I’m sitting here today staring into a blank page because I can’t think. I just wrote that because it’s the only thing that I can think of. I just wrote that 2nd sentence for the same reason. The same thing happened for that 3rd sentence. Here we go again, same thing with that 4th sentence. Alrighty, my 5th sentence down and now I can stop this madness as thoughts are finally starting to enter my mind.

That was real. I was really sitting here in front of a blank page and didn’t know where to start so I just did. At about my fourth sentence was when the light bulb went on and I related that blank repetitive nothingness with what I used to do. How, you ask?

I’m a convert! I converted from corporate America to Network Marketing. In corporate America, it’s pretty much a blank page atmosphere. You can’t just take out the Crayolas and start creating. It’s not your company! Most people stuck there don’t even know who really owns the company they work for. It’s kinda sad. You’re told what to do by some higher power whom you most likely will never meet. Ohh sure, you may know and you may be in the same room with them at the holiday party or a company “town hall” meeting listening to some blahhbity, thank you, you’re the best, blahhbity, we couldn’t do it without you, blahhbity, we’re all lucky to be working hard, blahh, there will be no bonus because “profits” are only, blahh, we need to keep company morale high, bbbblllllaaaaahhhhhhhh!

They are in charge! They say what to do and DO NOT QUESTION AUTHORITY! if you know what’s good for you. The bottom line is you do what they say no matter what because you don’t want to lose your JOB. I’ve said it before and I’ll keep saying it – JOB = Just Over Broke! When you’re stuck with a JOB you fear losing it because when you lose it – you’re BROKE! So, when you’re stuck with one, you’re Just Over Broke and you stay there because that’s how that corporate pyramid scam is structurally built! (Psssttt: They call it a “ladder”. I think because it gives you the illusion that you’re headed somewhere UP and a “scam” is a no-no – so shhhh…) If you question things, no matter how deep you see the company ship sinking, don’t say a word! We used to have a saying among all of us who actually worked and who got the stuff done that needed to get done. When orders came down from above for something we all knew was ridiculous we used to say, “They sign my paycheck and if they want me to put the sunroof in the floor, I’ll put the sunroof in the floor!”

You don’t bother coming up with something creative or cost saving because for the most part, no one around you really cares. It’s just a “get done what they want me to get done so I can keep on getting done what they just want me to get done” atmosphere. If you’re down a bunch of levels on that “ladder”, someone on a level above you on that “ladder” will just take credit for it anyway! It happens even when you’re the guy reporting to the person at the top of that “ladder”. I kid you not! I’ve seen it. I’ve seen a CIO come up with a great idea and then CEO announces it to the company as his own idea! I’ve seen the CIO turn his head slowly with that look of disbelief which cries out inside, “He did NOT just ………” You know he brings that frustration home. Ohh wait, never mind, CIO’s are rarely ever home. Anyway, you may be asking how the CEO gets away with it. Well, what can the CIO do about it? Who can fire the CIO? Nuff said!

With all that being said, back to my first 5 sentences and the answer to how it all relates. Well, here’s what happens to your creativity after years of the typical corporate American workweek:

Monday (work): I’m sitting here today staring into a blank page because I can’t think.
Tuesday (work): I just wrote that because it’s the only thing that I can think of.
Wednesday (work): I just wrote that 2nd sentence for the same reason.
Thursday (work): The same thing happened for that 3rd sentence.
Friday (work): Here we go again, same thing with that 4th sentence.
Saturday/Sunday (off): Alrighty, my 5th sentence down and now I can stop this madness as thoughts are finally starting to enter my mind.

The part that really relates is that at about the fourth sentence, Thursday, is when the light bulb of thoughts and creativity start to go on and you feel the end of the mundane work week is almost here. Heck, it’s why Thursday night at the bars is so popular. Then, on the weekend, thoughts, creativity and “life” come back! Well, what if your “work” days were like the weekends? What if you felt like you did every Friday night and Saturday when doing your income producing activities? What if you could create? What if you wanted to put the sunroof in the ROOF? What if you come up with a great idea? Who could take it away from you? What if Network Marketing was your canvas to creating that “life” again? That life we had as kids in art class!

