Are you a college hoops fan? Well I have been working on some cool stuff to help you support your team at a price that won’t eat into the Ramen noodles budget of most college students. Here is a sampling. Visit my site to order or leave me a comment.
niseylee.etsy.com
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=14fe3309-b2f1-4957-86ff-b69cc0e0e7be)
“To think what you want to think is to think Truth, regardless of appearances” – Wallace D. Wattles
It’s going to happen to you (if it hasn’t already), whether it’s a phone call or a face to face with a network marketer, or maybe you will attend a local meeting of a network marketing company. The person who prospects you will tell you about Suzy Q the homemaker who just wanted to make $400 extra a month to help her hardworking husband with the bills, who threw herself into network marketing and it was so hard that she almost gave up! But she kept at it and today she is a six-figure earner! And then there’s Jimmy Z, everyone knows about Jimmy, he started way back when before Al Gore invented the Internet and he built a multi-million dollar business by doing meetings in McDonald’s and grocery store aisles!
If you go to a local meeting Suzy, Jimmy and their friends will be paraded across the stage and they will each tell their story and they will cry genuine tears – because it was hard and everyone laughed at them and said it couldn’t be done – and they did it anyway! At this point you will be crying too as you fill out the form being handed to you.
When all is said and done you have joined a new business opportunity, you are pumped, you are ready to change your life, you are going to eliminate all of your debt in the next 12 months! You’re so danged excited that it’s hard to sleep some nights, I mean after all you are going to be earning six figure by this time next year – imagine that!
But wait – did you not hear the disclaimer, did you miss the part about :
1. Results not being typical and
2. And the fact that it can take a lot of years, tears and hard work for the average Joe to succeed
Yes, yes, in your excitement you totally missed where Jimmy said that he talks to folks in parking lots (that’s gauche and yo don’t plan to do that and anyway you just got this email from some MLM guru guy who for just $1197.00 is going to show you howto earn 10K per month by this time next month). You didn’t miss the part about two to ten years to that six-figure income because that’s for average people and you plan to be Suzy Q the one who did it in a year, heck if she can do it so can you!
So (totally ignoring all the training you are receiving from your team about investing time rather than money at the front end) you buy expensive leads, take out expensive ads, and do that guru program and you check your back office and bank account daily to see if you’ve signed up a thousand distributors and made any progress towards your 10K. Well that’s just exhausting isn’t it?
And when you realize that you’ve invested more than you’ve made, well that’s when you start to throw up the “Obstacles To Your Own Success”:
1. You begin to find fault with your upline – after all he brought you in, he gets paid off you every month,why isn’t he helping you? Why doesn’t he provide you with leads or do calls for you so you can watch TV in peace? And he probably doesn’t even make as much as he said. What a loser, he’s just using you…..
2. You begin to find fault with your company, product or team and you disconnect – you don’t listen to training calls, you don’t attend events, you think the product or service is too expensive or doesn’t work….
3. You become cynical about network marketing – after all everywhere you look on the internet they say 97% fail, and you probably have to get in at the beginning to be successful, and maybe it really is a scam….
So where are you right now? Are you reaching for the stars or are you throwing up obstacles?
* disclaimer- Al Gore did not invent the Internet
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=cb31fa4b-24fd-4da5-8048-28a21788934c)
As we head into a new year many of you are thinking about what to do next, how to make the extra income that you need to pay the bills, go on vacation, pay for your child’s school trip or football dues. Many of you reading this are already aware of network marketing and have been working hard to be successful at it. Some of you have been in network marketing and quit because it just wasn’t for you (your words not mine). And then there are those of you who have no clue what network marketing is and assume that the nice gentleman who just left you a message is a telemarketer and works for some large corporation that pays him by the hour.
Network marketing is a business model based on the tell-a-friend concept of marketing. A company has a product or service to sell and instead of spending millions on Super Bowl commercials or glossy magazine ads, they enlist people like you and I to spread the word about their product. We are paid a percentage of the sale price for our services. We go out and find customers by calling leads, advertising online and offline, and marketing via Twitter, FaceBook and other “social media” avenues.
