What is it that you are sure you can’t do?  At 5’3” tall (nearly) and weighing 122 pounds (and losing- 13 pounds shed and 10 more to go..yeah!), I’m sure that I’ll never play defense in a football game.  Out of the question.  Some things are just not going to happen.

But then there is the nasty chatter.  The chatter that tells me I can’t do other things (and it is patently untrue).  I hear it in many of you too.  For me it goes like this:

“You’ll never be any GOOD at yoga, you’re too old.  Your knees haven’t been good for years.  What makes you think you can do this?”

Yet, I know there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people around the globe that are similar in age to me with all the same issues that age brings -  who do yoga.  And they get better at yoga every day.  And like me, when I practice (you knew it was coming didn’t you, the practice word) they have their moments of brilliance.

Choose Your Battles

The trick is knowing which things to go for, and which things are truly impossible.  When someone tells me, ‘I don’t have enough time,” I know they are really saying, “I haven’t made getting a handle on time my priority.”  When someone tells me network marketing doesn’t work, I know they have NOT really put their time and correct effort into money making activity that builds a business.

You see, I know that network marketing works.  I’ve made it work for me.  Amy Posner has made it work for her.  Neither of us is any smarter than you or anyone else.  In fact, you know someone that network marketing has worked for.  Every company has leaders making good (often phenomenal) money.  Why not you?

What then is the deal?  What is the dis-connect between you and those who are making money?  It is exactly what the title implies, FEAR (false evidence appearing real) plus time and correct effort in money making activities.  Success will allude you in your network marketing business until you work past your FEAR and put in the time and money making effort to make your business a success.  Bummer huh?

Nothing Wrong With You

But there is not one damn thing wrong with you.  Not one.  You are as capable as Amy, me or anyone else in your company of learning how to build your business.  You have no special limits on your ability, creativity or time that makes it impossible for you to build a business.  NONE.

It is these kinds of statements that earned me the reputation of being “The Not So Warm and Fuzzy Coach.”  But jeez, I see potential in everyone I meet, but too often hear the same story.  I can’t because I don’t have:

•    The time
•    The money

There are different circumstances around those two excuses (excuses yes, they are not good reasons).  Sometimes it even sounds pretty good.  Recently I heard this, “I can’t spend any money until I make some, I promised my wife.”  Sounds reasonable, doesn’t it?  In fairness to one’s partner, we’ll not spend any money until we make some.

Catch 22

But the double bind is glaring.  The FEAR is written wide.  With a little probing it became clear that regardless of how many tapes this person listened to, no matter how much he was learning, he was not breaking through his FEAR of talking to people.  This man travels a lot for his job.  He told me his intention was, “…to talk to people while I was in X CITY but that nasty chatter stopped me.”  (I hope you are listening PC!)

At the risk of upsetting some of you (and maybe losing you as readers), this is hogwash.  I don’t believe you are incapable.  I don’t believe that you don’t have the money.  I don’t believe that you don’t have the time.  I don’t believe you cannot get a handle on your nasty chatter.

I Do Believe

I DO BELIEVE that you can join the ranks of the leaders in this industry.  I DO BELEVE that you can build a successful business.  I DO BELIEVE IN YOU.  Are you willing to believe in you?

Are you ready to do your part in order to build your business?  (That would be the showing up and practice part.)  Amy and I have removed the money issue for our Power Prospector Course.  It is fully guaranteed.

We Will Work With You

You get your money back or continue to work with us until you break through (your choice).  All you have to do, of course, is the work.  But we will – this is our promise – work with you through each and every step.  Each and every step.  Promise.  All of them.  Nothing left to chance.

There are no time issues either.  It is all recorded – audio and video – and we’ll work with you to set your personal coaching appointments around jobs or anything else.  No excuses.

You are sitting on your dreams.  Are you ready to hatch ‘um?  Check out the details for the Power Prospector Course here.

We know you can.  We did, so can you.  Go on, take our hand, let us help you.

