It’s an interesting debate, as you’ll soon see.

On one hand there are those who feel that every effort should be made to uncover the root causes of what went wrong, analyse what happened and why, and use this as the basis for a strong, robust strategy and plan to avoid these problems in the future. I must admit, as a former engineer, this position has a lot of merit.

On the other hand there are those who feel that looking to uncover the root causes and do the analysis runs the risk of focusing on the past, of taking valuable and limited time that could be spent on more useful or value-adding activities. This too is a position that has merit!

So, what to do, which one to choose?

Before choosing, let’s just stop and think for a moment.

Some of you will know I trained and practiced as an engineer (OK, it was a while ago, but still…!). You’ll also know I have a solid background in continuous improvement too, with a heavy emphasis on analysis and data.

So you’d be forgiven for thinking this is an easy choice to make.

Well, it isn’t!

And here’s why.

I know from the experiences I have had, and countless others have had, that where processes dominate a situation in terms of performance, or lack of performance, then performing a root cause analysis – finding out the most fundamental reasons for failure to perform – is the right thing to do.

And selling is a process, right?

So, do the root cause analysis…

EXCEPT…

Sales is not just about process. It’s also about buying, and it’s also about emotion.

I’ve also learned (the hard way, initially…) that when people and emotions play a big, even dominant role, a root cause analysis is often largely a wasted effort in terms of actually contributing to and enabling a better approach and outcome in the future.

Why?

Well, root causes that are, to pardon the pun, rooted in people, are incredibly difficult to find, verify and measure. The analysis becomes too subjective, and this can add to existing tensions in relationships, or more often, create these tensions in the first place.

And because there is limited credibility and agreement about the actual list of root causes and their relative contributions to the overall problem, and plan based on eliminating these root causes is similarly lacking in credibility and buy in – and that leads to problems in implanting any fix, no matter how brilliant the fix actually is.

So, back to the original dilemma – do the root cause analysis, or not… learn from the mistakes of the past & others, or press on, perhaps blindly?

Well, a dilemma in my book, occurs when I’m faced with just 2 choices, neither of which is particularly attractive.

What I try to do in these situations is create a third (or fourth…) option that is more attractive.

And I do the same here.

Option 3 is to do a little of both! Learn from the mistakes while ALSO focusing on how you want your future success to be.

OK, I know what you’re thinking now – you’re thinking that I’m cheating, or fudging the issue somehow.

Well, I beg to differ!

Based on the underlying principles of “Solutions Focus” (see http://www.sfwork.com) I suggest the following to enable you to quickly make some progress:

1. Take a look at the problem situation, and get clear (or clearer…) about what the desired outcome was.
2. Look for what worked, even just a little bit, even just once, that got things just a little bit closer to the desired outcome.
3. Consider doing more of these things that worked. And stopping doing things that didn’t work – this helps you manage your workload too.

The theory (and practice!) goes something like this: when you focus on the problem and why it might have happened, you’re focused on the past and also what you don’t want. Your success lies in the future and what you do want, so focus there!

Sure, acknowledge and pay some heed to past problems and experiences, but don’t over do it. You can avoid this by working through steps 1-3 above. This buys you some progress and this is really valuable in building momentum, motivation, and… hope!

And to get more focus on the future and what steps to take in getting there, work through the steps below:

1. Get a very clear picture or description of how you want & need things to be in the future. If part of a team, build this picture together – it’s great for buy-in, team building and motivation!
2. Find resources that can help you achieve even just a little of this in the very near future – look to the past, present and future for ideas, examples of what has worked that you can copy and/or adapt. Look to your experiences and imagination, as well as that of others – this can be great for getting buy-in!
3. Focus on taking small next steps in the general direction of the desired outcome. Focus on what can be achieved in the next 24-48 hours. Don’t worry too much about a detailed and long-term plan – life has a way of making these pretty useless after a few days or weeks! Once you’ve taken 1 or 2 small steps, take stock – where are you in relation to the desired outcome… And from here, identify the next 1 or 2 small steps you can take to get you headed in roughly the right direction!

