New School Marketing by Kim Klaver

Recruiters: Dec. 1, 2009. Adapt Or Risk Being Sued by the FTC

2009-11-08T15:40:00.000-08:00

"Everyone I've signed up is either dead or dying. How can I get someone who will DO something? Especially now that we can't lead with the big income anymore?"

Yep, after December 1, no more big income (or big any result) testimonials. Not unless you also tell what the typical results for the typical person doing the deal are. It's not enough anymore to say "results not typical." (See FTC release here.) The relevant language:

"Under the revised Guides, advertisements that feature a consumer and convey his or her experience with a product or service as typical when that is not the case will be required to clearly disclose the results that consumers can generally expect." More here. (ital added - kk)

No one who sells via big stories wants to tell you what consumers can generally expect. It'll ruin everything.

If anyone ever found out that almost no one makes much money (who's putting forth effort) in money making ventures, be it MLM or Internet marketing, who would buy? The big boys know this.

Several of the biggest Internet marketing 'make money' gurus have already announced their exits from the make-money business, moved it outside the US, or announced they'll no longer use income testimonials. See here.

I think the MLM/Network Marketing business has a much brighter future than some of the other options. Because - we don't need to sell based on giant (and atypical) income. Instead of marketing money, I suggest we market meaning.

Consider the advantages to stop selling the money:

1. Peeps who quit ALL thought big income was going to come much faster and more easily than it does. The new FTC regs forbid those big income testimonials (unless you also tell, at the same time, the typical results peeps get). So retention should improve greatly. You didn't lure them with easy, big money. Right?

2. No big income stories means you won't miss anyone except the get-rich quickers. Because. While money IS one reason people start a business of their own, it is almost NEVER NEVER NEVER the main attraction. See here for the top three reasons Americans want a business of their own. Note: Money wasn't the reason the Google boys started their business, either (see here)

3. Last, money is not the reason thousands of folks stay in MLM, I mean the masses without much income. Here's why they say they DO stay in.

We can do the business for much MORE than the money. How about for the meaning it gives your life and that of others? I believe this is the only way the industry can remain a viable business option long term - to people who are long term doers, not screamers and hype-filled chatter boxes. Aren't you sick of them 'friending' you on MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and littering your email box? Yuck. Get-rich-quickers.

“It's not the strongest who survive, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most adaptable to change.” Charles Darwin.

You ready to adapt and start recruiting with stories of meaning instead of with stories of money? I have some suggestions here. And I will offer a teleclass to those who want to learn how to market meaning.

If you'd like to learn how to recruit with meaning, and create meaning testimonials, contact me here and perhaps I can arrange a class for your group or your company.

Dec. 1, new FTC rules take effect. Isn't it time for you and your babies to adapt your recruiting to the new FTC rules? You can. I'll help you. Do you believe meaning trumps money?

"The market for something to believe in is infinite" - Hugh Macleod

Is mindset enough for success?

2009-11-07T13:59:00.000-08:00

Success: Who doesn't want it? Three rules of the road...

For this post, let's say success is defined by income (you choose the number) and recognition. Here are three rules of the road.

1. Right attitude. Self-help movement leaders, mlm recruiters and Internet marketing gurus all tell us this is a key requirement.
Mindset. Attitude. Optimism. See the glass half full (v half empty). "Winners never quit and winners never quit."
No doubt about that. We gotta adopt the 'fail your way to success' mindset. Next -

2. You must develop a finely-honed skill set. Whether it's product sales or recruiting others, you must be not only GOOD at what you do, but remarkable. Else you won't be noticed at all, much less have someone buy from you or join you.

3. Just do it. Even though you know you're not very good yet. Doing it and adjusting it over and over and over is required. You can't just think about doing it. Or talk about doing it. You have to effen DO it: reach out online, offline, however.

With those three firmly in place, it's just a matter of time before you make it big. Right?

Wrong.

Unless you're a follower (and practitioner) of the Gita (next), and you're doing your thing primarily because you seek success, 1-3 are not enough. Not for big success. As academics like to say, 1-3 are "necessary but not sufficient."

Because. You. Need. The. Cooperation. Of. Others.

No matter how optimistic, skilled and consistent you, your business or you products are (consider Apple), everyone will not buy. In fact, almost no one will, relatively speaking. What, one in 25 for your product (after the relatives)?

One in 375 for your business (that actually DOES anything)? And those are high numbers in direct selling. Usually, we're looking at 1/10th of one percent "conversions" (buyers or joiners).

So am I seeing a glass half empty?

I hope not.

I tell you this for one reason: so that you STAY with it if you love it. My sticking advice:

1. Master 1-3. It's a daily heart churn..

2. Do not plan your success around anything that requires the one thing you cannot control: the cooperation of others. Others have to buy your product or your story, don't they? We all know that's the bummer.

It may not be because you did a bad job. It's that others have their own agendas. They're not planning their day - much less their purchases and careers - around you.

3. After you've got 1 and 2 down, learn to FIND YOUR AUDIENCE p. 212-218). Find FIRST those who already share the values represented by your product or business.That will reduce by far, the Nos from all the wrong ones. Thus making the process less painful and more survivable.

Make sense?

P.S. And anyway, says Woody Allen, "If you're not failing every now and again, it's a sign you're not doing anything very innovative."

P.P.S. Orange eBook hunt. I have put three links to a house copy of the Orange eBook on the Banana Marketing site. (NOT on the home page.) If you find one and click on it, you'll get the download link to the eBook, If My Product's So Great, How Come I Can't Sell It?
Give it time to download, ok? Links disappear within 24 hours.

Optimist or Pessimist?

2009-11-06T22:31:00.000-08:00

"Both optimists and pessimists contribute to society. The optimist invents the airplane, the pessimist the parachute." -GB Shaw

You can do the same in your own mind for any undertaking where you cannot know the outcome for sure. Like your own business. Don't buy their simplistic notion that it's all about 'seeing the glass half empty or half full.'

