Tim Melanson

Follow your Bliss

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I am absolutely convinced that I have the Secret Law of Attraction at work.

Since my last post so much has happened.  Almost immediately after my post, I was offered a permanent gig hosting an Open Mic… How?  By simply showing up and playing on one random night.  I can’t tell you how much I learned from this position.  It gave me an opportunity to shine.

One of the things that I enjoy the most about pursuing music as a career…  Oh yeah… My day job and I have parted ways… ya ya.. sad, but I’m not too worried about it…  As I was saying, the coolest thing about pursuing music as a career is that since I am self employment, it is recommended that you spend around 50% of your time marketing.  Of course, since my “desired place of work” is a bar, that means that I’m out spending my time in bars getting to know people, building connections and looking for referrals… oh.. and having plenty of fun!

Last Thursday, I played what I would consider a pretty big gig.  The venue holds somewhere near 400 patrons and has an incredible sound system.  Not only where they extremely happy with my performance, they are very eager to get me into their regular weekend line-up.

After reading my last message it’s hard to believe it’s only been 6 months.  So much has happened.  I didn’t know where music would take me, and still don’t.  All I know is that I’m going to continue to follow my bliss and just trust that the universe will align itself while I make my way though on my path.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Are you too comfortable?

I wouldn’t consider myself a star singer by any stretch of the imagination, but I can hold a note and I have great timing…. Most importantly though, I LOVE TO SING.

For the past three months I’ve been attending a local “Open Stage”.  This is where you can bring your guitar and you have the stage for about 15 minutes to do whatever you want.  I’ve got a ton of experience as a guitarist and a back up singer, but I’ve never pretended to be the center of attention.  After three months of this, I’m still just as nervous as when I started.

Some people ask me why I do it.

It’s simple.  Because if you are comfortable you are NOT growing.  Every time I get up there on stage I become more comfortable in my own skin.  I feel more outgoing.  I feel more valued.  I feel more liked.  I guess you could say I’m gaining more confidence.  They say that you gain confidence through surviving the attempt.  At times, I certainly would describe my shenanigans as an “attempt”, but regardless of whether I think I did awesome, or whether I think I bombed.  I still get encouragement and applause.  Nothing feels better than being accepted.

When I first started playing on stage years ago, I remember being so worried about the mistakes that I make.  I was told a simple thing.  “The audience wants you to succeed!”  They aren’t there to watch you fail.  They want to be entertained and inspired.  Your job is to use their positive energy and have fun!

Popularity: 16% [?]

Change is Good.

First of all, I’d like to apologize for my unscheduled hiatus. I’ve had a lot of personal things going on in my life and I had to take a breather.

The most significant challenge that I’ve been facing is that my wife and I have decided to call it quits… I know, I know. The first reaction is always condolences. However, it’s not that bad. Let me explain.

I firmly believe that when a door closes another one opens. My wife and I have a lot of respect for each other, and we are leaving this era of our lives with no hard feelings. We’ve come to a point in our lives where our paths have diverged… They’ve been diverging for quite some time.

Of course, at first the mind tries to avoid change, and it was very difficult in the beginning to accept that the plans that I had made would have to change. However, I saw this experience as an opportunity to employ some of the techniques that I’ve learned over the past few years. I have decided to focus on the positive side and to avoid negativity and conflict.

I can’t believe the impact that this choice in attitude has had. I feel happier now than ever and more optimistic about my future than ever before. My relationships with my ex as well as the in-laws is strong and supportive. We are working together to ensure the well being of our son AND the well being of each other.

I am thankful for the support and encouragement of my family and friends. Thanks to them, I am moving forward with optimism, hope and confidence.

Popularity: 15% [?]

Free Business Cards

I have to admit that I’m pretty psyched.

I recently heard of a company called VistaPrint here in Canada. They offer free business cards and all you pay is the shipping. To be perfectly honest, I was a tad bit skeptical. However, skepticism has never stopped me before, so I visited the site and ordered the business cards. For the free option it takes quite a while to ship… I think it was 3 weeks or so. There are also limited options for style and format and a VistaPrint logo on the back.

Having said that, I did manage to find a format, style and color scheme that suited my needs and I got 250 business cards for less than 10 bucks in shipping.

Not a bad idea if you want inexpensive, good quality cards.

Popularity: 24% [?]

Are you following the “Rules” while recruiting?

I learned a lesson early on in my Network Marketing career, and I suspect that it translates very well to any recruiting business.

When I first got started, I took great caution with how I promoted my business. I remember telling my sponsor that, above all, I DID NOT want to loose any friends through this business. For the most part, I’ve been very successful with that.

After speaking with a few of my close friends and bringing a couple of them on board. I started to think about anyone else I might know who would be good at this. Do you see the problem yet?

