Rules of Engagement

As long as people have engaged in commerce, they have generally done business with people they liked and trusted.  Today, with online social networking, we can become acquainted with people worldwide.  This has opened up a whole new mode of promoting our businesses.

A very powerful way to market businesses, especially home businesses is “relationship marketing.”  Using social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, IBOToolbox and others, we can connect with potential customers and business partners. 

With relationship marketing, we primarily focus on building and sustaining mutually beneficial associations.  We can also establish friendships with people who may never have any interest in our product or business.  We can learn from some of our contacts and educate others.

The most important thing to remember is that we are using social media.  The name is a clue as to how to behave on these sites.  Don’t just jump in and start promoting your product.  Remember that I began this post by saying that people do business with those they like and trust, and it can take time to develop a relationship. 

Participate on social media sites with relevant information.  Your posts can be educational, newsworthy, humorous, interesting or helpful.  Those with whom you are establishing a relationship want to know about you, so include your opinions, information about your background, perhaps a little about your family.  Always keep your posts positive, and avoid controversial topics.  It is very important to include photograph of yourself as part of your profile.  Your profile picture should not be your logo or an avatar.  People want to know that there is a real person writing to them.

Remember that it is not always about you. Ask questions and get to know your contacts.  We’re sowing seeds.  Any one of the relationship seeds we plant may turn out to know someone who needs your product or who is seeking a business just like yours.

As I said earlier, don’t begin selling too soon. Find a balance between sharing your information and sharing other people’s. Being social is the first step, and eventually people will begin asking questions about your business. 

Don’t be surprised if it takes a few months to establish enough relationships to benefit your business.  Be patient and get to know people.  I have built my business almost entirely through social media.  Your patience will prove worthwhile.

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Learn how to reduce your Health and Dental expenses AND reduce costs on Hearing, Vision, Prescriptions, Roadside Assistance, Lifelock™ and even more at http://ibourl.net/XpressSavings (NOT insurance).

       Please visit my Facebook Page at http://www.facebook.com/XpressHealthcareTheWinnersCircle

To learn about Julie Klein and how you can be successful in network marketing, look at the Xpress Healthcare™ Business Opportunity at http://joinxpresshealthcare.com. 

Goals are Dreams with a Deadline - Tony Robbins

It is fine to dream of owning an island in the Pacific, but what are your chances of ever actually doing it?  Dreaming is fun, but goal setting is actually serious business.

Your goals must be realistic, something you truly believe you can achieve.  As Tony Robbins says, our goals must have a deadline by which you plan to reach them.  Your goals also should be specific, measurable targets.  Instead of saying, “I want to be financially secure,” specify, “I will make 100 sales by this Christmas.” 

If you were a contractor using a blueprint to build an apartment building, you would have specific tasks that you would have to complete by a certain date.  You would complete one step and then move on to the next.  You would dig out the hole for the foundation, and then you would pour the foundation.  You would build the frame, and continue each task necessary until your building is complete.  Use your goals as a blueprint designed with the steps necessary to build your business. 

Going back to our friendly contractor, as he completes each task toward building the apartments, he is reaching another goal – completing the specific task. Your blueprint should also include short-term goals for which to strive and accomplish. 

Determine what steps you’ll have to reach to achieve your goals.  Let’s say, for example, your goal is to make 100 local sales by October 31^st.  To meet that goal, you’ll have to go out and start meeting people or setting up appointments with business owners or individuals (depending upon what product or service you are selling).  What other steps will be required to make those 100 sales?

Write down your goals!  Don’t keep them in your head!  Once written, share them with your spouse, your best friend or a co-worker.  Sharing them will help you feel accountable to them, and you’ll likely work harder to reach your goals.  Remember though that your goals are not written in stone.  As time passes and you gain more experience and learn more about your business, you can always change your goals, especially your long term goal.

In order to achieve your goals, you may have to learn some new skills, step out of your comfort zone or adapt new habits to replace old ones. You must be willing to do whatever it takes!

Never Give Up – If you are determined to succeed, if you KNOW that you can, nothing can stop you! 

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Learn how to reduce your Health and Dental expenses AND reduce costs on Hearing, Vision, Prescriptions, Roadside Assistance, Lifelock™ and even more at http://ibourl.net/XpressSavings (NOT insurance).

       Please visit my Facebook Page at http://www.facebook.com/XpressHealthcareTheWinnersCircle

To learn about Julie Klein and how you can be successful in network marketing, look at the Xpress Healthcare™ Business Opportunity at http://joinxpresshealthcare.com.  

Someone is Praying for the Blessings You Take for Granted

It is so easy to take people and things for granted.  I am spoiled, and I know it.  Although I’m not wealthy, we get our bills paid every month. I have a wonderful husband, two healthy sons and three beautiful grandchildren. 

