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This is a draft of my thoughts which I've just submitted for publication. Perhaps it will resonate with some of you! :) It's all true, by the way...
This morning, I received a call from “Unknown Caller” as the caller ID displayed. My first reaction – as I’m sure many of you may recognize from your own experiences – was to ignore the call. “After all,” I thought smugly, “who would be calling me without allowing me to see his or her phone number?”
With shame, I admit to you that my first thought was, ‘Hmmm… must be someone trying to sell me something.” And my next shameful thought was, “I’ll just let the machine pick it up – after all, I’m busy working on my internet marketing strategy.”
Ahh, yes. That obnoxious, self-righteous thought that “I’m an internet marketing expert. I don’t have time for sales calls…” Shame on me!
Ok. Important Lesson #1:
Ask yourself – and please be honest with your answer, because no one but you will know how you answer: If or when you receive a similar phone call, what is your first thought? Do you think similarly, as I did? Or, do you look at the phone, smile, and think, “This may be the very call that is going to bring me some new business or other good news!”
There’s no need to discuss your answer. I’m glad to report that I corrected my initial thought, released the smug attitude, and began quickly thinking in terms of the call being one that changes my life for the better.
Let’s move on…
Fortunately, my husband – who is a pretty wise guy (I mean that seriously), said, “It’s probably for you!” He answered the phone, and sure enough it was for me. Well, as it turns out it was a telemarketer after all! It was a woman who mentioned that she had my name as one who was interested in earning some extra money from home. She asked if that was the case with me.
I will step back just a moment and mention that I have had this call – or a variation of this call – at least 50 times within the last year. And why is that? Why, because I am interested in earning money from home – have been for years – and am probably on a list somewhere that shouts out: “Live One Here!” or “Call This One!”
Important Lesson #2:
If you are a business builder, in an internet marketing venture, in a direct sales or network marketing organization, or otherwise deal with prospects and customers – it really could be just about anyone on the phone. Yes, it could be a telemarketer. It could also be a prospect who found your website and just wanted to speak with a human to see if one was actually there.
So, the point is, you should not only expect these calls, but you should answer them. I’ll explain in a minute. First I acknowledge that I am well aware of the strategies that teach us to ignore the phone or turn it off when we are following a schedule designed to maximize efficiency. And I agree with that. I’m talking about other times.
You may be wondering why I believe you should “waste your time” talking with telemarketers and callers such as the one I spoke with this morning.
Here is Important Lesson #3 – and possibly the most important point:
Think about your business. Maybe some of you are in a business where you do not have to call people in order to gather customers or prospects – if so, lucky you.
But I’ll bet a lot of you do have to call people. You may need to invite people to a home business presentation, if that’s how your business works. You may need to call a company and get past the receptionist – who already knows you are in sales – to your eventual prospect.
So, here it was – not even 9:00 am, and this cheerful voice was calling me and asking if I was still interested in earning extra income from home. Wow! Right there – I had to give her 10 points – no, 100 points! Because here is the point:
She DID SOMETHING. She actually picked up the phone, and made the call.
Hey, I don’t know about you, but cold calling is NOT for me. I find myself feeling sick just thinking about it. But this morning, the caller woke up and told herself she was going to do it, and she did it. Just like that! Her voice was pleasant. Confident. Did she actually feel like smiling when she placed that call – probably only one of many? I don’t know. It doesn’t matter. Because her voice was smiling, and I could pick up on it.
Here is another question for you – again, only you need to know the answer: When you receive calls like that, and – assuming you answer them – how do you treat the caller? Do you hang up? Do you yell at the caller, telling him or her to never darken your telephone threshold ever again? Cuss at the caller?
If this is how you respond – or have responded in the past, why? Why respond in that way?
From a common sense, just plain ol’ good-manners, polite, golden-rule standpoint, it’s just plain rude. You probably wouldn’t talk to your best customer that way. You probably wouldn’t talk to your top producer that way. And, you probably wouldn’t talk with your next hot prospect that way. Would you?
Ahh. But, here, it wasn’t your customer. It wasn’t your top producer. And it wasn’t your next hot prospect. But – you were. You were the next hot prospect – or so the caller hoped. You were the potential next customer. You were the next potential top producer.
