Do you want success and it is eluding you? Is your goal moving up to the next level and you just can’t seem to get there? Do you say you want 8 shows a month and only end up with 3 consistently? Are your sales goals double your actual sales submitted? It is usually easy to pinpoint why a sales consultant is having these problems. In direct sales there is only one way to fail and that is to stop trying. This is all about effort, numbers and results. You can always make up in numbers what you lack in skill, and the numbers are what gives you the skill. What are you doing to achieve your goals? The answer lies in a couple of simple questions and answers.

Schedule Your Work Days

My first question to someone who fits into one of the above scenarios is how much time you schedule for your business. The beauty of network marketing and being a stay-at-home income producer is that you get to write your own schedule. Write a schedule you must, though. If you do not schedule your time to work and then actually work it, then chances are you are not working nearly as much as you think you are. Do you want to grow your business or do you want it to stay the same? If you want to have a business that maintains the status quo, then schedule 6 hours per show that you want to do. That means if you want to perform 8 shows per month, then you must schedule and perform income-producing activities 48 hours per month, just to stay the same. If you want business growth, then it will require 8 hours per desired show, or 64 hours literally scheduled on your calendar and worked. That would be 4 hours out of the house per show, and 4 hours office time for other income producing activities such as host coaching, customer care, data entry, cold-calling etc. As an entrepreneur,you certainly do have the prerogative to change your schedule without asking anyone, and you will need to make up that time. Just like working for a paycheck, if you continuously call off and do not reschedule your time, your check will be small.

Team Meetings And Training Are Key

Are you attending all of the training opportunities offered to you? Network marketers have a unique opportunity to get unlimited free training from their up line. The up line is more than happy to train. Unlike in the corporate world, the people that you train are not going to take away your job or income. Frequently I hear consultants whining that their up line does not do a good job of offering training. That is just an excuse. There is always an up-up line or even an up-up-up line. The way the “net” works is that it is to everyone’s benefit to train down at all levels and laterally as well. This collaboration makes for a strong team. Anyone who blames their lack of success on the up line is just looking for an excuse.

The other part of this equation is your individual education philosophy. A person who studies his/her chosen trade for 30 minutes each day will attain the status of the top 20% of his or her chosen trade within one year. If you are one of those people who always says: “I want more and it is just not working,” look at what kind of stimulus you are putting into your mind. If you are allowing other people to fill your mind with negativity (TV), then it is no wonder you are having a hard time succeeding in your business.

Rhonda Byrne – The Secret – Napoleon Hill – Erica Combs

Speaking of your personal growth, have you read the book The Secret by Rhonda Byrne or Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill? Women In Power by Erica Combs is another important book on positive thinking. Napoleon Hill born in 1883 said the same thing that was echoed by The Secret in the year 2000. He said: “People are the creators of their own misfortunes because of the negative beliefs which are picked up by the subconscious mind and translated into the physical equivalent.” Deb Bixler says that your thoughts predict the future. Are you constantly filling your mind with positive information so that you can create a better future?

Get A Mentor

All successful people have a coach or a mentor. Baseball players, golfers, me, even my coach Myron Golden has a mentor. This is someone to whom you relate on a personal and business level and who can tell it like it is, keeping you accountable and on track. They are a partner, a collaborator and a mastermind. Find a mentor to share what they have learned with you and assist in guiding you on the path to success. A coach or mentor sort of clears out the fog for you. This can be your up line and frequently should be an outsider, someone not necessarily in your company. The important thing is to have respect and good rapport. All successful business people have a coach. I am always amazed at how much impact I am able to create in someone’s life as their coach. It is not what I do so much, but what they do as a result of our relationship.

Filling The Calendar

So, enough of all the philosophy stuff, right? Let’s talk about where to find business! It doesn’t matter whether you want to move up the ladder to a leadership role, or whether you just want to grow your team and make a bit (or a lot) more money. It all comes down to the same thing. You have to have enough shows on your calendar to find enough people who want what you have. So the question is: how do we find enough business to reach our goal? The conference calls and the articles in this site have been the answer. For the past year or more, twice a month the conference calls have covered where and how to find business. The CACFS website covers it all. The CD sets cover it all. Power-Up For Professional Results has an hour on filling your calendar and 2 hours on prospecting, as well as an hour on professional attitude which will give you the ability to attract people to you. I believe that there is an unlimited supply of free leads for the taking and if you do not have enough business it is because you are not using the resources available to you. Here are a few of the ways to fill your calendar other than scheduling at the show:

