Thanksgiving.... a day for giving thanks.  But this shouldn't be something we do only one day a year, being grateful, giving thanks should be something we do all the time.  Positive

Network Marketing - Auto Suggestion

One of the best ways to boost your business and grow yourself is to use auto suggestion. I had tried this many times with limited success, but only recently  had an insight that made me understand why.

Auto suggestion is a term 
bandied about by a lot of people, and has had a lot of articles and books written about it. What I had always read about it or maybe interpreted was that it was something you listened to over and over again so your brain would hear it more than the negative and take it for truth. I listened to all kinds of tapes and spent time repeating what I wanted over and over, trouble was I didn't believe it nor did I put any emotion into it except maybe doubt. What I didn't know was without faith, without emotion and a belief in what I was saying it wasn't going to be effective.

Think for just a minute about what faith is...  it is BELIEVING something without proof, so it is a CHOICE to believe something. We operate so much on remote control, that we don't even consider that we can CHOOSE OUR BELIEFS, thereby creating FAITH!  

So auto suggestion is most effective when accompanied by the emotion that can be fueled by FAITH that what you are saying is TRUE and WILL HAPPEN if you just keep saying it and thinking it and CHOOSE to believe it to be true. 

The idea that I could CHOOSE what to believe and what to let in to my mind was something that I never heard before listening to Michael and the mental cleanse.  I find that I am using this idea not just with my business but with me, what to believe and hold true about ME.  My opinion of myself and what I can do is totally up to me, it is my CHOICE! I believe I can get what I want, it may take me a month or a year, I may make changes in my plans and falter at times, but I will never give up and as long it is my truth, nothing anyone tells me can change my plans and my belief unless I let it.

So my auto suggestion or my self talk has the emotion of my faith in other people and myself, and it not just a wish or a dream, it is TRUTH. A great byproduct of this idea is that other people's opinions and criticisms of what I believe no longer causes me to feel so uncomfortable, I can look at what they say and consider it and DECIDE to agree or not, and not feel threatened by it.  My truth is mine and totally up to me... a great comfort and relief, and a great KNOWING that gives me confidence that I didn't have before. I can make changes but they are mine, I am not at the mercy of all the hype. I use my auto suggestion to fuel my DESIRE OF CHOICE, and I will succeed.

Network Marketing - What is Network Marketing?

Bet you have heard "I don't want to do 'network marketing', that is an illegal pyramid! Or I can't sell stuff, or I don't know anyone that makes money at that! There are so many incorrect ideas about this industry that it can be difficult for the person new to the industry. But when it comes down to it, WE ALL DO NETWORK MARKETING, SOME OF US JUST DON'T GET PAID FOR IT!

 So, just what is Network Marketing?!

Network marketing is just promoting and recommending products and services that you like to other people.  We have been doing this since about age 5, when we told a friend what kind of candy to get our parents to buy or what tv show to see. Network marketing is just doing something right one time, and getting paid for it over and over again. J K Rowling, wrote her Harry Potter series of books once, did it right and now gets paid for it when other people promote the books and movies. If you told anyone about the last movie you saw and told them to see it too, you were promoting the movie for the actors, directors and writers that made it. Did you get a check in the mail for you help?  Of course not, BUT YOU WERE DOING NETWORK MARKETING, YOU JUST WEREN'T GETTING PAID FOR IT!  If you explain it to people properly, they will see and understand the concept and can't help wanting to get involved!

Pyramid you say... how about this picture.  The large corporation has the owner at the top. the ceo and his secretary under him, department managers under him, more department heads under each to those, more employees under them and so on.  Familiar shape isn't it?

Use stories to tell people what you want them to understand, with a story they will put themselves as the star character and see your point without you 'selling' them on it. Remember no one wants to be sold. You are building a relationship and you are teaching a marketing system to those that are unfamiliar with it.

Start with questions about them. The theme should be "How can I help you?", not how much can you spend so I can make money. Remember the old quote, help other people get what they want, and you will have everything you want!

I love this business, it is the only level playing field no matter what kind of education you have, what kind of background you come from, or what you have been doing for a living. A company CEO has the same chance that a grocery store clerk has or a construction worker, or a kid just out of college! We can all be successful and build an income with this business model no matter what our background or education, or financial situation.

Network Marketing - What you need before all else to be truely successful!

