I Share Because I Care - Grace Keohohou Conference Call

Another amazing experience! I try to attend every Grace Keohohou event I can and so should you! For those of you who don't know who she is. Grace Keohohou and Her Mother started the Direct Selling Women's Alliance. There's a link on the right hand side of my blog.

Last night's conference call was for Daisy Blue Naturals consultants and we discussed more in depth some of the topics Grace presented at our National Conference in July.

Here are some points I jotted down so I could share with you all:

1. There are 3 Types of No:
- kNOw - as in "I need to know more"
- NOt - as is "Not Now"
- NO - as in not ever

Kims Input: It is important to figure out what people are saying when they say no! It would be a shame if you assumed someone meant "not ever" when they really meant "not now" or "I need to know more". How do you do this? Ask questions! Talk to your clients and especially potential clients! We are in the business of relationship building. It is very important not to just deliver a sales pitch and then when you hear "no" move on to the next person on your list!
By asking questions and getting to really know the people you speak to - you will be able to better understand what people are telling you! Also follow up the "no's" you hear with questions like, "Okay, thanks for listening to me, I had a great time talking with you and I'll touch base again in ________ okay?" or "Okay ______, did you have any questions you wanted to ask me while I here with you?" this way you find out what they really mean by "No"

Palm Connector

Reach out your palm (just do it!) face down towards the floor. Now pull it towards you. This movement is all about you. Palm down movements in your business are when you do things that are motivated around you. Selling a customer something just to meet a quota would be a palm down approach. Putting your benefit before the person you are contacting. Focusing on your needs instead of theirs. These are all Palm Down.

Now, reach out your hand again (come on - do it! trust me!) Now pull this towards you. This movement is all about the person in front of you. It says "How can I help you?" The Palm up approach let's people put their needs into your hands. It gives you a chance to put their needs before yours. If you approach people palm up, you approach them with "What can I do to help you today?"

When Grace had us do this, I actually "felt" different - the palm up felt so much better than the palm down. She said to ask yourself each day "am I palm up?"

3. Vision of what we Want

Grace walked us through an amazing 4 step process she went through herself to get a clear vision of what she wanted and I'll share that with you. It is important when setting goals to create clarity. Goals should be measurable and specific. For example here's a goal:
~ I will sign up 2 consultants
now let's make that a bit more specific
~ I will sign up 2 consultants in October
...let's keep going
~ I will sign up 2 outgoing, self motivated consultants in October
....and further
~ I will sign up 2 outgoing, self motivated fun women as consultants by October 21st at midnight.

Do you see how different the last statement is from the first? When you set measureable and specific goals you know exactly what you're looking for and in what time frame you have to accomplish it. A statement Grace used that I really liked here was: *Vague Goals = Vague Results*

5. I am in the Process of...

Grace mentioned how important it is to start you day off right and I agree. I can't remember who she got this from...but...take the first 30 minutes of your day and use it to make sure you get a good start!
The statement "I am in the process of...." is very powerful. Try saying:
"I am in the process of having a fantastic day"
or
"I am in the process of making a difference today"
make up your own daily "I am in the process of..." affirmation. Get your kids involved. Ask them "What are you in the process of today?" Have them say "I am in the process of making an A on test today" or "I am in the process of making a new friend today".
I will be adding this affirmation to my rountine from now on!

6. Struggling to get sales?

We are in the business of serving others! We are so very lucky to be a part of something as wonderful as direct sales and network marketing! Really! I mean come on! We get paid to socialize, to meet new people, make new friends, improve the lives of others and of the world around us! I get so excited when I think about the opportunity that was given to me. Grace reminded us of that last night. She told us how someone once told her she was being selfish by not doing speaking engagements! By NOT sharing what she has been given.
We are the same. We have been given a tremendous opportunity to improve our lives, to help others and to share what we have. And it is truly selfish of us to keep it to ourselves!
All those things I've discussed up to now come into play here. Are you positive and happy? Are you approaching people palm up? People like doing business with people that are positive and make them feel good. We are not the priority in this business - "they" are! All those people waiting to be given the same opportunity that you were.
Those people are the priority. They have had long days, their voice mail is filled with people wanting things from them, their to do lists are staring them in the face. You have the opportunity to be the one person that day that contacts them to actually *help* them out, to offer them a solution, to be a welcoming voice on the other end of the phone.
Think of how you would feel if you got home from work - listened to your voicemail: Bill collector, bill collector, solicitor, kids needing a ride from the movies, etc. Then the next call you answer is a telemarketer, then you get a call from a Daisy Blue Rep and she says in a friendly voice, "Hi Sally, it's Sue, I was just thinking about you and thought I'd call to check in and see how you are doing? How was your day today?"
How would that feel? Someone who cares about *you* and how *you* are doing, wondering if *you* need anything? Nice, huh?"
Remember also - because we exist, she doesn't have to 'remember' when she's running out of something. We call to check in so that she has one less thing to worry about. "I want to make sure you have everything you need."
Our customers are the prioity. We get paid to make their lives easier. How wonderful is that? Why wouldn't they want to hear from you?