Let me know how you get on!

Cheers

Martin

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You challenge the pros, sometimes in their own backyards, because they can become complacent, lazy and a little out of touch with the latest thinking and ideas. And if you don’t stay in touch with what is happening, with the directions your market might take, or with new techniques to help you stay efficient and effective, well, you’ll find yourself in trouble. Quickly.

Leadership is not about blind obedience to anyone or anything. Leadership is often about striking out in a new direction, or knowing what elements of the ‘old’ to keep, how to use them, and what elements of the ‘new’ to adopt…

If you have a ‘yes man’ working for you, somebody is redundant. Don’t let it be you!

If you are following the pack, and not striking out on your own… I’m reminded of Apple’s iPod. They weren’t first with a portable solid state music player (I almost said MP3, but iPods usually use a different format…) But they made that market their own, and few can name another maker of similar devices…

So what can you, what should you, challenge the pros about? Where, when and how? After all, this is not about destroying a person or their reputation – what would that say about you?

Let me know how you get on!

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… this sounded like victim mentality here.

Somebody’s personal situation is not terribly great in some areas, and so it’s now Obama’s fault…

Hmmm….

How does blaming somebody else help your own situation improve?

Sure, some people says it makes them feel good to blame somebody else.

I suspect they’re lying – not too me so much as to themselves. Blame is a negative state – how can anybody feel good about that?

So here’s my call to action:

Take personal accountability and ownership. Think in terms of ‘I’ and not ‘they’, or ‘them’ or ‘you’ – this avoids a blame mentality.

Think in terms of ‘what’ and ‘how’ you can make things better, not ‘why’ (avoid victim mentality), or ‘who’ (again, avoids blame mentality) or ‘when’ (avoids procrastination).

And finally, focus on action, s things change, and improve – talk is fine, and only action gets results.

So instead of whinging with “why is my business coach/mentor or sponsor so rubbish at helping me grow my business?” ask instead “How can I help my business coach/mentor or sponsor help me to grow my business?”

To your success!

Cheers

Martin

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The 3rd of Colin Powell’s 18 lessons of leadership is “don’t be buffaloed by experts and elites” and could at first glance challenge many people’s perceptions, given the focus on gurus and elites in this industry!

“Don’t be buffaloed by experts and elites.  Experts often possess more data than judgment.  Elites can become so inbred that they produce hemophiliacs who bleed to death as soon as they are nicked by the real world.”

In our industry so many people will lionise gurus and experts and elite groups. There is no doubt that a small number of people – gurus – have done a fantastic job with the programmes and business models they’ve brought to the market. Also, there is a widely held belief that anywhere from 90-97% of people coming to the industry will fail to be successful. I’m not totally sure what this means and I haven’t seen the actual data & evidence…

Does this mean the gurus are talking rubbish or are the cause of so much failure?

No!

It’s a bit like the morality issue with a gun – you can use it to hunt for food and so stay alive, or use it to shoot another human being – the gun is not the issue, once it’s been invented. The issue is the intent of the person with the gun. And so it is with the products and mindsets on offer from the gurus. If people don’t put in to practice in a way that works for that person the lessons and tools on offer, then failure will be more likely. Equally, blindly following a guru, or lots of gurus, is equally asking for failure too…

So my call to action with this is simple – go in with your eyes wide open, be prepared to go ‘off piste’ as it were, to adapt things to your own situation and strengths, and be discriminating – choose your gurus with care!

Cheers

Martin

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The second lesson of General Colin Powell’s 18 lessons of leadership is summed up as follows:

“The day soldiers stop bringing you their problems is theday you have stopped leading them.  They have either lost confidence that you can help them or concluded that you do not care.  Either case is a failure of leadership.”

So what does this have to do with network marketing?

Well, if you have a download, they’re like the soldiers that Colin Powell refers to. So, if they stop coming to you with their problems, you’re leadership has, for them, failed.

How can you ensure they feel they can trust you, that you can help them in some way, either by pointing them to a solution, helping them find their own way to a solution, or just being there to hear and share the pain?

