Recently, at my local gas station/mini mart, the cashier asked if I had a rewards card and I replied no. I asked her for one and as she handed it to me, told me that I could fill it out online. That was all she told me. By the way she was middle aged not a teenager. I assumed that the card worked just like supermarket cards – as you purchased store products you build points for gas discounts. About a month later I’m filling up at another location for the same store but, this time I wanted a soda and opted to “Pay Inside”. When I went to the cashier, who asked if I had a rewards card, she informed me that “No purchases were neccessary to receive a 3 cents a gallon discount, just swipe the card.” Our conversation lasted a couple of minutes and I gained some valuable information.

That began my paying attention to those that were “helping” me and I started noticing that too many “could care less”. They provide the very basic in customer service without ANY other interaction whatsoever. They may hate what they are doing but, the real downside is that they are developing a negative skill level rather than taking advantage of the learning experience and being able to apply it later at something they actually enjoy.

From my perspective the lesson learned is… Don’t hire this type of person to represent your company. They will be bad for business as customers (when they want to) enjoy a fast conversation while checing out or asking for help – it’s called personal service. The flipside, as my post mentions, makes the customer feel like an unwanted bother to their day.

With all the turmoil in the economy, making ends meet just keeps getting harder and harder. All the staples of everyday life continue to go up while your paycheck stays stagnant. That is if you have a paycheck – unemployment is still very high. In order for the economy to tread water, 250,000 new jobs need to be added EVERY MONTH and so far this is not happening. In order for YOUR situation to improve or hedge, Plan B, you must abandon the fear and look the future straight in the eyes. On any given day SOMEONE ELSE can make a decision that will negatively impact your life. All JOBS are controlled by budgets – it’s that simple and you’re really just a faceless name to the person in the corner office.

Are You Prepared???

You need to be. We really need to sit back and make a true honest evaluation of our personal situations. Complaining is a negative action. A wise man once told me… “You’re either part of the problem or part of the solution. There is no middle.” Positive change is part of the solution and, the best way to accomplish it is to seize control NOW by doing for YOU. Plan B should be about you. The best way is a small business that has the potential to maximize your efforts. It is my personal opinion that Network Marketing provides this through people helping people create residual income. There are many legitimate direct sales companies where the start up costs are minimal. Not every opportunity is for everyone – people are different and that is a good thing.

Do your own due diligence and research direct sales companies that market products or services that interest you. The most important thing is that a POSITIVE choice is made to take control of your future now – in the present.

Quick Review:

• No Cost, FREE to Join CashTexts
• Your Unlimited Text Plan = No Cost to Receive SMS Text Messages
• You’re PAID to Receive Up To 5 Targeted Text Messages Per Day
• Plus You Can Earn Referral Commissions
• You ONLY Have To Open the Text Messages You Receive – That’s ALL!!!

Joining CashTexts is EASY. You can…

1. Click: JOIN CashTexts NOW
2. Or, you can text the phrase cashtexts 8171 to the number 69302
3. Or, You can even scan this QR Code

Well, that is best answered by first providing a short explanation of CashTexts. CashTexts is a “Get Paid To” (GPT) business model where the end user (you) receives payment for completing a task. Here that task is opting in to receive targeted SMS text message offers from advertisers. The natural evolution of advertising has moved from broad to targeted. Having targeted offers sent to you directly in the form of a SMS text message has it’s advantages over just blasting a message and hoping someone sees it.

So, Why the rapid growth?

As you well know texting is very popular and most everyone now has flat fee unlimited texting as part of their cell phone plan. Receiving up to 5 targeted SMS text messages a day will NOT increase your cell phone bill, Remember – Unlimited Texting.

The best part… FREE TO JOIN and it gets better. You GET PAID to receive those SMS Text messages from CashTexts. It gets even better – Refer A Friend and receive a referral commission. And even better is the fact that you’ll receive commissions 5 LEVELS DEEP (friend, friend of friend, friend of friend’s friend, and so on).

Watch this video on facebook for more details.    You can join right here.

Well, I don’t know about you but, it repels me away.

You’re in the store, it’s not very busy, and a salesperson is hovering over you – do you feel comfortable or can you not find the door fast enough?

