Some Great Advice For All Business Owners

Warning - This is a long post but really worth reading....

We've all heard the best way to increase our network marketing, direct sales, or home party plan business is to talk to 5 new people each and every day. This is great advice, but mainly on the surface.


This advice doesn't allow or take into account how this makes us feel.

Remember, how we feel is our starting point for everything we do.

When we're actually trying to fit those 5 new contacts into a schedule which is already full with caring for our kids, tending to our partners, acting as chauffeur, pet care provider, house cleaner, chief cook and designated dish washer, volunteer superstar, and still managing a full-time job outside of the home . . .

Please!!. . . Help me find a shortcut!

Another thing, if we've stuck with the 5-contacts-a-day idea long enough, we're likely to catch ourselves shoving a business card into a fellow volunteer's hand and thinking . . . great, one down. And this is on a good day! On a bad day, our goal of five contacts per day becomes so overwhelming we either vow we'll start tomorrow. . . or we end up talking to no one.

Again, 5-contacts-a-day makes sense, but only on the surface. In practice, literally making five new relationships every single day can't normally be sustained by the average home party plan network marketer. When we try to implement and maintain this strategy, it becomes burdensome. We start to feel stressed and also feel like we don't have what it takes to be successful in direct sales and home party plan. It probably goes without saying feelings like these are counter productive to building a successful business.

So we'd like to suggest a shortcut, or a more sensible alternative to the common advice of . . . talking to five new people each day.

At The Mind Aware, we know lasting success comes only from methods which are easy to implement, easy to maintain, and leave us stress free and relaxed, confident, feeling good, and feeling like we're making progress with our home businesses.


. . . so instead of making 5 new relationships each day our objective, let's simplify our goal and make one meaningful connection each day.

Ideally this would be great if each new meaningful connection would be someone we meet throughout our day, but this connection can also come from a former home party host, a special customer, or a potential team member. It can be in person or on the phone. It's the age old debate . . . quality vs. quantity.

Quality, meaningful connections always pay off longer term. When our awareness or focal point is geared toward making quality connections, we'll see results much faster than if we'd stuck with old school thinking or the "throw enough stuff against the wall" method.

In the process of simplifying things, we're going to eliminate a whole lot of extra calling and, more importantly, save ourselves valuable time.

So what, then, constitutes a meaningful, quality connection? Obviously the answer here is very subjective and will vary from person-to-person, but here are some guidelines:

* We feel "present" when we're speaking. We don't feel rushed. We're taking time to really listen to the other person.

* Our primary goal in the discussion is to connect with the other person on some level. We're always aware that we're developing a relationship, rather than trying to sell someone something.


* That being said, we're still conscious that in order for it to become a truly meaningful connection for us . . . it must lead to real business. Talking to the person about their daughter's wedding may build the connection but making sure the conversation always leads to discussions about our home party businesses and ideally how our businesses could benefit their lives . . . makes the connection meaningful.

* Building our businesses means new business. Talking to a former party host may count because she may book another party or introduce us to new party hosts. But talking to current team members doesn't count because while it may be meaningful, it likely doesn't lead to new business.

Remember, we're only trying to have one meaningful conversations each day. How simple, right?

Also, when our main focal point is connection, other people will take notice of us. Most people notice when a person has genuine interest in them and they will be more apt to listen to us when we talk about how our business will impact their lives if we're sincerely interested in making a quality connection.

Making our follow up calls with customers, hostesses, and potential team members becomes easier because all we're looking for is one meaningful connection. We're not trying to call 50 people a night. We're not setting a time frame. We're just saying to ourselves that we're calling only to make this one meaningful connection with a person who will help to build our businesses.

Imagine how the face of our network marketing home party plan businesses would change if our primary goal was to have one, just one, meaningful conversation every single day?

Think about it . . . at the end of the year, if we've we have 365 of these meaningful conversations under our belt . . . we've built 365 relationships with 365 people who will become passionate about our businesses.

Believe me, if we can do just that one thing . . . one meaningful connection a day . . . our businesses will . . . BOOM!
Our goal of one meaningful conversation per day lessens our load and saves us a lot of time in the process. Saving time is crucial to getting our businesses financially thriving. And finding a shortcut to operating or running a network marketing home party plan business . . . makes us feel good.


And we all know feeling good is the quickest path to a successful business.

"Dana Wilde is founder of The Mind Aware, at http://www.themindaware.com. The Mind Aware is dedica"ted to helping network marketers, direct sales people, and party plan entrepreneurs attain success in their businesses quickly, simply, and to have fun doing it."

Hope you enjoyes this quick and powerful tip,
Julie