The second (and honestly probably the most important) part of network marketing is building your team. The idea here is that instead of you personally going out and selling a million dollars worth of product, you build a team of ten or ten thousand; this makes achieving that million dollars in sales for the company a whole lot easier and then the company rewards you by paying you a percentage of your teams’ sales too.
Well that all sounds pretty darn pedestrian and maybe you still can’t see why anyone would want to do MLM instead of a job. The third and most exciting component of network marketing is residual income. There is usually a monthly fee or minimum auto ship requirement that each person on your team must fulfill to remain active. One part of your residual income is the percentage that you get from this monthly payment. The other part comes from your customers who are also paying a monthly fee for your services or are on auto ship with your products.
Between selling, recruiting and residual income you can see how/why there are people making anywhere from 500 to 50K plus dollars a month just doing network marketing. No wonder network marketers are so damn passionate about what they do. Husbands buy wives their dream homes and wives have been known to bring husbands home for good!
The truth about network marketing is that (even for people who have spent years being successful in sales) it just ain’t all that easy. Network marketing is a huge paradigm shift because if you act like an Encyclopedia salesman and bully, cajole, or force people into buying your product or joining your business – the next month, poof, they are gone and so is any possibility of earning residual income from them.
This is a true people business and you have to provide value to your team members and customers in so many ways – from having a viable product that does what it says to providing training and support to your team. Network marketing is all about faith and if you don’t believe in yourself, your company, or the product and service you market – then you will FAIL.
I’ll cover more about the bad and the downright in part two (you know I hate posts that go past 500 words LOL) but as the New Year approaches and you start thinking about getting into network marketing (or getting out of network marketing) remember this it may not be EASY, but if you are consistent, persistent and downright tenacious – it is most certainly WORTH IT.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=6a4be876-5052-4d62-a329-f9979c41fcae)
Merry Christmas To You & Yours!
In my last post I discussed two of Don Miguel Ruiz’s “The Four Agreements” and how they can be applied to your life and business. I was not surprised by some of the responses to my last post since at one point or another, we all have trouble getting out of ourselves and interacting “correctly” with others. The first two agreements tell us that our work is always with ourselves in that we have to be impeccable with our word & we must not take what others do personally – remember you aren’t the center of the universe and everything is not about you.
Making assumptions wouldn’t be so bad if you acknowledged that “yes, I am making an assumption which may be an incorrect reading of this person or situation”; that never happens, you and I make assumptions every day, believing that each assumption is the truth. And because we approach people and things in this way, we create drama out of nothingness.
One of the incorrect assumptions one can make in the weight loss business is that if you hand someone your business card, you’re insinuating that they’re fat and need your product. So you assume that it would be insulting to even approach people and you just keep it to yourself. How much money can you make doing that?
Consider if you will the state of matrimony, starry eyed brides and grooms make a big assumption – they each assume that the other holds the exact same views that they do! This leads to many problems down the road because each assumes that the other should know what they want, what they are thinking from one moment to the next, what their expectations are! The road to divorce is paved with incorrect assumptions; the road to a long and happy marriage is paved with incorrect assumptions which were then clarified because one or the other of you asks a question such as “Do you mind if I play poker with the guys every other Friday night?”. In some relationships it may be assumed that if there was a poker or girls nite out before, then marriage won’t interfere with that. hmmm.
“Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness, and drama.”
“Your best is going to change from moment to moment, it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse, and regret.”
To live a happy, healthy, and productive life you must always do your best. Doing your best puts you on the up side of your slight edge and keeps you moving forward in a positive direction. Face it you aren’t always going to remember to be impeccable with your word – your sister will call and you will suddenly find yourself gossiping about your brother’s new girlfriend or you and a co-worker may engage in a water-cooler talk about a fellow employee. Sometimes when you are in the middle of a sales or prospecting call you will forget that it’s not about you, you will take something personally, and then you will find yourself unable or unwilling to do another call. And yes of course you will make assumptions – you’ll assume that someone is unapproachable when they aren’t, or that your new husband’s parents don’t like you, or that someone is flirting with your girl, when in reality they are just being nice.
