A new tool
As a Boomer, I’m still quite old-school in many things. One happens to be that I still use paper and pencil rather than a keyboard to note thoughts and plan. I seem to think better when forming the letters. Who knows…it might also be due to my art background.

Today, I was introduced to an easy-to-use, handy little tool to do mind-mapping online.  A huge advantage to using this program is that it can be shared with your team. You can even allow them to add their input and alter the map, making it great for group projects. It can be added to docs and even your blog or web-page. Very versatile little tool to aid your brainstorming!

Best of all it’s free! We all like free. Check it out at www.bubbl.us Let me know what you think.

(Not sure what mind-mapping is? I didn’t know for a long time!  According to Wikipedia…”A mind map is a diagram used to represent words, ideas, tasks, or other items linked to and arranged radially around a central key word or idea. Mind maps are used to generate, visualize, structure, and classify ideas, and as an aid in study, organization, problem solving, decision making, and writing.”

A  great video
Yanik Silver recently sent a tweet that I’d like to pass on to you all.  The concept is phenonenal!  “Unique Genius and Business Through Enjoyment” Combine Enjoyment, Meaning and making Money.  There’s no opt-in or anything.

I really recommend your viewing it…Click Yanik’s link http://budurl.com/jruv

Have a GREAT, Blessed day!

1. The Public Face by which everyone knows us is determined by our job/business, family, religion, associations, etc. It is superficial…our outer shell.
2. Our Inner Identity is who we Really are…what we want to be, what we really think, what we dream. We often don’t know who that is because we’re held captive by life’s circumstances…putting up a front.

In order to Sell to your Market, you MUST know WHO your market REALLY is and communicate with that Inner Identity.

• On what level is most communication held?
  Surface. Right. And the influence is held there also.

• Conscious Brain vs Subconscious
  Conscious Brain can lie. Subconscious can only tell Truth.

• What part of your consciousness is really in control?
  According to psychologists, it is the subconscious. It can be carefully guided with detailed visualization. In that way it can create a new Core/ Inner Identity.

Therefore, lasting influence must take place with the Inner Identity…mostly on a subconscious level.

Two Steps to Successfully Communicating with your Niche Market

1. Know your Inner Identity.
2. Know your Niche Market’s Inner Identity.

Know your CORE/Inner ID. Step into it. Speak from it. You shall attract those in your niche with the same CORE identity…subconscious to subconscious.  Communicating on that level has incredible power and immense influence.

Try this Exercise to uncover your Inner Self Identity

If there were no limitations (financial or physical) or consequences (no one getting hurt or thinking badly of you  by your actions or thoughts), describe your Perfect Average/Typical Day .

Don’t think about stuff/things…think about experiences. Values + Experiences form our Inner Identity and, by extension, our Life. Things have surface value only. Our Core/Inner Identity craves the experience/feelings we get from them.

The questions are all based on our REALLY desired experiences… not goals or things.

Remember: Our experiences help shape our identity. Be as detailed as you can. Step into your answers and fully experience them. Use all senses and feelings.  Take your time.  It took me 5 hours and 20 pages to describe my day.

• Where would you live? Size, location, style, smell?
• What time would you wake up? What’s the first thing you see? Think? Say? Do?
• What would you have for breakfast? Where? With whom? What would you talk about?
• What are you thinking about as you do the mundane things like brushing your teeth? Taking a shower? Or Driving kids to school? Walk the dog?
• How would you spend the first half of your day? In detail. How do you feel about what you are doing? What are you thinking? Who are you with? How are you dressed? How are they dressed?
• What’s for lunch? How does it smell? Taste? With whom? Where? What’s the conversation about?
• What would you like your friends to be like? Their behavior…conversations, etc.

