We all wish each other a Happy New Year and most of us make all sorts of resolutions and new goals for the year ahead. Sadly most of those goals are never reached and within a month or so the resolutions are cast aside.

This is simply because we do not approach them in the right way. Big goals and dreams are great but they will be achieved in small daily steps, not in spectacular leaps.

One of the keys to this is to change daily habits. Small changes to our habits cement whole new patterns of behaviour and result in spectacular achievements in the end but not in the short term.

Here is my wish for you:

Please share your thoughts and feelings with me as I love to get your responses

My mentor Marcello Lisi built his business to diamond but for 2 years he received no income from it for complex personal reasons. Yet he kept building and what kept him going was his team. This is a fantastic example of Zig Ziglar’s advice that if you help others to get what they want, you will receive everything you want.

Right in the midst of dark times is when our integrity is tested. Yet that is just the time to hold true to our principles. Such a philosophy and integrity is something we should all emulate.

Please leave a comment below. I love to get your feedback.

You will need to find a network marketing training mentor now that you have started your business. You can find out the hard way by spending a lot of money over the next few months. But it is better to know how to assess a mentor.

To be successful in building your business, you must have a mentor. This business is about teamwork. Your mentor must be someone:

1. Who is still actively building a business
2. Who is successful and earning a substantial income
3. Who really has experienced the rough and the smooth

You do not need someone with an employer mentality. You want to find a good teacher. You want personal, one on one live professional support, not just emails and auto responders. Do some research; talk to satisfied network marketers; research the background of a potential mentor.
You have expectations of your company so apply those to a mentor.

• You should be able to access archived audio and video programmes previously offered by a mentor
• Your mentor should encourage personal development and endorse this by practising himself
• You should expect a prompt response to your queries, either by email or phone
Your mentor should be a good pointer. When he cannot directly help you towards your goals, he should send you to someone who can.

Look for the best and build a relationship that will last for the long term. Though it may not be wise to have too many teachers, working with more than one mentor, each with different strengths can be beneficial. But remember that you are building your business so ensure that having more than one guide does not cause confusion.

Be receptive to advice but do not allow your essential nature to be compromised by someone who cannot see the real ‘you’. Once you find the right network marketing training mentor, you will experience a remarkable and rewarding relationship.

There is an old saying that you get what you pay for, which implies that the more you pay, the better value you get. We are suspicious of the worth of things that are free. Napoleon Hill draws attention to this in ‘Think and Grow Rich’. However I came across a whole system of mentoring and coaching that is entirely free and of the highest quality.
So if you are seeking a network marketing training mentor put your credit card in the freezer and surprise yourself.

If they’re breathing, sponsor’em! Well we don’t do that anymore….or do we? Many companies still push ‘recruit, recruit’, even if the methods are more tailored to the 20^th century and the internet. So let’s look at some points:

• Should you always lead with the business?
• Indeed should you lead with everyone you meet?
• Who do you want in your team?

Let me share my experience of a conventional business I started back in 1981. Some of you know I had a small construction business then. In my first couple of years I used to take on pretty much any work that came my way. Full order books; wrong strategy; not profitable. I wasn’t focused on a niche and I was doing work for which my skills were not best suited.

Then I learnt what my strong points were. I developed the courage to turn work away and I became profitable, without ever needing to advertise.

‘So what,’ you say, ‘this is network marketing.’ But there are parallels so let me explain.

Most people get into this profession and they think that the secret is to sponsor as many folk as possible. Always lead with the business because at least you will get a customer if they don’t want to join your team. Whereas, so the argument goes, it takes too long to convert a customer into a business builder.

So how do you really build this business? You find a number of committed distributors; build a culture of friendship and community; help each other to establish a solid team where attrition is at a minimum and product is being sold. If you just sponsor them in, there will be a high drop out rate.

If someone joins you as a raw, green newbie, they must understand what it takes to be successful and they must be coach-able. Of course you encourage them to grow as leaders and develop their critical thinking but you must all work in harmony with the system you use and the ethos of your team.

Art Jonak, one of the industry’s 7 figure earners, often advises people to work on developing just 1 leg at a time till it is really strong and past the point of collapse. Of course this strategy may depend on how your compensation plan works. Neither is Art suggesting that all lead generation and sponsoring stops dead while you work on that line. You need a balance.

