Starting Over— How to let go of the past and celebrate your life.

After the Trick or Treating is done, and the sugar-sotted, wired-tired kids are finally asleep,... How about we take in a movie?

No, I'm NOT suggesting some classic or trashy horror flick this time, although this one is...

(For sexual content and "foul" language, even though most all of that is bleeped over)

I AM recommending— in the most passionate & persuasive way possible— you watch this 1:15 film of INSPIRATION & TRANSFORMATION— ONE that moves you... shows you some new somethings about yourself, your partner, your kids... that teaches you about the differences between men and women... and all-in-all just might provide you with a break-through in your life & work...?

I promise you DO NOT have anything better to do. (Pedantic, I know. Do it anyway.)

Here it is:

Starting Over— How to let go of the past and celebrate your life.
The "Strategic Interventions" of Anthony Robbins.

Eric Worre (http://NetworkMarketingPro.com) shared this video with us on his website. It is remarkable. He asked for comments. Here's mine:

Eric asked: "What did you get out of this video?"

Jury's still out, but... I probably got my wife (we're going to watch it together tonight) and a good "new" chunk of my life. I also got Tony Robbins.

I have NOT been a fan— although I've appreciated many things about his work: "Ask lousy questions, get lousy answers. Ask great questions..." NOW, I am in (minor merging into major) awe. The way he worked with Lindsey was as magical as it was masterful. I'll sit at his feet anytime...

I am in the "Transformation Business" (as I believe all "Spiritual Network Marketing Professionals" are). To witness this woman AND her husband's transformation was a tearful, inspiring Joy.

I've worked from the stage as a workshop leader and been on the stage as a participant as well. I've been involved with Personal Growth & Development" for 30 years. THIS is one of THE BEST examples of the art & it's possibilities I have ever seen. (The title below IS the link.)

Starting Over— How to let go of the past and celebrate your life.

Please, let me know what YOU get out of it.

Thanks.

I appreciate you!

 

 

 

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Fear is a Hoax (and Happy Halloween)

That's probably better asked as a question. IS fear a hoax?

I've been "thinking" about fear lately— mine and yours... all of ours. I'm leaning towards some conclusions, but... I'm always leery (suspicious) of those guys (my conclusions), so, I'm still in the asking phase. Hopefully this won't be too stream-of-consciousness for you. There's value for me in all of this "exploration". I hope for you as well. So...

The feeling of fear. What is it? Describe it?

When I ask this of myself and others what I get in response are the thoughts people have about fear NOT a description of the "feeling" itself. 

That's to be expected. It's the left brain's, Rational/Analytical mind's job to put into words those vibrations of energy we call feeling that arise from someplace within our body— some people call this place the subconscious.

Instinct, intuition, imagination and whatever and all else that's in the right brain part of us, the heart (if you will)— doesn't speak English or any other language for that matter. 

The subconscious mind "speaks and thinks" (both very limited terms that are not accurate descriptions of what our subconscious mind is doing when it's doing its thing) in pictures, senses and sensations, urges, vibrations, waves, patterns, connections and other intangible ways (even more ethereal than thought!).

So when you and I talk about fear— even to ourselves— we're talking about our thinking... we're talking about the mind's attempt to "translate" that so-hard-to-explain as to be mystical combination of body-sensations and inner-vibrations through thought & language and have it make "rational" sense.

I believe THAT is what our emotions are— authentic feelings being expressed in another totally different language called "thought." And "fear" is just such an emotion.

That's what's giving rise (for me) to the idea that fear as we have come to know it may actually be mostly thoughts & at best inaccurately translated feelings. As such, fear is (no "perhaps" about it) all made up by the mind and doesn't really exist in any other dimension of our being.

The possibility (for me) is that there is no such thing as fear outside of the mind. That fear is not real. I made it up.

People make the case that fear is necessary for self-preservation. But is it?

The intuition and instinct that gives rise to the "fight or flight" survival response is— in the very moment of its occurrence— without thought. It doesn't have time to be otherwise— does it?

Look back up there at the bear. FEAR!

Do you feel fear or are you thinking fear?

If you came around the corner of your rented cabin in Alaska and came face to teeth with that grizzly, you would certainly feel something right away. But is that feeling fear?

I've encountered survival situations— attempting to fall off a cliff, out-of-control cars & motorcycles, .357 in the hands of a child in front of me— and my sense of each of them is that in the moment I did not experience fear. I was too busy saving my "ass." 

Fear AFTER the fact... oh yeah!

We've all "felt" that thing that our mind has labeled fear. But is that what it really is?

I don't think so. And, I'm still thinking...

And while I am, think about this please:

FEAR is False Expectations Appearing Real

Like so: It's 2:47 AM on a moonless night and you're walking down the street in a "bad" part of a big city. Ahead of you is a dark alley. You feel fear. What are you afraid of? 

You are not afraid of the alley are you? You are afraid there'll be someone in the alley.

You come up to the alley, look around the corner. WHOA! There's a man standing right there in the shadows.

Are you afraid there's someone in the alley? Or are you afraid he'll come towards you?

He comes towards you.

Are you afraid he'll come towards you, or are you afraid he has a gun or a knife or...?

He pulls out a knife.

Are you afraid he has a knife? 

Enough... I trust you get the bit that in each instance you did NOT fear the "reality" that was right in front of you in the moment of now, but the negative expectation— thought— of what bad thing might happen next.

And as with the bear above, if the guy with the knife did thrust it at you, you'd do the fight or flight thing immediately and there wouldn't be any thought involved in that instant— none. Intuition & instinct rule that doman (I believe that because they are so much faster and so much more reliable than thought).

So...

What your mind believes you will achieve
-- always and in all ways.

Could fear be a hoax?

Please, let me know what you appreciate most about the above. 

Oh, and Happy Halloween.

Thanks.

I appreciate you!

 

 

 

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What... Me (You) Worry? And how to Stop It!

David Cameron Gikandi is one of my heros. HIs book, A Happy Pocket Full of Money, is NOT everyone's cup of tea or clam chowder, and it is THE best book I've read at explaining the links between science and spirituality. This piece below (which I included in BeliefBusters, because I held it in such high-esteem) I think is marvelous and David's promise to "dramatically improve your life in all areas and situations— relationships, health, career, business, politics, sports— all areas of your life" I find irresistable. Let me know how it serves you. 

______________________________

Everything Produces in Kind
Sometimes in your life you have seen a clear connection between your thoughts and the world arising around you. At most other times you have not seen this connection and perhaps even thought that you were a victim of circumstances. Now is the time to see that, truly, everything gives rise to its own kind.
From the book A Happy Pocket Full of Money
David Cameron Gikandi

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Today, I would like you to notice a very simple universal yet hardly noticed principle of life. Noticing this will dramatically improve your life in all areas and situations—relationships, health, career, business, politics, sports—all areas of your life. Sometimes the simplest of things are the most powerful yet least understood. Let us look at one such simplicity. Here it is:

Everything produces in kind.

An orange seed produces orange trees, which produce oranges. This you can count on.

A frog gives birth to frogs. This you can count on.

Water evaporates into steam. This you can count on.

So what can you not count on? The impossible. You cannot count on the impossible. The impossible is this:

You cannot count on an orange seed growing into a banana plant, for that is impossible.

You cannot count on a frog giving birth to a gorilla, for that is impossible.

You cannot count on water evaporating into steel, for that is impossible.

In other words, everything produces in kind, and trying to go against this is impossible and at best a pure waste of energy resulting in pain and no result. Try it if you don't believe it.

Here is a bigger insight into this:

Everything gives rise to that which is like it, only in a different form.

So, the orange seed, tree and fruit are one and the same thing, only appearing in different form. The frog, egg and tadpole are one and the same thing, only appearing in different form. The water, steam, clouds, ocean, and ice are one and the same thing, only appearing in different form.

Now to expand: If you did not know what a frog was or a tadpole and saw them both at the same time, you would think they are two different creatures completely! If you have never seen water or ice and saw them both at the same time, you would think they are two different materials!

Ok, fair enough. It is easy to see how this is so with the physical world around you, but what does that have to do with your life and affairs?

Simple. Everything gives rise to that which is like it, only in a different form. Sometimes, if you are not aware of the big picture, your mind may get tricked into thinking there is no relationship between things that are obviously related. And this is what happens all the time. It is the norm rather than the exception. Watch.

We all know that our lives arise out of our thoughts. You are reading this now because, by a chain of choices you have previously made, including the choice to read to this point, you have thought of reading such material before. In other words, if it was not in your mental interest or field of attention, you would never have read this article you are reading now.

Sometimes in your life you have seen a clear connection between your thoughts and the world arising around you. At most other times you have not seen this connection and perhaps even thought that you were a victim of circumstances. Now is the time to see that, truly, everything gives rise to its own kind. And this is how you do that:

Your thoughts give rise to like thoughts, words and actions.

If you think a thought A, it will and must, under all circumstances, result in an experience in your world that is exactly like thought A, only appearing in different form. In practice, this means that you worry about things because you worry about things. It means:

The very act of worrying, which by definition is the consistent and excessive thinking of the worst case scenario, is that which gives rise to conditions that make you worry even more.

Again, every thought you have gives rise to experiences and results of its own kind. This is sealed and unbreakable. To simplify, happy thought results in happy conditions and experiences, and a destructive thought results in its own kind, and these can never be interchanged.

To simplify even further, worry results in conditions to worry about, and anxiety results in conditions to be anxious about. That is how your world arises out of yourself.

Now, I need your attention here for the next statements. So please pay full attention now. There is no point to worrying about anything. You worry because you think that worrying is doing something about it and hence by worrying you believe that you will help prevent disaster. You worry because you believe it works for you. And when the events you were worried about finally come about, you feel justified; you were correct in worrying about them because, look, here they are now! The truth is this:

The worrisome conditions came because you worried about them. Everything gives rise to its own kind.

You worry, and sooner or later you are faced with the circumstances you worried about, or something similar in context and essence but different in form and appearance.

Worry, or any negative thought, will under all circumstances give rise to negative external outcomes.

Never, under any circumstances, will it give rise to positive outcomes, because by definition worry is the envisioning of the worst-case scenario. Remember, the connections between the causing thought and the resultant effect may not be obvious to you, but be assured that even if separated by space, form and time, a thought always gives rise to a matching result.

It is interesting to note that Jesus is quoted in the New Testament as having said "be anxious over nothing". Worry is useless, because at best it can only disrupt the desired positive outcome, and at worst bring about a negative outcome. There is not a single instance where worry can work positively. So, why bother doing it any more?

Now, let us look at the grand daddy of this universal law that guarantees that everything produces of its own kind.

Where is it most clearly given to us? In just about all the world's major religions, no matter where they come from or how they started, they say one thing:

You were created in the image and likeness of the Original Creator.

The Creator, by extension of Itself, creates that which is like It in essence, though not necessarily in form. Form changes all the time, but essence is eternal. The only reason you do not experience yourself with the magnificence you would imaging the Creator possessing, is because (and again this law comes in) you have put forth and held a thought that you are not that which you are, and hence you experience that as well.

And that is why all spiritual streams emphasize going within, waking up, remembering, recognizing your unity with Oneness. And this is how deep this law goes, that like produces in kind.

Whatever thought you hold in mind, whatever belief... you will experience it in your reality, even when it is contrary to truth—in which case you would be experiencing illusion—but you will, under all circumstances, experience that which is like the thought being held.

Where else have you seen this law talked about? You have seen it in more places than you may remember. Here are some examples:

Birds of a feather flock together.
You reap what you sow.
You shall know them by their fruits.
Karma—cause and effect.
What goes around comes around.
Do unto others...
Forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors.

You know the rest.

Now back to your life.

Life can be dramatically simplified if you just always remember this simple law. You need not fight against anything, cause fighting against results in conflict, for resistance is born of conflict and thus births conflict.

If you find there is something in your life you do not like, simply choose another. If you don't like having little money, simply stop worrying about money, stop thinking of situations where you may lack money, stop speaking and thinking from the position of poverty.

A poor thought gives rise to poverty, a rich thought gives rise to wealth. It is very simple.

And this applies to all areas of life, even in relationships and health.

Let us look at what works and what doesn't:

Flowing from a mental and emotional position of abundance results in wealth, but struggling and working hard from a mental and emotional position of lack results in tiredness and little wealth, no matter how long you do it for.

Flowing from a mental and emotional position of peace results in peace, but protesting and fighting against war from a mental and emotional position of conflict results in conflict and polarity, no matter how long you do it for. Don't believe this? Well, ask yourself this: If everyone in the world fought against a cause they believed to be worth fighting for—all 6 billion people each with a justifiable cause to fight against—what would happen?

Now, what if all 6 billion people held peace in their mind, regardless of what everyone else does, what would happen then?

Impractical, you say? You haven't tried it yet. I guarantee you that holding your own peace is the most effective way to peace.

No matter how big this planet gets, it still comes down to what each person does, and hence the sovereignty and power of an individual is guaranteed high and capable. Every invention, revolution or leap started with one person, then spreading to more.

But that is another topic all together. For now, remember this simple law and live by it, and your life will simplify and multiply under a new clear direction.

Everything gives rise to its own kind, so direct your thoughts deliberately, and under all circumstances, be anxious over nothing.

____________________________

David Cameron Gikandi is an entrepreneur, investor and author who specializes in empowering everyday people and showing them how they can be who they really are and create the lives of their dreams. CEO of ImagesOfOne.com a website devoted to you 'Discovering proven scientific and spiritual evidence, tools and how-to information that's turning ordinary people into powerful, joyful creators of their financial, health and relationship worlds.' David is the author of Raising Humans and the developer of the Prova LifeGoals Effortless Achiever.