And so was I, when the phone rang, just before 9:00 this morning.
And so, you may be wondering how I answered the call.
I smiled before I spoke. Because – again, I had no way of knowing how this call might affect my life. I wanted to be prepared for it to affect my life in the best possible way! Plus, it’s always good to put a smile on your face before answering the phone – your smile shows in your voice.
I said, “Hello!” The caller gave me her well-practiced scripted question. I smiled and answered, “You are right! I have indeed been interested in earning extra money from home for a long time – and I’m glad to report that I’ve found a business that I’ve committed to, and am now concentrating on. I’ve decided to concentrate solely on that – so I will not be considering any other opportunities! But, I wish you the best of luck in your work!”
And it was true. Every word of it. I hope it gave the caller the strength and confidence to make the next call.
And I hope this little case-study has given you, dear reader and fellow entrepreneur, some food for thought as well. Because, one way or another – we are all hoping that the next prospects we call or run into will join our opportunity or buy our product. We are all hoping that the next people we speak with will treat us with respect, accept our invitation to our next home presentation, and have a smile in their voice when we make that call.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Friday, November 7, 2008
Your Mindset and Thoughts: The Most Powerful Tool You Have in Internet Marketing
Here is the copy of an article I just submitted to an eZine - hopefully you will find it helpful!
Ok. So you have bought into an internet marketing program. You did your homework, and found a product that you really would like to sell, because you enjoy using it – or would like to use it – yourself.
You went ahead and jumped right in. You bought the whole program, and you also bought into an automated marketing system. You feel great about this! The system you bought is the perfect vehicle for getting potential customers to your site!
So… You straighten out your folders, neaten your desk, sharpen your pencils, and then you… You what? What do you do?
Hmmm. Perhaps you log in to your site – maybe it’s an affiliate program back office where there are lots of links to training tips. Perhaps you start searching the internet to see who else is marketing your product, and to see how they’re doing it. Your mind begins buzzing with confusion.
Perhaps you see a bunch of people out there all of a sudden, and it seems like everyone is marketing – gulp – the same program. “Oh no!” you may wonder. “How can I compete with them?”
A chill runs through you. What do you do now? Your thoughts go from excitement to fear to doubt…
Ok. This is where your mindset comes into play.
The first thing you do is take a deep breath, and let it out – and while you are letting it out, you say to yourself, “Well, of course there are other people using this system! Of course other people are marketing this product! If they weren’t, there would be no demand for it! If there wasn’t any competition, I’d be in big trouble, because that would me no one wants the product. Boy, am I glad I have a product people want!”
Do you get it? First of all, to put the fear of competition to rest, understand that competition is important! When you market your product, you are not going to use the exact same words in your advertising as everyone else does! You are not going to have the exact same ideas for ezine articles or press releases that others do!
You will have your own moments of inspiration. You will have your own ideas for what might be a good advertisement. You will have your own story to tell. But – not if you keep harboring fear and doubt.
The important thing here is to have your mindset right. Here are some quick tips (and believe me, if you ever have browsed through the “Self Help” section of a bookstore, you’ll notice that there is no shortage of material on this subject! – so, when I say “quick tips,” I mean it! Take these as starting points!). And please remember – we are only concentrating on mindset and thoughts in this article.
We’re going to concentrate on getting your THINKING straight.
In a nutshell, this is the age old wisdom repeated in volume after volume of self-help works: “What you THINK about, you BRING about.”
Ever heard that? It’s in the Bible, quoted by the famed James Allen in his landmark book “As A Man Thinketh,” and many, many others. If you’ve ever heard of the movie “The Secret,” this is one of the main topics. If you have ever heard of the universal law of attraction, this is one of the primary points.
Your thoughts determine your ultimate outcomes. Have you ever heard people say that they want something, but their voices say otherwise. They may say, “Oh, yes! I just know I really want to succeed,” but their faces are saying, “Yeah, right. It’ll never happen to me.”
Don’t laugh! Have you ever caught yourself in that negative thought habit? Thinking things such as: “If I’m lucky…” “Well, we’ll see what happens…” “I’d better not get my hopes up too high…” – stuff like that?