I also have a brother and a sister, both of whom I love dearly.  I used to have two sisters. My “big” sister died a few years ago way too young, and I miss her every day.  I am so glad that while she was with us, I did not take her for granted.  We spoke every day, at least once, until the day she died.  Thank Heavens, the last words we spoke on the phone the night she died were, “I love you.”

I do take some things for granted though.  I seldom think about that fact that I know I will always have food to eat and a roof over my head.  I have never had to truly struggle to survive. 

Most people, Americans in particularly, don’t give much thought to what’s happening around the world. I am saying this as an American myself.  I KNOW there are people starving, who are in pain, who are suffering and living in unimaginable conditions.  But most of the time, I just go on living my life, taking it for granted.

Sure, I give my time and money, but not enough of either.  When I take the time to really think about all have, I am very grateful for where I was born, for the family that raised me, and for the good health that enabled me to work hard to be able to afford what I have today.

Today I am taking some time to be truly grateful for all the things I normally don’t give a moment’s thought.  I have to clean my house, but I have a house to clean!  I have to put expensive gas into my car, but I have a car and the money to fuel it.  I have to prepare dinner and clean the kitchen afterward, but I have the food to cook and a place to prepare it.

I have a business that I love working, and I earn a living with it.  Many of my co-workers have become friends about whom I care very much.  I work with a company with very high integrity and excellent products.  Although I am not brilliant with an amazing IQ, I am smart enough to operate my business and write this blog.

There are many people – friends and family – that love me, and I love them in return.  In so many ways, I am blessed, and I am very thankful for everyone in my life and for the blessings that have been bestowed upon me.

Perhaps you too would like to take just a little time today to be grateful for those people and things you normally take for granted.

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Learn how to reduce your Health and Dental expenses AND reduce costs on Hearing, Vision, Prescriptions, Roadside Assistance, Lifelock™ and even more at http://ibourl.net/XpressSavings (NOT insurance).

Please take a few minutes to visit and comment on my Facebook page:  http://www.facebook.com/XpressHealthcarTheWinnersCircle.    

What an Honor!

I am writing this blog today to extend my gratitude to the company with which I am an Affiliate Business Owner.  I have been with this company since February 2011, and during that time, I have been supported by our two Founders, Ed Pettola and Dan Gambardello every inch of the way.

I also had a personal corporate mentor who challenged me and gave me opportunities to step out of my comfort zone to learn and grow a wonderful business.

A few months ago, our Founders sent me a draft of a new website and asked for my opinion and suggestions for changes.  I sent them many suggestions, and they were included on the new page.

Our Founders even accept direct calls from affiliates.  We are supposed to go through our corporate support first, but there are times when I and a few of us have skipped that step.  It has never been a problem.

One of our Founders goes into the field to sell products.  He doesn’t do this as the Founder, just as a representative.  He wants to know what kind of experiences we face.

This week Ed contacted me and asked if I'd do a weekly email/newsletter.  He would be sending it to a long list of corporate connections.  At first, I thought I would be writing strictly about our company, Xpress Healthcare, but he wants to accentuate MY team.  I can highlight a team member one week, for instance. I am free to write whatever I want, long or short. 

I'm crazy to take on another task (like writing five blogs & two team call presentations every week isn't enough).  But I will be promoting our company and my team in particular, so I couldn't say no.  This newsletter can help so many of my team members. 

So, tell me what company you have ever worked with that supported you so much?  I know I have never before been affiliated with a business that not only is open to suggestions but encourages them.  I am so impressed by the fact that our Founders are two down-to-earth men with very high integrity.

This post is not intended to be a promotion for Xpress Healthcare as much as it is to promote two great guys who happen to be the best company owners with whom I have ever been associated.  Ed Pettola and Dan Gambardello, thank you for everything you do.

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Learn how to reduce your Health and Dental expenses AND reduce costs on Hearing, Vision, Prescriptions, Roadside Assistance, Lifelock™ and even more athttp://ibourl.net/XpressSavings (NOT insurance).

97% of Network Marketers Fail – Or Do They?

I have read many articles on the Internet saying that 97% of those in network marketing fail.  Personally, I don’t believe it.  I researched it a bit, trying to find the source of this number.  Where did it come from, and why do so many people repeat it as fact?

I believe many people are simply using the wrong word when applying the success rate for network marketers.

I don’t truly know the exact percentage, but 97% is probably fairly accurate, but not for those who fail.   It is likely that about that percentage QUIT before they ever put in any real effort.  Too many people want success handed to them.  Although it is true that those of us who own network marketing businesses don’t have a boss, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have to work. 

Those of us who became home business owners and truly plan to succeed – not just want to succeed – know that we must work very hard to reach the goals for which we are striving.  I work much longer hours for myself than I ever did when I worked for someone else.  But that’s the point, I am working to grow a business for myself!  I am working to build a residual income that will last me the rest of my life - even after I decide I don’t want to work my business anymore. 