John Fogg (me) wrote this about David's book A Happy Pocket Full of Money:

"No other book I have ever read has taught me so
much about how the Universe works AND what I
can do—right now, this very moment—to create
and attract what I want for my life... what's truly
most important to me."

To David's web site and take advantage of his free material and more, go here: http://revolutionscape.com.

Thanks.
I appreciate you.

 

 

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How To STOP Your Negative Thoughts & Beliefs NOW!

"Belief Week" continues with me giving you one of the best things I've got. Honest.

I'm a hesitant about doing this for a number of reasons: As said, it's "the best" I've got and I "should" be selling it not giving it away. Two thoughts I have about that are One, it's SO important and valuable. It can save you years of struggle & anguish. And Two, if you like & love this, you'll be willing to trust that the whole BeliefBusters Course (and the NEW 300+ page manual due out soon) will be way more than worth it.

I'm also concerned that you won't have the necessary & appropriate background information to use these things I'm sharing with you properly, perhaps even safely. So... Hold my nose and jump "for the highest good of you & me and all concerned."

AND, after hearing from folks about Tuesday's "7-Day Mental Diet" and how they needed more "tools" to help them succeed with it, I just had to. Here ya' be. (This isn't the whole deal here in the weblog. But it IS all in the PDF for you to download.) Enjoy, please.

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This is NOT a BeliefBusters Lesson, nor a Special Report. It's a toolbox filled with hammers & nails & saws and things to help you navigate the sometimes (most times) stormy seas of dealing with your negative thoughts & beliefs IN THE MOMENT. Although many of them are taken from later in the BeliefBusters Course, you should know enough now to begin to use these tools.

What's here are a mix of techniques and "things to do" that will help you manage your thoughts & emotions. Over time, you'll be able to master them. Try them on for size. Use them where & when they fit. And stick with it, please. It takes only one cycle of the moon to form a new belief.

______________________________

The BeliefBusters First Aid Kit

Negative thinking is an infectious disease. When allowed to continue it becomes negative belief. Negative beliefs are a plague on humanity— the source of all physical, mental, emotional and spiritual disease on Earth. What's needed is to STOP negative thoughts immediately treat them and heal them. Here are some ways to do that a couple of which will, literally, blow your negative beliefs away— right away!

______________________________

In the early 1330s an outbreak of deadly bubonic plague occurred in China. China was one of the busiest of the world's trading nations, so it was only a matter of time before the outbreak of the epidemic spread throughout Asia and Europe.

In October of 1347, several Italian merchant ships returned from a trip to the Black Sea, one of the key links in the trade route with China. When the ships docked in Sicily, many of those on board were already dying of the plague. Within days the disease spread to the city and the surrounding countryside.

This eyewitness account describes what happened:

"Realizing what a deadly disaster had come to them, the people quickly drove the Italians from their city. But the disease remained, and soon death was everywhere. Fathers abandoned their sick sons. Lawyers refused to come and make out wills for the dying. Friars and nuns were left to care for the sick, and monasteries and convents were soon deserted, as they were stricken, too. Bodies were left in empty houses, and there was no one to give them a Christian burial."

"The Black Death", as it became known, was a terrible killer let loose across Europe, and Medieval medicine had no way to defend against it much less prevent it. After five years, 25 million people were dead— fully one-third of all the people who once lived in Europe!

Of course the "The Black Death" couldn't happen again today. If symptoms of a bacterial plague appeared anywhere in the world, our doctors would immediately isolate those infected and treat the patients with powerful modern drugs such as streptomycin sulfate, tetracycline and other antibiotics to stop the spread of the disease. 

So, why am I telling you this...?

I'm using the story of the bubonic plague of the Middle Ages to emphasize the extreme seriousness of a current, worldwide epidemic we are now facing. The disease I'm speaking about didn't originate in some far-off land and was not brought innocently to any nation's shores. It is not transmitted by fleas or rats, yet it is highly infectious and this infection is... wait. First, look at the dictionary definition of disease, please:

dis•ease (DIZ-ez) n. 1. A pathological condition of a part, an organ, or a system of an organism resulting from various causes, such as infection, genetic defect, or environmental stress, and characterized by an identifiable group of signs or symptoms. 2. A condition or tendency, as of society, regarded as abnormal and harmful. 3. Obsolete; Lack of ease; trouble.

[Middle English disese from Old French des- dis- aise ease]

Now, the highly infectious plague I'm speaking about, is...

THE source of ALL physical, mental, emotional and spiritual disease on Earth..

It is the pathogen of Negative Beliefs.

Left unchecked and given time to become chronic, negative thinking will become negative belief. Beliefs are simply habits of thought. And...

What the mind believes you WILL achieve— always and in all ways.

I am convinced we are facing a worldwide epidemic of negative beliefs and we need to approach it as modern medicine would an outbreak of the plague: Immediately treat the infection (negative thinking) with "antibiotics" to stop the spread of the disease.

Now, I'm well aware that some of you will consider me an alarmist who by definition is "needlessly warning or attempting to warn others by inventing or spreading false or exaggerated rumors of impending danger or catastrophe."

I don't think so. I've witnessed first-hand how destructive negative thinking and negative beliefs have been in my own life— and the lives of many men and women I have coached and counseled over the past 20 years.

Negative thinking IS a disease and negative beliefs are the assassins of success... the killers of your living in 3D—as you Desire, Dream and Deserve.

Negative beliefs take time to change. Think about this please: Can you tie your sneakers... ride a bike... drive a car? How long would it take you to unlearn any of those things? Is that even possible?

Those habits are so deep-seated (and deep-seeded) in your mind and many of your beliefs are like that. The good news is you CAN change your beliefs and it's lots (LOTS) easier than trying to unlearn how to ride a bicycle.

The better news is you can STOP negative thinking before it becomes a habit of belief. It just takes first aid. So, I'm going to equip you with a BeliefBusters First Aid Kit, essentially containing some supplies, equipment and instructions to stop negative thinking as soon as it appears (and that is a most desirable habit to have).

First, an important NOTE:

This work we're doing with BeliefBusters is based on one core belief, which is:

You and I are infinitely powerful spiritual beings directly connected to the Source of all Creation.

If you cannot "buy into" this particular belief... please replace it with some other thinking that connects you to a "higher power" or "Unifying Principle."

If that idea doesn't work for you either... I'm not sure BeliefBusters will serve you to its fullest potential.

By the way, this (what's above) used to be a significant concern of mine. I was afraid that too many people wouldn't or couldn't relate to the spiritual side of all of this. But then I learned from recent research that well over 90 percent of Americans— not widely acknowledged as the most spiritually inclined nation on Earth— believe in God or a universal spirit... More than half of Americans pray at least once a day... And even a strong percentage of atheists and agnostics expressed similar beliefs in a higher power....

That said, the first device you'll need in the BeliefBusters First Aid Kit is a tourniquet for the mind. It's function is to "stop the bleeding" of negative thought. ANYthing that can accomplish that for you is the right tool for the job. Here are some I've found that work. I'll start with two of my current personal favorites. The first one is so simple & so powerful it's funny… literally.

Smile

That's it. That's all. SMILE!

The power of a smile simply blows me away. Always works. (The positive way of saying, "Never fails.") Does so instantly. And as long as you keep smiling, the negative thoughts & emotions are facing the most formidable foe they've ever done battle with.

It's an urban legend that it takes four facial muscles to smile and 16 to frown, but don't let that deter you from invoking "The Power of a Smile" at every opportunity.

You need NOT feel happy. Just smile and you will be… happy… quickly. There's nothing like it. And, I recommend you add it to the mix of all that follows here. 

By the way, a turbo-charged smile is laughing. Try it. Negative thought, belief, whatever shows up… smile, then laugh and watch what happens. Joy versus feeling bad: Joy wins every time. Magic! 

"Let go. Let God."

You have a negative thought. As soon as you catch it ("gotcha"), say to yourself or out loud (and more on that in a bit), "Let go. Let God." You may need to or want to say it again... and again... and again.... Simply repeat, "Let go. Let God." as many times as it takes for the negative thought to stop and disappear. (And of course, you can smile, too, for added effect.)

Here's what you're doing, and this is one of those "good to know" things, because you are accomplishing way more than simply stopping the unwanted thought.

First, we learned in early science class that, "No two objects can occupy the same space at the same time" and that's true for thoughts, too.

As you begin thinking "Let go. Let God." the previous negative thought gets replaced by the new more positive one.

There simply isn't a place in time and space for both, so... Stopping negative thinking is the first good thing that happens for you. There's more.

Right now, I want you to make a fist. Use either hand, just make a fist and clench that fist as tight as you can. Let your hand shake with the tension of your grip. Got it? Good.

Now... Quickly... RELAX; open your hand, palm facing up.

How does that feel?

That's the sensation of RELEASING, of letting go. Part one of this "tourniquet for the mind" stops the bleeding of negative thinking AND releases the negative thought itself and there's a real and tangible sense of liberty in that. Part two, "Let God" begs the question, "Let God what?"

You're welcome to interpret this one any way that serves you best. Here's my idea:

I'm letting God deal with it. I release, let go of the negative thought and offer it to God to cleanse, erase and heal.

For me that brings in forgiveness, treating both the symptom AND the cause, and it also assures that it's all "for the highest good of myself and all concerned." It also occurs to me that God (the higher power in my life) is far better equipped to deal with the plague of negative thinking and belief than I am, so by letting God handle it I'm engaging the ultimate healer in the Universe in the treatment and cure of my disease.

I mentioned above that you could say, "Let go. Let God." to yourself or out loud. Both work. What I'm finding is that speaking out loud has even more power. Sound adds an additional vibration to thought and the two together multiplies the positive, creative energy. Try it and learn for yourself...

______________________________

There's lots (and lots and...) more in the BeliefBusters First Aid Kit, and the 18-page downloadable PDF is available by CLICKING THIS LINK HERE.

And PLEASE, do me a "Thank You" by letting me know what find most useful & valuable in all of this. (It's important to me, BUT MORE IMPORTANT is the surprise benefit YOU will receive by doing so. try it.)

Thanks.
I appreciate you.

 

 

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What Are You Feeding Your Mind? (And is it time to go on a diet?)

Emmet Fox (July 30, 1886– August 13, 1951) was born in Ireland, and is a famous New Thought spiritual leader of the early 20th Century. He was educated in England. He had a large influence on the founding of Alcoholics Anonymous.

I first came across Dr. Fox's work back in the 70's along with the likes of Charles Fillmore & Myrtle Fillmore (founders of the Unity School of Christianity), Florence Scovel Shinn, Catherine Ponder, Thomas Troward and a host of what are called "New Thought" writers and teachers.

I always thought of Emmet Fox as this spiritually wise, gentle & gentil, avuncular fellow... until I read the piece below. (And yes, I should have known from his being one of the two guys who started AA, but I just learned that yesterday.) Task master? Oh mama. And... right on. 

Since this IS "Belief Week" in The FoggBlogg... and Beliefs are habits of thought... I've chose to include this "tough love" piece from a spiritual man who embodied & contributed both. Enjoy. (An added "by the way," I think if Dr. Fox were to write this today, he wouldn't call it a diet. He'd rightly call it a CLEANSE.)

The Seven Day Mental Diet
How to change your life (and the world) in a week
by Emmet Fox

The subject of diet is one of the foremost topics of the present day in public interest. Newspapers and magazines teem with articles on the subject. The counters of the bookshops are filled with volumes unfolding the mysteries of proteins, starches, vitamins, and so forth. Just now the whole world is food-conscious.

Experts on the subject are saying that physically you become the thing that you eat that your whole body is really composed of the food that you have eaten in the past. What you eat today, they say, will be in your bloodstream after the lapse of so many hours, and it is your blood-stream that builds all the tissues composing your body— and there you are.

Of course, no sensible person has any quarrel with all this. It is perfectly true, as far as it goes, and the only surprising thing is that it has taken the world so long to find it out; but in this pamphlet I am going to deal with the subject of dieting at a level that is infinitely more profound and far reaching in its effects. I refer of course to mental dieting.

The most important of all factors in your life is the mental diet on which you live.

It is the food which you furnish to your mind that determines the whole character of your life. It is the thoughts you allow yourself to think, the subjects that you allow your mind to dwell upon, which make you and your surroundings what they are. As they days, so shall they strength be.

Everything in your life today the state of your body, whether healthy or sick, the state of your fortune, whether prosperous or impoverished, the state of your home, whether happy or the reverse, the present condition of every phase of your life in fact-is entirely conditioned by the thoughts and feelings which you have entertained in the past, by the habitual tone of your past thinking. And the condition of your life tomorrow, and next week, and next year, will be entirely conditioned by the thoughts and feelings which you choose to entertain from now onwards.

In other words, you choose your life, that is to say, you choose all the conditions of your life, when you choose the thoughts upon which you allow your mind to dwell.

Thought is the real causative force in life, and there is no other. You cannot have one kind of mind and another kind of environment.

This means that you cannot change your environment while leaving your mind unchanged, nor-and this is the supreme key to life and the reason for this pamphlet -can you change your mind without your environment changing too.

This then is the real key to life: if you change your mind your conditions must change too— your body must change, your daily work or other activities must change; your home must change; the color-tone of your whole life must change.

For whether you be habitually happy and cheerful, or low-spirited and fearful, depends entirely on the quality of the mental food upon which you diet yourself.

Please be very clear about this. If you change your mind your conditions must change too. We are transformed by the renewing of our minds. So now you will see that your mental diet is really the most important thing in your whole life.

This may be called the Great Cosmic Law, and its truth is seen to be perfectly obvious when once it is clearly stated in this way. In fact, I do not know of any thoughtful person who denies its essential truth. The practical difficulty in applying it, however, arises from the fact that our thoughts are so close to us that it is difficult, without a little practice, to stand back as it were and look at them objectively.

