Brilliant Compensation

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Dr. King and Tim Sales

Tony Robbins Understanding How The Mind Works

How to shape your destiny...it all begins with a thought!

Watch your thoughts, for they become words. Choose your words, for they become actions. Understand your actions, for they become habits. Study your habits, for they will become your character. Develop your character, for it becomes your destiny!" People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered; Forgive them anyway. If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives; Be kind anyway. If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies; Succeed anyway. If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you; Be honest and frank anyway. What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight; Build anyway. If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous; Be happy anyway. Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough; Give the world the best anyway. You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God; It was never between you and them. Live today as if its your last day. Live for God and never dwell on the past. Pray for the negative people and embrace the positive ones. Associate with the elite, then dominate them. Never let fear control you. Let others fear you. Brace for the surface, and indulge in the heart. Infiltrate others emotions and utilize them to your advantage... Success is Yours!!

How to have Your Best Year Ever

Tony Robbins explains the story of Sylvester Stallone

In case you missed "The View"

Corporate America's New Salesforce!!!

Despite the sputtering economy, independent contractors are reenergizing the U.S. retail industry through the art of direct selling.

Robust cash flow. An army of salespeople. Loyal customers. Minimal overhead. The ability to bypass the relentless demands of traditional mass retailing. Those are just some of the attributes of direct-sales companies, which rely on independent contractors to sell everything from lipstick to long-distance service directly to customers.

It's no wonder, then, that such major players as Berkshire Hathaway and Binney and Smith have recently entered the world of direct selling. "I think it's the most effective form of selling in the world," says Roger Barnett, whose Activated Holdings, the private investment company of a highly successful family, recently signed a letter of intent to buy Unicity Network, a seller of nutritional supplements based in Orem, Utah.

Call it the age of direct selling. With its emphasis on personal, one-on-one relationships between distributor and customer, convenience, and a high degree of consumer education, the industry may be tailor-made for today's consumer and company. The result: The industry, with U.S. sales of $28.7 billion in 2002, up 7.5% from the year before, has become a magnet for both corporate behemoths lured by its efficiencies and dozens of entrepreneurs attracted by the lower cost of market entry. At the same time, the industry continues to offer a unique blend of empowerment and inspiration for the 46 million distributors operating around the world. Says Neil Offen, president of the Direct Selling Association (DSA): "The industry has come of age."



Yet the public image of direct-selling companies is largely negative. Studies by the DSA show that many consumers don't trust the industry. What's more, unethical players still exist. Some 25 years ago, so-called cooling off laws put an end to the use by salespeople of high-pressure tactics, by giving consumers three business days to cancel any purchase at home of more than $25. But they didn't address another fraudulent practice pyramid schemes, which require that distributors make substantial investments in products before signing on, without giving them their money back if they leave. To address these issues, the DSA has launched a major image-enhancement and anti pyramid scheme campaign (see "A Principled Approach to Business," page S16). "Since we operate mostly as guests in people's homes, we should adhere to the highest of ethical standards," says Offen.

Proponents of direct selling view the public's skepticism as a natural part of the development of any retail channel. Direct selling as we know it today hasn't been around for all that long. It really got its big boost in the '40s and '50s, when Tupperware Corp. refined the party-plan method and made Tupperware parties a part of the lexicon. "Every form of retailing, including the first department store in Paris, has been controversial, and eventually became a valid, acceptable form of commerce," says Barnett. "In a similar way, direct selling has evolved."

Barnett should know. Earlier this year, he agreed to buy Unicity from Royal Numico, with the intention of turning the company into a "multibillion-dollar player." By doing so, he joined a host of other major corporations that also recently entered the area. Last year, for example, Warren Buffett's biggest purchase was The Pampered Chef, a kitchenware supplier based in Addison, Ill. Hallmark's Binney and Smith is launching its own direct-selling company, called Big Yellow Box by Crayola. Unilever plans to start a direct-sales firm to sell cosmetics in South Africa. Other companies already in direct selling range from AOL Time Warner (parent of FORTUNE's publisher) and Sara Lee to the Body Shop and the Virgin companies.

Still, the backbone of the industry remains smaller players and entrepreneurs companies like Country Bunny Bath & Body, based in Nixa, Mo. The company, which sells soaps and gels, was started three years ago by husband and wife Ron and Nancy Bogart. Their story is typical. A full-time mother at home with three children under the age of 10, Nancy Bogart decided she needed an outlet. She started attending crafts fairs to sell her home-grown soap and bath products. The response was so positive that she realized she had stumbled onto something big. With the help of five other stay-at-home mothers, she started making products in her living room. On the advice of a friend, she decided to adopt the direct-selling method, in part, says Ron Bogart, "because she saw how this could benefit the sort of stay-at-home mom she was." The company has now recruited about 3,700 distributors and expects more than $5 million in revenues this year.

For Country Bunny, as well as many other companies large and small, one key ingredient to success is the compensation system. Most direct-selling businesses now employ a multilevel system, in which distributors earn money on their own sales in addition to those of people they recruit (called the "downline") and individuals brought in by their personal recruits. That's different from the single-level approach, in which you only make money on your own sales. In 1990, about 20% of DSA members in the U.S. used the multilevel plan; today, it's about 80%.

Avon Products, the New York-based beauty company, put a significant focus on multilevel compensation four years ago; thanks in part to that change, last year sales rose 4%, to $6.2 billion, and profits were $534 million, an increase of 20%. "Before, if you wanted to earn more, you sold more," says Brian Connolly, president of Avon-North America. "Now we can offer a tremendous earning opportunity. Multilevel marketing is at the center of the transformation of Avon."

At the same time, of course, no two company's compensation plans are alike. For example, Nu Skin Enterprises, a seller of hair, body, and skin-care products and nutritional supplements based in Provo, Utah, allows its 550,000 distributors to make money on six successive generations of recruits, while many others only allow three. Even companies using the single-level system don't use a one-size-fits-all approach. At Home Interiors & Gifts, a Dallas-based company that sells products for the home and employs a single-level plan, 3,000 of the 80,000 reps are licensed trainers; that means they earn money from sales made by people they trained.

To keep up with changing times, some of the more established companies are making other changes as well. To address consumers' time-starved lives, Tupperware, for example, recently reduced its parties from three hours to one hour and 15 minutes and, to rev up its image, introduced such innovations as "decadent and delicious" chocolate parties. Four years ago, Avon embarked on a major campaign to transform its image, stepping up R&D, increasing advertising, introducing new health and wellness products such as nutritional supplements and stair steppers, and repositioning itself to be what it calls the "company for women." This year it plans to launch "Mark," a new line of products for 16- to 24-year-old women. "We're making Avon more relevant to the next generation of women," says Connolly.

The Industry's Lure
What exactly are the benefits of direct selling? For one thing, it's cheap to enter. Distributors, who go by a range of titles depending on the company, are independent contractors conducting business largely in customers' homes, so overhead is minimal. Plus "there are no retailers or wholesalers to nurture," says Thomas Wotruba, emeritus professor of marketing at San Diego State University. The result: a lower cost to acquire new customers. Greg Provenzano, president of ACN Inc., in Huntersville, N.C., which sells telecommunications services, says his company's cost of bringing in new customers is 50% to 75% less than in telephone companies selling through more traditional methods. Another result: Companies take in 45 cents to 50 cents on the dollar that they sell. "These companies are cash machines," says Offen.

What's more, companies don't need big advertising budgets to push products and build a brand; instead, they rely on the powers of persuasion of thousands of distributors dealing directly with potential customers. "In our industry, you might spend $100 million on advertising and only get ten customers," says Joe Mitchell, CEO of Excel Telecommunications Inc., a Dallas-based seller of telecommunications services. "But with our system there's no guesswork. We're spending our advertising dollars on commissions."

Consider Fridge Smart, a product to store fruits and vegetables that Tupperware introduced in 1999, after working with agronomists at the University of Florida for two years to develop it. "We were able to start selling that product within two weeks of introducing it to the market," says CEO Rick Goings. "All without any advertising budget at all." It's now among Tupperware's top ten selling products.

In fact, the ability to introduce new products is one of the key benefits to direct selling. In today's crowded retail environment, it's become a Herculean task even for the biggest companies to convince retailers to carry innovative products. "If you can get in the store, salespeople still might not have a clue your product is even on the shelf," says Truman Hunt, president and CEO of Nu Skin Enterprises. The industry is filled with examples of innovations that would most likely never have been accepted in a traditional retail environment. Earl Tupper, who invented Tupperware and started the company in 1946, turned to direct selling when he had trouble convincing regular retailers to carry his products. When Forrest Shaklee, a nutritional supplement pioneer and founder of the Shaklee Corp., tried to sell stores on the value of supplements, he mostly got the cold shoulder; it was, after all, the era of synthetic products. So in 1956 he decided a direct-selling force able to educate consumers about his product was the only way to go.

It's that educational component, the process of explaining and demonstrating products in a way virtually impossible in other retail methods, that gives companies a uniquely effective, hands-on way to sell products. Distributors spend anywhere from one to four hours sitting down with customers, not only discussing their products' attributes but literally teaching how to use them.