More Building Less Talking

2009-11-05T22:43:00.000-08:00

"Get things done. More building, less talking: A simple rule of thumb for raising money." - Garry Chan here.

Doesn't this rule apply to building a network too? More building, less talking. And perhaps, less whining?

The Secret To Amazon's Success...

2009-11-05T20:05:00.000-08:00

"The secret to Amazon's success is half luck, half good timing, and the rest is brains." - Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO, Amazon

Mr. Bezos happily admits what is so hard for us to accept...that we are not responsible by ourselves for an out-sized success. And that is why big fat success is so rare. You'll have to bust it for sure, as Gary V says in Crush It. Every big successful person has. But if success doesn't come as big as you had dreamed, as soon as you dreamed, may this soothe you:

"We vastly underestimate the extent to which success happens because of things the individual has nothing to do with." See here.

"How do you not take offense?"

2009-11-05T15:32:00.000-08:00

Do you get offended quickly (and maybe shoot back) when someone belittles you, heaps verbal abuse on you, ignores you, or just says NO without even listening to you?

The other day I told the story ("I Feel Offended") of Mr. G. He'd gone to visit a newspaper editor who made him wait for an hour, and then came out just to dismiss him with a curt "I'm not predisposed to listen to you."

"But," asked reader Trace in the Comments, "how do you take no offense? It is easy to say and much harder to do. I think Mr. G had something more going on that made him able to do so, don't you?"

He did. He remembered. And that saved him. He'll tell you...

"I once went to an English hair-cutter in Pretoria (South Africa). He contemptuously refused to cut my hair. I certainly felt hurt, but immediately purchased a pair of clippers and cut my hair before the mirror. I succeeded more or less in cutting the front hair, but I spoiled the back. The friends in the court (Mr. G was an attorney) shook with laughter.

"'What's wrong with your hair, Mr. G? Rats have been at it?'

'No, the white barber would not condescend to touch my black hair,' said I, ' so I preferred to cut it myself, no matter how badly.'

The reply did not surprise the friends. Then Mr. G wrote this:

"The barber was not at fault in having refused to cut my hair. There was every chance of his losing his customers if he should serve black men. We do not allow our barbers (in India) to serve our untouchable brethren. I got the reward of this in South Africa, not once, but many times, and the conviction that it was the punishment for our own sins saved me from becoming angry." - M.K. Gandhi, An Autobiography P. 213-214.

He made three mental moves to avoid feeling offended and angry:

1) he shifted from his own to the barber's point of view. That softened the anger
2) he remembered that the very same conduct went on in his own country
3) he viewed his own treatment by this barber as punishment - for the sins his own country's people were committing against their "untouchables."

These are mental moves we too can make. They require though, the belief that we are not the center of the universe around whom everyone else should dance. And some practice.

P.S. Want to take some baby steps to react more like Mr. G? Here's a DIY program I personally recorded, edited and did: Unstick Your Brain. Go ahead and slip some new beliefs into your noodle. Most humans don't come equipped with them. Try it. Comes with my personal guarantee.

Step 7: Let Customers Be Customers

2009-11-04T12:56:00.000-08:00

(If recruiting isn't going as fast as you'd hoped, consider, instead of quitting, building a steady customer base. Step ONE here. Step TWO here. Step THREE here. Step FOUR here. Step FIVE here. Step SIX here)

Have you ever tried telling a customer about the business when they're ready to buy the product or service? What happened?

"She rolled her eyes and said she'd get back to me. Then she didn't take my calls anymore."

Step 7: Let Customers Be Customers

You may not realize it, but asking a prospective customer to sell the thing she is just deciding to buy is a telltale sign to her that something is not normal. It sets off an alarm in her head that this must be "one of those things." That's not a good thing. (See Chapter 10 in Orange book.)

Cable TV Man Story (from the Orange book, p 163-4)

Picture this: The cable TV guy has just finished installing your cable TV (and Internet) hookup. You've just signed the order and are making your payment. Before he goes, he says:

"You know, Mrs. Jones, we make good money doing this. And we're looking for people to help us sell cable TV. It's really easy. Anyone can do it.

All you have to to is share it with your friends and family. You know, like recommending a movie. And we're the best cable company in the country. How about it? You want to make some extra money with us?"

What's your gut reaction? Here's what my students have said:

"I'd laugh."

"I wonder if I overpaid."

"I'd be surprised. Why ask me? I don't know anything about that."

"I'd wonder if they're financially in some kind of trouble"

"What kind of cable-TV company is this?

The next week, the phone rings, and it's the cable-TV man. He says:

"Hi Mrs. Jones...this is Joe, the cable-TV man. Say we're still looking for people...

You know, it could be your ticket to financial freedom. Do you want to talk to my supervisor who has made a lot of money doing this? He just bought a vacation home in Hawaii. How about it? You want to make some money with us? It's really easy. Everyone wants cable..."

The next week, he calls again. Same pitch. And the following week again.

How are you feeling right now about your cable-TV service? (By now the entire class says they'd ditch the service and find another cable TV company.)

But, says the die-hard recruiter, doesn't everyone want financial freedom? Or at least get their products or services at a discount for referring others to them?

NO. Everyone does NOT. Not if the price of either of those things is doing things they do not want to do. Like sell to their friends. Most people prefer to do other things to make money - things that have nothing do do with contacting and selling friends.

Referring products for discounts or in exchange free products seems simple to us, the seller, but it is also tricky. Many customers tell us that they will refer a product they love, but only if they are NOT paid for it. They feel being paid taints their recommendation to a friend. Others say they will but never do.

Warning. This is NOT like recommending a movie or a restaurant. You have no financial stake in either of those. The recommendations are clean and agenda-free. But when you're paid for your recommendation, the motivation is no longer clear. And that is why friends do not like selling to friends. And the FTC is now promising to levy up to $11,000 in fines to people who recommend stuff online without telling up front that they are being paid for it. So you lose all around.

