It's Not An Attitude

Normal Service Is Being Resumed...

noreply@blogger.com (KlTeam) — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 21:01:00 +0000

Have you ever had times where you're convinced that there's some sort of fiendish plot to keep you from achieving your goals?

Me too. In fact, every single time I try to build a business that will fulfil my ambitions and goals, my family or my work life conspire to derail my progress.

You couldn't make this up - since I decided to stick to a 90 day plan and dual-blog:

- A second car has had to be replaced at short notice. My first was in October 2011, courtesy of a charming woman who ran into the back of me, gave me false details and then disappeared, leaving me with a written-off Volvo. So I bought my partner's car off him with the insurance payout and that promptly threw part of its gearbox linkage within 10 weeks. I'm now driving a carpeted Transit Van (aka a VW Sharan) that drinks fuel.

- My partner decided to live in Rugby from Monday night to Thursday morning, because it's more convenient when he's decided to do a Masters degree in London to have a personal taxi service that is prepared to pick him up after 11pm and drop him off at the station before I go to work. Oh, and have a housekeeping service that provides him with breakfast, sandwiches, does his washing, loses his socks, etc. After a discussion where, apparently, it's my fault if I'm late for work because I'm not getting up earlier and managing the family better, he's decided to spend the next two weeks in West Oxfordshire, to sort out his tax returns and write his essays. I presume the wild-eyed, manic Harpy that dropped him off at the station at the end of that discussion may have had something to do with it...

- My eldest son has decided to move back in, with all the hassle that entails. I need to convert my office/music space back into a bedroom, move furniture into other rooms, etc. All whilst doing a full-time job, a two hour commute and failing to run a Kleeneze business.

- My mother is having serious kidney problems, which mean we're now stuck with a cycle of visits to GPs, specialists, etc. I'm scared it's kidney failure this time - her legs are swelling up and she seems to be permanently on antibiotics.

- Then there's this year's flu, which knocked me out for several weeks. I haven't felt this weak and lethargic since I had glandular fever in my early 20s.

All in all, it's been an interesting 90 days. Something had to give, and that was the blogging. However, I'm already drafting the next 90-day plan, whilst sticking to the remains of my original one to give me some forward momentum. 90-day plan blogging will re-commence in two weeks.

90 Day Plan - Day 9: Culling the To-Do List

noreply@blogger.com (KlTeam) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 14:25:00 +0000

How big is your daily to-do list? The one with all the things you meant to do the day (or week) before but never seem to get around to?

If you've got a short, punchy to-do list, then congratulations. You get to sit back and feel smug for the rest of this chat.

For the rest of us, the ones who have to juggle a full day's work with travel, parenting and the pretence of having other activities, today's focus is on culling the herd of things clamouring for your attention.

At the end of today, after your planned activity, look at your to-do list. As we've discussed before, prioritisation is the key to control, so mark on your list the number of days those activities have been carried forward.

If any of them are marked 7 or higher, ask yourself if you are ever going to do that particular activity? No? Then draw a line through it and forget it.

Repeat for anything 5 days old and over.

Is your list more manageable yet?

Now go back through the list and prioritise as usual. This time, however, you're going to detail one small action you can take for any item that has sat on your list for 3 days or more.

And tomorrow, make sure you do those small actions first.

All of a sudden, you'll find you are less resistant to actioning those old items. You might even get motivated enough to fully complete one or two. When you do, remember to reward yourself.

Finish off by asking yourself those two important questions:

What am I proud of today? What can I improve on, tomorrow?

90 Day Plan - Day 8: Building On Week 1's Efforts

noreply@blogger.com (KlTeam) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 12:26:00 +0000

With your first week's activity behind you, now is the time to build the momentum that's going to get you achieving the goals you set earlier.

Just like last week, action is the key to success. So take your plan and your to-do list and get moving.

Take the opportunity to remind your family and friends of what you'll be focussing on over the next few days, too. They'll forget otherwise and prioritising their less-urgent needs could derail your progress rather nicely.

I'm not talking about missing school events or avoiding pre-arranged meetings with the in-laws here, by the way. Those should blocked out on your calendar already, as should 'quality time' with your family. But does your child really need you to drop everything and get the latest toy for them?

Remember to review and track your activity before the end of the day and ask yourself those questions:

What am I proud of today? What can I do to improve tomorrow?

Well done! 8 days in and you're going strong.

90 Day Plan - Day 7: The First Weekly Review

noreply@blogger.com (KlTeam) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 10:22:00 +0000

By now, you've completed your first 7 days of your 90-day plan and you should have 7 days of tracking to show for it.

What does that tracking tell you?

- Are you sticking to your plan?

- Are you slipping behind?

- Are you doing better than expected?

Whatever the results of your tracking, there are three things to remember right now:

Don't get complacent and start slacking off. You'll lose all the momentum you're creating before it's had a chance to take effect.

Don't beat yourself up if Life! got in the way. You're working towards goals, not trying to win the marathon tomorrow. Get back on track and work the plan.

Don't allow yourself to make excuses. If you haven't been doing enough to work towards your goals, then don't let yourself off easily. Clear the decks, stop playing computer games instead of working and quit procrastinating. Just do it.