Case in point is Creative Memories, based in St. Cloud, Minn. It sells materials for putting together photo albums. But in fact company distributors do a lot more than that. They run two-hour classes in people's homes in which they go over every step, from adhering photos to the page to writing comments by each picture, a process they call journaling. At the end of the meeting, customers leave with two completed album pages. "People are afraid their handwriting isn't good enough, but we teach them they're creating memories that will last," says Heidi Everett, community relations director. "If they put the album in a closet after we've gone, we haven't done our job." The upshot: Sales of the ten-year-old company are over $300 million.
All that explaining also helps companies get higher price points. "When consumers shop for products in stores, price is what they're looking for," says Tupperware's Goings. "But customers don't think something is expensive once you explain what it is and what it does." Richard Bizzaro, CEO of Unicity, points to a nutritional supplement called Visutein, aimed at eye care. Introduced in 2001, it includes a higher-than-usual amount of a vital—and costly—ingredient, leutein, and sells for a whopping $49.99. "You could never put that on a shelf at that price," he says.

"But with direct selling, we can explain to customers why it's important for the product's efficacy to include that ingredient and why the product is so expensive." The product is one of the company's top sellers.

Customer Loyalty
Ultimately, distributors are able to develop the kind of one-on-one, intimate relationships with customers that most retailers would kill for. "It's the ultimate goal, the purest form of sale," says Barnett of Activated Holdings. The result is a kind of mass customization, as companies are able to tailor their messages down to the level of the individual consumer. In some cases companies are using technology to further refine that process. What's more, thanks to the strength of these relationships, customers stick around.

"You get tremendous brand loyalty and repeat business," says Avon's Connolly. That's especially useful in such industries as telecommunications, where customer loyalty is particularly fickle. Customers of ACN stay 30% to 60% longer than those of competitors, according to Provenzano. "We keep customers for more time because of these relationships," he says. That loyalty has helped fuel company growth; revenues for last year were $280 million, up 31%, and this year Provenzano expects sales to increase to $460 million.

Those close interactions also provide an immediate mechanism for feedback, a grassroots-level forum for determining customer reactions, complaints, and desires—and acting on them. "They're like a series of focus groups," says Tupperware's Goings. As a result, companies often find out quickly about problems or questions that need to be addressed, and can respond swiftly. For example, Nu Skin recently introduced a new kind of toothpaste. Almost immediately, however, distributors reported that customers were complaining about the packaging; the lid, it turned out, was next to impossible to remove. The company responded right away and rejiggered the design to make it easier to open.

"We've done everything from reformulate products to change packaging design," says Hunt. "And if we mess up, we hear about it very, very quickly." Many companies also have institutionalized methods for gathering and acting on this information; senior field directors at Tupperware, for example, meet every six weeks to toss around ideas and provide field reports.

A Passionate Corps D'elite
Perhaps the most unusual feature, however, is the development of a committed sales force. "People are truly passionate," says Lori Bush, president of the Nu Skin division of Nu Skin Enterprises. That passion comes in large part from the opportunities that direct-selling companies offer their distributors. In most cases, distributors come from every strata of society, from college professors to housekeepers. Requirements of entry are no more than a willingness to work hard and an investment in a starter kit. "This business is unique in its ability to impact our distributors' lives directly," says Nu Skin's Hunt. "It comes down to, Can you sell? Do you have the discipline and the desire to do it?"

Take Avon representative Lisa Wilber of Weare, N.H. Back in 1990, Wilbur was laid off from her $15,000-a-year secretarial job, living in a 12- by 70-foot trailer with her husband, and trying her best to stave off creditors. Then she decided to sign on with Avon. Over the past ten years she's made more than $1.4 million in bonuses, and she is No. 4 in the country in earnings.

The fact is, however, that not every representative makes nearly that much money—or wants to. Many reps, most of whom are women, get into the business with the intention of working part-time or even, say, earning a little extra cash around the holidays. Or they crave social contact or simply want a way to buy their favorite products at wholesale prices. That's why rep turnover rates tend to be 50% or higher.

Money is only part of the attraction for reps. What most direct-selling companies have discovered is the importance of providing public recognition to people for a job well done. So they've perfected the art of establishing reward systems for distributors. And they don't all mean more money. Avon's Wilber, for one, has earned 15 trips and enough trophies to fill nine bookcases.

Consider Mary Kay Inc. The Dallas-based beauty products company has established the model for employee recognition in the industry. There are 15 steps where recognition occurs, from entry-level "beauty consultant" to top national sales director. Each step is determined by the number of recruits and amount of sales a representative achieves. Some mean bigger commissions, but others involve quite different rewards, from the famed pink Cadillac's to the applause of their peers and a pink rose. Thomas F. Whatley, president of global sales and marketing, says Mary Kay "was an expert in the area of extending the everyday courtesy of letting people know they're doing a good job."

Mary Kay's guiding philosophy, revolutionary for the time of the company's founding in 1963, is providing women with a feeling of self-esteem by giving them the chance to become independent moneymakers. This is not unusual. Most successful direct-selling companies are built on a strong, specific mission. Shaklee's is the importance of creating products that combine the best of science and nature. Creative Memories' is helping people pass memories on to future generations. The Pampered Chef's is to sell products that help families interact over meals.

In fact, it was the company's deeply ingrained philosophy that helped Mary Kay thrive, despite its founder's debilitating stroke in 1996 and her death five years later. As part of a conscious strategy—what Whatley calls the "world's most sophisticated succession plan"—Kay created a system that institutionalized her personality and mission. Among other things, she developed a top tier of distributors who would have learned her methods and approach so thoroughly by the time they reached that spot that they could easily lead the rest of the company's more than one million reps worldwide when she died. Today, there are more than 180 of these women in the U.S. "You have to be dedicated to Mary Kay's mission," says Whatley. "These are the Mary Kays of today."

Global Expansion
Like all industries in the retail sector, direct selling has gone global. A range of forces have been behind the trend, from use of the Internet to the boom in entrepreneurialism in all parts of the world. As a result, global expansion among direct-selling companies has become the norm. Over 80% of the DSA's 150 U.S. members operate overseas, compared with 20% in 1980. Total global sales in 2002 were $85 billion, up from $78.7 billion the year before. "Most of our companies go international in their first few years in business," says Offen.

Of course, this expansion has also boosted sales and profits at companies considerably. At Avon, for example, approximately 60% of net sales and operating profit come from outside North America. Its fastest-growing region, Central and Eastern Europe, had sales of $544 million, up 48% from 2001. And, of course, these moves have created a growing opportunity for distributors worldwide. Total global sales force has grown from 14.9 million in 1993 to 46 million last year.

Still, establishing operations overseas has its unique challenges. For starters, since distributors operate in people's homes, they must address the specific cultural differences in each country in an especially intimate way. Take Creative Memories. When it entered the Japanese market, the company realized its usual mode of operation—six to eight customers, each working on their own 12- by 12-inch photo album—wouldn't work in the typical tiny Japanese home. The company recently decided to cut class size down to no more than three customers.

As for recruiting and training distributors, for the most part companies put a knowledgeable person in charge in a region or country to get the ball rolling and target a few initial recruits. After that, reps generally tap family, friends, and neighbors to become part of the downline. Tupperware, which operates in more than 100 countries, for example, introduces a managing director in each country or group of countries it enters; they then pretty much replicate the basic recruitment system wherever they are.

Industry experts concur that the trickiest overseas market to crack so far has probably been China. In 1998, the government, which had previously welcomed such companies as Amway, Avon, Mary Kay, and Torrance, Calif.-based Sunrider, a seller of nutritional supplements and personal care and household products, banned direct-selling companies, only allowing them to stay if they sold through more restricted operations. Thanks to a recent agreement with the World Trade Organization, the government agreed to allow direct-selling distribution by 2005. Of course, expansion into the huge Chinese market inevitably will give a significant boost to industry growth. Indeed, in this new borderless global marketplace, direct selling has found its place in the business landscape.
— Anne Field

Automating the Sales Force
Technology can empower legions of grassroots marketers. Here's how …

Naturally, as the direct-selling industry grows up, it's turning more and more to the use of new high-tech tools. From the Internet to videoconferencing, companies and individual direct sellers are using all sorts of technology to increase efficiency, provide more convenient service, and lower costs.

However, while more companies are using technology in a variety of ways, there are limits. It's unlikely that anything will take the place of the face-to-face interaction that lies at the core of the distribution model. After all, as industry insiders explain, the soul of the business is person-to-person contact, and that can't be replaced.

Probably the most prevalent use of technology is the web. Today, a growing number of distributors are placing orders through their company's website instead of using the usual faxes or snail-mail orders. Many companies report that 80% to 90% of their orders are now placed by a sales representative via the web. According to Tei Fu Chen, chairman of Sunrider, a Torrance, Calif.—seller of nutritional supplements, personal care, and household products, for example, 20% of the company's $700 million in revenues comes from online orders made by both sales reps and customers.

In addition, distributors are using company websites for help in recruitment and training. Other companies are using the web as a channel for customer reordering. And at ACN, a seller of telecommunications services based in Huntersville, N.C., customers will soon be able to view and pay bills online.

But the web isn't the only technology being embraced. There's videoconferencing, which is particularly effective for companies with extensive international operations. Tupperware Corp. is a case in point. It holds a monthly videoconference session in which representatives from all 103 countries it operates in give progress reports.

