Attraction Marketing Leadership

Merriam Webster defines Courage as the “mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear or difficulty.  It takes courage to build a business.  It really is an important Leadership Characteristic that one must possess in network marketing.

My goal is to share with you my thoughts on Courage and how it can affect your Network Marketing business.

Courage does not always roar.  Sometimes courage is the little voice at the the end of the day that says I’ll try again tomorrow. ~ Mary Ann Radmacher

When I think of courage, the things that often come to mind are the acts of the brave fire fighters, police officers, and soldiers.   Yes they truly are heroes and give a lot of themselves to help protect us. But Courage does exist in our lives more often than we realize.

Think of your day to day life.  Then take a look as some of the following examples of courage:

• Express your thoughts and opinions
• Stand up for what you believe in
• Go out of your comfort zone
• Start a new business
• Change careers
• Learn or try something new
• Make new friends
• Make amends
• Be open to others’ thoughts and views

In Network Marketing, courage is very much part of the business.  It is evident that a growing number of people are aware of using the Internet to build their business. But still for many, the first thing that comes to mind is making a large list of people, contacting all your friends and family, making cold calls to people you don’t know or getting 100 “No” responses, please rest assured this is very much unnecessary.

Courage is needed to go out of your comfort zone and develop relationships with those who are interested in the business.  It may be to learn skills necessary to grow a successful business.  It can be a shift in thinking, being open to new ways of doing things or possibly just taking an honest assessment of how you are doing. It can be as simple as committing to take consistent daily action regardless of the time spent.  Courage to believe in yourself.

Courage in business does not always involve a huge visible risk.  It is the small steps we take and the courage that goes a long with it that counts.  It is an essential Leadership Characteristic in building your business.

Courage is being afraid but going a head anyways ~ Dan Rather

Dealing with criticism is an essential Leadership Skill. I have just read another brilliant post by John Maxwell regarding this subject –  “When you Get Kicked in the Rear, You Know You’re Out in Front”  Maxwell indicates that criticism is a part of leadership and good leaders must know how to handle it.

He covers 5 key areas for dealing effectively with criticism:

• Know yourself
• Know the criticism and the critics
• Stay Open to Change
• Accept Yourself
• Forget Yourself
  

I highly recommend reading this article.  You can easily access by Clicking Here.  Handling criticism is an important Leadership Skill.

John Maxwell is an amazing leader.  I appreciate his work and find great value in what he has to offer.  His work is a must for anyone wishing to improve their leadership abilities.

Two Free Effective Marketing Tools for Network Marketers are Google Alerts and Google Reader.  It is essential to keep up on your niche, the network marketing business and anything else that may be related to your business. These are some of the best tools for the job!

Google Alerts: Google Alerts is a wonderful way to search the Web and have the results sent to your email account.  If you use a Google email account, you also will have the ability to manage them.  You can choose the type of content you wish to receive, the frequency and the number of results.  It also allows you to set up several alerts.  You can utilize different search terms based on your interests.

I have alerts sent to my email account on a daily basis.  It gives me an opportunity to see the latest news in my areas of interest.  I also have discovered some wonderful blogs related to my niche.  It is much easier than doing searches on my own.

Google Reader: Once you have located some great blogs, you may want to consider subscribing to them. Google Reader is fantastic for organizing all of your blogs. You can place the blogs in different categories (i.e. Network Marketing, Internet Marketing, Leadership)

There is no better way to keep up with all of the material and information.  Google Reader allows you to easily skip over articles that do not interest you and focus on the posts you want to read.  Google reader also gives you the option of sharing content with others.

Benefits: There are huge benefits to reading other’s content.  Obviously you will educate yourself on what is going on in your niche and with the network marketing industry.  It will also give you an opportunity to connect with others who share similar interests.  By reading other blogs and sharing your thoughts, you are opening yourself up to new business connections and positive relationships.

Some of the most effective Marketing Tools are free!  Google Alerts and Google Reader are two great examples!

A wonderful article was recently posted on the Trump Blog on the proper use of Facebook . I highly recommend people who want to use Facebook as a form of social media marketing to read the article Wall to (Facebook) Wall Marketing for Investors and Entrepreneurs.

The article highlights the right and wrong ways to market your business without alienating others.

The author is Koz Khosravani, an Internet expert, computer analyst  and a top speaker who has worked with the best! (such as UCLA, Harvard, Microsoft, Anthony Robbins and of course Trump).