You might not know where to start and that’s ok. There are a lot of people who can help. They benefit along with you upon your success. Just start and be open to coaching and learning. I read or someone once taught me that instead of “Ready, Aim, Fire!” we should “Ready, Fire!, Aim”. I forget where I read that or who taught me but I finally know what they meant!!!

Are you Skeptical? Well, Skepticism is not intelligence. Skepticism is the lack of intelligence. Educate yourself! Once you do, you’ll be like me wondering why you waited so long.

WOW – that same writing scenario gave me one heck of a flashback to the old corporate life I used to live. You know those dreams where you feel so good when you wake up because you realize it was only a dream and not real? I just had that and I was awake the whole time. If a “nightmare” happens when you’re sleeping, is that then called a “daymare”?

Contributed by Mike Gruber, the MLMSkeptic, converted.

I adapted this from an email to my team – they suggested I turn it into a blog post. Well, folks, here you go!!! Though this is geared towards the MLM industry, the principles apply to almost any industry.
When it comes to marketing your MLM blog (your team’s blog, etc – whichever you’re promoting), what can you do? First and foremost, you’ll need blog material. The more, the better. Check out other posts here for additional examples. You need to provide VALUE to folks looking for direction. Visitors could be MLM newbies – talk to their concerns. Some visitors could be MLM millionaires looking to change their game – certainly, you can talk to them! Lead with VALUE! Two sites that you can reference for MLM blog-writing inspiration are http://www.betternetworker.com and it’s sister site, http://www.jasonbetter.com. There are literally thousands of other high-quality, inspirational blogs out there! Surely, Google can help you here.

That was the easy part…

Now that you have quality, valuable content, you have to market/promote your blog. Without being technically savvy, ANYONE can become familiar with Facebook. It’s one of this generation’s premier social networking tools. Make friends with people – people you already know; people you don’t already know. Find friends in other MLM businesses by joining Facebook groups such as “Network Marketing“. Just search (top right of Facebook page) for Network Marketing and start adding friends. Include a little note with the friend request to personalize it a little. This gets better response rates. See what others are doing and see if they might need help. Direct them to your blog (your team’s blog, etc) as a blog that you’ve posted to and/or learned a lot from. “Hey, I’m new but I’ve learned a ton from this guy. Check him out!” Keep the dialogues moving. Aim to connect/chat/email with 3 to 5 live people a day. When you’re talking with people, ask questions. That way, you control the conversation and the other person gets to talk about themselves. (People generally like to talk about themselves!) Find out what they do, where their hardships lie, and how you can connect them to your opportunity. Always provide value.

Next, read other people’s blogs. You’ll likely run into other people’s blogs when you connect with people from the Network Marketing Facebook group (there are over 5000 people in this group – don’t just start at the first alphabetic person in the list! ). Read the blogs and make comments. Draw connections to things in your blog (team’s blog, etc) and leave “deep” links. Don’t just link to your blog’s “home page” if you can help it. Though not an entirely bad thing, linking directly to a blog entry like http://drewberman.com/apps/wordpress/golden-nuggets/marketing-your-blog/ (this is the web address for this blog; a web address can be found by right-clicking on a blog title and select “Copy link location” from the context/popup menu) will provide greater Search Engine Optimization (SEO) value. Leaving these cookie crumbs all over the place helps Google not only recognize your blog but it ranks them higher in searches. Don’t drop these cookies shamelessly. Webmasters can and will likely delete your comment as spam. As with blog posts, comments should provide VALUE!

Constant Change

It’s amazing how fast things change in the online world. I just read an article indicating that both Bing (Microsoft’s search engine) and Google have won contracts to start indexing Twitter content. DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS??? This means that all that content – and all those links – provided on Twitter will mean something in addition to just the human eyes trying to make sense of it all. What is especially important to you are all those links. If you promote your blog content on Twitter through one of the many available tools, those links are going to make your content that much more important (ranked higher). YEAH!