Some companies are also experimenting with handheld devices for use in product demonstrations. Nu Skin Enterprises, based in Provo, Utah, for one, is launching a prototype to help representatives tailor their product selection to each customer. Using a PDA, customers answer a series of questions related to such topics as climate, age, and previous skin-care habits. The program then spits out the recommended regimen best suited to meet the individual's needs. The upshot: Technology is being used to make direct selling more effective and enhance the relationship between customer and distributor.

A Principled Approach to Business
The Direct Selling Association is spreading the gospel about industry ethics around the world.

They're the Rodney Dangerfields of business. Despite their records of solid growth, high-quality products, and loyal customers, direct-selling companies still don't get enough respect. A recent study by the Direct Selling Association (DSA) found that half the population of the U.S. has a negative or somewhat negative perception of the industry, thanks largely to the misdeeds of a small number of companies and distributors. "With 46 million salespeople operating globally, a few people doing the wrong things can create a lot of bad publicity and make everyone look bad," says Raymond "Buddy" LaForge, Brown-Forman professor of marketing at the University of Louisville in Kentucky.

That's why the DSA recently launched an all-out effort to raise the ethical standards of its approximately 150 U.S. members and 1,000 overseas members of affiliated associations and improve their image globally. For starters, it's launching a series of ambitious studies to evaluate the economic impact of direct selling globally, and working with private and government consumer-protection groups around the world. But, perhaps more important, it's raising the stakes for members who engage in pyramid schemes, which require that distributors buy a substantial amount of product or sales and training aids initially, without repurchasing such items if they decide to leave the business.

The first big step came in 1993, when the DSA revised its code of ethics to include a requirement that members give all salespeople a buyback guarantee, promising a return of 90% of their net costs for inventory and sales aids if they drop out of the system. More recently, the association started an effort to publicize how to recognize a pyramid scheme and the difference between such companies and legitimate direct-selling businesses. It also has backed an anti pyramid scheme bill, currently pending in Congress, and is stepping up its monitoring of members and applicants for membership by paying unannounced visits to recruiting sessions. And president Neil Offen plans, in addition to the association's one-year screening process, to have his legal staff review the marketing plans and rules of a randomly selected 20% of DSA members each year. "If we find unethical behavior, our investigation will continue, even if the member resigns," he says. The upshot: Only companies with the highest standards will be allowed to be members. That's because today the association's No. 1 commandment is, "Thou shall not overlook corporate social responsibility." For those that do, there will be a nasty backlash.

Termites of the Mind

Why are termites so dangerous? After all they are just a small bug, what harm could one little bug do? As I am sure you know, it's not one termite that destroys a house, it's a colony, but a colony is started with just a couple of bugs. If a couple of termites are allowed to penetrate the foundation of a home, a colony will soon arise.

Bad thoughts are a lot like termites. One bad thought will not take you down. The problem is, if you let one bad thought in, then one leads to another, then another. Soon you have your own colony of bad thoughts. It will not take long for a colony of bad thoughts to begin munching away at the foundation of your life.

Food for your bad thoughts is available every where. Our morning news is a breakfast for the termites of our minds. "Three dead today in a triple homicide" touts the smiling news person. Followed by "Our housing market is tumbling faster than Brittney's career". The amazing thing with the news is that many American's start their days with the news, and end their days with the news. I guess bad thoughts need their dinner too.

It is no wonder that America is one of the most wealthy nations of the world, yet our depression rates are skyrocketing, and our health is tumbling more rapidly than ever. So many American's are being eaten alive by the termites of their minds. I think it's time to send in the termite inspector for the mind, that inspector is awareness.

We need to pay attention to the things that we pay attention to. We need to start a bad thought extermination program. By taking the food from the bad thoughts, soon the bad thoughts will realize that they need to go someplace else if they want to eat. What are you feeding your mind? Are you starting your days with the breakfast of champions, or with 2 homicides over easy, and a side order of doom?

Goal Setting - Four Easy Steps for Tracking Your Goals

You've defined your Goal, identified your key strategies, created an action plan and have started to put it into action.

What's next?

As you proceed, it is important to measure your results and track your progress (or lack of it). This is the least exciting part of the journey of any Goal, but I assure you it is one of the most important. This is where it gets a little tricky due to the fact that every Goal is different. Each Goal has it's own unique targets, time lines, and action plans, therefore it will require it's own unique system and schedules for measuring.

Not every Goal needs to be measured, just your most critical ones. For example, if on the weekends you take guitar lessons to explore your interest in learning how to play, you don't necessarily need a plan for measuring your progress. But for your highest priority Goals, you absolutely do. If you are building a business or trading in the stock market, your very financial existence relies upon your systems for tracking.

People often seek my coaching and assistance because they are stuck in some way. They say, "I am stuck! I have tried everything and nothing works!" The first thing I do is ask for their gauges, measurements and stats for the related area. Often they reply with blame or excuses about the economy or some outside circumstance for why they are off track and never is that the real reason for a decline. The reason for almost all struggle, stagnation and lack of growth is due to a lack of attention, measurement or action in the critical areas. It is usually a matter of neglect and fortunately there is a quick and easy solution to create a major turnaround.

The fastest way to create a breakthrough is to measure and examine the critical areas of your Goal.

You cannot change what you don't measure. You cannot improve what you don't measure. Where focus goes, energy flows so begin focusing on your major key areas that are critical to your success.

Tracking reveals the true reality of a situation. Many Goals can be measured with numbers. For example, Health Goals provide many numbers to monitor your progress; pounds, inches, blood sugar, triglycerides, blood pressure, as do a multitude of other precise diagnostic measurements.

Tracking builds confidence. When you have a great plan, are following it and producing phenomenal results, you automatically raise your own self-esteem and that optimism carries over into every other life area. Knowing that you are on track and having the validation of facts as proof gives you an enormous boost.

Tracking provides valuable feedback and indications of areas that may need to be addressed or adjusted. If your Goal is to lose weight and the numbers on the scale are going up, up, up each week, it could be an indication that you may need to re evaluate your plan or if you have a great plan and have not been following it, simply renew your dedication to it.

For every Goal that does not succeed, there are always numerous indicators along the way that would have provided a snapshot or a warning ahead of time and all throughout the journey, if the critical components would have been measured and appropriate action taken, the Goal could have been salvaged.

Your Action Plan:

1. Examine your highest and most important Goal and the key areas that will ensure it's success. What are the aspects you will need to measure so that you will know on any given day, at any given time, whether or not you are progressing on track?

2. List at least ten precise critical components you can begin measuring and tracking. (if you come up with more than ten, that's even better).

3. Create targets for each of the chosen areas. This can be done by looking at the end result and tracking backwards. What are the ideals you will need to achieve in order to successfully realize your Goal?

4. Create the most appropriate schedule for tracking and checking your gauges and schedule it into your planner. How often should you measure your metrics, stats and gauges and examine your progress? If the Goal has no end, as such with an ongoing business, you can certainly break it down via yearly, quarterly, monthly, daily and even weekly measurements.

Since each Goal is unique, your Goal will require unique systems and schedules for tracking it. By implementing this for all of your highest priority Goals, you will instantly begin to produce better results.

Goal Achieving abides by the Universal Law of Cause and Effect. If you don't like the results you are creating, change your approach, increase your efforts, modify your plan, but don't stick your head in the sand and neglect to see the truth of the situation.

The fastest way to improve your results is to measure your progress. So re examine your most cherished Goals and see where you stand. Your mind will instantly begin to search for ways to make improvements in those key areas.

Numbers don't lie. Welcome whatever data you receive and take the appropriate actions to ensure your success!

Do it anyway!!!

People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.

Give the world your best and it may never be enough;
Give the world your best anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God;
It was never between you and them anyway.
- Mother Theresa

Charles Schultz Philosophy

The following is the philosophy of Charles Schultz, the creator of the "Peanuts" comic strip. You don't have to actually answer the questions. Just read straight through, and you'll get the point.

1. Name the five wealthiest people in the world.

2. Name the last five Heisman trophy winners.

3. Name the last five winners of the Miss America.

4. Name ten people who have won the Nobel or Pulitzer Prize.

5. Name the last half dozen Academy Award winner for best actor and actress.

6. Name the last decade's worth of World Series winners.

How did you do?

The point is, none of us remember the headliners of yesterday. These are no second-rate achievers. They are the best in their fields. But the applause dies. Awards tarnish. Achievements are forgotten. Accolades and certificates are buried with their owners.

Here's another quiz. See how you do on this one:

1. List a few teachers who aided your journey through school.

2. Name three friends who have helped you through a difficult time.

3. Name five people who have taught you something worthwhile.

4. Think of a few people who have made you feel ! appreciated and special.

5. Think of five people you enjoy spending time with.

Easier?

The lesson: The people who make a difference in your life are not the ones with the most credentials, the most money, or the most awards. They are the ones that care.

"Don't worry about the world coming to an end today. It's already tomorrow in Australia." (Charles Schultz)

Goal Setting

Goal setting is essential to any work – without goals, there’s no direction, no incentive, no guidance.


• Encourage team member to talk about what their dreams are for their life –this is the first step to setting goals.

1. Having them talk about their dreams tells you who they are, what they’re story is, why they want to do WV.
2. Be friends first - Builds rapport – once there is a bond between you and your team member, there develops a trust, so the latter will be more apt to follow your guidance.

