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MLM Woman Issue 98 March 2005 This FREE monthly newsletter is made possible by our advertisers and customers. We thank them for their support! From the Desk of the Editor Welcome to the 98th issue of the MLM Woman Newsletter. This month we feature articles on clarifying your goals, ways to motivate yourself to do hard things, 4 dynamic marketing tactics, how your perception is your reality and how to improve your self image. Enjoy! Linda Locke, Editor MLM Woman Clarify Your Goals Tools to Help You Re-Energize and Re-Commit To Your Direction! By Connie Butler Copyright 2004 ConnieButler.biz All rights reserved. We are well into this "new" year and perhaps it is time to review where you are in terms of your intentions and goals for the year. By this time many of you may have drifted off course, if even slightly or even worse may have totally lost track of your true direction. So the question becomes how can you regain that fresh new start, energy and enthusiasm that can come in the first flush of setting an intention? One of the primary reasons people fail in their intentions or don't see them through is that they have not developed the emotional component of their direction or their dream sufficiently. Often people set goals that are more cerebral and not tied deeply enough to their natures and their true emotional satisfaction. For instance, setting a goal to reach a certain financial benchmark in a year, change a particular habit or reach another level of personal or professional development while being valid may not consistently engage you emotionally. The challenges of daily life, the unforeseen turbulence of events may derail your intentions - however good they may be. But if you can easily return to the REAL goal, the emotional goal you have a better chance of re-energizing your efforts. Clarity in this realm is essential and is the greatest course correction you can use. For instance, if you want to increase your income to a certain level this year my question would be how will you feel when you reach that? What will it give you emotionally, who will you BE then? This is a very personal question, it is not the same for everyone. When I lead my clients through an exercise to get at this each of them has a very distinct answer and experience. You have to discover what "the juice" is for you. So there are two parts to this question. What will it feel like? And also who will you be? Let's look at both of these. I will need to digress a tad here to start your inquiry into both of them. Human beings are the only species we are aware of who have the capacity to imagine. It is a magnificent faculty and one that is not only under used but also usually used wrongly. When you can harness it as a support for yourself and your life you not only have a treasure trove of inspiration and energy you also can develop more clarity about what you are really trying to accomplish. Many people habitually use their precious imagination to either subtly or blatantly undermine themselves. Every time you envision or expect the worst or even a negative outcome you are energetically and actually creating a block to your progress. Take the next week and notice what happens when your efforts get derailed or you find yourself missing the mark. I would suspect that most often, if only for a millisecond, you envision a negative outcome to the scenario. If these milliseconds accumulate you will find yourself heading in a direction completely opposed to your initial intent and often end up abandoning what it is that you want. Your emotional energy is drained. So I propose harnessing that magnificent and creative quality of imagination! Take a few moments and review what your intention is for the year, for the week or even for the day. Use your imagination in whatever way feels appropriate for you - visualize, sense, know, feel yourself in the place where that is accomplished and working well - you've attained that financial benchmark, your business has grown to the level you want, your personal life is humming along, you have created what it is that you wish to contribute to life. As you imagine that allow yourself to feel what it feels like - what are the emotions present. Is it power, safety, contentment, peace, joy? Be curious about what is really there for you (as I said this is very personal to you) and then let yourself taste that as deeply as you can. That is your emotional goal. That is the juice, the energy you need to keep yourself inspired and moving in concert with your life. When this is done fully and repeatedly you will be able to come back easily to your intention and it will also open up your own creativity. I am thinking now of a client recently who was working with this. She found herself in a situation with her children and others at an event. A very familiar chaos was ensuing and she was alert enough to notice she was falling into an old pattern of "Oh here we go again". But in the moment she caught herself imagining again the intention she had for the event and was able to find a fresh solution to the problem. She was truly amazed with the "in the moment" power of this. Another client who began a new business and was hitting a rough patch in its development kept going back to this to refresh his clarity about what he was really trying to accomplish. As he was able to bring the emotional component forward and feel it on a daily basis both his commitment and his