Years ago I served in my country’s air force on a helicopter squadron. One day we were told that we’d have to give up the weekend, that we’d have to work to support a short notice operation. It doesn’t matter here what the operation was. The squadron commander could easily have stayed away – the squadron personnel knew what to do and how to do it, and didn’t need a senior officer getting in the way… but the commander stayed, making coffee for lower ranks, making sure they were OK, getting fed and so on.

He was sharing the pain and being ‘one of us’ – so why wouldn’t we come to him with problems?

This is just one example – and I know you can find your own.

A great starting point if you are new to leadership is to take a look at the Leadership Challenge by Kouzes & Posner – see www.leadershipchallenge.com or click here.

There you will find out more about their 5 element framework – the 5 exemplary practices of leadership, listed below. Nearly 30 years of research make this a very proven & robust model.

1. Model the Way
2. Inspire a Shared Vision
3. Challenge the Process
4. Enable Others to Act
5. Encourage the Heart

Good luck!

Cheers

Martin

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This obstacle is really 2-in-1 – they’re so closely linked. You see, it’s been my experience in helping people achieve success that so many of them have neither a sense of the end game, of what success for them looks like, or  appropriate expectations.

How many times have I come across people who have said their dream is to not be working for a living, to have stacks of exotic holidays, the fast car and maybe the yacht…? Lots, so much so that I don’t believe in most cases they really want all this – it sounds like they’re replaying the blurb from the MLM company marketing material. What they want is represented by the holidays and yachts, fast cars & big houses… not necessarily the actual house/yacht/car.

An how many times have they said they’d like to achieve all this ‘within 6-12 months’? Yup, too often. The bit I didin’t mention is that they’ve got 1 hour a week to invest, and almost no starting capital to speak of. Amazing!

So, their brains know, deep down, that this is all so much BS, the end result often being some kind og disengagement at a deep level. This shows itself as procrastination, buying in to lots of systems, methods and courses, switching from 1 opportunity to another every few weeks and a sense of desperation about recruiting or selling…. sound familiar…?

It’s OK to just want a few $K per month, enough that a standard job is less of an issue – especially in the current climate when 650K people are losing their jobs every month in the USA. And it’s OK to be looking for things other than a fast car, yacht and big house.

I often have to spend a fair bit of time helping the individual client to get find their true outcomes and expectations, and then get comfortable with them, as they tend to be much less grand than your typical ‘guru’…

If you know any good coaches, seek one out and get some help getting really, honestly clear and focused about what outcomes you are looking for, no matter what your day job is or second income approach is.

Once you’ve got this sorted out, look at what money and time you can truly devote to this cause and only then, look to see how long it will take to achieve first, just 10% of your target (as well as your ‘day job’ income), and then 25% and so on – ask somebody with a good business background to challenge your thinking & figures. What ever answer you come up with, this is likely to be the shortest time it takes you to get to 100% of your desired outcome.

You may not initially like the answers you get – trust me, they’ll be a heck of a lot closer to reality that your previous ones.

Good luck!

Cheers

Martin

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I think the world of Ann Sieg and Mike Dillard both.  I’m still waiting on either one of them to make me rich.

This is something I saw in a recent post on a thread on BetterNetworkers.com. The poster was making a bit of a character reference for them both, but this is not why I mention it.

No, what caught my attention was the attitude I imagine is behind this statement…

Like many people, over the years I have invested in various courses and systems from a number of the well-known gurus.

Buying their stuff does not mean I transfer to them, along with my hard-earned cash, the responsibility for them to make me rich.

When you buy something from anybody, all you have done is contibute to them being rich – for you to get rich you have to do something with what you’ve bought, in such a way that, for you, in your situation and with your strengths, that others will feel compelled to swap what you offer for their hard-earned cash.

It’s that simple.

So what is your self-talk? What conversation do you have with yourself? Is it the conversation of the victim, or is it the conversation of the owner, taking ownership of and responsbility for, the outcomes you want?

