacturers. (Full article)" More recently, AstraZenica, the manufacturer of the statin Crestor, has petitioned the Food and Drug Administration for approval to recommend Crestor as a preventive measure to people as young as 25 with no personal or family history of heart disease. According the the Journal of the American Medical Association, the use of statin drugs has increased 10-fold in people 45 years of age or older.
Statin therapy involves known risks and numerous serious side effects. It is one thing to take this risk in exchange for a significant benefit - avoiding cardiovascular disease. But if in fact the culprit is inflammation, then the whole cholesterol obsession starts to feel like a scam - albeit a very profitable one. As always, educate yourself and make up your own mind. Caveat patientes.
07 October 2013
The Happiness Habit
What is the difference between a happy person and a negative, dissatisfied, dis-empowered one? Is it money? I'm thinking not. Some of my happiest experiences were during and after college when $20 was a fortune to me. Is it a great job? I dunno, my best job was certainly not my happiest time. I was traveling constantly, had no social or family life. I know, its luck, right? People are happy because good things happen to happen to them!
Or maybe, as Dr. Steve Maraboli suggests in Five Life-Changing Dynamics, happiness is a choice. And the more of a habit you make of choosing happy, the happier you get.
Or maybe, as Dr. Steve Maraboli suggests in Five Life-Changing Dynamics, happiness is a choice. And the more of a habit you make of choosing happy, the happier you get.
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