It's that time of year to celebrate the year, our Love, our accomplishments and reflect on some stumbles experienced.
This was swiped from a post of me Good friend Michael Lemm over on the RYZE Network
you will enjoy reading this post and download the PDF from another friend Joe Schroeder.
Predictions 2007 (written in 2002)
Below is the result of an email exchange with my good friend Peter Arnold of the MLM-DRA (
Distributor Rights Association). Most of it will be edited and paraphrased as much as possible due to the length.
Hopefully you'll take the overall message to heart....change is coming (or any many cases has come) and we ALL need to be prepared if we're not already. Now some may not agree and that's OK. Everyone must choose and take action for themselves.
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IF we wish to become truly successful as Home Biz Entrepreneurs - IF we wish to take our Home Businesses to a whole NEW LEVEL next year, and well beyond - this is also the time of year that we need to engage in some very serious "reflection" and to activate some intelligent "planning ahead" - as we no longer have a choice.
If we are interested in surviving the rapid CHANGE that's taking place right now within our industry....we must act sooner rather than later. Acting too late could spell disaster....individually, by company, and for the industry as a whole.
Here's how Paul sees it...
Bottom Line #1 -
Times have CHANGED forever - there's no looking back - no longer are the Old School methods working - no longer will it be "business as usual" in the Home Biz // Network Marketing industry - no longer will "companies" that do not embrace [and adapt to] the INTERNET continue to grow.
Bottom Line #2 - We are ALL affected by this tital-wave of forces - we cannot turn our backs on this, and hope it will just 'go away'. No longer will WE be able to build successful futures unless we take steps to adapt to the above [change is usually painful for most of us]. WE must find ways to truly "differentiate" ourselves from the masses in future - to work on developing our 'individual' UAFs (Unique Attraction Factors).
Perhaps more importantly, we need to be "thankful" for these [uncomfortable] red-alerts - and to "welcome" them as obstacles that we WILL overcome.
These paradigm shifts are healthy challenges to our creative power and ingenuity - WE put man on the Moon - WE led the world with inventions / medical cures / technology / on and on - - - WE can survive [and "thrive" with!] any turbulance we might encounter in the months and years ahead! :-)
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Mike Dillard of Magnetic Sponsoring fame put it this way in a recent email to his subscribers (shared with me by Peter....again edited and paraphrased due to length)......
DISCLAIMER.....I am in no way involved with Mike's Magnetic Sponsoring (although I do practice "attraction marketing"). So any mention of Magnetic Sponsoring is purely to hold true to Mike's staements only.
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"The Future Of Networking In An Online World....Important Trends & predictions For 2008 And Beyond"
Here we are facing another year in an increasingly crazy, chaotic world.
And chaos can be a funny thing... With it, comes both confusion and opportunity, depending on how you see the world and how you prepare.
Personally, I choose to look for and seize opportunity, and believe me... There are more today than ever before as long as you're willing to look for them.
I don’t know if you’ve been paying attention, but the industry has changed dramatically in the last twelve months.
All you needed to build an organization in 2006 were a simple capture page and a Google PPC account. Oh how I miss those days...
Now there's YouTube, video email, social networking and book marking... All of which are entire specialities with their own tricks of the trade to learn.
So what's next for our little industry of networking in a world that's now changing by the year instead of the decade?
Well as 2007 comes to a close, I’ve spent a lot of time at my desk thinking about just that, and I'm sharing my predictions for 2008 with you, so that you may use them to improve your life and the lives of others in the year to come.
Observation #1: “Attraction Marketing Goes From
“Secret Weapon Status” To Main Stream In 2007”
The past five years have been extremely interesting for networkers thanks to the internet. Changes have come quickly, and been quite dramatic at times, but let there be no doubt… 2007 represented THE massive turning point for all of us, from which there is no return.
For better or worse, the internet has changed the very economics of networking, which has forced a shift in the way distributors pursue their business in all aspects, from advertising, to budgeting, to positioning, to relationship building, and monetization.