Wait for your customers to come to you. Some invariably will ask you - "Hey, I'd maybe like to sell this - how do I do that?" Tell them then. Meanwhile:

Step 7: Let Customers Be Customers

This is the end of the series: How To Build a Customer Base in 7 Steps. I might put all the steps into a little Manifesto -a PDF. Would you like that?

Excerpts from the Orange Book here.

Audio classes of the teachings on how to build a customer base here. Enchilada=12 CDs. 3 Scripts=5 CDs.

P.S. I might do a bonus Step 8.

New FTC Regs Claim Mr. Filsaime's IM Guru Career?

2009-11-03T16:16:00.000-08:00

(IM=Internet Marketing)

Ready to earn $537,897 on the Internet like Joe did? Want to make $250,000 in your first year of MLM like I did?

As of Dec 1, you can't do that anymore. Wow. No more 'dramatic' testimonials says FTC

No more big income statements unless you ALSO report the results that the typical persons who follows the program got.

Who in the how-to-make money business wants to do that??

Within a few days, my pal Frank Kern announced on his blog (bottom) that he would no longer be using big income stories. And Mike Filsaime, one of the most active Internet marketers of all, announced around then (on Twitter) that he was becoming a software developer. Yesterday, Mr. Filsaime confirmed that "I am excited to close out 2009. Time for me to pass the GURU baton on to others." (A "tweet" on Twitter 11_2_09)

I suspect he's concluded that the new FTC regs will bind him too much. Either no more income stories, or else he (and everyone else) has to disclose how everyone else has done with the programs. That is, compared to the income numbers that were advertised.

UPDATE 11_08_09: John Reese, another of the big names in make-money Internet programs, just announced he's gone offshore, to the Philippines, to market his incomedotcom business.

The buyers of these programs, lured in by the big money, have no way of knowing just how atypical those big income numbers are.

On December 1, 2009, that will change. Big income claims will no longer be allowed. Not without admitting to the audience what typical results were. (Same for weight loss, etc. see below.) From the FTC site:

"Under the revised Guides, advertisements that feature a consumer and convey his or her experience with a product or service as typical when that is not the case will be required to clearly disclose the results that consumers can generally expect. In contrast to the 1980 version of the Guides – which allowed advertisers to describe unusual results in a testimonial as long as they included a disclaimer such as “results not typical” – the revised Guides no longer contain this safe harbor." From the new FTC Guidelines here.

I think this is a good thing. Not because big income is not or cannot be earned. But because the numbers bandied about are earned by almost no one else, despite good and honest efforts.

No amount of sweet talk - it's really easy, look at us, we're just like you - can change the results most people have gotten, even with honest effort.

I think there are better ways to entice good people to join your program. Coming soon.

I Felt Offended...

2009-11-02T14:53:00.000-08:00

Feeling offended leads us to do dumb things. Here's an instant fix I'm practicing now.

Mr. G went to see the editor of a local newspaper to pitch him his idea for an editorial article that he hoped the editor would write up in his newspaper.

The editor kept him waiting for an hour, during which time others who wanted to see the editor came and went. Finally, it was his turn. Mr. G tells us:

"He would not so much as look at me... On my venturing to broach my subject after the long wait, the editor said: 'Don't you see our hands are full? There is no end to the number of visitors like you. You had better go. I am not disposed to listen to you.'

"For a moment, I felt offended, but I quickly understood the editor's position...I could see there was a regular stream of visitors there...they were all acquainted with him. His paper had no lack of topics to discuss, and mine was hardly known at that time."

Mr. G's attitude kept him from feeling offended, getting discouraged and perhaps giving up. He explains:

"However serious a grievance may be in the eyes of the man who suffers from it, he will be but one of the numerous people invading the editor's office, each with a grievance of his own. How is the editor to meet them all?...

"But I was not discouraged. I kept on seeing editors of other papers..." and others "realized the importance of my [issue] and they published my interviews in full." - M.K. Gandhi, An Autobiography.

Isn't it the same when we want to introduce our product or business to someone with a wide sphere of influence? Are there not many folks lined up to see such a person?

It's so easy to feel offended when they won't see you. But it's better to find a way to get over it quickly, so your own offended state doesn't keep you back.

Mr. G's strategy which I am practicing: Take no offense, ever. Think from THEIR point of view. Do not even try to convert. Go to the next one.

P.S. For Twitter followers: A similar "I felt offended" event made news around the Twitter world yesterday. Actor Stephen Fry, with 942,803 followers (!!) offered to QUIT writing on Twitter on the spot. Because. Someone said he was - ready for this? Boring. The sequence:

Mr. Fry to fellow who called him 'er, a bit boring' on Twitter:

1. "You've convinced me. I'm obviously not good enough. I retire from Twitter henceforward. Bye everyone."

2. "Think I may have to give up on Twitter. Too much aggression and unkindness around. Pity. Well, it's been fun."

Mr. Fry expressed second thoughts the next day:

"Well maybe I'll see how I feel in a few days. Very low and depressed at the moment and any drop of meanness makes it so much worse. Sorry."

With only kind words for the gent who called him boring:

"Arrived in LA feeling very foolish. Wasn't the fault of the fellow who called me "boring", BTW. A mood thing. Sunshine will help. So sorry."

And then Mr. Fry pleaded with his followers to stop banging on that guy:

"Feeling terrible for that poor guy.He had every right to call me boring.Not his fault it caught me at a vulnerable time. Pls be nice to him."

Mr. Fry is now live on Twitter again, making his nearly million readers very happy. And showing us all how vulnerable we humans are, how easily we take personal offense, when we only think of ourselves and our own point of view.

P.S. Twitter lovers can follow Mr. Fry and/or see his notes here. And yes, I'm on Twitter too, here

Step 6: Nobody Likes a Seller

2009-11-01T19:29:00.000-08:00

When you realize there is a seller in the room, do you want to go TOWARDS that person, or AWAY from them?
When you're not sure whether to buy something or not, would you rather be talking to a SELLER or an ADVISER?