focus returned. He stayed the course and is thriving. Don't underestimate the power and the elegance of this as an ongoing practice. When you are able to feel into the power of the emotional goal you will find that it is more deeply tied to who you are and where your satisfaction lies. The use of your imagination in this way becomes very inspiring and opens a place in you that finds new solutions, makes new connections and helps you sustain the creative energy you need to keep focused. The other question is "Who will you be?" If you can take your imagination another step and see or sense who you will be when your goal is accomplished you have a clear view into what you may need to develop in yourself to get there. For instance if you imagine the goal in its accomplished form - notice who you have become. Perhaps you are more confident, more patient, more trusting, more in charge of the decisions you make. What qualities do you need to develop in order to become that person? See if you can discover this and then go to work in bringing those qualities forward in yourself. Notice them in other, read about them, and find ways to practice them. Who we become as people is the basis of any of the success that we create in life. The growth in your professional life is truly your own individual and remarkable personal growth path. When you take this last step you begin to embody the success you want to achieve. You become more agile in your responses to situations and more able to see opportunities that may be right there staring you in the face. Once more I will quote this definition: "work\werk\n: an opportunity for discovering and shaping; the place where the self meets the world." "There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle" - Albert Einstein About the Author Connie Butler is a personal and professional coach working with individuals and groups to clarify their greatest vision and cultivate its successful realization moving them past their growth frontier into new territory. She is available for personal or professional coaching, seminars and can be reached at 305-534-1119 or connie@conniebutler.biz. For more information about her teleclass on Clarifying Your Goals, click here for more details. How to Do Hard Things By Suzanne Falter-Barns www.howmuchjoy.com One of the harsh little realities of pursuing a dream is that sooner or later, you're going to have to do some stuff you don't like very much. It's just plain inevitable. Enter procrastination. Dread. Meltdown. Complete inertia. But the prospect of doing the tough stuff doesn't have to stop you cold. To that end, I've been teasing out some different ways you can keep going. Here are a few of my favorites: * Play music. I learned this when I started running, or 'jogging' as we called it back in the 70's. Clamping on the headphones made it go so much better. Even today, as I pound the treadmill, it's just so much easier if I've got country music videos playing along while I work out. In fact, I recently saw a movie in which a soldier talks about overcoming his fear and going into battle by listening to heavy metal music piped into his helmet. Neurosurgeons, emergency room docs, and others in high-pressure operating theaters often play lightly upbeat, soothing music to keep stress under control as they work. * 'Bookend it'. This is a phrase the 12-steppers wisely use for calling up a supportive friend before AND after a tough task … just so you're accountable out there to someone. Use the phone or email and make that connection. You'll be less likely to procrastinate your way out of it. * Delegate. Got a task you just can't somehow do? I always have three or four lurking around the edges of my desk, until the day I rise up and give it away. Hire a local teenager, elderly person who wouldn't mind a little light work, a family member, or even a local odd-jobs person to come in one day and give you a hand with all or your 'hard stuff.' If the problem seems to be ongoing, hire a Virtual Assistant, from one of the on-line sources like AssistU.com. This is a person you hire on an hourly basis, usually in some other part of the country, who helps you electronically with all kinds of administrative needs. If you can't afford to find help, buddy up with a friend and offer to do each other's 'hard stuff' in an even swap. * Plan a big, juicy reward. We're talking one you seriously want …and the nastier the task, the bigger the reward. If you must, combine this with book-ending, to make sure you not only do the task, but reward yourself as well. * Dare yourself to not do it. Really imagine life without this particular task completed. Then see what the consequences are. Truly dire? If not, maybe you can actually drop the hard thing from your to-do list. On the other hand, will you be disappointed? Will things just not seem right somehow? Better use that image of disappointment to move your dream along. * Jump in, first thing. We tend to be fresher, and less conflicted, stressed or distracted first thing in the morning (post-coffee, of course.) That's the best time to seriously seize the day and do the hard thing. Success manuals all preach doing it first, and they're right. It works. * Envision the goal. Is it 1000 new subscribers to your ezine? Is it a potential big sale that will change your business, or leaving a job that will help you live your dream? Make a little note and park it somewhere that's frequently in your line of site, such as a Post It