Well Good Monday Morning Ya’ll,

Now depending on what part of the country or world you’re from you may ask that question a little differently. Perhaps you would ask when the light bulbs came on? Either way I think you get the picture.

The question behind the question is do you remember where you were when you discovered you were an entrepeneur? Maybe you’ve just known it all your life and been  successfully pursusing all things business. If that’s the case then it surely is good to be you.

Today I’m going to share a snippet of My Story. Sometimes it helps to know that you’re not in the boat alone or that you’re not weird or wrong because you didn’t come up the ranks like everyone else. Perhaps you can relate to how I discovered I was an entrepeneur.  Here goes…

From the moment I met my husband all he talked about was wanting to own his own business and he knew what business he wanted — a car wash. I was still in nursing school when we met and married and following in the footsteps of my sisters and aunt I thought I was destined to be a nurse for the rest of my life. I wasn’t ‘against’ the idea of my husband starting a business but I was not on board with him either. So after a short time he kind of gave up on the idea because it was to difficult to try to go it alone.

By this time I’ve graduated nursing school and working in the High Risk Labor and Delivery unit of University of Louisville Hospital. One night while at work, minding my own business, taking care of my laboring patient not suspecting a thing — IT hit me.

I remember it like it was yesterday. I was in the nurses’ lounge and stood up to go check on my patient. We had to physically walk into the patient’s room and sign the baby heart rate moniter every fifteen minutes and that was where I was headed. As my foot crossed the threshold from the lounge into the hallway it hit me ‘like a ton of bricks.’

I remember looking up and around that hallway like I was seeing it for the first time as I simultaneously said to myself, “I’m done with this. I DO NOT want to work for corporate America for the rest of my life. I’m ready to own my own  business and I’m ready now.” I’m telling you from that moment to this I’ve been an entrepreneur and nothing less will EVER do.

I went home that next morning and told my husband, “I’m ready to build that car wash now.” I cannot remember his reaction but four years later we had accomplished a miraculous feat. We  built a million dollar business with basically no money down. Together we formulated the business plan and together we went and presented that plan to banks walking in there like we were kin to the Trumps or something and we did not have a clue.

But what we did have was a great business idea and the banks new it. It took us longer than perhaps the average person due to the fact that we were not starting off with a huge amount of investment or working capital. But at the end of the day when we opened for business we had something that averaged bringing in $25,000 to $30,000 a month cash thank you very much!

Now for those of you who have always just known you were an entrepreneur this may not be significant. But for a lot of folks who still cannot figure out how they went from doing their usual job to fighting like a junk yard dog to learn everything they can about internet marketing or build that home based business — they might understand. All I knew was that I was a terrible employee. It wasn’t that I did not do my job well it was just that I so resented being ‘tied’ down  and I compared that time clock to a ball and chain.

I honestly did not recognize that I was showing signs of being an entrepreneur. Of course you are highly independent, of course you work better when you don’t have people breathing down your neck. You are the kind who just needs to be given the assignment and then left alone to accomplish it. These are the exact traits of an entrepreneur and ones that will see you through as you work to develop your home based business and master all things internet marketing. Entrepeneurs who operate in excellence and integrity are the true heroes of this country and I salute you.

Until next time…

Ya’ll Be Blessed!

Sherry

Fotolia 

What the heck is a Fotolia? The name is a little strange but the pictures are awesome.

Adding pictures to my network marketing support blog was something that was very important to me. I think having pictures adds an element of interest and professionalism.

I was thrilled when I recently discovered Fotolia. To be honest I can’t even recall how I found it but I’m sure glad I did. The quality of the photos they offer is excellent.

I chose the little guy in the photo above as an example of the vivid colors and quality they offer. Yep I realize winter is over but he was so cute I couldn’t resist. You can get these things in sizes from tiny to poster size. You purchase credits and then pay for them with your credits. No big deal each credit is $1. I found the smallest size works great for my site.

If you read my previous post you saw I depicted Mike Klingler of Renegade University and Renegade Professional with a Little Painter Dude. I made the point using this photo because it is a great affirmation of how Mike teaches in an almost paint by numbers fashion.

In another post I talked about putting Mike Dillard and his Magnetic Sponsoring under the looking glass and found the cutest little dude with a looking glass. I’m kind of partial to the little white dudes but there are just about a bazillion photos of all kinds on this site.

I absolutely get lost everytime I go on this site. I start looking at the pictures and I just get so many ideas for articles and posts that I can’t hardly stand it. I will go in to look for a picture for a post and 45 minutes later I’ve saved about a hundred new pictures and scratched out ideas for dozens of new articles. I’m lovin’ it!

There are many places where you can get free photos or clip art for your blog are websites and using those are fine depending on the quality you want for your business. Even though these are costing me a little bit as I add them to my library I can use them on any blog I have or for anything in the future they are mine to keep.