Whenever I've asked this in my customer building classes, I learn that we who are sellers mostly choose to avoid sellers ourselves. Seems like nobody likes sellers. We'd rather have advisers (knowledgeable about the options) to help, particularly when we're not sure.

Ergo, you must do everything you can NOT to be perceived as a plain old seller.

Fortunately, that is pretty easy to do. Because sellers, especially network marketers, have a way of talking that makes them instantly recognizable. And out comes the Raid from any listener. :(

Two signs of a seller.

1. Techno-babble. Sellers, especially new ones, are full of it. Lulu's just signed the app and, fresh from her science-of-the-product meeting, bubbles to her prospect: “I’m a wellness consultant. We market unique patented nutraceutical products…”
(More in Orange book excerpt here.)

ANY jargon - words a 13 years old wouldn't understand - is techno-babble. And it does NOT impress anyone outside your own company. Au contraire, others run. So don't use it. If you slip, you'll know why others glaze over or say they have to use the restroom now.

Quiz: Is the name of your company (or your product) techno-babble to people not in your company, yes or no?

2. Hype (two sorts - more in the Orange Book, p 32-51)).

a. Promises. Making ANY predictions about what the product will do for someone else. We do not really know the future, do we? No matter what a product has done for you, you can never be sure that will happen to someone else. Predicting the future for others (making claims) is something network marketers are known for.

NOTE: The new FTC regs make it plain that you can no longer use extreme examples of say, weight loss (or income) to sell your product or business. Not without telling what happens for the "typical" persons at the same time. Big FTC penalties too. See here and here.

b. Screaming. Perceived overstatement. How often have you heard networkers crowing about their products - "It's the best, the newest, the most scientifically proven," blah blah blah. Falls on deaf ears today. Because everyone does it.

Online, screaming is using too much red, too much bold, too capitals and too many exclamation points.

"When you overstate, readers will be instantly on guard, and everything that has preceded your overstatement as well as everything that follow will be suspect in their minds because they have lost confidence in your judgment." Elements of Style, 50th Anniversary Edition.

You do not want to come across as a dreaded seller anymore do you? So, no more seller talk. More examples of seller talk in the Orange book here.

Wouldn't you rather be perceived by your prospective customers as an adviser? A trusted, knowledgeable person who dares to recommend another company's product to Lulu when that's the best choice for the her?

P.S. Even if you truly you love it with all your heart, you are the reformer when you approach others. And it is usually just "the reformer who is anxious for the reform, and not society, from which he should expect nothing better than opposition, abhorrence and even mortal persecution. Why may not society regard as retrogression what the reformer holds dear as life itself?" From Mr. G here.

Mr. G's New Definition of Winning

2009-10-30T20:13:00.000-07:00

Years ago, a newly minted attorney, Mr. G., was asked to assist in a case where two prominent businessmen in the same town were in a nasty legal battle. The feuding men were also related.

Attorneys on both sides were doing all they could to win. That meant then, as it does today, to soundly defeat and if possible, ruin, the other.

Mr. G., the junior attorney for one of the parties, spent several months studying the facts of the case. He came to two realizations: 1) both sides were losing so much time on their businesses and running up so much in legal fees that it would likely leave both parties unable to rebuild their businesses afterwards, and 2) the client he was helping had the most law on his side.

Neither party's legal team top bananas wanted anything less than total victory. The other guy had to be wiped out.

Mr. G however, thought that the public financial (and social) defeat of either party would be a dreadful outcome - regardless of whose client ended up the winner.

So he did something very weird: With everyone's approval, he visited with the other side - the client. He suggested that neither party could financially come out of the fight whole, what with all the time spent and legal fees and costs already incurred and still to be incurred.

So Mr. G suggested arbitration. Something which would leave out the attorneys on both sides.

The legal beagles on both sides resisted furiously. His own legal team thought he was ridiculous to hand the case over to an arbitrator and wanted to fire him. But Mr. G prevailed on the principal parties. Both had told him they wanted to continue in business after this dispute had been resolved.

So the case went to arbitration.

Mr. G's own client won the case, and a huge amount of money was awarded to him.

Mr. G however, was not satisfied this would end well. He realized that the losing party would likely go bankrupt having to pay this giant settlement (to his own client). And a public bankruptcy was worse than death for the other man. So Mr. G took another unusual step.

He prevailed upon his own client to accept payments from the losing relative - not to demand the lump sum. After much haggling and the insistence of Mr. G, it was agreed: Mr. G's client would accept payments to be spread out over many many years

Mr. G wrote this about it years later:

"Both were happy over the result, and both rose in the public estimation. My joy was boundless. I had learned the true practice of law. I had learned to find out the better side of human nature and to enter men's hearts. I realized that the true function of a lawyer was to unite parties riven asunder.

"The lesson was so indelibly burned into me that a large part of my time during the twenty years of my practice as a lawyer was occupied in bringing about private compromises of hundreds of cases. I lost nothing thereby - not even money, certainly not my soul." - M.K. Gandhi, An Autobiography.

P.S. In our own businesses, Mr. G's approach means we do not dump on or belittle competitors or their products. Our self-serving agenda is transparent. Sing your own song, and find others to sing it with you. (See here.) Leave those with different musical tastes to their own happiness.

Candy coating truth: Creating future dissent?

2009-10-30T15:17:00.000-07:00

Sugar coating truth - good or bad?

Last year I had Donna Johnson on a call. She's been multi-million dollar/year earner for almost two decades - #1 in Arbonne. She decried the way some parents had sugar-coated the success challenges their children would face - the "trophy generation" - some of whom were now in her business:

"The trophy generation wants to earn money, but they don't want to be inconvenienced," she said. (!?!) "The trophy generation is young people up through our college age kids - we over did the self-esteem - everyone is a winner, you don't have to work harder than anyone else. They want to earn big income, but not if it means being inconvenienced in any way." See 'Watch Out for the Trophy Generation' here.

