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Mobilising Your Customer Sales Force by Dr Paddi Lund Create a system for referrals ... and harness the power of your own Customer Sales Force! How Dr Paddi Lund made a 'By Invitation Only' practice and thrived - 'A' class customers on tap with no marketing or advertising and a locked front door. Paddi's Frustrating Problem - His investment in marketing was giving him an unpredictable return with prospective customers of questionable quality. Paddi's Creative Solution - Build a System that encourages regular customer referrals and takes the inconsistencies of conventional marketing out of the equation. Imagine spending nothing on advertising and yet having a constant supply of ideal customers lining up to do business with you! If you're familiar with the power of a good referral system, then you'll want to learn about Mobilising Your Customers Sales Force. Visit PaddiLund.com and pick up your own copy of Mobilising Your Customer Sales Force today.

The Value of Networks

By Chris Brogan

Purchase a plane ticket and fly to a new city for the first time. Take a cab to the heart of the city and then realize you’re hungry for a bite to eat. Open your laptop and steal wifi, trying to find a restaurant, and realize you’ve left your laptop power cord at home, and will need to find a replacement. Get a call on your cell from your aunt saying that she needs to buy a new digital camera, and which one should she get, because she’s standing in Best Buy right now. See a new email come in from your boss stating that you’re fired.

Your Network: The Old Days

In the way old days, your network was your family, your neighbors, your coworkers, and a few scattered others. You lived reasonably close to some number of these people, and they knew your comings and goings as intimately as a Facebook news stream. These people knew you when you were a foolish kid, and knew that you weren’t very good at math, but that you were a hard worker. If you needed help with something, you could reach out by mail, by phone, by “asking around.” It took a while, but usually someone could find something.

Your Network: The New Days

Several of your “friends” aren’t that. They’re more “friendlies.” They agree to be part of your network. You can reach more people than ever before. They’re all over the world. They have different roles, different networks of their own. It’s exponential the difference in the combined sum of what these people know. They might not know you the way a cousin or Junior High School teacher would say they know you, but they are willing to do some level of information sharing with you.

What Do I Mean By Network?

The idea of a network is just that it’s a connection of things that form something larger in sum. Networked computers mean that you can access some resources back and forth and communicate. Social networks (in the software sense) mean that the software makes a connectivity between users. Networks in the human sense mean that we have chosen to align ourselves in some form or fashion around common beliefs, goals, values, etc.

Organized religion works on the power of networks. So do labor unions. So do governments. Business is ultimately about networks of one kind or another.

What Can A Network Do?

Networks are about sharing resources. It’s the same for computers, social networks, human networks, and pretty much all kinds. Thus, if you’re looking to build a good network of people, sharing has to be the common link. Networks can help someone raise money quickly. They can direct lots of attention at the same point. They can help someone find a job. They can elect government officials. They can shift power and resources seamlessly.

Not a Numbers Game, Or Is It?

I think some of the value of a network comes from its numbers.

In social networks, I’m fortunate to have a reasonably good number of “friends.” Partly, this is because I’ve been fortunate to attend a lot of conferences, and I’ve been diligent in meeting lots of people. Partly, it’s because I publish a blog. Partly, it’s because I do a lot of work to link things together to FORM networks by inviting people to certain social networks, to accept requests from people, to build out the digital structure of such things.

Some quick tidbits:

• I’m not in any way a “collector” of friends in social networks. At this point, I say yes to most anyone trying to connect, but I don’t gather.
• I don’t believe in the “rule” that some use that one must “really in real life” know someone before accepting them as a “friend.”
• I don’t build networks to market. I’m not a marketer. I build networks to be helpful, and to deliver value in both directions.
• I think the key to it all is: “more hands lighten the load.”

Tips on Building Valuable Networks

Quick definition of “value:” I don’t mean money. I mean the ability to deliver and receive information, help, and further development (of networks, information, capabilities).

I can only tell you what I believe has worked best for me. I imagine your mileage may vary. I hope others add their own ideas on building networks in the comments.