I really enjoy reading the blog posts from the Trump Initiative.  The authors do an excellent job presenting valuable information.

There are a lot of Internet Marketing gurus and trainers. Choosing effective Marketing training can quite frankly be a bit overwhelming. Before spending your hard earned money, you may want to consider the following:

Check out Free Training Offered:
This is important. You will get a sense of what someone has to offer, their training style, ability to communicate, and ability to teach. Pay close attention to this. I believe that people learn differently. Know what works for you.

I had once spent a great deal of time and money on a membership training site. I did learn a lot, but still did not grasp the whole concept of the Internet marketing. It was not until I took a free training course, where I actually was able to put all the pieces together (to this day one of the best trainings I ever received)

Was the other training course bad? No, I believe that it just did not suit my learning style. Other people were experiencing a great deal of success using the training. I just had to find something that suited me.

Resist the Pressure to Buy It All
Ahhh the Marketing Funnel – the offer – The call to Action. Important aspects of Internet marketing. I have learned over time to resist the temptation to buy every training course encountered. And there are a lot of great courses out there!

It is easy to loose focus when you are bombarded with offers that seem way to good to pass up. I was caught in this trap and as a result wasted a lot of time. I have learned that there will continue to be great courses offered in the future.

You may want to think about what you are trying to achieve and what your goals are when choosing a course. I actually pulled back from it all so that I could gain perspective on what it was I wanted to achieve. I wanted to focus on building my network marketing company. I was getting pulled into too many directions.

Other Factors:
Do you trust the trainer? How does their style and personality jive with yours? Is the information taught something that can be easily shared with your team (Duplication!), does it appear that the the training is just a way of selling products to your downline?

I ended up choosing courses because there was no high pressure to join anything. I believed the trainer remembered that I was a customer and was accessible and believe or not, because he said Thank You – and it was sincere.  The training was clear and easy to understand.

Effective Marketing Training can help you build your network marketing business. Just remember your goals and your main focus – building your network marketing team!If you are at a loss of where to begin, there are two excellent resources.

1. Network Marketing Specific: I highly recommend that if you are in network marketing obtaining a free copy of  “Success in 10 steps”.  It is an excellent resource that brought a lot of clarity to what I was doing.  This will also give you access to free training calls which will give you additional  skills to build your business.  Click Here for your Free Copy !
2. General Internet Marketing Training: In relation to general Internet marketing, consider Ed Dales’ The Challenge. It is free.  While the focus is not on network marketing, it will give you an excellent foundation on using the internet to build a business.

To your success!
Cheryl Lydston

Quiz: Name a leader in the internet marketing arena who 1) Offers an extraordinary amount of high quality, easy to understand training,  2) Offers it for Free,  3) does not sell anything during the training, and get this – 4) Will do this on an annual basis and constantly seek on improving things from year to year?

Answer: Ed Dale is an extraordinary leader who gives so much value.  Ed and his team have been Doing the famous “30 Day Challenge” for several years. It is pretty amazing how much he and his team contributes.  I credit the 30 day challenge for finally helping me to put all the pieces together and understanding how this business works!

The exciting news is that this year, starting July 1, 2010, the 30 Day Challenge has been revised.  It will be known as the challenge.  Take a look at the video and see what’s in store! And to quote Ed Dale “There’s no charge for awesomeness” The training remains free!

CLICK HERE to access and register for Ed Dale’s Challenge!

This post from John Maxwell’s blog is quite powerful.  He inspires us to keep going and teaches us why it is best not to make decisions when you are struggling.   I really like John Maxwell a lot.  He has contributed a wealth of information, wisdom and insight on leadership.  CLICK HERE to read his post.  It is well worth it!

It has been a while since my last post.  Okay, It has been a long while since my last post!   I really took  time to take a step back and reflect on what I really want to accomplish.  During this process, It has been very clear to me the power of focus for your Network Marketing Success.

It is sooo easy to loose focus on what you want to accomplish.  If you are working on-line with any type of business, you know how easy it is to get distracted.

There’s the fun, social stuff (i.e on-line farming, on-line poker).  I think these are great things.  I have read posts from others stating that these are time wasters or that it is not the professional thing to do.  I have connected and made new friends – so to me it is worth it.  Everything in moderation.  I usually do these  things after I accomplish what I set out for the day.  Do what is right for you!