Yet that is just what you must learn to do.

You must train yourself to choose the subject of your thinking at any given time, and also to choose the emotional tone, or what we call the mood that colors it.

Yes, you can choose your moods. Indeed, if you could not you would have no real control over your life at all. Moods habitually entertained produce the characteristic disposition of the person concerned, and it is his disposition that finally makes or mars a person's happiness.

You cannot be healthy; you cannot be happy; you cannot be prosperous; if you have a bad disposition. If you are sulky, or surly, or cynical, or depressed, or superior, or frightened half out of your wits, your life cannot possibly be worth living. Unless you are determined to cultivate a good disposition, you may as well give up all hope of getting anything worth while out of life, and it is kinder to tell you very plainly that this is the case.

If you are not determined to start in now and carefully select all day the kind of thoughts that you are going to think, you may as well give up all hope of shaping your life into the kind of thing that you want it to be, because this is the only way.

In short, if you want to make your life happy and worth while, which is what God wishes you to make it, you must begin immediately to train yourself in the habit of thought selection and thought control.

This will be exceedingly difficult for the first few days, but if you persevere you will find that it will become rapidly easier, and it is actually the most interesting experiment that you could possibly make.

In fact, this thought control is the most thrillingly interesting hobby that anyone could take up. You will be amazed at the interesting things that you will learn about yourself, and you will get results almost from the beginning.

Now many people knowing this truth, make sporadic efforts from time to time to control their thoughts, but the thought stream being so close as I have pointed out and the impacts from outside so constant and varied, they do not make very much progress.

That is not the way to work. Your only chance is definitely to form a new habit of thought which will carry you through when you are preoccupied or off your guard as well as when you are consciously attending to the business.

This new thought habit must be definitely acquired, and the foundation of it can be laid within a few days, and the way to do it is this:

Make up your mind to devote one week solely to the task of building a new habit of thought, and during that week let everything in life be unimportant as compared with that.

If you will do so, then that week will be the most significant week in your whole life. It will literally be the turning point for you. If you will do so, it is safe to say that your whole life will change for the better. In fact, nothing can possibly remain the same.

This does not simply mean that you will be able to face your present difficulties in a better spirit; it means that the difficulties will go. This is the scientific way to Alter Your Life, and being in accordance with the Great Law it cannot fail.

Now do you realize that by working in this way you do not have to change conditions? What happens is that you apply the Law, and then the conditions change spontaneously. You cannot change conditions directly you have often tried to do so and failed but go on the seven day mental diet and conditions must change for you.

This then is your prescription.

For seven days you must not allow yourself to dwell for a single moment on any kind of negative thought.

You must watch yourself for a whole week as a cat watches a mouse, and you must not under any pretense allow your mind to dwell on any thought that is not positive, constructive, optimistic, kind.

This discipline will be so strenuous that you could not maintain it consciously for much more than a week, but I do not ask you to do so. A week will be enough, because by that time the habit of positive thinking will begin to be established. Some extraordinary changes for the better will have come into your life, encouraging you enormously, and then the future will take care of itself.

The new way of life will be so attractive and so much easier than the old way that you will find your mentality aligning itself almost automatically.

But the seven days are going to be strenuous. I would not have you enter upon this without counting the cost. Mere physical fasting would be child's play in comparison, even if you have a very good appetite. The most exhausting form of army gymnastics, combined with thirty-mile route marches, would be mild in comparison with this undertaking. But it is only for one week in your life, and it will definitely alter everything for the better.

For the rest of your life here, for all eternity in fact, things will be utterly different and inconceivably better than if you had not carried through this undertaking.

Do not start it lightly. Think about it for a day or two before you begin. Then start in, and the grace of God go with you. You may start it any day in the week, and at any time in the day, first thing in the morning, or after breakfast, or after lunch, it does not matter, but once you do start you must go right through for the seven days. That is essential.

The whole idea is to have seven days of-unbroken mental discipline in order to get the mind definitely bent in a new direction once and for all.

If you make a false start, or even if you go in well for two or three days and then for any reason "fall off" the diet, the thing to do is to drop the scheme altogether for several days, and then to start again afresh. There must be no jumping on and off, as it were.

You remember that Rip Van Winkle in the play would take a solemn vow of teetotalism, and then promptly accept a drink from the first neighbor who offered him one, saying calmly: "I won't count this one."

Well, on the seven day mental diet this sort of thing simply will not do. you must positively count every lapse, and whether you do or not, nature will. Where there is a lapse you must go off the diet altogether and then start again.

Now, in order, if possible, to forestall difficulties, I will consider them in a little detail.

First of all, what do I mean by negative thinking?

Well, a negative thought is any thought of failure, disappointment, or trouble; any thought of criticism, or spite, or jealousy, or condemnation of others, or self condemnation; any thought of sickness or accident; or, in short, any kind of limitation or pessimistic thinking.

Any thought that is not positive and constructive in character, whether it concerns you yourself or anyone else, is a negative thought.

Do not bother too much about the question of classification, however; in practice you will never have any trouble in knowing whether a given thought is positive or negative. Even if your brain tries to deceive you, your heart will whisper the truth.

Second, you must be quite clear that what this scheme calls for is that you shall not entertain, or dwell upon negative things. Note this carefully.

It is not the thoughts that come to you that matter, but only such of them as you choose to entertain and dwell upon.

It does not matter what thoughts may come to you provided you do not entertain them. It is the entertaining or dwelling upon them that matters.

Of course, many negative thoughts will come to you all day long. Some of them will just drift into your mind of their own accord seemingly, and these come to you out of the race mind. Other negative thoughts will be given to you by other people, either in conversation or by their conduct, or you will hear disagreeable news perhaps by letter or telephone, or you will see crimes and disasters announced in the newspaper headings. These things, however, do not matter as long as you do not entertain them.

In fact, it is these very things that provide the discipline that is going to transform you during this epoch making week.

The thing to do is, directly the negative thought presents itself— turn it out.

Turn away from the newspaper; turn out the thought of the unkind letter, or stupid remark, or what not. When the negative thought floats into your mind, immediately turn it out and think of something else.

Best of all, think of God as explained in The Golden Key perfect analogy is furnished by the case of a man who is sitting by an open fire when a red hot cinder flies out and falls on his sleeve. If he knocks that cinder off at once, without a moment's delay to think about it, no harm is done. But if he allows it to rest on him for a single moment, under any pretense, the mischief is done, and it will be a troublesome task to repair that sleeve. So it is with a negative thought.

Now what of those negative thoughts and conditions which it is impossible to avoid at the point where you are today? What of the ordinary troubles that you will have to meet in the office or a home?

The answer is, that such things will not affect your diet provided that you do not accept them, by fearing them, by believing them, by being indignant or sad about them, or by giving them any power at all.

Any negative condition that duty compels you to handle will not affect your diet.

Go to the office, or meet the cares at home, without allowing them to affect you. (None of these things move me) and all will be well. Suppose that you are lunching with a friend who talks negatively— do not try to shut him up or otherwise snub him. Let him talk, but do not accept what he says, and your diet will not be affected.

Suppose that on coming home you are greeted with a lot of negative conversation— do not preach a sermon, but simply do not accept it. It is your mental consent, remember, that constitutes your diet. Suppose you witness an accident or an act of injustice let us say Instead of reacting with pity or indignation, refuse to accept the appearance at its face value; do anything that you can to right matters, give it the right thought and let it go at that. You will still be on the diet.

Of course, it will be very helpful if you can take steps to avoid meeting during this week anyone who seems particularly likely to arouse the devil in you. People who get on your nerves, or rub you up the wrong way, or bore you, are better avoided while you are on the diet; but if it is not possible to avoid them, then you must take a little extra discipline that is all.

Suppose that you have a particularly trying ordeal before you next week Well, if you have enough spiritual understanding you will know how to meet that in the spiritual way; but, for our present purpose, I think I would wait and start the diet as soon as the ordeal is over. As I said before, do not take up the diet lightly, but think it over well first.

In closing, I want to tell you that people often find that the starting of this diet seems to stir up all sorts of difficulties. It seems as though everything begins to go wrong at once. This may be disconcerting, but it is really a good sign. It means that things are moving; and is not that the very object we have in view? Suppose your whole world seems to rock on its foundations. Hold on steadily, let it rock, and when the rocking is over, the picture will have reassembled itself into something much nearer to your heart's desire.

The above point is vitally important and rather subtle. Do you not see that the very dwelling upon these difficulties is in itself a negative thought, which has probably thrown you off the diet?

The remedy is not, of course, to deny that your world is rocking in appearance, but to refuse to take the appearance for the reality.

(Judge not according to appearances, but judge righteous judgment).

A closing word of caution: Do not tell anyone else that you are on the diet, or that you intend to go on it. Keep this tremendous project strictly to yourself. Remember that your soul should be the Secret Place of the Most High.

When you have come through the seven days successfully, and secured your demonstration, allow a reasonable time to elapse to establish the new mentality, and then tell the story to anyone else who you think is likely to be helped by it.

And, finally, remember that nothing said or done by anyone else can possibly throw you off the diet. Only your own reaction to the other person's conduct can do that.
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Pretty tough assignment, doncha' think?

AND, I trust you know as well as I do what the result of an effort that falls quite the way short would be. Leter on this week, I'll give you some help on how to do that "turn out" thing. It's actually easier than you think with a couple of simple power tools we use in BeliefBusters.

Thanks.
I appreciate you.

 

 

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Do you know what a belief is? (I thought I did...)

I'm going to focus on Beliefs this week, mostly because I'm doing a re-write of BeliefBusters and busting & building my share of my own beliefs. I'll start with a new discovery I just made.

When you have the thought, "I couldn't have said it better myself," that's the time to shut-up and listen. Such a one as that appears below. From Dr. Tim Ong, M.B.B.S. author of From Fear To Love. Can't say it's a great book— yet. I want to read it again and... But there're a host of good and useful ideas in it. That I do know.

And a note, please: I've been working on the subject of "beliefs" for 20 years. Dr. Ong has written a few ideas I've never encountered in those years (For ex: "A belief is something we do not know." Very cool). THAT really gets my attention. Hope it does yours, too.
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Do you know what a belief is?

I would bet that even if you do not know what a belief is, you do know that you have plenty of beliefs. Many of these beliefs are so entrenched in our mind subconsciously that we are not even aware of them.

A belief is something we do not know.

If it is something we know, then it would not be called a belief, would it? It would have been called knowledge or fact instead. So a belief is something we do not know for sure, yet this belief propels us to think, say and do things on auto-
pilot. Some people even kill for their beliefs.

Can there be anything more illogical? Yet we do it, all the time.

A belief is merely a perception of our reality. It is not an absolute truth. It can change, just like our belief in a flat world in the past has changed. We also used to believe that the earth is the center of the universe. Now we know that is not true.

So a belief is something we do not know for sure but we take it on in good faith, assuming that it is true. A belief can change with time. Yet a belief is so powerful that it literally drives our lives, how we live and behave.

Scientists once believe very strongly in the predictability of the universe. We were certain that we can, with great precision, determine the nature of all things - stars, planets, plants, animals and even men.

But now quantum physics is challenging that certainty. At the quantum level, there is a degree of uncertainty built into the system. Everything is only a potentiality, not a certainty. Our observation itself changes the nature of reality.

If beliefs are so uncertain and unreliable, would it not be wise to not hold on too strongly to any beliefs? Should we not give ourselves some allowance for errors?

Instead of being dogmatic about whether our beliefs are right or wrong, should we not choose beliefs that enhances life and discard those that limits life?

I prefer to classify beliefs into life-enhancing beliefs and life-limiting beliefs. These classifications help us to select beliefs that are more likely to enrich and expand our lives in beautiful and abundant ways, and easily discard the life-limiting beliefs that constrict and rob us of the beauty of life.

Having said that, are you aware that you can choose what to believe in and what not to believe in? Yes, you do have this freedom to choose your own beliefs, so make sure you choose wisely.

Know that whatever you choose to believe in will manifest in your life, be it good or bad. As the saying goes, whatever your mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve. In fact, your present life right now is the external manifestations of your inner belief system.

Reflect on this:

Are you having problems with money, or the lack of it? Don't you wish you could have all the money you ever need so that you can live the life of your choice?

If what you are doing right now is not getting you the life you want, what are you doing about it? Nothing? Why not? Because you don't believe it can make any difference? There lies a belief that is stopping you!

When you are mindful of your thoughts, you can catch yourself believing in all kinds of rubbish, beliefs that are obstacles to your ideal life.

Want to live a life without fear, one that is abundant, peaceful and happy?

Then choose to believe that you are a spiritual being, indestructible, complete, free and pure love.

Then live in accordance with this new belief!

How Beliefs Work
Have you ever bought a car and then all of a sudden you see the same model everywhere on the road? When I first considered setting up my own clinic many years ago, I discovered that all of a sudden there were clinics everywhere I went. There have been there all along but I did not see them until I started to focus my mind on setting up my own clinic. The outer reality has not really changed but what has changed is my inner thoughts and focuses.

Beliefs work the same way.

Once we have decided to take on a belief, most of the time unconsciously, our brain seems to re-configure itself, re-arranging the neural pathways, and we ended up turning our focus on things and events that further validate the belief. We literally attract these things into our lives. That is why Dr. Wayne Dyer said, "Believe it and you will see it" instead of the usual "I'll believe it when I see it". He wrote an entire book on this concept.

So when you hold on to a belief of lack or a belief that the universe is hostile, then you will "see" the evidence in your life validating those beliefs. Believe you are not worthy and it is reflected in your low self-esteem and other self esteem issues, in the way you avoid  relationships or commitments, or in experiencing people in your life who continue to take you for granted or look down on you.