Organized Planning is necessary to get anything done but for people like me, it can be a scary thought!  I probably am not the only one that feels like being organized is one of those genes that I didn't get at birth.  My desk is most of the time buried in papers and art projects and other stuff that is equally important to me, and gets kind of cleaned off when I get irritated because I no longer have any space to write something down. I plan but most of the time the plans fall short of completion because I run out of time to finish all the things I planned to do. I have felt scattered and frustrated at times, less now than before finding mentoring for free and following the mental cleanse.  But my progress always seems to me to be slow and at times non existant and I take the failures personally.

Finding your mastermind group and making a plan, and acting on the plan using a burning desire to reach a goal is all important in getting what you want. I have a great mastermind group. paramount in helping me to carry out my plans, and always there when I reach out to them. All the emphasis in my mind was on being able to organize a plan of action and carry it out. Finding more time to devote to finding prospects and customers, working on the quantity and sometimes the quantity so I would find success as fast as I could, and being irritated with myself for not doing all the things I know are important...enough. Very important, but all that planning and executing your plan is pretty worthless if you don't have another just as important thing going for you.

Think about the statement “QUALITY AND QUANTITY of service is not sufficient to maintain a permanent market for your services. The conduct or SPIRIT in which you deliver service is a strong determining factor in connection with both the price you receive and the duration of employment.”  ( From Napoleon Hill's book  'Think and Grow Rich". )

In other words if you don't conduct business, even though you deliver quantity and quality in your business, with the right spirit, your business won't last. You will crash and burn because you weren't ready for success.  

So I take solice when I am frustrated with myself for not moving along at the rate I would like, in the fact that I am still so to speak growing up and success will come when I am ready for it, and in the meantime I just have to enjoy the journey and learn as much as I can along the way, so I am ready for success WHEN IT COMES.  I keep going no matter what, failures along the way are eminent and that is where persistence comes in.  We just have to keep improving our quality and quantity of service to others, work toward success in the spirit of being of service to our prospects and customers, and success will come. So don't be so quick to give up when you feel you aren't doing as well as you think you should, take it as a challenge and a chance stretch a little.  The journey is the fun part... and the best is yet to come! This is not always easy for me, but I a
m certain the outcome will eventually be success.

The spirit of service has always been easy for me, maybe for you as well...  when your self image is low you are quick to help others at your own expense to compensate.  This isn't the spirit that you need either. The spirit is to help others when you can, but to include yourself in the equation so that you have the strength and balance, and enthusiasm to be of service without your happiness being dependant on the outcome.  

  I may not have the organization part down yet, but I am working on it and understand that as long as I am in service to others to help them independent of that service making me feel like someone, because I am someone in the first place, I will make
 progress and succeed. Then the service to others is truly selfless and in the true spirit of giving.

network marketing - We all have a mastermind group, just didn't choose them consciously... But we NEED TO!

We all have a mastermind group, several I think. We just don't always choose it consciously.  A mastermind group is people that you hang out with, people that share a common goal, have similar wants and desires, and participate in the same activities.  Their thoughts and attitudes combine with yours and form a power to get whatever the group seems to be going after. A football team works together to form a winning team, they work together on a common goal. They work together in harmony to win a game, and band together even off the field many times as friends, participating in the same activities. They form a mastermind group just as a company of people do that are working for any common goal. 


Take a look at your circle of friends growing up, if you hung out with kids that got in trouble, you probably did too. Growing up I was crazy about horses and art and generally not interested in the dances and the popular crowd, when the prom came around we had our own party and celebrated without the crowds. My friends were the animal lovers, the ones that were more prone to go camping than to dances. We had similar interests and participated in the same kind of activities. They were my mastermind group, they gave me power to pursue my interests in art just by supporting me and giving me positive reinforcement when I needed it. They gave me energy.  


When it came to money we had the same idea in art school, nobody thought we could ever get rich. Worse when I went to art school, most of us shared the same starving artist mentality. I don't think any of us ever got rich and famous, now I think because we didn't think we could. After all there are wealthy artist, wealth can come in any profession, and not necessarily to the most talented one, I went to school with many very talented people, and none of them that I know of have gotten past a middle class income, even though they truly were creative people.  Money only came to those that sold out and didn't stay true to their art, they went commercial, we stayed pure. What egos!