Of course, if your plan is completely unsustainable in terms of time and effort, you'll need to make changes. But not in the first week. Look at your tracking, map out what extra effort you need to put in for the next 7 days and add that to your to-do list and plan.

As always, ask yourself:

What am I proud of today? What can I improve on tomorrow?

Write those things down. Place them somewhere prominent - on your desk, next to your wallplanner; wherever you are likely to look and take notice.

Now congratulate yourself - you've completed the first week of a 90-day plan. You're part of a very rare breed!

90-Day Plan - Day 6: The Importance of Tracking

noreply@blogger.com (KlTeam) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 12:21:00 +0000

All successful people track their behaviour and performance. It's how they know whether they are improving or not.

Your business success depends on how you track your activity. Too much detail and you will waste time you could be spending on getting new sales, new contacts and new team members. Too little? You'll have no idea where you've tried to expand your business or what the results really were.

Tracking needs to be done at the end of each day as a bare minimum. If you can do it as you are going along, even better. A simple notebook that you take along with you is all you need; you can transfer the information to your tracking sheets later.

If you aren't completely convinced about the benefits of tracking yet, try this simple exercise:

List every single thing you eat and/or drink for three days, together with the time and date.

You'll be surprised. It might even encourage you to track other parts of your life as well.

As always, finish today off with the questions:

What am I proud of today? What can I improve on, tomorrow?

Don't forget to track your dietary habits!

90-Day Plan - Day 5: Baby Steps

noreply@blogger.com (KlTeam) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 11:25:00 +0000

You've prepared, planned and practised for all of 5 days now - surely there's something special to show for all your hard work?

If you're amazingly lucky, yes. For the rest of us, we need to remember that we are still taking the baby steps that will one day allow us to run that marathon in record time.

This is a 90-day plan, not a 7-day plan.

Today is the day for putting your half-week review changes into action. Then getting on with the baby steps.

Remember to track what you do, or don't do!

Finish off with asking yourself:

What am I proud of today? What can I improve on, tomorrow?

And remind yourself - every successful business owner started off small once.

90-Day Plan - Day 4: Half-Week Review

noreply@blogger.com (KlTeam) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 15:59:00 +0000

So you're half-way through the first week of your 90-day plan? Congratulations! That's 3 days further than 80% of those who started. Mind you, 79% of all statistics are made up ...

How has your plan gone so far? Tonight, after doing all of your plan and to-do list activities, take 10 minutes out to look back on the first few days. Be honest with yourself about where you have let yourself down, but also make sure that your plan is working.

Are you tracking everything you are doing?

Are you doing everything you planned?

If not, why not?

As always, finish the day with those two key questions:

What am I proud of today? What can I improve on, tomorrow?

Well done on getting this far.

90 Day Plan - Day 3: Creating the Routine

noreply@blogger.com (KlTeam) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 09:39:00 +0000

How do you master anything? Practice.

And how do you master practising? By building your routine until it becomes second nature.

This is what a 90-day plan is all about - creating and building a routine until it becomes a habit.

The secret is in how we practice. If we're aiming to be consistently a little better than we were yesterday, we're on the right track. We're not aiming to be perfect today.

When we practice our 90-day plan, we should be paying attention to the way we are doing it, rather than on the outcome. Yes, we're working to achieve an outcome, and we've set SMART goals, but we designed our plan to reach those goals in 90 days, so we don't need to obsess about them today.

We practice to get better at what we are doing, be it finding and retaining customers, delivering catalogues or leaflets, generating leads or building a team.

Needless to say, if we don't do the activity listed on our plan and daily to-do list, we won't be getting better; we'll be slipping downwards and backwards. It's better to see this as practicing to improve rather than a plan where every step has to be perfect straight away.

That way, you've taken the pressure off - it's nowhere near as scary if you're "just practising".

As always, finish your day with a to-do list for tomorrow, and write down the answers to these questions:

What am I proud of today? What can I improve on, tomorrow?

Happy practicing!

90 Day Plan - Day 2: Improving on your first efforts

noreply@blogger.com (KlTeam) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 10:19:00 +0000

After the euphoria of actually finishing your first day of a 90-day plan, what's next?

If you're anything like me, your to-do list is longer than it should be, due to Life! and other circumstances. It would be easy to look at your plan, look at the to-do list and start getting negative thoughts.

Don't let yourself slip.

You are building up momentum at present - you don't want the momentum to be downwards or sidewards.

Take 30 minutes to review your plan and your to-do list and then prioritise your activity. First write a 1, 2 or 3 against every item on both your daily plan and your to-do list. 1s are extremely important to move your business forward. 2s are important, but not essential. 3s are everything else.

Now look at the items marked with a 1. Prioritise those in order of how much that activity will move your business towards your goals and targets.

Now go and do those activities in order of priority. When you've cleared all of those tasks, go back and do the next set of prioritisation with the items marked with a 2. Then and only then, move on to the 3s.

If necessary, and you've run out of day, move any remaining activities to Day 3. For your own peace of mind, make sure you carry forward less tasks than you started Day 2 with.

Again, finish the day with writing down the answers to the following:

What am I proud of today? What can I do to improve tomorrow?