Believe in a benevolent universe and a universe of abundance, and you will begin to see evidence of abundance and generosity, kindness and compassion.

The good news is that you get to choose what you want to believe in.

The bad news is that you can choose your beliefs only if you are highly mindful and aware of your thoughts.

This is because beliefs are most often taken in unconsciously and as long as you continue to live your life unconsciously you will continue to take in beliefs without being able to filter them.

Fortunately, there are many ways and tools to remove unwanted life-limiting beliefs and consciously accept life-enhancing beliefs.

Being aware that there is such a possibility is already a step forward. To be able to learn the methods and to apply them in your own life would be truly transformational...
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Indeed.

The above was excerpted from Dr. Tim Ong's Special Report Transforming Fear. Click the title link for your own copy in PDF. And, please let me know what you like best about it.

Thanks.
I appreciate you.

 

 

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Network marketing is about making a lot of money AND a lot of difference.

Do you admire people who do the same thing you do... only better? I do. And when they do it much, much better... I idolize them for that. Former partner and "oldest living friend" (outside of my mother) John David Mann is my "writer's writer." He edited Upline and made it great. He's got a marvelous mind. Heart & spirit to match. And "The Mann" is a real, card-carrying (done it twice with different companies in different decades) network marketing leader.

Which is why, when John David speaks, we ALL should listen. What's below is one of my all-time favorite pieces from JDM's keyboard. A classic classic.

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Residual Income, Residual Impact
The Reason This Business Works
One of the great promises of network marketing is something called “residual income.” What does this arcane phrase mean, and why does this business give it to us?

The word residual means “left over.”

Residual income is that income which is the residue of one’s initial efforts, the results that are left behind after the doing is done.

A more familiar expression of this concept is royalties.

The concept of residual income originated with the monarchy. Kings and queens were paid in residue for a variety of things: land they owned, use of resources under their control, services they provided (armies, for instance) . . . or, hey, just for being the monarchy.

In these democratic days, royalties are a bit less high-handed. A “royalty” is income paid for a duplicated effort. Authors, inventors, actors and performers of many kinds earn ongoing residuals from their work. Create a popular song, and every time a CD is sold or your song is publicly performed, you’ll receive a royalty payment. Even long after your initial effort in creating the song is expended, so long as it’s being sold — through performance, CD sales, use on movie sound tracks or TV commercials, you name it — you earn the royalty.

RESIDUAL INCOME: FREE AT LAST
The residual income in network marketing is income you continue to earn based on the productivity of your initial business-building efforts. In a legitimate network marketing program, this income is a reflection of (i.e., commission on) actual sales of products or services generated by the network organization you helped create and develop.

In a sense, it is a royalty — and you’re the king or queen who’s being compensated for the profits of your far-flung king- or queendom.

Residual income is desirable because, like the songwriter’s or author’s earnings, it is an income stream that continues flowing long after you’ve completed your initial efforts. In other words, you no longer have to do anything new to generate it. As long as sales are being made, the checks keep coming.

In a word: freedom.

Of course, there are some conditions that must exist in order for you to actually enter such a blissful state of residual keep. First and foremost, the company that issues your “royalty” checks must remain in business. (As the ancient knight says in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, “Choose wisely.”)

What’s more, the products or services must be of a sort that will continuously generate repeat sales. Historically, the favored choice for residual income in network marketing is a consumable product of exceptional quality and in great demand. (I use the word “product” to include services, which are every bit as much a product as a skin cream or nutritional beverage.)

Understand this distinction: we are not compensated for the sheer act of recruiting. It doesn’t work to try to build your future income stream on more and more new people coming into the program. An unhealthily focused emphasis on recruiting (especially with hefty buy-ins or high-commission “startup packages”) and large-volume purchases (the infamous “front-loading” ploy) are classic symptoms of poor repeat-sales potential. Neither dodge works, at least not for long.

Genuine residual income comes from the legitimate purchase and repeat consumption of products by the men and women in your group.

A third condition upon which your royalties rely is the strength — that is, the enduring strength — of the network you build. This is a function of leadership . . . which brings us to residual impact.

RESIDUAL IMPACT: MAKING A DIFFERENCE
Residual impact is just like the residual income that writers, artists, inventors and performers have, except here we’re talking about the impact their work creates rather than the income it generates.

To have an impact, one must influence with power and velocity. The impact of the industrial revolution is an example. The influence of the Internet is another. The impact of a Gandhi, a Schweitzer or a Chaplin is yet another.

Residual impact is impact that reverberates long after your initial efforts have ceased.

For a writer, it would be authoring a best-selling book or even a classic. Bach, Beethoven, Brahms and the Beatles have all given us the residual impact of their music. There are numerous examples of great performances (Bogart and Bergman in Casablanca) and great inventions (the light bulb and the home computer) that have had and will continue to have an enduring residual impact on billions of people.

You create residual impact the same way you earn residual income: investing your time, energy and effort in other people.

What’s the primary benefit of network marketing over conventional sales channels? Residual income. The same is true of residual impact. By enrolling, training and leading a network of men and women to success, you have a direct residual impact on their lives, the lives of their families and friends, the lives of countless consumers who benefit from the product, and the lives of all the future generations of men and women they will sponsor — and those whose lives they will influence, and so on.

Residual impact takes many forms. Each one serves by making a positive, sometimes even life-changing difference in people’s lives. What’s more, as the network marketing industry expands and prospers, you are playing a part in bringing to light a major shift in the way of life and work in our world.

Imagine the powerful model of “can-do-ness” President Kennedy thrust into the American consciousness when he declared the country’s intention to put a man on the moon within ten years. Everybody enrolled in that dream; the entire nation watched its progress with interest and ownership. When the deed was done, we felt the pride of our own accomplishment.

That’s residual impact on a national, even global scale.

Showing the world how network marketing honors people’s values and purpose as no other business model in history has, proving that ordinary people can live extraordinary lives, offering the world a formula for personal and financial freedom, smashing the “glass ceiling” once and for all, providing much-needed leadership for the future — these are all powerful pieces of a model of possibility for a world in great need of all that is good and true about our profession.

Again, residual impact — on a very big scale.

TURN TIME INTO MONEY, MONEY INTO TIME
Benjamin Franklin once observed that he had spent his first forty years turning his time into money and his second forty years turning his money back into time. Franklin built a large enough asset base in his first four decades to supply sufficient residual income to allow him to spend his next four decades doing whatever he wanted to do.

And it’s a good thing for all of us that he did.

We all know of the remarkable contributions Franklin made that still affect our lives today. If Ben hadn’t been free to mess with his kites, would I be typing on a Macintosh® laptop at a coffee shop right now? And what about his role in drafting the United States’ Declaration of Independence?

What would your life and my life be like right now if Franklin hadn’t created four decades worth of residual income? Imagine what residual impact America and the world would have lost!

Now, imagine this one: where will our grandchildren’s lives be tomorrow because you and I have created residual income today? Where will our grandchildren’s lives be because you and I are free to play with our own kites — to discover, invent, create, refine, improve and play to our hearts’ content on the world stage?

When the ledgers are all totaled, what kind of impact will we have had?

What kind of legacy?

Residual impact generates residual income, which allows you to generate greater residual impact, which gives you more residual income . . .

To some people, network marketing is about making a lot of money.

To some people, network marketing is about making a lot of a difference.

But the truth is, it is impossible to separate the two: they’re front and back of the same coin. Both are legal tender in network marketing. Both are your reason and your reward.
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If you like or love what you read above, there's more where that came from, free, sharable and very good. Go to John David's page for his book (click the link) The Zen of MLM and go for the "extras."

And, please let me know what you like best about the article above..

Thanks.
I appreciate you.

 

 

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Learn Network Marketing In Only One-Hour Per Day

One-Hour Per Day... Really? It's true. And it's another of those "Boy I wish I'd written that" deals. This by Art Jonak. It is, flat out, one of THE BEST articles ever written for this business— ever! It's brilliant. And don't take my word for it— take Art's and your own.

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Can I Really Replace My Income With Your Program in Two Years?
Start with an hour a day…
Art Jonak

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I believe anyone can replace their current income within two years working their network marketing program.

Now think about this.

If somebody is pretty talented, do you think in two years they could probably build a business equal to their current income? Yes!
 
And if they're pretty untalented and not making much money, do you think in two years they could build a business to meet their income? Yes!

Almost anybody, if they really put their mind to it could build a network marketing business to replace their income in about two years.

If they're more talented, they could probably build a bigger income. If they're less talented, then maybe a smaller income.
 
I'm not saying once they replace their income they should quit their jobs or careers. I actually discourage it. (To learn more, read the sponsoring tip " When Should I Quit My Job and Become a Full-Time Network Marketer? ")
 
When we talk to people, we believe we can help them replace their income in a reasonable period of time. We might tell them something like:

"Let me tell you about our network marketing opportunity and how you can replace your income in maybe two years."

Once I tell my prospects that, I then say something like this:
 
"Here's what we're going to ask you to do. For one hour per day, Monday through Friday we're going to ask you to work on your network marketing business. Spend an hour, say from 6 pm to 7 pm, letting people know about our network marketing business and about our products and services. And at the end of two years you'll probably be able to match your current income."
 
And they say, "Really?" They get excited and say, "This is great! Here's my chance! I'd like to go for it because two years from now I'd be set!"
 
Then they go home and guess what happens. Absolutely nothing.
 
Why? Because they go home, start thinking about it and a belief problem sets in.
 
They think things like:
 
    •    "You know what, I don't think I can do this."
    •    "I don't know anyone who has retired in network marketing."
    •    "All my friends work until they get really really old to retire."
    •    "That's my reality, that's my experience, that's my belief."
    •    "I don't know anybody that's done it in network marketing."
    •    "So what if I did it, I worked really, really hard and it didn't happen."
 
Ouch. That would be bad. And this lack of confidence, these doubts come in and they never, ever get started.
 
So here's what I add to my story to help overcome this problem. I say this:

"I know when you get home, you'll be pretty excited. But then things are going to change. You're going to have doubts. You might lose your vision. You might worry about what your friends might say. Well, what's going to happen is you might not even get started."

"What's really happening here is you're probably thinking..."
 
    •    "What if this doesn't work?"
    •    "What if what I said won't come true for you?"
    •    "I don't know what to say. I don't know what to do."
    •    "I'm not trained."
    •    "I don't think I can do this business."
 
Well, here's some comfort. All of us have those doubts. But all of use can still replace our current income in two years... let me tell you why.
 
The Magic of One-Hour Per Day
You can replace your current income in two years, even if you don't know anything about our business today.
 
Why? Because you can learn almost anything if you invest one hour a day.
 
    •    You can learn to play the piano if you practiced one hour a day for two years.
    •    You can learn to speak Spanish by listening to a Spanish language CD program in your car one hour a day for two years.
    •    You can become a very good tennis player by playing one hour a day for two years.

You can build a large, stable network marketing business by working one hour a day for two years. In the process you'll learn all the skills necessary for success.

Now you're probably saying, "Wow! You really think so? But I don't know anything now."
 
That's OK because:
 
    •    Maybe the first week, all you're able to do for that one hour is say the word "Hi."
    •    And maybe a week later, you can say, "Hi! My name is."
    •    And maybe three weeks later you can say, "Hi. Let me tell you about an opportunity."
 
You'll learn as you go along. You don't have to know everything before you get started. You'll get better and better and you're going to learn along the way. You don't have to master everything instantly.
 
So, you're going to learn on the job, and you still may have a few doubts, so just to keep you focused, just to keep up the belief level... here's what our company is going to do:
 
"During these two years while your working on your business to replace your income, just to encourage you, every so often they're going to drop a little bonus check in the mail, just to keep you excited. Would that be OK?"
 
And they say, "YES!" Great. And that's what I tell them.
 
What happens to the prospect? Well, they're thinking:
 
    •    "Hmm. I don't know what to say."
    •    "I don't know what to do."
    •    "I can't do it now."
 
But now they're also thinking:
 
    •    "But you know, I could learn a little bit at a time."
    •    "I could spend an hour a day and two years from now, things are really going to change."
    •    "These nice folks are going to send me a check every so often, just to keep me excited so I don't lose focus. To keep me encouraged. So I know it's real and it's going to happen."
 
And what are their expectations? Their expectations have changed to:
 
    •    Well I don't need to earn a check right away.
    •    I don't need to replace my income.
    •    I'm going to learn as I go, it's not going to be easy.
    •    It may not happen right away.
    •    As a matter of fact, I don't even have to get any big checks right away, all I'm interested in is in two years I can replace my current income.
 
Whenever the little bonus checks show up. Bam! They are excited!
 
All this helps their believability, their credibility and they exude all this when they talk to prospects. And guess what... they're going to find that it's pretty easy to sign up some other people into their business.

Pretty neat, isn't it.

______________________________

Click this link to download a PDF of Art's article.

Copyright 1996-2009 © Network Professionals, All Rights Reserved. PO Box 890084, Houston TX 77289 USA +281.271.1105

______________________________

Art Jonak has been doing network marketing for a living since 1991 and is one of the early pioneers of InterNetwork Marketing. Art is always one of the top distributors every month in his network marketing company.
 
Art specializes on the "marketing" side of network marketing. He teaches others the skills to create prospects, develop recruiting systems and develop distributors into leaders.
 
Art is the founder of Network Professionals, the owners of MLMPlayers.com (where he offers a host of resources including FREE! on-line e-courses) and numerous other world-class websites... the founder of the Network Marketing Mastermind -- the world's largest, most intense and educational generic MLM events... co-hosts the Annual Network Marketing Cruise with Tom "Big Al" Schreiter. Click the link above to receive Art's FREE! Tips newsletter.

