HBSA

Hello HBSA,

I hope you’re having a great day!

First, we wanted to make a couple of announcements.  Then, we have a special lesson for you!

1. HBSA Stand Down

Twice each year, HBSA does a stand-down, and it’s that time again!  There will be no live Q&A calls starting Dec 19.  All normal calls will resume the week of January 2nd, 2012.

This is a fantastic time to get ahead in your studies.  Many people take it easy during the holidays, which means OPPORTUNITY for you!  The support desk and mentoring team will still be available to help you, so if you need a hand just let us know!

2. Is HBSA Going Away?

In the last couple weeks, you may have heard that we joined a new opportunity.  We did, and in response, some students have been asking if HBSA is no longer a priority to us.

I’d love to address this question.  The answer – NO WAY.

HBSA has been, and probably always will be a core focus of what we do.  We love everything about this company, and nothing is changing our vision or deterring us from that.

The prospect of having HBSA join a specific opportunity, and invite others to participate with us, is a new one.  The reality is, Martin and I are always working on additional projects.  We just don’t make them public to all the student body here at HBSA.

We’ve been involved with many different ventures in the past, and will be in the future.  Some of those will be made available to HBSA students if they’re congruent, and if they’re not, they won’t.

We’re as committed as ever to what we do – helping people learn real direct-response marketing that really works, and helping people understand how to leverage the power of the tools and strategies that we use every day.

So if you joined us in our new opportunity, that’s fantastic, and we’re looking forward to a crazy ride!  If you didn’t, no worries at all!  WE will be closing the opportunity this week to focus on our current team, and to get back to business as usual at HBSA.

3. . What’s Up With This New Opportunity?

We made the decision recently (like, 7 days ago) to join a new network marketing opportunity.  It was the first time that we haveallowed HBSA students to participate with us directly in an opportunity.  We started by putting out a video (here) asking for some feedback on the concept.  The response was overwhelmingly positive.

Next, we reviewed hundreds of different companies – their compensation structures, their leadership teams, their organizational charts, their markets…you name it.  There were so many great companies out there that is was very difficult to make a decision. But, we had to make a call, and we chose to begin working with a company in the health and wellness space.

You can check out the reasons we joined that particular company here.  But here is the first week in review.

- We joined last Tuesday.

- Within 15 minutes, we qualified for their first level of accomplishment

- Within 90 minutes, we qualified for their BMW car incentive, and the position of RD

Within 48 hours, we qualified for National

Within 72 hours, we qualified for Presidential

Above that are the levels of Ambassador.

In that timeframe, we broke 3 company-held records, and were 5 minutes off breaking the 4th. And we did it all without swinging over a previous downline – they were all-new signups.

Two members of our team also qualified for their BMW’s, and we have several that are close!

So – it was a good week!  We are very grateful for everyone who participated and helped us make it happen.

A Big Lesson

When we first started talking about joining a program, some students asked us to use this as a platform to teach – to show people what we do, howwe do it, and why we do it.

We have already published a few videos (here and here) that show some of that process.  This is another VERY important lesson that I would like to convey to you.

Database Power

One of the tools we suggest to all students is Sendpepper (or any email marketing tool).  We get some blow-back from time to time from students who think it’s a waste of time. They don’t want to spend $25/mo for some email marketing tool.  Which is fine – it’s a free country, and everyone can grow their business as they choose.

But this is exactly why we recommend it:

There is NO WAY we could have gained as much traction as we did – as fast as we did – without a powerful email tool and a adatabase.

As you generate leads, you are building a database. In the online world, a database is one of the most important assets you will ever acquire.  Do you think we could have broken 3 company records had we not developed and used a database?  No way.

We use exactly what we teach every day.  When we approach any business-building opportunity, we also build databases – lists of people who are looking for something.

So as you are building your business, think in terms of building assets – of building databases.

We’ll be sharing the additional lessons-learned (the good and the bad) as we continue this journey!

I see way too many networkers fall for this pitch.

“Hey, come buy some FRESH, double-verified opportunity-seeking leads!  These people are VERY interested in starting their own home-based business.  They are practically ready to jump into the first business they see!”

Not true.

I’ll first explain why these leads are a pure rip – and then I’ll explain the proper way to grow your business with leads.

Because we’re not against lead-getting.  We love leads.  Leads are a very necessary part of growing your business.

But these lame-o opportunity-seeking gigs are not the way to do it, for several reasons:

1. Price

Most of the time, these types of leads are sold for $5 – $30 per lead.  If you are buying leads, you should never pay more than $0.25 per lead.  Ever.

2. Positioning

These leads have been generated by someone else – not you.  Which means that someone else is getting the positioning – not you.  Which means that these leads won’t convert as highly as your own positioned leads would convert.

3. Exclusivity

Most of these types of leads are sold – and resold – and resold – and resold again.  Each person that buys them is told that they have “exclusive” access to them…but not really.  By the time you get to them, the lead has been called by four other hungry marketers, all claiming that they have the BEST opportunity.  Now, you have to not only close your prospect on your company, but also un-close them on the other four opportunities that they just heard about.