Did I mention selling products? At my weekly team meeting, which is online as we are world wide, the first part is dedicated to product testimonials and customer building (health & wellness). Don’t forget that MLM is just a different way of getting products to the end consumer – sales. Without plenty of committed, long term customers, there will be no residual income to enable you to spend your time on a sun soaked beach. Our team leader constantly hammers this point and as he happens to be the top earner in my company, I tend to listen to him.

The second two bullet points overlap. I have heard so many stories of people reaching the top, despite not seeming to have the qualities we expect in a successful network marketer. I’ve seen it too. It is wrong to pre-judge as we never know the steel and determination that someone has inside despite appearances.

But here are some things to think about:

• Would you like to be on a 30 day cruise with them? You might not become intimate friends, but you will have to work closely together.
• Are they coach-able, willing to learn and to be part of a team? There is no place for pride and ego in team building.
• Do they truly want to change their situation?
• Are they prepared to do whatever it takes to succeed? Far more than just doing their best.
• Do they have a long term vision?

I’m sure you will feel there are other and maybe more important considerations so I would love you to share your thoughts. Leave me a comment.

How important is a long term business plan? What should you expect to see? Ten or twenty years; fifty years? Of course things can change drastically despite the best laid plans and intentions. However, if a network marketing company has been set up truly for the sake of the distributors, then it is reasonable to expect a long term plan to be in place.

Am I being too fussy? Do you think I am scaremongering? As a mentor and student of the industry I have seen too many examples of people who set up a company, milked it and then allowed it to collapse. In some cases they have gone public with it. Despite what you might think, this is not to the advantage of the distributors. The shareholders pull the strings; decisions are taken to satisfy them; they take dividends and less is paid to the guys in the field – you and me.

Closely tied up with this pillar is the final one – stated core values. And I mean stated; not just assumed because you imagine they must be there. Of course things change and sometimes the best intentioned person goes off the rails. That is human nature. But with what you will be investing in your business in money, emotion, energy and hard sweat; surely you must expect to see clearly stated solid values. Look for those too.

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What are your thoughts on these points? Where does your company stand? Leave a comment and share your feelings.

We all talk about having a system to build a network marketing business. Why is it so important? The point of building residual income is so that you can walk away from the business at some point. If your system is built around individual people, not everyone will be able to do the same thing. So when you step out of the equation, your business will collapse.

Another key point is to what extent the company really puts the distributor first. Many say they do but would they listen to and take on board comments made by the people at the bottom of the compensation plan? Is the company president accessible on the phone? Many of them are surrounded by barriers you could hardly get through with a tank!

When you start a home based business, you are going to invest a lot of time and energy and some cash too. You are hoping to build a fantastic future. Don’t start with the cards stacked against you.

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If this sparks your interest, take a look at the two previous posts (parts 1 & 2). The last part will be up soon.                                                                                                                           Your comments are always appreciated.

So you are happy with the company and the timing in the industry – great. Now what about the product? there are a few points to consider here. For one thing you definitely need a repeat sale product. I tried vainly once, to build a business with a single sale product. It’s kind of hard to build residual income when customers don’t come back!

Now do you understand the compensation plan? Probably not but most people don’t get all the detail. You just need to be able to crunch the numbers. Work out how many people you need in your team, ordering product on a regular basis (distributors and customers) to earn 10K per month. As long as you know that, you can plan your strategy. It can vary from 400 to 5000, which is quite a thought.

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I would love you to leave a comment. How important do you think these points are? Parts 3 & 4 to come.

We always have to take responsibility for our success and failure in life. A mentality of blame is that of losers who always look for excuses. Nevertheless, network marketing is not always a level playing field. I know many people who have worked really hard, doing everything they were told to do  and yet success eluded them.

Think of it this way, if you put to sea in a boat with holes in, what will happen, no matter how hard you paddle or rev the engine? So although ultimately we must accept that maybe we made choices that could have been different (responsibility) still if you know some things first, you can make better choices (enlightened action).

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Leave a comment and let me know what you think. Look out for the next 3 in the series.

I’m sure you will say ‘yes of course’ and for most of you that will be true. But let me share something that happened to me once.