Thanks.
I appreciate you.

 

 

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Is Network Marketing the American Dream?

Greatest Hits Week continues in The FoggBlogg with this one I wrote 16 years ago! (And a number of people suggested I post again now.) Has anything changed? Web Prosperity, Chat-to-text-to-cash, This is NOT MLM, we'll build your downline for you, Attraction Marketing... perhaps or evidently, not much. Let me know what you think.

Network Marketing and the American Dream
Luck-of-the-draw lottery... or determination and hard work? This in-your-face Upline® editorial is nearly 16 years old (March, 1993). Is it true — still? Does it matter? Did it ever? For you to decide...

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Why do we lose so many once-upon-a-time network marketers?

Why is the attrition rate so very high in our business?

There are the classic answers: The cost of becoming a distributor is so low, people have little or nothing at risk... people aren't trained properly... people lack enough self-discipline to cut it... new people don't get immediate results and therefore lost incentive and interest... Hey, real estate and insurance sales people turn over at about 90 percent, too... etceteras, etceteras.

All these contain some truth — yet for me, they all miss the fundamental mark. I think the reason people wash out in such numbers in Network Marketing is because they do not do the business.

90 percent of the 90 percent who quit, turn over and attrit' within three to six months of signing up had no intention of doing the business to begin with. In fact, it seems to me that most people who come into network marketing are not here for an opportunity to enter into free enterprise and build a business.

They're here for the American Dream.

So, what Is the real American Dream — a house in the suburbs, white picket fence, two-point three kids, and six days/five nights twice a year at Disney World? Is it unlimited wealth... world travel... status, position and power...?

Nope.

The real American Dream is to win the lottery.

Just think, $2,130,979.00 (after taxes) coming in every year for 20 years — and you don't have to do a darn thing for it.

It's much more than just "get-rich-quick." The American Dream is to get rich and "not work" — money to burn with nothing to earn. The Lottery, Lotto, Ed McMahon and Publishers Clearing House, Las Vegas, the Irish Sweepstakes — and yes, network marketing.

The American Dream appeals to two oft-cherished values — "laziness and greed."

Which must be why it comes as such a disappointment to learn that Carnegie, Rockefeller, J. Paul Getty, Sam Walton, Ross Perot, Microsoft's Bill Gates and Mary Kay Ash... all worked their tails off making their respective fortunes.

I guess that's why little kids dream of becoming super-successful business people. Actors and actresses — that's more like it. You know, go to Hollywood and be discovered. Maybe it can happen for me, just like it did for Dustin Hoffman, that lucky son-of-a-gun. You know the story: He was an overnight sensation in The Graduate... and it was "fame at first sight," right?...

Right — after 11 yrs waiting on tables and doing all the off-off-off-off Broadway theatre he could eat (along with likewise struggling peers and room mates Gene Hackman and Robert Duvall).

Does it spoil the whole dreamy illusion to know how hard these people worked, how much time, energy and effort they invested in making it big? If it does, then surely it'll drive you nuts, as it does so many others, to learn:

.. that Mark Yarnell — former NuSkin leader who made $1.5 million-plus in a year — prospects 30 people per day.

.. or that Sandy Elsberg's six-figure income comes from a pretty consistent 72-hour work week (with an hour and a half every morning before school and all day Sunday set aside for the kids).

.. or about Russ DeVan proudest of all fathers — who spent 20 of the 28 days in February on the road training and building.

Everybody dreams. Some people buy lottery tickets. Others work — hard.

Sadly, many to most of the people who enter network marketing do so as if they were buying a lottery ticket; Herman and Hillary Hope-It-Happens, John Kalench calls them. Even more disappointing is how willing would-be sponsors are to sell them one.

So, enough: You get the picture. Now, shall we be pro-active?

If you want to put the blocks to this whole high turnover business of our business, start by telling the truth about what it takes to succeed in network marketing.

This is a business — like any other business. We (Americans) are a nation of builders. Network marketing is a business of builders building businesses and business-builders. Success in network marketing requires projects, partnerships, action plans and consistent action.

It has its "numbers game" aspect (e.g., you've got to count on X number of prospecting or "sorting" conversations to find Y number of business-builders, etcetras.), and the numbers must be played in order to win. However, that fact (that "you've got'ta play to win") is the only real similarity between us and winning the lottery.

True, there are a number of one-legged stork distributors who got lucky and sponsored a superstar. However, in the high-pitched fever-fervor of recruiting, far too many distributors don't feel compelled to reveal the more sober side of that heady, once-in-a- great-while story — I.e. that there were seven people downline between Richard Kall and Mark Yarnell when Mark signed up and went looking for upline support. Today Mark's on Richard's first level.

Think Kall just "got lucky"? Hmm.

Okay, sometimes you've just got to wait for your ship to come in.

The question is, what are you going to do while you're waiting?

Bottom Lines
We've done a bit of seat-of-the-pants research with Upline® subscribers to discover if there's a threshold income level above which people stay in the business and below which they quit.

Now, it's obviously a slippery question, because of all the variables — personal and professional goals, current financial reality and employment status, smoldering versus burning desire, etc. But overall, here's what we have found:

When part-part-timers (I.e. some-timers) earn $300 plus... when serious part-timers make $500 to $1000... and when full-time folks are making $2500 and up... then they stick with the business.

And a fantastic business it is. [REMINDER: This was written in 1993.]

Network marketing's wide-open criteria for entry (i.e., lack of same) permit nearly anyone, regardless of background, to begin a business of his or her own. The cash requirements are within reach for almost everybody. The fact that about 90 percent of those who start Networking quit within a year is actually great news: If you're one of the 10 percent who sticks with it, your chances of success are far higher because of the turnover rate.

The point: Network marketing is not the lottery — not the "Golden Sloth" Shangri-La of free enterprise. Network marketing is a business, and as such, it demands to be treated with GBP — Good Business Practices: hard work, smart work, applied consistently to a plan of action whose structure will produce the results you are committed to accomplishing. Wisdom will make it all duplicatable, like the mini-franchise it is: a turnkey business opportunity you can offer to all your people and they in turn can offer theirs.

Networking success takes time. It's a building process: foundation, superstructure, interior and exterior elements, and the finish work following through on all of it, which when done with intelligence and compassion results in a high-rise of residual income — and a life of contribution that makes a difference in thousands of people's lives.

You've probably heard this one:

"Luck is that place where opportunity meets preparedness".

Network marketing has the opportunity. You provide the rest.

Truth is, the American Dream is better and more exciting — and more available — than ever.

You just can't buy tickets for it at the corner 7-Eleven!

______________________________

I'm excited to learn what you think & feel about this "classic" piece.

Thanks.

I appreciate you!

 

 

 

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STOP! Trying Harder...

The week of my best-of-the-best favorites continues with this powerful, little gem...

When I first got involved with writing for network marketing, I quickly (and fortunately) met Richard Brooke. He sent me a little booklet titled you² (as in squared) by Dr. Price Pritchett. To this day it remains one of my top 10 reads of all time. (Amazon has it for $7.95).

I believe I've published this piece below at least two times a year since I first read it— and I've told the story and retold it more times than I can remember. Enjoy this powerful story from the very beginning of the booklet... And please, tell it again and again.

____________________

I’m sitting is a quiet room at the Millcroft Inn, a peaceful little place hidden back among the pine trees about an hour out of Toronto. It’s just past noon, late July, and I’m listening to the desperate sounds of a life-or-death struggle going on just a few feet away.

There’s a small fly burning out the last of its short life’s energies in a futile attempt to fly through the glass of the windowpane. The winning wings tell the poignant story of the fly’s strategy— try harder.

But it’s not working.

The frenzied effort offers no hope for survival. Ironically, the struggle is part of the trap. It is impossible for the fly to try hard enough to succeed at breaking through the glass. Nevertheless, this little insect has staked its life on reaching its goal through raw effort and determination.

This fly is doomed. It will die there on the windowsill.

Across the room, ten steps away, the door is open. Ten seconds of flying time and this small creature could reach the outside world it seeks. With only a fraction of the effort now being wasted, it could be free of this self-imposed trap. The breakthrough possibility is there. It would be so easy.

Why doesn’t the fly try another approach, something dramatically different? How did it get so locked in on the idea that this particular route, and determined effort, offer the most promise for success? What logic is there in continuing until death, to seek a breakthrough with “more of the same?”

No doubt this approach makes sense to the fly. Regrettably, it’s an idea that will kill.

“Trying harder” isn’t necessarily the solution to achieving more. It may not offer any real promise for getting what you want out of life. Sometimes, in fact, it’s a big part of the problem.

If you stake your hopes for a breakthrough on trying harder than ever, you may kill your chances for success.

From you2 (you squared)
By Price Pritchett, Ph.D.

______________________________

Please, let me know what you appreciate most about this story and what makes that special for you?

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I appreciate you!

 

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27 Words to Make the World Do Your Bidding

Here's something I think will be fun... a "Greatest Hits Wek" in The FoggBlogg.

Yesterday I re-posted a rich & informative "new" piece from one of my heros, Tony Rush (it's a MUST read if you're involved in direct sales & network marketing, really). So, idea is... continue the week with some of the very best things I've come across in the last 20 years. Might even have one of my own in the mix <smile>.

So, another hero, sadly (very sadly) gone offline for a bit, Blair Warren (no link to offer 'cause he's taken his website "Crooked Wisdom" down). I do NOT always agree with Mr. Warren, but he ALWAYS 'cause me to think & feel about important things, especially in one are of his fondness & expertise: Influence. Blair has studied "persuasion" as few others. "Human nature," he says, "is his hobby." Especially our nature when it comes to commercial endeavors.

So here today is a terrific 13-page Special Report Blair wrote called "The One-Sentence Persuasion Course— 27 Words to Make the World Do Your Bidding." First a taste to let you know if you're interested, then a link to the PDF download.

In the report, Blair has combined "five insights" he's gleaned over & after years of study and applying the principles of persuasion. He says, "Now, these are not the most important because they are comprehensive - they aren’t.They’re not the most important because they’ve been scientifically proven - they haven’t.
And they’re not the most important because they’re based on the latest “persuasion technology” – they’re not. They are the most important because they are simple, they are immediately useful, and they can be almost frighteningly powerful. More >>

______________________________

People will do anything for those who encourage their dreams, justify their failures, allay their fears, confirm their suspicions and help them throw rocks at their enemies.

There is something else worth noting about this sentence. It is missing something most people think is very important in the persuasion process. Read the sentence again and see if you can tell what it is:

Any ideas? If so, you’re one step ahead of the game. Here’s what’s missing: YOU There isn’t a word about your wants, your needs, your hopes or your concerns. There isn’t a word about your offer or proposal. There isn’t a word about what you think. It is all about the other person.

______________________________

Happy Monday. Click this link for the PDF. And of course, I would love to learn what you find most useful & valuable about Blair's insightful insights.

Thanks.
I appreciate you!

 

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New Rules— The FTC Changes the Testimonial Game

I am a large fan of Tony Rush. Although I've never been able to wrap my head around the company & product he's with and offers (I just don't get it, but, hey...), I have developed a great respect for Tony over the years. I admire his commitment to his own personal & professional growth and his passionate stand for developing other people's. He is pragmatic, suffers few if any fools and foolishness and he has become a master of the game we're playing— a leader of leaders.

One thing Tony does oh so well for me is take concepts I have trouble grasping and explains & illustrates them so I understand. Here's one of his latest (and best). AND it's a vitally IMPORTANT "New Rules" deal EVERY person in direct sales, mlm network marketing MUST be aware and beware of.

That's NOT an alarmist remark. Just a professional "heads up" so you won't have to do your business with your head down. 

______________________________

You Might Get A Call From The FTC....

Are you using result-specific testimonials in your marketing? Don't wait around for the FTC to contact you...get the scoop here.

Hey guys.

If you're marketing a product, service or opportunity online, you may have already heard some news about how the FTC is changing the rules. It's true -- they are. And it's a good idea for you to be familiar with the changes.

(By the way, I am not a lawyer and this should not be considered legal advice. Be responsible for your own business, look at the data and know for yourself what you should do.

With that disclaimer out of the way, here's the scoop:

In the past, it was completely permissible to show testimonials of your product, service or opportunity and share with the general public what kind of results someone got as a result of using the product or being involved with the opportunity, provided that you offered some sort of disclaimer that you weren't "guaranteeing" that everyone would have the same result.

In other words, as long as you smacked a line at the bottom of the website saying something like "Results may vary from individual to individual", you were in the clear.

That was yesterday. That's history. Today, the rules are totally different.

Here's what one FTC lawyer had to say:

“…The most significant change to the revised guides is the deletion of the “safe harbor” that has long allowed advertisers to use testimonials who reported specific successful experiences with an advertised product or service as long as the advertiser included a disclaimer such as “Results not typical.” Under the revised Guides, advertisements that feature a consumer and convey his or her experience with a product or service as typical when that is not the case will be required to clearly disclose the results that consumers can generally expect.”

Let's put that into plain English.

Let's say you're in network marketing and you have someone new in your business. Let's call her Fanny. Fanny starts following the system EXACTLY as it's taught...works the business with integrity and consistency and -- lo and behold! -- she winds up creating a $20,000 per month income in her first 6 months.

Then let's say that Fanny writes you a testimonial that says, "I got started in XYZ International six months ago and now I'm making $20,000 per month." And she's got the check stubs to prove it.

So far, so good, right?

Well, up until the FTC changed the rules, you could just put a disclaimer on that page that says something like "Results may vary and are based on the time, energy and commitment you invest in your business" type of disclaimer you've seen 100s of times.

But here's the key phrase that the FTC has added to the mix: "required to clearly disclose the results that consumers can generally expect".