1. Be supportive, listen to what they’re wanting, what they’re concerns are, and help them find answers. It’s all about what they want, not what you want.
2. Do intake of where they’re at, what they want to do, how much time they want to put into this – encourage them to let their imagination run wild – important because it gives incentive to make the dreams real. Incentive/motivation is an inner characteristic that helps them succeed. It gives them something to work towards.
3. Find out specifically how much money they want to make for what they want: private school for daughter - $3000, publicist - $2000, to leave job - $5000.

3. After getting answers, say, “You do understand that it’s only logical that, if you want to get something you’ve never had, you have to do something you’ve never done before. And, in order to get something that you want, you need to sacrifice and work hard for it.

• Do you know why you haven’t reached your goals yet?
• What are you willing to sacrifice, give up in order to reach your goals?
• What is the one thing that’s different that you’re willing to do towards your goals?

1. One of the things that you need to do that is different is to have a coach. All greats have a coach – Tiger Woods, Andre Agassi. You need to ask your team member: Do you agree for me to be your coach?
• Getting verbal agreement is important – it becomes a binding contract, something your team member has agreed to. When a person gives excuses or shows other kinds of resistance, they’re testing boundaries,
• Coach needs to set boundaries – another way of building trust.
• Ex. - Children may not like when you say “no”, but on some level they will understand that you are protecting them, guiding them, etc.

After setting goals and how much time they can spend on WV, then point out the easiest way to make money:
• Direct bonuses – need to sponsor 20 people this month to make $2000.





Some things to remember as they are working towards their goal:

1. Have them make a commitment: pay attention, get excited, never quit.
2. The only people who don’t get rich in this co. are quitters.
3. Because there are agents in this co. who are making mega money, the only difference between failing and succeeding is you – not the product, not the company, not the compensation plan.
4. If you don’t have a lot of rejections, then you’re not working hard enough. You’re not talking to enough people.
5. All you’re doing is filtering out the leaders. The leaders will rise to the top, all others are followers.

Eight Solid Reasons to Finally Believe in...The Coming Network Marketing Boom!

It seems the network marketing, or MLM, industry has been on the verge of an "explosion" for about as long as, well, there has been a network marketing industry. Certainly there have been growth spurts in popularity over the years, but the business just never really - exploded, at least for any sustained period of time. Even those occasional growth pops were always followed by slumps in the MLM economy. Yet, throughout it's history, even in the midst of those slumps, and especially over the last two decades, many of those who would promote it would tell us that, soon, the network marketing industry is going to, dare i say it again... EXPLODE! Ah, if I only had a dollar for every time I've heard any derivative of the word "explode" as it relates to network marketing I'd be a wealthy man. About as wealthy as I'd be if I got a dollar for every time an MLM distributor used the term "revolutionary," but that's another subject.

The various promoters of this alleged upcoming MLM boom have always had at least one good reason for believing their claim. It wasn't entirely on hype. Nothing more than the monumental and numerous advantages that network marketing offers to those who want to start a home based business certainly should have been reason enough to think that, soon, the masses are going to discover those advantages and flock to MLM en mass. We could surely forgive them for their optimistic delusion.

As history has shown us in many industries, the merits of a product alone won't necessarily sell it. When Ruth Stafford Peale said "find a need and fill it", she was close. Personally, I'd rather find a "want" and fill it. Obviously, people would be more likely to obtain something they want as oppose to need, and they've not flocked to network marketing en mass for no other reason than they simply can't want something they neither understand nor even know exists! There is overwhelming evidence that the reason this industry stands at a little over 7 million distributors is because, for the most part, those 7 million network marketers are all pitching their opportunities - to each other. This has created a great ignorance about network marketing among most Americans. And I use the word "ignorance" deliberately here, which does not mean unintelligent. Ignor-ance means simply, to ignore readily available information. And the vast majority of the U.S. population has, at least up until now, utterly ignored network marketing not only due to a lack of want, but a lack of knowledge as to it's benefits, or that it even exists.

But that is all about to change... forever.

For the first time in network marketing history, there are solid, logical, verifiable, reasons to believe in an upcoming network marketing boom. In fact, there are eight reasons, any one of which could result in a significant expansion of network marketing in the U.S. over the next few years, and these eight factors will soon by overlaying, one on top of the other, creating the "perfect storm" so to speak, where we have the convergence of several powerful economic, demographic, and psychological factors all hitting at the exact same time and place in network marketing history. Finally, we can make claim to an upcoming MLM explosion and it won't be just wishful thinking. It absolutely will happen, and here's why:

Reason #1: The Economy.

I have always had the belief that the condition of the U.S. economy did influence the condition of network marketing, somewhat, but not significantly. I based that belief on the simple conclusion that there was never an economy where people didn't want more money and more free time. In fact, a few months ago I set out to write an article debunking this age old assumption that bad economic conditions favor network marketing. I began to really do some digging to find as much evidence as I could to support my contrarian position. And what I soon discovered was, I was wrong. The fact that one of the strongest growth phases in network marketing history, which occurred between 1990 to '92, also coincided with the last economic recession should have been a clue. But there was so much more.
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First, an analysis of unemployment rates over the decades is key here. After all, the want for network marketing is created by the desire for alternative sources of income, and income sources that we have control over. And when we compare the popularity trends of network marketing to unemployment rates, on a semi-decade basis, there are some intriguing and very exciting revelations.

Although multilevel marketing existed as far back as 1936, for all intents and purposed MLM really began in earnest in the 1950s. So let's start there. Now, tracking MLM popularity trends is somewhat subjective, but surely there would be no argument that network marketing was far more popular in the second half of the 50's than the first. Not a single company of consequence launched from 1950 to 1955, however industry giants Shaklee, NeoLife, and Amway all came into existence from 1956 to 1959. The unemployment rate the first have of the decade averaged 4%, and was the second lowest in U.S. history in 1953 at 2.9% (only during WWII was it ever lower). However, it averaged 5.3% the second half of the decade reaching it's highest level since the Great Depression in 1958 at 6.8%. Although the difference may seem small from a statistical standpoint, translated into todays numbers that would mean almost 6 million more people becoming unemployed between 1953 to '58.

The first half of the 1960's all types of direct sales continued to flourish with the launch of Mary Kay Cosmetics in 1963, and companies such as Avon, Fuller Brush and Tupperware all achieving momentum. Although the industry continued to grow from '65 to '69, it was not nearly at the same pace with no new major company launches taking place. The unemployment rate the first half of the decade was significanly higher than the second half when 2-and-a-half million unemployed people went back to work.

Let's jump ahead to the 1980's. Again, few MLM veterans would disagree that the first half of this decade definitely outperformed the second. Although there were about as many company launches in each half of the decade, there are actually more companies that launched during the first half that are still in business today than during the second. While network marketing flourished from 1980 to '85, the rest of the decade saw some of the worst fiasco in network marketing history. Also, another indicator of MLM economic conditions is the number of legal actions. During industry slumps companies and distributors tend to be more aggressive and take greater risks. The number of law suits almost doubled during the second half of the 80's compared to the first. And, while network marketing was thriving the first half of the 80's, unemployment continued to rise. In fact, in 1982 it was at it's highest level in 40 years at 9.7%. During the second half MLM slump unemployment dropped considerably, and by the end of the decade the number of those out of work was almost half of what it was at the beginning of the decade.

The 1990's saw perhaps the clearest distinction between halves of any decade with more major company launches and more companies going into momentum than any other time in history. There was also more wealth being created by way of MLM from 1990 to 1994 than any other 5 year period in network marketing history. The second half, as many of you probably still remember, wasn't exactly the best of times for network marketing. In fact, if there ever was such thing as an MLM recession, we had one from about 1996 through 1999. Why? One reason may have been the very high unemployment rate from 1990 to '94, and the sharp drop during the second half of the decade where it hit a 30 year low at 4.2% in 1999.

The only exception to this half-century long pattern is the 1970's, but that was an exceptional decade. Remember, the last half of the 60's industry growth slowed as unemployment dropped to a post-war low. During the first half of the 70's network marketing started rocking again as unemployment rates jumped. Unfortunately, all that rocking started rocking some boats, and the result was over five times as many MLM related law suits from 1970 to 1974 than all of the 50's and 60's combined. These included landmark cases involving Koscot, Bestline, Holiday Magic, Culture Farms, and others, and in 1975, there was a federal action which essentially questioned the legality of network marketing in general. Fortunately, one company, Amway, had the financial ability to defend themselves, and in essence, the entire multilevel marketing industry. This case lasted until late 1979 when the court eventually ruled in favor of Amway and as a result there was, for the first time, a clear delineation between illegal pyramids and legitimate network marketing companies. So, obviously, there was a pretty dark cloud hanging over the industry the last half of the 70's and there wasn't a lot of expansion in spite of the even higher unemployment rate.

The last, and arguably greatest MLM growth phase began in 1990, the same year we went into our last economic recession. And, again, from 1980 to '84 were boom years for network marketing and we experienced recessions in 1980, part of '81 and most of '82. Nineteen-seventy to '74 were also boom years, and our economy was in recession almost all of 1970, and 1974. Remember how the last half of the 50's and into the early 60's were years of great MLM expansion? We were in recession from '57 to '58 and most of 1960. In deed, every severe economic downturn in the last 50 years has been during, or immediately preceded every period of network marketing expansion.

