Customer-owned Networks: ZapMail and the Telecommunications Industry

To understand what's going to happen to the telephone companies this year thanks to WiFi (otherwise known as 802.11b) and Voice over IP (VoIP) you only need to know one story: ZapMail.

The story goes like this. In 1984, flush from the success of their overnight delivery business, Federal Express announced a new service called ZapMail, which guaranteed document delivery in 2 hours. They built this service not by replacing their planes with rockets, but with fax machines.

This was CEO Fred Smith's next big idea after the original delivery business. Putting a fax machine in every FedEx office would radically reconfigure the center of their network, thus slashing costs: toner would replace jet fuel, bike messenger's hourly rates would replace pilot's salaries, and so on. With a much less expensive network, FedEx could attract customers with a discount on regular delivery rates, but with the dramatically lower costs, profit margins would be huge compared to actually moving packages point to point. Lower prices, higher margins, and to top it all off, the customer would get their documents in 2 hours instead of 24. What's not to love?

Abject failure was not to love, as it turned out. Two years and hundreds of millions of dollars later, FedEx pulled the plug on ZapMail, allowing it to vanish without a trace. And the story of ZapMail's collapse holds a crucial lesson for the telephone companies today.

The Customer is the Competitor

ZapMail had three fatal weaknesses.

First of all, Federal Express didn't get that faxing was a product, not a service. FedEx understood that faxing would be cheaper than physical delivery. What they missed, however, was that their customers understood this too. The important business decision wasn't when to pay for individual faxes, as the ZapMail model assumed, but rather when to buy a fax machine. The service was enabled by the device, and the business opportunity was in selling the devices.

Second, because FedEx thought of faxing as a service, it failed to understand how the fax network would be built. FedEx was correct in assuming it would take hundreds of millions of dollars to create a useful network. (It has taken billions, in fact, over the last two decades.) However, instead of the single massive build out FedEx undertook, the network was constructed by individual customers buying one fax machine at a time. The capital expenditure was indeed huge, but it was paid for in tiny chunks, at the edges of the network.

Finally, because it misunderstood how the fax network would be built, FedEx misunderstood who its competition was. Seeing itself in the delivery business, it thought it had only UPS and DHL to worry about. What FedEx didn't see was that its customers were its competition. ZapMail offered two hour delivery for slightly reduced prices, charged each time a message was sent. A business with a fax machine, on the other hand, could send and receive an unlimited number of messages almost instantaneously and at little cost, for a one-time hardware fee of a few hundred dollars.

There was simply no competition. ZapMail looked good next to FedEx's physical delivery option, but compared to the advantages enjoyed by the owners of fax machines, it was laughable. If the phone network offered cheap service, it was better to buy a device to tap directly into that than to allow FedEx to overcharge for an interface to that network that created no additional value. The competitive force that killed ZapMail was the common sense of its putative users.

ZapPhone

The business Fred Smith imagined being in -- build a network that's cheap to run but charge customers as it if were expensive -- is the business the telephone companies are in today. They are selling us a kind of ZapPhone service, where they've digitized their entire network up to the last mile, but are still charging the high and confusing rates established when the network was analog.

The original design of the circuit-switched telephone network required the customers to lease a real circuit of copper wire for the duration of their call. Those days are long over, as copper wires have been largely replaced by fiber optic cable. Every long distance phone call and virtually every local call is now digitized for at least some part of its journey.

As FedEx was about faxes, the telephone companies are in deep denial about the change from analog to digital. A particularly clueless report written for the telephone companies offers this choice bit of advice:

Telcos gain billions in service fees from [...] services like Call Forwarding and Call Waiting [...]. Hence, capex programs that shift a telco, say, from TDM to IP, as in a softswitch approach that might have less capital intensity, must absolutely preserve the revenue stream. [ http://www.proberesearch.com/alerts/refocusing.htm]

You don't need to know telephone company jargon to see that this is the ZapMail strategy.

Step #1: Scrap the existing network, which relies on pricey hardware switches and voice-specific protocols like Time Division Multiplexing (TDM).
Step #2: Replace it with a network that runs on inexpensive software switches and Internet Protocol (IP). This new network will cost less to build and be much cheaper to run.
Step #3: "Preserve the revenue stream" by continuing to charge the prices from the old, expensive network.

This will not work, because the customers don't need to wait for the telephone companies to offer services based on IP. The customers already have access to an IP network -- it's called the internet. And like the fax machine, they are going to buy devices that enable the services they want on top of this network, without additional involvement by the telephone companies.

Two cheap consumer devices loom large on this front, devices that create enormous value for the owners while generating little revenue for the phone companies. The first is WiFi access points, which allow the effortless sharing of broadband connections, and the second is VoIP converters, which provide the ability to route phone calls over the internet from a regular phone.

WiFi -- Wireless local networks

In classic ZapMail fashion, the telephone companies misunderstand the WiFi business. WiFi is a product, not a service, and they assume their competition is limited to other service companies. There are now half a dozen companies selling wireless access points; at the low end, Linksys sells a hundred dollar device for the home that connects to DSL or cable modems, provides wireless access, and has a built-in ethernet hub to boot. The industry has visions of the "2nd phone line" effect coming to data networking, where multi-computer households will have multiple accounts, but if customers can share a high-speed connection among several devices with a single product, the service business will never materialize.

The wireless ISPs are likely to fare no better. Most people do their computing at home or at work, and deploying WiFi to those two areas will cost at worst a couple hundred bucks, assuming no one to split the cost with. There may be a small business in wiring "third places" -- coffee shops, hotels, and meeting rooms -- but that will be a marginal business at best. WiFi is the new fax machine, a huge value for consumers that generates little new revenue for the phone companies. And, like the fax network, the WiFi extension to the internet will cost hundreds of millions of dollars, but it will not be built by a few companies with deep pockets. It will be built by millions of individual customers, a hundred dollars at a time.

VoIP -- Phone calls at internet prices

Voice over IP is another area where a service is becoming a product. Cisco now manufactures an analog telephone adapter (ATA) with a phone jack in the front and an ethernet jack in the back. The box couldn't be simpler, and does exactly what you'd expect a box with a phone jack in the front and an ethernet jack in the back to do. The big advantage is that unlike the earlier generation of VoIP products -- "Now you can use your computer as a phone!" -- the ATA lets you use your phone as a phone, allowing new competitors to offer voice service over any high-speed internet connection.

Vonage.com, for example, is giving away ATAs and offering phone service for $40 a month. Unlike the complex billing structures of the existing telephone companies, Vonage prices the phone like an ISP subscription. A Vonage customer can make an unlimited number of unlimited-length domestic long distance calls for their forty bucks, with call waiting, call forwarding, call transfer, web-accessible voicemail and caller ID thrown in free. Vonage can do this because, like the telephone companies, they are offering voice as an application on a digital network, but unlike the phone companies, they are not committed to charging the old prices by pretending that they are running an analog network.

Voice quality is just one feature among many

True to form, the telephone companies also misunderstand the threat from VoIP (though here it is in part because people have been predicting VoIPs rise since 1996.) The core of the misunderstanding is the MP3 mistake: believing that users care about audio quality above all else. Audiophiles confidently predicted that MP3s would be no big deal, because the sound quality was less than perfect. Listeners, however, turned out to be interested in a mix of things, including accessibility, convenience, and price. The average music lover was willing, even eager, to give up driving to the mall to buy high quality but expensive CDs, once Napster made it possible to download lower quality but free music.

Phone calls are like that. Voice over IP doesn't sound as good as a regular phone call, and everyone knows it. But like music, people don't want the best voice quality they can get no matter what the cost, they want a minimum threshold of quality, after which they will choose phone service based on an overall mix of features. And now that VoIP has reached that minimum quality, VoIP offers one feature the phone companies can't touch: price.

The service fees charged by the average telephone company (call waiting, caller ID, dial-tone and number portability fees, etc) add enough to the cost of a phone that a two-line household that moved only its second line to VoIP could save $40 a month before making their first actual phone call. By simply paying for the costs of the related services, a VoIP customer can get all their domestic phone calls thrown in as a freebie.

As with ZapMail, the principal threat to the telephone companies' ability to shrink costs but not revenues is their customers' common sense. Given the choice, an increasing number of customers will simply bypass the phone company and buy the hardware necessary to acquire the service on their own.

And hardware symbiosis will further magnify the threat of WiFi and VoIP. The hardest part of setting up VoIP is simply getting a network hub in place. Once a hub is installed, adding an analog telephone adapter is literally a three-plug set-up: power, network, phone. Meanwhile, one of the side-effects of installing WiFi is getting a hub with open ethernet ports. The synergy is obvious: Installing WiFi? You've done most of the work towards adding VoIP. Want VoIP? Since you need to add a hub, why not get a WiFi-enabled hub? (There are obvious opportunities here for bundling, and later for integration -- a single box with WiFi, Ethernet ports, and phone jacks for VoIP.)

The economic logic of customer owned networks

According to Metcalfe's Law, the value of an internet connection rises with the number of users on the network. However, the phone companies do not get to raise their prices in return for that increase in value. This is a matter of considerable frustration to them.