Then there are the launches, promotions, trainings etc.  It is so easy to get drawn into these offers.  Don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot of great information and training by some amazing people.  You just really need to be focused on what you want to accomplish and if the timing is right.  Believe me – I have been pulled through the marketing funnels and have been on information overload.  I have become much more selective in how I spend my money on training and where I focus my energy.  You can also find some amazing free training.

Focusing on one stream of income!  Okay, I know the big thing in Internet Network marketing is focusing on multiple streams of income.  I found myself getting more and more into affiliate marketing and internet marketing as opposed to network marketing!  I think there is absolutely nothing wrong with affiliate and internet marketing.  I do have one affiliate product on my website.  I also have some pretty amazing friends who are doing this and doing this quite well!  If I make a sale – that’s okay.  If I don’t – that’s okay too.  My focus is on building my MLM.

I have decided that my primary focus is on Network Marketing Success by first and foremost helping others to build their business.   This to me involves building relationships and providing free, high quality training and resources.

You will find ONE affiliate item on my site because I actually use the product and believe in it.  I do earn money from this product if you decide to purchase it, but you are welcome to buy it from any other resource!

To your success!

If you are attempting to master anything in life, the one thing that is needed is consistent action.  It has been proven time and time again. Effective Marketing success  is no exception.

One of the most important things you can do regardless of the amount of time or money you have is take consistent action on productive activities.  Here are some tips that can help you spend your valuable time and resources in the most productive way:

• Email: This is an important form of communication.  It can however take over your work day if not careful.  Keep in mind what you plan to achieve for the day and see if your time spent on emails is helping you towards that goal.  Try reading email two times per day.
• Timer: A number of successful marketers who use on-line strategies use a timer.  They will set aside a specified period of time (i.e. 30 minutes) and focus on writing articles for their blogs or another similar task.  They work through the time non-stop and arrange it so there are no interruptions.
• Focus: Focusing your energy on productive tasks is key. If your time you have for building your business is limited, this will be extremely important.  Are you working on tasks that will help you build your business or are you doing busy work?  You may want to keep a detailed journal of your activities and take an honest look at it.
• Rituals: What are your rituals? Do you take daily consistent action towards your business?  If you are not where you want to be with your business, you need to examine this. Are you consistently writing articles for your blog?  How about following up with your prospects? Are you consistently connecting with others and providing value?  These are all important things to consider
• Break it down:  You do not have to do it all at once.  If you have a large goal, break it down into small steps.  Choose one or two things that will help you meet this goal and start working on them.  Gradually build in consistent rituals.

If you are not where you want to be with your business, take an honest look at what you are doing. Discover small changes you can make and work consistently towards your goal.  You may be surprised at what you will accomplish.

Technology is wonderful and can help many people build their network marketing business.  There are email auto-responders, blogs, social sites, search engine optimization, pay per click and more.  These are all effective marketing tools when used correctly.

One marketing tool that is often overlooked in this high tech world is a hand written note or card.  This method has been around a while but has been replaced with other technologically advanced systems.

There are many examples of successful business people who use this method. Some examples include Bob Burg, Harvey Mackay, and Joe Girard.

Why Sending a Handwritten Note an Effective Marketing Tool

• It shows your customers and prospects that you care and are thinking of them
• Thank You notes show you really appreciate your customers’ time and business
• It will get more immediate attention than email (think of how quickly you can delete an email)
• Your customers or prospects will have something tangible to look at and appreciate.  They will appreciate the time you took to send them the note.
• It will help you stand out from your competitors
• Your customers and prospects will think positively of you and be more likely to send you more referrals.

When sending a personalized card or note, refrain from making it a sales pitch or an attempt to get more business.  Instead, thank them for their business and / or time.  During holidays, you may simply want to send them well wishes.  The point is that your card should be heart felt with no ulterior motives.

How to Develop your own Card Sending Marketing Tool:

1. Determine what type of cards you will use.  You can go to a store and purchase several different cards.  You can also make cards with your computer or use a computerized greeting card system that will allow you to create and send a card on-line.
2. Send a card to your customers or prospects on a routine basis.  Make sure they are sincere and not pitching a product or service.  Some even send quick hand written notes out monthly.
3. If you have something to offer that meets your customers or prospects’ needs without trying to sell them on what you have, include it in your card.  For example, if you know that one of your customers is interested in a particular sports team, you may send them a copy of an interesting article you read about that team.
4. Make the time to follow through with this task on a routine basis.  It will be well worth your efforts.

Stand out from the others and use hand written cards as a way to connect with your customers and prospects. Try this effective marketing tool and watch your business grow!