In many ways for a growing number of networkers, the goal has shifted away from building a “downline” to something entirely different.
So let’s start with the obvious....
If you haven’t noticed, the old fashioned sales routine of cold calling leads, holding meetings, knocking on doors, and trying to convince people to look at your opportunity is officially DEAD.
It’s been made obsolete in an all-knowing market that’s been wholly diagnosed with A.D.D.
The next generation of computers will probably have a Ritalin dispenser built right in the monitor just so you can remain functional as you’re bombarded with emails, pop-ups, and the latest Britney Spears YouTube video each day.
We’ve all read or at least heard of Faith Popcorn’s “cocooning” prediction made over a decade ago, which simply means that people don’t want to be bothered, and it’s more true today than ever before.
Company’s hang “No Soliciting” signs on their doors, prospect’s don’t answer unrecognized phone numbers, and heck… I don’t even accept personal voicemail anymore.
We’ve been forced to seek shelter from unwanted solicitations, and to become very quick at filtering the information we do allow into our lives into one of two categories…
1: I still want this.
2: I no longer want this.
Those of you who continue to pursue and hunt for new business by cold-calling leads, pushing your business, and using old fashioned, outdated, un-leveraged manual labor methods, are violating every trend. You're wasting huge amounts of time and money, annoying potential customers, and missing out on massive opportunities.
But there is a solution, and it’s no secret. I’ve been teaching it to networkers since 2005 in Magnetic Sponsoring, and you can simply sum it up like this…
Your prospects have an endless ocean of distractions and options to chose from which are only a click away. Everytime they get online, they’re bombarded with ads.
If you're going to effectively sell to the market today, you're going to have to find a way to get invited - not as an unwelcome pest, but as a welcomed guest.
You need to stand out in this vast sea of distractions, and do one thing: Establish yourself as a REAL, trusted valuable resource.
And who finds who first is very important when it comes to establishing that position between you and your prospect, and getting the open-door invitation.
When he/she finds and contacts you, you have all the power and value. The prospect pleads to give you his/her business, just as you have to pursue an appointment with the best doctor in town.
When you contact him/her first, he/she has all of the power and value. You plead with the prospect to give you his/her business.
This approach went from “secret weapon” status over the past few years, to main-stream in 2007 in a BIG way. An enormous amount of people are practicing Magnetic Sponsoring methods today, (as they should), because your individuality as a person is the only real way to cut through the enormous amount of clutter online, and establish trust.
There are 10,000 opportunities and 1,000,000’s of websites, but there’s only 1 of you.
With so many options to choose from, your prospects don’t know who to listen to, and they don’t know who to trust. They are frantically searching for someone to fill that void whom they can build a relationship with.
Be that person.
And take note: Those who chose to ignore this approach are going to find it very difficult to compete with, and advertise along-side those who do use it. The best place to start is by reading the Magnetic Sponsoring Course if you haven't already done so. You can pick up your copy now and get free US shipping for limited time.
My Prediction For 2008:
As even more distributors begin to adopt this approach, it’s not going to be enough to simply put up a personal branding page and give away a free report of some kind.
In order to stay ahead of the curve, savvy distributors are going to need to do three things:
1: Raise The Quality And Uniqueness Of Your Information.
This will be necessary in order to stand out from the growing “me-to” crowd who’s simply re-teaching what they’ve learned about free lead generation and attraction marketing.
When the herd goes left, you need to find a way to go right. I don’t mean that you must do the opposite, just do something different.
Look for a unique angle. Look for a unique way to present yourself and your website in order to boost your results above your competitor’s.
You see Mike Filsaime and Ellie Drake trying to do this right now with their new reports that reveal the impact of the internet on the networking industry, creating what they call, “Networking 2.0”
And they’re right. For those of you who have been with us since the beginning of Magnetic Sponsoring, we “revealed” that information in 2005, and provided the most detailed (and still definitive), course on the subject in Traffic Formula almost two years ago.