The economic logic of the market suggests that capital should be invested by whoever captures the value of the investment. The telephone companies are using that argument to suggest that they should either be given monopoly pricing power over the last mile, or that they should be allowed to vertically integrate content with conduit. Either strategy would allow them to raise prices by locking out the competition, thus restoring their coercive power over the customer and helping them extract new revenues from their internet subscribers.

However, a second possibility has appeared. If the economics of internet connectivity lets the user rather than the network operator capture the residual value of the network, the economics likewise suggest that the user should be the builder and owner of the network infrastructure.

The creation of the fax network was the first time this happened, but it won't be the last. WiFi hubs and VoIP adapters allow the users to build out the edges of the network without needing to ask the phone companies for either help or permission. Thanks to the move from analog to digital networks, the telephone companies' most significant competition is now their customers, because if the customer can buy a simple device that makes wireless connectivity or IP phone calls possible, then anything the phone companies offer by way of competition is nothing more than the latest version of ZapMail.

O mundo de hoje na linguagem de ontem

Praticamente toda a linguagem do jornalismo político em circulação hoje em dia foi criada para descrever um mundo que não existe mais – o mundo do pós-guerra. As notícias já não podem refletir os fatos porque são pensadas e escritas segundo esquemas descritivos estreitos demais para a situação atual. As mudanças ocorridas ao longo das últimas cinco décadas no quadro internacional são tão gigantescas que escapam ao horizonte de visão do jornalismo – daí que os fatos mais importantes fiquem fora do noticiário ou recebam cobertura irrisória, enquanto aparências fúteis merecem atenção desproporcional.

As conseqüências disso para a alma popular são devastadoras, principalmente porque aí se introduz um segundo fator complicante: como já não existe propriamente “cultura popular”, a velocidade de produção da “indústria cultural” atropelando a criatividade espontânea do povo, o resultado é que a mídia se torna a fornecedora única dos símbolos e valores com que o cidadão comum se explica a si mesmo e enquadra, como pode, a sua experiência pessoal num esboço de visão geral do mundo. A força com que a mídia influencia a própria estruturação das personalidades individuais e das relações pessoais é hoje imensurável. Isso quer dizer que, se essa mídia se aliena da realidade, todos se alienam com ela. Cada um sente na sua própria vida diária os efeitos diretos de profundas transformações globais, mas, como estas não aparecem no debate público, ou aparecem deformadas por estereótipos, a equação psicológica que se estabelece é a seguinte: por mais que o cidadão tente amoldar sua visão da realidade ao recorte deformante, buscando uma falsa sensação de segurança no ajustamento à pseudo-realidade legitimada pelo consenso midiático, setores inteiros da sua experiência pessoal, familiar e grupal permanecem encobertos e inexpressáveis, latejando no escuro como infecções não diagnosticadas. O sentimento de desajuste externo e insegurança interna, que até umas décadas atrás era próprio da adolescência, espalha-se por todas as faixas etárias: não há mais pessoas maduras, todos são “teenagers” vacilantes, incapazes de uma decisão firme, de um raciocínio conclusivo.

Mas a análise dessas conseqüências pode ficar para um outro artigo. Volto aqui às causas da alienação da mídia.

Dois documentos, a meu ver, ilustram bem o esquema interpretativo que partir do fim da II Guerra foi adotado mais ou menos uniformemente por toda a mídia do Ocidente para a descrição da política mundial: o livro de Hans J. Morgenthau, “Politics Among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace”, publicado em 1948 pela Alfred A. Knopf, e a Carta da ONU, assinada em São Francisco em 25 de junho de 1945.

O primeiro tornou-se a bíblia do Departamento de Estado americano e, por isso mesmo, o código geral com que os políticos e os formadores de opinião nos outros países interpretavam as ações e palavras do governo de Washington, automaticamente expressando nos termos desse mesmo código as suas posições – e as de seus respectivos governos – com relação à política americana e, no fim das contas, a tudo o mais.

A doutrina Morgenthau, como veio a ser chamada, é complexa, mas duas de suas características interessam de maneira mais direta ao que estou tentando dizer aqui:

1º. Ela explicava as ações desenroladas no cenário internacional em função de interesses objetivos (materiais ou ideais), racionalmente formulados e identificáveis.

2º. Embora reconhecendo que os Estados nacionais poderiam no futuro dissolver-se em unidades políticas maiores, ela os tratava como agentes principais do processo político mundial (daí o título do livro).

As conseqüências imediatas desse enfoque eram duas:

1ª. A noção de “interesse nacional” tornava-se o conceito descritivo fundamental: a política mundial era, em suma, uma trama de interesses nacionais em concorrência, em conflito, em colaboração etc.

2ª. Os agentes supranacionais sem natureza estatal, como os movimentos revolucionários, as religiões, as mega-empresas transnacionais, as dinastias nobiliárquicas ou oligárquicas, etc. desapareciam do cenário: suas ações tornavam-se invisíveis ou tinham de ser explicadas, bastante artificialmente, como expressões camufladas de interesses nacionais.

Na orientação da política americana, externa e interna, as limitações que daí decorreram foram – e continuam sendo – catastróficas:

1ª. No combate ao comunismo, todos os esforços do governo americano limitaram-se à busca de agentes diretamente controlados pelo governo soviético, sem nada poder fazer contra o movimento comunista em si e muito menos contra as suas encarnações mais diversificadas e camufladas a partir dos anos 60. A “New Left”, sem ligações formais com o Partido Comunista da URSS mas sob certos aspectos mais virulenta do que qualquer agente soviético, não só saiu vitoriosa da guerra do Vietnã, mas impôs a quase toda a população americana os novos padrões de cultura “politicamente corretos” que hoje bloqueiam qualquer iniciativa séria contra os inimigos internos e externos do país.

2ª. Até hoje o governo americano está travado por uma autocensura que o impede de reconhecer em voz alta a realidade da “guerra de civilizações”, tendo de explicar suas ações defensivas mediante o subterfúgio metonímico da “guerra contra o terrorismo” ao mesmo tempo que fortalece o inimigo islâmico interno no campo da guerra cultural e vai podando, uma a uma, as raízes cristãs de onde a sociedade americana extrai toda a sua força de resistência.

3ª. A luta de vida e morte entre o interesse nacional americano e os grupos globalistas que tentam subjugar a nação aos organismos internacionais é assunto proibido em debates eleitorais, de modo que se torna fácil para aqueles grupos camuflar suas ações por trás do mesmo interesse nacional contra o qual agem incessantemente, lançando portanto sobre o país a culpa do mal que lhe fazem (v. o parágrafo final do artigo “Uma nova fachada do Foro de São Paulo”, DC, 9 de junho de 2008).

Entre nós, a adoção do conceito de “interesse nacional” como um fetiche explicativo pela Escola Superior de Guerra faz com que até hoje muitos analistas militares brasileiros sejam incapazes de entender o esquema de dominação globalista senão como instrumento das “grandes nações” – o que quer dizer, em última análise, dos EUA.

Esses erros de perspectiva são retro-alimentados pela mídia mundial, que desde os anos 40 adotou informalmente a doutrina do Departamento de Estado como chave descritiva da política internacional. Não é preciso examinar uma infinidade de jornais e noticiários de rádio e TV para perceber que, embora tagarelem obsessivamente sobre “globalização”, os jornalistas em geral só enxergam a distribuição de poder no mundo através da sua manifestação visível na forma de Estados nacionais. A religião, por exemplo, continua sendo a seus olhos uma força cultural extrapolítica, que só resvala na política por acidente ou por submissão perversa de seus altos fins originários aos propósitos de algum Estado nacional ou organização terrorista. Eles não podem, por isso, entender o Islam, que é por essência e origem um projeto de Estado mundial, mas que a seus olhos é apenas uma “religião”, capaz de amoldar-se pacificamente à ordem política dos Estados não-islâmicos. Muito menos podem compreender o fenômeno do metacapitalismo (v. http://www.olavodecarvalho.org/semana/040617jt.htm e http://www.olavodecarvalho.org/textos/debate_usp_4.htm).

O segundo documento a que me referi, a Carta da ONU, criou o código de valores que dá substância moral ao retrato do mundo estampado na mídia. Se a mecânica desse mundo é descrita como um jogo de interesses nacionais, seu drama humano é equacionado em termos de “paz”, “direitos humanos”, “tolerância”, “progresso econômico e social”, “segurança internacional”, “cooperação humanitária”, etc., dando vivacidade, movimento e verossimilhança ao quadro da competição entre nações e camuflando automaticamente os esquemas de poder supranacionais, dos quais a própria ONU é hoje um dos instrumentos mais úteis e contundentes.

Se, como foi dito acima, as pessoas sentem na sua vida diária os efeitos das transformações globais sem poder sequer expressar em palavras a ligação entre sua experiência imediata e o cenário maior da história, isso se deve sobretudo ao fato de que os agentes que originaram esses processos permanecem desconhecidos da multidão: as mudanças de valores, de leis, de critérios, que afetam profundamente o destino e até a psicologia íntima de milhões de criaturas desabam sobre a população como se tivessem vindo do céu ou resultassem de fatalidades históricas impessoais. Não podendo ser rastreadas até nenhum agente nacional-estatal, tornam-se ações sem sujeito, misteriosas como decretos da Providência.