Well… STOP IT! Decide to release or surrender any negative thought habit you have RIGHT NOW. You must if you are going to master your thoughts and mind – rather than have THEM master YOU.
“Kath, that’s not so easy,” you may be saying. Perhaps not on your first go around. But, once you get into the habit of correcting and releasing your self-limiting thoughts, and replace them with “can do” thoughts, it’ll get easier.
But, to begin with, you need the right thoughts to think - to replace the negative self-limiting thoughts with, right? Of course! So, this is where you take your goals and intentions, and put them into words of abundance so that you can begin to feed your mind with positive self-fulfilling thoughts (Note: The topic of proper wording for goals and goal-setting will be covered in a different article.).
Let’s say you have a goal to earn $1,000 extra this month. Instead of saying to yourself, “Oh, I sure would like to have $1,000 extra this month,” picture yourself looking at $1,000 deposit in your checkbook, $1,000 added to your balance column – and think, “Oh, it sure is nice having this $1,000 extra this month!” (Another Note: You need to FEEL it, too – and yes, there is a lot of literature out there on this, as well.)
Picture having the $1,000 – instead of wanting the $1,000. The mind doesn’t play favorites – if it sees you wanting, then wanting - or the feeling of wanting – is what you will continue to have. Do you really want to want it? Or do you prefer to have it?
You see, all things you can perceive with your 5 senses that are man-made began with a thought. For example, a table or a chair didn’t just appear one day out of thin air.
Someone, somewhere along the way had to have had a thought about a structure or tool that would somehow make life a little more comfortable. The thoughts might have been of a more comfortable posture, perhaps a more comfortable feeling while eating. Maybe sitting on a rock gave them the idea of a more comfortable feeling. The thoughts probably were not about “wishing” to be more comfortable. They probably thought about the postures that made them more comfortable, and opened their minds until the inspiration came to help them develop the tools. Again, this is just a simple example. But, again, primitive man’s thoughts were probably fairly simple too.
Which brings me to the next point – While you are training your mind to think in terms of your present state of abundance as a result of your business success (Again, think in the present – not the past or future.
Think in terms of “having,” not “wanting.” Think and picture having your goals right now. Practice!), don’t cram your thoughts with worry about how you are going to achieve your goals. You could not even possibly begin to imagine the multitude of ways you might find to achieve your goals. Remain completely open minded to what is out there. Help, guidance, intuition, etc., may come from a place you least expect it.
This is not “fluff.” It’s real. May I give you a true example of something that just happened to us? I’ll make it very short. We had a small property to sell, and were told over and over that we’d have a tough time in “this poor economy,” (by the way, another limiting thought), and in “this area, where nothing is selling!”
We chose to ignore such things, and we pushed on. While working on the house, and engaging a realtor to sell it, what kept going through our minds was this: “This is the perfect little house for someone who really is looking for an easy-to-heat, easy-to-maintain place here…This house is great for someone who wants a place in move-in condition…” etc. When I tell you that we had an offer within 1 week of the house being on the market, I am not exaggerating. Furthermore, the person who bought it was born on that very street – 4 doors up – and had been wanting to come back to that town for years.
You see, we absolutely refused to listen to nay-sayers. We had the idea and thought that this was going to work out. We never wavered on our faith that this was the perfect house for someone, and that the perfect someone would appear to purchase it. We completely released and surrendered any thoughts as to where this person would come from - and the person came from two states away! There is no way we could have even remotely imagined this buyer. We handed him the keys to the house today (as I write this article).
And that is just ONE example. There are many others. Don’t you want to have your own examples to tell others?
So, this is how important your thoughts are. Replace any fears about your marketing efforts by thinking about all the great things your product has to offer. Begin picturing people finding your website, and purchasing your product. Begin picturing the emails as they come in, informing you that you have an order! Begin seeing your checkbook balance grow. And – as you do so, keep your mind open to the possibilities as they come to you with regard to the actions you will take. And remember to not try to second-guess how or where or when these customers and prospects are going to come to you.
Embrace your competition. Look at what they are doing with an objective eye – one that is not fearful, but is curious. Hmm. What are they doing? Is there something that strikes you as an interesting method they are using? Use your competition as a learning tool. Be glad for competition, because it means your product or opportunity is in demand.