We're not done yet. According to figures supplied by the Direct Selling Association, not all, but most of which is made up of network marketing companies, U.S. sales increased from 1990 to 1992 by an annual average of 9.25 percent. That was during our last recession. From 1997 to 2000, at the peak of our last economic boom, annual sales within the direct selling industry increased by a little more than half as much. Clearly, the condition of our national economy absolutely does effect the condition of the network marketing industry.

So where does this lead us? Well, as I write this it's early 2002 and we are in a recession, and have been for several months. Most recessions last around 12-18 months, but that doesn't mean that when a recession is over, so is a slumping economy, or high unemployment rates. And again, it's rising unemployment rates that are most closely tied to rising interest in network marketing. Here's a rather remarkable fact – we've had eight recessions in the last 50 years, and during the 12 months immediately after the end of the recession the unemployment rate went up! Every time. What's more, most economic experts today are predicting a much slower recovery than that which followed previous downturns, followed by volatile economic swings for the next several years.

And remember, we're only on reason number one. Let's move on to what I feel is an even more powerful reason to believe in a coming network marketing explosion.

Reason #2: Demographics.

Although the network marketing industry offers almost every conceivable product or service imaginable, most product lines are made up primarily of personal care products, diet, and health related products. These are all products that would be of most interest to again baby boomers. Now, this concept of what Dr. Ken Dychtwald refers to as the "Age Wave" in his book of the same name, is certainly not a new concept as it relates to network marketing. Purveyors of personal and health care products have been emphasizing this concept for several years now. But it does warrant a brief overview.

Baby Boomers are those born from the years of 1946 to 1964. The reason for this baby boom doesn't need a lot of explanation. During the great depression, immediately followed by WWII, folk just weren't economically, psychologically, or geographically able to make a lot of babies. So, once WWII was over they had some catching up to do – and they did. There were about 76 million babies born during this 18 year period, which at the time accounted for almost one-third of the entire U.S. population. This explains why diaper and baby food companies flourished in the later 40's and early 50's, or why rock&roll records and drive ins were so popular in the mid- to late 50's. It also explains why more grade schools were built in the early 60's and more college campuses were built in the later 60's than any other time in our history. Think back to the 70's and early 80's. How many athletic clubs, health stores, or ads for energy or weight loss products did you see? Very few. Today, they're everywhere! Why? Because most of those 76 million people are now in their 40's and 50's. You can see exactly where this giant bubble in the population is at any moment in time by simply looking at what products are most popular. And when in comes to charting the market size for what most network marketing companies offer, we're not even half way up the curve yet! The market for products that will make us look and feel younger is going to continue to expand for at least another 25 years, and will expand most dramatically over the next 5 to 10 years where some predict it will more than double.

But this baby boom is exciting for another completely different reason. The age of contractual consent in most states in 18, that's why virtually all network marketing companies require distributors to be at least 18 years old. Well, guess what happened about 25 years after the baby boom? Those 76 million baby boomers had about 75 million babies. And about 41 million of them will turn 18 over the next 7 years. At no other time in history, other than the original baby boom itself, have this many people been added to the body of eligible MLM prospects in this short a period of time.

Of course, the number of people eligible to join is not as important as the number actually joining. So, let's take another look at the annual survey of the direct selling industry conducting by the DSA. According to their analysis, there was a net gain of direct sellers of 400,000 from 1997 to 98. By "net" I mean 400,000 more joined than quit. There was a 600,000 net gain from '98 to '99, and a 700,000 distributor gain from '99 to 2000. Not only is the number increasing, but the rate of increase is increasing, which is one of the indicators of impending momentum. However, if we did nothing more than take this 700,000 annual growth rate of direct sellers, figure about 470,000 are network marketers, assume the rate of increase never goes any higher, and extend that forward for another ten years, we end up with 4.7 million additional network marketers. To put that in perspective, it took us over 50 years to get to 7.5 million distributors, and we're conservatively projected to add another 4.7 million in just the next ten years, which means, by the way, your average downline will be 37% larger - and this isn't even factoring in any of the things were discussing here that will cause this growth rate to increase! This is just assuming everything stays the same.

And as far as a demographic reason for believing in an upcoming MLM boom, these aren't even the best ones! Check this out:

According to Gallup Polls, the average age of all Americans when they first decide to invest in a residual income producing vehicle, such as stocks, bonds, real estate, or perhaps in a business venture, is 42. The average age when we invest the most into such devices is 47. If we were to then chart on a graph the number of 42 to 47 year olds in the U.S. we'd find that starting about 1988 the line begins to point upward at almost a 45º angle as the boomers started turning 42 – and that line continues to rise at a level never before seen in history all the way to the year 2009. We're barely past the half way point of that upward curve!

Does this really benefit us, as network marketers? Are 40-somethings more open to MLM opportunities? Well, the average American is 36 years old. According to a Marketwave survey of over 6,000 network marketers from 1990 to 2000, the average network marketer is 38.6, and that number has consistently risen over the years of the survey. Other MLM surveys have found the average age to be almost 40. An exceptional number of those over 40 do participate in network marketing, and this segment of the population which is most ready, willing and able to invest in a residual income generating business venture is going to continue to increase dramatically for another seven years!

Reason #3: Wall Street

Securities investors are, for the most part, a pretty savvy group of people. Obviously there are a lot of exceptions, but generally, these are men and women who research and analyze public companies in an effort to try to determine which ones have the strongest growth potential. Based on their due diligence they eventually invest their funds in companies who's growth they expect to go up. These are people who are, in general, pretty adept at knowing what signals to look for that might indicate an upcoming boom. So, what do they see when they turn their magnifying glass on network marketing companies? Well, first let's take a look at what they've seen.

There are over 20 publicly traded network marketing companies, but the bottom third or so are so small and trade so infrequently they're really meaningless as far as overall industry trends, so let's focus on the top 12. These are the larger, well established companies. Well, if you were to chart their stock price over the last 5 years, starting December 1996, in almost every case you'd see a line that looks a lot like the path of an airplane -- coming in for a landing. With very few exceptions, MLM company stock values have flattened out at their all time lows and stayed there for about two to three years. Clearly, Wall Street wasn't impressed with network marketing's growth potential the last half of the 90's.

So, what do they see now? Well, the S&P 500, an index that gauges the overall condition of the stock market, reached it's peak in September of 2000. By mid-December 2001 it was down by 23%. However, over the exact same period of time our index of the top 12 network marketing companies was UP by 7.3%. And again, this is from a basket of stocks that, for the most part, haven't budged upwards in years. And now, all of a sudden, in just the last 12 months these network marketing companies are outperforming the overall stock market by over thirty percent. Go to your favorite investment web site is and take a look at the stock charts of these companies. What you'll see is than plane coming in for a landing, taxying across the bottom of the chart, and then, right at the end - they're just starting to take off again.

So don't just take my word for it. There are a few thousand other trend analysts out there that seem to also be very optimistic about the future growth potential of this industry.

Reason #4: Supply and Demand.

I read an article a few years ago that described how network marketing was "booming." The author validated this claim by siting the huge growth in the number of MLM companies. Of course, anyone who got even a C- in Economics 101 could tell you that an industry booms when the demand for it's product dramatically increases. In deed, when there is only a tremendous increase in supply, this often times results in an industry slump. And sure enough, during this massive proliferation of MLM companies the last half of the 90's, which there very definitely was, we had a pretty tough industry slump.

A very prominent MLM publication published a survey they had conducted from 1994 to 1997 where they polled all the major MLM company software providers to try to determine how many MLM companies were launching in each of these years. They found that in 1994 there were about 700. In '95 over 1,000. There were about 1,400 company launches in 1996, and 1,800 in 1997. These are not cumulative totals, this is each year. And there is a lot of anecdotal evidence to show that there were about as many start ups in 1998 and 1999. What's even more troubling is that those in the software businesses estimate that perhaps half of all MLM start ups don't go to the major software houses, but rather hire in house programmers. Do you understand what that means? It's possible that the actual number of start ups could have been double these numbers. As many as 13,000 network marketing companies may have launched from 1994 through 1999, and at least as many as 8,000, yet we only had a net gain of about 600 companies, from 900 to 1,500. For many years distributors for older, mature network marketing companies often warned prospects away from start ups with the claim that 95% of all MLM companies fail in the first two years. Up to this point, it was really just a scare tactic based on a wild guess. However, what this survey inadvertently did was verify the figure!

Yet, during this same period, based on a consensus of various educated sources including the DSA, the number of network marketing distributors in the U.S., during the last half of the 90's, only increased from about 5 million to 7.5 million. That means the number of distributors went up about 50%, but the number of companies increased by three times that much! If you do the math, you'll discover that this means the average distributor's downline shrunk by 40%. There is no question that the supply of MLM opportunities was far exceeding demand the last half of the 90's.