And pat yourself on the back; you've reached the end of Day 2 and you're still moving forward!

90 Day Plan - Day 1

noreply@blogger.com (KlTeam) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 09:43:00 +0000

New Year, New Plan.

Harking back to my post on creating your plan, you should have daily detail, weekly detail, monthly and 90 day overviews.

So you know what you should be doing on day 1.

Go do it.

When you've done each action, get out the associated tracking sheet and track it.

When you get to the end of your day, you need to spend 30 minutes on reviewing the day's activities and preparing tomorrow's to-do list that totals up any additional tasks you need to complete alongside tomorrow's planned activity.

Pin that to-do list on the wall next to your planner.

Now ask yourself:

What am I proud of today? What can I improve on tomorrow?

Write those things down. Place them somewhere prominent - on your desk, next to your wallplanner; wherever you are likely to look and take notice.

Now smile - you've completed the first day of a 90-day plan. Most people don't even get that far!

10x Networkers

noreply@blogger.com (KlTeam) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 11:22:00 +0000

I'm a geek and proud of it. It gives me a unique perspective on life. To make things even more interesting I'm a left-handed engineer, which means I'm constantly using both the logical and creative sides of my brain to solve problems. Simple tests suggest my right brain is slightly dominant, which is not surprising for a southpaw:

Right Brain/ Left Brain Quiz
The higher of these two numbers below indicates which side of your brain has dominance in your life. Realising your right brain/left brain tendency will help you interact with and to understand others.
Left Brain Dominance:	(10)
Right Brain Dominance:	(11)
Right Brain/ Left Brain Quiz

What can I say? I'm unique!

All this self-aggrandisation is fine, and does wonders for my ego, but what on earth does it have to do with 10x Networkers?

I keep up-to-date with technology management and I'm fascinated by the challenges posed by the need to manage teams of open source developers. I see those challenges as directly relevant to those faced by many team leaders in network marketing. For example, how do you motivate people when you can't see their hour-by-hour performance and working practices? How do you have effective meetings that move the entire team forward when people can make excuses not to plug into the webinar or conference call? How do you build the team spirit that means people will go the extra mile, not for themselves, but for their team-mates?

There's a lot of discussion in the open source community at the moment about a concept called "The 10x Developer". These are the superstars who work agilely, stick to To-Do lists, focus on the essentials, don't reinvent the wheel, constantly self-educate, and spend money on the tools when the investment pays off in time saved.

We need to be recruiting and training "The 10x Networker":

1. Communicate first, then do only what needs to be done, choosing the simplest solution that solves the problem. Don't leap off at a tangent or waste time on work that will not push you closer to your goals.

2. Don't reinvent the wheel. Your company has provided you with systems that work; trust them and use them. I know people who have spent thousands of pounds on building their 'own' systems, websites, etc. They could have spend that money on building a team and a customer base.

3. Learn constantly. Identify what skills and/or qualities you lack, then get yourself some training.

4. Buy tools that save you time. Cost out how much time, paper and ink it would cost you to print off 4000 lead generation leaflets, for example. Now go find a printer who will under-cut that price. It won't be difficult.

5. Focus. Divide your day into productive sections and avoid email, social networking sites and incoming calls during that time.

6. Plan your activity in detail.

7. Review regularly and often. Kill your precious plan if it's not working; but first, try some radical surgery.

8. Talk to people. Networking only pays off if you work on it.

9. Give yourself permission to step away from your work. If you spend 100% of your time on your business, you'll end up with nothing, long-term. Taking a break, spending time with friends and family, will allow you to re-invigorate your focus.

10. Get on with it! Start small, but just do something every day to move yourself and your business forward.

If we live our lives according to these guidelines, then our teams will copy us. If we don't, then our teams will copy us...

90-Day Plan: D-1 Reviewing Your Plan

noreply@blogger.com (KlTeam) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 15:38:00 +0000

With D-Day (as in Do It!) only a day away, it's time to focus on step 4 of the pre-90-day plan activities: Reviewing Your Plan.

By now, you should be comfortable with the goals you've set, you should have your working area organised, and your plan should be created and detailed.

Ready?

I've covered reviewing before, in the 3 Rs of Network Marketing. This time, we're focussing on making sure our plan is Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Timely, or SMART. We need to answer the following questions:

1. Do I know EXACTLY what I'm doing for each of the next 90 days?
2. Does my family know and understand what I'm doing?
3. How am I tracking my activity?
4. What are my back-up plans when/if Life! gets in the way?
5. How exactly will I get back on track if I drift away from my planned activity?
6. How will I reward myself for goals I have achieved, and when?

In addition to the last-minute checks that your plan is fit for purpose, you'll be reviewing your activity every evening with one simple question:

How have I done today compared to what I planned to do? What can I do tomorrow to improve my activity and/or results?

You should also use the 3 Rs of Network Marketing every week to review the week's progress and every 4 weeks to review a month/period's progress compared to the plan. This way you will stop yourself drifting too far off track.

Remember, where your future's concerned, it's not an attitude - it's a way of life.

Now THERE's A Surprise....

noreply@blogger.com (KlTeam) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 13:49:00 +0000

Despite my best intentions, Life got in the way again and poor little Kleenezelady found it took a lot longer to do her 90 day plan than she'd expected. Pop over to my other blog to find out what happened.