What that means is that -- if you've got someone in your company making $20k per month and you want to display that testimonial on your website, you would ALSO have to disclose the amount of money that the average person earns in your company.

Stop. Wait a second.

You and I both know what the "average" person earns in any business. Zero or close to it. Why? Because "average" people are never successful. That's why they're called "average".

They don't follow the system.
They don't do the work.
They don't attend the events.
They don't go to the training calls.
And they quit before you can say the phrase "you're responsible for your own results".

What does the average person in YOUR company earn? $100 a year? More? Less? Whatever it is, you can be damn sure it's nowhere close to Fanny's results. Because Fanny is someone who's choosing to be very UNaverage in her life.

Wait, there's more.

The FTC lawyer went on to say:

“The FTC also said that it believes that it is “likely” that testimonials that present the specific experiences of a product user (e.g., the number of pounds or inches lost) will be viewed as claiming that those experiences are typical of what consumers will generally experience.”

Did you get that? Read it again: "testimonials...will be viewed as claiming that those experiences are typical..."

What that means is that -- if you put a testimonial on your site of someone who makes $20k in a month....then the FTC says you're claiming that the typical consumer should expect to earn $20k/month. Substitute any number in that sentence with any other number and it will also be true.

And this is true for non-financial testimonials, too.

Do you sell a weight loss product and say that someone lost 20 pounds? Then the FTC says that you're claiming that everyone will lose 20 pounds.
Do you have a testimonial on your site from someone who used a miracle fruit juice and their cancer was cured? Then the FTC says that anyone with cancer should expect to be cured using your product. (The FDA will get involved in that one, too.)

In short, if you use testimonials with specific results AT ALL....then you're affected by this change in the rules

If you want to continue to use those types of testimonials, you can't just say "individual results may vary". You have to say "Individual results may vary. The average person experiences ______."

It's my understanding, though, that not all testimonials will be affected so seriously. If someone is just expressing how happy they are that they use a product...they like the way it tastes....they've joined a business they're excited about.....they're a satisfied customer, those are probably okay.

It's only when you're offering a testimonial where someone is talking about a specific result of some kind.

So, what should you do with all this?

You should COMPLY, by God!

Seriously...I've been tracking this conversation for a long time and it's amazing how many people are investing their energy into trying to figure out how to "get around" the FTC...or how to outsmart the FTC....or how to shortcut the system so they can still offer wild testimonials and not be affected by the changes.

Let me give you a word of advice: your energy is far better invested into some other income-producing activity. The best thing you can do on this issue is to simply play by the rules. Because, if you ignore it and get a phone call or letter from the FTC...I promise you will comply or lose.

Here's the good news...

I've not used testimonials in my marketing in YEARS. And it hasn't kept me from making a ton of money in my business.

Why?

Because, while testimonials are a great form of "social proof"....testimonials are not the only thing that matters when someone is looking at an offer. In fact, it's arguable that they're not even in the top three reasons why people choose to raise their hand and ask for more information....or just outright buy right in the moment.

People are more attracted to your product, service or opportunity because of WHO YOU ARE BEING in your marketing than in how many testimonials you can pile up.

I know one thing for sure: the people who get started with me in my business don't get started because I show them a bunch of people who are making multiple six-figure incomes in their first 6-12 months. They're getting started with me because:

A. They want what I'm selling
B. They can see themselves easily duplicating what I do to earn a great income
C. They can clearly see a path from where they ARE to where they WANT TO BE.

It's not rocket science. Testimonials are great. But they're not the "be-all, end-all" of marketing.

So, my advice: don't use testimonials with specific results. Feel free to use all the testimonials you want about how happy people are with the decisions they've made.

Tony Rush

P.S. One other thing: in times of change like these, plenty of people will not comply and will be out of the game. Another bunch of people will have talked themselves into the belief that "they can't make money if they can't use testimonials" and they'll just quit altogether. Either way, there will be fewer people out there marketing or marketing correctly.

People who take the approach I've described in the latter part of this article will be in a GREAT position to rack up some serious cash in the coming months. Be one of them. There's never been a better time to earn the kind of income you deserve!

"In times of change, the LEARNERS will inherit the earth....while the LEARNED will find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists." -- Eric Hoffer

______________________________

Please go to http://TonyRushBolg.com and make a comment, say thanks and share this.

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I appreciate you!

 

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The Top 50 MLM blogs

George Fourie at thatMLMbeat recently put together a list of The Top 50 MLM blogs. A tad shame-faced, I had NO idea there were so many... and so many were so good (by which I mean useful & valuable). So, indebted to George and encouraging you to check out the list and pick some people you've not known about and learn what they're doing.

_______________________________

Network Marketing Blogs have definitely raised the bar in 2009.

It’s about time that we give praise and credit to the Network Marketers out there who spend long, passionate hours, day in and day out to deliver quality content and generously share their leadership and expertise week after week on their MLM blogs.

After reading hundreds of blogs, putting Google Reader to the test by monitoring 294 RSS Feeds and searching through all corners of Social Media sites and search engines, we proudly present to you the Top 50 MLM blogs.

The criteria we used to base the Top 50, the 'cool kids' of MLM blogging, are:

• Quality, original content that focuses on teaching and adding value to the industry
• Updated frequently with the latest post no more than one month old
• Alexa ranking and page rank
• Industry experience and leadership
• Content not focused on a particular network marketing company or opportunity

Click the link to go to the list of The Top 50 MLM blogs.

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I appreciate you!

 

 

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Are you a good network marketing citizen?

This one's been on my mind for a bit and... it deserves to be a video, but I'm just not in the mood today (bad hair an' all).

Here's the deal: I'm sure there are as many elements to being a good citizen in mlm/ network marketing & direct sales as there are in being a good citizen of Charlottesville, Virginia (where I live) or the U$A (where my passport says I'm from). Things like don't litter or walk on the grass (when they ask you not to). You respect the police, and stop at stop signs & red lights, and keep the peace— most of the time. Not sure how any of those applies to being a good network marketing citizen, but you get the idea I'm sure.

The specific "act" of good citizenship I want to zone in one is this:

How many and much of the products and services you currently use do you buy from mlm direct sellers & network marketers?

Are you going to Whole Foods or Walmart or Harris Teeter for your super fruit juice, vitamins & nutritionals, essential oils, laundry soap and house cleaning products and toothpaste? Do you shop for cosmetics and skin care at Saks or CVS?

Forgive the accusatory tone but... Why aren't you buying from network marketers who represent Oxyfresh, Monavie, Youngevity, Mary Kay, Arbonne, Nuskin, Melaleuca, Shaklee? They ALL have superior products and some of them (the really hip ones) also provide competitive prices & high for-the-dollar value. Are you purchasing ALL you can from your brothers & sisters in OUR business?

Back in Eastern Europe (and perhaps many other places) members of the Jewish community would always seek out their fellow Jews and support them financially with their patronage. They were even known to walk (many) extra miles to buy from the Jewish cobbler, rather than the gentile. It wasn't "personal" or "prejudicial." They simply made the commitment to support each other. One result was the prosperity of those people. And please, Mormons, do it too, as well as many other groups and "ethnic" ex-pats living in foreign countries. Why do you think God made a China Town in every big city in the world?

Does it make sense to you that we (mlm, network marketers, direct sellers) put our money where our commission check is and do all we can to support and promote other members of our profession? Just imagine the impact if you simply transferred 10% or 20% of your "outside" buying and shopped with your Twitter mates and Facebook friends in the biz... what do you think would happen to (almost) EVERYbody's checks— AND the "industry" as a global whole? How many hundred billion...?

Think THAT would be a powerful "story" out there in the world?

Possibly even help you bring in a new person or three?

Okay, maybe it's just me on a wet, chilly Friday. Then again...

Thanks.
I appreciate you!

 

PS. Just in case you had the question... Yes! We, Katyusha & me, buy stuff from more than a dozen mlm companies, and yes, we are "wholesale consumers" with most of those.

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Market To Yourself — A "Magic Bullet" For Your Business

It's a fascinating fact that 90% or more of Network Marketers have NO formal training, education or experience as professional marketers, so... How do they do this business?

One "magic bullet" idea I've come across is "Market To Yourself." How many people in your world (any of you) have the same needs & wants for your products that you had when you started? How many people share the same desires & dreams that attracted you to your opportunity? The answer and more on the video.  And catch the mistake I make. (No prizes. Sorry. Just for fun.) I wasn't willing to re-do the whole thing so... such is life in the YouTube world.

Please let me know what resonates most & what's best about this for you.

And please, if you've the time, a request; Please go to YouTube (just click the link to go there) and give the vid a Rating & Comments. That would be most helpful.

Thanks.
I appreciate you!

 

 

 

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Listen... Someone's life may depend on it

There are many good and great reasons to learn to listen better than most of us do now. Perhaps this short story by an unknown author will provide you with a compelling one.

—————————————————————

We all know what it's like to get that phone call in the middle of the night. This night was no different.

Jerking up to the ringing summons, I focused on the red, illuminated numbers of my clock. Midnight. Panicky thoughts filled my sleep-dazed mind as I grabbed the receiver.

"Hello?" My heart pounded, I gripped the phone tighter and eyed my husband, who was now turning to face my side of the bed.

"Mama?" The voice answered. I could hardly hear the whisper over the static. But my thoughts immediately went to my daughter.

When the desperate sound of a young crying voice became clear on the line, I grabbed for my husband and squeezed his wrist.

"Mama, I know it's late. But don't... don't say anything until I finish. And before you ask, yes I've been drinking. I nearly ran off the road a few miles back and..."

I drew in a sharp, shallow breath, released my husband and pressed my hand against my forehead. Sleep still fogged my mind, and I attempted to fight back the panic. Something wasn't right.

"... And I got so scared. All I could think of was how it would hurt you if a policeman came to your door and said I'd been killed. I want... to come home. I know running away was wrong. I know you've been worried sick. I should have called you days ago but I was afraid... afraid...."

Sobs of deep-felt emotion flowed from the receiver and poured into my heart. Immediately I pictured my daughter's face in my mind, and my fogged senses seemed to clear, "I think..."

"No! Please let me finish! Please!" She pleaded, not so much in anger, but in desperation. I paused and tried to think what to say. Before I could go on, she continued. "I'm pregnant, Mama. I know I shouldn't be drinking now... especially now, but I'm scared, Mama. So scared!"

The voice broke again, and I bit into my lip, feeling my own eyes fill with moisture. I looked up at my husband, who sat silently mouthing, "Who is it?"

I shook my head and when I didn't answer, he jumped up and left the room, returning seconds later with a portable phone held to his ear. She must have heard the click in the line because she asked, "Are you still there? Please don't hang up on me! I need you. I feel so alone."

I clutched the phone and stared at my husband, seeking guidance. "I'm here, I wouldn't hang up," I said.

"I should have told you, Mama. I know I should have told you. But, when we talk, you just keep telling me what I should do. You read all those pamphlets on how to talk about sex and all, but all you do is talk. You don't listen to me. You never let me tell you how I feel. It is as if my feelings aren't important. Because you're my mother you think you have all the answers. But sometimes I don't need answers. I just want someone to listen."

I swallowed the lump in my throat and stared at the how-to-talk-to-your-kids pamphlets scattered on my nightstand. "I'm listening," I whispered.

"You know, back there on the road after I got the car under control, I started thinking about the baby and taking care of it. Then I saw this phone booth and it was as if I could hear you preaching to me about how people shouldn't drink and drive. So I called a taxi. I want to come home."

"That's good honey," I said, relief filling my chest. My husband came closer, sat down beside me and laced his fingers through mine.

"But you know, I think I can drive now."

"No!" I snapped. My muscles stiffened and I tightened the clasp on my husband's hand. "Please, wait for the taxi. Don't hang up on me until the taxi gets there."

"I just want to come home, Mama."

"I know. But do this for your mama. Wait for the taxi, please."

I listened to the silence in fear. When I didn't hear her answer, I bit into my lip and closed my eyes. Somehow I had to stop her from driving. "There's the taxi now." Only when I heard someone in the background asking about a Yellow Cab did I feel my tension easing.

"I'm coming home, Mama." There was a click, and the phone went silent. Moving from the bed, tears forming in my eyes, I walked out into the hall and went to stand in my 16 year old daughter's room. My husband came from behind, wrapped his arms around me and rested his chin on the top of my head.

I wiped the tears from my cheeks. "We have to learn to listen," I said to him.

He studied me for a second, and then asked, "Do you think she'll ever know she dialed the wrong number?"

I looked at our sleeping daughter, then back at him. "Maybe it wasn't such a wrong number."

"Mom, Dad, what are you doing?" The muffled voice came from under the covers. I walked over to my daughter, who now sat up staring into the darkness. "We're practicing," I answered. "Practicing what?" she mumbled and laid back on the mattress, but her eyes already closed in slumber.

"Listening," I whispered and brushed a hand over her cheek....

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Please, let me know what you appreciate most about this story.

And if you'd like a PDF of it to "Spread & Serve" with friends & associates, click here.

Thanks.

I appreciate you!

 

 

 

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Connecting Your Head & Your Heart

Got this piece below in an eMail a day or so ago. It's from John Petrov of Attractor Genie, a personal development software application that although I haven't used (being a Mac guy) I have heard great things about from people I trust.

In this piece, John speaks about the connection of what I call "the Head and the Heart." It's a bit different from my take I learned mostly from Kurt Wright and his landmark book Breaking The Rules, which I use as a foundation in my Mentor-Coaching work.

I've taken the liberty of "interrupting" John below with a couple of notes. Please let me know what you find most useful & valuable.

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Hi, It's John Petrov, from Attractor Genie.

I want to show you how I've learned to make my heart and mind get along. Because unfortunately...

