Do you take responsibility for your successes and your failures?

I was listening to Bob Proctor’s Six Minutes to Success yesterday. At the point where I am in the series he is talking about the 11 characteristics of great leaders as Napolean Hill laid them out in Think and Grow Rich in the chapter on Organized Planning. In this particular video, Bob Proctor was talking about the 10th characteristic – a willingness to assume full responsibility.

There are two kinds of responsibility, being responsible to someone or something and being responsible for something. We are responsible to others,  our customers or employers for example to give our best for our compensation, but we can never be responsible for others. Neither can we hold other people responsible for us.

Bob Proctor says that responsibility is the key to freedom. If we blame others for our problems or lack of success then we make ourselves victims of things and people we cannot control. Once we take responsibility for our own actions, our own successes and failures, we have the ability to change them for the better. You can’t change the world but you can change yourself.

What would you like to improve? Finances, health, happiness. What are you going to take responsibility for today and change for the better?

Wayne Woodworth
Responsible for my own success

Do you have a convenient, easy way for you customers to talk to you?

One easy way to stand out from the crowd is to be responsive to your customer, so it is important there are ways for them to interact with you. This is especially important when your business is only online.  An easy way is to allow your customers to post comments on a blog or to have a comment page where they can send you a message. But that’s only half of the equation. You also have to respond. Your standing with your customers will increase immensely if you actually answer the questions and comments they have. That will help you create a relationship with your customers because you have shown that you are a real person.

For brick and mortar-type stores this is very easy because there is a sales person for your customers to interact with. In the online world there is just a webpage. As I already said, comment forms are one way to make yourself available to your customers. Social media is another great way. Your customers can become friends or fans on Facebook and they can follow you on Twitter. This works great for building a community among your customers. Don’t forget to be active in your new community.

Wayne Woodworth
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/getwealthy
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/yonderwillow

It is absolutely critical to get regular training if you are involved in a business.

If you have ever studied personal growth then you have probably heard that if you aren’t growing, then you are dying. That is very true. If your business isn’t growing then you will soon find that you have been left behind by the other businesses in your market. Things are always changing, new technologies and methodologies are constantly being introduced. A regular training program is the best way to keep up with everything that is going on.

Training is even more important when you are building your business online where things are constantly changing.

I have decided to build my business online, and it is much more than just building a website and waiting for people to show up.  Right now social media and blogs are the big thing, and most people don’t understand them, especially social media.  Fortunately there are a few people who do have it figured out and they are willing to teach the people who will listen.

So far, the best training programs I have found for Internet Marketing are Mike Dillard’s Magnetic Sponsoring and Ann Seig and Mike Klingler’s Renegade Professional.  They both have a network marketing flavor but the material is appropriate for any small business looking to build its presence online.  If you are completely new to the online world, then I think Renegade Professional is best.  It provides very detailed, step-by-step instruction.

In building a business it is important to stay up to date, improve your existing skills, learn new skills, and learn from other people’s mistakes so that you don’t make them yourself.

Wayne Woodworth
FYI, spam is not the right way to use social media.

I received a key to success from Jack Canfield this week.  Not just financial success, although it definitely does apply.  It is a key to success in any area of your life that you are looking for more success.

You are the average of the five people that you spend the most time with.

For me, one of things that I want to do is lose some weight.  Well, the people I talk to the most at work are very much overweight, not exactly the right people to help reinforce the right habits.   I also want more success with my own businesses, and again, the people that I spend the most time with are complacent, happy to complain about being poor without doing anything to change it.

Looks like I need new friends.  We have a tendency to pick up the habits and attitudes of the people that we spend our time with, so we need to spend time with the people that have the habits and attitudes that we want to build.

Take a look at your life.  What are the areas that you are not receiving the success that you want then look at the people you spend the most time with.  Do they embody the success you are looking for?  Probably not.  Where can you find the people that you should spend the more time with?

Another concept that this brings to mind is a mastermind group.  They are a great way to surround yourself with people who are headed in the same direction as you want to go who will support and encourage you.

Leave me a comment.  If you are someone who is looking to increase your success in business and/or wellness then I would love to talk with you.

Wayne Woodworth
Anyone up for a mastermind?

You probably know Jack Canfield as the co-creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul book series.  Have you read The Success Principles yet?

Have you heard of Bob Proctor?  Whether you have or not, he wants you to be rich.

I have blogged before about affiliate marketing programs and a great opportunity arrived in my email this week. A couple years ago Bob Proctor got together with Jack Canfield and Rev. Michael Beckwith, 2 of his co-stars from The Secret, to create the SGR Program. At the time it cost $2,000 and shipped with a whole bunch of stuff in addition to the real content.  It sold very well.