on your computer screen. (You can word it obscurely to protect your privacy in an open office environment.) By keeping you attention on the big picture, you'll naturally get less hung up on the day-to-day small stuff. * Impose a temporary goal. One of my dreaded tasks is vocalizing, or exercising my vocal cords every day in an effort to keep my singing voice in shape. Just about the only motivator I've found that works is always having a small performance just ahead … especially in times when I'm working on a long-term project that doesn't 'need' my voice anytime soon. Knowing I have to perform, even at a dinner party, keeps me interested in staying in shape. Same would apply if you want to work out on a regular basis. Find a charity fun run or walkathon you can get yourself in shape for. That should give you some fodder for facing the harsh realities of life, and getting on with those annoyingly procrastinated to-do's. Feng Shui experts insist this 'mental clutter' keeps us small and inefficient; once we actually go through the hard stuff, and clear out our anxiety and procrastination, we thrive. And guess what? They're absolutely right! TRY THIS … Create a better to-do list One of my little projects for the summer was to tame my unruly, wildly unreliable to-do list. Somehow it spilled out of my date book, spewing Post-Its all over my desk and computer, with another undocumented stack of tasks always clogging up my inbox. What to do? First I read David Allen's book, Getting Things Done, and a little light bulb went off in my head. Allen suggests organizing tasks by the location where you do them. So you maintain lists like 'At Computer', 'Errands', 'Office Time' and 'Calls to Make'. That's easy and efficient. Allen then has several suggestions on where to keep these lists. I choose the Tasks function of Outlook, on my computer, and boy is that terrific! Every day when I turn on my email, there's my task list staring me in my face. Productivity experts note that a graphic portrayal of tasks is actually helpful in understanding, and being motivated by them. Some are done, some are undone … and I can divide them into location lists, check lists, a timeline, or any kind of list I want at the click of a button. Not only that, the computer actually gets me to put a time frame on all tasks (if I want) and then reminds me when the deadline is near or past. This is just the kind of office structure a meandering, creative mind like mine (and yours?) needs to keep focused and on track. About the Author Suzanne Falter-Barns free ezine, The Joy Letter, brings you a crisp, fresh burst of inspiration for your dream every week or two. Sign up at http://www.howmuchjoy.com/joyletter.html. And if you need extra help getting through the tough parts, check out her Passion Connector e-course at http://www.howmuchjoy.com/passionconnect.html ©2005 Suzanne Falter-Barns LLC. 4 Dynamic Marketing Tactics Copyright 2005 Bob Leduc http://BobLeduc.com Some of the simplest marketing tactics often produce the most profitable results. Here are 4 examples that have proven highly effective for any business. 1. Focus on Your Best Prospects Imagine how profitable your business would be if more of your new customers were like the best customers you have now. Here's how you can make that happen... Take some time to analyze your current customers to determine what key traits they share - and why those traits make them ideal customers for you. Then revise your sales message to appeal specifically to them. This will increase both the number of new sales you get and the profitability of each new customer. 2. Pile on the Benefits Customers usually buy something to save time or to save money. Offer them an opportunity to do both and you will boost your sales. But offer them multiple opportunities to do both and you will cause your sales to soar dramatically. For example, structure your sales message to stress both the time saving and money saving benefits of your product or service. Then include a discount price offer if they buy before a certain deadline (more money saved). Finally, figure out how you can deliver all or some of what they are buying immediately (more time saved). Tip: If you cannot deliver all or part of your product immediately, add something to the purchase that you can deliver immediately. It can be as simple as a series of helpful tips related to your product posted on your web site ...but available only to new customers. 3. Make Buying Easy Make it easy for potential customers to buy from you and more will buy. Look for ways you can make your buying process easier - and faster. For example, design your selling procedure so prospects do not have to make unnecessary decisions. Every decision they have to make interrupts the buying process ...and diverts their attention away from completing the sale. Tip: Don't ask for unnecessary information during the ordering process. Instead, follow up after the sale with a personalized "thank you" message - and include a brief request for the information. 