Many people think collecting ideas or learning about something is the same as learning to do something (build a skill set).  Here’s an example, do you think because you listen to a tape on personal development, recruiting or anything else that you are learning?  If you do, the heads-up is you are most likely not learning.   At least not learning in the real skill arena that will change anything.  You are collecting ideas.   Good ideas.  Sure.  Even great ideas.  But you are simply feeding your ‘get more’ compulsion if all you do is listen.   You are simply collecting ideas and learning about personal development or recruitment.  But you are not learning ‘how to’ develop personally or recruit or anything else.

How can I be so sure? Easy. Nothing is changing in your day to day business practice. Think of ‘practice’ as a verb, an action word. It means you DO something.  And it means that you DO something DIFFERENT in the day-to-day PRACTICE of your business.  You implement and perfect new skills that bring you the results you want.  But for way too many of us, the only thing that changes is the tape, the video, or the class.  But you don’t change what you do to get different results.   You don’t work on your skills.  You don’t get out there and talk to people.  You don’t get hands on feedback from a mentor or coach.  You work in a closed loop along with all that nasty mental chatter.

SOMETIMES IDEAS ARE ENOUGH

Look, sometimes it is enough to collect ideas.   For example, let’s say you’re interested in a subject – the civil war, or music theory, classic cars or art appreciation.  You get some books, or some audios on those topics and take that information in.  If you remember what you hear, it will most likely enhance your understanding, of the topic.  You may even start to collect memorabilia.

You will have lots to say about classic cars, or music theory and after a while be really interesting to listen to (if the person you’re talking to is interested in those topics).  Then maybe not, you may be just so wrapped up in your thing that people will think you ‘can’t talk about anything else.  The bottom line, however, is that you have not learned to DO anything.  Just because you read about classic cars doesn’t mean you know how to take them apart and put them back together.

Just because you have learned a lot about music theory, theory doesn’t mean you play your instrument any better.  Generally, for these kinds of topics it doesn’t matter.  You were reading and listening to do exactly what you did.  You listened to collect ideas, to collect facts to broaden your knowledge base about that topic.  You listened for pleasure (like reading a novel).   Perfect.   There was nothing for you to do or implement – end of the story.

NEW SKILLS TAKE MORE THAN IDEAS

Unfortunately when it comes to business, we operate the same way and that’s disastrous.  We read books, watch videos, listen to audios like we were reading a novel.  Your business is not a hobby.  You aren’t reading about it to simply collect facts.  When you listen to tapes, audios and attend business workshops, training and coaching, you are there to hone your existing skills and learn new ones.  You are there to learn new skills that you implement in your business to improve your bottom line.   Skills require practice, focus and yes, often discipline (until, that is, you create the reason that compels you to take the action, but that is another topic.

In order for the time you spend listening to tapes, watching videos attending trainings to work, you MUST DO SOMETHING WITH THE INFORMATION.  In order for the information you’ve acquired to add any value to your life or your business you must transform the information into action and new skills.  Just paying attention isn’t enough.   Taking action is necessary.   Working to improve is critical.

TREAT YOUR BUSINESS LIKE AN OLYMPIC SPORT

Jillian and I are the business coaches for an MLM team inside of a well-known and thriving wellness company.  The team is headed by 3 Olympic gold medal winning athletes.   It’s fascinating to think about the correlation between their MLM businesses and their Olympic training to win competitions (one of them won SIX gold medals – she knows her stuff!).

What sets them apart?  APPLIED PRACTICE UNDER THE WATCHFUL EYE OF THEIR COACHES.   These three athletes get that their MLM business and team need to approach their business the same way they approached their sport:

• Hands-on working at their sport and improving.
• Use the lessons learned from their coaches and their competition to improve their game in real time.
• Discipline.
• Drive.
• Belief.
• Learning how to deal with disappointments, bad times, fatigue, fear and competition.

IT TAKES MORE THAN LISTENING

You don’t learn that listening to tapes.  You accumulate the great ideas, the information.  But in order to learn how to be like that, how to do that, you need someone ‘on the ground’ as an equestrian would say, to give you feedback.  Otherwise, the feedback loop is closed.  It’s just you.  When you try to apply what you’ve learned, you’re locked into your same mistakes and fears.   Unfortunately, we blame the ideas we just collected.  But the truth is; the implementation was at best curtailed and probably flawed.