So, what's the good news? Well, some very encouraging things began to happen in the year 2000, not the least of which is, it seems would be MLM company owners finally began to realize that starting a network marketing company in the U.S. market was an entrepreneurial death wish! Also, more and more of those considering starting MLM companies are coming to realize that it really defeats the whole purpose of getting involved in network marketing – they're essentially creating for themselves a 12 hour a day J-O-B. Instead, they could apply their resources to building an organization in an already well established, stable network marketing program and make just as much, if not more money with far less effort, and fraction of the responsibility and risk. And understand, this isn't just my assumption. I've been a consultant to start up companies, more of a Devil's advocate for hire, actually, since 1992. So, not only from my own consulting experience, but by scanning the ads in all of the various MLM publications, interviewing other consultants, trainers, and suppliers, visiting the on-line MLM message boards, reading the abundance of MLM related spam I receive, and interviewing literally hundreds of prospects and distributors every year, it's very clear that the number of start up network marketing companies has declined significantly since the beginning of 2000.

This fact, along with the increasing number of company mergers and acquisitions that are taking place each year, will only make the industry stronger. The last half of the 90's the whole industry was groaning under the weight of this massive overload of MLM companies. As more and more companies entered the market the national distributor base was spread thinner and thinner. The result was smaller downlines, higher attrition, and generally fewer success stories. But, think about it. If there were just as many distributors, but half as many companies, the average downline would be twice as big. I'm not suggesting the number of companies will contract to half, but any reduction in supply will certainly help spur an increase in demand as more and more distributors are condensed into common downlines, which will then increase the number of those getting into profit, and those reaching their income goals. The more success stories we have, the more motivation and less resistance we have to building our downlines even larger. Even larger downlines mean even greater motivation, even lesser resistance, resulting in even larger downlines – and the cycle continues upward, rather than down or flat as it has in the past.

Reason #5: New Blood.

Almost every network marketing company today would like to think, and most claim, they are about to go into momentum. Momentum, as it applies to network marketing, is the stage in a company's growth cycle where sales volume begins to increase geometrically and the company doubles, triples, perhaps even quadruples in size in a relatively short period of time. Most momentum phases last about 6 to 24 months. Much like buying a stock low right before it goes up in price, most distributors want to attach themselves to a pre-momentum company right before it explodes. Thus, practically every distributor will try to make a case that their company is "about to go into momentum." How do they know? Eh, they don't. No one every really knows exactly when momentum phases kick in. Some MLM theorists have claimed it commences at a certain sales volume, or around a certain number of year in business. Yet, the exceptions far outnumber the rule. But much like stock picking, we can look for clues - for historical trends and patterns to help us make better guesses. And if we go back and study every major post-momentum company and analyze what happened right before they went into momentum, there is a common event. Although they each may have accomplished this in different ways, every momentum phase in MLM history was facilitated by massive numbers of people moving into the opportunity, either as reps or customers, who have never been involved in network marketing before. No company has ever went into a momentum phase by this ebb and flow distributors roaming from company to company. Momentum is caused by a massive injection of new blood.

Where is this new blood going to come from? How are we going to expose massive numbers of people to our products and opportunities that we've never been able to reach in the past? Of course, from... how many you saw this coming?... the internet.

Now, some of you may be thinking, yeah, but the internet's been around for years. Where is all this new blood? Well, the internet may have been around in 1990, but it didn't go into it's own momentum phase until after 1995 when only 14% of Americans used the internet. By 1998 that number had almost tripled. Today it's over 60% and many predict that virtually all of Americans will be using the internet in some capacity by the year 2010. And it wasn't until around 1997 or so that the network marketing industry really began to use, or a better term might be "abuse" the internet. Certainly there are exceptions to this, but for the most part MLMers got a little over zealous in their utilization of this amazing new technology. Rather that use it to help us build our downlines and sell our products, it was, in way too many cases, used in an attempt to have it build our downlines for us. The result was, in some cases, big recruiting numbers, but very little sales volume and overwhelming attrition. The reason is obvious. People get into network marketing with the goal of quitting their jobs and doing this for a living. In other words, they are potentially making a career choice. That's a pretty serious decision, isn't it? Well, how serious could a prospect have taken this decision when they only based it on a few pretty pictures and some jazzy words on a web site?

The internet was also abused in other ways. Like so many other dot.coms, there were a lot of company failures. Some were ugly, miserable failures. There were numerous legal abuses as well resulting in several well publisized closures. The network marketing industry painfully cut it's internet teeth from about 1997 to early 2000. And now, as this shake out comes to an end and the smoke clears, what is just beginning to emerge are the remaining responsible, visionary companies that knew all along that the awesome power of the internet was not in having it do all the work for us, but rather having it help us present our products and opportunities faster, less expensively, and to far, far greater numbers of people. New people, who've never been exposed to network marketing before. They're are our future superstars – our future MLM leaders.

The internet is a sales, training and recruiting tool with unimaginable potential that we are only just now beginning to effectively and intelligently utilize, and it's an industry itself that looks to expand by 100 million users domestically over the next ten years. And as this happens, the network marketing industry will soon go into momentum the same way everyone of it's post-momentum companies did so - by a mountainous wave of new prospects and within it these future leaders. They say a rising tide raises all boats, and in this case, this tidal wave could even cause an unprecedented event in network marketing history - the secondary momentum phase, where large, post-momentum companies actually achieve momentum again!

But the internet isn't the only reason why I believe we're on the verge of massive "outer circle" recognition. There's another reason that's so compelling I'm making it a reason unto itself.

Reason #6: Positive Media Exposure.

Radio, television, magazines and newspapers all exist primarily, if not in some cases exclusively, on advertising dollars. Network marketing is an industry that, for the most part, doesn't advertise in the mainstream media. After all, we're a "word of mouth" business. So not only has the media had no financial incentive to promote MLM, it actually has a financial inceptive not to. Now, I'm not suggesting there's some grand conspiracy among these various media to hold network marketing down, but there certainly has been a consistent pattern of negative expose's of MLM companies over the years, some certainly deserving, some not, but curiously, very few corporate or individual success stories, in spite of the huge number of them to choose from.

Well, that too is changing. The mainstream media is just now discovering how to cash in on network marketing without ad revenue. The first big step in this direction was back in 1994 when Success magazine, a well respected newsstand business magazine, featured a front cover montage of network marketing companies and a lengthy and extremely positive feature article about our industry. Sure, the companies that knew they were going to be mentioned did break from tradition and ran display ads, but that's not where Success made the most money. The people of this credibility starved industry, long deserving of such positive recognition, sold out the entire run of that issue. In fact, Success magazine broke their all time single issue sales record by almost twice the previous record. The result, obviously, was a lot more positive portrayals of network marketing companies in future issues. Unfortunately, in spite of this bold demonstration of exactly how profitable it could be for doing nothing more than being fair and balanced and also presenting the positive side of network marketing, few other mainstream publications followed Success's lead. So, several network marketing trade publications decided, let's do it ourselves. Soon, we had several glossy, full color, network marketing focused magazines hitting the newsstands. At the moment, none of these publications have taken the country by storm – in fact, most have struggled – but understand, the fact that they even exist is a giant step forward for network marketing, and anyone who truly cares about the well being of this industry should support their efforts in what ever way they can.

But this isn't where the greatest promise lies as far as positive media exposure. What about this idea: Let's say, instead of paying for an advertement, you worked out an arrangement where you enrolled the media itself, got the exposure for free, but the resulting sales volume and downline that was generated from the campaign went under the company? They could potentially make far more income from overrides than from ad fees, even after the ads stop running. It's a perfect win-win scenario – we get the positive mainstream exposure, the media could get even more money from us that if they charged us for the ads. Would this work? It already is. Slowly, quietly, such a movement is taking place. I know for a fact that there are currently over 100 radio stations in the U.S. attempting this, and some are succeeding, big time. Yet, virtually the entire network marketing industry is oblivious to the fact this is even happening. It's simply a matter of time until the mainstream media's grapevine picks up on this alternative ad revenue generator.

Finally, let's not overlook the public image boost we're getting from the various athletes, celebrities, political figures and medical authorities network marketing is attracting like never before. And no, not all are just paid endorsers, and many of them have careers that are based on their reputation and positive image, and they've openly and willingly attached their good names to network marketing. We've also got well respected mainstream authors and speakers such as Richard Poe, Paul Zane Pilzer, Mark Victor Hansen, Brian Tracy and Robert Kiasaki extolling the virtues of network marketing. This kind of powerful, third party validation has never happened before, nearly to this extent. And it's just starting, and it's growing.

Reason #7: Regulation.

Earlier we discussed the cyclical nature of network marketing as it related to the economy. I hope you picked up on the fact that the first half of every decade outperformed the second half – and that's been the case for the last 40 years.

But there were more than just economic reasons for this cycle. The regulatory climate often times influenced the mood of distributors and our prospects, and therefore, has effected the condition of the industry to an extent. The most obvious example being the previously mentioned federal actions back in the 70's. Legal attacks by state or federal authorities on high profile network marketing companies do occur from time to time, and curiously seem to peak in pre-election years, but that could just be a coincidence. Most of those larger companies, by the way, not only survived the attack, but are considered models of legality today who's policies and enforcement systems are emulated by younger companies. Yes, there have been many situations where pyramid schemes have been shut down, and typically the action is described as "the network marketing company that was shut down because it was an illegal pyramid scheme." It drives me nuts when I hear someone make a statement like that. It's kind of like saying "A really honest man was exposed as a lier." Well, then he wasn't an honest man, was he? Either you're an illegal pyramid scheme, or you're a network marketing company. You can't be both. I want to make this very clear before we go any further on this subject: Illegal pyramid schemes often times try to disguise themselves as network marketing companies because they want to appear legal. Unfortunately, when the media reports on illegal pyramid schemes, we do suffer a guilt by association, and again, that does have an effect on our ability to retain distributors and acquire new ones, at last temporarily.