The reason I’m telling you is that it brings a couple of more things to mind that EVERYONE can do. When you’ve read a blog post such as this one, you may have noticed in the top right of each blog post a green “retweet” button. What that does is posts to Twitter, under your Twitter account, the blog title and a link to the blog entry itself. This provides additional exposure to your blog entry to your Twitter followers (and shortly to Bing and Google). Best case scenario, all of you – and all of your friends, and friend’s friends, etc – retweet your blog content. The more, the better, however, I believe an individual can only retweet a single post once.

Also, remember how I previously suggested that you comment on other people’s blogs? Well, you can certainly comment on your own blog posts as well. There’s no specific need to add links to other people’s blog entries (in fact, that may actual lower Google ranking) but, more importantly, be sure to add something of value. Otherwise, you’re just tooting your own horn.

But wait, there’s more!

There is ANOTHER thing that ANYONE can do to help promote their blog – save your bookmarks online! Yep, the days of saving bookmarks locally in a browser are passé! Social networking has stretched its mighty arms around bookmarks! Sites such as digg.com, delicious.com and stumbleupon.com are the big three. Get social and open an account on one of these sites. Transfer your bookmarks from your browser to this new account and make sure that they’re publicly available. You may have to “share” the bookmarks or something to that effect. It’s important to have your own bookmarks in addition to your blog bookmarks (the next step) because the search engines want variety. Once you transferred your personal bookmarks to your new social bookmark account, go to your blog and start bookmarking 10 to 20 blog posts – not to the browser bookmark list but to your new social bookmark account (In creating the account, you may get a special browser button or something to easily create bookmarks. Tune in to the process.). Remember to bookmark the “deep links”, not just the home page. The deep link is “attached” to the blog post title. Keep doing this ongoing for various blog posts. You do not need to do this for every post. Bookmark your favorite one or two every week, for example, ongoing. Get your friends to do the same thing!!! THIS – IS – HUGE ! ! ! Search engines rank these social bookmark links REALLY HIGH since, of course, you would not have bookmarked them if they weren’t any good, theoretically.

These are simple, non-technical steps you can take to get your blog out there. Surely, there are more advanced options but that will be a topic for another time. Happy blogging!

Contributed by Dave Schafer.

Business networking is when a group of like-minded business people gather to meet and help each other. Networking is not about how many business cards you give out or how many people you talk to in one night. Networking provides an opportunity for you to build relationships with other business people in your community and that is never a bad thing.

You may make a favorable impression with someone about yourself or your business and not even realize it. When you do make an important contact, follow up afterward with a note or a card or an invitation to have coffee together to discuss your mutual interests.

Everyone can use networking tips.  Here are 10 to get you going…

10 Tips for Networking

1. Do not lead with the attitude of “what’s in it for me”?
2. Be a good listener.
3. Build relationships.
4. Give referrals for other services or businesses besides your own that may be useful to your fellow “networkers”.
5. Do not ask for referrals without explaining your needs – tell them your “story”.
6. Be specific about the type of referral you are giving or wanting.
7. Always thank the person who gave you the referral.
8. Follow up on the referral as soon as possible.
9. Let the person know that “so&so” referred you to them.
10. Have fun!

I was drowning in things to do from the moment I got up to the second I closed my eyes to sleep. There was never enough time to get everything done. I love working from home and I love my family but I was overwhelmed and consumed. How to balance it all was the biggest challenge of my life.

Most of us work as hard and fast as we can. If you’re like me, developing a full-time income through a direct marketing business, is an amazing balancing act. We all have the same amount of hours in a day but successful folks know how to use them better. They know how to work smart. So, what’s the secret?

Coming from a corporate background, not many of my “old” skills transferred well to my new network marketing business, which depends on mastering great one-on-one conversations and sharing information with prospects, customers, teams and leaders. Frankly, it just wasn’t happening the way I wanted. More precisely – I – wasn’t happening. I was working hard but not smart.