Christmas is a bad time for a lot of people. I have never understood this. Why are you stressed? Do you tense up just thinking about Christmas dinner? Are you approaching the season with joyful anticipation or intense trepidation?
Relax, be impeccable with your word, don’t take anything personally, don’t make assumptions about the presents that you give or the presents that you receive, just enjoy the season and do the best that you can at all of these things.
Merry Christmas & Happy Holidays to you all!
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=d7ff3805-566d-468c-a01d-194cbf5ba317)
Once upon a time I worked for a Fortune 500 company and was very unhappy. You see I was a dedicated worker who put in many hours and got the job done, but all anyone seemed to care about was my attitude!
Listen, I’m West Indian, we are born with attitude, we don’t sugarcoat things – not because we don’t know how to, but because we don’t know why we should lie when the truth is as plain as my very broad nose.
I live in the South and at the time felt unloved and misunderstood by my coworkers and managers; I wanted to be successful in my corporate career because I didn’t know any better. So my sister gave me this book “The Four Agreements” by Don Miguel Ruiz and when I read it something clicked. I typed up the four agreements and pinned them to the wall of my cubicle where I could see them everyday.
Did I become an overnight success? Did the CEO send me flowers? Did I get a big raise? No, but that wasn’t the point was it? The point was to feel good about myself and radiate that out to those around me. In this I was successful, because I was able to separate what was about me from what was about them – most of the time.
If you are a network marketer or internet marketer or in direct sales, I believe that The Four Agreements should be a part of your life too. After all we attract what we are, and if you are a lying, cheating so and so, or are afraid to pick up the phone, or can’t bring yourself to approach anyone about your business because they might say “No”- well….
Don Miguel says that by adhering to just this First Agreement you will create “heaven on earth” for yourself. He also says that your word is the power that you have to create (for better or worse) the events in your life. Impeccable means “not liable to sin or incapable of sin”. To be impeccable with your word you must “Speak with integrity, say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love “
I think that, for the marketer, being impeccable with your word could also mean to not make outlandish promises or tell lies about your product, service or business opportunity. You know things like “make money in your sleep”?
The Second Agreement was and still is probably the most relevant for me. We are all narcissists to some extent and think everything is about us and when you get into marketing you really start to take things personally – the person who says that yes they are very interested as they hang up the phone, or the one who lets you get halfway through a 20 minute presentation and then hangs up, or the guy who skips your meeting at the Starbucks way across town (for which you used up all your gas for the week), or the Purchasing manager who says “I’ll take a look at this and get back to you” – and then doesn’t remember who you are when you follow up! “Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering”
The last two agreements will be discussed in my next post. If you don’t already own this book, The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom, A Toltec Wisdom Book
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=848e645d-8b60-4881-8dfc-b6273ee8abf4)
We all know and love someone who is just cut from a different bolt of fabric. That kid we knew who actually found a way to make real money from her lemonade stand or the big picture guy who actually loves talking to everyone he meets about that weight loss product he discovered in college or the grandma who is supplementing her income selling cell phone plans! Having trouble choosing a present for your entrepreneur? Have no fear, I made a list for you:
1. For the newly minted (or firmly established) network marketer in your life , might I suggest the book Your First Year in Network Marketing: Overcome Your Fears, Experience Success, and Achieve Your Dreams!
