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From the Desk of the Editor
Who Packed Your Parachute?
Sometimes in the daily challenges that life gives us, we miss what is really important. We may fail to say hello, please, or thank you, congratulate someone on something wonderful that has happened to them, give a compliment, or just do something nice for no reason.
Charles Plumb, a US Naval Academy graduate, was a jet pilot in Vietnam. After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected and parachuted into enemy lands. He was captured and spent 6 years in a communist Vietnamese prison. He survived the ordeal and now lectures on lessons learned from that experience.
One day, when Plumb and his wife were sitting in a restaurant, a man at another table came up and said, "You're Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk.
You were shot down!" "How in the world did you know that?" asked Plumb. "I packed your parachute," the man replied.
Plumb gasped in surprise and gratitude. The man pumped his hand and said, "I guess it worked!" Plumb assured him, "It sure did. If your chute hadn't worked, I wouldn't be here today."
Plumb couldn't sleep that night, thinking about that man. Plumb says, "I kept wondering what he might have looked like in a Navy uniform: A white hat, a bib in the back, and bell bottom trousers. I wonder how many times I might have seen him and not even said good morning, how are you or anything because, you see, I was a fighter pilot, and he was just a sailor."
Plumb thought of the many hours the sailor had spent on a long wooden table in the bowels of the ship, carefully weaving the shrouds and folding the silks of each chute, holding in his hands each time the fate of someone he didn't know.
Now, Plumb asks his audience, "Who's packing your parachute?"
Everyone has someone who provides what they need to make it through the day. Plumb also points out that he needed many kinds of parachutes when his plane was shot down over enemy territory - he needed his physical parachute, his mental parachute, his emotional parachute, and his spiritual parachute. He called on all these supports before reaching safety. His experience reminds us all to prepare ourselves to weather whatever storms lie ahead.
As you go through this week, this month, this year... recognize people who pack your parachute!
Note: I found this article while surfing the net but was unable to find out the author's name. If you know the author, please let me know so I can give them proper credit.
Linda Locke, Editor MLM Woman
The Top 10 Tips for Juggling Work and Family Life By Natalie A. Gahrmann
1. Build a support network.
Ask for help and allow yourself to be helped and contributed to. Get your children involved--work together as a team. Recruit friends, family, neighbors, bosses, work colleagues, etc. and ask for their support. Create back-up and emergency plans; always have a contingency.
2. Let go of guilt.
Guilt is one of the greatest wastes of emotional energy. It causes you to become immobilized in the present because you are dwelling on the past. Guilt can be very debilitating. By introducing logic to help counter-balance the guilt you can stay better on course.
3. Establish boundaries.
Boundaries are an imaginary line of protection that you draw around yourself. They are about protecting you from other people's actions.
Determine for yourself what is acceptable and unacceptable behavior from other people.
4. Determine your own standards.
Get rid of the notion of being a perfectionist. Wean yourself off it by making compromises--figure out where the best places to make the compromises are without short-changing yourself, your spouse, your children, your boss, etc. Live by your own standards rather than someone else's. Standards are about YOU and refer to the behavior and actions you are willing to hold yourself to.
5. Find time for yourself.
Being a good parent, partner and professional means being good to yourself first. Use your mind to make some affirmations for yourself. Find ways to relax, relieve tension and minimize stress. Taking some time off for yourself will not only benefit you, but it will benefit your family tremendously!
6. Get Organized.
Set priorities, work smarter not harder, delegate (and really let go!). Create lists and save them for re-use. Keep a main calendar centrally located to post everyone's activities.
7. Be flexible.
Forgive yourself when things don't get done. Understand that with children things change at a moment's notice. Be ready and willing to assume responsibility for any of the tasks that need to get done at any time. Never get too comfortable, because as soon as you seem to get things under control, they change! Also, realize that in order to achieve success many women have had to give up their original goals and substitute new ones with different but equal challenges. Negotiate for what you need.
8. Enjoy quality family time.
Spend quality/focused time with your family. Give them your full attention. Develop rituals you can all look forward to. Create relationships with your spouse and children that are not incidental but rather instrumental to your success.
9. Find reliable child care.
Leave your kids in capable hands. Find someone you feel comfortable and confident in. If you're feeling ambivalent about working or about leaving your child, etc. do not show it--your child (at any age) will pick right up on it. Feel proud when you've found someone who fits into your needs. Get involved with your child's care providers by communicating frequently and observing interactions between caregiver and your child.
