ChrisKilber.com

Health · Wealth · Freedom in a Modern World

Tag Archives: Mindset

Create Your Own Culture

April 21st, 2011

I’m a recovering left brain thinker. If I was a Star Trek character Spock would come to mind. Going online or elsewhere to find and recruit people into your business requires tenacity, smarts, best practices, and even some luck. Bottom line is that you need to network. Now there are a lot of good companies out there. Network marketing has created more millionaires than any other industry. It’s also the entrepreneurs paradise where you get paid strictly on your production. It will either make you or break you. It will expose any weaknesses you may have. Shore them up, and you can become successful. As Jeffrey Combs has said to many people when asked the question, and I’m paraphrasing here, “How much does the average person make in MLM?” he will respond that it’s next to nothing. He’ll say you need to reach and strive above “average”. Above average in your thoughts, dreams, actions, networking, charisma, training, etc is what will lead to success. Most of that list requires right brain thinking. So far so good.

So with all the great companies out there, what differentiates them. Well, not a whole lot. The above average can succeed in just about any of them. What does differentiate them however, is their culture. By culture I mean the access to training and personal development, lead generation, webinars, seminars, edification, reproducibility, mindset, encouragement, and many others. Any good company or organization within a company, should have these. They should have them for free. So company culture can attract a lot of people to an opportunity.

Even more, having a team culture where you have team meetings and events, not necessarily company sponsored is where you can differentiate yourself in both what other companies do but even in your own company. Having your own team contests and bonuses can expand your business volume and growth. But even beyond business, you’ve chosen to work with people who are like minded and are striving for the same types of goals you are. There was something about you. You had something in you that attracted them. Sure they like the opportunity, but they choose you. You see the people you are going into business with and the leaders you surround yourself with also will become just like family. Over the years your families will share, learn, and conquer together. You will see each others families grow. This growth will not only be in business, it will be in just about everything you do. Your finances, family, dreams, and outlooks. You will share things like vacations and travel, fishing, flying, balloon rides, charities, and developing people. Explaining and getting people into their dreamspace, their why, and opening yourself to the possibilities will not only make you better than average, it will allow you to soar with the eagles.

Prospecting by Sorting and Asking

October 13th, 2010

Good day everyone. I want to talk today about prospecting. I’ve often heard it refereed to as sorting. When it comes down to it, most beginning entrepreneurs expect a much higher rate of closing, especially MLM opportunities. The reality, is it’s probably around 2-3%. So unless your finding 100 leads a month and talking with them specifically about your opportunity you will be hard pressed on closing anybody. Most can’t consistently speak with 100 people a month anyway. Finding qualified leads is no easy task. It is something that you are going to have to learn if you want to succeed.

The one thing that limits people is when they start getting some leads and start talking with people, most will say “No”. You have to have a strong desire and mindset in order to hear “No” that many times. It’s hard. Entrepreneurship is not forgiving. As a beginner, you could go 30-40-50 or more before you find a yes. The key is that you need to recognize that it’s a numbers game and most will say “No”. So in a way, what you really need to do, is determine as fast as possible whether you have a winner or not in the shortest time possible, and not take anything personal if they say “No”.

What’s the shortest time to determine whether your prospect has potential? Ask them of course. What’s the worse thing that could happen? They say “No”. There are ways to increase the percentage. They will be in the way you build rapport with them. You will need to break the ice with them, get them dreaming about their future, have a common interest to small talk about, and otherwise get them using their right brain to think. The right brain is the creative side that will help people to dream and get emotional. Most people buy for reasons found in their right brain thinking.

After building some rapport, ask them what kind of income would they like to earn, what they would do if money and time were no object, where they would like to travel and visit, or what kind of luxury home they would like. When they answer then ask the question. You want to sort out the serious from the curious and qualify them. Say I’m expanding my business and am looking for some exceptional people who are motivated and want to ramp up their income. Is that you? When do you want to start? Do you have your credit card handy? Are there any last few questions I can answer before you start? You goal always is to collect decisions.

You need to sort out the prospects from the pretenders by asking questions. You won’t close if you don’t ask. The worse thing to happen will be they say “No” and then you go on to the next. So the short recipe is:

Build rapport.
Qualify (trial close).
Ask. (close).
Go forward or cut your loses.
Do it again.

This should be 65% of all the time you have committed you your enterprise. It’s the one thing that will increase your income.

May’s Facebook Friends of the Month

May 19th, 2010

Over on Facebook they give you the ability to choose between 6, 9, or 12 people to display in your Friends box on the left hand side of your Facebook page. You also have the ability to edit who you want in them as well. After getting the idea from Steve Hachey about 6 months ago I decided to not only show 6 people but to re-designate the box as Friends of the Month and have a blog post about them with a little bio about each. So without further ado, I present May’s Friends of the Month.