• Gather cards from bulletin boards
• Call calendar listings from the newspaper
• Post your cards & flyers on bulletin boards
• Go to expos and set up tables to network with paying guests
• Go to expos as a paying guest and network with vendors who set up tables
• Offer yourself as a public speaker to clubs, churches, schools
• Offer to do fund raiser programs for clubs, churches, schools,
• Teach workshops at sports clubs or YMCA-type places
• Put up fishbowl-type prize drawings in area businesses

Success Is An Attitude

There are tons more ideas in the Power UP For Professional Results CD sets. Success in direct sales is an attitude and a choice. There are many articles on this site to give you more ideas where to find leads for your business. The study set Power UP For Professional Results is a proven marketing strategy that will work for you when you choose to utilize it. What are you doing to ensure your goals are attained? Hoping? Successful people plan and schedule their time, study their choice of trade, attend trainings and have a mentor, in addition to taking advantage of every available resource for marketing their business. Have you taken the actions necessary to succeed? Success is the result of a series of choices that will lead you to your goals.

Related Article: Stop Sabotaging Success

Albert Einstein said that the most powerful force in the universe is compound interest. Everyone understands that compound interest applies to money. In the world of money, if compound interest is not working for you, then it is working against you. You can invest in something and accumulate interest that compounds and makes you money. Or you can borrow money and pay interest that, when it is compounded, costs you money. In both cases one day of interest is minor, yet when compounded it becomes huge. This is the financial principle of compound interest.

Principles Apply To Everything

The principle of compound interest relates to everything it is applied to. Just like the law of gravity, there are no exceptions. Compound interest applies to life, health and also to your business.

Let’s say that you eat a bag of chips today. Chances are that it won’t kill you. If the results of poor eating choices were more immediate, then fewer people would be unhealthy, because the fear of death would stop them from continuing to make poor choices in their diets. It is only when you eat a bag of chips every day that compound interest takes effect and becomes a powerful force which brings ill-health to you. The choice of eating an apple today will not result in immediate health benefits, yet when eaten daily, the power of compound interest will kick in and pay off for you with a healthy body.

Compound interest plays a role in your business too. Make your calls today and it will affect your business a little. Make your calls 5 days a week for the rest of your life, and compound interest will become a force in your office, generating a solid and consistent stream of income. It goes the other way too. Skip your calls today and your business will not fold up. Skip your calls continuously, and your business will be shutting its doors due to the effects of compound interest.

Compound Interest Is Working For You Or Against You

Albert Einstein believed that compound interest is the most powerful force in the universe. If compound interest is not working for you, then it is working against you. Deb Bixler says: “Life Is A Razor Blade”. Think about your health, your business and your entire life as a razor blade. This is an old fashioned razor blade standing on edge straight up and sharp. Life is a razor blade, and you are sitting on the cutting edge. We make millions of choices each day and every choice is a slice made with the razor blade of life. Every choice you make in itself is only a razor-thin slice of life and has little or no major impact on the future in itself. Every slice/choice of life you make is either positive or negative, and alone it is weak. Yet every slice of life is compounded with the others to create the most powerful force in the universe. Think about every choice you make in your life, and do your best to make razor-thin slices on the positive side of life, so that when they compound and become the most powerful force in the universe, they drive your future in the direction you want to achieve successes in. When you slice too many slices on the negative side of life, compound interest will work against you. When you slice more on the positive side of life, you will leverage your results by using compound interest on your behalf.

Change Your Future

In your business or your health, every choice is minor in terms of immediate results, yet long term, the most powerful force into he universe will be working for you or against you. Successful people understand that life is about making razor-thin choices each day to choose their future and put the principle of compound interest to work for them.

Life is a razor blade. You can change your life using compound interest as leverage by choosing to take positive slices of life each day.

Best-Business-Practices

Best business practices are business principles. A principle works the same for everything it is applied to. The Power UP For Professional Results CD set is a set of Best-Business-Practices that apply to all sales businesses. When you apply them to your business, you will get professional results on what ever level you are looking for. Incorporate principles into your home business to fill your calendar, increase sales, sign up more reps and more….

