Dream in Living Color

Some people have the ability to give hope by painting a picture and motivating others into action. It’s not easy to paint a picture in vivid color.

Often, people who have the ability to paint a picture for us use words that their audience can see, hear, smell, taste, and touch. They can appeal to our senses and we can hear and smell the popcorn popping. We can see, hear, and smell the bacon on the campfire and the coffee brewing.

When we think of a favorite movie we can see the scenes in our head, the expression of the actor and his words. I suspect some people could play each scene of their favorite movie in their minds eye. That’s how we have to view our hope in what we do and be able to vividly portray it to others.

That’s the kind of vision that a leader can paint for each of us. A vision that motivates us and a vision we certainly won’t forget.

Annette Simmons wrote in Whoever Tells the Best Story Wins, “Climb back down the mental ladder of conclusions you may have reached years ago, all the way to the sensory experiences that were your original raw data. Revisiting these original events helps you create a story with similar sensory experiences that will create similar perceptions for your listeners. When your listeners take in these sensory experiences in the desired order, you take them rung by rung through the steps of discovery and conclusions up the ladder you wish them to climb.

Regardless of what conclusions a story reinforces, it all begins with powerful sensory memories that activate strong good or bad associations, so you can direct those emotions toward new associations. When the new associations are stimulating enough to be remembered or retold, every ‘reexperiencing’ of the new associations further anchors the patterns and increases the probability that future events will trigger your new patterns of association. This is how urban legends gain acceptance–not because of their factual bases–but because of their power to stimulate strong emotional reactions.

Urban legends thrive when they trigger retelling urges inspired by strong emotional associations (e.g. Warning! Warning!). Vibrancy imprints imagined sensory memories before doubt has a chance to slam the door shut. The first time most people hear or read the ’stolen kidney’ legend about waking up in Las Vegas in a bathtub of ice without their kidneys, they imagine the ice in the bathtub, picture the hotel bathroom, and see the handwriting on the note that tells them to call the hospital–all before their frontal lobes have a chance to challenge the plausibility of strangers harvesting kidneys by drugging hotel guests.”

Here’s another story by Annette, “Imagine a cutting board, and on that board a juicy lemon warm from sitting in a sunny window. You can smell the oils of the zest. Imagine a very sharp knife and pick that knife up and cut the lemon in half. See the two halves rock away and beads of lemon juice collect and then drip down into a puddle. Now you can smell the juice as well as the zest. Take one of the halves and cut it in half again. Pick up one of the quarters and bring it to your mouth and bite deep, wrap your lips around it to make a yellow smile (like when we were kids), and let the juice run down your chin.”

Dream in Living Color and paint the vision you feel in your heart!

Narcissistic Communication

What’s the number one deadly sin in communication: “Making the communication about ME instead of putting the focus on YOU.”

We’ve all witnessed individuals who feel they must get up in front of an audience and make it all about themselves. No matter how qualified that person may be to talk on a subject, and how interesting their life, when we see their ego come through it not only makes us bored it makes us want to throw up too. When we see this happen we wonder why the person can’t realize their mistake and be seated. As is usually the case, it’s not only about them but they feel they must take your time to make sure you understand their greatness. I vividly remember a presentation where a Doctor, who was suppose to give a presentation on a subject of interest, decided that we should see pictures of his family vacation too. It makes you think about commercials where people make sure you see their beautiful family (a story about how gifted little Johnny or Susie) instead of explaining why “you” should be interested in their product. Of course, they find a way to tie the subjects together so you will understand fully why you must endure their ego issues.

Narcissism describes the character trait of self love and comes from the Greek myth about Narcissus who was so handsome that he unfortunately was doomed to fall in love with his own reflection in a pool of water.

We can think of endless examples of people who destroy themselves in the public eye because of their narcissism. Celebrities who are rude to the people who created them in the first place.

Proverbs 16:18, “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.”

The number one sin in communication is the sin of pride. Don’t do it!

Building Business Relationships

If we buy a product we exchange money or value for a product that benefits us or fulfills a need that we have so we will continue buying the product. Sometimes we may buy the product initially based upon an emotional appeal. However, we will not continue buying the product unless we perceive a benefit from using the product that we cannot receive anywhere else for the price. Also, products and lifestyles are competing for limited funds (our money). In network marketing we hope to go beyond selling a product and build social ties (creating long-term relationships or friends) and we will find this to be very important in our business.