I participated in an outward bound climbing class for 14 days when I was in my late 20's, we climbed mountains and camped out in the Rocky Mountains. I was generally the last one to get anywhere because of my weight and not so great physical shape. But I persevered and caught up to them at the end of each hike. The last thing we did was a seven mile run (in my case a walk). I was so tired and sore, I just kept putting one foot in front of another, setting my sites on the next five minutes or the next tree to get thru it. Even the person that waited 3 hours to leave and make sure no one was lost passed me up... but when I was almost there, I spied my group, my mastermind group there ahead of me. They came out to meet me as I hobbled into view. They came to walk/run with me the last mile. All of a sudden I had energy I didn't know was there and I actually trotted the last mile with them, something I couldn't do by myself. I was really touched and empowered by them. That is the power of a mastermind group.


I think one of the greatest thing a mastermind group can do is give you energy, fuel that burning desire for success. When everyone is working towards that common goal, working as a team to get where they want to be, the universe responds just like it did when we were telling ourselves we would be starving artists for the rest of our lives, and gives us what we want. The mastermind group fills that physic river with positive energy if we can just align ourselves with it and gives us power that we can't get alone. We need each other to get the energy, the power we need to be really successful. We need to consciously choose this group, not just take whoever comes along. We need to get the best 'batteries' we can to help power our dreams.


You need to consciously and with purpose pick your mastermind group. Pick people that you look up to, that will inspire you.


I found is mentoring for free and they tell me I can own my life, I can make lots of money if I just believe I can and I can fulfill my dreams. I never thought I liked money, I have the same negative ideas given to me by my past mastermind groups from the past that I just fell into. I now consciously choose who I am hanging out with and most importantly listening to, and when I hear well meaning friends and family both past and present, sometimes just in my head, tell me I am not supposed to have money and my dreams are just wishes that I will never see fullfilled,  I know to tell them and me they are wrong, I own my life and will get what I am after.  


The power of prayer is a great example. It has been prooven that when many minds gather to pray for the same thing, it creates a real powerful force. When we get together and all start to work to a common goal, we form one powerful mind, with more energy than one can ever produce by themselves. It's true you can't get what you want alone, we need each other, we need our mastermind group to succeed.


So think about it, think about what you really want, what your goals are. You need to pick a group of people that will uplift you. Leave the negative people behind, as hard as it may be, they just drag you down and you will stay where you are.  You can do it if I can and I am doing it.


See you there!

Network Marketing - The most important thing... Why?

If you are working on building a home based business, one of the most important things you need to figure out is WHY!

Knowing what you are working for will keep you going when you meet those bumps in the road.  It will make them just that, a little bump, not a chasm to fall into or a mountain to climb.  Growing any business is at best a challenge so you need something to get you going and keep reaching for what you want.


Recognize and believe that You have the power to become anyone you want. If you are willing to lay out the plan, plot the course, and work at it, you can become the person you want to be. Your "why" will keep you on course.

To craft your 'why' think about who you have been, what you have done, and what is important to you. What do you do when you have free time?  What makes you energized, and what brings a smile to your face?  What would you 'give your right arm for!'

Think about places that you have been that really made you feel good.  How did you feel, that can be the first part of your 'why'.

All of these things will help you to figure it out. It is a work in progress, and will change and grow with you.  Try not to make it about things, make it about people and goals, and what you want to be remembered for. Make it something that you feel so strong about it makes you cry.  You will be glad you did.

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If you want help with this exercise, contact me for a really neat worksheet to help you out!
I am here to help if and when I can!

Network Marketing - Knowledge is important, but Specialized Knowledge is essential!

One of the things we need to succeed in network marketing is knowledge, not just any knowledge, but specialized knowledge. We need to know how to do a business that is not like any other. Just like a surgeon needs to know a special kind of medicine, we need to acquire a special kind of business knowledge.
In the book "Think and Grow Rich" by Napoleon Hill, one of the principles he talks about is specialized knowledge. We need this education and need to apply it with emotion and desire. Dry knowledge without application will not make us successful. It needs to be applied with emotion, with a burning desire and with the support of a mastermind group.

I recently attended a seminar for my company. What a way to get the specialized knowledge you need to succeed! It was a gathering in essence of some of my mastermind group. When you meet with like minded, positive people and come together to learn and exchange information, there is a natural energy that really charges you, and you are bound to leave with a burning desire to apply the knowledge learned. Attending your company's functions is a really good way to acquire this knowledge and in a fun way you also get that burning desire and emotion to make you want to apply what you learned when you get back to working your business.