That got in the way of me writing the next thrilling instalment, which follows hot on the heels of this apology. Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible...

Still, at least it proves I'm blogging this experience live.

90 Day Plan: D-2 - Creating the Plan

noreply@blogger.com (KlTeam) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 15:19:00 +0000

You've spent time on preparation activities and you've organised yourself a little better. Next up, creating that 90-day plan.

This is where that extra effort over the past few days begins to pay off.

You need a year planner, a diary, a list of everybody's commitments over the next 90 days, tracking sheets, to-do sheets and a 90-day plan template. You may also want to use 7-day plan templates.

Got all of those together in one place? That's OK, I'll wait...

If you haven't got tracking sheet, to-do list and 90-day plan/7-day plan templates, contact me through the comments and I'll send you a set.

Welcome back.

1. Get the year planner up on the wall and draw a border around the 90 days you'll be working your plan.
2. If your business 'weeks', 'months' or 'periods' don't line up with the standard Sunday - Saturday or Monday - Sunday options, mark those out on your planner as well.
3. Mark out ALL commitments for the 90 day plan duration on your wall planner.

You now have a visual reminder for yourself and your family for the next 90 days.

4. Take your 90-day plan template, which should be marked out in 30 minute blocks from 6am to midnight.
5. Block out periods of time for all normal activity - bathing, exercise, meals, housework, gardening, travel to/from work/higher education studies and, of course, the day job/lectures.
6. Block out periods of time for all other commitments - family events, club meetings, holiday away from home.

Take a good, long look at the gaps in your schedule. What you are looking for are blocks of 1 to 5 hours that you can devote to your business for at least 6 days out of every 7.

Found them? You need to be working on your business for 20 hours per week part-time, more if you're full-time.

7. Block out your business activity for the next 90 days. You will be sticking to this plan; make sure it's sustainable.

The next section is optional, but advisable:

7a. Take a 7 day plan template and block out your business activity for each day. This time, be more specific. If you plan to hand out leaflets, deliver catalogues or do surveys on a particular day, write down the streets or area now. If you don't use a template, this information needs to go in your diary for those days.

7b. Repeat 7a for all 13 weeks.

Back to that wallplanner:

8. Block out your business activity on the year planner; one simple way to do this is to use stickers of different colours, shapes and sizes depending on available time and type of activity. Remember to create a key to those stickers and display that on your wall, too.

You now have 3 levels of information for your 90-day plan - a high level summary on the year planner, a mid-level management report in the 90-day plan template and detailed operational activity in the 7 day plans.

9. Create activity tracking sheets for each type of activity you intend to undertake and ensure you have enough copies to cover 90 days of activity. You will be using these every day, in conjunction with to-do lists, to maximise your time and effort.

10. Make sure that you have a central store for all your planning and tracking paperwork, be it in a computer folder or in a filing cabinet or lever arch file. Don't give yourself opportunities to fail.

Tomorrow, we'll cover the pre-action review phase. Have fun planning!

90-Day Plan: D-3 - Organisation

noreply@blogger.com (KlTeam) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 16:16:00 +0000

After preparation, organisation is the key to a successful, active 90-day plan. Spending some time getting organised will save you time later, as well as providing you with a morale boost as you improve your 'competence confidence'.

Organisation is closely linked with determining your priorities for the next 90 days. If you've done your ten point preparation homework, you'll have a list of your five goals. Those are your key priorities. So what's next?

Your aim should be to declutter your life as far as possible - physically and mentally. Irrespective of your own mental image of who you are and what you want to become, you won't grow yourself or your business if you are dragging junk around with you.

In other words, your 90-day organisation phase should include the following:

1. Set up a dedicated email account for your business. DO NOT clutter it up with subscriptions to the latest "wonder guru" email lists. If you're subscribed to certain lists, re-evaluate their usefulness. Unsubscribe from all those you can't be bothered to read on a regular basis. Then unsubscribe from those that spam you with sales offers - you can subscribe later when you've reached your goals. Keep your final list of subscriptions down to a maximum of 5. Now change those email subscriptions to RSS feeds. That way you can look at them via your browser and declutter your inbox.

2. Use the 2 minute rule for all incoming email, post and phone conversations - including anything that crops up in your contact manager websites. Deal with it, dispose of it or decide to tackle it at a specific date and time. Your inbox/in-tray should be almost bare. Work on it until it is.

3. File receipts as soon as you get them. If you don't have a filing system, start one. File by category, such as car, petrol, order payments, invoice payments and bonuses/commission.

4. Set up a business bank account as soon as possible. If you can't manage to do that, at the very least you need to set up a separate savings account with money transfer capabilities. This helps you to separate out your personal life from your business life as far as the taxman is concerned.

5. Make sure you have immediate access to customers, team members and prospects contact details at all times. If that means using a filofax or daytimer rather than a computer-based system, then that's fine. Just make sure it goes with you at all times.