Remember: What you write down you have to be able to live with every day for the rest of your life….40+ years

• What about your personal fulfillment?
• What are your spiritual beliefs? How do they affect you?
• What life purpose would you strive for?
• What would your business be?
• What time would you start work? How long? Where? Your office? Who would you work with?
• What do you DO at work?
• What are your customers/clients like?
• What about your relationships? Spouse? Kids? Other family?
• What do you talk about with them?
• What do you do for family time?
• What do you do for entertainment/fun?
• What do you like about your family? What do they like about you?
• What about your friends? How do you relate? Who are they?
• What do you do for fun? What do you talk about?
• What’s for dinner? Where? With whom? What is the conversation? What’s the atmosphere?
• What do you do after dinner…at night? With whom? Where?
• Remember to use all of your senses and describe behavior.
• What are your thoughts as you go to sleep?
• How do you feel at the end of the day?

Once you’ve answered all of these questions, you’ll be able to see who you really are…the TRUE YOU.   You’ll be able to draw an accurate profile of your REAL Inner Identity…not the surface one. You’ll meet YOU.

Keep your profile near and review it on a daily basis so that your subconscious Inner Identity will become your conscious Surface Identity…your brain will learn to agree with your subconscious. There will be no more inner tension between your identities.  Your Surface will become your Inner Identity and you will begin to attract like identities.

That’s the beginning of real Attraction Marketing.

Let’s do a quick review before we explore some principles for communication with your prospective partner.

• The way you think and communicate will determine the way people respond to you.
• Other people’s actions and words are a reflection of your actions and words.
• People do things for their reasons not yours.
• Most people resist being “told” what to do or “persuaded” to do things, but generally like to learn and understand before taking action on changing anything.
• “Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood” Steven Covey’s #5 in his The 7 Habits of Highly
  Effective People

Remember, once you are using the techniques and strategies in Ann Sieg’s Renegade Network Marketer to build your marketing system and are generating qualified leads, you must be able to communicate with them or lose them.  (Haven’t read The Renegade Network Marketer?  Click here to learn about it…Renegade.)

First of all, every communication you have with your prospective partner must have a valid business reason…a purpose…and provide value.  Before you can determine what the purpose and value will be, I must ask you a question.

What is the purpose of your business?

According to Michael Oliver, the answers to that question usually divide into 2 camps…”Make money” or “To make a profit” or “To be fulfilled”…”To help others” or “To help people solve their problems.”   In other words, the answer is either “self” focused or “other” focused.

Following the adage that our thoughts determine our words, your answer should have been very telling.  Ann Sieg has always taught us to focus on others…people buy for their own reasons…to discover what the prospective partner is trying to solve, fix or avoid.  If your initial answer was $$$ or self focused and, to follow the adage another step, our words determine our actions, how do you think you will come across to your prospect?  Right.  He will perceive you are focused on your own self interests.

Can you see that a change of thought pattern and, therefore, communication might be in your best interest?

So, principle #1…Focus communication on the prospective partner…where he’s coming from, whether he has a problem you can solve, fix or help him avoid.  Focus on becoming a solutions provider.

Sure, we all need to make $$$ in our businesses, but we must put that in the background.  Ann Sieg did a wonderful webinar training on the Desperate Marketer vs. the Successful Marketer.  The focus and your possible desperation does come through the phone!  Take time to delve into the other person’s situation.  Respond to them with pertinent questions.  Be prepared to walk away if what you have to offer cannot solve his problem.

Check out what Ann Sieg has to say by clicking the link below.  View the video recording
The Desperate Marketer vs The Successful Marketer

As Michael Oliver says…”With problems come opportunities. The opportunity for you is to help others get what they want and to be rewarded for it.”

Last time, we explored objections and rejection.  Remember, the way you think and communicate will determine the way people respond to you.  There are 2 important points to consider when speaking with prospects: (1) they do things for their reasons not yours and (2) most people resist being “told” what to do or “persuaded” to do things, but generally like to learn and understand before taking action on changing anything.

So what does this have to do with “Attraction Marketing?”  Once you are using the techniques and strategies in Ann Sieg’s Renegade Network Marketer to build your marketing system and are generating qualified leads, you must be able to communicate with them or lose them.  (Haven’t read The Renegade Network Marketer?  Click here to learn about it…Renegade.)