• Be friendly and inclusive. When I go to conferences, I look for the fringe players, the people who aren’t well known, but who are interesting. Sometimes, these turn into amazingly wonderful connections.
• Treat “big names” like real people, and oddly, they treat YOU like a real person. This comes in handy later, when you can be helpful.
• Seek to be helpful. Always. The more you can do for others, the more that wheel comes round, should you find yourself in need.
• Connect. Connect. Connect. Help others find each other. Connect people with other people as often as humanly possible. This keeps flow moving, and it shows that you’re into sharing.
• **BEWARE** network leeches. Occasionally, in trying to form communities of useful and sharing people, someone comes along who needs, needs, needs. Learn how to cut that sort away from your network. It’s not rude. It’s not elitist.
• Diversity and opportunity are great ways to build something more interesting. Homogenous networks are only useful in a narrow scope. Meaning: meet lots of good people from lots of walks of life. You never know.
• Say thank you. Often.
• Do as much as you can, and then offer to help connect them to even more help, if you can.
• Be as timely as possible. Help isn’t much help if it’s too late.
• Never take credit. Always assume responsibility. Be as humble as you can muster.
• Give often and long before you ever have to ask for something for you.

Social Networks and YOUR Network of Value

One last point before I ask you for your ideas: the power of all these social software applications is that they empower us to communicate rapidly, in a one-to-many format, and along the lines of our networks of value. To that end, be sure to use this to accomplish your goals. Make sure you know the size and depth of your personal database. Make sure your contacts and connections are well connected through these digital tools. Try to build them all such that you can respond quickly to people’s needs, and that you can reach the edges of your network, and help others extend out to theirs, so that everyone may take full effect of that work.

And don’t be evil. (Easy, right?)

I consider your participation here a value of my network. The fact that you come and share your ideas and insights is wonderful to me. I’m not always nearby a computer to respond back to every comment, but I read everything you say, and I LOVE when someone in comments communicates to someone else, and when you go off and blog your own take on the original idea that takes it in another direction. Thank you for this. I’m forever grateful.

And now, what do you think? What have I missed? What are other ways to keep a network strong?

How to Stop Being an Employee

By Paul Piotrowski

Most employees think that when they work for a company, the reason they work there is because the company pays them a certain amount per month and they need that amount to pay their bills. This is only partly true.

In reality, the real reason employees continue to be employees is because of something I call the “Uncertainty Factor”. What does that mean? Well, basically what it means is that when you work for someone else, you make an agreement with them to exchange a certain amount of value for a certain wage. However, in most cases it is not the wage that you’re truly going after but rather the CERTAINTY that you will get that wage.

For example, lets say that you are a top notch computer graphics artist. You have the ability to create amazing computer graphics that you know are valuable in the industry. You hear about freelancers getting paid top dollar for such work. However, you find yourself working at a “stable job” making a stable but not so exciting salary. Why? In the majority of cases, it is because you are addicted to the CERTAINTY of knowing that you’re going to get a steady paycheck at the end of the month. It’s not the size of the paycheck, but rather it’s stability. You’re addicted to guarantees.

Here is the main difference between an employee, and an entrepreneur.

Employee:

1. INPUT (Do what you’re asked to do.)
2. OUTPUT (You get a paycheck.)

Entrepreneur:

1. INPUT (You follow your dream.)
2. UNCERTAINTY
3. OUTPUT (You get paid.)

Essentially, as an employee you just have to make sure you show up to work, do what you’re asked to do, and then collect a paycheck. As an entrepreneur, however, you have to first figure out what you want to do, then figure out how that’s going to make money, then do that thing, and then there is a level of uncertainty in the middle of whether it will work and whether the value you create will be converted to cash, and then there’s the output which is you getting paid.

That middle part, the uncertainty is what kills most people’s ambitions of being an entrepreneur. Everyone wants the “Employee” benefits inside the “Entrepreneur” model and it just doesn’t work that way. There are no guarantees.

Do you guys realize that when I started Blogging two years ago, I had absolutely no guarantees that I would ever make money doing this? Nobody offered me any kind of pay to Blog. Nobody told me that if I do A, B, C, D etc. that I would be guaranteed to make money. Nobody said this would work. In fact, most people say that this doesn’t work. Interent Marketing, just like any other entrepreneurial venture is full of risk. There are no guarantees.

So how the heck did I stick to this and kept at it, researching, tweaking, learning, studying and adjusting my strategy for over two years before ever making more than a few dollars a month? The reason I was able to do it is because I have a much higher tolerence for UNCERTAINTY than most people. Why? Because this isn’t my first venture. I’ve been running businesses since I left highschool. I’ve failed many times and each time I put a lot of work and in most cases money into my projects, only to see them “fail”. However, each time I did this I learned something, so I didn’t classify them as “failures” in my mind, I classified them as learning experiences.