What’s Your Motivation?

September 14th, 2009

leadSmall Business
I went to a Tea Party meeting last April to observe and chat with a few folks. This was no large gathering in a large city but a small one with just a few hundred folks in a town of about 5000 people. I spoke with many people I did not know, and I ended up actually speaking to the whole crowd after being prompted by many with whom I spoke to on the sidelines. I mainly talked with many folks from truck drivers, retired veterans, moms, small business owners and conversed about a familiar theme that is near and dear to me, small businesses and their impact and contribution to this great nation we live in. On my Facebook profile I proudly proclaim that it will be entrepreneurial spirit, not government intrusion that will revive our economy. This folks is the heart of small businesses. Small business employs over 75 per cent of the United States workforce. Anything that harms small business in my opinion, harms America.

What I Said
I did not speak about how the current administration is taxing or is planning to tax. I reminded them that it is the Washington politicians of both stripes that are reaching into our wallets. This has not been something that just happened. It has been incrementally occurring for over the last 95 years. The news media is portraying it as a battle between the parties, but for most of us it’s Government overreaching their bounds and getting involved in issues that are not ever discussed in the constitution and using that to fund their own constituencies for one reason or another. It is done by politicians to get re-elected and to have power. I’ve seen right through this for many years. The second oldest profession is being a politician and I actually think there’s not much difference between the first and second.

Leader or Politician
Now there is a line between what constitutes being a leader and being a politician. A leader by definition has to serve their followers and constituencies. I suppose a politician can do that. But one thing that is sorely missed in all of this is what their motive is. If the motive of a leader or politician is to be in charge, make the organization or government run smoothly, make a profit, build a respected company or department, get elected, and to win that might sound good. But to truly define leadership we need to completely understand one thing, motive. How was it the person got into a position where they could be called a leader by the definition used above? Did they inherit it? Was it simply appointed to them? Was it funded by interest groups? If it wasn’t earned on the merit of truly serving others then I would hesitate at calling them a leader. Leadership is also not the one who promised the most. If the leadership was arrived at by taking from someone and giving to another, it is not true leadership.

Motivation
A leader’s motivation is not how far they have advanced their position or power, but how far they have advanced others. That’s the bottom line. If a person takes away from someone intentionally, they are not a leader. A leader strives to add value to others. The value you add to others is teaching them skills, providing opportunity, giving them insight and perspective, and having faith in them. I know this may sound like a politician but the difference lies with their motivation. You can add value to others by not having to take resources from others to give them. A real leader provides inspiration, values, strength, solutions, character, and does not waver in them. There may be politicians whose motives are those of a true leader, but I find it rare to find one. Remember, a true leaders motivation is not to advance their own position or power, but to advance others.

Take The Leap

August 28th, 2009

JoeVersusTheVolcanoOne of my favorite movies of the past 20 years actually was considered a box office flop but later gained a cult following. It featured the first pairing of Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. It was called “Joe vs the Volcano”.Joe Banks worked in a job where routinely day after day people acted like drones and went in to do their job. One day when he went to the doctor he was diagnosed with a “Brain Cloud”. He was told that it was terminal and he would have a very short time to live. After contemplation he was convinced by a person that he would be given very large amount of cash if in the end before he would die, he would jump into a volcano in a far away island. So he lived a life of luxury and eventually set out to go to the island. On the way he met Patricia and fell in love with her. They ran into a storm and the boat sank but they were saved by his luggage that he tied together. They ended up awash on the shore of the destination island. After a party by the natives Joe was supposed to go up the volcano and appease the gods according to the local customs. Patricia decided to go with Joe and jump together. While on the way up Patricia figured out that Joe had a fictitious disease and wasn’t dying after all. Well they had to make the decision to jump. Was Joe going to jump anyways because his life would be no worse off than that of slaving away in his job? The girl he loved was going to jump with him. So they jumped. They decided they weren’t going to go half way, they were going to go for it, hell or high water. The volcano ended up blowing them out about a mile into the ocean and somehow that same luggage mysteriously appeared for them. They were alive and happy in the end.

The movie was very symbolic. The only color and piece of individualism in the office where Joe worked was Joe’s lamp he kept it in a drawer till he came into the office. This was quickly quashed by his boss. When Joe had made the decision to live like a king and die like a man, he said “There are certain times in your life when I guess you’re not supposed to have anyone, you know..certain doors you gotta go through alone.”

You gotta go through alone… Hmm… It may effect your family but it really is a decision that has to originate from you. How many of us are at that road or door? How many of us even notice that there is even a door we could go through? How many of us are living drones going through the paces day after day hypnotized by the media and politicians that determine what is best for us? How many of us all of a sudden are approaching retirement and have yet to live? I’ve said before that most people will choose unhappiness over uncertainty, so most never even try anything with even a hint of risk. Well no wonder Joe took the plunge. His supposed demise was not going to be any worse than his dreary existence, though he now had Patricia.