Are you sabotaging your own successes? Surprisingly, there are just as many people with a fear of success as there are those with the more well-known fear of failure. Are you one of them? Many people have a fear of success or maybe they are sabotaging their own ability to achieve personal goals.

What Does Sabotaging Success Mean?

According to Webster’s dictionary ‘success’ is a person or thing that prospers. ‘Sabotage’ means to willfully and maliciously destroy or impede. ‘Willful’ is defined as with intention, or headstrong.

The implication here is that we do it on purpose. At first most of us will object to that idea. I have to say that, since we have choices in life and the fact that we can choose to do or not do something, sort of carries out the definition. Even while most of us do not decide to willfully destroy or impede our prosperity, we can and do make choices that improve successes and also diminish success as well. Therefore, the implication is that we do in fact choose to sabotage ourselves.

Are You Sabotaging Yourself?

The simple answer here is that you and I can choose to be prosperous and to succeed and we can also choose to sabotage our successes. So how do we know if we are sabotaging ourselves? The fear of the unknown is common. Many people deliberately impeding their own progress based on their fear of the unknown or of change.
Here is a simple test to see if you may be suffering from fear of success. See how many of the following situations can you identify with.

1. I read lots of self-help books but can’t seem to improve.
2. I go to seminars and conferences frequently and nothing changes afterward.
3. I am insecure about money or making a lot less than I should be making.
4. I have a job that doesn’t allow me to express my real talents or true abilities.
5. I expect perfection of myself.
6. I try to be all things to all people.
7. I frequently start projects and have a hard time finishing them.
8. I feel guilty saying “no” to others.
9. I frequently feel as though I am not doing enough, even though I am doing all I can.
10. I have a low opinion of myself, even though other people think I am smart, funny, and capable.
11. I usually settle for less.
12. I worry a lot.
13. I’ve started to lose hope that I will ever live the life I dream of living.

If you can identify with 5 or more of these warning signs, you may suffer from fear of success. That fear may be leading to self-sabotage. You are not alone. Everyone has some fears, so why do we doing it?

Belief Systems

Most of us act on the belief systems that we were given in the past. Here is an example of what I mean. A person in my life when I was in my late teens was Rita Zehner. During the years I lived with her, she was a mother-type role model to me. Rita Zehner was good to me. She taught me her philosophy of life which I carried with me until my late 40’s. Rita’s philosophy was as follows: When we are born, we are all given a ticket. Like getting on a train or a plane, when you are born you get a ticket for the ride of life. You either get a working ticket or a riding ticket. Once you were issued your ticket you could not and did not trade it in for another. No one ever moved up to first class when given a working ticket. If you got the working ticket you worked hard for every cent you ever earned. Nothing came easy and you were always working your butt off. The people who got the riding ticket never worked for a cent. Everything came easy and they did not have to lift a finger. Rita said that she and I both had working tickets and were going to be stuck working hard till the day we died.

I lived that philosophy for 30 or more years of my life. I believed it, repeated it, and told other people that I had the working ticket for life, and that was just the way it was. And that is exactly what happened. I made decent money and worked my butt off for every cent I earned. I was always looking for success and it never really came. I worked extremely hard physically, mentally, and emotionally for every cent I earned. I could not find the solution to change in my ticket.

You Can Succeed

The point is that I wanted success and believed it to be impossible. This lack of congruency makes it impossible to be successful. I was certainly sabotaging my own personal success. We are who we are today based on who we were yesterday. Who we are today will determine who we are tomorrow. Success is a choice. You can choose your future success by making better choices today and begin to change who you were yesterday. The first step is to re-program your thoughts.

The Secret Law Of Attraction

In the book Think And Grow Rich, written in the 1800’s, Napolean Hill said: “People are creators of their own misfortunes because of their negative beliefs, which are picked up by the subconscious mind and translated into reality.” The Secret, written in 2000, teaches that positive thoughts attract positive things to your life. Deb Bixler says that your thoughts predict the future. If you are not happy with your life, the first place to start is with your thoughts. It is an inside job because of the laws of attraction; your positive thoughts can and will attract positive things to your life. Negative thoughts will attract negative things to your life.