It’s easy to think that the more you say about how great your business is, the more you explain why your products are the absolute best and the more you share every detail — the better your conversion rate will be. My mind kept whispering, “tell ‘em more and they’ll buy!” Instead of getting more sales and great customers, I was getting tired, hoarse and discouraged. Can you relate?

Luckily, my terrific mentor, Drew Berman, a very successful coach and entrepreneur, knew exactly what would help. He told me to do two things…

Drew gave me these simple techniques and they’ve changed and improved my life and business forever:

1. Stop talking so much. [Horrors! Really?]
2. Buy an egg timer and time my conversations [Are you kidding me?] No, he wasn’t.

If working smarter is your goal, try these other helpful tips:

1. Set the egg timer for all your calls. Don’t over talk.
2. Talk about things that get the results you want.
3. Talk less. Share professional tools, CDs, DVDs, Internet links.
4. Ask great questions. Listen then respond.
5. Answer with, “Hello. Thanks for calling. How can I help you, I’ve got 7 minutes?”
6. Record your schedule on your answering machine: “I’ll be returning calls today between 6:00pm and 8:00pm.”
7. Don’t answer your phone between 3pm and 4pm – keep that time for the kids.
8. Schedule time for your family – spouse date night, family night, etc.

We’ve all heard, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” When someone asks what you do, be ready to paint the picture of your business with just enough words to stir their curiosity. Time is unique and irreplaceable. We can all benefit from talking less and enjoying life more.

Contributed by Stephanie Weems.

Money Matters! Money Matters! Money Matters! And one more thing – Money Matters! It matters the most! Who ever told you that money isn’t everything probably didn’t have enough of it. Yea, yea, I know, without health money means nothing! Without health, nothing means nothing! Do you know anyone who wished they had more money so they could at least try a treatment which wasn’t covered by medical insurance? I do everything I can to be the healthiest while making money so having a lot of it doesn’t hurt my health at all. I can share my health tips later but that’s not important right now. Right now we’re talking about the importance of being financially “green”. Another “yea, yea” is love. Yea, yea, money can’t buy love! Guess what? I’m fundamentally the same person broke as I am rich. Same looks, same personality, same everything except that I’m a little bit better looking, a little bit happier and a little bit more of everything with a lot of money! I love to be in love and I love romance! Do you know how much more romantic you can be with a lot of money? Think big. No! That’s too small – think bigger! Think private jets and foreign countries!

The money negatives are all excuses! I know! I used to make them. They are sayings that people come out with so they can feel better about themselves not having a lot of money. Everyone wants it and the bottom line is that everyone needs it! How much depends on how big your dreams are. Small dreams = small money. Big dreams = big money! I’ve always been big dreamer!

So, now that that’s settled, are you in the right industry or position to fulfill your dreams? Think about it like map directions. It’s your money map. You need to know where you are and where you want to go. Then you need to make sure you have the proper vehicles. Do you have the right financial vehicle to get you from where you are to where you want to go? Most importantly, are the maps genuine, do you know how to read the maps and do you know how to operate those vehicles? If you’re not sure, do you have someone who wants to teach you?

I spent a great deal of time in corporate America. Corporate America showed me a map that looked very promising and I met A LOT of people that appeared very willing to help. After many years, about 18 of them, I realized none of it was genuine. The map was flawed and in the shape of a pyramid, the vehicle was just built wrong so the people who appeared willing to help either couldn’t or just weren’t willing. It’s built so that those at the top stay at the top and those below stay below. In fear of being replaced by YOU, those above you hold you back so that YOU can’t replace THEM. They are held back by those above them, and those above them hold them back and etc… etc…. It’s a true pyramid map and every layer above has the ability to terminate anyone from the layer below often in the form of what’s called a layoff, downsizing or a straight out firing!

Then Network Marketing came into my life. It is truly the most beautiful, fair, honest and hard work rewarding pay structure there is. The map is there for anyone to chart their destiny for themselves. If you’re not sure how, someone will help you. The perfect vehicle is there for anyone starting from any financial starting point. If you’re not sure how, someone will help you.