So become a student of the industry. Learn all you can and never think you know it all. There is a multitude of knowledge out there and all of it helps you get better at what you do. Success comes from work but from working smart not hard. Be coachable, find a mentor, a mastermind group and an organization with integrity that puts the distributors first and attend as many meetings as you can. Don't spend all your money on books and training, you should be getting that mostly for free. If they are making the money by having you buy books and tapes and training manuals, you need to find another mastermind group and another company. Most of the best training is free or nearly free, just be a critical thinker and don't blindly accept all you see and hear. Knowledge will get you there and your good instincts will keep you on track.

See you at the top.  We are all winners, you have left the mundane and ordinary because you are seeking something better. You can own your life, just don't give up!


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One good source for knowledge for anyone in any company is Big Al seminars. Check out his schedule for a seminar near you!  Here is the link to his schedule... http://www.fortunenow.com/public/department33.cfm   Let me know if you want to attend, I can get you in for free!

Recently I recieved this email, it was so good and to the point I want to share it with you.  It is from my mentor and friend, her wisdom and advice has proven very valuable to me.


Hello, Judy here~

Recently I was on a Leaders call that was full of powerful information about why you need to read your company Policies & Procedures.

In 27 years of network marketing, we've learned the #1 feature you must have in place for success:

Company management experience with integrity.

People ask all the time, "How do I know if my company has integrity?"

The answer is simple: read your company Policies & Procedures. If you can't find them on the website, it's a big red flag. Some companies say you can't read them until after you join. Big red flag.

Why are they ashamed of their P&Ps? Why don't they want you to read them? The P&Ps are YOUR contract to be in business with them - written by the company lawyers! Every time any distributor ever gets a termination letter, it says, "You have violated the Policies & Procedures." They never say you violated "Terms & Conditions." It's always "Policies & Procedures."

Most reps never actually read their P and P's. You need to do it ... it may really open your eyes. At least you'll know exactly what to look for and how to protect yourself.

To Your Success,

Judy Narum


So think about it.  I too joined many companies without even thinking about the p & p's but have since heard some real horror stories about how  you can be affected by them.  If you were getting a job you would want to know how you were paid, what you were paid and what you had to do to get paid... and most employers will tell you what will get you fired!  Shouldn't you have the same knowledge if you are building a business that you want to pay your children's children... you want security!


The only way to be sure is to read them, not take someone's word for it, but read it before you sign on. You will be doing yourself a favor and practicing critical thinking.  Protect yourself and your family by being informed.




Tell me what you think... any experience that would benefit my readers?

network marketing - Staying positive in a negative world!

Sometimes it seems like all we hear is how the glass if half empty. We know we need to view the glass half full but how do you keep your mind focused on the full side if all about you are talking about the empty side!

It isn't easy but you can beat them and show a good example in the process. They are part of your 'self talk' but you can drown them out and just refuse to join them!  You can decide if you want to embrace any idea, take it as truth or reject it and give your mind what you believe or want to believe as truth. If you do this enough, the half full glass will be what your subconscious remembers, not the half empty one.

Here are some ways to do this.

1. Use affirmations, say them at least 100 times a day.  This amounts to maybe 15 or 20 minutes a day, a small investment in yourself that will really payoff! 

2. Find a group of people that you keep in regular contact with, people that are positive, like minded and have similar goals as yourself that you can go to to talk IDEAS with. If they talk about people, find another group! Gossip has no place in your mastermind group. 

3. READ BOOKS that are positive. They should be about people that have grown and been successful in what ever they are working in. If you are a mechanic you don't have to read just about successful mechanics, anyone that has reached their goals and is sharing how they did it may have an important idea in it for you. Be a critical thinker and don't take any ones word for absolute truth. Ideas are what you will grow with, sometimes they are opposing but as a critical thinker, you can also grow from rejecting them. An idea never challenged will never grow strong. The more you have to stick to your guns, the stronger you will get and the more desire you will have to reach your goals so don't be afraid to encounter an opposing viewpoint.