Hear Donna say it here..."Does the 'Secret' movie cause do-nothingness? Part TWO.

The self-esteem movement too, got beat up in a recent piece. Self-esteem is a good thing, says the author. But by itself, it's not enough for success. Interesting data from the church as well. His conclusion:

"I’m all for motivation and inspiration. But truth is truth. Maybe it’s time we stopped candy coating it and give it to them straight." See here.

Your take? Are we candy coating the truth of life's challenges - income, relationships, happiness - too much?

How would we un-candy coat say, the challenge of building an NM business?

Slumdog Millionaire: A Lie?

2009-10-29T13:19:00.000-07:00

Robert McKee, Hollywood screenwriting guru, hates Slumdog Millionaire as a business model for movies. In an interview in Singapore, he says the flick

"like all popular culture, is based upon a lie that life is not what it seems to be, that it is full of hope and optimism...."

Then...

"Slumdog Millionaire is a hideous lie. When you get artists in countries such as Japan who are serious and sophisticated, they won’t lie. The (film) business model that you are proposing is based on the ability to lie. That is how you reach the mass audience."

His conclusion:

"Hollywood, as an industry and business, is based upon the myth that everything will turn out for the best, that good triumphs evil, that hard work and perseverance will pay off, and that everyone has a soul mate. Hollywood as an industry is based upon a lie. All popular culture is based upon a lie that life is not what it seems to be, that it is full of hope and optimism."

"Do we seriously want to encourage film cultures around the world to continue telling that lie?" More here

I know, we all know movies are pretend. And only $10.

But - I bet he'd likely say the same about the self help and 'opportunity' industries. That they're both "based on a lie and full of hope and optimism, which rarely happens in real life."

But we all love the happy endings, even if they are not true for 99% of us. Maybe we're just late bloomers. Maybe we just like to live vicariously through the magical characters in the movies, or in MLM or Internet Marketing, who sound "just like us." (That's a skill gurus learn to develop early - to give you the impression they're 'just like you.' And in some ways they are.)

What to do?

Movie fantasies aside, whatever you devote yourself to - to find your financial success - choose something first that matters to you. As in, you'd do it anyway because you're almost called to do it. Then, remind yourself each day: "I cannot control the actions of others. But I will keep on keeping on because this matters to me." Maybe you will score big, maybe you won't. It's not all about you. It's also about this:

"We vastly underestimate the extent to which success happens because of things the individual has nothing to do with." See here.

There might be a way to reduce the pain if your results are not what you wished for. Next.

Step 5: Lead With YOUR Hot Button, Not Theirs

2009-10-27T20:07:00.000-07:00

(If recruiting isn't going as fast as you'd hoped, consider, instead of quitting, building a steady customer base. Step ONE here. Step TWO here. Step THREE here. Step FOUR here.)

How do you reach that special one who would buy your thing if they just knew about it? Almost no one with money responds to 'this is the greatest' anymore. So how about something new?

Pretend you love tennis, and you're looking for a tennis partner. Wouldn't you just ask around for someone who plays tennis? You are "calling someone by name" - in this case, someone who plays tennis.

You are leading with YOUR hot button here, see that? You're not asking what sport the prospect likes, and then hope you can accommodate the person. No, you ask for what YOU want.

Isn't it time you start asking for what and whom you want?? That's how I recommend you find your best product customers, starting right now.

STEP FIVE: Lead with YOUR Hot Button. Not Theirs

First task is figuring out the 'tennis value' of your product. Why do you love it and what does it do for you? This is personal to you. It doesn't come from a brochure. It has to come from within you. It's your before and after. Your values. Why YOU love it.

Once you have that down, which is a step-by-step chapter in the orange book, you'll be able to ask for people who blah blah blah, like YOU. Same way you ask for someone to play tennis. You'll eventually be referred to someone who plays.

Isn't that the idea here? Find someone who already 'plays'? (See Step ONE: Seek not to convert. Seek the converted. Here.)

P.S. Have a group? Get ten together with Orange book in hand, and I will give the group a tele-session. Email me here

Why Can't We All Have Frank Kern's Success?

2009-10-26T18:36:00.000-07:00

Did you suspect this?

Unusually successful gurus in MLM and Internet Marketing will explain the 95% "failures" by pointing out that most wannabes don't, or won't, do what it takes. They quit way too soon, they say, and never master the basic skill set, much less become remarkable. And yes, we all know this is true.

However, there are some who work steadily over the years, have done the things, done them well, and had some success. But not the nutty big success of my friend Frank, or of a top MLM recruiter, or of a wildly successful film maker.

What is the story? Why are there so few big successes, given the masses who aspire to success?

Malcolm Gladwell in his book, Outliers, offers a compelling answer to this unhappy puzzle.

"We vastly underestimate the extent to which success happens because of things the individual has nothing to do with." See here.

All big success, from hockey players to movie makers, happens to "people who are talented and work hard but who also benefit from the weird and largely unexamined and peculiar ways in which their world is organized."

Moral? Do what you love and get really good at it. Keep right on plodding until you become remarkable. THAT you can control. And maybe, somewhere along the way, some of these weird things you have nothing (obvious) to do with, will help lift you to that miracle place.

Remember the $22 million dollar weekend?

---
P.S. The other side of the success puzzle is believing that what one guy did to make it big can be packaged, sold and predict the next person's success. Not so, says the silent evidence. Not now, not for centuries. Of course the evidence is not so silent today. That's what explains the new FTC regs against using big income testimonials. We are all discovering how really rare those results are, no matter how much comparable effort others put in.

How We Got $22 Million This Weekend

2009-10-26T00:23:00.000-07:00

"We bumped over a miracle." Brad Grey Chairman, Paramount Pictures

Is this the new winner attitude? Please say yes!