Once you get your mindset and thoughts working WITH you, with YOU mastering your mind and thoughts, instead of being mastered by them, you will soon find that you are ablaze with ideas and energy to help you get to your goals more quickly.
Remember to stick with it! Again, you may not have any idea where, who, how, or when your customer is coming – just keep those thoughts of abundance going. Keep your mind open. Keep the faith. And, while you are releasing all your previously limiting thoughts and replacing them with positive ones, keep working towards your goals with the knowledge you have, knowing full well that the knowledge you need will be revealed. Because you now have success on your side!
Ok. So you have bought into an internet marketing program. You did your homework, and found a product that you really would like to sell, because you enjoy using it – or would like to use it – yourself.
You went ahead and jumped right in. You bought the whole program, and you also bought into an automated marketing system. You feel great about this! The system you bought is the perfect vehicle for getting potential customers to your site!
So… You straighten out your folders, neaten your desk, sharpen your pencils, and then you… You what? What do you do?
Hmmm. Perhaps you log in to your site – maybe it’s an affiliate program back office where there are lots of links to training tips. Perhaps you start searching the internet to see who else is marketing your product, and to see how they’re doing it. Your mind begins buzzing with confusion.
Perhaps you see a bunch of people out there all of a sudden, and it seems like everyone is marketing – gulp – the same program. “Oh no!” you may wonder. “How can I compete with them?”
A chill runs through you. What do you do now? Your thoughts go from excitement to fear to doubt…
Ok. This is where your mindset comes into play.
The first thing you do is take a deep breath, and let it out – and while you are letting it out, you say to yourself, “Well, of course there are other people using this system! Of course other people are marketing this product! If they weren’t, there would be no demand for it! If there wasn’t any competition, I’d be in big trouble, because that would me no one wants the product. Boy, am I glad I have a product people want!”
Do you get it? First of all, to put the fear of competition to rest, understand that competition is important! When you market your product, you are not going to use the exact same words in your advertising as everyone else does! You are not going to have the exact same ideas for ezine articles or press releases that others do!
You will have your own moments of inspiration. You will have your own ideas for what might be a good advertisement. You will have your own story to tell. But – not if you keep harboring fear and doubt.
The important thing here is to have your mindset right. Here are some quick tips (and believe me, if you ever have browsed through the “Self Help” section of a bookstore, you’ll notice that there is no shortage of material on this subject! – so, when I say “quick tips,” I mean it! Take these as starting points!). And please remember – we are only concentrating on mindset and thoughts in this article.
We’re going to concentrate on getting your THINKING straight.
In a nutshell, this is the age old wisdom repeated in volume after volume of self-help works: “What you THINK about, you BRING about.”
Ever heard that? It’s in the Bible, quoted by the famed James Allen in his landmark book “As A Man Thinketh,” and many, many others. If you’ve ever heard of the movie “The Secret,” this is one of the main topics. If you have ever heard of the universal law of attraction, this is one of the primary points.
Your thoughts determine your ultimate outcomes. Have you ever heard people say that they want something, but their voices say otherwise. They may say, “Oh, yes! I just know I really want to succeed,” but their faces are saying, “Yeah, right. It’ll never happen to me.”
Don’t laugh! Have you ever caught yourself in that negative thought habit? Thinking things such as: “If I’m lucky…” “Well, we’ll see what happens…” “I’d better not get my hopes up too high…” – stuff like that?
Well… STOP IT! Decide to release or surrender any negative thought habit you have RIGHT NOW. You must if you are going to master your thoughts and mind – rather than have THEM master YOU.
“Kath, that’s not so easy,” you may be saying. Perhaps not on your first go around. But, once you get into the habit of correcting and releasing your self-limiting thoughts, and replace them with “can do” thoughts, it’ll get easier.
But, to begin with, you need the right thoughts to think - to replace the negative self-limiting thoughts with, right? Of course! So, this is where you take your goals and intentions, and put them into words of abundance so that you can begin to feed your mind with positive self-fulfilling thoughts (Note: The topic of proper wording for goals and goal-setting will be covered in a different article.).
