… 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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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

Related posts:

1. Sales Funnel: Part 3 A short series on what a sales funnel really is....

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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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Why do I think it’s wonderful?

Because it asks a ton of hi quality questions – questions that will leave you speechless while your head gets to grips with the new possibilities…

So, open your mind and then open Tim’s book – it’s free!

Get it at http://timburns.bigmlmsecrets.com/?mad=29231

Cheers

Martin

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