Christine Casey ~ Change Begins with Choice

Does it come as a surprise to know that your Network Marketing or Direct Sales opportunity may not be a fit for everyone? Although you may feel that the products, company or opportunity you represent are the very best (and I hope you do feel this way about your business), they may not be the right products, company or opportunity for everyone that you talk with about them.

So, how do you know if your opportunity is right for someone?  By getting to know them. Sincerely be interested in finding out more about them as a person, build a relationship.   And, although this process does take time, the bottom line is that people will refer to, and join people they know, like & trust.

I was recently prospected and found the experience to be so awful, that if I was not already involved with & knowledgeable about Network Marketing, I’m sure I would have become 100% turned-off by the entire NM/DS industry.  The person who called me sounded excited, yet I could tell they were just reading from a script rather than sharing of themselves (why they joined and how it has or will benefit them or their family).  They never asked me any questions.  Instead I was told how this was a “ground floor” once in a lifetime opportunity, and although they just started, were already in management & going to be quitting their JOB soon because of the income they were making.  As our conversation continued, the more frustrated I became because this person knew I was already involved with another company that I’d been with for several years.  Did they happen to ask me if I was even looking for a change? No.  I felt like I was being talked at rather than talked to.  Big Difference!

I have found that by taking the time and effort to sincerely (there’s that word again) get to know people, you will learn whether or not they would even make a good business partner or client.  Ask questions and listen to their answers.  Do they sound happy when they talk about their current job or having enough money to do the things that are important to them?  Do they talk about having enough money yet never being home to spend time with their family? Do they now, or have they ever thought about owning their own business?  Are they a people person?  Do they have a problem that might be solved by the product(s) that you can offer?  You may find that people you talk with do not have any interest in owning their own business, or perhaps its just not the right opportunity for them.  And that’s okay.

To be successful in growing your business you do have to actively share your products and company with others, and if you approach this with sincerity and respect of the other person, I believe you’ll both have an enjoyable conversation.  Again, realize though that not everyone you share your opportunity with will join your company, yet some of the most successful Network Marketer’s have found their Ace business partners as a referral from someone else. And that referral most likely came about simply because that now successful Network Marketer got to know that person who referred – and in turn, that referee knew, liked and trusted them, making the referral possible.

P.S. I appreciate you stopping by and would enjoy hearing your personal thoughts about relationship building in Network Marketing/Direct Sales ~ please feel free to share in the comment box below. And, if you have found my post to be of value to you, and feel it would also be to others, then please free free to share it with your friends on Twitter, Facebook, etc.

* This post was originally published on May 24, 2010.

In my post from last week I wrote about the power of networking and sharing of information with one another, and now I want to build on that concept a little more…

The individuals that I choose to network with all have very diverse backgrounds, interests, and goals — and this is a great thing because from time to time, as I may need feedback or assistance, I’m able to contact specific people about things knowledgeable to them. As an example, I’ve recently reached another crossroad in my business, and if you’ve ever been there yourself, you know how frustrating it can be ~ not knowing exactly which road to take and perhaps even feeling so overwhelmed, that you find yourself procrastinating ~ with nothing getting accomplished for a week…or longer! Ouch.

When I finally realized what was going on, that I needed a little assistance to get me back on track, I got in touch with two people I network with — successful individuals who I greatly trust and value their insights — and who aren’t afraid of hurting my feelings by telling me “like it is”, good or bad.  From talking with them, I was able to gain some much needed clarity and refocus on what was really important. And, I came away feeling refreshed, energized, and excited about taking my business ~and perhaps even my life ~ in a different direction.

And, at least for me, none of this would have been possible without me first having made the decision months ago to “get out of my comfort zone” and work to build genuine relationships with others — and of course, network.

How about you? Have you ever sought out assistance from someone in your network?

P.S. If you have found my post to be of value to you, and feel it would also be to others, then please do me one favor and share it with your friends on Twitter, Facebook, etc.

Information and knowledge are meant to be shared with others, and by sharing what we know, helping others to succeed & achieve their goals, everyone wins!

Did you know that sharing ideas with one another leads to shared knowledge? Learning from another who has traveled the path you are currently on is always a huge plus for your advancement. Networking has many benefits, not the least of which are the great people you will come to build relationships with.

Giving with no expectation of return comes from a proactive, abundance mentality.  When you give with no expectation of return, you are acknowledging the abundance of the universe.  You are demonstrating faith that the good you do will benefit others close to you and the world at large – and that good things will come back to you.

Still, there are those that remain hesitant about sharing information or resources and about working with others. You must overcome that fear of losing out on the glory and the profit and learn to work with others.