How do we build strong business relationships? First, we ask the question about how many close friends you have? If you are like most of us–not very many. The same can be true in network marketing and this is something a lot of people don’t understand about network marketing–we are building down through the relationships we have developed with the people we sponsor. Hopefully, they have strong relationships with the people they sponsor, etc. We are connecting the relationships or leveraging the relationships.

Is “faith” the first thing needed to build a religious organization? No, it’s built through relationships (faith and trust comes later). Think about how you built the relationship with your wife or a close friend. You didn’t do it by cracking jokes at their expense. You invested time in the relationship and developed an attraction they have to you. If you are smart, you will continue to work on that relationship to build the ties stronger. What is the number one reason that marriage counselors probably hear when a marriage begins to breakup? He (she) won’t talk to me anymore–communication is probably number one.

Once all the ties are gone, and the benefits from being in the relationship are gone, your Business Builder may be gone too. Yes, they may still see the benefit from using the products themselves or doing the business themselves but the attraction (the heart) is gone from the relationship. Work hard on your relationships with people–it’s all about them. As you know, this is a process and takes time and effort. If you ever gain a heart you have gained a lot!

Obviously, we hope that the company is working on the relationships (customer service) too. By definition, Network Marketing companies are not promoting mass markets or commodity products. If that was the case they wouldn’t need to pay you!

Truck Driving Brand

Alex Wipperfurth has written an interesting book, Brand Hijack, that considers the culture of a brand and how to create a cult following.

One case study in his book is about Red Bull (the energy drink which developed it’s market without mass marketing efforts). Without going into the study, one of his comments: “It targets truck drivers and Silicon Valley programmers–people in need of a quick energy boost after a long day at work.” Obviously, the brand development was word-of-mouth and very effective in finally reaching a mass audience.

The King of Cult Branding is network marketing because marketing the product is dependent upon word-of-mouth and an MLM business model. As an example, a Distributor in our organization camped out at Truck Stops selling a well known energy drink and got a lot of business with just one product. Sports performance (athletes) would be another tremendous target market for the Spark product.

The word cult doesn’t have to have a negative connotation. Many companies greatly hope for a brand that has a cult like following. The advantages to an MLM Distributor is the ability to make money by doing something other people do free for companies everyday–recommend their products.

What this proves is that you don’t have to have a wide product line in order to be successful (even though My wife and I do have a broad line). You just have to understand your target audience. If nothing else, it gives you a place to start and people like to talk if you treat them right–Truck Drivers know people and have families too.

It always helps to align your marketing efforts with the correct target audience and initially make selling easier.

You’re Fired

Have you been fired yet? According to government statistics even those with a Bachelor’s degree and higher will hold an average of 10.7 jobs from age 18 to age 40. Don’t get too comfortable on your JOB!

According to John Maxwell in his book, The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, in order to change the direction of the organization, change the Leader. He interviews the chairman of Global Hospitality Resources, Inc. who takes over the management of hotels and resorts not doing well financially. He said they always start by doing two things: “First, they trained all the staff to improve their level of service to the customers; and second, they fired the leader. When he told me that, I was at first surprised. ‘You always fire him?’ I asked. ‘Every time?’ ‘That’s right. Every time,’ he said. ‘Don’t you talk to the person first–to check him out to see if he’s a good leader?’ I said. ‘No,’ he answered. ‘If he’d been a good leader, the organization wouldn’t be in the mess it’s in.”

Particularly in large organizations, there are various types of Management. The CEO’s specialize in the life stages of a company: “Growth, Maturity, and Death.” I remember working for the “Undertaker” of one large company. As a young person at the time I felt the CEO was doing everything he could to grow the organization and make it a great company. Looking back, I realize that his specialty was doing every short-term thing he could think of to improve earnings so that the company could be sold. I followed his movement after that and he did the same thing for every company he was with for this huge conglomerate. He was their Undertaker!