I ended up thinking of someone (who I will leave unnamed) that I thought would be a star! I recruited her and got her started. This is when the headaches began. I wasn’t particularly fond of this person, and there were people in my group who disliked her more than I did. This made things painfully difficult because, conscious or not, I was not really setting this person up for success.

I was recently reading some of Michael Clouse’s work and he states it as “The Sponsoring Rule of Five“. As I began reading I immediately related to it. Here are his rules.

1. Only sponsor those people with whom you would like to become friends.
2. Invest your time with those you personally sponsor.
3. Set up a game plan - and follow through.
4. Talk with those you sponsor every week.
5. Become close personal friends inside and outside the business.

I truly believe these rules work. I know that because this is a business of relationships. We have the power and the ability to choose who we do business with. The primary objective, in order to create residual income, is to obtain leverage by elevating leaders. This will take a lot of work and a lot of time. If you don’t enjoy spending time with those you sponsor, you will not be successful in teaching them the necessary skills to become a great leader… and at the same time, you will fail as a leader as well.

It can be difficult when you are running out of people in your warm market to talk to. You might be tempted to look for the “goldmine” in a person that you may not be particularly fond of… but trust me. It is a waste of time. I learned the importance of choosing who I spend my time with, so I now spend more time with people who supported me, and less with those who don’t. You don’t need to burn bridges, but I think it’s important to surround yourself with people you respect and enjoy. In the long run, you will have a more enjoyable business and a FAR more stable one as well.

Popularity: 33% [?]

Why are you attracting the “Get Rich Quick” crowd?

If you are as frustrated with SPAM as I am, then you might be able to relate to this post.

I’ve been moderating a myspace forum for quite some time now, and I am constantly being bombarded by various spam messages. Most of them are just flat out “best opportunity in the world, act now!” spam. However, every once in a while I get some very bizarre stuff. The forum is pro-MLM and is a training forum to help people build their Network Marketing business… so you can imagine my surprise when I get a message claiming that their “opportunity” is not MLM.

Here’s how I responded:

I’m always amazed by the scripts that people use to promote their deals.“No Selling”, “No Hype”, “Not MLM”, “Not a pyramid”.

Come on people, who are you targeting? Are you seriously looking for people who are into that kind of pitch? What are they going to bring to your business?

How do you expect to succeed if you are recruiting people who;
- Don’t want to Sell
- Don’t want to invest anything
- Think everything is “Too Good to be True”
- Aren’t educated enough to know the difference between a legitimate MLM and a pyramid

If you want to make money in your deal, you really need to seek help. Find someone who knows what they are doing and allow them to teach you how to market for people who are LOOKING FOR YOU!!!!

There are plenty of people who are interested in what you have to offer (assuming it’s legit), so stop trying to recruit the deadbeats and look for some serious people!

If you are using a similar script to promote your business, you might want to reconsider. The idea is to find qualified people… or better yet, to allow qualified people to find you.

Just something to think about.

Popularity: 40% [?]

How to Invite to a Sales Presentation

I recently attended a local presentation for my Network Marketing business. I’d been to dozens of these events before, and I knew the speakers very well. I had no doubt that it would be a great presentation. They were informative and entertaining and, on more than one occasion, the entire room erupted in laughter. Of course at the end of the event, the speaker said, “Don’t you wish you had invited more people to this presentation?”

I was one of the few people in the room who had actually invited a guest to this presentation… Actually, let me clarify. I was one of the only people in the room who’s guest actually showed up for the presentation. After the presentation was done, my guest spent the entire ride home thanking me for inviting him. He told me that throughout the presentation his mind was just racing. Thinking about all the possibilities for him. I knew that he’d react that way… After all…. That’s why I invited him.

While speaking with some of those in the room who were unable to successfully bring a guest to the presentation, it dawned on me what was going wrong.

People weren’t selling the event! They were trying to sell the product/business opportunity.

The proper way to sell anything is to get all the information in front of your prospect or don’t give any information at all. That way your prospect can make an informed decision. It doesn’t matter what you are selling, this rule rings true. If a prospect only has part of the story they will not be properly equipped to make a decision and everyone loses.

The reason that Network Marketing works so well (when it is done right) is because the duplication systems require that a prospect get the information from a sales tool instead of from the distributor. This takes the pressure off of the distributor and allows the prospect to make an informed decision.

The problem is that distributors don’t do it right. They get on the phone and start blabbing about all the features of the program and talk themselves right out of the sale.

Consider this:

The objective of your call is to invite them to a presentation. If the presentation is the objective, then what are you doing talking about your product or business? You need to be talking about the presentation!

When I invited my guest to our recent event, I didn’t talk to him about our product. I didn’t talk about how much money he could make. I simply told him that I thought he could learn something from the event. I told him that we had a great trainer from out of town and that there would be a training session as well. I sold the EVENT!

So then… How do you sell an event?

Always keep this in mind whenever you are selling anything. People DO NOT CARE about features. All they care about is benefits.

