garyjharris.com

Leadership has been almost as difficult for me to understand as women. But here is an insight from tht book, “The One Minute Manager”

People who feel good about themselves produce good results.

I have realized recently that my productivity, actually being effective needs to be improved. If this is something you find too, share some comments of ideas. Here are mine so far:

I need to return to what Stephen Covey teaches about time management,  puting First Things First.

I’ve decided to utilize Basecamp from 37 Signals to keep track of my projects.

What do you use to be sure your time is spent wisely? Comments please.

Being Self-Reliant was a mystery to me for many years. For many people I know, this means “Don’t ask for help.” I’ve been the recipient of help, sometimes anonymous and sometimes from churches or government programs.

From the dephts of financial turmoil it can be difficult to see self-reliance clearly.

Today I share some quotes from Dennis Waitley, author of The Seeds of Greatness Treasury.

To be self-reliant adults, we need to set some guidelines:

Be different, if it means higher personal standards

Be different, if it means being more gracious and considerate to others.

The greates risk in life is to wait for and depend on others for your own security.

The greatest security is to plan and act, and take the risk that will ultimately ensure your personal freedom and independence.

These last two serve as my anchor, because they ring true to my heart, and they lead me away from the apparent security of relying on others.

When created based on the best principles, often called The Five Pillars, a Network Marketing company is one that has chosen a specific marketing model instead of the most common methods used in the business world.

What is MLM?

The acronym stands for Multi-Level-Marketing. Network Marketing companies know that it is not enough to just have someone who wants to promote your wares. Your distributors need training. So not only will a good Network Marketing company reward you for sales, they will also reward you for training others. This creates a hierarchy of people. The people you train and those they train become your “Downline.” The people above you are called your “Upline.” They should be training you and supporting you.

Why is MLM So Often Frowned Upon? Because greed and ego are both very much alive. Companies have been created by the unscrupulous with the sole purpose to rip people off. People have been trained to hard-sell their friends and family so often that all it takes nowadays is for a family member to get the slightest impression you have joined an MLM and they avoid you like deer avoiding a lion. And like the deer, they think you are going to pounce on them. Why? Because pouncing has been the norm for so long.

The Good News about Network Marketing
The good news is that there are reputable companies that use the multi-level or Network Marketing model. Again I refer you to The Five Pillars. These are five ingredients for a company or opportunity worth joining.

Combining Internet Marketing with Network Marketing allows you to represent a Network Marketing company without approaching anyone, and I mean anyone including friends, family, coworkers, etc. Unless it just so happens that you know they want to consider what you have to offer. The strategy that is working is to build your business by targeting those most likely to be interested via the Internet. As you have more and more success, your friends and family will ask you: “What are you doing that has made this change in your life? Will you help me do it?” That is Network Marketing.

What is a Lead?
Buying and selling leads is big business. I earned about a few hundred dollars last year selling leads alone. The leads I sold were mostly to a company called, Citrix®. Their premier product allows you to access your PC from anywhere. It’s called, GoToMyPC GoToMyPC is the most secure remote access service I have used. Say you sometimes want to access your office PC from home and your home PC from the office. If I send you to Citrix and you try out their software, they pay me a few dollars because they got your name, email, and other contact information. This is a lead. Enough information about a person to contact them.

Do You Need Leads?
In Network Marketing, you need people to talk to, people who will listen and consider your business opportunity. Finding them can be a challenge. Traditionally one of the first things your sponsor has you do is make a list of friends and family. This is what happened to me in my first MLM company. They sold me on the idea that this was my “warm market.” It is also very popular for your sponsor to tell you that you need to buy leads. They may tell you that this will give you people who will consider your opportunity. Neither making a list nor buying leads is necessary or good business sense for the average network marketer. Yes, you need leads, you need people considering your opportunity. Talk to friends and family if they ask. But whatever you do, don’t buy leads.

Why Should I Not Buy Leads?
If you buy leads as a way to have people to contact about your network marketing company, you are most likely buying into a scam. Also, the leads you get are not as targeted as you might think. Finally, although I don’t recommend approaching friends and family unless they approach you, the people you share your opportunity with do need to have a relationship with you. Network Marketing is a relationship business. It is not a numbers business, or a charisma business. Most people don’t like to be hard sold on anything.

Exposing the Scam
In this video, the author of Success in Ten Steps exposes the selling of leads as a scam:

To learn how to find people without buying leads, join Mentoring For Free. Michael is one of my friends and personal mentors. If you like, I can get you on the phone with him and answer any questions you have. Most of all: don’t buy leads.

In short, this blog is my opportunity to present myself to you as a mentor and as a student. As you may read on my About Me page, I’ve been an Instructional Designer for seventeen years. Over the last several years I have become more and more focused on teaching Internet Marketing. I specialize in mentoring people who are building a Network Marketing company. I teach them to utilize the Internet to find people to share their opportunity with, and I teach them Internet Marketing to sell their products.

How I Got Into Network Marketing
As most people in Network Marketing, I have a “Day Job.” For the last three years I have worked for a training company. With them, I have been a business trainer, internal trainer, and instructional designer. I led the team that developed their online training program.

In the Spring of 2008, I was given the assignment by my employer to create a course of instruction for teaching people how to be successful in building a network marketing company. In my research for that project, I came across Mentoring-For-Free. This is an international organization that offers free training to any professional network marketer regardless of what company they are involved in or what products they promote.

Mentoring For Free It was founded by Michael Dlouhy, the author of the book, Success in Ten Steps. In addition to the book, the free training consists of several live calls held each week, along with recorded audio training.

No company or product is mentioned or promoted. The system can be used to train your own associates in some basic skills needed for success, such as how to immediately determine the best approach to take with a specific prospect (page 46), how to understand your company’s compensation plan (page 80) for maximum earnings, how to create and maintain the mindset needed for success, how to build relationships, and how to obtain the names and phone numbers of potential prospects without spending a lot of money or approaching friends and family.

After finding Mentoring For Free, we realized that the course of instruction I was designing did not have a need. The need was already met. The project was shelved and we moved on to other things. I became a member of Mentoring For Free. Many of my clients who had hired us to teach them Internet Marketing did so because they wanted to market the products of their Network Marketing company. I have referred many of them who have benefited from the free training.

Own Your Life

Eventually I found a company that fit my interests and that survived the scrutiny of measuring it against the 5-Pillars of a sound Network Marketing company.

Blogging Goals
My goals with this blog include sharing the training of Mentoring For Free, helping people understand what it takes to be successful in Network Marketing, how to avoid scams, and how to own your life.

Join me on this journey.

Gary J. Harris