If you’ve caught yourself thinking “Why doesn’t [insert guru name]’s system/course not work?” for example, then chances are you’re in victim mode – being in owner mode will almost certainly be more useful. So replace these kinds of questions with a more useful kind, such as…

“What can I do to take me from where I am to where I want to be, with what I’ve got available to me?”

In my own experience the “what’s available to me” element is way bigger and deeper than it first looks.

I found that by adopting the elements of the Solutions Focus approach, I usually find a more constructive way forward – and it’s usually easier than might normally be the case.

Check it out – some explanatory articles can be found at www.sfwork.com

Cheers

Martin

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Every day more people stop to consider a second or extra income. They do so usually because they are needing extra income now, or because they’re looking to realise a future dream. Many of these people look at network or multi level marketing (or ‘MLM’) as the route to achieving these aims.

Making the right decision here is usually pretty important for those involved. What is amazing is just how many people are able to make an informed decision about something so important. I’m sorry, what I should have said is, it’s amazing how few people are able to make an informed decision.

There are plenty of myths and lies floating around about this kind of second income activity. Some have bad aspects to them, such as “only failures try multi level marketing”. Some have more positive aspects to them, such as “anybody can do this”. And with the advent of the Internet, it is even easier to find conflicting information and advice.

I had to find out about these things the hard way, as did my wife, when we started in MLM many years ago. Now, as the economies seem to be headed for stormy waters, more people are asking about MLM, and there are more opportunities than ever for them to be ’scammed’. This is a prospect that didn’t sit comfortably with me, and wouldn’t let me be, so I pulled together my own experiences, the experiences of others I’ve worked with, plus plenty of research that I’ve done over the years, especially in the last 2 years, and created the “MLM / Network Marketing Manifesto & Workbook”. My research draws on the work, writings and teachings of a wide variety of people, including Colin Powell, Anthony Robbins, Rich Schefren (who has worked with many big names in Internet Marketing, including Mike Filsaime, Jim Edwards, Hans Johnson, Frank Kern, Dan Kennedy), Robert Middleton, Bernadette Doyle, Jay Arthur and yes, even Albert Einstein!

Anybody considering creating a second income or extra income stream, and looking to do so with any combination of network marketing, multi level marketing (or MLM), and internet marketing, would benefit from downloading the Manifesto & Workbook fromhere and spending some hours working through it before coming to any decision.

The purpose of the “MLM / Network Marketing Manifesto & Workbook” is to help people like you come to an informed decision about

1. Whether to create a second or extra income stream at all, and if so
2. How to go about doing so with MLM / Network Marketing for maximum success

I’ve split it in to 2 main parts. The first part sets the scene, providing some definitions and giving an overview of the state of multi level marketing or network marketing as a business approach. The second part is structured around detailed descriptions of the 12 big obstacles to success that I’ve seen so many people experience. By the industry’s own data it seems 95-97% of mlm operators as I call them fail to achieve their desired outcomes. That’s just appalling.

These 12 big obstacles are listed below, followed by a brief description. You’ll find more on how to spot and avoid each obstacle in a separate article/lens.

1. Treating it as a hobby more than a serious business
2. No ‘outcome’ thinking & inappropriate expectations
3. The Great Myths of MLM – believing them!
4. Lack of strategy, being too opportunistic
5. Poor business design
6. Following the MLM company’s “Plan”
7. Poor decisions about what to outsource, and how
8. Not using leverage & scalability
9. Not playing to YOUR strengths
10. Not managing tasks, workload & processes
11. Not using the right metrics to manage business
12. Not engaging in Continuous Improvement

In future postings I’ll expand a bit more on each of these – they’re covered in full in my manifesto, which you can get when you sign up.

Cheers

Martin

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Now I don’t know how many of these are totally true, or mostly true or even a total pack of lies. But I do know I’ve had different emotional reactions to them. I know from my conversations in recent months with many others in the industry, that I’m not alone in this observation.

There were times when I felt truly inspired – there are some wonderful stories out there, even if they’re not true. And stories like these made me reflect on my own situation and want to do something about it.