2. Entrepreneurs are naturally motivated people and they stay that way by focusing on personal development, but they don’t always sit still long enough to read a book. Give them one that they can listen to in the car, on the bus, or wherever they happen to be. Try one of Jim Rohn’s audio books such as his Jim Rohn’s 2004 Weekend Leadership Event
3. For direct sales entrepreneurs (bearing in mind that we are all always selling something) I love Brian Tracy, practical advice delivered in a straightforward way. I have personally listened to this one about 50 or so times just this year alone The Psychology Of Selling: The Art of Closing Sales
4. Entrepreneurs love books because they always want to know what the other guy did to be successful! You can’t miss with a good autobiography like who doesn’t want to know how Bill did it (not Clinton, the other one) Showing Up for Life: Thoughts on the Gifts of a Lifetime
5. Network marketers and those in direct sales guys always need fresh blood/ new people to talk to. A leads subscription is a practical and useful gift that keeps on giving all year long! LeadOverage.com offers packages that start at just $9.99 per month, or check out Freesurveyleads.com for less than $100 you can get 400 leads every Monday morning.
6. If your little entrepreneur is always on the move doing presentations in supermarkets, coffee shops and parking lots then they will absolutely love a mobile internet package. This will allow them to stream video and audio presentations or go paperless and sign up prospects on the fly by accessing their websites from anywhere. CLEAR offers a great package as do other companies. If you’re interested in Clear call me (814) 422-5327, or see what your local providers are offering this month (here in Atlanta they are all trying to compete with Clear and that’s good for you).
7. The on-the-go marketer needs a way to organize all of their advertising materials (flyers, brochures, postcards, business cards) , I like this Melie Bianco W9-330 Messenger,Blue,one size
8. Speaking of advertising, hop on over to vistaprint.com and bag some free business cards, brochures, glossy postcards etc. All you will have to pay is postage!
9. Even entrepreneurs need to relax (I know it’s hard to get them to do it, they are so focused on that goal) at some point. For the gamer in your life might I suggest a gift card from GameFly.com. I got this for my son three years ago and have saved tons on video games, while he has been able to play hundreds of games fo rjust 14.95 per month!
10. This present can serve double duty – your entrepreneur can use it personally or as a give away in their marketing package. Restaurant.com offers discounted restaurant gift certificates – a $25 gift certificate for example for only $2-$4. There are some minimum purchase requirements and restrictions (like it doesn’t cover alcohol) but I use them and love them. They have a special today: GET $25 GIFT CERTIFICATES FOR ONLY $3!
Enter Discount Code: SNOW
Well I could go on and on but I won’t. What would you add to this list?
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=52ca9314-9549-46d4-8f53-c3404e3fbba9)
Do you realize that New Year’s Resolutions are the number one way to consistently set yourself up for failure? It probably starts with the fact that we can never have just one (resolution that is), there’s always two or three things that we feel need to be done or done better in the New Year.
Why is that do you think? Did you (your life, your clothes, your health, whatever) really suck that bad in the old year that you need to make a list of ten things to change right now or die trying? And sure you may get to scratch one thing off the list, but what about the other 9? Come to think of it – why are New Year’s Resolutions usually the same from year to year? Isn’t that kinda creepy in a Groundhog Day sorta way?
When my children were young I started Christmas shopping in January. I was able to buy presents for just about everyone (including extended family and employees) without taking out a bank loan to pay for it all. My strategy was simple, buy a few presents each month – out of season and at a very low price. In December I would buy each child one “it” gift like a cabbage Patch kid or Teddy Ruxpin.
I think that we would all be more successful in our personal make0vers if we applied a similar strategy. Need to blog more? Start today, create a stockpile so that you will have posts that you can schedule well into the year. Want to quit smoking? Smoke one less cigarette every day or week for the rest of the month, you may find that you’ve already quit by New Year’s.