Why? Why is someone always willing to help you? It’s really simple and I’ll put it in terms of me and you. If I help you and you get rich, I get richer! So, who am I helping? Me or You? Does it matter?

Contributed by Mike Gruber.

I’ll let you in on a secret. Network Marketing is not a scheme. It’s not an industry. It’s not a business. It’s a powerful mirror.

So many people misunderstand MLM and so many fail at it because they don’t allow themselves to look directly into the mirror.

Does this sound strange? Well, read on. I’ll describe two scenarios that will make it “un-strange.”

You join MLM with hope and a big dream. You believe you can achieve enormous success like the leaders in your company. You charge into the game with enthusiasm. But wait a minute. No one wants to enroll. No one wants to get rich. No one wants to be free. At least, that’s how it seems to you.

“What do you mean, seems?” you’re thinking. “This ain’t seems. This is real.”

No-no-no. It’s not real. Yes, it is happening to you. But it’s just a reflection from the mirror. This may be a hard pill to swallow, but you are attracting people who say no. Let’s face it. Others in your company are enrolling people with ease. I guess they’re just lucky or more talented than you. NOT!

Your subconscious beliefs, doubts, fears, and your mind chatter are manifesting in the form of people who reject your products, services, and opportunity. You are being tested. The mirror is challenging you to discover what you’re made of.

A lot of people run for cover at this point. They bail. Their story becomes “MLM is too hard. It doesn’t work.” They attract many others who feel the same. That reinforces their story.

The second scenario begins differently. In this movie, people say yes to you. They enroll – sometimes many of them. But then, wait another minute. They begin to drop out like flies. Some joined like gangbusters. Suddenly, they disappear and won’t even return your calls.

This is when a lot more people run for cover and bail. Their story becomes “MLM doesn’t work because you can’t rely on anyone.” And guess what? Right. They meet and attract others who feel exactly like they do. They stick to their story, find comfort in their JOB, and go through life praying for Friday to arrive.

What becomes of the few who don’t run for cover? They calmly look at their results. They take full responsibility for what’s happening. They stand tall and gaze directly into the mirror. They don’t shrink from what they see. They don’t deny it or judge it harshly. They embrace it.

Then they take MASSIVE ACTION to change it. They get proper training on how to talk to people. They acquire the language of attraction. They invest in personal development and commit to it on a daily basis. They read books on MLM and master its principles of success.

Their story becomes, “Network Marketing is the most wonderful industry in the world of free enterprise.” They meet and attract like minded people. They support one another and grow together. Soon, their earnings exceed their expenses. Then, money begins to flow into their lives from a fountain that becomes a waterfall.

Their belief strengthens. Their minds tune into a different channel where they no longer hear the naysayers. The painful sound of the word, “NO,” transforms to the steady whisper of the word, “YES!”

They live into a new permanent story entitled, “DREAMS COME TRUE!”

Contributed by Louis Di Bianco.

In one of those rare times when I was actually sitting in front of and watching an idiot box (television) I saw a very creative and interesting commercial. What I found most interesting was how comfortable I was watching it and how good I felt inside. It wasn’t because I loved what they were marketing. It was a financial company so it was the exact opposite! The marketing just resonated with me and I wondered if it resonated with others. You see, it was a commercial focused on different people in different backgrounds. Some of the people were children, some of them young adults, and others were older people. They were of different nationalities, races, and color. None of the people’s mouths were moving but there was a voice over as if that little person in them, their mind, was actually speaking out loud. The music was very touching and historic. The people were speaking of the dreams our country was founded and based on. DREAMS! They were dreams which this company self proclaimed as having the ability to fulfill for these people. What was impressive was that the actors in the commercial fit their backgrounds and themes perfectly. An older fellow who looked like he was from back in the 50’s and just off a boat was placed in line at the seaport or maybe even a line at Ellis Island. My father would have fit the profile perfectly especially since that’s how he came to this country. I thought to myself, “Wow, they did a great job of matching actors with scenarios and making it feel so powerful and almost religious.” That got me thinking more and that’s when I really started to feel good about what I was doing! Actors! They were actors! What gave me the warm and fuzzy feeling inside was that the company I aligned with and the industry I aligned with made videos more powerful than that and they were REAL PEOPLE! Not Actors! The rest of the world outside of the network marketing industry will have you believe that they are. I’ve heard it so many times. The old, “Ahh, the company pays them to say they had great results or make a ton of money – it’s all BS.”