There is a natural law called The Law of Giving.  If you smile at someone as you walk down the street, more than likely they will smile back at you.  Other people’s actions and words are a reflection of your actions
and words.  Some people think of it as “Give to Get”.  I don’t like that focus, however.  I prefer to think of giving to give.

This reflection of your actions and words can work against you.  If you try to tell, persuade, or just present when you interact with your prospective partner, their natural reaction is to reject, object, or passive aggression (ever had someone say they will do something and don’t like no show an appointment?)

So, if you want the Law of Giving to work for you and have people listen to you and your solutions, then listen with the intent to understand them first.

This is key to building a business and team of successful entrepreneurs.  Michael Oliver in his book How to Sell Network Marketing Without Fear, Anxiety or Losing Your Friends! calls it “Dialog”.  (You can purchase the book by clicking Oliver)  I think of it as simple communication.   To quote him…

You can do this! You can achieve the success you’re looking for without the anxiety normally associated with selling.

First, observe two things – the way you think and the way you communicate – and be willing to work to change them. Wouldn’t you love to bring harmony into your life, and the lives of others, in a way that assures every conversation you have will end with something positive?

Next week I’ll outline some principles for communication that allow you to relate with people in a way that puts all the focus on them, from start to finish. As a result, people feel good about you and respond to you positively.  You’ll build relationships and take the next step in “Attraction Marketing”.

Our team has been undergoing a few changes over the past couple of weeks.  I am reminded that the only constant in life is change!  We MUST remain flexible!

Change often leads to a sense of insecurity and uncertainty…especially, if it is not of our choosing   How will this move affect me and my family?  Gosh, things were just starting to go well, now what?  There goes the income while I regroup and find a new path!

The challenge, again, is to remain flexible.  Even if we don’t immediately see the benefits we can gain from the change, be assured that there is one if you’ll accept it.

I firmly believe that my Creator has a plan for my good.  Each change, gargantuan or miniscule, has eventually led me further along that plan.  What I have discovered in retrospect is that how quickly I realized that gain depended on my attitude and mindset.

For instance:  My divorce after 24 years of marriage was devastating.  My Pollyanna view of life and family was crushed.  No longer were we living in the Cleaver house.  I was no longer a Donna Reed or any other role model I had grown up with.  I was unprepared to take a job outside of my home.  I was never supposed to have had to support myself, much less my children!  I wallowed in despair and depression.  It was fueled by anger and resentment by his turning his back on our children also and my having to accept full responsibility for them.  I was unprepared.   I chose to accept the role of Victim for many years and it nearly destroyed me before I learned to climb out and face the world squarely and conquer it.

Compare that with our Katrina experience.  Living in Gulfport, MS our lives couldn’t help being adversely affected.  Yes, I was in shock.  Yes, I relived the experience many times (we foolishly stayed).  Yes, my home and property sustained some damage, ‘tho God’s protective shield kept the damage to a minimum compared to those around me.  Yes, my income was immediately cut to 0.  For a year, I traveled between Chattanooga, TN and home, rebuilding property and trying to reconnect with  and reestablish my Interior Design business.  I was also pushing full force into my network marketing business with NO success.

I could have easily slipped into the Victim role again.  Who would have blamed me?  Many people I know did;  some are still there.  Why didn’t I?  I made a choice not to accept being the Victim.  My mindset was Survivor.  I continually strove to complete the tasks necessary to move our lives forward.  I kept my focus on what we had and how we could build on that.  I’d learned the hard lesson years before and refused to return to that state.

Traveling the Survivor path wasn’t easy.  It meant daily focusing on and building on what we had and finding the opening doors.  I had to be aware and flexible and remain positive.  It meant consistently taking baby steps, and sometimes leaps of faith, through those doors.  The result was that we were well on track and back within a year.  The “Victims” I know are still wallowing 3 years later.

The moral of the stories?  Accept change and be flexible.  Look for and find the Golden Nugget in the change.  Opportunity is everywhere.  Then, build on it.  Believe that there is a reason for the change and it is to redirect your path in a good way.  By accepting the new direction and adjusting your mindset, you will continue forward motion instead of stagnating…or worse, sliding backward.