No entanto, a harmonia simultânea com que se lançam em todo o planeta campanhas destinadas a mudar radicalmente os hábitos e valores da população, forçando-a a respeitar o que abomina e a abominar o que respeitava até à véspera, basta para mostrar, mesmo a quem nada saiba da origem concreta desses empreendimentos, que essa origem existe e que ela não reside em nenhum mistério celeste ou lei histórica, mas em agentes humanos de carne e osso, apenas enormemente poderosos, organizados e perseverantes. Esses agentes não são secretos, são apenas discretos, embora muitos deles, bastante famosos até, alardeiem seus motivos e suas ações em livros e conferências. É ao passar pela malha seletiva da mídia que suas ações se tornam secretas, no mais das vezes não por ocultação premeditada, mas pelo simples fato de que não se enquadram nas categorias descritivas aí reconhecidas.

Olavo de Carvalho

What To “Say” First To Your Prospect

Experts tell us that it’s not what you say but how you say it. To achieve excellence in network marketing you must learn one very important skill. And that skill is revealed in this MLM training newsletter.

What you first say to your prospect has everything to do with whether your prospect is someone you know or someone you don’t know. The next broad category to consider would be what you are getting your prospect to review – your MLM business opportunity or your product? Then you’d need to consider how you’re going to have them look at it – one-on-one, hotel meeting, video, website, conference call, etc.

But I’d like to focus you on something else that needs to be done prior to all those. Truth is, the very first thing you should “say” isn’t audible. Let me explain. In that fraction of a second before you say hello to your prospect say silently (with your thoughts), “I’m interested in you.”

If you start every conversation with this thought and you’re able to do the activity of being interested in your prospect throughout the entire conversation; you will never say the wrong thing.

Very simply, when you’re focused on the well being of the prospect instead of:

1.the money you could make if they buy or sign up in your MLM business
2.if you’re saying the right thing or not
3.if you dressed correctly
4.if your prospect can tell you’re new at it
5.if your prospect can tell if you’re making little or no money in your MLM business venture
6.if your prospect thinks you’re a fake because of the car you drove to the meeting.
7.if your prospect will object when you tell them it’s network marketing.
8.if the prospect will object when you tell them the cost.
9.if the prospect doesn’t do it, how will you make your volume requirements this month.
10.how to handle the objection or question the prospect is saying.

…you will never say the wrong thing. In contrast, if you’re focused on any of the above you invariably will say something wrong that will cause your prospect to avoid you. Forget all those things above and just pay attention to your prospect!

Many times distributors have phrases like the above going through their mind prior, during, and after talking with their prospect. Very rarely will you make it through the conversation without “the real you” exposing itself to the prospect if you’re focused on any of the above. Many people believe they can “fake it until they make it.” Not so. The only person you’re fooling is yourself.

Truth is, if you’re sincerely interested in your prospect, it will show in every thing you say and do. You’ll never have to worry about saying the right thing. You always will.

I’m not giving you permission to be unprepared for a meeting - KNOW WHAT YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT.

I’m also not suggesting you degrade your business or product to the prospect by “telling it like it is.” Do present your business in the best possible light.

Once you know your business and products well, forget trying to “present it” and help the prospect get what the benefits of the product or business are by simply finding out their interest on the subject. You do this of course by using the Qualify step of the Inviting Formula.

What you’ve just been exposed to is taken from my newly released MLM training CD series, Professional Inviter, where I explain the Ten Communication Qualities. The first quality is BE INTERESTED IN THE PROSPECT. Notice I didn’t say BE INTERESTING TO THE PROSPECT. Which is what most new distributors try to be to their prospect.

If there were only one MLM training tip that I could teach you, this would be it.


Tim Sales

What is Driving the Growth of the Clubmaxi Opportunity?

Today, more and more people from diverse backgrounds and many different walks of life are attracted to the Clubmaxi business opportunity. Why?

In the first place, more people today are financially challenged and looking for ways to make more money. More and more people are waking up to the reality that relying solely on their job and boss is not the way to go. So while we work to pay our bills today, most people are leaving their financial future to chance.

Many people already realize that business ownership is the answer. The main obstacles that prevent people from making this dream a reality are: the lack of a viable idea, the time to make it work and the money to fund the business.

Clubmaxi offers a true opportunity to start a part-time business without any specific business background, without a lot of capital and without a lot of experience. So, whether you’re looking for some extra income to support your family, or are saving for your first home or a new car, Clubmaxi can be that vehicle to help you accomplish these goals and more.

In the long-term Clubmaxi offers a business that can provide you with an on-going residual income. And, if you’re considering a career change, an Clubmaxi home-based business offers the potential of a career opportunity with no limits and a chance for true financial independence.

Direct Selling: A Future Without Boundaries

A few years ago, when Andrew Shure came up with the idea for a company that would sell unique and exclusive pet products, direct selling was the only method he considered to market his ware.

"One-on-one selling is incredibly advantageous to our products," says Shure, the Founder of Chicago-based Shure Pets, Inc. "The whole educational aspect of promoting these products face-to-face is such a stronger vehicle than putting these products up on a shelf and just having them sit there."

In fact, the direct selling approach allows for testimonials from those who would be the most familiar with Shure's products. "People can bring their pets to our sales parties," Shure explains. "That means they are more likely to have a positive experience with our products."

Shure is far from alone in his thoughts on direct selling.

Hundreds of companies-with every type of conceivable product and service-have jumped on the direct selling bandwagon in the last decade.

According to Direct Selling Association research, 2004 direct sales in the United States reached approximately $30 billion, up from $25.5 billion in 2000. Association research also shows that the number of people working in direct sales has more than doubled in a decade, to 13.6 million in 2004 from 6.3 million in 1994.

Shure's touted face-to-face selling method still makes up the bulk of what people do with direct selling, the association data also showed. Nearly three-quarters of direct selling is still face-to-face (versus over the phone or via the Internet) and most of that direct selling takes place in homes.

Since the launch of his company three years ago, Shure has witnessed and experienced this phenomenal growth. In just a little more than a year, the number of pet consultants who sell his pet products, which range from health and beauty products to treats and toys, has grown dramatically. "We have had great success with getting people to want to be part of this," Shure says.

For those companies with viable products, direct selling allows a direct connection to potential customers office.

"Our consultants are trained to sell our story, not just our products," says Erica Littlejohn Burnette, Founder and Vice President of Marketing for Our Own Image. The Yellow Springs, Ohio-based company, which was launched to the public in late 2003, offers high quality African American party supplies, gift bags, journals and home accessories.

At consultant home parties, Burnette says opportunities exist to connect to potential customers. "Our consultants and guests have a wonderful time sharing recollections and stories," she says. "For example, they might talk about how they celebrate Kwanzaa or a family reunion in their community. Those stories can then be a way to connect to our products."

One of Our Own Image's more popular products is an African American quilting journal. "The artwork on the journal is based on quilts that were created by African American slaves," she explains. "The quilts had secret messages encoded in them that lead escaped slaves to safe houses."

Customers will purchase those journals for a family historian to record a family reunion or for a record of family births, weddings or other happenings, Burnette says. "We show them how to record information that will one day be family history," she adds.

That type of interplay would be hard to replicate outside of a direct selling mode, Burnette says.

The Pampered Chef President and Chief Operating Officer Marla Gottschalk agrees. "Pampered Chef products are a good fit for direct selling because they're demonstrable," she says. "Pampered Chef Cooking Shows offer a unique interactive multi-sensory experience. Our guests can see, touch, hold and try our tools for themselves. Our consultants show our guests how to use our products to create wonderful foods by preparing a recipe right in front of them, which is available for all to taste.

"You can't get that in any retail store. The personal customer service our consultants provide, the opportunity to try before you buy, combined with our quality products, is a winning combination for our company."

"Direct selling works so well with our products as we get to talk to someone directly versus them standing in front of an array of products in a retail store," says George Fischer, the Director of Corporate Communications for Herbalife. The Los Angeles-based business is known for its weight loss, nutritional and personal care products.

"All of our products are sold through direct selling and because of the success of that, many of our customers become distributors after using our products," he adds.

Certain types of products almost demand that face-to-face encounter, says Dana Robinson, the Public Relations Manager for Stampin' Up. The Kanab, Utah-based company produces an exclusive line of decorative stamp sets and accessories for home decor, greeting cards, craft projects and scrapbooking.

"Stamping is a technique-focused craft," said Robinson. "A direct selling model provides customers with a personal 'instructor' to accompany great product. The interaction between customers and demonstrators sparks creativity, gives customers confidence in their ability, and ensures that they have a good experience with the product."

That face-to-face interaction is also what can fuel strong company growth, says Bonny Fowler, Director of Corporate Communications for The Longaberger Company.

