Author Archives: stevedevane
NOTE — This is the third in a continuing series on social network marketing. Earlier posts focused on why most people fail and others succeed and on the importance of forming relationships.
Many people who are successful in social network marketing, or in other endeavors for that matter, are in touch with why they are in business. This is, one might say, their highest principle. Most of those at the very top of their craft have also learned how to help others to discover why their in business.
The first issue is not as easy as it may seem. It takes soul-searching, heart-wrenching, tear-causing effort.
photo credit: h.koppdelaney
The second issue is equally hard, because no one likes soul-searching, heart-wrenching, tear-causing effort.
Truth is, the angst and the anguish are worth it. Times 10. Or more.
Moreover, understand that deep down people want, even need, to know the reason they exist. That’s why Rick Warren sold millions of copies of “The Purpose Driven Life.”
Getting to the core of your existence is vital to living life to its fullest. When you understand yourself on that level, it’s a freeing experience. The feeling defies description.
One of my mentors recently forwarded me an e-mail that he had received from someone who had discovered the answer to his “why?” The note really got to me. It revealed the person in a significant way. It was if he had given the reader a glimpse inside the depths of his soul.
The person talked about how he felt as a child that he was destined for greatness but somehow fell into the trap of merely existing, of not living with joy and wonder. Now, as an adult, he sees “mundane life” taking hold of his children.
The writer says he knows that before he can expect his kids to change, he must change. When he seizes his life, he will become the positive model for them.
“True success is knowing that you’re living. Knowing that you short time here on earth was not just waiting to die,” he says. “Life is meant to be experienced, soaked up, shared.”
This is someone who has looked into his soul and, instead of a reflective abyss, found hope. That is the linchpin on which the journey to such discovery relies.
Someone who has found his or her reason for living will overcome any obstacle. Nothing can stop a person with a purpose.
Here’s some questions that will help you get started in finding out why your in business.
• What do you love to do? Think about those things that stir your passion, that get your motor running.
• When you have free time, what do you? And if you say, “Watch television,” I’d suggest turning the thing off for a week and doing something that feeds your soul, then answer the question again.
• If you had all the money you ever needed, what would you do? Yeah, I know we’d all live on a beach in the Bahamas or the like, but that would get old after a month or two. What would you do then?
• What are you searching for in life? Outside of money, what is your driving desire?
• What did you once dream about? Think back to your childhood and remember those long lost desires that once kept you up at night. It’s not too late to rekindle those embers.
• What do you want the person doing the eulogy at your funeral to say? I know it might sound morbid, but by thinking about it now, you can decide what that person will say then.
By looking back and facing forward, you can find out why you exist, why you want to be in business. You can discover your “why.”
After you’ve found what gives your life purpose, pass on what you know. Tell other people about the journey and how it gave your life meaning.
You’ll change your life by changing other lives.
Steve DeVane
Social network marketing: With friends like this, who needs prospects
By stevedevane | July 16, 2009
Note — This is the second in a continuing series about social network marketing. A previous post showed why most people fail and how you can succeed in social network marketing.
To make it in social network marketing (and for that matter to make it in any method of MLM), you have to build relationships. The easiest way to do that is to have one place where you work on those relationships.
Your real goal is to find friends. One of my mentors likes to say that you should only go in business with people you’d like to join you on a 30-day cruise. To do that, you have to get to know them.
photo credit: Rennett Stowe
Many networkers try to relate to people in too many places. It’s OK to meet people in a variety of ways, but the best place to form relationships online is your blog.
A blog is basically an online journal. It lets you talk to the world about most anything. What many never realize is that it lets anyone in the world talk back. Many powerful conversations take place in the comments section of blogs.
Here’s some suggestions to get your blog off to a good start.
• Comment on other blogs and participate in online forums. Let people get to know you. Put a link to your blog in your signature file. If they find what you say in your comments interesting, they’ll find their way to your blog.
• Once they come to your blog, interact with everyone. Respond to every comment. And it might sound obvious, but allow comments.
If you want to impress someone, send him or her an e-mail thanking them for their comment. The other day, I got such an e-mail. I made a point to respond to the blogger. You can be sure I’ll go back to his site.
• Let people have their say. Even with they disagree with you. OK to moderate comments to keep spammers away, but don’t delete a comment just because they don’t think like you do.