Learning a skill is not just about learning or doing. You must:

• Learn
• Try
• Correct course
• Try
• Learn some more
• Try some more
• Correct some more

That is the practice that makes perfect and rarely does someone ‘get perfect’ in isolation.  Application is key but input is critical.

OUTSIDE EXPERT INPUT IS CRITICAL

This is a tough lesson to learn and for many of us a huge hurdle to jump.  It’s a tough lesson because, let’s face it, learning something new is often not easy.  It takes practice, typically lots of it.   It also means we have to be willing to stick our necks out and look silly, or not be smooth or suave or just feel incompetent for a bit.   None of those things are easy.

It is a big hurdle to set yourself up to not to hide.  That’s what it is to have a coach.  You can’t hide.   Your coach won’t let you come up with all the excuses that you run in your story.   Last year, I worked with a coach on my writing business.  I not only didn’t want to spend the money, I didn’t want to spend the time.  I resisted mightily.  Why?  Because I didn’t want to face what I wasn’t good at.  But, I knew I needed to.  I bit the bullet, did it for an entire year and radically changed the way I work and what I earn.  What we hear most often is:

• I Don’t Have the Money

The real issue, however is:

• I Don’t Want to Spend the Money

I am the first to say I’m guilty of this: when I see something online I’m interested in, often the first thing I do is scroll down and look at the price and emotionally decide right then if I’m in or out.   I usually don’t do a cost/benefit analysis.  But once I get a handle on the limiting head chatter, I take another look and decide if the program is worth it.  Just as often, I have to think about whether I need it.  That’s the irritating part….I grew up in a family business – I’ve heard the phrase “you have to spend money to make money” all my life.  Doesn’t mean I don’t bristle!

WHAT DO YOU WANT?

Now the real questions start.  Am I looking for information or am I looking to make a change in my behavior?  If it is all about information, is the information good?  Are the people presenting it reliable experts?  Is there something I can learn from them?   If I’m looking to make a personal change, who is going to be looking over my shoulder?   Are they strong in their field?  Will they help me get where I want to go?  And, will they give me personal attention and access – for me, that can be make or break it.  I hate not being able to contact and work with and ask questions of people I’m paying my money to.  If all the answers check out, now the cost doesn’t loom.  The benefit(s) take over.

STICKER SHOCK

Some of you have expressed sticker shock at the price of the four month Power Prospector Course ($999 early bird or $275/mo).  But think about this.   If doing what you’ve been doing thus far isn’t working….why keep doing it?  If you want to really build a thriving business, when is a good time?  It will not get easier – later – to confront your fears.  And it will most likely never get easier to confront those fears alone.  When you consider that Jillian and I will be literally looking over your shoulder every step of the way in the recruiting process.

• We will help you build your list
• We will help you customize your scripts
• We will critique your practice(s)
• We will debrief the call you make
• We will hold you accountable to making the calls

The Power Prospector course is a bargain.  It will change your bottom line, and change you forever.  We guarantee it.

FULL GUARANTEE

Here’s the deal. If you do the work in the Power Prospector Course and you have not added people and money to your bottom line at the end of the course you have two options:

• Get a Full Refund
• Keep Working With Us at NO Additional Fee Until You Break Through.

It is time to get over the real issue to building your business.

Money be damned. We’ve removed that reason now.  Are you ready to build?   Because if you are, we are ready to coach you right through to your success.

What “new” are you bringing in this year?

Obviously, bringing in “new” is what New Year’s Resolutions are all about.  In business that means setting new targets or goals.  Plus, learning new strategies and tools.  Another word for new could be change.  And, here is often the rub.

Most of us, at best, resist and typically fear change.  That’s why it is so difficult for us to set those resolutions to make those ‘tough’ business calls.  It means we have to develop new ways of thinking, develop new skills, and expect to fail.  Yes fail.  If we are doing something “new,” a realistic expectation is that we shall fail before we fully succeed.  Unfortunately, many adults fear failing with such passion they will do almost anything to avoid it.