Some questions you might ask yourself:

• Why are you really doing what you’re doing?
• Is it about you and your own advancement, or is it about creating a result that benefits others?
• Which are you more committed to?
• What does your behavior say?

If your ego or need for status is getting in the way of creating the best result for others, be aware that this leaves you standing still, just waiting to be passed by someone who is fully committed just to getting the result. Rather than trying to defend yourself against this, it’s much more rewarding to stop undermining your growth with status seeking and take on a more giving attitude.

I’d like to leave you with a great quote…“Share your knowledge and experience. Don’t hoard information away like a miser.”

I created my Facebook profile account this past January, yet it wan’t until recently, when I began using more of it’s features, that I truly realized what a great tool it is — and now, I find myself visiting it more frequently than checking my email.  I discovered that by tweaking some of the settings, I can not only communicate more often with those I’m connected with, I can also get through a lot of the everyday chatter to see the information that I don’t want to miss!

NEWSFEED

Did you know you can change some of the settings for your News Feed?

Just last week, a good friend of mine mentioned that he had “un-friended” a few people he was connected with on Facebook because they were big into the games you can play, and he was tired of seeing all of that information in his News Feed.  He had no idea that he could “Hide” certain status updates/posts from within the feed.  Here’s how: From within your News Feed, go to the status update that you no longer want to see from within your feed, and click on “Hide”, which should appear in the upper right hand corner of the status update/post  when you have your curser over it.  It will give you two options; you can either Hide “your friend” or Hide “the application” from your news feed.  If you choose to do either, you will still be connected with this person, they or their application(s) just will no longer show up in your News Feed.

Have you recently begun to notice that some of your friends have disappeared from your News Feed?  Well, Facebook recently made some changes to the News Feed to limit the number of friends that will show in your feed each day, and if you want to change the default, and see more of what all your friends are up to each day, my friend Glyna Humm shares how do this.

PRIVACY

If you are someone who values keeping as much as possible of your personal information private, you’ll want to make sure that you have your Facebook Privacy Settings set to your liking.

To do this, go to” Account” on the top bar, then scroll down to “Privacy Settings” on the tab. First, I would recommend viewing the “Basic Directory Information” settings. To give you an example, I allow “Everyone” to search for me on Facebook & send me requests & messages, yet only allow certain lists I’ve created (which I explain a little further down in the post) to see my “Friend List” and “Hometown”.  For the “Sharing on Facebook” option (listed right under Basic Directory Info), you have a few options:

1. Share with “EVERYONE”
2. Share with “FRIENDS OF FRIENDS”
3. Share with “FRIENDS ONLY”
4. “RECOMMENDED” settings (by Facebook), or
5. “CUSTOM”

For my profile, I have chosen option #5, to create “Custom” settings.  NOTE: If you choose a “Custom” setting, you will need to choose “Custom” from the pull down menu that appears.

“Application and Websites”  is where  you can designate what, if any, personal information you make accessible through application and websites when your friends use them.  I would strongly suggest that you open up and look through each of the options you have from within this menu to make sure that information you deem private is not shared at all, even through the connections that your friends have.

Once you’ve changed the “Privacy Settings” to your liking, did know you can “Preview (My) Profile”, type in a friends name, and see exactly what they’ll be able to see about you on your profile?  To do this, go back to “Basic Directory Info” and click on the button in the upper right hand part of the screen, then you’ll see “This is how your profile looks to most people on Facebook Preview how your appears to a specific person:” with a box to type in the name on the upper left corner of the screen.

CREATING LISTS

I have found that the easiest way to organize all my friends on Facebook is by creating different lists.  To create a list, click on “HOME” in upper right corner, scroll down to and click on “Friends” (located in the left bar area of the screen).  You’ll then see a tab called, “Create a List”, which will open a new box with all your friends listed.  Name the list, and then choose which friends you want to be part of this list.  When you are finished, don’t forget to click  ”Create List” on the bottom of the box.  NOTE: Your friends can be on more than one list.

Let me share with you one of the great ways that I use my lists.  From within my News Feed, I can click on “Friends” in the left side bar, and then choose which listing of my friends I want to view &  just friends from that list will now show in your News Feed.  You can then click on another of your lists to see what’s going on with friends from within that list.  Remember though, once you click to another page in Facebook, your last viewing preferences will revert back to your default setting, so then next time you visit your News Feed page, it will again include all of your friends.

You can also use your lists to customize your privacy settings, or when posting status messages or sharing links & pictures.