6. Set up activity tracking for all plan-related activities. Talk to your upline, or contact me for a selection of templates. If you are involved in direct sales, you should be tracking sales generation activities, quantity of orders placed, by whom, projected and actual delivery dates, order value and retail profit. If you are building up your team, you should be tracking prospect contacts, follow up calls, autoresponder subscription and unsubscription rates, amount spent on advertising, advertising source to prospect ratio, prospect signups. When coaching your team, you should be tracking their retail and recruitment activity with them, as well as tracking your coaching activity.

7. If you are running your business from your home, ensure anybody else in your household knows how to answer the phone in a professional manner. Roleplay is useful here - practice phoning until they get into receptionist mode automatically. If you can't manage that, invest in call diversion and send all phonecalls to a number you can control and access. If your company provides a voicemail facility, subscribe to it - it's worth it.

8. Invest in a whiteboard and place it somewhere prominent in the main part of the house. This will be where you and your family/co-habitees can update each other as to what's going on. Consider investing in a "family" calendar - the sort that lists daily activity by person.

9. Invest in a cashbox, so that business income can be kept securely until you can get it to your bank. Make the habit of banking your takings before you spend them.

10. Set up a system so that everybody, including family and customers, know when you are working on your business. Use your whiteboard, update your wallplanner, and decide on a routine that suits you and your customers. Then stick to it for the next 90 days.

Good luck. We'll deal with creating your plan tomorrow.

90-Day Plan: D-4 - Preparation

noreply@blogger.com (KlTeam) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 16:14:00 +0000

Before you even start implementing your first proper 90-day plan, you need to make sure that all the ground work has been covered. Otherwise, you'll be on your sixth 90-day plan by day 10. That's just wasting your time and energy.

So what ground work is there?

1. Preparation
2. Organisation
3. Planning
4. Review

Preparation

From personal experience, this is the easiest step to overlook, primarily because it can encompass a wide range of activities.

Depending on your personal circumstances, preparation could involve creating a specific work environment, buying in supplies of leaflets, work clothes, stationery and other consumables, investing in business equipment (new printer, 'new' car) and, of course, warning friends and family about your diary commitments for the next 90 days.

Some organisations provide their own checklists for fledgling distributors to help them get started; your own team leaders may provide you with a preparation checklist that they find works for their business. If you have the opportunity to use tried and tested methods, then use them, at least for your first 90-day plan. You can always tweak the plan to suit yourself as you go along.

If you don't have access to a 90-day plan checklist, contact me via the comments and I'll send you the one I use. It is not tied to any specific business or network marketing company.

Essentially, your preparation should include the following:

1. Identify in generic terms what you want to achieve in the next 90 days - is it improved sales, a larger team, or both? Is it the deposit for a car, a holiday? Is it paying off debt? Write down 10 to 15 items.

2. Then write down a list of 5 specific goals that you intend to achieve within the 90 days. That means taking the initial 10 to 15 items and determining a realistic target date for each. You'll find a lot eliminate themselves at this point. If you find you have more than five goals that you feel are realistic, then prioritise and pick the first 5. You can always replace completed goals with ones from the list later. Don't pay attention to hype at this point, you want to set realistic goals so that when you achieve them, you build your confidence for the next 90 day plan.

3. Write down how you will achieve those 5 goals. For example, if a goal is "To save £300 per month", then how you achieve that may be "To sell £1600 of products", or "To recruit and train 5 new team members", or "To stop spending £100 at Starbucks every month, sell £800 of products and recruit 1 new team member and train them to sell £800 of products." Only you can determine how to reach your goals.

4. Collate all know diary events for yourself and your family for the next 90 days. You'll need to know what blocks of time are available to you. Include everything you can think of, including "together time", gardening, shopping, nights out, school sports days and teacher meetings. Don't plan anything yet.

5. Check that you have everything you need for the first 28 days of your 90-day plan. That includes a designated space to work (even if it's the dining table), leaflets/flyers, samples, catalogues, opportunity brochures/dvds, pens, stamps, diaries, wallplanners, paper, ink cartridges, work clothes, money to cover petrol costs, postage, etc.

6. Identify any gaps/omissions in what you need and identify when/how you will address those gaps.

7. Take a realistic look at yourself and identify any issues that may stop you from achieving your goals in the next 90 days. Do you lose enthusiasm quickly? Do you have a PhD in procrastination? Do you promise things and then not deliver? Are you disorganised?

8. Decide what you are going to do to prevent those issues. If you are competitive, then creating a set of small, weekly targets that gain you rewards may be a great solution. If you prefer doing things at your own pace and finishing one thing before you move onto the next, rewarding yourself for a small task that's well done may inspire you. Bear in mind that you are the master of your fate; nobody else is.

9. Write down your baseline results so far. Break those results down into weekly, monthly and quarterly if you've been in business for long enough. If you've only just started - great! If your figures are 0, 0 and 0, you can only improve from now on.

10. Tell your family that you are committing yourself to a 90-day plan of activity and discuss the effects with them so they know what to expect.

Once you've completed your preparation checklist, you're ready for the next step - getting organised.

Get the 90 Day Habit

noreply@blogger.com (KlTeam) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 15:49:00 +0000

Image © Gualtiero Boffi

Everybody who runs a business understands the need to plan ahead. Everybody who joins a network marketing company gets told that you can't succeed without a 90 day plan. So why are there so few coherent, full explanations of what a 90 day plan is, what it entails and what it's like to follow one?