Live An Attitude Of Gratitude

Incorporating positive affirmations into your life will change your life. We make millions of choices a day and think over 60,000 thoughts a day. What you were yesterday does not have to be who you are tomorrow. I have come to realize that my role model Rita Zehner was wrong. I can trade in my ticket and I have chosen to stop sabotaging myself. You can do it too. Things can and will change for you when you focus on the good in life. Focus on what you have and what you want so that you will attract more good to you.
We all have a lot to be grateful for, and here are some affirmations that reflect that:

• I have a full life and I am grateful for it.
• I am positive, proactive, self assured.
• I am honest, open minded, and rigorously honest.
• I am grateful to be making a difference in the lives of children through health and cash flow solutions.
• I am grateful to have my health and a warm house.
• Everything good involves risk, and commitment will get me there.
• I am the most committed person I know.
• I am at peace with the process of life, because I am creating my future.

Create your own affirmations. Your thoughts predict your future, so start writing your thoughts and begin to predict your future. As you begin to incorporate your positive affirmations consistently, you will change who you are today. As you change you will begin to change your future and stop the process of self sabotage.

Remember this:

• It is more fun to be happy than it is to be miserable.
• Success is infinitely more exciting, fun, and joyful than failure.

Power UP For Professional Results is all about having a business attitude for success. Success strategies always include investing in your education, your mind and your successes. The Power UP Program, available in MP3 download or hard copy CD is 8 hours of systems to prospect, build business and achieve your goals.

Check out Power UP!

You can choose to be happy.

You can choose to be successful.

Are you trying to win? Or win them over?

Dale Carnegie says that the only way to get someone to do something that you want them to do is to make them want to do it themselves. If you are always trying to win, then you are fighting. It doesn’t matter whether you are using logic or a club then you are not communicating. Communication takes practice. Good communicators do not focus on winning. Good communicators practice the art of communication and compromise. Good communication is not winning, but winning others over.

Logic rarely works

Anyone who has tried to argue with children can tell you that logic never works. The same is true with adults. When you couple logic with emotions. then you have a better chance of effective communication. Humor, anger, virtue, pride, happiness, excitement or even irony can be very effective communication tools. When emotionally involving the participant in the conversation, there is a better chance of creating a situation that they may want to do what you want them to do. Using logic as a tool to “win” an argument is not effective. Incorporating emotional connections into the conversation will bring better results.

Anger prompts action

It has been proven that people who are angry are more prone to action. However, this type of emotional involvement might not result in the type of action you are looking for. A hole in the wall or a black eye is not the result we are after in most communication efforts. Creating the emotion of anger in someone is one sure way to get results. The problem is that the results may not be predictable nor the one you want.

Humor Is A Connector

The ability to use humor in communication efforts will almost always elicit good response even when the co-communicator is not prone to your opinion. The challenge here is to get the other party to see the humor in the situation. A recent conversation with my niece about combing her hair is a good example. She hates to comb her hair as it is long and pulls when being brushed out after sleeping. She would go forever without combing her hair if allowed to do so. On a recent 2-day sleepover; on day one no amount of convincing on my part could get her to allow me to comb her hair. She is 5 years old. We ended up going out and about with her hair looking like a rat’s nest. I am sure that people we met thought I was terrible for allowing her out like that. It was that or anger! I chose the rat’s nest. Day 2 brought a new scenario. I got up and did not comb my hair. My hair always comes out of bed looking like a total lunatic. Flat on one side, sticking straight out on the other and in 10 different directions all over. If I went out in public anyone who would see me surely would think I escaped from the insane asylum. We got ready to go to “Special Persons” day at kindergarten and I asked her if I could comb her hair, and she said no. I said That’s ok, me neither, I’m not combing my hair either. She looked at me and we both laughed and we ate breakfast. After breakfast she went upstairs and combed her hair and we both laughed at mine again and I combed mine and we went to school. Three things happened here. I allowed her to win. She didn’t have to comb her hair if she didn’t want, we laughed together, and she chose to comb her hair. The emotion of humor coupled with me not “needing” to win, allowed her to make her own choice. When I stopped trying to win, I won her over!

Emotions always sell

In sales, when someone has an emotional experience they buy. The same is true in almost all communications. When children at an assembly laugh and become emotionally involved in te Debbie Banana performance, they leave the assembly with a decision to “buy” what I am attempting to convince them of (Eat five fruits and vegetables a day and macaroni and cheese in a box is bad for them.) Learning to communicate on a level of connection takes practice. It is easier to depend on convincing people of our way through logic than it is to take the time to actually learn their motivations and then make an emotional commitment to connect. People buy with their emotions. They view products and services emotionally and they also buy into what it is you are communicating when they are emotionally involved.