You will have stages in your job too! First, there is the honeymoon (you are the superstar) and this is the time to position yourself for the next stage. Well, perhaps he’s human after all? That’s why it’s important not to take too many risk and create too much hype in stage one. In other words, don’t believe your own press clippings. For middle management, the next stage is to look for the next position (if you are doing well) or perhaps even look for the next company (if you are not doing so well).

How about the stages in Network Marketing? In general, it can go one of two ways depending on whether you are a flash in the pan fireball or a long-term player. To be successful over the long-term you have to invest a considerable amount of time and reach critical mass. In my opinion, you need to understand these stages more if you are a fireball than if you are a committed long-term player. As a fireball it’s going from the superstar to a normal person–that’s hard! According to Dr. Tom Barrett here are the stages (if you are a flash in the pan you may have to reverse these stages):

• STAGE #1. IT’S NOT WORTH IT
• STAGE #2. IT’S WORTH IT
• STAGE #3. I’M NOT WORTH THIS MUCH

What’s the great thing about Network Marketing for you? The only person who can fire you is looking at you in the mirror!

Business Plan

When my wife and I began (eight years ago) with our current MLM endeavor we started with the same start-up kit that everyone else started with. I am still amazed when people who decided to try MLM so quickly become disillusioned and decide that somehow it doesn’t work. What doesn’t work is them. Why would you expect to get rich when you won’t work?

A good business plan takes a lot of effort and doesn’t insure success. Here is the typical table of contents of a business plan:

1. Table of Contents
2. Executive Summary
3. General Company Description
4. Product and Services
5. Marketing Plan
6. Operational Plan
7. Management and Organization
8. Capitalization and Structure
9. Financial Plan
   1. Appendixes
      1. Resumes of Principals
      2. Summary of Competitors
      3. Projection of Sales by Markets and Product Line
      4. Product Line Profit Analysis

Now that you have discovered all the mistakes on paper, obtained financing, spent thousands of dollars in capital, hired the employees, etc. you are setting in your business nine months later and the phone is not ringing. I’ve witnessed start-ups by major corporations whose sales didn’t even cover the cost of products (let alone operating costs). That’s what I call a real disappointment!

What kind of Business Plan do we have in Network Marketing? It’s structured around how we spend our time. It has no Payroll, no Debt to finance, no Capital Investment, and some Inventory (today the MLM companies inventory most of the product). If we don’t succeed then we will have to do something else with time.

Statistically, if you start an MLM business you won’t do the business, and be successful, because you are not willing to invest the one big thing you have to invest and that’s time.

What’s the difference between salid and garbage? Time! Don’t expect garbage with productive time spent in MLM.

Facing Fear and Failure

Barry J. Farber, in his book Superstar Sales Secrets, talks about facing fear and failure. “Some of life’s greatest lessons are taught through hardships, failure, fear and mistakes. The most successful people learn to overcome obstacles, confront fear and turn it into a motivating force, and take action in the face of adversity. Here are some tips on how you, too, can deal with fear and failure:

• Use failure as the ultimate learning tool. Every disappointment teaches a positive lesson–you just have to look for it. If you make the same mistakes over and over again and don’t learn anything from them, then you have failed. It is times of adversity that we grow the most.
• Success is our greatest revenge. When people are discouraging or critical, ask yourself, “Who are they to judge me?” and tell yourself, “I’ll prove them wrong.” This is a great source of energy and a motivator to push you into action.
• Once you perceive a problem or an obstacle, learn from it as quickly as you can and then move on. If you’ve made a mistake, understand that you’ll do it differently next time. Dwelling on failure only causes you to fail again.
• FEAR is an acronym for False Evidence Appearing Real. Therefore, the first step in taming fear is to analyze what is real and what is not. Then dive in and take action. Fear is what you imagine it to be. When you attack it, you diminish it.
• Preparation and action are the greatest combatants of fear. The only way to conquer fear is to study it and prepare in every possible way. Learn all about your product or service. Learn as much as you can about your customer’s business. Study sales techniques; look to the top people in your company or industry and study their attitudes and sales methods. Reduce fear by increasing your knowledge and focusing your nervous energy on preparation, instead of allowing it to fuel your imagination.”

In Network Marketing we want people to look inward and take a look at their lives. We want people to change (for things to change we have to change). Take a look at your life and if you don’t like what you see remember this: “If things don’t change, the next five years of your life will look like the last five years of your life.”