Google for '90 day plan' and there's loads of generics, a lot of waffle and a lot of incomprehensible text that should have caveat emptor watermarked through it. Finding the gold in the dross is difficult, although there are some good articles, such as Michael Hyatt's, which do encourage us to step up and be accountable.

So, as I firmly believe in personal responsibility and accountability, I will be dual-blogging for the next 94 days on both the mechanics of 90-day plans and my personal experiences of implementing them.

Why 94 days rather than 90? Because I want to show the prior preparation and planning that goes into the creation of a 90-day plan.

This is likely to be an interesting project. I'm hoping the extra exposure will force me to up my game enough to quit the day job in a year's time. Here we go!

I Am NOT One Of The 99 Percent

noreply@blogger.com (KlTeam) — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 15:51:00 +0000

Image © Sebastian Kaulitski

I'm not one of the 1% either.

I'm also not surprised that a number of commentators are getting more than a little fed up with those who claim they speak for the rest of us, whilst wasting everybody's time on vague statements that seem to demand that "somebody does something, so long as it isn't us."

When I've been unemployed, I've found work. I've struggled to pay bills, worked more than one job at a time when necessary and focused on improving myself and my employment prospects until I either hit that promotion ceiling or got made redundant again.

Despite being qualifed to degree level in three separate disciplines, I've still worked as a cleaner, a carer, a postman and a checkout assistant. I take responsibility for my life and I'm no different from others. I know of people who have slept rough until they've scraped the money together to get a room; who've done 3 jobs a day to pay off mortgages early. They haven't demanded support or refused to pay taxes - they got on with living.

Camping in tents isn't going to change things. Banding together with enough like-minded people will, but there's more influence in cyber-campaigning groups such as Avaaz than you'll find on any of the Occupy sites.

I'd rather put time and effort into something like Branson's Screw Business As Usual, than join a protest where the majority of fellow campers appear to have no idea what it's like to live in the real world.

We live in a rapidly changing world. We need to adapt to survive. If we want to change corporate behaviour, it's better to effect that change in a way where everybody benefits. If the current variety of capitalism doesn't work, replacing it with compassionate capitalism is still better than a system where nobody is able to excel.

Dancing In The Rain...

noreply@blogger.com (KlTeam) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 11:36:00 +0000

...because it's the best way to live.

I've had more than my fair share of stresses in the past few months, as my Kleenezelady blog shows. They've taught me a lot and, as with the rest of my life, I wouldn't change a minute. How else would I learn and grow?

The key thing I've taken from the past week is this:

You can only truly be a leader if you understand those you wish to lead.

I've been on the receiving end of a heck of a lot of assumptions in my time. I've had to deal with misogyny, ageism (too young/too old), accusations of tokenism and worse. I've made assumptions too, and I've changed how I behave and think about others when I've realised my mistakes.

So, of course, it upsets me when, yet again, I have to cope with a complete lack of understanding about what makes me the person I am. I could whinge, or I could learn.

Here's a few of the more recent lessons:

Take Responsibility for your Relationships

Start with the basics. The people we work with are spending as much time with us, if not more, than our family and friends. We influence and are influenced by the behaviour of everybody we interact with. We should be taking responsibility for how those interactions go.

If the newsagent is grumpy, we could smile at him more. If a colleague or neighbour is quiet or reserved, don't avoid them or brand them as "cold". They could be waiting for you to make friends. They might turn out to be the best friend you've never had. You'll never find out if you exclude them.

Remember Your Manners

My son holds doors open for people who don't even think to say thank you. He carries on anyway. I'm extremely proud of him.

We all know of people who never say please or thank you; who are stingy with their tips; who delight in playing the blame game; who would rather shush people than listen and learn. We owe it to ourselves not to sink to that level.

I live by the philosophy I learnt from my mother - to treat everybody equally, be they prince or pauper, because you can never tell what they will become. I like to think my son has learnt from me.

Assertive Trumps Passive

Most people reacts badly to somebody who is passive. Depending on their own personality, they will take advantage, or pile work on you until you crack under the strain, or make you the target of their own unique brand of negative spin. Others may ignore you when you ask for support or assistance. Don't let them get away with this - you can't change their behaviour, but you can understand it and change yours accordingly. Learn to be comfortable with saying "No" in all its guises. Practice being quietly confident of your own self-worth. Be proud of your abilities, your skills and your values. These are all truisms, but that's because they are part of the same global consciousness as "Do as you would be done by" and "An it harm none, so mote it be". Being assertive helps make the world a better place.

Lead By Example

Do what you say you're going to do, when you say you'll do it. Even if you don't want to. Be the "you" that you'd want to be best friends with. And don't beat up on yourself if you get things wrong occasionally.

With thanks to Ted Rubin for the inspiration.

Blackmail Tweets - The Dark Side of Social Media

noreply@blogger.com (KlTeam) — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 12:31:00 +0000

I'm a fan of Duncan Bannatyne OBE. That's right - he was awarded the Order of the British Empire for services to charity, especially children's charities. He's done a skydive for a little-known charity for amputee servicemen. He's not just a dour Dragon, he's a man who demonstrates integrity, passion and drive.