Weight loss and fitness are huge and one or the other will probably appear on your resolutions list. People often say that they need to lose the weight that they gained during the holiday season or need to get back into the fitness routine that they neglected during the holiday season. Don’t blame the holiday season for the bad habits that you let yourself fall into because it’s the holidays. Get your fitness in when and where you can – 10 minute walk after lunch, hit the weights for 10 minutes after dinner (or do this free boot camp workout)
Believe me, I know how hard it i s to say “No” to all the Christmas cookies and other goodies at work and at home. That’s why I used Cheat on all of my Thanksgiving food, I just sprinkled a little bit on everything and it absorbed 25% of the calories that I ingested. For example if I ate 5000 calories then the Cheat helped me to eliminate 1250 of those calories. A good strategy would be to enjoy all the holiday goodies and use a little Cheat when you do.
Bottom line – whatever your New Year’s resolution – to see more clearly, love more dearly, follow more nearly – don’t wait for January 1st, start now and do it day by day to ensure success!
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=876d061d-bbe1-4312-b07c-c87373910e30)
11/24/2009 – I just saw a story on TV where an older woman was scammed out of $3000.00 by two women who claimed to be illegal immigrants with a winning lottery ticket that they could not cash. She bought the ticket from them thinking that it was worth $50,000.00!!!! Of course it was a useless ticket and she got what she paid for – nothing for something. This being the season for scammers and get rich quick schemes I thought that I should repost this article as a reminder that you really can’t cheat an hones man, but….
If I had a dime for every person who has told me “I’ve been scammed before”, I could retire to my New York penthouse. But you know if you have been scammed, you do realize that you have no one to blame but yourself?
I hope that didn’t come as a shock and surprise, you see you can only be scammed if you are open to being scammed, meaning you’re looking for easy money or a way to “get rich” overnight with little or no effort.
Mickey Foster is a con artist, his job is to find people who want something for nothing and give it to them. Like you, I have lost a ton of money in various “schemes”, for example I invested 10K hoping to get a 25% return. It was 2007 and before i could say “money for nothing” my investment had vanished into a home that could not be sold because the market had tanked. I wanted something for nothing and I got just that – nothing.
You’ve heard about the Nigerian scam, my Dad was forced to leave the country, there are millions in the bank and we can’t get it out, Mum is dying and we need the money to get her out of the country, my brother was run over by a lorry and lost his leg…the long and short of it – you give me a small amount of money and when we get our money we will give you 50K. This scam is as old as the hills and people still fall for it, why?
Probably because, it’s got a sympathy and empathy factor so that you don’t feel guilty for getting such a large payout for your small investment and you get to feel that you are doing a good thing. You may think that you’re an honest person, but honest people know that good things come to those who work hard for them. An honest man would delete the first email after reading it and send all follow ups to his spam folder to be deleted later.
Of course a scam can be much more subtle “i can show you how to make money in your sleep”, “I made $6,326 in one day and I can show you how”, “attract endless leads with this system” and on and on. Here’s a clue:
Don’t get me wrong , you get into the right business and put some muscle in it, you will make money in your sleep. But you have to be consistent and persistent, you have to be willing to do what it takes, you have to read some books and learn some things, attend a seminar or two or three, hop on some of those guru calls, manage your time well and learn how to be productive, and you can’t give up if you aren’t rich in six months , because then you’re just proving that you’re an opportunist, right?
And who the heck is Mickey Foster you ask? Well he’s just my favorite character on a Brit show called “Hustle“. It comes on AMC, I watch it On Demand so i have no idea when it airs, great show though.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=8f0b66fa-adcd-457c-bb51-92577c490348)
Many of us were hurt by the fallout from failed banks, failed mortgage companies, and failed financial strategies. First home prices fell, then salaries fell – and shortly thereafter we realized that we were :
Before we go any further let me make one thing clear – millions of people across America didn’t just wake up one day and each make the same bad financial decision to get into a mortgage they could not afford. I know that this is what some of you believe (and very strongly at that) because it’s what the media tells you, it’s what your favorite talk radio guy tells you – but that don’t make it true people.