Founded in 1973, the Newark, Ohio-based Longaberger is a maker of handcrafted baskets and other products such as pottery, wrought iron, fabric accessories and specialty foods. "Our story can't be shared on a retail store shelf," Fowler says. "It is shared person to person. And our growth was really person to person from those initial relationships."

Such direct selling methods work well for Longaberger because it also fits in well with the company roots, Fowler says. Company Founder Dave Longaberger originally tried to sell baskets in a retail setting, but had little success. "But then a woman who had been buying the baskets in his store asked if she could sell a few to her friends," Fowler says. "She wound up selling them rather quickly. So Dave Longaberger made the move into direct selling. And it was a natural fit."

Shure says face-to-face direct selling also allows his pet consultants to easily demonstrate their knowledge base about his company's products and pets. "We call our people 'pet consultants' and we don't use that term lightly," he says. "Our people know how to say 'I have a great product for your dog' because they know how to communicate to people who love their pets."

Shure says face-to-face direct selling also allows for a certain social aspect to his consultant's parties. "Many of our consultants live in suburban and rural areas and our parties are a way of getting together friends and families," he says. "We try to make our parties as fun as possible."

A benefit to Shure's company is that the social gatherings also serve as strong recruitment devices for new consultants. "If someone has a positive experience at one our parties, they are more likely to host a party themselves."

Face-to-face story telling and the sharing of experiences are also ways that companies that offer services versus products take advantage of direct selling.

"We don't believe what we do is easily communicated in mass," says Barry Friedman, Senior Vice President with AmeriPlan. "It is an eyeball to eyeball situation. In fact, we don't call what we do direct selling. We call it a sharing proposition. We talk to other people about what we do and we get them to share their stories."

The Plano, Texas-based company, started in 1992, offers supplemental health care benefits to more than 1.6 million subscribers in the United States.

Friedman says the ability to share information up close is critical to conveying information about his health care program. "For example, I might talk to someone about how a crown can normally cost $1,200 but I only paid $450 for mine," he says. "When I start sharing knowledge like that, people will listen."

Physical proximity is also key with his style of direct selling. "We work with what we call in our business a 'three foot rule', " Friedman says. "When you are within three feet of someone, you can break the ice and start a conversation."

" 'Relationship marketing' also allows for a low cost approach, which can be passed on to consumers," said Amy Niner, Marketing Communications Manager for ACN. The Huntersville, North Carolina-based company has grown into the world's largest direct seller of telecommunications services such as residential and commercial long-distance, local telephone service, dial-up and high-speed DSL Internet service, digital phone service and wireless.

"ACN uses the proven, direct selling business model to provide value and choice to consumers while also providing independent representatives with an opportunity to form their own businesses," she says. "Bypassing traditional marketing methods, ACN's independent representatives use relationship marketing to inform their family and friends of money saving alternatives available on services they are already using. Because traditional marketing methods are not used, representatives are able to pass savings directly on to their customers.

"Plus, through direct selling, ACN keeps prices down by eliminating the high cost of media advertisements, direct mail or outbound telemarketing," Niner adds.

A final benefit of direct selling is the freedom it provides for those people who become associated with one of the growing number of direct selling companies.

"ACN offers complete personal and financial freedom," Niner says. "Independent representatives enjoy the freedom of time; they can work their business when they want to. There are no limitations, and no previous experience is required. With ACN, each individual determines their own worth. And representatives have the satisfaction that comes from saving friends and family money on essential services they're already using every day. Independent representatives can build their organization by introducing friends and family to the ACN opportunity-allowing them to work with people they know and love."

Robinson agrees. "Customers, demonstrators and hostesses all enjoy the benefits of the social and creative outlet that a direct sales model offers," she says. "Customers receive free training and coaching, and hostesses, free product. Demonstrators benefit from the additional income that may be earned at their own level of desired involvement and a flexible schedule. Stampin' Up! benefits from working with a wonderfully dedicated, energetic and enthusiastic group of individuals to promote and sell its products, and the satisfaction of knowing that we are making a difference in thousands of women's lives by supplying business opportunities, a creative and social experience."

"When you are face-to-face with people, you have a wonderful opportunity to tell them how they can earn money," Friedman says. "And this is a very benign presentation. You can't ram it down someone's throat. The tact I take is that 'I'm in the supplemental health business and you may not know what that is but let me explain.' And then I start telling stories."

The success of direct selling-its growth in both revenue and the markets it serves-boils down to finding and filling a need. These virtually limitless needs include those of the people who become distributors or consultants for a company and consumers' need for better products or more personal service. When a company answers the call with a quality product and an opportunity for personal, professional and financial growth, the result is truly a future-for the company and its representatives-without boundaries.

Less is more, says Google

Google ad revenues were not as big as analysts had expected this quarter.

Google did that on purpose They decided to REDUCE their advertising coverage - i.e. show their ads on FEWER pages than they could have. Here's from an intriguing report on their earnings:

"Some of the softness in Google’s advertising revenue, moreover, was self-inflicted. Jonathan Rosenberg, Google’s senior vice president for product management, said that Google had chosen to reduce its advertising coverage — the percentage of Web pages on which it displays advertising — to an all-time low.

That’s a puzzling decision on the surface. Virtually any other company facing slow economic times would be interested in increasing the places in which it could sell ads. It certainly wouldn’t take steps to reduce them.

But Mr. Rosenberg said that Google has no plans to increase its coverage because of its efforts to improve what it calls “ad quality” — the idea that Google should only show ads that users actually like. Mr. Rosenberg said that the company’s co-founder, Larry Page, would like to see even fewer ads.

“Larry often says we would be better off if we showed one ad — the perfect ad,” said Mr. Rosenberg. Mr. Page was not on the conference call to speak for himself.

Where are they looking to increase their income? Yes, but not by MORE ads, no.

Google developed technology that helped increase its revenue from advertising (largely by finding ads that are more interesting to users).

More interesting ads work better for everyone.

Users click more readily, and advertisers are happy to pay because they're getting results and customers. Net result: FEWER but more interesting ads. Wahoo!!!

Next trick: What is an interesting ad?

Hint: the less hype, the better. No one but the most naive people believe those anymore. Mostly wasted clicks followed by your wasted time or wasted samples shipped to people who won't pick up the phone when you call to follow up.

Ads with big and easy income promises are not interesting to folks who are looking for something to throw themselves into.

So what might an interesting ad look like? Samples anyone?

by Kim Klaver

How to get traffic for your blog

My friend Fred, a talented blogger, asked me for advice the other day. Here's a partial answer, with a few apologies to Swift:

1. Use lists.
2. Be topical... write posts that need to be read right now.
3. Learn enough to become the expert in your field.
4. Break news.
5. Be timeless... write posts that will be readable in a year.
6. Be among the first with a great blog on your topic, then encourage others to blog on the same topic.
7. Share your expertise generously so people recognize it and depend on you.
8. Announce news.
9. Write short, pithy posts.
10. Encourage your readers to help you manipulate the technorati top blog list.
11. Don't write about your cat, your boyfriend or your kids.
12. Write long, definitive posts.
13. Write about your kids.
14. Be snarky. Write nearly libelous things about fellow bloggers, daring them to respond (with links back to you) on their blog.
15. Be sycophantic. Share linklove and expect some back.
16. Include polls, meters and other eye candy.
17. Tag your posts. Use del.ico.us.
18. Coin a term or two.
19. Do email interviews with the well-known.
20. Answer your email.
21. Use photos. Salacious ones are best.
22. Be anonymous.
23. Encourage your readers to digg your posts. (and to use furl and reddit). Do it with every post.
24. Post your photos on flickr.
25. Encourage your readers to subscribe by RSS.
26. Start at the beginning and take your readers through a months-long education.
27. Include comments so your blog becomes a virtual water cooler that feeds itself.
28. Assume that every day is the beginning, because you always have new readers.
29. Highlight your best posts on your Squidoo lens.
30. Point to useful but little-known resources.
31. Write about stuff that appeals to the majority of current blog readers--like gadgets and web 2.0.
32. Write about Google.
33. Have relevant ads that are even better than your content.
34. Don't include comments, people will cross post their responses.
35. Write posts that each include dozens of trackbacks to dozens of blog posts so that people will notice you.
36. Run no ads.
37. Keep tweaking your template to make it include every conceivable bell or whistle.
38. Write about blogging.
39. Digest the good ideas of other people, all day, every day.
40. Invent a whole new kind of art or interaction.
41. Post on weekdays, because there are more readers.
42. Write about a never-ending parade of different topics so you don't bore your readers.
43. Post on weekends, because there are fewer new posts.
44. Don't interrupt your writing with a lot of links.
45. Dress your blog (fonts and design) as well as you would dress yourself for a meeting with a stranger.
46. Edit yourself. Ruthlessly.
47. Don't promote yourself and your business or your books or your projects at the expense of the reader's attention.
48. Be patient.
49. Give credit to those that inspired, it makes your writing more useful.
50. Ping technorati. Or have someone smarter than me tell you how to do it automatically.
51. Write about only one thing, in ever-deepening detail, so you become definitive.
52. Write in English.
53. Better, write in Chinese.
54. Write about obscure stuff that appeals to an obsessed minority.
55. Don't be boring.
56. Write stuff that people want to read and share.