I previously worked with an old, established MLM company and in the business presentation much was made of the integrity and moral values of the founder etc. One would have expected these values to be the norm within the distributor network. Well there were things that I heard about that didn’t seem quite right but I brushed them under the carpet.

Then one day my sponsor knowingly prospected someone who was on my list. ‘Well, you’ve got to be quick’ was the response I got. Contrast that attitude with my present team where, for example, if one of us gets a lead with whom it is really difficult to work – perhaps we don’t speak the same language – we will give that lead to another distributor. And that other distributor may be cross line, so we do not personally benefit. The concern is for the prospect and the good of the team.

What is a culture and why is it so important? All the great leaders in network marketing are notable for building a very strong team culture. Art Jonak, Orrin Woodward, Randy Gage, Orjan Saele and others build their success and greatness on a culture of solid moral values:

• Integrity
• Honesty
• Mutual support
• Trust
• True comradeship
• Moral values

When their team members gather, everybody feels equally valued. There are no attempts to ‘outdo’ others. Private confidences are never breached. Even the raw newbie feels supported and respected as much as the successful ‘diamond’ distributor. There is complete loyalty within the team.

I believe that such a culture creates a very strong foundation for individual success and the long term stability of the team. After all, this business is all about team work. A team meeting should be like the gathering of a warm and closely knit family. Everyone cares for one another.

Being part of such a team has contributed in large measure to my success. It is something you should all foster if it is not yet the norm in the organisation that you are part of. If it is already there, validate it constantly and encourage new team members to embrace it.

Remember the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. To live by this means we have to put aside our individual ego and embrace something bigger. Yet, in doing that, we also become stronger. We become part of a system and that will endure.

Leave a comment. What do you think and what has been your experience?

It’s November already; 2010 is nearly over. Are you going to be able to wear that t-shirt? I’m sure you all started the year with goals and targets for 2010. You certainly should have done so. Have you achieved them?

For many the answer will be ‘no’. Now what does that mean? First there is no need to over-react. If you have set the bar high, then falling short does not indicate terrible failure but some self assessment is a good thing.

• Were your targets realistic?
• Has your activity been consistent enough?
• Have you applied course corrections?
• Is more personal development needed?
• Are you really duplicating the system you are using?

How big should your goals be? Pie in the sky dreams with no pragmatic plan to achieve them just lead to frustration when you don’t reach them. But network marketing is all about dreaming. My advice is that you should definitely have some really big and exciting dreams up on your vision board (you have one of course?). But then the strategy for getting there should be broken down into realistic steps – both monthly and annually.

One of the essential keys to success is to apply the principle of the Slight Edge – the progressive realisation of a worthy ideal. ‘Progressive’ is the magic ingredient. Your actions must be performed on a daily basis. Bursts of activity, catching up on the weekend or when you have a couple of days off is not the way to build momentum.

Have you ever tried to push start a car with a flat battery? You apply steady pressure and it takes a little while before the car starts rolling fast enough the jump the engine into life. Ease back on that pressure and the car never gets going fast enough.

Now course correction is one to think about. I’m not talking about flitting like a butterfly. You must adopt lead generation strategies and work them diligently. But you know how the Apollo moon rocket was off course more than 90% of the time. The engineers were constantly adjusting the flight. It’s the same for us. You must fine tune unless you are successfully bringing in a constant flow of leads, regularly converting to new business partners. If 3 or 4 months go by and you have been truly consistent in your activity, then be prepared to examine how you are working if you are not getting the results you want.

Regular personal development work is essential. Stable growth in your business comes from development in your downline. Building leaders is essential. But if you are not becoming a better leader and inspiring your team to grow, you will be constantly baby minding a group of under achievers. Aim to spend at least an hour a day studying books or audios. Work with a mastermind group as well if you can.

You must have a duplicateable system in place to build your business. But even if you have this, it is very easy to drift and to begin to introduce your own modifications. I have seen this with people using the very successful system I have in place. I have been guilty myself. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it – at least till you reach the top.

So be prepared to take stock of your progress. Work with your mentor and take his or her advice. But above all don’t get into a knee jerk reaction. In his book ‘The Multi-Level Money Machine’, Randy Gage states that it can take 2 to 4 years to establish a good income. It might take longer and you might be pushing the car for a fair bit of that time.

So what else would you add to this list? Leave a comment and let me know what you think.