The good news is that the last few years we've seen really no significant legal attacks on network marketing companies, and several closures of illegal schemes. Not only does this make the industry stronger due to a smaller pool of opportunities, legal or otherwise, but it also increase our ability to build, because we don't have the negative stigma of a well publicized regulatory hit creating greater resistance toward the industry. Not only that, but it also demonstrates a greater ability among regulators to delineate between pyramids and good, legitimate MLM programs. This should be especially encouraging and comforting to those who've built substantial incomes in "high profile" opportunities, or those who intend to be high profile.

And, once again, I've saved the best news for last. There is active lobbying going on right now by the DSA and others, to enact legislation that will create federal regulation of network marketing. As it is now, and always has been, operating a network marketing company in the United States is kind of like trying to do business in 50 little countries. Each state has it's own set of laws pertaining to business opportunities, some specifically to MLM, and all have statutes pertaining to pyramid schemes. Although, for the most part, each state's definition of an illegal pyramid is consistent with the other 49, the interpretation and implementation of those laws has been somewhat haphazard and arbitrary over the years. It's true that there was a significant legal precedent created by the federal court's decision in the Amway case in 1979, but even that has been utterly ignored in more recent cases such as the infamous Webster vs. Omnitrition case in 1994 where the 9th circuit court of appeals (the most overturned appeals court in the land) chose to disregard personal consumption by distributors as a legitimate, commissionable sale. Fortunately, this decision didn't create law, just a seldom followed guideline. In fact, several individual states in recent years, such as Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Kentucky have created statutes that specifically recognize personal consumption as a legitimate sale, and there's legal precedent in California that they've also adopted this position. But still, the enforcement actions over the years have been inconsistent not only between state and federal precedent, but from state to state, and sometimes even from case to case within the same state.


Not only will federal regulation create a clear, consistent path for all network marketing companies, and state regulators, to follow, but, much like the federal regulation of franchising back in the 60's, may eventually require truer and fuller disclosure. Now, as I understand it, that's not what's in the current draft of legislation being proposed as of this writing. However, if this ever did come to pass, and many believe it will, it would absolutely be a good thing. Very good. Not only will it tremendously strengthen the industry by weeding out the bad apples, it will cause this massive turnover rate among start up companies to drop to a fraction of it's current level because most won't even start up in the first place. Gone will be the days of usually ex-distributors sitting around a table saying, hey, let's get a few thousand dollars together and start our own MLM company - now, what can we sell? And the ones that do launch will have to be serious players with solid backing. So not only will more distributors be packed into fewer companies, but those companies will be only the highest quality opportunities. Federal regulation will also greatly increase the respect and credibility level of our industry. This will create a tremendous boost to all established U.S. based MLM companies. Not only do I not fear the concept of federal regulation, I find the vision of this new era of network marketing to be absolutely exhilarating!

Yes, there are some people who are still apprehensive about the prospect of federal regulation. I've heard the argument made, as I'm sure many of you have, that back in 1963, congress came within 11 votes of outlawing franchising. Well, not only didn't they but the post regulatory era of franchising has created an industry that now moves over one-third of all the goods and services in this country! Federal regulation was the catalyst to the biggest boom in franchising history.

In their attempt to tidy up network marketing from a regulatory standpoint, might the feds throw the proverbial baby out with the bath water? Not a chance. Not only are there over 1,200 network marketing companies in this country, employing tens of thousands of tax payers, and generating literally billions in sales and corporate tax revenue, there are about 5 million MLMers out there who are also registered voters. That may not be a huge percentage of the total population, but as our last presidential election clearly demonstrated, it's enough to make a huge difference in the political landscape of this country. Not only that, but there are even a few network marketers in congress, and some of our larger MLM companies have been quite generous in their political contributions.

Network marketing isn't going anywhere - but up.

Reason #8: Industry Growth Rates.

There are a lot of little hints out there that the interest in entrepreneurship is on the rise, such as a recent report by Barns & Noble that the percentage of business related books sold in the U.S. has risen the last five straight years. Also, not only has the number of small businesses increased annually since 1991, what's most exciting is that the rate of increase is just beginning to accelerate.

There's anecdotal evidence when we look at the supply vs. the demand for 800 numbers. It took 29 years to use up the 7 million 800 numbers available, and 888 numbers were introduced in 1996. It took two years to exhaust the supply of 888 numbers, and the telecom industry is already planning to roll out not only 866, but 855 numbers. Not only does this indicate a growing market, due to the increase in small, home based, and internet related businesses, but certainly it's more due to the dramatically lower cost and corresponding increase in availability. This could easily be a nice seguey into yet an entirely new reason for believing in an upcoming network marketing boom - the increase in technologies once affordable by only large, million dollar corporation that are now emerging in small and even home based operations. And this trend towards technological advancement, availability and affordability is still at the very beginning of that curve.

Although this tangent really deserves further discussion, let's get back to growth trends.

Based on information supplied by the Office of Employment Projections and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the total number of self-employed workers in the U.S. changed very little from 1986 to 1996. However, they project an 11% increase from 1996 to 2006, with sales related occupations being the largest segment.

However, according to the Small Business Administration, the number of self employed people actually dropped slightly from '96 to 1999, likely due to the robust economy and abundance of good paying jobs. This means that for these projections to hold true, the entire 11% increase would have to occur from 2000 to 2006.

But let's get to the bottom line: What are the growth trends of the network marketing industry itself?

Since the top twelve publicly traded MLM companies provide the most reliable information, and they make up the majority of the largest, most well established companies, I'm again directing my analysis towards them, although an informal survey of unaudited data provided by private MLM companies reinforced these results.

From 1990 to 1995 annual sales growth averaged about 16%, and some years was as high as 30%. However, if we track the growth of these public companies, based on U.S. revenue only, you'll find that the average annual sales growth from 1996 to 2000 was 8.7%, reaching a low of just over 6% from 1999 to 2000. And the entire direct selling industry's growth rate dropped to a ten year low of 4.5% around this same time. Based on this information it would seem that industry growth was about to come to a grinding halt. But instead, the growth rate of these companies from 2000 to 2001 was 14.6 percent, more than double the previous year's rate! Without question, the slowing trend has reversed. This is by far the strongest signal of pending momentum, when there is not only an increase in growth, but the rate of growth is also accelerating. Now, one year of doubling growth rates certainly does not guarantee a boom, however, one thing is certain - every company momentum phase throughout MLM history began with that first period of doubling growth rates.

There you have it folks. Not one, not two, but eight solid, powerful, verifiable reasons for finally believing in an upcoming network marketing explosion. No one knows exactly when it will happen, it could be next month, it could be next year, if could be anytime the first half of this decade. All we know for sure is, if you get involved now, and stay involved, you will be there when it happens. So hop on, strap in, and get ready for the ride of your life. It's gonna' be a blast!

What worked? -- What Didn't? -- Whats Next?

One of the common denominators of successful people is their ability to persevere when things don't go as planned. Effective people don't allow themselves to get bogged down in feelings that don't serve their purpose.

On the other hand, ineffective, unsuccessful people allow their emotions to rule rather than their rational and objective nature. They lament what happened or what didn't and become victims rather than masters of their circumstances.

We all have disappointments. We all suffer setbacks. If we're going to attempt anything worthwhile, we're going to experience failure. The mature—and ultimately successful person—sees failure as part of success. When one method fails, they try again with a new one. Sometimes it takes many attempts.

In my coaching/consulting work, I see all too often the tendency to fix blame instead of fix problems. Rather than looking at challenges rationally and objectively, emotions are allowed to dictate the process.

They're unable to make corrections without invalidation. Something goes wrong and they want to blame. Profit isn't reached fast enough and someone needs to be fired. There's never a shortage of people or things on which to blame the failure.

I suggest a different approach. It's a process called, "What Worked, What Didn't, What's Next?"

This practice works whether you're dealing with a business, a relationship, a project or your life. The key is to evaluate often, objectively, and then to move on.

And the more often and impartially you measure and evaluate, the better it works. It's just feedback—and feedback is neither positive nor negative. It's simply information. I call feedback the "Breakfast of Champions". Looking at what happened with a healthy degree of detachment allows us to make better decisions.

What Worked?

What actions moved us toward our objective? What's worth repeating? What felt good? What created excellence?

Acknowledge your successes. If it's a big one, celebrate it. Praise your own as well as the efforts of others. When you focus on what worked, you begin with positive energy. And you create momentum toward solutions.


What Didn't?

Ok, where did we screw up? What created the mistake? Not WHO dropped the ball, but when, where and how did we drop it? How can we avoid it next time?

It's rarely PEOPLE who mess up but rather systems that don't adequately support them. Most people mean well and try their best. The focus should be on how to better support one another to reduce errors and increase quality.

There are many ways to accomplish what you desire. Often, in finding NEW ways, we create things we never would have if the first or second effort had succeeded. Acknowledge the mistakes, make new plans and devise new strategies.

What's Next?