10. Achieve balance.
Keep things in perspective. Create harmony in your life--a mixture of work, family and friends. Remember, there is no single formula for balance. It is a personal decision how one combines spouse, children and career.
About the Author:
Natalie works with working moms who are small business owners, professionals, corporate employees or running a home-based business and want to achieve greater success and satisfaction in their personal and/or professional life. She also leads groups for working moms which offer support, 'friends', and an opportunity to dialogue with moms who want to have a healthy balance between their personal and professional lives. Phone (908) 281-7098; Fax: (908) 281-6277; email: natalie@nrgcoaching.com. Website: www.nrgcoaching.com.
Turning Spam into Productive Leads By Frances Anna Smith, Australia
I love Spam!! (The email kind, not the tinned kind - ugh!)
Every time I receive a spammed letter, I look for the lemonade in this lemon - the email address!
I reply to the person, thanking him/her for their Information, and invite them to consider my offer. The amount of response I have had to this is amazing! (Maybe it is because I don't abuse them). The truth is that these are people just like you and me - they are out there trying to make a dollar too, so I help them to do it.
If you have a good product or service, it is quite often in stark contrast to the average spam letter- the opportunity to make millions with no effort (pleeeeease!!) or the latest gimmick.
Of course there are always the idiots who really don't genuinely want to put in any effort, but I find I have a positive response rate of around 40%.
And the best thing - it is FREE!!
More from Frances.....
Ever had a really bad day?
I had one yesterday - from 2 a.m. until 10 p.m. Everything was unproductive. I was returning from a frustrating trip to Canberra (our National Capital) by train. My bag was stolen, it rained and I was not a happy vegemite! ?
I was looking for the silver lining in this awful day.
On arrival at the station, I caught a cab back home. The driver had just had an accident which damaged his cab to the tune of two days work.
So he wasn't very happy either!
I asked him how he felt about the cab industry - resulting in amazing verbal diarrhea!!
Here was my silver lining - an opening to suggest we meet to discuss a business alternative for him. He dropped me at 10.30 p.m. and returned with his wife at 11.30 p.m. We had a very successful presentation at midnight over a nice hot coffee.
The point of this story is to remind you of the power of awareness - keeping your ears open to casual remarks and asking questions.
And it is fun - after all, the day ended on a positive note for both of us!!
Frances Smith lives in Australia. She is a dedicated professional Networker (at Diamond level in her MLM Company) and a contributing writer to MLMTruth. For other hints and free reports email her at: francesannasmith@bigpond.com.au To subscribe to the ezine, send a blank Email to: mlmtruthfrances-subscribe@listbot.com
Advice from A-Z
A Cynical Spouse is Converted to a True Business Partner By Azriela Jaffe, © 1999
Thomas Sandor of Coos Bay, Oregon had a problem - a wife, Renee, who didn't think too highly of his decision to involve himself in Network Marketing companies. His speeches and passionate sales pitches to her fell on deaf ears, especially when the money wasn't exactly - shall we say it nicely - overwhelming their savings account. Then Renee stumbled upon her own Network Marketing opportunity and to Thomas' amazement and delight, she became not only accepting of his career choice, but a true partner. Thomas recently wrote to me:
"I've been in the Marketing /Sales Business for the past 25 years, but for only one year have I been active on the 'Net. There have been many adjustments to make and many nights wondering if what I'm doing is really building a future for my wife, Renee, and I.
"You know, as well as I, that there is a lot of hype in the air about marketing on the Web. Everybody's out to appease everybody else's urge for instant gratification. I'm just as guilty as the next person when it comes to falling into this trap. I see a business venture that states: Make more money than you ever dreamed possible from the comfort of your home, I get jazzed, sign up and 72 hours later, when my mailbox is not flooded with cash and checks, I start thinking the company screwed me, the deal was too good to be true, etc. The worst is when I get people I know personally to buy something from me (because of me), only to find the company went out of business, was shut down, or skipped town. Instant gratification is quickly turned into overnight dissatisfaction!"
"Needless to say, in these circumstances, my wife was wondering where all the money was that I kept talking about making! She only saw money going out and nothing coming in. And then something really cool happened. Renee found a product that she liked while surfing the 'Net. The people she communicated with were honest and integrity was high on their list. She got a sample of the product and it worked for her. I got up on the 'Net to see who these people were and found out that they relied on Network Marketing. I told my wife that if she liked the product and the company she could become a distributor for very little money."