4. Follow Up - Again and Again Selling is not a one step process. Most people do not buy something the first time the see or hear about it. You can salvage many of these potential customers with an effective follow up system. Your follow up can be as simple as contacting these prospects periodically with a new offer. Or, better yet, follow up periodically with some useful information ...and don't charge them for it. You'll build a supportive relationship that gains their trust - and eventually the sale. Tip: Make sure you have a way to get the email addresses of visitors to your web site. You need it to follow up with them. For example, offer them a complimentary special report or other useful information ...delivered only by email. Each of these 4 dynamic marketing tactics provides a simple way for you to boost your sales and profits quickly. They are simple to use, highly effective and require very little if any new expense. About the Author Bob Leduc spent 20 years helping businesses like yours find new customers and increase sales. He just released a New Edition of his manual, How To Build Your Small Business Fast With Simple Postcards ...and launched *BizTips from Bob*, a newsletter to help small businesses grow and prosper. You'll find his low-cost marketing methods at: http://BobLeduc.com or call: 702-658-1707 After 10 AM Pacific Time/Las Vegas, NV Perception is Reality By Wendy Weiss I was never supposed to be a speaker, author and sales trainer. I was supposed to be a ballerina. I grew up in Pittsburgh, PA. My mother has told me that when I was a small child I would constantly turn on the radio and dance. She said I had no sense of rhythm so she enrolled me in ballet class. That was the beginning of a first career and a great passion. As a child I danced with Pittsburgh Ballet Theater, always one of the child guests in Act I of Nutcracker. As I grew older, it was the corps de ballet, Snowflake and Waltz of the Flowers. I was even the Sugar Plum Fairy a few times! At age 17 I moved to New York City to dance, and like every artist in the City, needed a day job. At first I waited on tables. Then I found something more lucrative and more fun - telemarketing. An ad in "Backstage," the trade publication we would read to look for auditions, caught my attention. It was an ad for a telemarketing company. They would hire actors because actors can read scripts. (Hiring tip: If you are looking for a part time telemarketer - hire an actor.) The job was calling high-level executives and setting new business appointments. I got the job and was really good at it. Who knew? Ballet dancers don't even talk. Eventually the telemarketing company started to give me all the "hard leads," the Presidents, the CEO's, the people who "didn't take cold calls." I'd call them, get them on the line, have a great conversation and set up the meeting. It was fun and it was easy. Years later when I started my training and coaching business I thought all that was necessary was to show clients a system and help them write a good script and we would be finished. Imagine my surprise upon discovering all of the human and psychological barriers people face when prospecting by telephone. That sent me back to the basics to think about not only the system and scripts but also the thought process and mind set as well. I realized something fascinating. At the time of that initial telemarketing job, I was 19, rather naive and inexperienced in the ways of the world. I lived in a small apartment with four other dancers. I made very little money. Yet, when I would pick up the telephone to call that CEO or President, believe it or not, I felt that I was superior. I may have been calling someone who made 100 times more money, someone who lived in a wonderful house or apartment, someone whom everyone would consider to be the epitome of success, yet I felt superior because I was an artist. My belief system at the time was simply that artists are superior in every respect. It never occurred to me that prospects would be anything but delighted to speak with me. While my mind set and beliefs about the business and corporate world, my place in it and my "superiority" have changed drastically over the years, that belief system was what enabled me to successfully pick up the telephone and speak easily with high-level executives. Perception is reality. Although my life circumstances at the time were far from ideal I didn't view it that way. The thoughts and beliefs that you have about yourself directly impact your ability to perform and be successful. While it is not necessary to believe yourself to be superior, as once upon a time I did, it is imperative that you see yourself and your prospects as peers and equals. If you do not, it is time to change your thought patterns. Instead of thinking about how important your prospect is, think about all of the ways that your prospects and customers need you. Think about how you help. Think about the benefits that you bring. Start to see yourself as an equal with something of value to offer. Determine that your prospects will be happy to speak and work with you. Perception becomes reality. I close with my all time favorite quote by Henry Ford who said: "Either you think you can or you think you can't and either way you're right." © 2004 Wendy Weiss About the Author Wendy Weiss, "The Queen of Cold Calling & Selling Success," is a sales trainer, author and sales coach. Her book, Cold Calling for Women, and the recently released Cold Calling College, can be ordered by visiting http://www.wendyweiss.com. Contact her at wendy@wendyweiss.com. Get her free e-zine at http://www.wendyweiss.com. Who Do You Believe You Are? By Dr Jill Ammon-Wexler Pioneer brain/mind researcher http://www.quantum-self.com © 2005 All Rights Reserved. If I asked you to describe yourself, what image would you paint? Another way to put this is: Who do you believe you are? Your self-image