Regardless of how well or how badly things went, IT'S HISTORY. Nothing is going to change the past. Being upset about it, feeling guilty, placing blame—or even resting too long on our laurels will cause us to lose headway.

One might be wise to use the US Marine Corp acronym, FIDO—Forget It, Drive On. But I would add one more piece; learn from the experience.

After you analyze what happened, the question should be, "What's next?" This takes the focus off from what's happened and places it on where we're going and what needs doing. You can quickly go through this process alone or with a group. It can take a few moments or several hours depending on the complexity of the project.

The key is to do it with impartiality and objectivity. Mistakes, corrections and new attempts are merely part of successful ventures. They don't mean anything, they're simply opportunities to create excellence.

Perspective from Robert Kiyosaki

Alarming Stats from the 4 Hour Work Week!!!

These are interesting (and alarming) statistics which could be helpful for your presentations. They are taken directly from, "The Four Hour Workweek". Excellent book! The stats have been verified, and the sources are listed at the bottom of the email.

*The Top 10 Stats To Know: You Are Not Alone

63% of all employees want to work less, up from 46% in 1992 [1].

26% of adult Americans report being on the verge of a serious nervous breakdown [2].

40% of workers describe their office environment as “most like a real-life survivor program [3].”

Only 14% of Americans take two weeks or more at a time for vacation [4]. The average American therefore spends more time in the bathroom than on vacation.

61% of Americans check email while on vacation [5].

53% of employees would opt for a personal assistant rather than personal trainer [6].

62% of workers routinely end the day with work-related neck pain, 44% report strained eyes, 38% complain of hand pain, and 34% report difficulty in sleeping due to work-related stress [7].



88% of employees say they have a hard time juggling work and life [8].



70% of working fathers and working mothers report they don’t have enough time for their children [9].

In 2005, a psychiatrist at King’s College in London administered IQ tests to three groups: the first did nothing but perform the IQ test, the second was distracted by e-mail and ringing phones, and the third was stoned on marijuana. Not surprisingly, the first group did better than the other two by an average of 10 points. The e-mailers, on the other hands, did worse than the stoners by an average of 6 points [10].

*Unending Workweek Growth and Burnout

Compared to 1970, American managers are working an additional month per year [11].

Americans are working more hours than any time since the 1920s. 63% of Americans log more than 40 hours per week at the office, and 40% log more than 50 hours per week [12].

Turnover rates among mid-level associates in New York City law firms is 36%. The entire system is predicated on burnout [13].

62% of workers routinely end the day with work-related neck pain, 44% report strained eyes, 38% complain of hand pain, and 34% report difficulty in sleeping due to work-related stress [14].

In total hours, the average middle-income family works four months more than in 1979 [15].

People work approximately 8 weeks longer per year than in 1969—in the space of a single generation—but for roughly the same income (after adjusting for inflation) [16]



40% of employees work overtime or bring work home with them at least once a week [17].

*E-mail Addiction and Information Overload

66% of people read email seven days a week and expect to receive a response the same day [18].

61% continue to check email while on vacation [19].

56% have anxiety if they can't access email [20].

“Crackberry” was the official winner of the 2006 Word-of-the-Year as selected by the editorial staff of Webster's New World College Dictionary. Blackberry addiction has been labeled “similar to drugs” in a study performed by Rutgers University; millions of users are now able unable to go more than five minutes without checking e-mail.

According to online surveys of more than 4,000 people, conducted jointly by AOL and the Opinion Research Corporation and reported in 2005:

41% of Americans check e-mail first thing in the morning


18% check e-mail right after dinner

14% check e-mail right when they get home from work

14% check e-mail right before they go to bed

40% have checked their e-mail in the middle of the night

More than one in four (26%) say they can't go more than two to three days without checking email, and they check it everywhere:

In bed - 23%

In class - 12%

In business meetings - 8%

At the beach or pool - 6%

In the bathroom - 4%

While driving - 4%

In church - 1%

Being “e-mailed” (like blackmailed) worse than being stoned?

In 2005, a psychiatrist at King’s College in London administered IQ tests to three groups: the first did nothing but perform the IQ test, the second was distracted by e-mail and ringing phones, and the third was stoned on marijuana. Not surprisingly, the first group did better than the other two by an average of 10 points. The e-mailers, on the other hands, did worse than the stoners by an average of 6 points [21].



*The USA vs. the World



Average Annual Vacation Days



Italy 42

France 37

Germany 35

Brazil 34

Britain 28

Canada 26

Japan 25

USA 13

Is it any wonder that US Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks just about everything but worker satisfaction?

Americans work 137 more hours per year than Japanese workers, 260 more hours per year than British workers, and 499 more hours per year than French workers [22].


The Japanese document approximately 10,000 cases per year of "death by overwork," or karoosh [23]. Considering the above stats, what must the undocumented US numbers be??
The US is the only nation in the industrialized world with no minimum paid-leave laws. European law provides each worker with 4-5 weeks per year of paid-leave.

Nonetheless, Europe has had a higher productivity rate than the U.S. for 14 out of the 19 years between 1981 and 2000 24]. More just isn’t better.

*The Coming Extinction of Vacation

26% of Americans take no vacations at all [25].

Only 14% of Americans take two weeks or more at a time for vacation [26]. The average American therefore spends more time in the bathroom than on vacation.

American workers get an average of 8.1 days of vacation after one year on the job, and 10.2 days after three years [27]. At that rate of growth (25.9%), you won’t even break three weeks after 12 years on the job.

Employees hand their companies more than $21 billion in unused vacation days each year [28].

*Work-Life Imbalance and the Disappearing Family

57% of the class of 1999 graduating business students in 11 countries said that attaining work-life balance is their top career goal [29].

32% percent of workers cited work-life balance as the top priority in their careers, followed by job security at 22% and competitive salary at 18% [30].

How are they actually doing?

88% of employees say they have a hard time juggling work and life [31].

70% of working fathers and working mothers report they don’t have enough time for their children [32].

64% of Americans report that time pressures on working families are getting worse, not better [33]..

*What Happens When Employees Work Whenever and Wherever They Want?

By the end of 2007, all 4,000 staffers at Best Buy headquarters will be on ROWE (Results-Only Work Environment), which permits them to work whenever and wherever they want. So, what happens when smart companies realize that work isn't a place where you go, but something that you do? That performance should be based on output and not hours?

Average Rise In Worker Productivity Since 2005: 35%

Average Change in Voluntary Turnover (Quitting) Across Divisions: -72.3% [34]

Sun Microsystems Inc. calculates that it saves $300 million per year in real estate costs by allowing nearly 50% of employees to work anywhere they want.

If your company won’t wake up, you’ll just have to speed the process by firing their asses or outsmarting them.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[1] “Feeling Overworked: When Work Becomes Too Much,” The Families and Work Institute, 2001

[2] American Psychologist, 2000

[3] USAToday.com, Jan. 1, 2004

[4] The Families and Work Institute

[5] eRoi Email Addiction Survey, Oct. 17, 2006

[6] Circles, 2001

[7] Integra Survey, 2000

[8] Aon Consulting, 2000

[9] Family Matters Survey; The National Partnership for Women & Families, 1998



[10] “Can’t Get No Satisfaction,” New York Magazine, Dec. 4, 2006

[11] "Why Are We Eager To Work Longer Hours?" 2000, In JAP; Loyola University Chicago

[12] Expedia.com Customer Poll

[13] “Can’t Get No Satisfaction,” New York Magazine, Dec. 4, 2006

[14] Integra Survey, 2000

[15] “Washington to Nation: Drop Dead on the Job,” Alternet, June 20, 2003

[16] “Work, Stress, and Health,” National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health Conference, 1999

[17] “Shifts in Work and Home Life Boundaries,” Xylo Report, 2000

[18] eRoi Email Addiction Survey, Oct. 17, 2006

[19] eRoi Email Addiction Survey, Oct. 17, 2006

[20] eRoi Email Addiction Survey, Oct. 17, 2006

[21] “Can’t Get No Satisfaction,” New York Magazine, Dec. 4, 2006

[22] ILO Report

[23] “Washington to Nation: Drop Dead on the Job,” Alternet, June 20, 2003

[24] U.S. Federal Reserve Board

[25] Boston College Survey

[26] The Families and Work Institute

[27] The Bureau of Labor Statistics

[28] Expedia.com Survey Calculations

[29] Price Waterhouse Coopers Survey, 2000

[30] Office Team Specialized Administrative Staffing Survey, 2002

[31] AON Consulting, 2000

[32] Family Matters Survey; The National Partnership for Women & Families, 1998

[33] The National Partnership for Women & Families Family Matters Survey, 1998

[34] "Smashing The Clock,” BusinessWeek, December 11, 2006

Overwork FAQ and Factsheet Read report

Flexible Work Schedules FAQ and Factsheet Read report

Telework FAQ and Factsheet Read report

Gen-X and Gen-Y FAQ and Factsheet Read report

Workplace Flexibility and Health FAQ and Factsheet Read report

Phased Retirement FAQ and Factsheet Read report

Making Work “Work” – New Ideas from the Winners of the Alfred P. Sloan Awards Read report

Families and Work Institute

Feeling Overworked—When Work Becomes Too Much Read report

Overwork in America Annual Report Read report

Dual-Centric – A New Concept of Work-Life Read report

Workplace Flexibility for Entry-Level Employees Read report