What are we to believe???

Talk about BS! The truth is that they are not company paid actors! In my network marketing company, I can prove it – 100%! They’re actually people who have been living and fulfilling their dreams. They are the ones speaking, not voice over professionals. They speak genuine. They speak true. In real life, they offer and are willing to help you.

Many actors who do commercials for companies are doing them to get noticed so they can align with a role in a major motion picture. Many don’t care about the products or the companies they’re working for. They’re just looking to make some money while they struggle along to land a big role. I know a guy who does voice over work and he’s also in a Viagra commercial as the happy pumped up husband. In real life, he doesn’t take Viagra! It’s really funny to me how most of the non MLM world looks at these real people as if they were the paid actors and will watch a corporate companies’ commercial with highly paid actors as if was real.

I’m becoming rich by aligning with real people instead of JOB’ing with the companies who hire actors! I think that’s kinda funny!

Contributed by Mike Gruber, the MLMSkeptic, converted.

By now, as an entrepreneur, business owner, or business associate, you realize that your potential clients or associates have already been programmed to believe that opportunities that sound too good to be true usually are. The secret, then, is to present an opportunity that has unlimited potential in extremely realistic terms.

Read that last sentence again carefully. The secret is to present an opportunity that has unlimited potential in extremely realistic terms. It is “the secret” because so few people do it this way. If you do not do this, you will lose opportunities – money – everywhere!

To put it another way, even though you think your business is UNBELIEVABLE and INCREDIBLE, when you are sharing your opportunity, make it sound BELIEVABLE and CREDIBLE.

The sport of golf offers a perspective on this point. Many men and women play golf. The ratio of those who play golf to those who play professionally is huge—maybe 100,000 to one. Obviously, not every person who plays golf is going to make a living at it.

Even though you might be a “star associate” or “executive” within your company, the hard work you have put in to attain that status is proof that not everyone else may achieve what you achieve. And that’s fine!

Of course, in an ideal world, everyone in your down line would make millions of dollars and make you super-rich. But your goal is to bring people on board with your vision gradually…!

Instead of beginning the conversation with “Hey, I’ve got a fool-proof way that we can be millionaires and retire early,” why not ask simply, “Could you use an extra $500-$1000 every month?” Your prospects will be more inclined to listen to your opportunity and make a fully informed decision.

This is good language to study when handling objections. When people claim that they cannot afford your product or opportunity, you can say something like this: “Listen, I know times are tough, but let’s be honest. If I can help you make just an extra couple of hundred dollars a month, that would help a little bit, right?”

As you work with your associates to build their businesses (and yours!) you will develop the type of relationship with them that will make it comfortable and appropriate to dream together about the future, bigger profits, and early retirement. Prospects will always respond better to an opportunity that will meet a need rather than fulfill an outrageous fantasy.

From my experience, there are 2 motivators – pain and pleasure. And I have found that most people are more motivated by pain. If you can solve a problem for them, they are likely to join you no matter what you are doing, selling, or promoting. If you can help them with a need, want or desire, they will go along with you. In this economy, if you can help people make an extra $200 a week – even an extra $200 a month – you would be helping a lot of people. And if you want to get rich – or at least make a lot of money in this industry – you will have to help a lot of people make some extra money.

The more people you help, the more money you make. The more problems you solve for people, the more successful you will be.

Here’s one last tip: The answer is always in the question. When people ask “how much money will I make?” – a good answer is “how much work are you willing to put in?” If they ask, “will you guarantee my success?” perhaps you would respond “will you guarantee me your work ethic?”