is exactly what the term says ­ an image consisting of the mosaic of ideas you hold about your own self. In short ­ how you view your capabilities and skills, your body, your mind and your personal potential. While almost everyone agrees that it's important to have a good self-image, very few people seem to know how to acquire one ­ or even how they got the self-image they now have. The History of Your Self Image You began to form your self image and sense of "worth" as a very young child. As you interacted with the important people in your life, you received messages from them about yourself ­ their responses to your actions. These messages settled into your impressionable subconscious mind. As these messages collect, they seem to take on a life all their own ­ creating what will become your self image. Then "belief" moves in, and sets those messages into mental cement. In short ­ we come to BELIEVE that we actually ARE that subconscious collection of other people's impressions of us. This process has continued even to this day in your life ­ but largely as a reinforcement of what you already believe about your self. Wow. Think about that for a moment. The interesting thing about "beliefs" is that they are usually NOT open to question or reason. We just BELIEVE them to be so. So if you BELIEVE that you lack self-confidence, are a poor public speaker, don't know how to lead others, will never be successful, don't have the capability to create a good relationship, and so on ­ guess what. You will defend that belief even to yourself! This occurs because the intense emotional component attached to a belief automatically causes our brain to resist any attempt to question it with "reason." And in the meantime your subconscious mind, which has a photographic memory of every event that went into the making of your self-concept beliefs, will make SURE your actions reflect your beliefs. How to Overhaul Your Self-Image Your self image determines what you will (and will not) achieve in your life. So if you are not who you want to be, or are not living the life you want to live, the place to start is with an overhaul of your self image. Anything else will just create more of the same. After over 30 years in the field of psychology, there is one thing I can absolutely guarantee to you. That one this is this: YOU ARE ABSOLUTELY *NOT* WHO YOU THINK YOU ARE! Your self image does not mirror who you really are today. You are NOT that collection of painful or limiting memories. You are not that kid who was always told to speak only when spoken to. You are not that "clumsy" Girl who fell a lot only because she needed corrective glasses. You are not "stupid" because you had more interest in drawing than reading and math. You are not "a failure" because your first lemonade stand (or MLM business) was a total bust. You are none of those things. You are *not* your past history. So stop *believing* that old stuff ­ and stop acting as though it were true . Here's a reminder of what you REALLY are: 1. You are Totally Unique There is literally no one else like you. No one else thinks like you, has your ideas, or does things the way you do things. No one else has your unique set of talents and abilities. Your brain is as unique as your fingerprints. No one has your mind and memories. No one! You are NOT "ordinary." Actually no one is! Stand up and carry yourself with dignity, because this IS your life. You and only you live in your skin ­ and it is your unique right to decide how to best do that. 2. Your "Limits" are Not Real It is today an accepted truth that we really create our own reality. You have a choice to simply REACT to what is happening to and around you ­ or you can choose to RESPOND. There's a big difference between reacting and responding. Reacting is an automatic knee-jerk response to life ­ while responding involves a conscious choice. You can respond to your desire for a better self-image by taking conscious action to replace those old beliefs. Simply begin to challenge those old "beliefs" about yourself. Drag them out of your dark subconscious into the sunlight of conscious examination. 3. You Have Unlimited Personal Power Here's something else I can guarantee: Most of those old limiting beliefs about you will NOT hold up under conscious examination! And once you begin to challenge this old stuff, you will discover that what you thought were your "limits" do not exist. The greatest personal power you have is the power to choose your own thoughts. Read that sentence again! The late Earl Nightingale said: "You become what you think." The truth of this is to powerful it is almost overwhelming. You and you alone decide what you will think -- and what you will believe your limits and potentials are. And you and you alone will decide what to do with this awesome power. The fact is: YOU can recreate yourself, and build and strengthen virtually any aspect of your being or area of your life. Just choose to consciously BUILD YOUR OWN BELIEFS and take action! What I like to say is this: Just stand up and roar like a lion! About the Author Come visit the exciting Self Discovery Community. Discover the most interesting, unusual, stimulating and creative methods of self discovery on the web today! Free sizzling weekly ezine, and the web's first Brain Gym ezone. http://www.quantum-self.com Back to the MLM Woman Newsletter Index We want your feedback! Send e-mail comments to Linda at: regent@west.net Copyright 2005, Regent Press