Practice the 10 second rule

When you practice the 10 second rule it is easier to connect emotionally and become a better communicator. The 10 second rule is that you share for 10 seconds or less and ask a question. Hear what the person says, and share again with clarifying information regarding what they said for 10 seconds or less, then ask another question. The 10 second rule keeps you open to communicate emotionally as you learn more about the other party instead of getting into the “winning” mentality. Winners rarely get what they want. Communicators, on the other hand, allow the other party to win and then win them over to their way of thinking through emotional connections. The 10 second rule is awesome and takes continued practice and focus.

Do You Network For A Living? What Is Network Marketing?

Paul Zane Pilsner says that network marketing is the wave of the future. Network marketing is the right industry to be in now and into the future. What is networking? Working the net? What does that mean? A net is defined as an interconnected web. Working is the act of creating results. Networking is working or creating results using a net. Networking for a living is the generation of cash flow or creating a living by using your net of interconnected people. A network marketing business utilizes the net created by the structure of collaboration between other like-minded individuals so that all involved will benefit from the increased results as a result of the interconnected network.

Are you networking?

I am networking today at an all day seminar-fair focused on wellness. Many of the participants do not understand what networking means. Some of the people here think that it is called net-sitting. They are sitting behind their tables, or sitting alone just waiting for others to connect with them. The action of working the net is required to create the connection. It is networking, not net-sitting.

Collaboration Creates Results Squared

The network grows and becomes more powerful when more net workers become involved in working the net. I cannot network with the women who set themselves apart from the group and do not participate. When two people network, they create results that square the results that they could have created as an individual. Two people create 4 times the results as one. Three people create 9 times the results as one and so on. I have networked with a dozen or more people today. I have participated with these individuals and they participated with me. We collaborated and created a net of common ground that will benefit all of us into the future. Others, such as the women I lunched with, only traded business cards with me. That is not networking. It is wasting business cards. When you are networking you are creating a net of common ground of interest. You cannot network with someone who does not want to participate. Trading cards with uninterested parties is not networking. At lunch we net-ate. Have you ever gone to an event or a party to network, and found yourself net-eating? Just hanging out with business people eating. Not collaborating on creating a business net to benefit all involved?

Effective Networking Skills

Networking is a skill that takes focus to get good at. It is all about attitude! I am not an expert, and it does not necessarily come naturally to me. I know though that I can create benefits and results for both myself and fellow net workers when I put my focus on doing it effectively. The first part of being an effective networker is to be willing to step out of your comfort zone and to decide that you are going to network. Just like good salesmanship, networking requires a focus outside yourself. Frequently, I get into networking situations that the other party only talks about him or herself. As a matter of fact, and I am sure everyone has this issue, I must make a concentrated effort to keep the focus on others when I am talking and be an active listener when they are talking. The way I do this is to keep my side of the conversation to 10 seconds or less and ask a question. Then share 10 seconds or less with clarifying information, based on the answer they gave and ask another question. Sometimes, when I hear myself rambling on about my personal interests or business, I just pull a question out of my head quickly, anything, even if it doesn’t relate. I say anything that will put on the brakes to my own talking. In this manner, I find that I am always able to find common ground with my fellow networker. Sometimes I have the ability to further their business and sometimes it is the other way around. Either way the collaborating efforts pay off.

The proof is in the follow-up

The other piece in effective networking is the follow-up. For me, a quick encounter in networking always requires some quick notes, as well. I have learned that it is OK to actually write things down during the networking process. If I do not jot down a note, then I may not remember the experience or the promises I made. It also shows the other party that you plan to be serious about your connection. Your follow-up should then take place within 48 hours after the networking experience. Whether it is an email, phone call or mailing, making the follow-up is key to the results of your networking experience. Building a net of support that works for you is what networking is all about.

Networking Is The Industry Of The Future

This event is not a huge event. It is not the high level networking event I expected, yet I know phenomenal opportunity will come my way as a result of my networking efforts. A commitment to the process of networking will always result in a net that works in your business for the future. The point is to use compound interest to leverage every situation to your benefit and that of those you are collaborating with. You never really know where the net you create today will take you in the future. Networking is the industry of the 21st century. Next time you are in a networking situation, plan to network and make a decision to do so. Be sure that you do not net-sit, net-eat, net-complain, net-read the newspaper, net….