If you want to ever stop being an employee and move into being in business for yourself, you need to start embracing uncertainty instead of avoiding or running away from it. I know it’s not easy, and I still do it as well to a degree in some parts of my life, but you need to start getting comfortable with it. You can start small and work your way up. You don’t need to “stake the farm” on a single business idea, but you need to start taking more risks. If you don’t have money, just start risking your time.

I think the reason most “employee minded” people won’t even try entrepreneurship is because they have no idea how much higher the payouts can be. Here’s what they think the formulas is:

Either be an employee and get this:

1. Do what you’re asked to do.
2. Get paid $40,000/year guaranteed.

or be an Entrepreneur and get this:

1. Figure out what you need to do and do it.
2. Uncertainty whether it will work.
3. If it does work, you may make $40,000/year or maybe $45,000/year for doing same work as employee.

In reality, the Entrepreneur model is more like this:

1. Figure out what you need to do and do it.
2. Uncertainty whether it will work.
3. If it doesn’t work, you either make $0, or you lose money and perhaps even bankrupt the business. If it works out poorly, you may make $20,000/year. If it works out average, you may make $60,000/year. If it works out nicely you might make $240,000/year. If it really works out of you, you may make $750,000 per MONTH or more.

I know that to most people figures like that are beyond the realm of possibility. Meaning, most “normal” people laugh if you were to even propose that they could make $750,000 per month or more. They just don’t believe it. However, entrepreneurs out there are doing this right now and they’re probably not any smarter than you are…they’re just more able to handle risk and uncertainty. There are also a whole bunch of entrepreneurs right now filing for bankruptcy. That’s the UNCERTAINTY that keeps people employed as employees working for someone else. They don’t want to take that kind of risk themselves so they offload that responsibility onto their boss who takes that risk on their behalf and in exchange ends up making a profit for providing such “security” to the employee.

I’m not saying this is good or bad. That’s just the way it is. I’ve been in situations before where I worked for businesses where I didn’t want to participate in sharing the risk with the owner of the business so I demanded a salary to work there. I’ve also been in situations where I traded in my salary for a pure performance based compensation structure. I’ve also been in the situations where I was the owner of a business where I took all the risk personally and removed that uncertainty for my employees. I’ve been in situations where I’ve had to borrow large sums of money (basically the size of a second mortgage) against my house personally, just so that I could have enough money to cover payroll for my employees who had no idea I had to do that in order to provide them that “secure” place of having no uncertainty.

When I see people making six or even seven figure incomes, I look at them and think “There’s someone who’s probably taken some big risks in life and is comfortable with uncertainty”, while most employee minded people are probably thinking “Man that dude is grossly overpaid… he doesn’t even do anything more than I do at work… I work way harder than that guy, why does he get to make so much money?!”

So, how do you stop being an employee? You need to develop the courage necessary to deal with uncertainty. You need to be able to start taking calculated risks, start believing in yourself and your ability to not only survive but to also thrive on your own. You need to start embracing uncertainty and become comfortable with making mistakes and failing a little bit in order to learn from your mistakes.

The payoffs if you succeed are huge, and the journey is much more exciting, but it’s not for everyone.

I’ve met Bloggers who make four times the yearly income of a police officer or a fireman. I’ve seen affiliate marketers with monthly revenues about three times the yearly salary of what the President of the United States gets paid.

So many people want to make this type of money as entrepreneurs, but they don’t want to risk anything. They want no uncertainty and everything to be guaranteed and handed to them on a silver platter.

I read this in a forum once. (Paraphrased)

“Person1: I want to make money as a Blogger. Like those $25k/m Bloggers out there. What’s the first step?”
“Person2: Figure out your name, go to GoDaddy.com and register a domain name.”
“Person1: Thanks! …. ….. oh wait, it says here I have to pay $9 for the domain name.”
“Person2: Yeah…so?”
“Person1: Oh…this costs money? What if it doesn’t work out? Nevermind then…”

See what I mean? No risk tolerence. No willingness to tolerate any uncertainty. You can go and return pop bottles to go make $9 to afford a domain, but most people are too lazy to do it. If you want to stop being an employee, then learn to tolerate some uncertainty grow some balls. Learn to handle some uncertainty and take some calculated risks. Or, if you don’t want to then just accept that you’re choosing to be an employee and that’s ok too. Go find something you enjoy doing for a decent wage and stop complaining about it.

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