You've heard about the new horror flick sensation, Paranormal Activity, right? Made for about $15,000 (shot entirely in the director's bedroom), and bought by Paramount for $300,000. Here's what happened next:

The little movie was marketed online, and this weekend alone, took in over $22 million dollars! (It's taken in $62.5 million total in last six weeks) Might hit $100 million or more.

An astronomical return on a $300,000 investment, plus a relatively small (but cleverly spent) marketing budget.

Anyway, such wild and unusual results (FTC fans: atypical) normally call for chest-beating and self-aggrandizing press releases. You know, blasting their income numbers far and wide, along with comments that they just 'knew in their gut' it would do this all along, and how great they really are at this business of predicting a movie's success. Blah blah blah.

Paramount chairman Brad Grey however, did the opposite today. My jaw dropped as I read each word he spoke to his people a few hours ago:

"Evidently we have a situation where you put one foot in front of the other every day at the studio," he said on a conference call with his senior executive team Sunday. "We all work very hard, and every once in a while you find yourself bumping over a miracle."

What a wonderful and humble explanation for this wild and very unusual success! Of course they did some extremely smart things marketing this flick. But that's not where he put the credit for the atypical hugeness of the movie's success.

Let's us in Internet marketing and network marketing follow his lead. Let's stop pretending that one big and very unusual success is entirely of our own making. And therefore predictable (so give us your money so you can follow us and do it too.) Our understanding of success is really very crude.

Our unusual successes are never entirely of our own making. Nor are they predictable, no matter what the gurus asking for your money tell you.

If Mr. Grey can acknowledge "bumping across a miracle" to help explain bringing in $100 million or more, for (what is likely to be) the biggest movie hit of the year, can't we? It doesn't mean we didn't do anything. Just not much to make it such an atypical result.

Think about it: How else could he explain why most of his other movies (like most entrepreneurs) don't make money (p.212)?

MOVIE BUFFS: more on the movie review HERE

Wrong Aspiration?

2009-10-25T14:53:00.000-07:00

Do you aspire to DO? Or DO only if you will succeed? You'll DO a lot more than you succeed. So know.

I came across a quote I put on my computer today:

"I think the most important thing, if you're an aspiring film-maker, is to get rid of the 'aspiring'... You shoot it, you put your name on it, you're a film-maker. Everything after that, you're just negotiating your budget." James Cameron, hugely successful movie writer/director (Terminator, Titanic, more here.)

He sure spoke to me. Write your thing, go shoot it. Put your name on it. Yep. Go DO something.

Then I noticed that word - aspiring. Aspiring film-maker. Aspiring writer, entrepreneur, online marketer, network marketer, you name it. So I wondered, would I be happy just to be a film-maker? Or do I aspire to be that only if I can be a successful one?

Would you be happy being a writer, an entrepreneur, or online marketer?

Or, do you really aspire to be that thing only if you are a big success at it?

Very different. And the difference affects your happiness levels immensely. Because the odds are against us all. You'll be doing a lot more doing than succeeding. You ready for that? 95% don't make a success of their ventures. Sigh.

So what is it you really aspire to? The doing of "the thing" or the resulting success of it? Would you just do it even if you knew the odds were against your financial success?

I thought about that for my love affair with the film business. An academy award? FUN! But actually, I just want to DO it. And get really good at some part of it. I don't know why. I just do.

What about you? What do you truly aspire to?

STEP 4: Ladies: Speak In Your Own Voice

2009-10-23T19:26:00.000-07:00

(If recruiting isn't going as fast as you'd hoped, consider, instead of quitting, building a steady customer base. STEP ONE here. STEP TWO here. STEP THREE here.)

How are your going to speak in your own voice and stand out in a sales business where they tell you to duplicate everyone else?

How will you ever stand out if you say, write and do the same things as everyone else? And no, louder doesn't work.

STEP 4: Speak in Your Own Voice

One: Ignore everybody for a while. How else can you learn to speak in your own voice?

Two: Go inside and figure out what your voice is, your angle, your style, your little brazenness and weirdness and how you can apply it to your marketing style.

Here's how Mary Jane did that very successfully with her weight loss product - using morbidly obese as her angle (because that's who she was). Scroll down to Interview 1 and 2 here.

You must find a way to stand out if you want to be noticed, loved and followed.

"Be a small, ridiculously evolved, very rare and weird fish in a great big pond...Because the Internet is really big, and because you chose a gigantic pond, there will be a fair number of people interested in your topic who also resonate with your particular brand of weirdness. And that weirdness will shine like a little beacon to attract them. More here.

OK ladies, you ready?

P.S. In my experience over the last 20+ years, I'd say we, the women who comprise 80% of the MLM distributor force, have tried hardest to be what we (many of us) think we are supposed to be.

We emulate the men on stage

We try to be like little doctors

We try to be what we think is a good sales person, and parrot the company line about how great the management is, how great the product is, blah blah.

And when that doesn't work, we go into denial. "Is this sales?" "Oh no! We share!" Or we do catalog sales - we help others - anything but the dreaded "I sell stuff."

How about we back away, ignore everybody for a while, and learn to speak in our own voice?

One way to start is to find your product hot button. More on that in STEP 5. Your own voice is more than your style as it relates to the products you market. It's that special part of you which exists with or without the business.

Try out new own voice - tell in the Comments below.

UPDATE. Just read Maureen Dowd's NY Times column, Nuns' Story (in case, PDF here). It helps explain why some women have not been more willing to develop, much less speak in, their own voice.

"In 2004, the cardinal who would become Pope Benedict XVI wrote a Vatican document urging women to be submissive partners, resisting any adversarial roles with men and cultivating “feminine values” like “listening, welcoming, humility, faithfulness, praise and waiting.”

Whaa?

How to build a following of devotees

2009-10-23T11:46:00.000-07:00

Found this and HAD to share, yep. Right in the middle of the 7 STEPS for building a customer base series here.