We didn’t always do that.  Neither you nor I was born with a fear of failure.  We learned to be afraid to fail.  How am I so sure of you?  No,  I don’t have any magical powers and I”m not looking over your shoulder.  Here is how I know.

You learned to walk.  And you failed.  You failed at walking many times before you were able to stop crawling and get up on your feet and be steady.  And even though you were afraid of falling, you were exuberant and excited and did it anyway.  (If you doubt me, check out the wild eyed look of a toddler learning to walk.  If that expression isn’t a cross between excitement and fear, I’ve never seen it.)  Do you ride a bike?  How many times did you fall off your bike before you got your balance?  Do you dance?  How long did it take you to learn to dance so you didn’t step on your partner’s toes.  Do you play golf?  I try and make a brilliant shot occasionally.  The rest of the time I work to enjoy my frustration.  What do these things all have in common? Failure – Practice – Courage.

Failure

Failing is a natural consequence of doing something new.  Failure is a natural consequence of learning and growing.  Take a moment to think of all the things you’ve learned to do in this world you wouldn’t be doing, if you allowed fear of failure to stop you.  My life would be pretty drab and uninteresting.  How about yours?

Practice – Practice

Life is a learning curve.  Everything new that comes our way in which we choose to participate, brings with it a learning curve.  We learn by practice.  We learn by trial and error.   We learn by understanding our errors and then practicing with the new information.  Some things we learn faster than others.  Regardless, we are not pros when we begin something new or change how we do something.  For that reason our businesses become strong and successful for the same reason a professional musician gets to Carnegie Hall, we practice, practice, practice everything that we do which is “new” until we own it.

Courage

Courage is not the absence of fear.  Courage is what we have when we ‘do it anyway’ in the face of our fear.  Courage is a state of mind buttressed by the tools and support needed to move through our doubts and fears.

Our goal at Savvy Sponsoring is to personally coach you to:

• Actively go after what you want.
• Get the tools you need to move your learning curve way up the chart.
• Surround yourself with the necessary support to help you reach inside – to find your courage to fail and fail again in order

To Achieve Your Amazing Success.

Do You Want to Build a Strong Professional Referring Sphere of Influence?

If one of your goals this year is to become a savvy, professional, recruiter in your Network Marketing business, check out our no charge to you Five Steps to Increase your Sphere of Influence call.  This call will teach you what you need to do in order to become an insider in any business organization.  You will also learn what you need to do in order to build a strong, professional, referral base out of these business organizations.  What change would it make to your business if solid professional business people were giving you referrals?   Click here to listen to that call now.  (This call will be available only for a few days.  Don’t miss it, listen now.)

Check out our “It’s All About Recruiting” program.

If you join our “It’s All About Recruiting Program,” we will be your personal guides encouraging you, supporting you, and teaching you the core principles of recruiting to build a strong MLM business.  This short, inexpensive program will take you from being afraid to make calls, to developing the tools to determine what you need to say in order to break the ice and get down to business.

As usual, it is a guaranteed satisfaction, or your money back program.  If this is your year to fail and fail again all the way to your amazing success, join our “It’s All About Recruiting” program and kick yourself right to the top of your learning curve.

Last day to register for this class is Sunday, January 10, 2010.   Don’t miss out because you procrastinated.  We have included a bonus gift of private one-on-one coaching for the first 30 who register.  There are still a few coaching spots left.  Click here for the details.

Jillian Middleton is a Mentor Coach and Trainer, and author of the courses
’5 Steps to Work Less and Make Money in Network Marketing’ ,
Setting Up Your Store Hours and Design Your Calendar,

Author of the forth coming book, MLM, The Myths, Legends and Money,

How to build a strong Network Marketing Business.

As creator of the ‘Savvy Sponsoring Strategies’ coaching programs, Jillian trains network marketers and direct sales consultants the same strategies she used to build two 6-figure network marketing businesses in 5 years.

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