It's typical in our society to feel a conflict between what we want to do (our heart) and what we feel is practical (our mind).

We end up living 1/3 of our lives in a cubicle for the 'benefits.' We stay friends with people we only kind of like. We do and say things to fit in and seem cool that really go against what we feel is right in our hearts.

Because it's caused so much heartache in my life, I've spend a lot of time trying to diagnose the source of this problem.

Is my heart at fault? Are my feelings just silly and frivolous? Or maybe it's my mind that's to blame. It seems like it's always coming up with conflicting messages anyway.

And on it goes and we never really seem to get to it. There's a lot of social conditioning that covers up and obscures things too.

Even if you really feel like that's the right choice, how do you know for sure? How do you know it's not just what you think you should do?

All of this might sound a little over the top, but it's a real problem. It ruins lives because people can't make up their minds about whether or not the path of their heart is valid or not. They end up living a shadow of the possibility that they could. All because they couldn't make up their mind.

There's a simple answer to this problem. It might seem even a little too simple. But most things are. Bruce Lee once said "The height of cultivation always runs to simplicity." I believe this.

First... let's take a look at where this problem starts.
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Confusing the purpose of the heart and mind
The main reason we suffer from this illness of indecision, is that we've mistaken the purpose of heart and mind. The heart is like a compass, it's purpose is to guide the direction our lives should take. Our heart takes a birds eye view on our life and says 'this is where you're at and this is the direction you need to go.'

Our mind on the other hand isn't made for making purpose driven decisions. The nature of the mind is that it conceptualizes, organizes and compares information. It does this as best it can and says "here are the facts, here's both sides of the story."

If we compare our mind and heart to a courtroom, our mind would be the defendant and the plaintiff (both stories) and our heart would be justice or the judge (the right direction).

The reason we're so troubled by this conflict of head vs heart is that the mind is not only playing the prosecutor and the defense, but has take over the role of the judge as well.

The mind should never be the judge. The minds job is to compare and contrast. To sort things out and say "this is what I've got, do what you want with it."

But more often than not, our mind isn't doing that. Our mind is making our choices. What's worse, is even when we don't need our mind to be at work, it's still going. Comparing and contrasting everything. Brooding, mostly.

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NOTE: I'm adding this piece from Breaking The Rules here, because it's another view in agreement with what John's just written. Here the "mind" is the Rational/Analytical mind Kurt Wright refers to. The Heart is the "Intuition."

This brings to mind another key discovery from Dr. Sperry’s [Nobel prize winner Dr. Roger Sperry] work.

When the analytical mind is surgically separated from the intuition... it is completely incapable of distinguishing truth from fiction.

This finding has profoundly important implications for many aspects of our lives. For starters, we'll take a look at how it relates to effortless high performance. Remember, our analytical mind is programmable—just like a computer chip. The programming of a computer chip can best be described as the external manipulation of its one/zero, on/off binary code. Please note: the instructions must be initiated from outside the chip. The chip has no ability to judge whether the instructions are right or wrong, good or bad.
The instructions either work or they don’t, and this occurs quite independently from any right/wrong, good/bad value judging by the chip—which, of course, it cannot do anyway.

Here is where this gets tricky. Notice the extremely subtle distinction between the one/zero, on/off, yes/no binary code mechanism of the computer chip and the right/wrong, good/bad value judging that we attempt to do with our analytical minds. It is the built-in one/zero, on/off, yes/no capability, which makes our analytical mind so perfectly suited for its deductive reasoning task. Unfortunately, this exact same capability makes our analytical mind completely vulnerable to being deceived into thinking it can judge right or wrong, good or bad. In truth, however, it simply cannot execute the judging function....

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Have you ever noticed that even when it's completely unnecessary to think about anything, your mind is still going?

Have noticed that when this is happening, your mind is getting in the way of your experience? Just a few examples of this that come to mind for me are; watching a sunset, or taking a shower. My mind really doesn't need to be thinking while doing these things. There's no point. At all.

Taming the mind
Before we can get the mind to take a break when we don't need to be incessantly thinking, we have to make friends with it first. If we try to tell our mind to go away, or that we don't need it, we'll just encourage it all the more. Instead of a retreat we'll get a resurgence. We don't want that.

So if we want to end the conflict of head and heart, we've got to figure out a way to marry this disparate pair.

Remember when I told you the answer to this problem is simple? Well, it is. But it won't be easy at first, because we've been doing it all wrong for so long.

What we have to do is only use our mind to go with ourselves. The Latin root for sin means "to go against." So we have to learn to be without sin.

We have to learn to constantly realigning our decisions to be "with ourselves."

Have you ever wondered how to tell whether a decision is right? It seems so difficult, doesn't it? But it becomes so easy when you think "Is this choice going with me, or against me?" You'll find that the right choice is immediately evident.

If you can learn to practice this every time you make a choice, you'll start to regain your personal power.

You'll create a marriage of your heart and mind. Maybe then their child (you) won't have permanent emotional damage from the divorce it's been suffering from for so long.

Make the choice today. Just try it out. I think you'll like it.

Go with yourself.

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NOTE: One "tool" I've found extremely useful in helping me (guiding me) to "go with myself" in the moment is My Life Purpose. Please make the time to review the video about Life Purpose here in The FoggBlogg. Just click the link.

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To your success,
John Petrov

PS: The cleansing you will experience after completing this exercise will invigorate you. If you want to turbocharge this process please consider using the Attractor Genie Software.

______________________________

Please, let me know what you appreciate most about John's perspective and the whole idea of marrying the Head & the Heart. 

Thanks.

I appreciate you!

 

 

 

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The Network Marketers Clinic with Mike Lewis

One of my all-time favorite people in network marketing is Mike Lewis. The "becauses" of my saying that are many & varied and come down to a few important bits: Mike always tells the truth—as he knows it... doesn't suffer fools— as he knows them... speaks from experience— years & years of his own and hundreds of team members, students (although he'd probably reject calling them that) and coaching "clients"... and has no tolerance for BS of any kind. He's pragmatic in the extreme and his wisdom is proven in the real world. And, he's a good friend. (I love him.)

Mike just sent me a 31 page PDF (you can download it here) of Q&A titled "The Network Marketers Clinic." Here's what he says in the intro.

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I don’t have any time or respect for the ‘theories’ in Network Marketing. I like to deal with REALITY, TRUTH and HONESTY in all aspects of Networking.

In my teleclasses and workshops I get to talk with REAL Networkers about REAL issues in the REAL world.

The questions that follow have been submitted by an international group of Networkers that participated in one of my group classes and were sent in as a response to this question.

‘What are the 3 things that have bothered you most about Network Marketing?’

Some of the people on the class have sent in questions that have been asked of them over the years.

I have removed any references to any specific companies or personal issues to keep the questions and responses generic in nature, so that they may be of value to a wider group of people.

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Here's one Q&A I particularly enjoyed. Trust you will as well.

Q. Lack of duplication.

A. The Duplication Myth is one of the biggest lies that has plagued Network Marketing for the past 60 years!

There is no duplication, there never has been and there never will be!

I answered that one for someone else, so here's my perspective on that!

Here's what we get from our 'upline' …somewhere!

'You need a duplicatable system to be successful and if you don't follow the system you won't make it'!

Think about it like this. The only way that any system can duplicate is if everyone does the same thing, right?

After 60 years of perpetuating this lie, we are still stuck with the same statistics, that between 81-91% of people who join a Network Marketing company fail. That's in ANY company, in ANY country!

Here's why we are stuck there! If we try to make people do things that they feel bad about, they won't do it. If we tell them that everyone is doing it, why can't they? They will think that something is wrong with them, their self-confidence and self-esteem drops and they quit!

You can't make people conform to any 'system' and you can't force a square peg into a round hole and expect them to either enjoy it, or thank you for it!

In fact, the opposite is the reality!

The only people who succeed in Network Marketing are the people that find a way to work that fits perfectly for THEM, and allow those who they sponsor to do the same!

______________________________

Please, let me know what you appreciate most about Mike's perspective and "The Network Marketers Clinic." 

Thanks.

I appreciate you!

 

 

 

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Why It's Time... For Network Marketing

Publishing The People's Franchise here (below & below in audio & PDF) was a hit with folks. I think that's because it's a prospecting piece and networkers like & love that positive light shining on our business. Such another one is this, the Foreword I wrote for the book It's Time... For Network Marketing.

I say unabashed, "Network marketing is THE most remarkable form of free enterprise every created." The intention of the book It's Time... was to present as many different perspectives on why that's really so as was possible. I brought together 52 inside and outside the profession experts and been-there doing-that business builders to tell their stories or share their points of view on "What's so great about network marketing." In the Foreword, I did my best to set that all up and give it a send off. Here it is:

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Why It's Time... For Network Marketing

... the most remarkable form of free enterprise to get the
respect and recognition it deserves. It's Time... network
marketing went beyond being accepted. It's Time...
network marketing became truly admired.
Foreword by John Milton Fogg

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There's a whole new way of doing business happening all around
the world. Literally, a transformation is taking place in the way
people buy and sell everything. At the same time, there's a
radical transition in what people are willing and able to do to
earn a living today. You see it everywhere. You can feel it...
everywhere. Everything's changing fast.

Blame the Internet most of all.
Thank the Internet most of all.

Network marketing is leading this transformation.
The "others" will have to follow or get out of our way.

Network marketing is all about doing things differently.
"Business as unusual" is what we're all about.

We are "business for the rest of us"
and the number of "us" is growing by
more than 70,000 new people around
the world every day!

It's Time... will once-and-for-all set the record straight about
what makes this business of ours so different... and so
remarkable.

It's Time... will show why more and more people are noticing
what a brilliant business model this is (and this book will have
even more people than ever sit up and take notice).

It's Time... will silence the critics who call our industry a farce
and give voice to the real people who know the truth: network
marketing is a force. It's life-changing, and it's unstoppable.

It's Time... network marketing went
beyond accepted.

It's Time... network marketing
became truly admired.

Network marketing is the leading edge of free enterprise.... (Not
just "on" the leading edge." It IS the leading edge.)

And the world doesn't know it—yet.

Network marketing is the most powerful and persuasive way to
introduce consumers to new products and services they don't
know exist.

And the world doesn't know it—yet.

Network marketing turbocharges person-to-person (P2P), word-
of-mouth recommendations by brilliantly adding an incentive/
reward compensation program.

And the world doesn't know it—yet.

Network marketing is the business model where relationships
rule.

It's...

• the only real, level, commercial playing field open to
anybody regardless of age, sex, race, education, or past
success...

• the best way for ordinary people to achieve extraordinary
income...

• the only business structure designed to build successful
organizations through cooperation, not company politics
and competition...

• the proven, affordable "People's Franchise"...

• the only business system that encourages you to
creatively "do it the best way for you" and succeed...

• the best choice today for the growing number of
"terminally unemployable" entrepreneurs and
intrapreneurs...

• the authentic, intelligent, credible, moral business design
that pays you what you are truly worth...

• the business model that provides both time and financial
freedom...

• the business that lets everyone in on the "secret" of
leveraged, residual income...

• the business that lets everyone in on the "secret" of
loverage, of contribution, of making a difference for a
living...

• the business that has changed millions of people's lives
for the better forever...

Successful network marketers know all of that. And now...

It's Time... everybody knew it!

______________________________

Please, let me know what you appreciate most about the Foreword to It's Time...

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I appreciate you!

 

 

 

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The People's Franchise Audio

As promised yesterday, for today, the audio of...

The People's Franchise
Network marketing is the most remarkable business model developed so far for ordinary people to achieve extraordinary success. Now is the time of best investment for greatest returns in network marketing. It's like having the chance to buy gold again at $49 an ounce!

Intrigued? Good. Then listen to this (And don't be surprised by the "low key" presentation. I did it this way on purpose) ...

Click the player below to listen to the (15:48) Mp3:

To listen/download via the url: Click here.

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Please, let me know what you appreciate most about The People's Franchise...

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I appreciate you!

 

 

 

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The People's Franchise

Do you recycle? I do. I think it's a very good thing, especially when you can have what you bring-around again be valuable & useful for people. No need to reinvent the wheel if the wheel is still round and it rolls.

So it is with this piece. One of the best I've ever written (I have been told) and a number of people recently asked where they could find it, so... it's here.

It's long for a weblog post, but... And I've included a link down at the end for the PDF you can download and share. AND tomorrow, I'll give you the Mp3. Then you can learn for yourself if it's "still" a useful & valuable education & prospecting tool.

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The People's Franchise
Network marketing is the most remarkable business model developed so far for ordinary people to achieve extraordinary success. Now is the time of best investment for greatest returns in network marketing. It's like having the chance to buy gold again at $49 an ounce!
John Milton Fogg

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“I would rather have one percent of a hundred people’s efforts than 100 percent of my own.”
 — Andrew Carnegie

I'm going to be telling you about The People’s Franchise—how ordinary people can achieve extraordinary success.
 
Now, it’s probably bad form to begin with a quiz—but just for fun, let’s do it anyway. Don’t worry. This is really easy—and it’s multiple-choice, too.
 
Read the following statements, then choose the correct answer from the list of choices at the end:

“In most Americans’ minds, it’s a ‘scam’ and a ‘scheme’ – questionable or unethical at best, immoral and illegal at worst.

“Many own-your-own entrepreneurial hopefuls have been hyped into turning over their life savings, only to see the company go out of business, taking their dreams down with them.
 
“Politicians, regulators, and the media (especially the media) cry ‘foul’ whenever its name comes up. Newspapers, magazines, and television news and talk shows regularly expose it for the ‘flimflam rip-off it really is.’ Major corporations who get involved go out of their way to avoid any appearance of doing so. There is even a move in Congress to outlaw it altogether!”