Recently while walking around the local outlets I decided to venture in to the Oakley store to look around. The door was clear of people so I walked in. As I started looking around the three salespeople came out from behind the counter and quickly converged on me. They all asked if they could help me and I responded that I was just looking around. Which was fine but, then things got very uncomfortable. They strategically located themselves in a triangular pattern around the small showroom floor and their conversation stopped. The single point of course was the door. Now I do understand that Oakley’s are expensive but I also know that they are secured to their showcases.

How did I feel… I could not get out of that store fast enough. With 3 pairs of eyes bearing down on me it was NOT a comfortable feeling at all. I finally was able to squeeze past the salesperson at the door and escape most likely never to return.

So, why am I sharing this? Because the same is true with online marketing as it is with brick & mortar marketing, maybe even more so.

Online – the potential customer can just click away without any internal fear. Poof… very quick easily gone and without bookmarking the page.

Keep this in mind when designing your sales page. If it makes visitors feel uncomforatable they will they will bolt away and not come back.

So, precisely is Network Marketing anyway?

Network Marketing, more commonly known as direct marketing, is a marketing system designed to provide compensation to the individuals who are successfully promoting the company products from their personal sales but, also from the sales of others that they introduced to the company. By sharing the company with other people, they create a downstream of distributors and a hierarchy of compensation. The business opportunity is shared with potential business partners and products are sold directly to consumers. Both are accomplished through referrals and word of mouth marketing.

Each of us tend to refer business through word of mouth relationships on a daily basis. The difference is that we do not get paid when we recommend something. For instance, you go to the movies and really liked the movie. So the first thing you do is tell your friends who then go to the see the movie. The same scenario can take place by visiting a store, restaurant, etc. These are all relationship word of mouth advertising. This form of business promotion allows the company limit what they have to pay for advertising like television, radio or newspaper ads, which can be very costly. Rather than spending the money on advertising the product, it stays with the company.

In a network marketing company you, the referrer, are compensated for your efforts.

Almost all direct sales companies consist of self employed independent representatives who are known as associates or distributors who represent the company’s goods or services they provide. They receive commissions from the volume of products / services sold through their own sales efforts and that of those in their downline.

The independent distributor expands their businesses by developing an active client base that purchases retail directly from the distributor or by other sponsored independent distributors who do the same.

Network marketing provides the individual the ability to leverage time in their favor. By increasing the total number of hours of work effort on which they can be paid by sponsoring other people and then earning a small commission from their efforts. The concept behind this leverage is a person earning 1 percent on the efforts of 100 people will earn more than earning 100 percent from their own efforts.

Most network marketers sponsor other people and teach these people how to sell the company product and sponsor others. This is a duplicatable process and is repeated by those they sponsor. Someone is using their time helping others to succeed and earn income from their efforts. Compounding occurs as this cycle continues and large growth can create an organization of hundreds or even thousands of people in your downline.

Is network marketing a legitimate business model?

Yes, as long as it provides people real products at non-inflated prices that they want and need.

What it is NOT – is a “get rich quick” scam.

Network marketing, for many, may be the solution that they are looking for to supplement or even replace their income. With all business ventures you will only reach your dreams and goals if you have the discipline to build your business one step at a time.

• Do you find yourself feeling sorry for yourself?
• Are your days spent with others in the same sinking boat as you are?
• Drinking too much alcohol?
• Are you sharing depressing stories?
• Are your thoughts of better times in the past?
• Have you given up?

Well, you should know that you’re not alone – especially in this economy. With the unemployment compensation extension about to end for millions of Americans next week, that alone can have a truly negative impact on the situation.

Your misery starts with your perception of the situation. Choosing to take the “half full” view rather than “half empty” approach is where it starts. Rather than taking a negative view, why not take the positive view.

There are opportunities all around you if, you allow your eyes to see them as such. Making money is NOT something that comes strictly from a J-O-B.

What are some options available to you:

A Job allows you the priviledge of trading time for money with a limited earnings potential. You can only work so much time and the monies earned are limited to what someone else has decided it is worth.

Both affiliate marketing and network marketing (even more so) allow for more upward earnings potential. The reason is that you earn based on your productivity. Network marketing takes that a step further by allowing commissions to be earned from the work of others also.

Affiliate marketing and network marketing are both business opportunities which, as of now, still offer very good tax benefits that the J.O.B does NOT. I’ve become partial to network marketing because it offers residual income, the ability to earn money in the future for work done in the present.