FRIEND REQUESTS

When I receive “Friend Requests”, I look for either a personal note from that person, or if we might already be connected through mutual friends.  Another thing I will personally do is to view their Facebook profile and perhaps find out a little more about them, and some of the items I will notice are: Do they have a photo? What are their status updates like ~ Are any of them what I deem to be offensive or if they’re affiliated with a business, do they only write about their company or opportunity, with little to nothing noted personally (basically, I look for how they interact with their friends on Facebook, and ask myself if this is someone I want to link with)?

Something I personally do when I request a friend connection on Facebook is to include a short, personal note, especially if it is to someone who I have not personally met or interacted with yet.  And, when my friendship request has been accepted, I will always send that person a short message or post a short sentence on their Wall, letting them know I’m glad we connected on Facebook (Example: “I appreciate the connect & look forward to getting to know you!”)

Something I have made an effort to do each week is to pick three people that I don’t already know well, who I’m connected with on Facebook, and get to know them.   By taking the initiative, I feel I’m creating a real friendship connection, gaining valuable insight into someone else’s world, learning about new things, and I am closer to being able to state that I DO actually know most everyone I’m connected with on Facebook…how many of us with hundreds of Facebook friends can really say this? ;-)

APPLICATIONS

A great way to add more information about you(as well as to individualize your Facebook profile) is by adding applications.  Two applications I use (Networked Blogs & Friend Feed) are included on my tabs, and I also have a direct link to my Twitter account on the left sidebar. If you have a blog, the Networked Blogs application will allow friends to see a listing of all of your blog posts, as well as blogs that you follow. I use my Friend Feed application on Facebook because it shows a detailed listing of all of my activity from my other social media sites, such as Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube —  My friends simply click on this tab and will see what I’ve shared on my social media sites without actually having to visit each one.  How convenient, don’t you think?

If something that I’ve shared has been helpful to you, or you would like more information, please contact me, I’d love to hear from you!  Likewise, if you have any other tips/tricks for Facebook that I didn’t mention & you’d like to share, please leave a comment.

Do you know what you want out of life?  Do you feel fulfilled?  In order to achieve a complete and happy existence, you must identify your goal in life — an objective that will give your life true meaning — your “WHY”.

The most important characteristic that enables people to stay the course through great difficulties is that they have a powerful purpose. Whenever you want to make any change in your life, the purpose behind your goal is more important than the goal itself. Did you know that?  In fact, it will keep you going when obstacles appear.  Notice I stated “when” they appear because obstacles are inevitable, it’s all about how determined you are to reach your goals that will assist you through these times.

Regardless of whether you want to start your own business, raise a family, travel the world or be a concert pianist, you can accomplish it once you specify what you want to accomplish and when.  Knowing your “WHY” intensifies your desire and commitment, and if you can create enough reasons why you want to make a change, there’s nothing that can keep you for reaching your goal.

What are some things that you can do to keep you moving in the right direction?

• Write down the goal that you’d like to achieve and list all the reasons why you MUST achieve it. Go ahead, make it a huge list of all the reasons that will excite and motivate you to stay in action every day. What are the specific benefits you will experience? How will you feel about yourself?  How will this victory impact your self-image and confidence? How will it benefit your loved ones?
• What will it cost you to not achieve your goal? Equally as important as identifying the benefits you will receive for achieving your goal, it’s just as important to identify the consequences of not achieving your goal. Give some serious thought about the consequences you’ll experience personally, professionally and spiritually if you don’t take the necessary actions each day to make your goal happen. What will it cost you if you don’t start working out consistently? If you don’t make the prospecting calls you need to make each day? If you don’t stop smoking? And as importantly, how will that make you feel? Our emotions drive our behavior, so fully connect with how it will feel if you don’t achieve your goal. You’ll be a lot more likely to take action and keep taking it if you regularly connect with the cost of not following through.
• Start every day by focusing on why you want to achieve your goal and the cost not to follow through. Every single day, think about how achieving this goal will positively impact other areas of your life.  Allow yourself to feel the joy and excitement that you’ll experience by honoring your commitments to yourself today to make that goal a reality.  And, just as important, review what it will cost you if you don’t achieve your goal. What will it cost you if you don’t start eating a healthier diet, lower your cholesterol, or save money for the future? And how will those consequences make you feel? Our emotions drive our behavior, so fully connect with the pain of failure to motivate you to take action.

I’d like to leave you with this final thought — isn’t it exhilarating to meet people who have a purpose and the drive to make it happen? Well, do you realize that can be you! Remember, goals give you sense of direction and something to get excited about.  Life’s journey will be much more enjoyable if you know your destination.  Take time to think about your goal(s) in life — your “WHY”.

If you’re involved in Network Marketing/Direct Sales then you probably know how exciting it can be when you initially sponsor someone into your business, yet there are some things that, as a sponsor, you should and shouldn’t do for your new team members.