How do you present your ideas to so that others on a similar track look to you for guidance? So you become a leader of a tribe, so to speak?

Wonderful advice for writers, marketers, photographers - anyone seeking to build a following or an audience:

• Style is a voice, not a prop or an action. If you can buy it, borrow it, download it, or steal it, it is not a style. Don't look outward for your style; look inward.

• Know your stuff. Luck is a nice thing, but a terrifying thing to rely on. It's like money; you only have it when you don't need it.

• Never apologize for your own sense of beauty (or values-kk). Nobody can tell you what you should love. Do what you do brazenly and unapologetically. You cannot build your sense of aesthetics on a consensus.

• Say no. Say it often. It may be difficult, but you owe it to yourself and your clients. Turn down jobs that don't fit you, say no to overbooking yourself. You are no good to anyone when you're stressed and anxious.

• Learn to say, "I'm a photographer" (or whatever - kk) out loud with a straight face. If you can't say it and believe it, you can't expect anyone else to, either.

• You cannot specialize in everything.

• You don't have to go into business just because people tell you that you should!...MORE NUGGETS HERE.

Number one - finding your voice, your style - is a biggie for folks in a NM company. Most reps are marketing the same product line. How do you develop your style, your focus, and set yourself apart from the others?

By "others" I mean first others in the same company. And second, marketers who sell competing products. Hint: start with what's important to YOU about what you market (not the company or your upline or anyone else). You can see why I made some big changes in marketing approach here - based on what became important to me (free excerpt).

STEP 3: Get the Cred...

2009-10-22T15:06:00.000-07:00

(If recruiting isn't going as fast as you'd hoped, consider, instead of quitting, building a steady customer base. STEP ONE here. STEP TWO here.)

Cred. Do you have any for the product you're selling?

Step 3. Do the thing; get the cred and the power (borrowed from Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Credibility. Do you have it for the product(s) you are marketing?

If not, you gotta get it. Authority and power are magnetic. They give you that air of credibility. You need that when you talk to the converted (see STEP ONE). And no degrees are necessary here:

Who wouldn't rather be coached for tennis by an experienced, avid tennis player, versus someone who doesn't play but has read a book?

How to get the power. Do it until you can't.

Mozart was gifted, but he also practiced playing piano so much that by the time he was 28, his fingers had become deformed. Michael Jordan was the top basketball player in the NBA, and Jerry Rice was the #1 receiver in the NFL when he played (receiving for 49er QB Joe Montana). Both Jordan and Rice practiced more during the week, in between games, than anyone else on their teams.

Similarly, if getting your weight back down is all you think about, you'll be doing much in your life around that theme. "It's all she thinks about and talks about!"

You read stuff online and off, talk about it, dream about it, it's a major life-focus for you. Soon you'll be talking to others who are on the path, or who have gone before you - converts. Of course you become knowledgeable - and when you recommend a weight loss product, you'll be suddenly credible.

If practicing sounding engaging is what you want to practice a few hundred times, there's a local, free and endless source of leads in the If My Product's So Great... book - in the chapter, Cadaver Calling. Wonderful stuff has happened to a few folks who did that.

P.S. Easily distracted by other products your company launches that are not related to your fave? Here's a quick house read to stay focused: Deadly Distractions right here.) (That's a free excerpt from book "If My Product's So Great, How Come I Can't Sell It?" If you love audio and want to get into customer building that way, consider the options here. Click on the text to see if that's the stuff you want to get the power in.

NEXT: Step Four

STEP TWO: Live It.

2009-10-20T19:05:00.000-07:00

(If recruiting isn't going as fast as you'd hoped, consider, instead of quitting, building a steady customer base. STEP ONE here.

Scene. You're about to buy a new cell phone. Would you take the plain clerk or wait for the one who's a phone-gadget nut?

When a product you want to buy is special, who doesn't want to talk to an expert? By that I mean someone who lives and loves whatever it is already. The products they happen to be selling are just one expression of it. She already lives it.

STEP TWO: Live It. Show how the products you sell are an extension of your own life's values.

If that's you, you'll have cred. Your opinion will be valuable. Because you ARE one who embodies those values already. (You can get a taste of how to lead with who you are already, here.)

Nobody needs much help buying cheap stuff, including vitamins. But aren't your products:

"revolutionary breakthrough in cellular anti-aging"
"scientifically formulated to address the specific needs of your skin"
"anti-oxidant rich super fruits and energizing botanicals"
"blend of essential fatty acids from organic flax seed, sunflower, pumpkin and olive oils."

(Quotes from the websites of Shaklee, Nu Skin, Mona Vie and USANA).

If that's the kind of thing you sell, you cannot be a plain clerk who happens to sell this stuff. You need some cred. And I mean living cred, not a pedigree. If you sell environmentally friendly cleaners, it's only natural that you recycle and belong to a group that discusses how to improve our environment in your neighborhood.

STEP TWO: Live It. Show how the products you sell are an extension of your own life's values.

P.S. Do you know why I changed from teaching just recruiting to also building a customer base? See here.

How To Build a Customer Base in 7 Steps

2009-10-20T16:02:00.000-07:00

If recruiting isn't going as fast as you'd hoped, consider, instead of quitting, building a steady customer base.

If you're curious why I began teaching customer building and not just recruiting, the answer is right here.

Step ONE. Seek not to convert. Seek the converted.

"To sell shaving soap to the peasants of Russia one would first need to change their beard-wearing habits." (Claude Hopkins, Scientific Advertising)

Is that really how to make a good income in your lifetime?

Each person's beliefs - about most things- are right to them. So if you are trying convert someone from a $6 jar of Ponds face cream to a $25 organic (and better version) you have a long road to travel. You're in the converting mode.

If you're trying to sell high-end vitamins to someone who just doesn't care about vitamins for whatever reasons, you are seeking to convert. Long and expensive process.

Unless the person is in the searching mode for a product based on the values of the one you are selling, i.e. whole food based vitamins, earth-friendly cleaners that work, etc. you will not likely make any friends pushing your views onto them.