The choice comes down to how you want your future written. You can sit around with misery and feel sorry for yourself. Or, get up from the table say “Goodbye” to misery and Take Action on YOUR FUTURE. Yes, it really is that simple. Why? because there is nothing to lose by DOING and everything to lose by NOT.

You Can Do It – Others Have Before You – And Others Will After You.

Do you hesitate talking to strangers?

Well… you’re not alone. Most people do because it involves leaving their personal comfort zone. It is all too easy to make excuses and allow this fear to win. Think about this scenario for a second and decide if this might be you (it was me):

You are at work and your boss tells you to either call this individual or you need to take care of a customer. The fear starts with an “I can’t do this” but, you really have no choice as you were told to or the customer is going to approach you regardless. Then what happens next? YOU DO IT and realize that it wasn’t all that hard to face the fear and conquer it. Another realization was that the other person is human just like you and not some lion that bit your head off.

Conquering Your Fear – Venturing Out of Your Comfort Zone – Breaking the Ice

• Be yourself
• Smile – people love it and they are contagious.
• Start simple – in a checkout line address the cashier by name (most have a name tag).
• Ask a sales associate by name  for help, even if you don’t need help…. “Hi ____ where can I find ____ ?”
• Talk to your waiter or waitress. When they introduce themselves to you follow by introducing yourself to them.
• Ask other shoppers an opinion question.
• Always answer questions with more than a one word answer.

Remember when YOU HAVE TO do something, YOU DO IT and conquer that fear. So start small and progress. FORCE YOURSELF to do the little steps and pretty soon you’ll have conquered your fear and will have expanded your comfort zone.

Mine was and something drastic had to be done. Tough choices, that had been put off for awhile, had to be made. Yes, it was time to sort by sender, unsubscribe, and delete. I know that it is hard to do. What if I miss the latest and greatest offer, what would I do?  I’d have to live through it which, wouldn’t be such a big deal. There comes a time when we must cut the string and… unsubscribe. Yes, unsubscribe, that dirty little word that the other side dreads.

Ask yourself – Am I even reading them? Are they me offering value or just a pitch? How many of the same pitch are arriving from different senders? Am I on multiple lists for the same sender? Is the same sender hitting my in-box multiple times each & every day?

Now evaluate your answers and realistically decide who stays and who goes. I just had to do that and I have to say I feel good about it. Why? Because my in-box is once again MY in-box. I can actually read my emails without the thought that I’ll have to spend days accomplishing it (everyday). As a general rule of thumb – If your in-box always looks like you just returned from a weeks vacation… maybe it’s time to do some cleaning.

• Teaser subject line >>> Written message on the envelope.
• Squeeze Page >>> Sales Letter
• Bonuses and the Call to Action are the same

The problem in my opinion is that there is no relationship between you (target /buyer) and the seller (originator/marketer). It’s the same difference as going to a Mom & Pop store vs a Big Chain store. The Mom & Pop store owners will usually associate your name with your face (if you visit somewhat frequently). The same can’t be said for the Big Chain store, unless you actually know the person. To a Big Chain store the customer is just a number – period. Some stores hire greeters who say “Welcome to …” but even when they may have seen your face hundreds of times, they still don not know your name. Same is true for the cashiers and customer service people.

It All Comes Down To Relationship

Take a close look at the very competitive restaurant market. For the waitress/waiter to be successful (nice tip) they have to build a great relationship within a few seconds. We as the customer decide very quickly how much we like/dislike the waitress/waiter, which is going to decide the % of tip.

Were they cheerful and smiling?

Did they engage us in quick enjoyable conversation?

Where they friendly?

Do we like them?

These are just a few of the factors that determine where the experience falls on a scale of  0 to 10. Closer to 10 = a return visit. Why? Because we all like to go back to where we had an enjoyable experience. If you become a regular they all start to know you by name. It’s a great feeling when you can sit down and without asking your drinks are brought to your table. It makes you feel important. This is a perk of the relationship and it did not happen over night or from just one visit, it had to be developed over time.

Relationship Marketing has to be developed over time. Not everyone will buy everything nor buy right away, maybe never. But, they could refer others through word of mouth. Never underestimate the power of the relationship.