Feel free to post your own ideas (satirical or otherwise) in the comments below.

by Seth Godin

Why are some salespeople more successful than others?

Why do some salespeople sell and earn twice as much, five times, ten times as much as others?

The difference is always knowledge and skill! The top salespeople are better at selling than the average producers.

Fortunately, all sales skills are learnable. You can learn any skill you need to achieve any sales goal you can set for yourself.

In fact, you are probably only one skill away from DOUBLING your income!

Give yourself a grade of 1-10 (with 1 being the worst and 10 being the best) on the 10 key result areas of selling described below. This will help you to understand your strengths and weaknesses, and what you can do to rapidly increase your sales and your income.

Successful selling is only possible when you become competent in the following areas. How are you doing?

1. Prospecting: you have a steady stream of qualified prospects that takes up most of your selling time.

a. 80% of your time is spent with pre-qualified prospects.

b. You have a proven system of developing new prospects.



2. Building Rapport and Trust: you have a pleasant, positive personality and easily make friends with prospects and customers.

a. You genuinely like people and they like you in return.

b. Your prospects and customers trust you and believe you, and are happy to see you again.



3. Identifying Needs: you have an organized series of questions to accurately determine the needs of your prospect regarding your product or service.

a. You conduct an effective needs analysis with each prospect.

b. After your needs analysis, you and your prospect are clear about what he/she needs, the budget and the timing for purchase, and the major objections to be answered.


4. Presenting Your Product or Service: you have a clear, proven process of presentation that demonstrates the benefits of buying to your prospect.

a. You begin with the established need and move step-bystep from the general to the specifics of what you sell.

b. At the end of the presentation, your prospect is perfectly clear about what you sell, how much it costs, how it will benefit him and how to proceed.



5. Answering Objections: you have thought through and identified each reason a prospect might give for not buying at the end of your presentation.

a. You have developed a clear and compelling way to answer each objection you receive.

b. Once you have answered a particular objection, the prospect is satisfied and it never comes up again!



6. Closing the Sale: you are skilled and comfortable when it is time to ask the customer to buy, to take action on your offer.

a. You have thought through and prepared your closing words in advance.

b. You recognize buying signals and are prepared to close the sale as soon as it is clear the customer is ready to buy.



7. Getting Resales and Referrals: you have a successful plan to get resales and referrals from each customer.

a. You have several proven referral systems that bring you a "golden chain" of new prospects and customers.

b. You have a "relationship management system" to keep in regular contact with your customers and good prospects.



8. Personal Organizational Skills: you are well organized, efficient, effective and punctual every selling day.

a. You plan and organize your months, weeks, days in advance, and set priorities on the use of your time.

b. You apply the 80/20 Rule to everything you do, and always concentrate on the highest value use of your time.



9. Time and Territory Management: you have a written plan to identify your best markets and prospects, and you work your plan every day.

a. You are clear about your target market, your ideal customer, who he is, where he is, why he buys, when he buys, and what benefits he seeks.

b. You plan your work and work your plan to assure that you are spending the maximum amount of time possible with qualified prospects.



10. Personal and Professional Development: you are continually working on your skills (the outer game) and your personality (the inner game) so you perform at your best.

a. You continually read, listen to audio programs in your car, and attend additional selling seminars and courses.

b. You make lifelong learning and growth a regular part of your personal and business life.

Concentrate on Personal Success

The next time you watch a baseball game, notice how intently the pitcher stares at the catcher before delivering the pitch. Or, when you are at a concert or watching one on television, observe how the performers glue their eyes on the conductor to ensure starting right together. The pitcher and the musicians are using concentration to do exactly what is needed to perform their best. Concentration is one of the keys to success; it is an absolute essential to high performance.

Intense concentration improves your performance and releases the power of your mental potential, no matter what you are doing. Just as you use only a small fraction of your physical abilities, you habitually make use of only a small portion of your brain capacity. You can be reasonably successful when you use only a fraction of your ability, but you can perform even better if you concentrate and tap some of your unused power.

Everyone can improve concentration. Even though concentration begins with a simple decision to concentrate, it takes practice and it may not be easy at first. Take these steps to improve your ability to focus your mental powers and concentrate:

Relax. When you are nervous, worried, or "keyed up," your body cannot perform at its best. Before you begin any important activity, take deep rhythmic breaths until your body is relaxed. Explore other methods of relaxation to discover what works best for you.

Try this concentration exercise. Picture in your mind a blackboard in a classroom with a single number written on it. Concentrate on this number for a while, then imagine beside it another digit, and then add a third. Continue adding digits until you are no longer able to hold together the picture of the new largest number. A book from your local library can give you further suggested exercises for improving your power of concentration.

Learn how to tune out distracting influences. Practice the art of ignoring distracting noises and sights. To begin, try to tune out television commercials, street noises, and other distractions. The ability to eliminate distractions will prove valuable to you when you must perform at your best.

Make concentration a habit. Discipline your mind when you are doing important work. Concentrating on everything you do makes it easier to focus your thoughts on reaching your important goals. Concentration can boost your performance to levels higher than you ever thought possible!

Paul J. Meyer

MLM Goals - How To Set Goals Effectively

MLM Goals - How To Set Goals Effectively

Most Network Marketers are taught to establish goals or visions to give themselves a destination to carry on when the times get tough. Unfortunately, for most the struggle becomes to big, and no matter how important their goals they simply quit before they are realized.

I have been thinking about this recently in my own business, and I have done three things that help me tremendously, so I thought I should share them so that others may benefit.

1. Big Goals - I always start with my biggest goals first. These are goals that I would like to realize in 3 to 5 years. These are important because they let you dream big and these goals give you the freedom to do exactly that.

2. 6-12 Month Goals - I typically do this at the beginning of the year, but do it whenever it makes sense to you. What I do is take a sheet of paper and write down specific goals to be completed during these time periods. Typically these are task oriented or project oriented. So in my particular business it is setting goals for web site traffic, number of new leads per day and products that I would like to develop for my team and customers.

3. Weekly Based Task List - At the start of each week I indentify the imporant tasks I need to accomplish to work towards my 6 to 12 month goals. These tasks are in addition to the normal tasks I do simply to keep my business running from day to day.

When you break you goals down into specific action and short term tasks and goals, it is much easier to keep moving forward towards you “big dream” goals that you will eventually realized by staying on task.

I am reminded of the question “How do you eat an elephant?”…..”one bite at a time!”

Simply by taking small “bites” on a daily basis eventually you will have “eaten” the entire goal - and you will have realized substantial progress in your business.

The 7 Differences Between Successful And Unsuccessful People

Have you ever wondered what the difference between successful and unsuccessful people is?

I'm sure you've seen the comparisons made lots of times in the past and truth is, many avoid the subject simply because it hits a raw nerve.

You see, the majority of us want to be successful in life and crave the opportunity to set ourselves up financially. But less than 5% per cent of people actually achieve it.

So what's the difference? What is it that pushes someone past the point of mediocrity and into an elite group of people who can live life as they dreamed.

As a Renegade Network Marketer or Renegade Professional, the vehicle has been presented to network marketers in no uncertain terms and many have taken the first steps to becoming successful in their business.

But I didn't want to spend too much time in this article extolling the virtues of either. This article is about giving you a wake up call and highlighting some of the differences between the "haves" and "have nots."

Here are the differences:

1. Unsuccessful people are obsessed with ideas but never implement them. In other words, they are gripped by what is known as analysis paralysis. On the other hand, successful people are obsessed with implementation. They don't re-invent the wheel but instead watch successful people and copy them.

2. Unsuccessful people obsess about positive thinking but fail to match it with positive action. Successful people take action to compliment their positiveness. There's an old saying which says..."As you move, shuffle your feet!"

3. Unsuccessful people wait for the right time but it never comes. They want things to be perfect before they act. Successful people take action when the opportunity appears. There is no perfect time other than the present and they know it!

4. Unsuccessful people wait for luck to send them on their way to success and financial freedom. Successful people make their own luck and create their own circumstances in life.

5. Unsuccessful people are afraid to step up the plate. In other words, they don't want to look silly in front of their friends and family. Successful people take risks are aren't worried about whether they are going to look stupid in front of the people they know.

6. Unsuccessful people are easily influenced by family and friends. If they are thinking about poking their head above the crowd all it takes is one cutting comment from a family member and they go to water. Successful people push on no matter what. They surround themselves with successful people and take advice from those who are already successful. They live and die by their own convictions.

7. Unsuccessful people will always believe what they're told. Successful people will always perform their own due diligence and conduct their own research.

How To Attract Network Marketing Prospects

How To Earn A Prospect's Trust

If anyone tells you that network marketing has nothing to do with sales and marketing but is simply an environment of sharing products then you should run a mile!

It takes good training to be successful in MLM and if you have a system in place which both pre-qualifies and helps build trust with your prospect you are half way home to network marketing heaven.