I will be adding more about Fotolia in the resource section so keep an eye out there as well.

Until Next Time!

Well Good Monday Morning Ya’ll,

I recently received Jim Rohn’s weekly newsletter and he touched on something that I want to talk about today. Now I’m not going to copy Jim’s words and try to claim them as mine. My goal is to paraphrase his article which I think contained a valuable life lesson. So let’s begin with the life fact:

 For Every Disciplined Effort There Are Multiple Rewards.

The question to ask is are you satisfied with your fruit? When you examine the fruits of your efforts are you pleased or disappointed? Are you tickled or terrified? Are you producing golden fruit in your life or just wishing you were.

In his article Jim wrote about how this truth was an extension of the Biblical law that you will reap what you sow and that if you sow well you will reap multiplied good rewards. For example, if you give unique service your harvest will be multiplied. If you are patient and kind and honest with others same result.

Discipline in and of itself means correction and not something most people want or are willing to impose upon themselves. But for those who do just look at the awesome rewards. For example those who decide they will live their lives under a disciplined effort of eating to achieve and maintain their perfect weight and incorporating exercise into their lives reap a harvest that many envy and want desperately but are not willing to impose the discipline upon themselves to have.

After reading Jim’s article I put pen to paper and took the example  of eating just to see how many things I could come up with that being desciplined with our eating could affect in one’s life. Here’s what I came up with in a matter of a couple minutes. I realized I could go on and on with it but you’ll be the idea pretty quick.

 Disciplined Effort Eat To Achieve Your Best Weight/Exercise To Live Long…

• First you realize an immediate increase in strength and stamina
• You start sleeping better
• Then you gain self confidence
• Then you realize you are happier
• You can do more for others
• You can do physical activities with your children you couldn’t before
• You live longer
• You live stronger
• You enjoy more things
• You feel sexy
• You feel good about going on vacation
• You buy pretty clothes
• You realize your setting a life changing example for your children
• You enjoy your spouse
• Your love life soars
• You have the mental clarity to pursue your dreams
• You read more books
• You spend more time working on your home business
• You are able to put forth your best effort at work
• You make more money
• You give more willingly
• You smile more often

So what does this have to do with your internet/network marketing business? How can this improve your ability to generate new leads and recruit more people into your business or sell more product? Just everything. The more you improve your health the more you improve as a business person and the list goes on and on. So it looks like Jim was right — I had no doubts did you?

I want to challenge you today to make the life altering decisions to take charge of yourself so you can begin to experience the life of your dreams. If you are already there then it surely is good to be you. However I’m sure even the most accomplished among us would say I can always do more – I can always do better.

I hope today finds you moving toward a golden harvest in every area of your life. My goal is to support you in your pursuit of your network marketing dreams and all your other dreams.  I want to be the go-to resource for you of good tools, training and support. I hope I’ve done that today. Until next time…

 Ya’ll Be Blessed!

 Sherry

Okay so you’ve gone through the paces and learned some web 2.0 and other marketing skills. You’ve started to realize the fruits of your labor and actually have leads, prospects or whatever you want to call them actually approaching you – just like ‘they’ said would happen.

The big question is now what? Do you have the skills in place to take it to the next level? Do you know how to talk with these people that are coming to your door seeking what you have to offer? Do you know how to determine if they qualify to do business with you?

Now as you may already know no one has to qualify to buy a product or service you have to offer. But if you have a network marketing organization then you are also constantly seeking qualified business partners to work with – and not everyone qualifies.

I realize most network marketing companies still teach that their business or product ‘is’ for everyone but sadly it just ain’t so. As much as you adore Uncle Fred he has an employee mentality and never misses out on an opportunity to encourage you to give up your crazy ideas of entrepreneurship and just find another job. Uncle Fred does not qualify to become one of your business associates – do not waste your time telling him the plan.

At the same time I started building my business online I was introduced to The New Conceptual Selling a book that teaches how to use what is known as the consultative approach. To make a long story short it is really about learning to find out what is going on with the other person and always work toward a win/win outcome. To become really successful in marketing whether network or otherwise you should adopt and always utilize the consultative approach.

This book does an excellent job of mapping out that process. It was used by me, my upline and everyone within our inner circle with huge results. If you’ve read
Ann Sieg’s Marketers Manifesto lately you’ll find that we sponsored more people than the company was even able to handle. Yep I worked side by side with Ann building the business you read about in the Manifesto and as part of our training we all read and passed on The New Conceptual Selling to others.

I’ll talk more about when and how I met Ann and what it was like working with her in future posts. For now I just wanted to get this information in your hands right away. This knowledge will be critical to your success as a successful marketing entrepreneur.

You’ll want to add The New Conceptual Selling to your library ASAP!

Until Next Time!