Yet in one sense reading these stories is a bad idea. Let me tell you how & why, and let you make your own mind up.

Personally I think there’s always something to be learned – just so long as I continue to make informed decisions – not always easy, as we’ll shortly see!

As you read their story, you begin to identify with the situation and the author, or at least bits of the story and perhaps a few characteristics of the author. Why? Because you recognise parts of your own history and self in there… And for the author, their salvation comes in the form of some actions built around some great system or method they came across, and you know what? YOU could also do this – none of the actions are particularly difficult or costly…

As you read on (and some of these really do go on… and on….) you find yourself feeling more and more compelled to sign up for what ever they’re offering, or at least, to find out more with their free report… And so you do – you might even think the $97/$67/$47/$27/$7 price they charge (or even $997!) is good value for money, and you reach for your credit card…

By the way, what is it with all these prices ending in ‘7’?!

But your decision will, according to recent research, be an emotional one, untempered by too much logic, despite you having the perfect logic for your actions… You can get the deeper details in several places, though for an easier read I point you to Robert Ciadini’s work…

Cialdini, a bit of a whiz on psychology and influence (he has letters after his name and everything, and writes accessible books… go see “Influence: Science & Practice” http://bit.ly/xM3Gf) suggests 6 ‘weapons of influence’. Once you’re familiar with them you’ll never look at a sales letter page the same way again… I hope!

Oh, the thing to note with all of this is that this influencing stuff happens at a deep level – you respond in these ways almost without thinking… powerful (and scary!) or what?

• Weapon #1 – reciprocation – you can get a whole bunch of freebies from the author,  who has just seemingly told you how to change your life – so you reciprocate – by signing up…
• Weapon #2 – commitment & consistency – people tend to honour a commitment – you make a commitment when you sign up… so you probably do look at the video/free report etc
• Weapon #3 – social proof – people will do things they see others doing – the testimonials on the sites show people signing up and buying in… the conformity factor increases the liklihood that you too will sign up…
• Weapon #4 – authority – using authoritative phrasing & tones, citing testimonials as being from ‘experts’ or showing how the programme is just like (named) experts, some of whom you may even have heard of…
• Weapon #5 – liking – people are more easily persuaded by people they like – a heart-warming story, a familiar, welcoming style or writing/talking style (video/audio more prevalent now) – this is the “s/he’s one of us, so it must be OK…” effect…
• Weapon #6 – scarcity – limited seats/packs/being one of a few out of millions… or time limiting before price rises etc – sound familiar?

Now imagine the overall effect of 2 or more of these working together…! Yup, you’ll be VERY influenced to do buying/signing up etc.

A well-crafted sales page takes time, effort etc, and is effective, whether to system being sold is what what you need or not – and that’s my point..

And so you end up making an unbalanced decision – mostly emotional, with a little logic… but not enough I’d suggest…

But is it the right solution for YOU? How can you know without looking in to ‘this’ more, including the offering & your unique situation? What are your strengths? What time, money and energy can you invest in this offering you’ve just signed up for? What expectations do you subconsciously have and aren’t aware of, at least until you fail to meet them…? If you want to know where MLM depression/demotivation comes from, this last aspect is a BIG factor…

All of this together is why, in my humble opinion, reading too many of these stories is a bad idea. It doesn’t mean the story is ‘pants’, or the offering is ‘pants’ – it just might not be for you.

So before you decide, before you commit, just check back with yourself if this is the right thing for you to be doing now, and if it’s not, but you still want to do it, come up with an action plan to get you in position to take this forward when you ARE ready for it.

Happy story-reading!!

Cheers

Martin

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And I’m always curious about the claimed 95-97% of people who start out in network marketing, multi level marketing and internet marketing and fail to achieve what they really want.

I’ve been thinking about why this might be – I’ve come up with a number of contributing factors.

Some you will know.

But I bet this is one you don’t – THEY TRY TO COPY THE GURUS TOO CLOSELY!!!

Read the full article here.

With best wishes,

Martin

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