When talking about human relationships, there is no stronger bond between two people than trust. It's a powerful aspect of succeeding in sales and marketing.

Part of getting your prospect's trust involves you thinking and feeling like them. To be able to understand them, you'll virtually need to get inside their heads. At this stage of the relationship, it's not about you and how you perceive yourself but how they view you.

Present yourself as a desperate marketer just trying to get them into your opportunity will only serve to force your prospect to put up the alarm barrier and try to get off the call as soon as possible.

So how do you gain your prospect's trust? By setting yourself up as a solutions provider. You need to invest in your prospect before you even think about inviting them to join your opportunity.

The failure of many distributors in the network marketing business can be measured by this one fact alone. Many are too keen to drag their prospect into their business without at least providing something of value to them before doing so.

One of the best ways to provide value is to simply begin to educate them on network marketing from the outset. By this, we mean presenting yourself as someone who knows what they're talking about.

Put yourself in your prospect's mind and understand what it is they want in life. The reason they have responded to you is because to them, you have the possible solution they're looking for.

If you immediately start acting like a desperate marketer and talk about how great your offer is then your prospect will lose any semblance of respect for you in the first minute of the call.

You need to listen to what the prospect tells you in the first few minutes. Give them information. It's all about giving to them first. That's what investing in a prospect is all about.

In a nutshell, it's called information-based marketing. Remember that.

Get the network marketing system which pre-qualifies and helps build trust with your prospect. Accelerate your Network Marketing Lead Generation today!

http://www.squidoo.com/networkmarketinglead

Do You Know Everything About Achieving Success?

Do you have short-term goals you want to achieve? How about long-term goals? Do you want to be successful in life? Do you have all the answers on how to achieve success? Probably not - most people don’t. Spend a few minutes with these great leaders, and learn what they have to say about achieving success. You just might learn something!

1. Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved. Helen Keller
2. Do not let yourselves be discouraged or embittered by the smallness of the success you are likely to achieve in trying to make life better. You certainly would not be able, in a single generation, to create an earthly paradise. Who could expect that? But, if you make life ever so little better, you will have done splendidly, and your lives will have been worthwhile. Arnold Toynbee
3. Every memorable act in the history of the world is a triumph of enthusiasm. Nothing great was ever achieved without it because it gives any challenge or any occupation, no matter how frightening or difficult, a new meaning. Without enthusiasm you are doomed to a life of mediocrity but with it you can accomplish miracles. Og Mandino
4. Everyone who achieves success in a great venture solved each problem as they came to it. They helped themselves. And they were helped through powers known and unknown to them at the time they set out on their voyage. They kept going regardless of the obstacles they met. Clement Stone
5. Goals are a means to an end, not the ultimate purpose of our lives. They are simply a tool to concentrate our focus and move us in a direction. The only reason we really pursue goals is to cause ourselves to expand and grow. Achieving goals by themselves will never make us happy in the long term; it’s who you become, as you overcome the obstacles necessary to achieve your goals, that can give you the deepest and most long-lasting sense of fulfillment. Anthony Robbins
6. Goals are your personal statements of what you are truly willing to do to achieve what you really want to achieve. Denis Waitley
7. He who has achieved success has worked well, laughed often and loved much. Elbert Hubbard
8. How do you achieve self-mastery? Mastery comes from confidence. Confidence comes from experience. Experience comes from practice. Practice comes from commitment. And commitment comes from vision. Randy Gage
9. If you achieve success, you will get applause, and if you get applause, you will hear it. My advice to you concerning applause is this; enjoy it but never quite believe it. Robert Montgomery
10. If you want to be successful, find someone who has achieved the results you want and copy what they do and you’ll achieve the same results. Anthony Robbins

http://www.launchyourgoals.com

What Is Your Financial IQ?

It’s been 11 years since the publication of Rich Dad Poor Dad. Robert Kiyosaki’s mega-hit best seller not only challenged our preconceptions about money, it cast light on what he says is an antiquated education system that teaches subjects many will never apply in real life, preparing for a world that will never exist.

To say the book ruffled a lot of feathers would be an understatement. But that was the whole point. Kiyosaki wasn’t looking to write just any financial book. There were hundreds of financial books, in his view, that said the same thing. He wanted to let the education system know it was failing in teaching children what they need for financial success. He wanted to shake up parents by telling them some of the most dangerous advice they could give their children was to go to school, get good grades and look for a safe secure job.

This advice was based on the old rules of money when people worked for one company for 30 years and retired with a fat pension. Those days are long gone. With corporate mergers and downsizing happening every month, Robert Kiyosaki says it’s just too risky to play by the old rules. In the end, employees lose and owners and investors win.

Two Dads Two Philosophies
Rich Dad Poor Dad’s monumental success showed that Robert and wife Kim Kiyosaki, co-founders of The Rich Dad Company, were on the right track in their mission to educate and empower people by improving their financial literacy.

Robert’s financial philosophy was honed at a young age when, having been raised by two “dads,” a rich one and a poor one, he had been taught to strive for two different goals. His educated father (his real father) wanted him to go to school and get a cozy corporate job. His rich father (his best friend’s father) told him to own the corporation. Both men were successful in their careers and earned substantial incomes. Yet one struggled financially his entire life. The other would become one of the richest men in Hawaii. One left his family with millions, while the other left unpaid bills. Both men valued education but different courses of study. Both had different views of money—one believed money to be the root of all evil; the other believed the lack of money was the root of all evil.

As a young man having two “fathers,” Kiyosaki realized he needed to be careful about which thoughts and words he adopted as his own. At 9, he decided to listen to and learn from his rich dad about money. And in doing so, his education about money began. His rich dad taught him over a period of 30 years, finishing when he fully understood that money is only one form of power. Financial education is where the real power lies.

Kim Kiyosaki was raised with a “rich dad” philosophy, so her views were similar to Robert’s when they met. Kim’s career started in advertising, working for a top Honolulu agency. By 25, she was running a Honolulu business magazine. A couple years later, she ventured into her own business, a clothing company with national distribution. In 1989, she started a real estate investment career that now controls millions of dollars in property.

Kim joined Robert, her business partner and now husband of 24 years, in teaching entrepreneurial business around the world. That business grew to support 11 offices in seven countries. They sold the business in 1994 and “retired.” But retirement for them was short-lived.

Rich Dad Poor Dad has been on all the best-seller lists for years. Kim has written a best seller, Rich Woman, and Robert has written several others, including Why We Want You to Be Rich with Donald Trump. “Donald has really inspired me. You know, I’m just an ordinary millionaire, and now I’m inspired to reach his billionaire status.” Robert says.

Assets Don’t Make You Rich
Robert Kiyosaki knows well that his success is partly due to his going against conventional wisdom. “When I wrote Rich Dad Poor Dad I told people that your home is not an asset,” he says. “People really criticized me for saying that, but if you look at what is happening today with the mortgage crisis, families are getting wiped out because they can’t afford their house payments.” Experts are saying that in 2008 up to 2 million people will lose their homes. “These are good people—but people who lack the financial education to make good money choices.”

Robert defines financial intelligence this way: If you put money in your savings account, the bank is going to pay you 3 percent. But the problem is inflation is running at 3 percent so your financial intelligence is 0.

“You can lose money on anything,” says Robert, who as a young adult began investing in gold. Although he didn’t make much money, gold taught him many priceless lessons. He realized it’s not the assets—real estate, stocks, mutual funds, businesses or money—that make you rich. It’s the information, knowledge, wisdom, and know-how—one’s financial intelligence—that makes a person wealthy.

Increase Wealth: Start a Business
With companies downsizing, the failing dollar and higher cost of living, many families feel the pinch. “The need to earn more money has never been greater than right now,” Robert says. For many, he says, “the No. 1 thing people can do to increase their wealth is to start a part-time business. They can start a small home-based business, an Internet company or network marketing business. The key is to start small and learn everything about the business.”

Most people have enough financial intelligence to make money, Robert says. One reason they aren’t able to make more money is because they fail to realize “it’s the process that makes them rich, not the money. Many other people fail to become rich because they value a steady paycheck rather than going through the learning process of becoming financially smarter and richer. They are held back by the fear of being poor,” he says.

“In my second book, The Cashflow Quadrant, I talk about the four types of people in the business world. It’s targeted to people who are ready to make changes in their lives—changes far greater than simply going from job to job—and to start building wealth.”

In 1984, early in their marriage, Robert and Kim were trying to get their business off the ground. Robert attended seminars and studied all the time. But they were struggling financially. “We were homeless for a period of time, even sleeping in our beat-up old brown Toyota. And everybody kept saying to us, ‘Why don’t you just go get a job?’ or ‘Why don’t you put the dream on hold?’ ” Kim says. “The easiest thing would have been to quit, but we didn’t quit.”

Taking risks and making mistakes are essential to learning, Robert says. “I take on risk because it forces me to get smarter. When I buy an apartment house, it forces me to mitigate and minimize that risk—to get smarter, to study more, to know what I’m doing.”