Have you discovered video email? As we all know video is a ‘hot’ thing right now on the internet so it just makes sense that it would become incorporated into our email systems. They are pretty cool how they work and I recently discovered they are not all created equal — well what is really?

I recently discovered the JiveSystem and was really impressed with it’s level of ‘user-friendliness.’ It does not matter how techno-marvelous something is if it is not easy to set up and implement you will not use it and it will become a liability instead of an asset.

The thing that really got my attention was just tonight I was zooming around cyberspace and somehow came across another video email system. It’s landing page was ‘very’ impressive and it should have been with a price tag of $1500! The crazy thing is for that price you only get 5 minutes of recording time versus 60 minutes with the JiveSystem.

I was really even more impressed with the JiveSystem since doing a quick review of a couple of the other video email services that are out there. I especially like that you can take it for a free test drive. I’m glad I discovered this tool to add to my business toolbox.

Until Next Time!

Well Good Monday Morning Ya’ll,

 

Today I want to talk about network marketing and air traffic control! What, you have got to be kidding Sherry there is no way you can tie network marketing and flying together – you watch me.  I’ll admit it I’m not the best air traveler in the world. But I have discovered the part that is worse than the actual take off and landing is ‘all’ you have to go through to get the privilege to fly!

 

I was reflecting on the whole process recently and I figured out what my ‘beef’ is with the airline industry.  They tell me what to do and I don’t like it!  I’ll admit I am a ‘very’ independent person which is why network marketing appealed to me to begin with. I have discovered in my limited flying career that there is nothing independent about flying at all.

 

First you get to call or log onto at least a hundred different sites to find a plane that is traveling to within at least a thousand miles of where you want to go.  After you are ‘told’ you will be flying to New York from Florida by way of Arizona you ‘get’ to pay $1000 for the privilege of doing so!!! You are informed that you ‘will’ get to the airport an hour early so that you won’t hold everyone else up while you are being strip searched!

 

You get to the airport, check in the bags, get the precious tickets only to find that you are in row A and your husband is in Q! No time to argue that point as you ‘have’ to get in line with all the other inmates to get searched before moving into the next phase – waiting at the gate.  You line up, show your ticket and ID at least five times and then you find yourself standing in front of a stack of lovely gray plastic containers.  

 

You are told to take off your shoes, jacket, empty your purse and pockets, take off hair pieces, loose dentures, and any other body part that can be removed! Okay I’m kidding about the hair pieces and dentures but it’s only because they haven’t thought of it yet.  As we were approaching the dreaded walk through scanner a security guard took one look at me and stated fairly loud, “You gotten through here with that belt on before that things got an awful lot of metal!” So off went my belt into the bucket along with my lipstick which had to be placed in a zip lock bag and shoes and jacket.  These guys were running around with green plastic gloves on like they were getting ready to perform major surgery! I nudged my husband and said, “See I told you they wanted a piece of your liver and looks like they’re gonna take it right now!”

 

You finally get clearance from the scanner gang and after you redress you head out to find your gate.  You claim your territory and begin the waiting process only to find out ten minutes before the plane is supposed to take off that your gate has been changed from Gate A to Gate Z which is a two mile sprint away!  You grab your stuff, take off and get to the new gate sucking for air just to find out that you are now on a delay and will wait at this new gate for an additional hour! Okay the hour is over and you ‘finally’ get to board the plane which remind you is NOT taking you where you really want to go but several states in the wrong direction.

 

You spent a lot of time packing everything so carefully only to watch in horror from the plane as the baggage loaders drop your luggage off the cart and back over it before tossing it from 150 feet away into the belly of the plane.  By the time you land all the liquids have been mixed and shaken so much your suitcase looks like a rabid dog foaming at the mouth!

 

Finally after hours of what feels like blood, sweat and tears you are allowed to board a plane. You are now squeezed into a seat that was clearly not made for the parameters of your behind while you listen to the host or hostess speaking over the phone giving you directions on how to buckle your seatbelt and how to properly use the oxygen mask in case of emergency.  

 

Now folks, I don’t mean to be disrespectful here or anything but what the heck good is that seat belt going to do me if falling from 29,000 feet! I’m thinking this is kind of mute point here but being the good passenger I am I buckle up. Not really because I’m convinced it’s going to help but because the hostess who is coming down the isle to verify we have buckled up is tapping a pen in her hand like my third grade teacher – I’m scared!

 

We had one ‘hostess’ who I’ll call  ’Luci – fer’ who clearly did not want to be on our flight.  I know she mumbled something into that microphone about her getting off the plane before us in case of an emergency.  She gave those instructions with about as much care and concern as a cadaver – so much for flying the ‘friendly’ skies.