I’ve spent to many years in Corporate America and I’ve made the commitment to get out. Completely out. I want to visit the world, I want to be able run on the beaches of the world while I still can run. I don’t want to wait till I’m 65 1/2. I want to visit places and stay as long as I feel like. I want to share with my wife helping children in orphanages. I want to live. There are too many opportunities out there where you can either simplify your life, slow down and smell the coffee, start part time businesses that make full time income, all while being able to do it anywhere you can get an internet connection. The sweet thing about it, is that the businesses you start can be about the things you are highly interested in and passionate about. Do you see the face of your boss more than your children and wife? Are you looking for something else? Are you ready to make that symbolic leap of faith?

My Passion For Building My Business

July 7th, 2009

Romanian Child, Passion, Business, Empathy, HelpJohnathan Budd had a highly passionate post with a video and at the end we were asked to leave a comment:

I want you to LEAVE the BIGGEST reason you are building your business, spending your time learning new goals, researching how to succeed, and developing yourself into an entrepreneur.

This is how I responded.

I am driven.  I am motivated.  In that internet marketing is now a science, it is the creative aspects that I like.  Creative aspects for me are the results from the originality of thought, the expression, the interaction, the learning, the teaching, and gaining satisfaction from accomplishment.  The challenges make it much more fulfilling than any 9-5 job ever could.  It’s like I am painting a masterpiece and I have to concentrate on the brush strokes on a small corner of the painting.  As I work on the colors and learn how to mix the paint to achieve the exact real life colors and textures and then transfer them to the canvas, a picture of the future is emerging.

I of course will have to consult with others with whom I will associate to have them help and guide me and give me perspective to the process of finishing the painting.  And it will be those relationships that I end up fostering that will determine whether my painting is a masterpiece.  I can’t do it myself and when I do finish the painting, it will be because of those with whom I trusted and shared my passions.  The success will be reciprocal as one of my passions is to help people understand and achieve things that they didn’t know they could archive or thought unattainable.  My way is perfect only for me.  But there are things I can offer that will help others and in return I will learn from others.

In the end, I want to be able to help people and kids in some of the eastern Europe countries that would make a typical U.S. minimum wage job seem like a muti 6 figure job here.  Outside of the main cities there are families that live on $50 a month, don’t have a water heater, use outhouses still, and live the life our parents and grandparents lived in the 20′s and 30′s.  There are orphanages whose conditions are deplorable at best, and run by corrupt governments and bureaucracies were little ends up directly benefiting the children.  That’s my dream. to see the smile of some happy children who are the happiest they’ve been in their lives just because I bought them all some new shoes.

Common Cause Circa 2009

July 4th, 2009

.Flag, Patriotism, National, United States, Independence Day, Old GloryOn this Independece Day 2009 I am reminded of the famous publication “Common Sense” written by Thomas Paine. Here are the first two paragraphs

SOME writers have so confounded society with government, as to leave little or no distinction between them; whereas they are not only different, but have different origins. Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness POSITIVELY by uniting our affections, the latter NEGATIVELY by restraining our vices. The one encourages intercourse, the other creates distinctions. The first is a patron, the last a punisher.

Society in every state is a blessing, but Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one: for when we suffer, or are exposed to the same miseries BY A GOVERNMENT, which we might expect in a country WITHOUT GOVERNMENT, our calamity is heightened by reflecting that we furnish the means by which we suffer. Government, like dress, is the badge of lost innocence; the palaces of kings are built upon the ruins of the bowers of paradise. For were the impulses of conscience clear, uniform and irresistibly obeyed, man would need no other lawgiver; but that not being the case, he finds it necessary to surrender up a part of his property to furnish means for the protection of the rest; and this he is induced to do by the same prudence which in every other case advises him, out of two evils to choose the least. Wherefore, security being the true design and end of government, it unanswerably follows that whatever form thereof appears most likely to ensure it to us, with the least expense and greatest benefit, is preferable to all others.

In these words so eloquently penned by Thomas Paine on February 14th, 1776 lay the motivation which sparked a revolution and eventually created our nation. The words penned back then are just as relevant today. There is nary a moment that goes by where one does not knowingly or unknowingly break some kind of law. There are laws forbidding dogs in parks, using a minnow to fish with, how you choose to mow your lawn, what you can and can’t eat, if you are permitted to fly a flag, whether you use a seat belt, about four-wheeling on your own property, government educating your kids about sex, allowing a student to carry aspirin in their purse, etc… What difference is the 17th century king and today’s over reaching bureaucracy in Washington and your local and state governments. If Thomas Paine were to rewrite “Common Sense” I think he would only have to switch around a few of the words.