As a parent, I fully share and understand his anger and his reactions when some semi-evolved cretin decides to have a bit of fun at his expense by tweeting threats to his daughter and demanding cash.

Unfortunately for Duncan, the police and anybody else hit by this type of demented publicity seeking, this seems to be one of those cases where nobody in the tweetosphere has stopped to engage brain before putting Google into gear.

There is little to go on; a Moscow "internet cafe" IP, a few pastebin.com uploads, the name "Yuri Vasiliev".

From that, the public, possibly egged on by the thought of a share in a sizeable reward, have "found" the culprit. With the accuracy and lack of bias generally demonstrated by a torch and pitchfork wielding lynch mob, they have thrown real identities to the wolves.

Now, I have no idea if the freelance artist/web designer Yuri Vasiliev or the basketball player Yuri Vasiliev is the individual involved in the threatening tweets. But somehow, I doubt it.

Firstly, internet cafes are not secure. Key loggers, trojans and bots have a welcome home on internet cafe PCs and not all cafes have a system adminstrator devoted to their computers' wellbeing. It's possible that the Moscow IP is a proxy IP and is being used by others as part of an anonymised route through t'Interweb.

Secondly, how many blackmailers traditionally sign their real name to a very public blackmail threat? That's on the same evolutionary scale as posing for the security camera when you rob a bank.

Thirdly, look at the source of the blackmail notes. Pastebin.com is the repository used by lulzsec, anonymous and others to promulgate hacked datasets. Would that be the first choice for a basketball player turned blackmailer? Or would it be the first choice of a spotty script kiddie with minimal emotional intelligence?

Fourthly, and with no disrespect to Duncan Bannatyne, that's a paltry sum of money to demand from somebody capable of offering £30,000 as a reward for information. I credit Duncan with the brains to work out that he's dealing with amateurs here; I think the £30k reward was deliberately chosen to lure this infantile blackmailer's mates out into the open.

Next, the email address. Despite the "imail.ru" domain being used in the blackmail notes, most amateur detectives went hunting for mail.ru email addresses. Oops.

Imail.ru is one of the alternative domains offered by email.ru for a free email address. Email.ru is, in turn, owned by EDN Sovintel. Guess what? There's an English signup too. You don't need to live in Russia to get an imail.ru address.

Why do I think the English signup important?

Take a look at the wording of the threats, and then look at the metre. There is a certain metric inevitability about the English which is not there in Russian.

The metre appears to be similar (perhaps deliberately so) to some of the statements made by the Anonymous group via either "open letters" or their Twitter account @Anon_Central. "You should have expected us" was tweeted by Anonymous after the Sony hack in March 2011 and can be seen in this open letter to BMI. "We do not give up" is a quote from a video allegedly posted by a member of Anonymous on YouTube. "Expect us" is seen as Anonymous's calling card quote.

Then there's the copycat syndrome. A developer called Andrew Fairbairn demonstrated how easy it was to clone a pastebin item by replacing the words "Yuri Vasiliev" with the words "Brett Williams", thus adding to the whole mess. Brett Williams is one of the more inflammatory contributors on a facebook wall page. Judging by Mr. Fairbairn's tweets, Brett reacted in a predictably irate manner. It seems @AndrewFairbarn did the same with the cloned item using the name "Jack Hundley".

Finally, the style of the tweets intrigues me. If you send tweets via twitter.com, it doesn't add in random quotation marks. If you tweet via your phone, it doesn't add in random quotes either.

But if you submit each part of the message via a command line script, it would be easy to add in one set of double quotes too many.

Looking at the tweets from that standpoint, each double quote marks the start of a new command line submission. Creating a tweetable command line version of a twitthis short url requires some basic OAuth scripting knowledge, then just put the following code in front of the url you want to shorten or mask: http://twitthis.com/twit?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww. All in all, you're looking at some sort of shell script with typos.

I'd hazard a guess that we're looking at another young hacker. Of course, I could be wrong. I'm not a programmer myself, but this looks more like the work of a techie than any of the proposed "suspects".

In the meantime, there appear to have been no more actual threats; I sincerely hope that this means the police are closing in on the charmer who thinks this is an easy way to get an income online.

My best wishes to Duncan and his family. I hope they get this guy soon.

The Success Meme

noreply@blogger.com (KlTeam) — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 13:04:00 +0000

Ever had one of those days where the same thing crops up over and over again? You keep seeing "For Sale" signs, or blue Saabs, or pink pushchairs.

It's a sign that you're focused on a particular goal, to the extent that you are more aware of evidence of that goal. So, if you've decided you want a new Zafira, you'll be more aware of the Zafiras that already exist in your area.

Today, I keep finding references to the word, Success. Blog posts, audio training, work-related emails, and a nice 3 minute movie from Simple Truths that I enjoyed so much, I just wanted to share it. Take a look at The Best of Success and you'll see what I mean.

If the definition of meme is "a cultural item that is transmitted by repetition analogous to the biological tranmission of genes", then network marketing success is a meme.

I really like the idea of a success meme. It suggests that, the more people are successful, the more will become successful in their wake. That resonates with me, which is probably why I'm seeing this word everywhere at the moment.