 
Now, guess: which one is the right answer?

a) TV ministry scams
b) Off-shore investment schemes
c) Multilevel/network marketing
d) None of the above

Did you pick a), b) or c)? Well, there’s probably some truth to all those choices—but none of them is the right answer.
 
The truth is, it’s a trick question. The right answer, “d) None of the above,” WAS correct—more than forty years ago! Back then, that’s exactly what people were thinking and saying about a radical, revolutionary new business concept called franchising.
 
In the 1960s—before Ray Kroc and McDonald’s, before Dunkin' Donuts, Midas Mufflers, Molly Maid, Pizza Hut... and all the other successful franchise companies established franchising as a legitimate industry—all of those negative things were being said and done about franchising. And yes, there was even a move in Congress to outlaw franchising.
 
And today…?
 
Today, experts say the franchising industry is responsible for more forty percent of all the retail goods and services we buy and sell in the United States alone—over one trillion dollars!

Not bad for what just a few years ago was labeled “a scam and a scheme.”

Let’s take a closer look at franchising.
 
Franchising truly was a revolutionary business concept—and it still is.
 
Take a look at your alternative: approximately eighty percent of all small business fail in their first year. Eighty percent of those that make it don’t survive to see year five—and of those that do, even fewer will last another five.

Think about it: how many companies do you do business with that have been around for ten years or more?

Not very many….
 
Franchising is a way for the small business entrepreneur to boost the odds of success. A franchise takes the guesswork out of building a business from scratch. The franchise company creates a “turnkey opportunity”—a ready-made, off-the-rack business, complete with products or services, logos, uniforms, training, vendors, policies, and procedures. Virtually anyone with the desire and start-up capital can climb into this vehicle, turn the key, and drive off down the highway of entrepreneurial success.
 
It’s truly brilliant.
 
You don’t need to know all there is to know about building a franchise to own one. The franchise company has done all that work for you. You simply pay your franchise fee, build or rent your location and furnish it with the equipment the company has already designed and successfully tested for you, hire your people, and then pay the company a percentage of your sales and profits.
 
A question: How well do franchisees do?
 
According to its critics, the truth is about one third of all franchises fail. Another third breaks even, and one third makes a profit. In fact, some franchise veterans say you can’t make money in franchising today unless you own at least five or more individual franchised units! Still, that’s a much better average than the 80/20 failure/success rate of conventional small businesses.
 
Question: How much does it cost to own a franchise today?
 
Ahh, there’s the rub.

Franchise fees range between a low/low/low of $1,000 to $500,000 and more. The average fee today comes in at around about $50 grand.

You can get a Molly Maid or a Thrifty Car Rental franchise for a fee of $17,500. Sir Speedy is $25,000. And the big guys, like McDonald’s..., well even if you could find one—forget it! It’s in the millions....
 
The really bad news is that’s only the fee. You’ve still got to pay for the building, equipment, initial inventory, etc.—all of which can run into the millions or more. The average investment in a proven franchise opportunity is $250,000! Not quite what the average person can afford. PLUS, most franchise companies take a percentage of your sales—not just profits, SALES—as their royalty commission!
 
It’s tough to start a franchise today. It’s not like it was back when the industry was young and unknown. Just as in real estate, the stock market, or most other opportunities, the real money is made by those who get in early.

There’s a higher risk and a higher reward. Once anything is a sure thing, it seems everybody’s doing it.

Today franchises are proven profit centers. That’s one reason why they’re so expensive. You pay for having less risk than a conventional business start-up—and you pay for being a johnny-come-lately, as well.
 
But there is a way to have the low-to-no-risk benefits of a proven, duplicatable business system like franchising and still enjoy the rich rewards of a ground floor opportunity.                                                                                               
Frankly, most Americans don’t have the extra $25,000 to $250,000 or more that it usually takes to own their own franchise business. But almost every one of us can afford to have the next best thing. And that’s exactly what I’m telling you about here: The NEXT… BEST… THING…. The People's Franchise...
 
… Network marketing.

Network marketing has taken the concept of franchising—providing independent entrepreneurs with a ready-made, low-risk, proven, turnkey, small-business opportunity—and made some genuinely remarkable improvements on it.

Low Capital Investment—Little or No Risk
How much money do you need to become an independent network marketer? There is usually no fee required to start your networking business. You’ll typically commit between a few hundred dollars to a few thousand dollars for your sales kit, your training and sales and marketing materials, and your initial product inventory (if you need it).
 
The Benefits and Tax Advantages of a Home-Based Business
For most participants, network marketing is a home-based business, so you don’t have the high overhead of a retail or office location. The equipment you need to begin your networking operation can be as simple as a telephone, desk and file cabinet. And the potential tax advantages of owning and operating a legitimate home-based business represent one of the last forms of tax relief available to the average American today.
 
No Employees—You Are in Control
As a network marketer, you are an independent contractor—the CEO of your own businesses. Think of it as "Me, Inc." You have no “employees.” The men and women with whom you’ll work are also CEOs, running their own independent networking businesses. In network marketing, you don’t simply “own your own job”—you own your own business.

And unlike most entrepreneurs, your business does not own you! You are truly in control of your work—and your life.

More Choices—Part-Time, Full-Time, Travel, National, and Global Businesses
Every network marketer is a volunteer: You don’t “have to” do anything. You’re free to work the days and hours you want, where you want, doing what you want—and perhaps most important of all, you’re free to choose the people with whom you work.
 
Although the majority of networkers work their businesses part-time—currently about 85 percent of the industry are part-timers—more and more men and women are pursuing network marketing as a full-time career. Some work exclusively from their homes; some choose to set up formal offices; others enjoy traveling to other cities and even to other countries, building their businesses on a global scale.
 
Personal and Professional Support
In network marketing, you’re in business for yourself—but not by yourself. Your network marketing corporation’s success depends on your success—they’re your business partners, so they give you the most support possible, each step of the way.
 
As a good franchise company would do, a good network marketing company provides you with the product or service to market, plus an R & D department, new product development, field training, sales and marketing literature and promotional materials, a distributor service department, and more. And today every network marketing company is Internet-friendly. You and your company are truly partners in a win-win opportunity.
 
Sound incredible? It is—but there’s more. There’s another very special reason network marketing is the next step beyond franchising. Which is why it’s sometimes called…
 
Franchising²
 
When you buy a franchise, you acquire the right to market the product or service provided by your company. It’s much the same in network marketing, except that you don’t have to pay a franchise fee nor the huge start-up and overhead costs, have a retail location and/or elaborate equipment, hire and manage employees, and there are no geographic restrictions on your marketing territory. You also don’t have to pay a percentage of your sales back to the network marketing company, as you do in franchising. What’s more, you are an independent contractor—you work for you—not for “the company.”
 
And as if all of that were not remarkable enough, a network marketing company does one more truly revolutionary thing for you.

It gives you the ability to offer the opportunity to build a successful business to others in partnership with you, too!

In network marketing, you not only get to earn income from marketing your company’s products or services (like a franchisee), you can also earn income from the sales generated by people you enroll into your own network organization (like a franchise company). They're your “Business Partners,” men and women who, just like you, own their own independent network marketing businesses.
 
That’s why we call it Franchising².
 
And that’s what creates one of network marketing’s most powerful and profitable features: it allows you to leverage your time, talent, and energy to earn commissions from the sales made by all the other people you bring into the business.

Remember, Andrew Carnegie said, “I would rather have one percent of a hundred people’s efforts than 100 percent of my own.” That’s just what network marketing enables you to do.

This explains why so many “ordinary” people can achieve extraordinary success in the network marketing industry. Conventional sales and distribution methods depend on a few, select high-performance sales superstars, who each do a huge amount of sales volume. Network marketing is just the opposite: it’s based on a lot of people—doing a little bit each.
 
That’s why we call this concept “The People’s Franchise.”

Network marketing powerfully combines all the income-building benefits of being both a “franchisee” and a “franchise company” at the same time—while cutting out the major stumbling blocks of both.

    • There’s no fee, because you’re an independent network marketer.
 
    • You don’t pay royalties from your sales back to the company.
 
    • There’s no hiring, firing, or managing employees.
 
    • There are none of the all-consuming demands of a seven-day-workweek and a 15-hour-a-day retail operation.
 
    • There’s the powerful marketing advantage of offering superior quality, one-of-a-kind specialty products and unique services that meet high consumer demand with exceptional value through relationship marketing.
 
    • There’s the independence of choice: choosing with whom you work, when, where, and how you work.
 
    • There’s the freedom of owning your own home-based business—and the tax-saving advantages that come with it.
 
    • There’s the flexibility of part-time or full-time involvement, as your unique situation allows...as you choose.
 
    • There’s the opportunity to leverage your time and energy and earn income from the efforts of others: in time, tens, hundreds, even thousands of others.
 
    • There’s the limited risk of a start-up that requires only a few hundred dollars.
 
    • There’s the proven potential reward of both earned income and residual income—which can range from an extra $300, $500 or $1,000 per month up to $10,000, $25,000 and more.
 
    • It’s a great business for the Internet, too. When you combine the high-touch of network marketing with the high-tech of e-mail and the World Wide Web, it just might be the most perfect business of all....
 
    • And finally, there is still the opportunity for you to be one of the first to enter an industry—an industry that has just begun its dramatic growth curve…an industry that is creating a revolution in the way the world buys and sells everything!

There has never been a better time than now to take a serious look at network marketing. “The People’s Franchise” is an extraordinary concept whose time has come— today!

Now is the time of best investment for greatest returns in network marketing. It’s like having the chance to buy gold again at $49 an ounce!
 
Make the time today to check out the benefits of building your own network marketing business. It’s a straightforward and simple, low-risk investment—and it promises to return the most remarkable rewards you can imagine.
 
The People’s Franchise.

There's more. Click this link to download the Adobe PDF.

And please, let me know what you find most valuable & useful about it.

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REPLAY: Mentor-Coaching Call 10.06.09 LIFE PURPOSE

The REPLAY is available here. just click the link to the webcast beow:

YOUR LIFE PURPOSE was the subject of the hour (or more) for this Mentor-Coaching Call. PLEASE, watch the video here in TheFoggBlogg.com (the post just below) before the Call AND if make a Listing of 8 to 10 of your most important VALUES. That'd be great to bring to the call.

That's what we'll be working & playing with on this Mentor-Coaching Call.

I've invited GUESTS to listen in, but we won't be interacting with them on this Call. AND the Call is recorded for later listening & Replay. Just use the webcast link below.

Phone # to Dial: 952-356-0015
Backup #: 513-233-7881
Use GUEST Conf ID: 931640#

EVENT:  Mentor-Coaching Call 10.06.09 LIFE PURPOSE
DATE & TIME: Tuesday, October 6th at 9:00pm Eastern
FORMAT: Simulcast! (Attend via Phone or Webcast -- it's your choice)
TO ATTEND THIS EVENT, CLICK THIS LINK NOW...
http://instantTeleseminar.com/?eventid=9404166

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What's Your Life Purpose?

In the recent work I've been doing with my Mentor-Coaching Partners, I left one VERY important piece out of the mix. Now instead of "fault-finding" my approach is "value-finding," so I always look for WHAT'S RIGHT in every challenge & circumsance. One "What's right" about that "missing piece" for me is I get to put it back in a new and better way than I have before.

What I forgot was "Life Purpose," and the vital, useful and powerful function it plays in everything we do (and don't) and especially in who we BE. Your Life Purpose is the North Star that guides our life, the compass for all our choices & decisions... desires, dreams & goals.

So, here's more about that. Please let me know what resonates most & what's best about this for you.

Now, I said in the video that I'm always working on & tweaking my Life Purpose (and the questions I'm asking), so... here's my latest version. 

To fully & completely TRUST that I AM an Infinitely Powerful Spiritual Being inseparable from the Source of ALL THAT IS. And by continuously gaining greater control of my thoughts & emotions I am guided by God to focus all my power & influence on making a profound difference in the world by changing the lives of millions of people for the better, forever.

______________________________

What will it take for me to fully receive the respect, recognition, admiration & success I deeply desire, dream of & deserve?
 
What will it take for me to live each moment with awareness, peace & joy certain that my life is always and in all ways PERFECT and that I BeLove it?

______________________________

Life Purpose is one the cornerstones of my ONEonONE Mentor-Coaching (http:JohnMiltonFogg.com/Coaching) and "The Weekend With The Greatest Networker..." (http://JohnMiltonFogg.com/TGNWeekend). Please, check them out and learn if you're ready to transform your work & your life for the better forever.

AND, if I can help you "craft" your Life Purpose Statement, let me know...

And please, if you've the time, a request; Please go to YouTube (just click the link to go there) and give the vid a Rating & Comments. That would be most helpful.

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I appreciate you!

 

 

 

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How about a new definition of belief— BeLove It!

Do we really "need" a new definition of belief? You might (and you will be the judge of that). I did.

Think for just a moment about all your wants & desires, your goals, dreams & vision. We're taught that for them to come into being we've got to BELIEVE. Problem is, how can you "accept as true" things that haven't happened yet? Sets up a mighty strong "conflict of interests" inside most minds. It sure did mine.

So, I went of search of something more & better. Something that inspired me to action & feeling great, rather than holding me back. Here's what I discovered...

BeliefBusters and BeLove It! are two of the cornerstones of my ONEonONE Mentor-Coaching (http:JohnMiltonFogg.com/Coaching) and "The Weekend With The Greatest Networker..." (http://JohnMiltonFogg.com/TGNWeekend). Please, check them out and learn if you're ready to transform your work & your life for the better forever.

And please, if you've the time, a request; Please go to YouTube (just click the link to go there) and give the vid a Rating & Comments. That would be most helpful.

Thanks.
I appreciate you!

 

 

 

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