The first thing that everyone is asked to do when they join a new company that is being built upon our network of people, is to ‘make a list’. Although it feels hard at first, it is really quite easy to make a list of family, friends and acquaintances from each of our circles of life in which we move and with whom we interact. The hard part is to not ‘make up the mind’ of these people for them; to not pre-judge them and take away an opportunity that they may actually be interested in.

How are we to know who would say ‘no’? If you have ever tried anything like this before, then, of course, we all know people who have already said an emphatic ‘no’ to prior opportunities, but, then, they don’t go on the list from the outset. Ultimately, there are only two kinds of people – those who say ‘yes’ and those who say ‘no’ when finally asked to make a decision.

However, in all fairness, on first approach there are three types of people…

The three types of people can be represented as green light, yellow light, and red light people. The real art of selling begins by learning to identify the ‘red lights’ immediately so as to stop wasting everyone’s time as soon as possible. Talking to a ‘red light’ is not a productive way to spend your time. This is the process of qualifying. There are simple questions to ask up front to qualify someone’s interest level and to see if you need to go on or end it there and then. ‘Yellow lights’ are a different story. Most people hearing about an opportunity for a home business for the first time are skeptical and want to move slowly. That is great. No one should be in a hurry to start a business, especially one that is new and will require a new tool set, or skill set. The more someone learns about a business, the more that they will know if it is a ‘right’ opportunity for them. These people are worth the second, third and fourth contact. As long as they are not ‘red light’, they are worth talking to again. ‘Green lights’, of course, are our favorite people in the world!

So why is it so difficult to make the list and work it? It’s because we are still ‘yellow lights’ in our own minds. Once we understand and believe in our company and the products that we are marketing and the business that we are building, we are no longer in a ‘sales’ position, we move to a ‘storytelling’ position. This is when we cross the threshold, become our own ‘green light’, and become successful with our list and our business.

It is through great mentorship that the ‘light’ will change. None of us knows how to do this when we begin our journey, but this is where our sponsor, trainer, leader, mentor steps in and helps us to be successful in learning our new skill set.

Contributed by Seth Lefferts.

Kids are amazing to watch. After being told, “no more cookies,” three times, I’ve watched my son ask for another cookie and ultimately get another. No, we’re not soft. It was actually a reassessment after my son’s persistence and a realization that, under the circumstances, there’s no particular reason why he specifically shouldn’t have a cookie.

But let’s look at this from my son’s perspective. He kept asking. Why did he keep asking? First, he probably wasn’t happy with the previous answer. Second, he’s not yet in tune with the societal associations of “looking foolish”, “being needy”, or “rejection”. He doesn’t connect with all of that. He cares about getting the cookie. To him, it’s that simple.

As we “grow up”, we tend to become more perceptive of the stigma associated with asking questions. In fact, in some people, it actually evolves into a fear of asking. Eventually, these folks don’t ask for what they need. In essence, they create and receive rejection completely independent of another person. They say no to themselves. There is little else more negative and debilitating than that.

Jack Canfield, a friend and mentor of mine, in his book, The Success Principles, suggests 5 ways to ask for what you want.

He suggests that there is a specific science to asking for and getting what you want or need in life. These are some quick tips:

1. Ask as if you expect to get it rather than expecting that you wont. Tone and posture can set the stage in a significant way.
2. Assume you can. Don’t assuming against yourself. It’s certainly a choice and it’s far more positive to assume you can!
3. Ask someone who can give it to you. Qualify the person. “Who is authorized to make a decision about…”
4. Be clear and specific. Vague requests produce vague results.
5. Ask repeatedly. Be persistent. There’s going to be a lot of rejection in life. Don’t give up.

“To be successful, you have to take risks, and one of the risks is the willingness to risk rejection.” – Jack Canfield

You certainly will never get that which you never ask for. In fact, a Notre Dame University study showed a 60% success rate after 94% of the study’s salespeople have already quit asking. So don’t create a fear of rejection. Be persistent. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. As my son has figured out, keep asking and you’ll get the cookie!