They took the program offline a couple months ago to revamp it and make it more affordable.  They are about to relaunch the program, without all of the fluff, at a much more affordable price – only $197.  It hasn’t launched yet and they are looking for affiliates to help them promote it.  The affiliate program is free, so it is worth it to at least check it out.

Here’s the email that I received about it.

Hey,

I want to invite you to something really special.

http://partners.thesgrprogram.com/affiliates/signup.php?m=48814321

A couple of years ago, back in 2007, I made a decent amount of money from this  just by pushing copy, paste and send. It’s called the Science of Getting Rich (sounds like something the market would like to have right now, doesn’t it?).

So boy, was I glad to see Bob Proctor and his team relaunch it!

http://partners.thesgrprogram.com/affiliates/signup.php?m=48814321

I’m signing up again because I know it will be another success. (I mean, we ARE talking about a powerful product from Bob Proctor, Jack Canfield and Rev. Michael Beckwith)

And I want to personally invite you to jump on the bandwagon.

They have a great affiliate plan. And it’s so, so easy.

http://partners.thesgrprogram.com/affiliates/signup.php?m=48814321

The pre-launch date is April 14th, so hurry to get your head start.

Cheers,

PS: Oh, and did I mention it’s a 50% commission 2-tier program? Plus, there’ll be an additional ONGOING 50% commission on a new continuity program they’ve got. It’s a beauty!

http://partners.thesgrprogram.com/affiliates/signup.php?m=48814321

So, go get on board, send out some emails, and prepare to make some money.

Wayne Woodworth
Affiliate Marketer

UPDATE:  The program has launched and, based on the emails I have seen, has been extremely successful so far.  Now is a great time to get on board.

How much money do you want to make this year?  Do you know how you are going to do it?

My wife and I spent some more time with Live Out Loud for training on their affiliate program (which pays very well if you are looking for a cash machine).  One of the things we came away with is Loral’s process for revenue modeling.  It is a very simple process because you want to quickly figure out what you need to do to meet your goals then get busy doing those things.

First, write down how much money you want to make in the next however many days.  Then figure out how much of your product or service you need to sell to reach that number.  Next figure out what you are going to do to make those sales.  And the last step is go do it.

For example, let’s say I want to take home $2000 in the next 30 days.  My profit for selling Nikken product is 20% if I sell it at the full retail price so my sales goal is $10,000.  Now I have to figure out what products I think I can sell this much to reach $10,000.  It turns out that all I have to do is set up 3 families with the basics of a wellness home (if you curious, that is a magnetic sleep system, air and water filtration, magnetic insoles, and a few other small items).

Pretty easy, right?  The benefits of spending a few minutes doing this planning are huge, especially considering the amount of time it takes because now you know exactly what you need to do to reach your income goals.  You know where you need to devote your time so that you are not as easily distracted  by other things.

If you don’t have a way to make money outside of a fixed paycheck, see my cash machine post then leave me a comment.  I would be happy to discuss ideas with you as well as share a few of the things that I am doing.

If you want to learn more about how to write you plan, check out the Building, Leading, Protecting Your Business audio program or attend on of her live Cash Machine Workshops.

So there you have it.  Go plan then get busy.

Wayne Woodworth
Network Marketer
Affiliate Marketer
Planning to be wealthy

The successful people in business that I have talked to don’t watch the news or read newspapers.  That doesn’t mean that they are completely uninformed about what is going on in the world, but more that they don’t want to be overly influenced by what the media says.

The media wants you to believe that the economy is in recession and things are getting worse.  That may be the truth for some, like some banks and the American auto industry where things are really bad because of bad business decisions they made.  For others though, things are going very well.  My business has never been better and my wife has just launched a new business of her own.

If you pay attention to the media you probably think that there is a terrorist waiting around the corner to get you as soon as you step on the street.  In my town it is still perfectly safe for my four year old daughter’s teacher to walk her class two blocks from one building to another.  In most cases I bet your town is closer to how mine is than downtown Baghdad.

So, one thing you can do to turn your business around if it is struggling is to ignore all of the over-sensationalized media stories about how bad things are and spend more of your time focusing on the things you can do to strengthen and grow your business.  Or do what my wife did and start a new one.

Wayne Woodworth
Successful Internet Network Marketer
Recession? What recession?

It is much cheaper to keep an existing customer than to acquire a new one.  With that in mind, you need to create a process to keep your customers interested in your products and repeatedly draw them back.  One method is to create a sales funnel.