4. Stay with the positive emotions. Most of the downtrodden you hear are coming from the negative emotions, they just see the half empty glass. If you can keep the half full glass in your mind, not only can you keep their negativity from invading your mind, you can uplift them. Remember if you focus on the negative, it tends to build more negative. All you have to do is to think the opposite, positive emotion until you feel it. Visualize, mind pictures are a strong replacement for the negativity of someones words. Make up your perfect day and use it when confronted with a situation where you can't get away from a flood of negative talk. You can be sympathetic without joining in. Our thoughts are things, so make sure you are armed with all the good things you can think of when faced with someone that is not as strong, They can feel your state of mind, so keep it in the positive as much as possible and you will feel the results and so will they! Be a 'Mentor with a Servants Heart' and a voice for the good in life.  Everyone has it, sometimes they just have to be reminded of it. 

5. Find a positive meaning in what you see and hear. Rethinking adverse events in a positive light and giving ordinary happenings a positive value will lift you and everyone around you. Pursue realistic goals, you do yourself no good to reach for something that is so big you can't see it. Having a big goal is ok but you need to break any large undertaking into attainable steps. Be mindful of the positive in your life, look for it, it is ALWAYS there!

6. Do something you love. Take time for you and enjoy yourself. Playing a game with friends, drawing, painting, playing and listening to positive music... these are all things that will keep you happy and relaxed.

7. Smile even if you don't feel like it. Your brain doesn't know the difference between a genuine smile or a fake one, the fake one can do the same job of getting those positive chemicals working in your brain. Fake it till you make it works in this case!

So next time you feel like the negativity around you is closing in. keep these strategies in mind. They work! You can make a difference in you and when people see it they will be positively affected as well. You can make a difference in your life and everyone around you just by being positive, by keeping that half FULL glass in your mind all the time!

Network Marketing, connecting with leads - Button, Button, Who's got the Button!

  Ever hear the saying, they pressed my buttons?  I hear it all the time.  Someone says something that just rubs you the wrong way, and you react.  Sometimes it is a well meaning family member or a friend, sometimes it is a potential client that is suspicious or challenging, but either way it interferes with our getting our point across.  Let's face it, if someone is challenging your business as many do because it is an mlm, they are looking for a reaction and you are giving them what they want which is affirmation that they are right about you or you would be able to defend the point, and it would not get to you.

My family is like most of yours.  Yes, I am doing another mlm and I have failed in the past but I am not now, however we all know it takes some time to grow a business.  It isn't like a regular job where you work so many hours and get so much money  for the time.  At first you don't see much obvious gain, but if you are doing it right, getting educated and growing personally with it, you will see a difference first in you, then in your pocketbook.

In the past the dreaded, "but are you making any money!" comment used to really get me going.  I always thought it was just them, but if I really believed in what I was doing and growing with my business, why would that bother me so much?  I would either get up and leave in a huff thinking why can't they support me or give them a smart answer back that didn't help either of us.  If you want to get rid of that reaction, you can!  Here are some suggestions that work.

1.  I have heard it said, network marketing is a pay plan with a personal development program built in. Because you are working in a business that depends on your ability to foster positive relationships, you need to work on YOU just as much as you do on everything else.  As you improve yourself, you will find those comments don't give you the same knee jerk reaction as they used to.

2. Put yourself in their place.  For example, my parents like many others went through the depression. Unless your family is one of the lucky wealthy ones that kept their money intact, they know what it is like to be poor, to have to be careful just to make sure they got the basics, food, shelter, ect. So when they someone they care about spending on something with no VISIBLE return, they worry and their doubts come out in questions that may sound like they have little faith in you.  They are coming from negative emotions. You have to keep your answers coming from the positive emotions.  You have to be able to not take their doubts personally. You can make a great difference in their feelings of insecurity by just staying positive yourself, they will feel your confidence and it will actually make them feel better and they will be more positive too!

3. Self talk... Autosuggestion, the best way to keep your confidence or to grow your faith so you don't react the same way.  What you say to yourself is important, you have to practice it when you are not confronted with negativity so when it does come, you have thoughts that are positive to replace them with.  Practice and hone your self talk to keep your enthusiasm and confidence up so it doesn't deflate with the first doubting Thomas you come across.

4. Environment... also Autosuggestion.  What others say to you will also effect your faith, your confidence. Surround yourself as much as possible with positive, like minded people. Their positive comments will also give you the positive energy and faith to withstand the doubts of others.

You are in control, you are the captain of your fate, so don't just take what comes.  Make a conscious effort to control what you hear and think.  You will be surprised how little those doubting thomas's are able to push your buttons. They are actually your friends, because they are only pointing out where you need to concentrate your efforts to make yourself into the person you are meant to be!