Reaching Out
Generosity is a big key to the Rich Dad philosophy. Robert and Kim are committed to supporting organizations such as the Boys & Girls Club of Phoenix. Instead of giving money away, they are giving the tools to teach. And they are teaching these kids in an unconventional way—with a board game. “Games like our Cashflow Quadrant are a powerful way to teach anyone financial education—especially kids—because they learn by doing,” Kim says. “These kids were so excited to learn and the progress they made in just a short time in terms of learning about money was simply amazing.”

The staff invited the children’s parents to come play the game, and now they are learning the basics of finance, accounting and investing. “That’s really what our message is all about,” Kim says. “The Rich Dad philosophy is not about holding a person’s hand and telling them how to do it. We are all about giving people the tools and the education to go out and do what they want to do. We are not about saving people. We are about enabling and empowering people.”


Todd Eliason - Success Magazine

Winning with Sales

The true measure of the success of any business is the bottom line—sales minus cost of sales. That's about as bare bones as you can get when looking at it. Managing the cost of sales is an analytical process. It's pretty much black and white. Managing sales, however, is a different matter.

While certain aspects of the selling process can be analyzed, there is always one factor in every selling situation that can cause you to toss your statistics out the window. That one factor is people. Selling is a people business and you need people skills in order to succeed. People
skills include:

1. How to make a positive initial contact with potential clients

2. What to say to peak their interest in your product or service

3. The right words to say to get a confirmed appointment to demonstrate your product or service

4. Putting people at ease, getting them to like you, trust you and want to listen to you

5. Asking the right questions to learn whether clients truly need and will benefit from your offering

6. The words and actions necessary to present your product or service in the best manner for each client

7. What to say and do to answer any concerns raised by potential clients

8. How to ask for the sale

9. How to ask for referrals from every sale (and non-sale)

10. The implementation of strategies to gain loyalty and future business

Don’t let this list of ten overwhelm you. They flow together so naturally in most selling situations that, if you were watching someone who has learned them well, you might only pick up on two or three. In fact, you might want to review this list and keep it in mind the next time you find yourself on the client end of a selling situation. See if you can figure out which area the salespersonhandles best.

With each of these skill areas there are right and wrong approaches. The fun aspect of selling is that sometimes changing just a word or two can make a huge difference in your success rate.

Make Selling Your Hobby
As with any hobby such as gardening, building model aircraft or collecting, you find yourself attracted to information about that area. As you get involved with your own business, make selling your hobby. Pay attention to how others in your type of business work with people. Consider how you feel about each selling transaction you encounter throughout your day. You'll be amazed at how much you can learn just by observation.

Perhaps a store clerk does or says something that makes you feel good about shopping there again. What was it? Was it the way
they held the product? Did they hand it to you to get you involved with it? Did they compliment you on your selections? Is it something you can use in your business? Consider carrying a small notebook to jot down thoughts or ideas that come your way through such observations. You might be surprised to find out how much you already know about people skills. You just didn't know it was a skill.

Dispelling the “Natural Born Salesperson Myth”
Read this section carefully. Read it more than once if you must. There is no such thing as a natural born salesperson. No woman in the delivery room looked at her newborn child and said, “We've got a champion sales-person here!” Everyone starts out with pretty much the same abilities. Where you go from there depends on a lot of factors. However, what you become in life boils down to what skills you master along the way.

Selling has been called both an art and a science. The title doesn't really matter. What matters is that selling skills are there to be learned. Like the skill of riding a bicycle, it just takes practice.

Another aspect of this myth needs to be addressed. It is that in order to succeed in sales, you must have “the gift of gab.” While it's true that you must not be afraid to talk with people, it's even more important that you learn to listen. The human body is amazing. We have been given two eyes, two ears and one mouth. They should be used in that proportion. Learn to listen and observe twice as much as you talk and you will succeed in sales.

Introvert vs. Extrovert in Sales
It doesn't matter what your current disposition is. Both introverts and extroverts can do well in sales. The major difference between the two types of people is that extroverts tend to be interesting while introverts are more interested.

There's a story told in Dale Carnegie's book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, about a man who was invited to a party where he only knew the hosts. During the evening, he mingled with many of the other attendees. Afterward, the guests commented to the hosts on what a wonderful person this new guest was. When asked what they found so interesting about him, the guests realized they hadn't learned much about him at all. He had made them feel important by getting them to talk about themselves. He was interested.

The interesting person entertains. The interested person lets others do the talking. The lesson to learn from this is that you can benefit from a little of each disposition. In sales, you want what you say to have an impact and in some cases achieving that impact requires a bit of entertaining.

However, if you keep your focus on asking questions about the clients' needs, what they like about what they've seen so far, what they'd like to know more about, and so on, they'll end up telling you just what they want to own.

From there, it’s just a matter of handling the paperwork, scheduling delivery or getting their investment information and final approval to make the sale.

Learning to Sell
Learning to sell isn't difficult. You already sell yourself every day to your loved ones and acquaintances. You sell others in your circle on where to have lunch, what movie to see and how to spend your recreation time. If you have influence over children, you are selling your values to them all the time. You just haven't paid attention thus far to the individual skills that make up the selling process.

Becoming a successful professional at selling takes a little more effort than it took you to learn to live with the Golden Rule. In selling, rather than treating people as you would like to have them treat you, you want to treat people as they want to be treated. Every action, gesture and word should make them feel important. It should tell them that you are there to serve their needs. You're not the stereotypical salesperson who is only out to get their money. With an attitude of servitude, your business will grow exponentially.

Tom Hopkins

Communicate Authentically with Others

Authentic communicators are people who project open-mindedness, understanding, and confidence. They reach their personal and professional goals by creating worthwhile ideas, by being steadfast to their own principles, and by motivating and involving others. Authentic communicators understand themselves, and they understand what motivates others. They take into consideration basic communication styles and are willing to be flexible with their style to meet their goals, as well as to help others meet their goals.

The most successful communicators succeed by developing their own potential, not by trying to imitate others. Being authentic involves being your best, truest self - warm, open, and human. Authenticity creates a climate of trust because it promises others the freedom to act without a need to build protective walls. This positive atmosphere establishes rapport, cements relationships, and enhances communication. The actions of authentic communicators are in tune with their words, and they have no need to say, "Do what I say, not what I do."

A realistic grasp of their own capabilities and a recognition of their limitations is another trait common to authentic communicators. Accurate self-assessment of your personality in general and of your specific communication skills is invaluable.

When you know your strengths, you know how to capitalize on them; when you acknowledge your weaknesses, you can work on them. You avoid the trap of clouding your communication with irrelevant and distracting attempts to hide weaknesses - because you already acknowledge them and are taking action to overcome them. This self-understanding and acceptance allows the authentic communicator to be spontaneous and confident. When conveying information and when listening, the authentic communicator is free to not only share honestly, but also to view and interpret situations and other people with confidence - without walls of defensiveness or paranoia.

In addition to holding a confident self-image, authentic communicators hold positive regard for others. They believe that other people possess great potential and that others want to cooperate. They give others "the benefit of the doubt." They avoid attempting to mold people in their own image. Instead, they allow others to use their unique strengths and styles to communicate for best results. Authentic communicators encourage people to grow by helping them develop their hidden talents and their full potential.

People are the wellspring of productivity; dealing with people in integrity and authenticity is good from both a human and a business standpoint. Begin today to become an authentic communicator!

Paul J. Meyer

Today's Thought : Tragedy and Suffering

It is important we keep our eye on the ball. We are fasting (abstaining from, GIVING UP) wrong ways of thinking. That means there are certain mindsets and beliefs in our heads, that we have to eliminate. They are toxic and poisonous to the victorious life we desire to live. To keep thinking the same things, and expect our lives to change, is absurd.


Today's thought that we're fasting from has to do with tragedy and suffering. When something bad happens such as yesterday's college shooting or last week's deadly tornados, it's easy for fear to creep in, and to think we are open game or sitting ducks for Satan or twisted people to strike at any time.

It's wrong to think: Something bad might happen to me or my family.

DO NOT open the door to the expectation of evil. Your mind may argue with this, but that's why we're going to fast from this thought. Of course, WE MUST have compassion, prayer, and practical support for those who have suffered, but we cannot allow what has happened to create our expectations.

Job CONTINUALLY THOUGHT something bad might happen to his family. And then it did. He said, "What I have feared has come upon me". (Job 3:25)

Lets take this thought captive. How?

1. BELIEVE God's promise: Psalm 91:10 - No evil shall befall me, nor shall any plague come near my tent. (The Message translation: "Evil can't get close to you, harm can't get through the door. He ordered His angels to guard you wherever you go.")

2. THINK within yourself: "No weapon formed against me shall prosper" (Isaiah 54:17).

3. FILL your mind and heart with this, over and over today, until it starts coming out of your mouth.

4. KNOW that God brings His Word to pass, when we believe it. Jeremiah 1:12 says "I am watching over My word to perform it."

5. EXPECT something good to happen to you and your family.

I want to leave you with this good thought today:

There is no stopping the man or woman who is set free from wrong thinking!


In His Love,
Gregory Dickow
http://fromtheinsideout.us

So, You Want to Start Your Own Business?