You create a sales funnel by introducing yourself and your products to your prospective customers through something inexpensive, or even free.  Introductory offerings such as ebooks or other inexpensive items work very well.  Your goal is to give your customer a taste of what you have with only a small commitment from them so that you can build their trust.  Through successful delivery of a quality product it is easier to get your customer to come back for more expensive items because you have already established a relationship.  Once a customer has tried your entry-level product you work on upselling your interested customers to your next tier product and so on up to your high-end products.

The personal growth industry does this very well.  I will pick on James Ray because he does this very well and has excellent products and programs.  Currently he spends most of the year traveling around doing FREE 2-hour seminars.  Once you are there you get quality content for 2 full hours.  Near the end he will introduce his books and learning systems and offer them at special event pricing, taking you from the free level to the $20 level for books and the $100 level for learning systems.  Then he will tell you about his 2-day programs at the $1000 level and so on up to 5-day programs.  For the first two hours he has been building your trust in his quality, for free, so that you will be more likely to buy into his products and events.  They really are quality.  Check James Ray out if you are interested in personal growth.

The same thing will work in your business.  I’m in network marketing with a wellness company that sells magnets.  Not many people know what magnets can do, so I will create a sales funnel for the magnetic products.  To get prospects started in my funnel I sell, or sometimes give away, a small button magnet to help people with their aches and pains.  Most people are curious enough that at $2 a piece people are willing to try them out.  Once they feel the benefits it is easy to upsell them to a pair of magnetic insoles, then massage tools, and finally a complete magnetic sleep system.

As a network marketer, I can do the same thing to get people interested in the business side as well.  I can start with a free report about the potential tax benefits of having your own business or a book about starting your own business by someone like Loral Langemeier.  Once they see that they really should have their own business I introduce them to the different levels at which they can start their business with me.

As you can see, a sales funnel is easy to set up and makes it easy for your prospective customers to get to know your product and through that process they get to know you so that you can build that all-important relationship and have customers who return to you again and again.

Wayne Woodworth
Home-Based Business Owner
Internet Network Marketer

With the economy the way it is and unemployment rising, many people are looking for opportunities for employment.  As painful as it is for those people who are directly affected, some experts say that what is happening is actually a correction.  One of the principles America was founded on was entrepreneurialism and since the industrial revolution our society has moved away from small businesses to where most people now work for large companies.  Our food comes from industrial farms instead of small family farms.  The things we use are made in large factories and sold at big-box stores instead of made by craftsmen and sold in mom-and-pop stores.

Now things are changing.  Since jobs are disappearing from large companies, people are creating their own jobs by starting their own businesses.  A small business is better able to offer more personal service and take better care of their customers.  They are also more accountable to their customers because if customers don’t like the service then the business will quickly disappear.

One of the easiest ways to start your own business is with network marketing.  They provide a ready-made product or service and usually a business plan.  All you have to do is decide to join the growing ranks and start taking good care of your new customers.

Wayne Woodworth
network marketer
sharer of small-business opportunities

Persistence is the key to building a prosperous home based business.

There are two points to persistence when building your business.  The first is the persistence to stick with your business over time and the second is the persistence it takes to convert your prospects into customers.

Most people trying to build a home based business give up after a couple months, but in most cases it will take a few years to get a business to the point where it is self-sufficient.  When starting with network marketing companies you hear about how this certain person went out and after only 2 weeks signed up 20 people and made $10,000.  Those people are incredibly rare and to have the expectation of hitting those levels in a short time is unrealistic.  When starting any new enterprise, you have to have the persistence to stick with it for a long period of time and give it a real chance to grow.

The other persistence you need is in converting prospects into customers.  When building a home based business it is easy to let your motivation slip and not do all that you know you should do.  You don’t feel like picking up the phone today, making the little tweaks to your website or writing that blog post.  To be successful, you need to be persistent with your prospects.  In my leads meeting last week several members talked about how making just one more phone call to a customer finally closed the deal.  You will find out, if you haven’t already, that most people will say “no” the first time you make your offer.  “No” usually just means “not yet” and if you give up on a prospect after hearing “no” that first time, then you will probably never get anywhere in your business.  Check back with them on a regular basis to just ask how they are doing.  You don’t have to pitch your product or service every time.  Just build a relationship over time so that when they are ready for your offer, you are the one who comes to mind and who is going to get the business.  Sometimes all it takes is you calling your prospect one more time than your competitor.  This is a great way to stand out because most people will give up after the first or second call.

Wayne Woodworth
Persistent Network Marketer