• Be flexible. It’s OK for your view to be challenged. If your stance is correct, it will become stronger. If it’s not, you’ll see why you need to change.
• Be nice. Don’t come down on people who disagree with you.
• Let your guard down. Be transparent, likeable and trustworthy. People join people they know, like and trust.
• Most importantly, be you. You can blog about your business, but don’t make your blog just about your business. In fact don’t make your business the main focus of your blog. Talk about your life. Be real. Let people get to know you.
When you talk about business on your blog, focus on giving tips and suggestions to help other people succeed.
• Never come on like a salesman. Very few people react well to being sold. Keep your links to your business in your blog’s sidebar.
• Provide valuable content. Write stuff people want to hear.
• Help people. This is one of the strongest ways to build relationships. You can only help people by discovering what their needs are. You can only discover that by communicating with them.
Once you get to know people, you’ll also learn their primary motivation. Many network marketers automatically think everyone’s main drive is to make more money. It’s not.
While many people are motivated by money, a lot of folks have other, stronger motivations. Once you discover that, you can help them scratch that itch.
In his book, “Success in 10 Steps,” (you can download a free electronic version of the book at lifechangingebook.com), Michael Dlouhy talks about the importance of being able to determine what your distributors and customers want most passionately. He says successful networkers should study people and learn how to find people starving for what you have to offer.
Once people come to your blog and start commenting, it won’t be hard to determine how hungry they are.
Steve DeVane
Earlier tonight my mother called me to ask how to get from a hospital to a highway in Raleigh. She has a doctor’s appointment tomorrow, then she and my dad are going to pick up my aunt in a nearby town.
She called because the last time they had to get to that town, they went in one direction on the beltline, but later thought that maybe they could have gotten there faster going the other way. They were right.
The beltline in Raleigh is confusing to many people. I had worked in the city for a while before I finally figured out that the Inner Beltline and the Outer Beltline are the same road.
You see, the Inner Beltline is the part of the road on which traffic goes clockwise around the city. The Outer Beltline goes counter-clockwise.
So when someone tells you to get on the Inner Beltline to go to one place and then to get on the Outer Beltline to go somewhere else, they’re really telling you to get on the same road, but just to go in different directions.
When my mom called, I told her that indeed it would be much faster to go to the right (onto the Outer Beltline) than to go left (on the Inner Beltline) as they had gone before. As a matter of fact, that had gone about three times as far on the Inner Beltline as they would have gone on the Outer Beltline.
They had gone to the left, because they were sure that they could get where they wanted to go by going in that direction. They didn’t know, or at least weren’t sure, they could get there by going to the right.
Now they know the right turn to make, and they’ll get to their destination easier and faster.
When we’re trying to build a business, we face similar choices. It helps to have mentors and coaches who have been down the road before and know the right turns to make.
Steve DeVane
The other day I was driving down a road that I hadn’t driven in a while when I noticed a grand opening sign at an eatery of sorts. Someone had decided to make an attempt at building a business where a barbecue restaurant had earlier failed.
I initially thought it was a biker bar that had moved from about a quarter mile down the road. The sign looked like the sign I had seen there. But when I passed that establishment I saw that it was still open.
Clearly, however, the new place was similar to the existing joint just down the street. I immediately wondered why someone would try building a business so close to a competitor.
It brought to mind how the traditional business world is largely based on competition. Since there are only so many customers, each company tries to get as many as they can. Often building a business means trying to eat into your competitors market share.
That’s one of the main reasons I appreciate network marketing — its non-competitive nature. As a matter of fact, I think folks who bring a competitive sense to MLM tend to not fare very well.
I expect this is mostly while building a business in network marketing, you are rewarded when you help people in your downline succeed. This spirit often carries over within a company with what is often called “sideline support,” which means people helping others who are not a part of their organization.
This cooperation sometimes even extends beyond companies with networkers helping others in the profession. I’ve made it part of my mission to help anyone in network marketing no matter the company. I do this even while building a business of my own.
I’ve helped many networkers who are not, and never will be, in my downline. I’ve even offered tips to MLMers who live in countries where my company doesn’t even offer distributorships.
Many rooted in the traditional way of doing business struggle to understand that way of thinking, but I’m convinced it’s the best way of building a business.
Steve DeVane
Anyone who’s been in multi-level marketing (MLM) for long realizes the old way of doing the business doesn’t work anymore. That’s why many successful professionals have learned network marketing online.