Make the calls! Do the follow up! here's some statistics that grace shared with us:

48% of Direct Sellers never follow up
25% make the second call
12% make the third call
10% make more than three calls

now check this out:

2% of sales are made on first contact
3% of sales are made on second contact
4% of sales are made on third contact
10% of sales are made on fourth contact
80% of sales are made on 5th - 12th contact!!!

Remember how I started this blog? No has 3 meanings....keep contacting your community!
Call back your leads. Make those re-order calls. Keep in touch with your people!

Motion makes Motivation Materialize!

6. Quality Cards

Grace talked about "collecting" business cards when you hand out business cards. That way she doesn't have to wait for people to contact her - she can take that first step in the relationship herself. I think this is an awesome idea! She added this incredible yet easy to do step:
write on the back of the card something that stood out about this person! Something that you can reference when contacting them. For Ex: Hi Sally Sue, This is Kim, we met at King Soopers the other day. I have to tell you, your smile was so engaging, it was such a pleasure to meet you!
-if you are leaving this on a voicemail - finish up with a call to action like: I really hope we get the chance to speak again, you seem like someone I would really like to get to know better!
**Very important*** These statements should be TRUE!!!

I hope this article helped you as much as the conference call helped me! Please share any "A-Ha's" you had by leaving a comment on this post! Feedback and sharing feels good and helps others - especially me! If I know what you like or what helps you most - I can focus more on those points if future blog posts!

have a fabulous day!

Success Principles - #3 Face what isn't Working

Okay - here we go again!!!
We left off at Principle #2 - Cleaning up the Incompletes. I must say that is a lot of work! I have been working at my incompletes and have realized that it is much larger than a weekend project for me! Since my last article on this I have:

Caught up with 2 years worth of taxes
Cleaned out my office and started filing a years worth of paper! Cleaned out the 'file box' (Toss it/File it) and just have to purchase storage file boxes to put 06 and 07 in.
Did my Spring Cleaning
Cleaned out my closet

Ongoing Incompletes that I am currently working on:

Mailing Tamisha her chocolate molds!!!
Cleaning out old photo galleries at Studio13
Cleaning out my Inbox weekly.
Mailing photo submissions to Mexico agencies

I must admit, it does feel really good to finish incomplete projects. As I do I realize that there actually is a place in my brain that all this incomplete stuff resides and as I finish it - I have more room to take on new things. Anyone else notice this? How are you guys doing on your "Incompletes"?