Before you pick up the phone to call anyone and invite them to your presentation you must find out how it will benefit them. Here are possible benefits.

• What will they learn?
• Will it be entertaining?
• Can they meet someone there that will be useful to them?
• Are they interested in knowing what you are working on?

When I invited my guest, I knew that he was interested in starting a business. I knew that he was interested in meeting entrepreneurial people. However, most importantly, I knew that he’d be entertained! So that’s what I told him. The invitation lasted no longer that 1 minute.

One last closing note. If you don’t know how this presentation would benefit your prospect, then either you need to spend more time getting to know your prospect, or you need to find a better presentation. After all, if you can’t think of a reason why anyone would want to see your presentation then how can you sell its benefits.

Popularity: 55% [?]

Trust and Relationships: Do they go hand in hand?

I was speaking with an old friend of mine recently who is just getting started in building his business. He told me of an unfortunate encounter that he had with an acquaintance of his. He has an established relationship with this person and has helped him in the past, but when he asked for this “friend’s” support in his new venture, this person flat out told my friend that he doesn’t trust him.

I admit that I was a little shocked by this. Of course trust is very important in business, and we typically teach that your most reliable source of trustworthy relationships are your current (and past) friends. So then, why is this person unwilling to put his trust in someone who has helped him in the past?

To answer this question, I went searching for some information about what trust is. Here’s what I found.

There are three dimensions of trustworthy behavior: Ability, Integrity and Benevolence.

Ability is simple. It is an assessment of your skills or knowledge that would give a person the confidence in your competency.

Integrity is a more of a subjective thing. It is whether the trustee adheres to principles that are acceptable to the trustor.

Benevolence is whether the trustor believes that the trustee has his best interest in mind.

With these things in mind, we can easily see that relationships may not be beneficial to trust. It all depends on your reputation with the trustor. It is possible that either of these three dimensions can have an impact on whether you generate the sale or not.

So what can we do?

Of course, the past is the past. There is nothing we can do to change that. However, it is possible to rebuild trust. Keep these three principles in mind with every action you take. If you can have the other person’s interest in mind, perform each task with integrity and to the best of your ability, then you are well on your way to successful business (and personal) transactions.

Popularity: 33% [?]

I think Freelife made a mistake. I got another check!

I thought I’d post the continuation of my last post about when my parents got started as Marketing Executives in my business.

I already mentioned that after they had ‘accidentally’ told a few people about Himalayan Goji Juice and picked up a few customers.  This generated an $80 check from Freelife.  Well… It gets better.

The next month I remember I was at work when I got a call from my Mom.  She proceeded to tell me that she thought that Freelife had made a mistake.  Low and behold, she got another check… for $40 bucks…  I laughed heartily and explained to her that this is called “Residual Income.”  Two of her customers decided to order another case of Himalayan Goji Juice, and the work that she and my Dad had initially done was continuing to pay.  She said… “But I didn’t do anything!”

Priceless isn’t it.

It goes to show that when you find a solid product that provides results and has a compelling story, it is almost impossible to not make the sale.  In addition, the focus on the product and not on the business, meant that my parents were excited (and even confused) about receiving a small check.

I know so many people in this industry that promise big money, and people are disappointed when the receive anything less than a full time income.

It is far more effective to under-promise and over-deliver than to set people’s expectations too high.

Popularity: 37% [?]

Oops… I accidentally promoted my business

I was telling this story to a friend of mine last night about when my Dad first got started as a Distributor in my current Network Marketing company and he encouraged me to put it up here for your entertainment.

I’ve been doing Network Marketing for a few years now, and Freelife is not my first company.  When I first got started in the industry, my parents where extremely skeptical.  I got them to try lots of my products, but I don’t remember them buying anything.  Well, that all changed when I joined Freelife.  Himalayan Goji has a great reputation, and the story is quite remarkable, so they decided to try the “90 Day Challenge” (a 3 month 100% money back guarantee).  They got started with one of our free customer accounts and started drinking the recommended amount of Himalayan Goji Juice.

It didn’t take long before my Dad was noticing some very good results.  He was feeling much more energetic and he even mentioned that his knee pain was gone.  So a few months into it, my Dad was on a trip with some guys from work and somehow (he doesn’t quite remember how) Goji came up in conversation.  Well, I guess his friends were quite interested in how he was getting these results and were asking lots of questions.  Can you believe that my Dad actually just got all nervous and tried to change the subject?  Lol.

I can remember my reaction when he told me the story… I couldn’t believe that he had interested people asking questions and actually changed the subject.

Well… long story short, this same scenario happened with my Mom as well, and they eventually upgraded their free customer account to the “Marketing Executive” account for the $40 marketing kit fee.  They ended up enrolling 3 customers that month and earning an $80 check.

Just goes to show that when people really enjoy a product, you can’t help but tell others about it.

Popularity: 42% [?]