Instead find the converted. Those who ALREADY share your values that make you pay extra for your product line and use it yourself.

How?

ASK for them. The same way you would if you were looking for someone with whom to play tennis. They already like tennis, obviously, and now it's - are you pretty good or just beginning?

Same here. Someone who already believes like you do about the importance of WHATEVER makes your product special and worth the extra money. Here are some tips on how to do that - assuming YOU believe in the values your products are based on, too.

Recession give away. If you're one of the ones who've been hit kinda hard by the economy, and you don't yet have the eBook, "If My Product's So Great, How Come I Can't Sell It?" comment below and ask me for a house copy. Put your email in there. First five get the link to the eBook on the house. Then there will be no reason not to learn how to do this right now.

UPDATE: OK first TEN.

Whose Fault Is Being fat?

2009-10-19T16:08:00.000-07:00

Is it the bad influencers? Or are you just a weak person looking to point the finger?

In a recent post I asked "Is Being Fat Contagious?"

One recent study that's gotten lots of publicity says, yep.

"Obesity spread like a virus. Weight gain had a stunning infection rate. If one person became obese, the likelihood that his friend would follow suit increased by 171 percent." More here.

Not everyone gets fat being around fat friends. Reader Robin writes how the habits of her friends did NOT rub off on her,

"I have many friends that have battled weight - I stayed slim, they drank alcohol, I didn't..." See comments here.

It's the low quality food that made them fat, says Robin.

True. Fast food and other low quality foods makes people fat.

And. It this is also true: We are social creatures easily influenced by others. There are both bad and good influencers are out there.

Three years ago, my then 29-year-old nephew, AH, came to live with me for 5 months. For the first time in his life, he ate healthy 3 times per day. (All real (ER) foods.)

AH, 5'10", weighed 310 when he came in June. He dropped 45 pounds by that Thanksgiving. He looked fabulous and his energy came back. In December, his old girlfriend came to live with him. She was a junk food and carb addict and proud of it (she was 19, and already had various ailments.)

They moved in together down the block. In 6 months, AH had gained back the 45 lbs and 15 more.

16 months later. AH is now in CA, with a new girlfriend. They both wanted to lose weight, so together, about 9 months ago, they went on low carb regime. AH has now lost 75 lbs. She's lost about 35.

Moral. With respect to behaviors that matter to you, from eating to advertising to the treatment of other people, unless you are on a clear mission with clear values, and with good support from a few friends, you'll be easily influenced by others. I mean others who DO have a clear mission or set of values. Sometimes that's a good thing, and sometimes it is a bad thing.

So in an area of life where you are weak and want to improve, find someone whose values you agree with and hang out (online or off) with such a person as much as possible. So it rubs off.

And above all, TEST and experience the new behaviors so you can see for yourself if they agree with you and make you feel like a better person.

How to tell a big income story w/new FTC regs

2009-10-16T00:20:00.000-07:00

I am not an attorney. But as a student of our industry and happy player, I am intrigued by the new regs, because I agree with their intent. But it's gonna be tricky.

Under the revised Guides,

"Advertisements that feature a consumer and convey his or her experience with a product or service as typical, when that is not the case, will be required to clearly disclose the results that consumers can generally expect.

Let's try one. Here is a typical income pitch:

"Jeff, a former waiter, made $12,500 in his first month, and you can too!"

Based on the FTC language above, this statement would not be allowed to stand alone anymore. Jeff's experience has been featured, and unless his result is "typical", the promiser must now 'clearly disclose' the income results that a prospect (consumer) "can generally expect" with that opportunity. What is typical? I'd bet that typical will likely be defined by others in the same company.

That means that you'd need to know what others in John's company made in their first month. And disclose that. E.g. "37 others made $3 in their first month."

The idea of this new rule is to stop the practice of making it look as if everyone is making big money, and that it's a cinch that you can too.

Because almost nobody does.

But I wonder, how much does that fact really matter?

Some people, like me, ARE drawn to the big winners. And I don't really care if or that no one else makes it. So what? What else is new?

Hearing or seeing the fact that almost no one else makes it, much less makes it big, would only inspire me more. Especially if I personally liked the product and thought it would do the world good.

(Couldn't resist, sorry.) Which is why I market the ER Fat Burn program for a tiny start up and have now used the FTC regs to do it in a fun way - see here. While most everyone HAS lost weight, there are many more fun angles to market it that I like much better. Weird food that burns fat, for example.

So I for one an NOT be deterred knowing almost no one else made it in anything I'm interested in. I already know the numbers. I don't care.

What about you? Would knowing that most people make NO money deflate you? Would you be disappointed that it is not easy, after all? Would you realize you cannot commit the time to make it work and then not have signed up?

That is the big question. And the conflict. If you wouldn't have gotten into the business knowing how few peeps make it, the recruiters and their companies would have lost a lot of money on you. Your initial order and sign-up fee, the conventions, the upline's leads programs, training materials, etc. Because you would have declined, knowing it's not easy up front.

This is of course why recruiters and companies don't want to tell the typical results up front, especially not at the rallies and conventions. They'd lose a big chunk of their income. Because fewer folks would sign up (under delusions of easy money). But the FTC has changed this. They have to tell now, if they use big income stories at all.

On the other hand, who cares that other peeps quit? I know almost no one makes it doing anything of their own. I don't give a hoot. I wanna do it anyway and that's the story.

What about you? How do you see the impact of having to tell the 'typical' income results when you tell how Jeff made $12,500 in his first month?

P.S. My recruiting stuff and customer base building stuff is all based on building without hype and promises you can't keep. It's what I did. And am doing.

P.P.S Use the discount code FTC today only, and get 25% recession discount. It's at the end of the order process.

Do you love your business THIS much?

2009-10-15T23:15:00.000-07:00

"Nothing is really work unless you'd rather be doing something else."- Chub De Wolf