For those of us who are fortunate to have found a business we love, a product or service we’re passionate about work long hours, but without the stress and dissatisfaction we had when we worked a j-o-b.  I can hardly wait to begin working each morning.  And before I know it, it’s evening and I wonder where the day went?  I enjoy what I’m doing, so it doesn’t feel like work.

Having been in network marketing for several years now, I’ve seen far more people join my team and quit than I’ve seen join believing that “quitting is not an option.”  97%?  I really don’t have statistics, but it may well be close.  However, those who have remained with my team are growing a successful business, as am I.  We are the winners!

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Learn how to reduce your Health and Dental expenses AND reduce costs on Hearing, Vision, Prescriptions, Roadside Assistance, Lifelock™ and even more at http://ibourl.net/XpressSavings (NOT insurance).

To learn about Julie Klein and how you can be successful in network marketing, look at the Xpress Healthcare Business Opportunity at http://joinxpresshealthcare.com. 

Groaning, Popping and Creaking

As I celebrate another birthday, it makes me wonder, exactly when did I begin groaning when I get up from a chair?  When did I start hearing popping and creaking noises when I move? 

Let me say up front, I am grateful that I’ve lived as long as I have.  Many people don’t make it to my age – like one of my sisters who died at only 62. 

It is an odd thing, but over the past few years, it seems that most conversations I have with family and friends lead into our health issues.  We all have them once we reach a “certain” age.  Sharing our medical problems with others certainly doesn’t ease the pain or improve the condition.  And yet, it seems nearly all “seasoned” citizens talk about and compare their various ailments.

I am not old, and yet when it comes to all the warnings we hear about in medication commercials, I am considered part of the “elderly.”  Aren’t elderly people sitting in their rocking chairs on the front porch? 

The general concept of “old” has changed since I was a child.  I remember my grandmother as always being old, and yet when I do the math, she was really only in her 60’s when I was a child.  I know that the older I get, the younger “my age” seems to me.  I no longer look at a 70-year-old man as an “old man.” 

Thanks in part to modern medicine, but even more than that, “older” people today are more active for much longer than previous generations.  I think that attitude has a lot to do with it.  I am part of the Baby Boomer generation, and we are all at or near Medicare age.  Isn’t that for old people?

Well, I for one am grateful I have reached another birthday.  With all my aches and pains that come as a “side effect” of aging, I will take them all.  I am not planning to go “anywhere” soon. 

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Learn how to reduce your Health and Dental expenses AND reduce costs on Hearing, Vision, Prescriptions, Roadside Assistance, Lifelock™ and even more at http://ibourl.net/XpressSavings (NOT insurance).

To learn about Julie Klein and how you can be successful in network marketing, look at the Xpress Healthcare Business Opportunity at http://joinxpresshealthcare.com.  

This is Just Another Pyramid Scheme

Those of us in network marketing have heard this dozens, perhaps even hundreds of times!  In my opinion, it is a ridiculous statement!  

In Corporate America, companies have a CEO, Vice-Presidents, Supervisors & Managers and the General Workers.  Somehow THIS business model does look like a Pyramid!  The guy at the top makes far more than those below him.  In network marketing, those who join on the lower levels have as much opportunity as those “above” them to earn a large income.  They are not limited by “titles,” and if they work hard—patiently, consistently and persistently, they can earn as much or more than those who joined before them.

It can be annoying to hear prospects—or friends and family—refer to our businesses as a Pyramid Scheme.  We know we have a real, legitimate business, and that term automatically indicates that others believe it is a scam.

I can be difficult to respond to people who refer to our businesses in that way without sounding defensive or offending them.  We all know that there definitely are scams, Pyramid “Schemes,” but they are in the minority.  A very important part of being able to answer people is that WE must totally believe in our companies and KNOW that they are reputable. 

Another misconception many people have is that when they join a network marketing company, they are paying to get a job.  “Why should I have to pay for a job?”  It is our responsibility to educate them about the difference between a job and owning a business. 

I have found some people—even with an explanation—simply don’t “get it,” and obviously there is no sense in even trying to recruit them.  No matter what we say, some people will still believe that if they have to pay, it is illegal. 

On the other hand, if a prospect IS actually seeking a JOB, there is no reason to try to change their mind.

Some network marketers don’t understand that everyone is NOT qualified to work in the industry, nor will they ever want to do so.  For instance, if I refer someone to my website to learn more about the business and they do not go there, I do not want them on my team.  They cannot follow instructions.

Know when to move on to the next prospect.  No matter how hard we try, some people will never understand that network marketing is a perfectly legitimate industry.  Others will never understand why they have to pay to work with our companies.  Know that the prospect is not a good candidate.  Next!

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Learn how to reduce your Health and Dental expenses AND reduce costs on Hearing, Vision, Prescriptions, Roadside Assistance, Lifelock™ and even more at http://ibourl.net/XpressSavings (NOT insurance).

To learn about Julie Klein and how you can be successful in network marketing, look at the Xpress Healthcare Business Opportunity at http://joinxpresshealthcare.com.