Tim Melanson

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Alright, I know that most people probably don’t associate Rock Stars with a great work ethic.  They’d probably assume that a rock star sleeps all day and parties all night.  While that might be true for some…  It certainly isn’t for most.  These musical icons are some of the most hard working individuals around.  They are up at the crack of dawn doing interviews with morning shows, brunch shows, noon shows, evening shows… and then they are off to perform their concert in the evening.

On top of that, just look at some of the biggest names in music… They’ve got clothing lines, cameos on TV and movies, reality TV, side businesses, etc.  These people work around the clock!

I think that the most impressive thing about the Rock Star life is that they are passionate about what they do.  Whether they know it or not, they are using the Secret Law of Attraction.  They do what they do because they love it, and since they love it, they don’t mind putting in the extra effort.

I think we can all learn from this kind of work ethic…  Work hard, play hard!

Popularity: 4% [?]

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.

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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.

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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.

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I don’t know if you have heard the term “Diversify, Diversify, Diversify” as many times as I have, but I’ve been noticing more and more that diversification is not necessarily a good idea. I know that if we are talking about money and investing the financial planners of the world are always suggesting that we diversify our portfolios.

What is diversification and why are people suggesting it?
In the financial world we are encouraged to diversify in order to reduce the risk involved in building a portfolio. This is because not all classes of assets go up or down in value at the same time or at the same rate. By investing in different industries/companies we can reduce the likelihood of experiencing significant losses. In other words, we balance a portfolio so that the rises in one asset will cover the drops of the other.

At first I thought that this made perfect sense. I could insulate myself from market conditions by choosing a variety of industries in which to invest. Notice the word “insulate”. I’m basically just choosing a strategy that will work on it’s own over the long term and requires little knowledge of the financial markets, and absolutely no focus. I can just put my money there and it will most likely grow over the long term.

I use the money example to make a point. Diversification is a way to control a situation that you maintain little control over. It’s a way to reduce risk.

In marketing and business there’s a saying that I’ve heard used a number of times.

“When you try and be everything to everyone, you spread yourself so thin, that you end up being, nothing to no-one.”

In my humble opinion those who ask us to diversify our time and/or our money are interested in one thing. Our business.

People ask us to partner with them in their business to “diversify your income streams”. I’m not saying this is always a bad idea, but I do believe that it is something that we should all be aware of.

As a Network Marketer, I can’t count how many people have tried to recruit me into their deal by saying that “You don’t have to quit your current company, you are simply adding this to your portfolio.” I’m not so certain that they have my best interest in mind. Sure there can be times when another business could compliment what I’m already doing… However, we should not be adding new programs to diversify. We should be adding new programs in order to maintain and enhance our focus.

The truth of the matter is that what we focus on expands. What we take our focus away from will ultimately die.

Athletes know this, musicians know this, successful business people know this.

If you want to be average, then diversify. If you want to be extraordinary then focus!

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