In years past, MLM trainers would teach distributors to make a list of friends and family. Then they’d encourage their reps to buy leads. This continues even though the opportunity exists to build a downline by network marketing online.
Unfortunately, even some who recognize the benefits of network marketing online often carry over bad training habits from earlier failed strategies. The old technique of “getting a lot of ‘No’s’ so you can find a ‘Yes,’” has found its way to the Internet.
One way this occurs is when trainers encourage people who are network marketing online to build a large list. Having a large list, they say, will increase the odds that a few will join you in your business.
Such list-building strategies are nothing more than the old “numbers game” revisited. It might work in direct sales, but network marketing, even the online version, is a relationship business.
The key, then, is to learn how to build relationships when your network marketing business is principally online. To do this, you need a place where people can get to know you and, once they’re willing, you can get to know them.
The best method for network marketing online right now is a blog. This Internet journal can serve as a non-threatening way for potential prospects to get to know, like and trust you. One of the important principles in MLM is people join people they know, like and trust.
Starting a blog might seem intimidating but most people learn how rather quickly. If you want to do network marketing online, it’s the best thing going.
Once you have your blog up and running, you’ll have to learn ways to get readers and how to interact with them. In this way, network marketing online successfully is similar to proven offline strategies.
First, you need to care about people. Learn about them. Find out what makes them who they are.
Second, let them move at their own pace. Forget high pressure sales tactics. They don’t work if you’re network marketing online or offline.
And third, be professional. Be honest. Tell people what you’re doing. Be who you are and people will be comfortable being who they are.
Master these steps and you’re on your way to becoming a professional online network marketer.
Steve DeVane
Last weekend I had the pleasure of watching both my daughters play on a fast-pitch softball team that won the state championship.
[caption id="attachment_156" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="The team celebrates the state championship."]
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My oldest daughter played on a team that took the state title three years ago, but this was the first for my younger daughter, an eighth-grader who was called up from the junior varsity at the end of the year.
After the game, one of the coaches was talking to the team about the accomplishment. One of the things she mentioned was how impressed she was that the team always played like a champion. She explained that the players played the entire game as if every play was important.
She mentioned how one of the players was upset that she was thrown out at third in the game. She didn’t want to get out even though we had just scored to go ahead, 4-0.
A four-run lead may not sound like much, but the team had a great pitcher and played great defense behind her. As a matter of fact, the pitcher only gave up one run all year.
So a four-run lead was about as safe as you could get. It was very unlikely that the other team was going to score at all, much less four runs with only a few innings to play. The game was all but won.
But the girls on the team didn’t let up. They didn’t take it easy. They didn’t celebrate until the last out.
Think of how productive our businesses would be if we set our goals and didn’t let up. If we didn’t take it easy. Think of the celebration when we get to where we want to be.
Steve DeVane
I have a new car. Well, it’s not a new car, but it’s nice and I like it.
It’s a 1997 Buick Park Avenue with low miles. It needs a paint job, but other than that it’s in pretty good shape.
It’s doing a whole lot better than the last car I bought.
One of the coolest features is something called “head-up display.” I had heard of the technology on Air Force jets, but didn’t know it was available on cars.
The head-up display, also known as HUD, allows me to see how fast I’m going without having to look down at the speedometer. It projects the car’s speed onto the windshield.
There’s a couple of things I like about the feature.
First, it’s cool. It makes me feel kinda like a fighter pilot or something. I can almost hear the song from “Top Gun” when I’m cruising down I-40.
photo credit: Rob Shenk
Second, it’s safe. I never have to take my eyes off the road to find out how fast I’m going.
This is especially nice when I see a highway patrolman coming in the other lane. Not that I’m ever going fast enough to get a ticket, of course, but I still want to know my speed immediately when I see blue lights headed in my direction.
Thinking of this reminded me of something my driver’s education teacher told me. He said to always “aim high” when looking out the windshield.
He said that when you farther up the road, you can also see things closer to you. Conversely, when you look right in front of the car, you can’t see things farther away.
This applies beautifully to life and business.
For example, if you know you’re long-term goals, it’s easier to set shorter-term markers to get there.
If you know the rank you wish to achieve in your company, then you can figure out what it will take to get there.
Aim high. You’ll always have your head up.
Steve DeVane