The fact of the matter is that you can have a low interest rate mortgage with a low monthly payment – but if you do not have the same income that you did 3 years ago (or you have no income at all) no one and I mean absolutely nobody is going to help you when you’ve fallen 3 months behind, five months behind or even 6 months behind. The mortgage companies’ idea of “a workout” is often laughable; to you an dI it would make sense for them to look at your current income/debt and give you a payment that you could actually afford so that you and your neighbors can stay in their homes. But, nooooo, instead tey will attach the six months sans interest to your existing monthly payment and give you a payment that is basically double the amount that you couldn’t pay in the first place!
In some parallel universe this strategy makes total sense, unfortunately we do not live there, we are ere in tis universe where we end up losing tat home to foreclosure and then the bank sells your $100,000 home for $20,000. That’s right twenty thousand dollars! Now why couldn’t they just give you an affordable payment instead? If one of you, my dear readers , understands why this is please tell me so that I can explain it to my cousin who lost her home in just this way.
To add insult to injury, we also have companies who will take what little you have left in your savings account to assist you in getting a “loan modification” . I like to call this something for nothing, they take your money and promise you salvation, and you end up with the same deal that I mentioned earlier – that wonderful “workout” thing.
Well thank God for “The Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America” and founder Bruce Marks who believe that neighborhood stabilization means getting people into home ownership and keeping existing homeowners in their homes. NACA is a non-profit group that advocates for homeowners and would be homeowners. Their Home Save program can help you to get into an affordable mortgage situation if:
To get help from NACA you must :
NACA is not a government handout and no one gets something for nothing. It is the kind of program this country desperately needs, so tell all of your friends and families – no one should lose their home when help is so close at hand.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=a0e5dbd8-11c5-45b6-8f09-127e81580f3d)
The ability to dream sustains us for the long haul, gets us through the rough patches, carries us over the bumps in the road – or at least that’s what it should do. But I got to thinking the other day, that sometimes just when we need our dreams, our faith, and a strong belief system that’s when we lose them.
I had a business partner who was doing great, recruiting new team members, marketing our products and services and just movng up in pin levels and income like crazy. Joe had lost his job back in ’08 and was working to supplement his wife’s income. They had gotten behind on a few bills and were living paycheck to paycheck. So you can imagine why Joe threw himself into the business in a no holds barred way, and was experiencing success and getting checks in the mail. Then his wife got laid off and Joe felt so overwhelmed that he stopped working the business and eventually quit. When I asked him why he said that with all of the financial problems they had , he just couldn’t focus on the business at all.
This happens all of the time, some people call it quitting before the blessing, but I know better. I know that what really happened is that Joe suddenly lost his ability to dream of a life after debt. That’s what debt will do to you, it throws up this wall between you and the things you used to dream about, the goals that you had previously set for yourself. Debt whispers insistentlyinto your ear that what you really really need to do is forget all this six-figure income nonsense and go get a a real job with a steady paycheck. And, hey I’m not knocking jobs, after all I have one of those too and I can honestly tell you (like I told Joe, but he was too far gone to get it) that you will need a king sized salary (or more than one job) to conquer debt in the short term and that’s why you should not quit working your business.
Anyway I’m not here to talk about jobs and debt really. What I wanted to ask you is “Do you still believe? Are you still dreaming?” If you close your eyes and all you can see is your pile of bills dwindling, then I gotta tell you that the answer is probably no. Do me a favor, go lay down close your eyes for a bit of a bit and dream a big dream that involves cruises and traveling and designer clothes and big houses all paid for with cash. Visualize yourself driving a Lamborghini on the autobahn, having lunch in Dubai, or whatever trips your trigger.
I want you to do this a minimum of once a week, more often if you can. Take it a step further and start a dreamboard or two(just cut pictures and quites out of magazines that represent your dreams; paste them on a piece of posterboard and put it someplace that you can look at it everyday). Here is an example and here is another (I love examples more than instructions don’t you?).
Soon you will see that there is life after debt if you persist and above all keep on dreaming. Come back and let me know if this helped you…
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=323a441c-5b4c-4c29-9810-8958859a01e7)
Follow me on Social Media