Anyway - on to the next chapter! Facing what isn't working. This was a very short chapter but some things don't need a lot of explaining. This is one of them. Jack Canfield explains the situations most of us are guilty of, denying things aren't working by excusing them away.
We do this because by facing the truth, we are also going to have to do something that is uncomfortable for us. We fear that facing the facts and fixing the situation may lead to a worse circumstance. Fear, once again holds us back.
Oddly enough, a situation in my personal life fits right into this! I was paying my credit card bills today and was so happy to announce to my husband that our balances were going down. I made the comment to him "As soon as we have this one paid down, you can get your Lasik, and when these are paid down you can get the Xbox 360 (he's a big kid)". He just shook his head. I said "What?"
Mike's reply was this "The idea is to pay all these cards off and not use them unless it's an emergency. If we can't pay cash for it, then we don't need it."
I was in shock! Imagine no credit cards?! My rebuttal was "When are we going to be able to pay $2000 cash for Lasik? We can't do that, but we can pay $50 a month on a credit card."
Again he shook his head, "Kim, this is how we get into these debt situations, $50 a month here, $30 a month there and pretty soon we are paying $400-$500 a month for things we want on top of paying for the things we need like our mortgage and car payment." He went on to explain that he would rather go without some things then live with the stress of all the bills we face each month, especially when business slows down and income is low.
It hit me like a ton of bricks! What he was saying was basically "this isn't working" and I have been ignoring or living in denial of our real financial abilities. I needed to face the fact that true situation and adjust my spending habits! And believe me, for me, that is extremely uncomfortable!
I have such plans! Painting, Building 2 decks, Updating my wardrobe, going on vacation and others - all things I planned on going in debt for. Now my partner in life wants me to pay 'cash'?! I have always been a pay now - find the money later kind of person.
The new way of approaching things is going to be a bit difficult for me - but I realize that he definitely has a point. My way is not working for us. So I am going give this 'cash' thing a try!
Obviously, some things still need to be done with credit where our businesses are concerned - but our personal lives are going on cash - only diet! Ugh....
This was such an epiphany, that I am going to take a deep breath and see where else I have living in denial. I am going to try to "face what else in my life isn't working?"
In the workbook the Author points out the "Yellow Alerts" we discussed in Principle #1 (E+R=O). The subtle alerts that we sometimes overlook. Pay attentions to warning signs that things may not be working. Don't ignore them, pretend not to notice them, or excuse them away. It's very hard to face these things and probably harder to change them; however, this is what we must do. This is what successful people do; find what is not working and fix it.
Jack Canfield explains that these could be bad situations at work, in a relationship (especially an abusive one), with your health or weight and so on. He lists the following excuses we often use and I will list them here, because many of us really don't realize that we are excusing them away - this is why it is so important for us to truly and honestly look at our lives and our situations. It took my husband to put the truth right in front of me for me to realize what I was doing. So here are some common excuses listed in the book:

It's just what guys do. (ignoring bad relationships)
It's none of my business. (bad work environment, relationship, etc)
I don't want to rock the boat.
There's nothing I can do about it. (the 'worst' excuse!!! I could write an entire essay on the damage to your psyche that this statement makes!)
Credit card debt like this is normal. (*kim raises her hand* "guilty!")
That doesn't happen to people like us. (ignoring problem teens, marital situations etc - my mother's personal favorite! I can't tell you how many times I heard this growing up.)
I'll get Fired
She's just at that age
I need these/this/that to help me relax
I have to work these long hours to get ahead
We just have to wait it out
I'm sure he/she will pay me back
He/she's just venting his frustrations
He/she didn't really mean it

Do you recognize any of these? Good luck with this principle - it's another tough one. Like they say, hard work pays off!
See you all next month for the next principle of success.