Unfortunately “Networking 2.0” already happened 4-5 years ago when PPC, replicated sites, streaming-audio, flash presentations, and autoresponders went mainstream. Those things represented an industry shift over the previous 30+ years which relied on tapes, fax machines, and the phone. (Networking 1.0).
If we’re going to designate the evolution of the industry with a number, then we’re well on our way to 3.0 at this point thanks to social networking and what's now the equivalent of online television. So welcome to the party guys. Fashionably late is better than never!
So here’s the second way to stay ahead of the curve in 2008 and beyond…
2: Increase Traffic And Exposure In Order To Gain Traction And Acceptance In The Market Place.
Achieving high visibility and multiple exposures are seen as signs of social proof by the market place.
This is one of those genetic instincts tied to human attraction psychology discussed in Black Belt Recruiting, which you can tap into.
When you see one person eat a plant or food you don’t recognize, you know it is safe to eat as well. It’s an incredible time-saving, and even life-saving mechanism that allows people to take short-cuts and make quick decisions as we go about our lives, instead of having to stop and research every new item or circumstance we come into contact with.
As your prospects see you in more places and with increasing frequency, they will pay more attention to you and give you an opportunity to be their trusted solution provider because your “safety and value” is inherently demonstrated and proven by the fact that you’ve already been accepted by others.
The number of ways you can increase your exposure online today is almost infinite. In fact, they’re so numerous, they’ve created an entirely new problem you and I will have to deal with.
Obviously I’m talking about social networking and video platforms such as MySpace, FaceBook and YouTube which have given any Average Joe the ability to broadcast a message and reach hundreds of millions of people around the world at NO COST.
Dane Cook built his entire multi-million dollar career, and became the hottest comic of 2007 using little more than his MySpace page.
The individuals who take advantage of these massive new traffic sources can quickly and easily increase their exposure to a level that places them in consciousness of the average person within their target market, enabling them to rise above the noise within the rest of their market place.
But getting the traffic is one thing. In order to keep the attention of your traffic and capture it within your marketing funnel, you’ll need to…
3: Become A Master Story-Teller.
As Rich Schefren, Perry Marshall, and many others have pointed out, we’re in the “Attention Age” where the attention of your prospects is the most prized resource in the world, because it's so hard to capture.
And you have one goal .... To get and keep the attention of your prospects and customers, causing them to pursue you, instead of you hunting them down.
So imagine that your average prospect is sitting in front of their computer. They’ve had three Red Bulls and their morning dose of Star Bucks… Venti-sized of course.
Every 20 seconds, a new email signals its arrival in Outlook with the ceremonial “ding”, which is immediately followed by an instant message from Uncle Bob warning them about a new computer virus – moving their focus away from your message, towards these never-ending distractions.
As a marketer, you need to get grab their attention and get them to listen for just a moment, despite these distractions, before they send your latest email to its demise.
How?
Simple.
You do it the same way every parent gets their two-year-old carpet shark to sit still for a minute…
You get them involved in an interesting and entertaining story.
Yes, you’ll be able to get by if you’re just providing great information, but if you want to explode your results in tomorrow’s market, you’ll need to combine that information with personality and a story that’s at least mildly captivating.
Again, the key word here is "involved".
This isn’t a “new” strategy. It’s been used by marketers and salesmen since the beginning of time, but it’s definitely increased in importance in a world that’s been diagnosed with A.D.D.
Are your emails simple, one-time communications? If so, how can you find a way to turn them into a multi-part story?
If all things are equal... The opportunity, the product, or the quality of information, then he who is the most interesting will win.
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Now.....what do YOU think??????
God Bless,
Michael Lemm
FreedomFire Communications
"Helping YOUR Business.....DO Business"
http://Best-MLM-Resources.blogspot.comThis is a Good time to seriously consider Joining Beginners Marketing Class and enjoy all the Resources of this Quality...Audio Video and Text, with live conferences and Teleseminars
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