Here's to your Success.

So What Do We Do With The N00bs?

noreply@blogger.com (KlTeam) — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 15:27:00 +0000

Depending on your age and hobbies, right now you're either thinking "What?", "Kill them off quickly!" or "WTF has this got to do with Network Marketing?"

In a previous job, I looked after the European games databases for Lord of The Rings Online (LoTRO). Like World of Warcraft, it's a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. Like real life, there's quite a few n00bs involved.

n00bs, or noobs, are inexperienced and inept beginners, the sort of people who, in real life, have to be told that the reason their computer screen is dark is because they haven't switched it on yet. The ones who, left to their own devices, will make horrible mistakes in a split second that can wipe out 10 weeks of team productivity. They're the ones who type £1005 instead of £10.05 when you pay for something in the supermarket and then appear to have refunded the Nigerian GDP when the poor accountant looks at the till records.

If they survive the first few months of their first job/ MMORPG experience, they become newbs, beginners who are willing to learn from their mistakes - the ones who listen to others. Eventually, some of them will go on to become the better sort of experts. These are the ones who remember what it was like to be a noob, and go out of their way to help others.

We have noobs in network marketing too. But the standard response of the majority of network marketers is to let them feed themselves to the lions. They are the numbers in "the numbers game". The ones who, when they don't do anything spectacularly successful in their first few weeks, are left to die quietly of support malnutrition. The ones who have the usual MLM mantras thrown at them, despite the fact they have no frame of reference to build on.

We are failing our n00bs, and it's about time we stopped doing it. We can't call ourselves leaders if we set our team members loose in the middle of a reservoir with a leaky rowing boat and only one paddle. Yet that's what we're doing with our "Massive Results need Massive Action" and "How Much Effort? Enough!" soundbites.

Leadership is not just about recruiting team members and leaving them to sink or swim. It's about managing them, setting achievable targets with them, nudging them towards being more productive, more organised, more effective, more efficient, until they are capable of doing that on their own. It's about making sure each member of your team does that with their own team members. It's about helping our team understand that, just because we praise the fast track members, we're still determined to help every team member achieve their goals so that they can be proud of themselves, too.

If, after we've done all that, they quit anyway, that's fine. Let's make sure they don't quit before we've done our best by them.

Please Don't Plagiarise

noreply@blogger.com (KlTeam) — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 12:11:00 +0000

Plagiarism is wrong. There's absolutely no excuse to use somebody's work without giving them full credit for it. Not to mention the whole copyright perspective.

Put simply, anything I blog, write or podcast about is my copyright. It's been created in that format by me, using my words, my emotions. When I use other sources, I credit them and link to them. I don't use others' creativity and brand it as my own - to me, that's the antithesis of integrity.

In an increasingly linked-up internet world, it's easy to link to others - there are options in most blogs, YouTube videos etc. to share somebody's work whilst maintaining that acknowledgement that it is their work.

So, if you want to use the creative output of me and the thousands like me who invest time and effort into trying to communicate with others, use the sharing options you're provided with. If you can't find a share this button, ask the author directly - that's what the comments section is for. That way we get to know a little about who we're reaching with our message.

The Power of Personality

noreply@blogger.com (KlTeam) — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 11:20:00 +0000

What's your personal brand?

If you could sum that up in three words, what would they be?

Mine are Integrity, Loyalty, Resolve.

Integrity - the big one. For me, it covers being honourable, persistent, consistent, courageous. It means I don't make promises I can't deliver on; that I do my utmost to do what I say I'll do within the timescales I've committed to. I have the courage of my convictions.

Loyalty - to family and friends, customers and team members. It means I'll do everything I can to help you succeed in life. I'll support you, defend you, protect you. If you reject my loyalty, that has great power to hurt, but that won't stop me.

Resolve - the determination to carry on in the face of adversity. It has helped me survive some truly nasty life experiences, whilst allowing me to be true to my ideals of integrity and loyalty. It has been the missing piece of life's jigsaw for me - whenever I call upon it, I achieve what others believe to be impossible.

If you are living your life according to your personal values, those values are obvious to all who meet you. You are your own brand, regardless of outside perceptions.

If you're not living your life according to your personal values, why not? What can you do to start?

Do You Have A Zombie Invasion Plan?

noreply@blogger.com (KlTeam) — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 14:02:00 +0000

It appears that Leicester City Council has had to admit a lack of provision for zombie invasions.

Now, the news sites were coy about the identity of the concerned citizen, so I trotted over to a Freedom of Information site for further details. After all, I'm working in Leicestershire and I'd hate my Kleeneze work to be disrupted by the need to decapitate the living dead on the way back home.

It's interesting that the Council decided to go public before Robert Ainsley would have received their official response, although you have to applaud their decision to deal with the request well within the 20 day cutoff.

So what are your zombie invasion plans?

I'm not talking about the obvious (!) zombies - what are your plans to deal with the living dead on your team?

Why aren't they active? Are you doing enough to motivate them? Do they need support and guidance, or do they need pruning?

Would you rather coach and encourage, despite their lack of effort, or do you subscribe to a "shape up or ship out" approach?