As a sponsor, your new team member looks to you to help them get started and plugged-in to the company’s success plan, and you should make yourself available to them, especially for their first 30 days.  They depend upon you for support and showing them how it all works.  No one wants to join a company and feel that they are all alone, having to figure it out all by themselves.

What happens though after the inital 30 days?  Well, provided your new team member was properly plugged-in to the system, and through effort by both of you, some momentum was reached, then you’ll most likely find that they will lean on you primarily when they bring new people into the business (at least for their first couple of recruits), or have simple questions that need answers.  However, if you find that your team member is inconsistent with their business ~ not working their business, or is full of excuses ~ then you still need to keep in contact with them, yet not as frequently.  If this should occur, until you see them putting forth the effort in their business, it would be a waste of your time and energy to continue working directly with them on a regular basis.  Many Network Marketers make the mistake of spending too much time on a personally sponsored team member that is clearly not motived to work their business – you could better spend your time finding and talking with others about your business.  A great way to handle this scenario would be to include them on team email’s/newsletters, and reach out to them once every month with a phone call asking them if they need your help with anything.  Until they may make the decision to leave the business, you are still their sponsor and have the responsibility to keep in touch with them, letting them know you will still be there when they are ready to move forward again.

Relationships are more than “what can you do for me?”, and if a personally sponsored team member is not working their business to your expectations, that is absolutely no reason to move forward without them, especially if they are actively working their business.   Everyone works at a different pace and has different motivations for why they are doing the business.  Build a relationship with the people that you sponsor, find out what makes them tick.  What is their WHY?  What about the company gets them the most excited?   If your company offers items upon reaching a certain level, is this something that your personally sponsored team member is interested in achieving?  Things that attracted you to the company/opportunity are not necessarily the same for someone that you sponsor.  By making the effort to get to know each individual you sponsored, you may find it easier to know exactly how to help them when they get stuck – which will happen for time to time as life gets in the way.  Because you cared enough to find out their WHY and what motivates them, along with any obstacles they may think they have to deal with, you will know how to get them back on track.  And, not only will they know they can count on you, they’ll also be more willing to seek out your advice and apply it.  You’ve earned their respect and trust.  That is priceless.

Does it come as a surprise to know that your Network Marketing or Direct Sales opportunity may not be a fit for everyone? Although you may feel that the products, company or opportunity you represent are the very best (and I hope you do feel this way about your business), they may not be the right products, company or opportunity for everyone that you talk with about them.

So, how do you know if your opportunity is right for someone?  By getting to know them. Sincerely be interested in finding out more about them as a person, build a relationship.   And, although this process does take time, the bottom line is that people will refer to, and join people they know, like & trust.

I was recently prospected and found the experience to be so awful, that if I was not already involved with & knowledgeable about Network Marketing, I’m sure I would have become 100% turned-off by the entire NM/DS industry.  The person who called me sounded excited, yet I could tell they were just reading from a script rather than sharing of themselves (why they joined and how it has or will benefit them or their family).  They never asked me any questions.  Instead I was told how this was a “ground floor” once in a lifetime opportunity, and although they just started, were already in management & going to be quitting their JOB soon because of the income they were making.  As our conversation continued, the more frustrated I became because this person knew I was already involved with another company that I’d been with for several years.  Did they happen to ask me if I was even looking for a change? No.  I felt like I was being talked at rather than talked to.  Big Difference!

I have found that by taking the time and effort to sincerely (there’s that word again) get to know people, you will learn whether or not they would even make a good business partner or client.  Ask questions and listen to their answers.  Do they sound happy when they talk about their current job or having enough money to do the things that are important to them?  Do they talk about having enough money yet never being home to spend time with their family? Do they now, or have they ever thought about owning their own business?  Are they a people person?  Do they have a problem that might be solved by the product(s) that you can offer?  You may find that people you talk with do not have any interest in owning their own business, or perhaps its just not the right opportunity for them.  And that’s okay.

To be successful in growing your business you do have to actively share your products and company with others, and if you approach this with sincerity and respect of the other person, I believe you’ll both have an enjoyable conversation.  Again, realize though that not everyone you share your opportunity with will join your company, yet some of the most successful Network Marketer’s have found their Ace business partners as a referral from someone else. And that referral most likely came about simply because that now successful Network Marketer got to know that person who referred – and in turn, that referee knew, liked and trusted them, making the referral possible.

P.S. I appreciate you stopping by and would enjoy hearing your personal thoughts about relationship building in Network Marketing/Direct Sales ~ please feel free to share in the comment box below. And, if you have found my post to be of value to you, and feel it would also be to others, then please free free to share it with your friends on Twitter, Facebook, etc.