Success Principles - #2

We are now in Chapter 2 of the Success Principles Workbook. In this chapter, we will look at cleaning up incomplete and messes. By doing so we make space for something new - this fits perfectly with the coming of Spring doesn't it?
At the bottom of this article is a chart that outlines the steps necessary to get a desired result - to reach success. Many great ideas or plans will fall apart somewhere on this wheel - they don't get started, or even don't make it through the planning phase!
So lets take a quick trip around this wheel. Once you actually 'decide' to do something, your mind and your energy are now free to start planning and executing your plan.
A lot of projects fail in the planning stage because people expect everything to fall right into place or to be 'perfect'. Your plan does not have to be perfect! This is the beginning of the circle! It is very rare in life that anything is perfect right from the start! You must be able to give yourself permission to make mistakes along the way, to experience failures. This is how you learn! We make mistakes, make adjustments and move on. There is a quote by Marshall Turber - "You can't learn less!" He's a world renowned entrepreneur, and should really know a thing or two about achieving success.
So, go ahead and START! You may not be able to see the road clearly right now, but one thing is for sure: you'll never get anywhere if you don't start!
Next we must CONTINUE! When you make mistakes, when things don't go exactly you planned, you must pull yourself together, stretch beyond what you think your limits are and go on. Many people quit when the situation gets uncomfortable - the workbook states :"If you're not a little uncomfortable everyday, your not stretching yourself enough."
Next, we actually have to finish! Sounds easy, but you wouldn't believe how many people don't finish a project because it is a way to escape failure. A personal example, I am a photographer and for years I avoided finishing the project of selling my work commercially. I had the idea in place, I had a plan for greeting cards and art prints, but I never took the final steps. Why? Because if I never put my work out to the public - they could never reject it! I could never fail. Now of course I see the silliness in the thought, because I could never succeed either, I would be forever in this limbo. So, you must FINISH!!!
Next we have COMPLETION, we must actually complete something in order to make space for something new. We all have incompletes in our lives. Bills unpaid, promises unfulfilled, little unfinished businesses that need tending to. Each time you make an agreement to do something, it goes into your present memory bank . The workbook titles the space each of encompass as an Attention Unit. For every, undone project or incomplete item in your life there is an Attention Unit,and as these build up you have fewer and fewer attention units available to you. With me? If you have twenty projects sitting around undone, you have very little room to bring new activities and abundance into your life.
Take the time now, to complete those undone things. How? The four D's - most of us have heard them: Do it, Delegate it, Delay it, or Dump it! This can apply to everything in your life from your email to a job, all the way to current relationships!
When you complete items, you make room for new things - you can begin the wheel again!
When you begin to look at everything you have that needs completion, it can be a bit overwhelming - I know it was for me! So don't think you have to and certainly don't try to take on everything at once! Set small goals for yourself, try to complete a few small things in a weekend. Set bigger projects bigger timelines etc. The important thing is that you DO complete them and then, give yourself a pat on the back!
If you keep this pattern of completing things, soon you will have room for abundance in your life!!! What are you waiting for? Get moving!!!circle

Last month we did some work determining what our dreams were. This month we are going to explore some ways to be successful in achieving those dreams!
These tips come from:
The Success Principles
Your 30 day journey from where you are to where you want to be.
~ Jack Canfield and Janet Switzer

The first chapter is titled:
Take Responsibility for Your Life with E+R=O

Bob Resnick taught this formula and it basically states the every Outcome we experience in life is a direct result of how we Respond to an individual Event that occurs.

You can use this formula as your primary rule for guiding you towards your successful life. How? By taking responsibility and changing our response to events that happen in our life.

Example:

Event:
You come into some extra money, say $500.

Response 1: You go out and spend it
Outcome 1: You are broke

Response 2: You pay down a credit card
Outcome 2: Your credit rating goes up, your monthly bill goes down and you still have your $500.

Response 3: You invest it in your retirement fund
Outcome 3: You get a tax advantage, your net worth just went up, hopefully you will earn even more on your money.

You see, the event in your life has stayed the same, however based on your response, you have changed the outcome of the situation. Your response and your response alone to random events will give you either advancement towards your goals or regret over what could have been.

How many times have you reacted in fear or "I can't" when opportunity came knocking on your door? Or failed to recognise the opportunity disguised within a negative situation? Successful people look for ways to transform that negative situation into an opportunity for success - they respond differently. How do I get better at this? I want to turn coal into diamonds! Read on...

First, you have to stop blaming the Event on the Outcome. These are the "if onlys..." You know you've done it "If only traffic weren't so bad", "If only so and so had done this or that....", "If only we had a better economy". Stop blaming and complaining!!!

You are only complaining because you know there is something better. Think about it, people who stay in bad situations rarely complain - they don't know anything better.
But people who complain know there are better situations out there than the one they are in. Why do they stay? It's easier and less risky to just stay where they are and complain about it than to actually do something about it.

To get out of any situation, to improve your life you must take 100% responsibility and do something different. Most of the time we know in advance when something isn't right or a negative event is about to occur. We receive tell tale signs, hear comments from others, have gut feelings or just use plain old instinct. We can't change negative events, but we can respond differently to them. Successful people don't wait for disaster and then blame something or someone else for the outcome. They respond in time, keep things from going too far. You can do this too - by facing the facts squarely, accepting them for what they are "facts", doing the uncomfortable and taking steps to change the outcome.
Take responsibility. "You alone have the responsibility to make something happen in your life, whether you actively create it or passively allow it to happen or continue. This goes for outcomes that are both good and bad" (Success Principles Workbook pg10)

Once you start recognizing and responding decisively to signals, warnings and events as they occur, you will begin to feel more in control and less hopeless. You start to realize that you ARE in control of your destiny.

See you next month with more....