"To make a long story short, Renee is now making just as much, if not more, money than I am! We sit down and have business meetings. We share ideas, dreams, and realities! I know now that she doesn't feel like I'm living in a cloud, that the ideas are real, and with hard work and integrity, we can create a successful business together on the 'Net. What makes me so excited, and the reason I just had to write to you is that now WE are doing it together, for US, not just me, not just her, but us."
Like many smart entrepreneurial couples, they have split up the business and each does what they do best. Thomas is the sales/marketing expert and Renee handles all the administration. Thomas reports, after a year of working together: "We're having fun, making money, and still sleeping in the same bed!"
If you are trying to convince a spouse to believe in you and your new business, but the money isn't quite there yet, and you've been suckered into a scam or two in the past, you will likely be blocked in all attempts to find a receptive ear from your mate. Can you blame him or her? Your spouse probably feels a responsibility to talk some sense into you, and also, a strong need to protect themselves from being hurt by your crazy ideas. He or she is angry and frightened, after all, what happens to your money also happens to your spouse, and every bad deal you enter is a rotten deal for them as well. Even when the results start becoming more positive, and you are sure that this time you have landed yourself the right fish, it may take a long time and some substantial profit before your spouse will stop telling you to fish someplace safer.
I share Thomas' story for three reasons. First, I want you to see that no matter how unsupportive your spouse is initially, there is always hope.
Second, you can learn from Thomas that the solution to igniting your spouse's enthusiasm for your business may not lie with you. Your spouse may need to be turned on by someone totally outside of your marriage or family, an individual who she will listen to because that person is not her spouse who has gone off once again pursuing one of his crazy ideas. She may have made up her mind about you, but she's still open to seeing potential in the work of others who have not hurt her before.
Third, I want you to hear the joy in his voice and the delight he experiences now that he and his wife are united in a common purpose. It is exceedingly painful when a spouse does not support or endorse your choice of business venture. The triumphant feeling you get when your spouse not only comes around, but joins you, is better than what you'll feel when you land your biggest customer, because you just did.
About The Author . . .
Azriela Jaffe is a syndicated columnist and author of the New book "Starting from No: Ten Strategies to Overcome Your Fear of Rejection and Succeed in Business" and several other self-help books. She welcomes reader response and questions to PO Box 209, Bausman, PA 17504 or az@azriela.com. For free online newsletters for entrepreneurs, visit her Anchored Dreams website at: http://www.isquare.com/crlink.htm
Sell with E-mail Four ways to make email sales letters produce results. By Terry Matson, ColoradoSoft, Inc
E-mail is one of the greatest selling tools ever invented. It's fast, personal, and almost free. Here are some simple ways to make your e-mail sales letters more effective.
1. Keep your letter short and action-packed. Few people enjoy reading on a computer monitor. If your customer opens your e-mail message to find it scrolls on paragraph after paragraph, they will usually either delete it or save it to read later (and never get back to it).
Try to pack your most important information into just three or four short paragraphs. Let customers know they can access your autoresponder or web site for much more detailed information. That way those who want to know more can get those details.
2. Start your letter with a headline or single-sentence paragraph that clearly tells the reader what big benefit you are offering them. Tell the reader how their life will be improved when they use your product or service. Look for ways that your offer will increase their income, give them more time, make them look better, or help your reader have more fun.
3. Make your letter as personalized as you can. This is the great secret to good marketing and selling. You may need to break your recipient list down into subcategories. For example, if you have lots of firemen and lots of school teachers in your group, you will do far better to send two letters. One should speak directly to school teacher interests while the second should approach things from the firefighter's point of view. Many big-time ad campaigns produce different commercials for six or more sub-groups in their audience. Your e-mail sales letters can do the same thing.
4. Whenever possible, use the recipient's name. Use their name in the subject line, in the salutation at the beginning, and later in the body of your e-mail sales letter.
Using "Dear Stephanie" rather than "Dear customer" can easily double or triple sales. Your reader's ears perk up when they hear their own name.
Terry Matson is the the founder and president of ColoradoSoft, Inc., which publishes the award-winning WorldMerge emailing program. This FREE program allows you to send personalized email to your contact list with the click of a button, and works seamlessly with your address book or database program. Download your copy now at: http://www.coloradosoft.com
Article provided by EZ News Wire at http://www.e-zinez.com.
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