Let’s say you have a goal to earn $1,000 extra this month. Instead of saying to yourself, “Oh, I sure would like to have $1,000 extra this month,” picture yourself looking at $1,000 deposit in your checkbook, $1,000 added to your balance column – and think, “Oh, it sure is nice having this $1,000 extra this month!” (Another Note: You need to FEEL it, too – and yes, there is a lot of literature out there on this, as well.)
Picture having the $1,000 – instead of wanting the $1,000. The mind doesn’t play favorites – if it sees you wanting, then wanting - or the feeling of wanting – is what you will continue to have. Do you really want to want it? Or do you prefer to have it?
You see, all things you can perceive with your 5 senses that are man-made began with a thought. For example, a table or a chair didn’t just appear one day out of thin air.
Someone, somewhere along the way had to have had a thought about a structure or tool that would somehow make life a little more comfortable. The thoughts might have been of a more comfortable posture, perhaps a more comfortable feeling while eating. Maybe sitting on a rock gave them the idea of a more comfortable feeling. The thoughts probably were not about “wishing” to be more comfortable. They probably thought about the postures that made them more comfortable, and opened their minds until the inspiration came to help them develop the tools. Again, this is just a simple example. But, again, primitive man’s thoughts were probably fairly simple too.
Which brings me to the next point – While you are training your mind to think in terms of your present state of abundance as a result of your business success (Again, think in the present – not the past or future.
Think in terms of “having,” not “wanting.” Think and picture having your goals right now. Practice!), don’t cram your thoughts with worry about how you are going to achieve your goals. You could not even possibly begin to imagine the multitude of ways you might find to achieve your goals. Remain completely open minded to what is out there. Help, guidance, intuition, etc., may come from a place you least expect it.
This is not “fluff.” It’s real. May I give you a true example of something that just happened to us? I’ll make it very short. We had a small property to sell, and were told over and over that we’d have a tough time in “this poor economy,” (by the way, another limiting thought), and in “this area, where nothing is selling!”
We chose to ignore such things, and we pushed on. While working on the house, and engaging a realtor to sell it, what kept going through our minds was this: “This is the perfect little house for someone who really is looking for an easy-to-heat, easy-to-maintain place here…This house is great for someone who wants a place in move-in condition…” etc. When I tell you that we had an offer within 1 week of the house being on the market, I am not exaggerating. Furthermore, the person who bought it was born on that very street – 4 doors up – and had been wanting to come back to that town for years.
You see, we absolutely refused to listen to nay-sayers. We had the idea and thought that this was going to work out. We never wavered on our faith that this was the perfect house for someone, and that the perfect someone would appear to purchase it. We completely released and surrendered any thoughts as to where this person would come from - and the person came from two states away! There is no way we could have even remotely imagined this buyer. We handed him the keys to the house today (as I write this article).
And that is just ONE example. There are many others. Don’t you want to have your own examples to tell others?
So, this is how important your thoughts are. Replace any fears about your marketing efforts by thinking about all the great things your product has to offer. Begin picturing people finding your website, and purchasing your product. Begin picturing the emails as they come in, informing you that you have an order! Begin seeing your checkbook balance grow. And – as you do so, keep your mind open to the possibilities as they come to you with regard to the actions you will take. And remember to not try to second-guess how or where or when these customers and prospects are going to come to you.
Embrace your competition. Look at what they are doing with an objective eye – one that is not fearful, but is curious. Hmm. What are they doing? Is there something that strikes you as an interesting method they are using? Use your competition as a learning tool. Be glad for competition, because it means your product or opportunity is in demand.
Once you get your mindset and thoughts working WITH you, with YOU mastering your mind and thoughts, instead of being mastered by them, you will soon find that you are ablaze with ideas and energy to help you get to your goals more quickly.
Remember to stick with it! Again, you may not have any idea where, who, how, or when your customer is coming – just keep those thoughts of abundance going. Keep your mind open. Keep the faith. And, while you are releasing all your previously limiting thoughts and replacing them with positive ones, keep working towards your goals with the knowledge you have, knowing full well that the knowledge you need will be revealed. Because you now have success on your side!
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