In this age of rapid economic expansion, it’s currently easier than ever to start your own successful business. People from different backgrounds, with varying degrees of limitations, have all started and built thriving businesses. And they’ve enjoyed varying levels of success by focusing on three key components.
First, you must find the right business for you. Next, you need to be passionate about the business you choose. And lastly, you must be willing to dedicate time and effort to the business before realizing any fruits from your labor. Follow these basic principles, and you, too, can be an entrepreneurial success story.

Seventy-four percent of all self-made millionaires in America today made their fortune by building their own successful businesses. And here’s an important point: Many of these people never owned a business previously. You do not need to have experience in entrepreneurship. You just need to learn everything necessary about your particular business and then apply it as you go along.

Confucius said, “A journey of a thousand leagues begins with a single step.” The most important single quality in starting and building your own successful business is courage. Like the starship Enterprise, you have to have the courage to go where you’ve never gone before. No matter how many other people have started and built businesses, when you embark on this journey, you are going to feel like you are the first person who has ever done it. And, in your terms, you are.

What Does It Take to Start Your Own Business in America?
Of course, if you have a clear idea of the kind of business you want to be in, that’s a great place to start. But if you aren’t sure, how do you fi nd one? There are a hundred different ways. But the most important is to get into something you really like, enjoy and care about. Passion is the critical factor in determining business success. As Peter Drucker said, “Whenever you see something getting done, you fi nd a ‘monomaniac’ with a mission.” Every single business needs a dedicated champion who lives and breathes the success of that business and enterprise. Without a champion, a person who is passionately committed to making that business successful, who cares deeply about the business, the products, services and the customers, the business will defi nitely fail.

This is why you have to pick something you care about and enjoy. Many people start businesses selling products they particularly like using themselves. Others start businesses because they are passionate about the technology or the science involved. Some start businesses as outgrowths of their hobbies or their interests in life. Look around you at the parts of your life you enjoy the most. Think about the products and services you have the strongest feelings about.

In Search of Financial Freedom
Many people think the reason for starting a business is to make a lot of money. The primary reason people turn to owning their own business, however, is for the sense of personal freedom it offers. Many entrepreneurs don’t initially earn as much after taxes as they would as an employee. However, they are their own bosses. They are free. And this is worth more to them than the security of a corporate environment.

Whatever your motivations, if you’ve ever thought of starting your own business, you should just get on with it, right now. You can start small, with a direct selling business, for instance. Start working out of your house, offering a product or service part time, in the evenings and on weekends. You have to get
your entrepreneurial experience and there is no other way to get it except by taking the plunge and learning as you go along.

Human beings are wonderful in the sense that they are “learning organisms.” You learn at an incredible rate, depending upon the amount of experiences you subject yourself to. Most entrepreneurs who become successful have many months and even years of experience as entrepreneurs under their belts. They have
been through every up and down, every twist and turn that is possible for a small-business person to experience. As a result, they become wiser and they make fewer mistakes. They do more of the right things and they not only earn more, but also hold on to a greater percentage of their profi ts. The cumulative result over a lifetime is financial success and independence.

Explore and Investigate
Once you have decided you want to experience the rewards of small business success, your job is to explore every single detail of the business. Leave nothing to chance; investigate before you step; talk to lots of people and get lots of input. Your job is to minimize, reduce and eliminate risk wherever possible in the pursuit of profit, so the profi ts are real and the losses are minimal or non-existent. You should plan to grow by bootstrapping. This means you start small and your business grows out of your commitment to learning and the sales generated from your belief in the product or service you offer. One of the advantages of a direct selling business is that it enables you to gradually develop the skills and abilities you will need as your organization grows.

When you start your new business, the most valuable assets you have are your energy, imagination, character and discipline. It is your ability to get in there and do the work to create the results. It is your ability to make the key decisions and to get out there face to face with the customers and make the sales. It is the ability to follow through on your commitments and promises. Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, “A great institution is the length and shadow of a single man.” Well, even a small organization or company is the length and shadow of a single person. You are the business. The business is you. The business can never be more or less, better or worse, than you are, on an hour-by-hour, minute-by-minute basis. The business is really a mirror image of your character and ability. Your business tells you and the world who you really are.

What Are the Chances I Will Be Successful?
According to studies by the major accounting firms, investigating the finances and fortunes of tens of thousands of businesses over the years, the statistics are consistent and usually unavoidable. It takes about two years after a business starts up for the business to break even. During that two year period, the business will suffer mostly losses that will have to be made up from the energy and resources of the entrepreneur.

In years three and four, the business will make a profit, and most of those profi ts will go into paying back the bills and debts that were incurred in the first two years. After four years, the business will start to break into the clear and the entrepreneur will start to make some good money. It is only after the seventh year of entrepreneurship that the business starts to really be successful and the entrepreneur begins to enjoy the good life that is possible for a highly paid person in America. Remember, most of the highest-paid people in America are entrepreneurs who have passed the seven-year point in building and running their own businesses.

When you decide to start your own business, you can do it impulsively because of a significant emotional experience or event in your life, like the loss of a job or the appearance of an opportunity, or you can do it slowly and deliberately by spending several weeks or months in study and preparation. In either case, investigate before you invest your time and money. I learned from a very wealthy man many years ago that it is much easier to get into something than it is to get out of it. It is much more important to spend lots of time investigating, in advance, before committing time and resources to a particular business venture. This will do more to assure your long-term success than anything else.

You’ve heard of the 80/20 Rule. This tenet says that 20 percent of what you do will account for 80 percent of your results. There is also a 20/80 Rule that says the 20 percent of the time you spend in planning and evaluating at the beginning will be worth 80 percent of the results you eventually experience.

When most people think of owning their own business, they often think of one word, franchise. Buying into a franchise is a proven, simple plan. Unfortunately, with franchise fees ranging from $20,000 to $1 million or more, it makes the “average” franchise a difficult start-up business for the “average” person.

Let me give you an example: Let’s say you decided to open a very popular, successful fast-food hamburger franchise. In the year 2000, the cost to open that franchise ranged between $400,000 and $1.4 million. Most franchisors require a minimum of $175,000 of “non-borrowed personal resources” for an individual to purchase a franchise. “Non-borrowed personal resources” are liquid assets such as securities, bonds and real estate equity other than your house.
There is an additional franchise fee of $45,000, and a percentage of your gross revenue (not profit) is paid to the company every month. On top of that, one-third of all franchises fail. You can become a freelancer or independent contractor and have the freedom to take the jobs you want, when you want. You handle your marketing, negotiating and revenue collecting. Most independent contractors spend about 90 percent of their time running the business and about 10 percent of their time making money. They often say they don’t own a business at all; the business actually owns them!

You could open up your own shop or specialty store if you wanted to make more money. You could turn your hobby or passion into a successful venture. But be sure to allow enough for the overhead cost for rent, advertising, liability insurance and employees. Most store owners work 6 or 7 days a week, opening the doors in the morning and locking them at night.

You, Too, Can Do What More Than 13 Million Have Done Direct selling is another possible avenue for starting a business. You can begin in many direct selling businesses for very little or absolutely nothing. The average cost to get into a direct selling business is very low, under $500. Do your homework. Of course, you also have the advantages of not carrying inventory, investing in product development costs, setting up operations, or developing marketing plans and materials. When you start a direct selling business, the company takes care of most, if not all, of the costs typically associated with starting your own business. Essentially, you are free to begin selling your new company’s product or service immediately.

There are many outstanding direct selling companies in America today. Unfortunately, there are quite a few fly-by-night direct selling companies as well. But here’s the catch: Everything that applies to starting your own business, in terms of business planning, selling, budgeting, projecting, and investing many months and even years, applies to building a successful direct selling business. If you are not prepared to invest three to five years building your business, don’t get in it in the first place.

The greatest trap for would-be entrepreneurs in America is the lure of get-rich-quick schemes, easy money, something-for-nothing ideas that are advertised and promoted everywhere. There is within the psyche of most young people a passionate desire to shortcut the process of success by finding a quick, easy way to jump the line and get to the head of the class without paying the full price in terms of hard work. Make the decision this is not for you. Refuse to look for or listen to any get-rich-quick schemes. Walk away. The very act of looking for something for nothing can be fatal to your future.

Once you decide on a new business, remember the primary sources of value in America today are time and knowledge. Time refers to the speed at which you can deliver your product or service to your customers. Knowledge refers to the expertise you put into your product or service.

By starting your new business at home, you can enjoy specific financial and tax benefits. Find out what they are. Be perfectly correct in all your financial dealings with everyone in your financial life: your bankers, your suppliers, your customers and tax people. Remember, life is very long and everything you do financially follows you for years and years.

There has never been a better time to achieve financial independence by starting your own business than today. Anything that anyone else has done, and especially something that millions of other people have done, you can do as well, and probably even better. You can piggyback on the knowledge and experience of hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs who have put their best ideas and insights into books, tapes and courses. You can become one of the most successful businesspeople in America by simply doing what others have done before you. There are no limits, except the limits you place on your own imagination.

Brian Tracy