 

Okay for the sake of time this morning I’ll stop – I could actually go on and on but I think you get the picture.  Now what in the world does this have to do with network marketing? Folks, people may ‘have’ to fly and ‘have’ to give into the demands that are placed upon them in order to get from one destination to the next but that does not necessarily mean they like being treated that way. 

 

This is why the consultative approach will take you so much further in your business than any other approach. People do not like being ‘told’ what to do, how to do it, and informed they will like it.  Just something to think about as you move forward with your marketing approach. If you are part of a successful team with great coaching you should access to coaching on the art of the consultative approach. We certainly offer that on our team.

 

Speaking of ‘approach’ don’t you just hate the feeling of that plane slowing down?  It just doesn’t seem right that you have to maintain a certain speed to stay up on the air then all of a sudden somebody slams on the brakes and you ‘feel’ the plane slowing down – gives me the ‘heebie-jeebies! 

  

Until Next Time!

 

 

Well given how I feel about chocolate I couldn’t resist including this little guy in my post. Wanted to take just a moment to send out a Happy Easter greeting. I hope this time finds you and your family doing well whether you have achieved your business goals yet or not.

Sometimes we get so caught up in the ‘doing’ that we forget to live.  As serious entrepreneurs we can be especially guilty of not allowing ourselves any downtime.  Somehow we feel guilty if we are not always doing, always learning, always striving to move forward.

Well including time for ourselves and especially family is just as important. I hope you have made plans to spend this Easter with some family members you may not have seen for awhile. I hope you planned some time to rest and relax maybe even toss a ball with the puppy.

What puppy you ask? Oh my goodness you forgot about your new puppy already? Well just kiddin’ but it could happen. Again, hope you have an enjoyable Easter because you got a lot of work to do next week!

Ya’ll Be Blessed!

Sherry

In the event you’ve had any doubts about the legitimacy of the Network Marketing Industry you will find this information very enlightening. Network Marketing is a hot topic among many self made multi-millionaires today. In fact they are not only talking about it they are promoting it. Two highly successful businessmen who have not only endorsed it but written a book to encourage you to embrace it are Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki.

I believe we would all have to agree that these two gentlemen have accumulated enough wealth in their time to warrant our attention. Who are you taking your business advice from?

Their book Why We Want You to be Rich absolutely endorses the network marketing/direct sales model. Click on the link to see an excerpt.

In their book Robert Kiyosaki explains Cash Flow Quadrants. Each quadrant represents different levels of financial achievement. Which quadrant do you live in?

The Cash Flow Quadrants as described in Kiyosaki’s book are:

• E – employee
• S – small business self employed person
• B – big business owners
• I – investors

Donald Trump says network marketing has proven itself to be a viable and rewarding source of income which can move you into the S Quadrant. Trump goes on to say that some remarkable successes in network marketing have been achieved thru diligence, enthusiasm and the right product combined with timing.

Robert adds that network marketing is a B-quadrant business because it meets several criteria he looks for in a business or investment. 

• Leverage – Can I train other people to work for me?
• Control – Do I have a protected system that belongs to me?
• Creativity – Will the business allow me to be creative and develop my own personal style and talents?
• Expandability – Can my business grow indefinitely?
• Predictability – Is my income predictable if I do what is expected of me?  If I am successful and keep expanding my business will my income increase with my success and hard work?

In addition, Mr. Trump addresses the accusations often leveraged against network marketing as being a pyramid scheme. He explains why corporations are more true pyramids than any network marketing model.

 Why We Want You to Be Rich: Two Men – One Message
is powerful information and I highly recommend that you add this book to your business library.

Until next time! 

I would like to take just a moment to officially welcome you to Network Marketing Simplified. The vision here is to be a place where regardless of how long you’ve been involved in this industry or which company you represent you will find support and help waiting for you.

My guess is that you are probably the ‘odd man out’ in your family or circle or friends. It is common for entrepreneurs in general to feel that way and  I think especially so for those of us who embrace network marketing. People seem to forget that there are negatives in every industry bar none. Yet network marketing seems to get a bigger share of the bum wrap for some reason in spite of the fact that many people have and are making good incomes.

It is my hope that you will visit often and that the recommendations for tools and resources as well as the words of encouragement will be of great value to you. I consider entrepreneurs to be heroes and would like to take this moment to honor the Network Marketing Entrepreneural spirit. It’s not likely anyone is going to have a parade for you anytime soon but they should.

I both invite and welcome your comments as to your experiences with network marketing. It would be an untruth to try to paint a picture that everyone scores big everytime because it is not so. A large majority of people will tuck tail and run when they discover how really hard they are going to have to work to realize success. It is for the small number who will persevere and never give up that this blog was formed.

The reality is you must learn to earn. But the savvy person understands you do not necessarily have to have a traditional college degree in order to become a professional and successful business person.  The resources and tools that can enable you to succeed are available to anyone without having to be ‘accepted’ first.

Again welcome and here’s to your success!