Common Sense

It’s About People Not Products

July 3rd, 2009

People, Networking, Relationships, Fostering, Empathy, BusinessSo someone wants to start a business? An online business at that? Where 95 plus percent of people don’t ever make one thin dime? How are they going to do that? Those are the questions we certainly hear from our self talk and from others that share their ideas with when they first start. Not everyone is geared to be an online marketer. Most people are not even prepared. Most will start by finding a product on a click bank type affiliate site and start figuring out where they can advertise. They start using Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace and anything else they can lay one of their affiliate links down. They justify it by saying it’s advertising. In reality it’s spam. If someone or anything reminds people of someone selling to them what will they do? Run for the hills, Some simply think if they have a page with their product with all the features and a button that says ‘buy me’ on it, people will start purchasing. After all, it’s a great product and it should sell itself. The product may be good but they haven’t grasped the idea that they may be only 1 of 25000 people selling that product. How do they get traffic to their site? Even then, why would they buy from them? What differentiates that person from the other 24,999?

That’s where marketing takes over. Marketing is not simply fancy advertising. Marketing consists of psychology, creating, communicating, fulfilling, exchanging, educating, writing, research, and plain hard work. Are you ready to learn all that? Even then, where are you going to learn all that? You’ll need trainers, mentors, books, video to start to grasp what is involved. Your best bet is to learn from someone who has gone through the same things your going to have to. Personal development is a given. You will need to read books and listen to audio to learn the correct mindsets you’ll need to ingrain upon your self. You’ll also need to develop networks of people that are based on attraction principals. The things you learn will be shared openly with this network. You will also learn from them. You will earn trust. You will start to cultivate relationships that will be based on you, not your products.

Boy those two paragraphs sounded a bit harsh didn’t they. There’s a bit of truth in there for me, but I’m also sure it’s true for most online marketers when they started. The good news is there is a lot of training out there now that is being provided. We don’t have to spend as much time learning from our own mistakes. Being able to hear and understand what others have gone through works just as well. Networking with the right group can save even more time. It has outright become a science. Getting involved with the right group can provide you the materials for success and the only thing that will be left to do is to implement what you learn. As contradictory as this sounds, online marketing is a people business. It’s about nurturing relationships. About helping and educating people that you’ve come to know. It’s about sharing your personalities and nuances with each other. It’s empathy and understanding. Selling is never about the product. It;s about relationships and the sooner anyone who wants to get into the 5% of people who make money, or the 3% that become vastly rich, learns this, the quicker it will happen.

Vilfredo Pareto

June 29th, 2009

80-20 Rule, Optimize, Pareto's Law, Efficiency, Pie GraphWhen starting an internet business one of the things that I think we all struggled with to some extent, is where to spend the majority of our time. There were so many things that we had to figure out. We had products or opportunities, market demographics, determining niches, marketing strategies, auto-responders, capture pages, sales pages, web sites, blogs, social media, fulfillment, phones, fax, etc… to worry about. Then to make things worse, while doing research to find information and recommendations on all of those things, we ended up finding that there are a thousand other choices we had to make. We started wondering if it is all worth it and saw other opportunities that somehow seemed a little bit easier than what our original choice had been. Bottom line, it’s was and still is easy to get distracted.

Another factor that we end up with is having to deal with the 80-20 rule otherwise known as the Pareto Principal. Vilfredo Pareto was an Italian economist who observed that 80% of the land was owned by 20% of the population. This later was expanded and is true for many things. A popular business axiom is that 80% of our sales come from 20% of the business. The one we (especially new entrepreneurs) have to worry about is that we ended up spending 80% of our time on things that don’t contribute to the bottom line. We need to concentrate on the 20% and refine it as much as possible. So how do we go about that?

The first things that that we need to do is prioritize our tasks and spend 80% of our time on the top 20% of that pile. I literally used to have a boss who taught me to take my “in basket”, back when email wasn’t as prevalent, sort it by importance with the most important on top and work from the top. There were items that never got attended to. The people requesting things figured out where to get their answers from someone else or they did their own research. The long term consequences were that people started relying on me for important items because I gave them the attention they needed and the minutia of the daily grind went somewhere else. I ended up getting higher visibility in management’s eyes, got noticed and was handsomely rewarded come review time.

You can do the same thing managing your own business. You may not have the luxury of ridding yourself of the daily minutia, but you can automate it, pay someone to automate it, pay someone to deal with it, or even, getting rid of it altogether. You need to be spending as much time as possible on those actions that give you 80% of your income. You need to outsource or automate as many routine or mundane tasks that you have to perform. By practicing these principals and understanding Pareto’s Law, the bottom line on your balance sheet at the end of the year will reward you.

ChrisKilber.com

Health · Wealth · Freedom in a Modern World

HTML5 Design by WPlook
Partly powered by CleverPlugins.com
SEO Powered By WP SEO BEAST