4. Mindset

Allegedly, the mindset of these leads is that they are looking for a hot opportunity.  In reality, most are looking for a job.  They are wanting a way to earn money RIGHT NOW.  Network marketing is a residual-income compensation structure – which means you get paid tomorrow on the work you do today.

So what happens when you put a person who needs money yesterday into a program that is designed to pay out over time?  They quit. The result is that your downline becomes a constantly revolving door – new people in, old people out.  Not the best way to structure a long-term business.

I could go on, but you get the drift.

So how DO you grow a business with leads?

You either buy targeted leads, or you generate your own.

Let me ‘splain it you:

1. Buying Targeted Leads

You should first target your leads based on the benefits of your product/service.  Now, you may be saying “NO! I need business builders!”  Yeah, I know.  Of course you need business builders.  But you also need product users.  If you signed up 500,000 people, all of whom were just business builders who didn’t use the product/service, you’d have no residual income.

You need business builders AND product users, and if you lead with the benefits of the product/service first, then you avoid many of the pitfalls that befall motivated-but-uneducated marketers that get brainwashed into thinking they can build an empire with a bunch of biz-op seekers who have no interest in the product or service.

So list out the benefits of your product service – what does it do for people?  Does it:

Save them money?

Help their alopecia?

Let them communicate better?

Provide great travel deals?

Give peace of mind?

Alleviate joint pain?

Improve vision?

Remove wrinkles?

What does it DO?  The answer to this question will fill in the “what are my benefits” blank.

Now that you know what benefits you offer, you can then go find lead brokers who have leads that fit your profile.

Let’s run through a couple of examples:

Say you’re marketing a beverage that helps improve energy.  Your profile could be:

Men and women between ages 30 – 50, who have been diagnosed or sought treatment for chronic fatigue syndrome or depression, earn over $40,000 per year, have a credit rating over 650, and have inquired about a home-based business in the last six months.

This is a much more targeted profile than your run-of-the-mill biz-op seeker.  You know they have a need for what you have – and that they are actively seeking a solution.  You also know you can help them, and you can bet that if they love our product, they will probably be one of your best business builders because they are truly passionate about what they are marketing.

Let’s try another.

Say you market a telecom program – people sign up with your company, and they get to sell their products (including video phones).  A simple profile could be:

Men and women between ages 40 – 60 who have children that have gone off to college in the last year, earn over $40,000 per year, have a credit score over 650, and have inquired about starting a home-based business in the last 6 months.

Again – look at the targeting.  Now why would we want to target people who had kids go off to college?  Well, if you have a video phone as one of your products, then they’ll probably be interested in seeing their wittle Joey’s cutsey-wutesy face in between all his classes instead of just getting his lousy text messages.

The key is targeting based on the benefits of what you have.  Now, you can go shop some lead brokers to see if they can help you out.

When dealing with leadbrokers, you need to understand that their job is to sell you leads – as many leads as possible.  There are several snakes out there, but also several quality guys as well.

Here’s a couple of keys when negotiating with lead brokers:

1. Don’t pay over $0.25 per lead.

2. Buy as few as possible on your first batch. If they work out, you can always get more.

3. Have realistic expectations.  Some people think that they should sign up everyone on their lead list, and it ain’t gonna happen. The stats you are looking for are a 12% – 20% connect rate, a 3% – 15% response rate, and a 15% – 30% close rate.  It basically means you’ll be signing up 2 – 5 people out of every 500 leads you purchase.   That may not look great, but let’s look at the numbers:

At $0.25 per lead, you paid $125 for your 500 leads.

If your average commission is $75, that means you made yourself $150 – $375 in immediate commissions, not to mention the residual income.  It’s a profitable, sustainable way to grow a business.

For leadbroker recommendations, you can just Google “lead brokers” and interview them to see if they can help.

Here is a link to our lead broker – we actually buy them in bulk from our broker, and provide them in smaller buys.

What if you don’t want to buy leads from a broker?

No problem - just generate your own.

This strategy is about using targeted advertising methods to generate leads that are positioned for you specifically.  This is our favorite way to grow a business.  It’s predictable, simple, and fun.  I’ll probably write up a full post on this in the future, but for now, you can just go here and download our free report on the subject.  We talk about how to add 700 reps into a networking business, and doing it with targeted marketing methods and strategies.  Enjoy.

You want to accomplish something big in life?

You want to help lots of people – make a real difference in their lives?

You want to create a great life?  Great relationships?  Great success?

Good Lord…what’s wrong with you? Why would you want to do something like THAT?… I mean…that sounds like a lot of WORK.

It sounds HARD.

Sounds like a royal pain in the ARSE.

Why put yourself through all that? There are so many other things you could be doing that are way more enjoyable.

Why not just kill time doing funner stuff?  For example:

- Checking out demotivational posters.

- Making fun of Google.

- Watching Frank Kern parodies.

- Googling your name.

- Looking at pictures of people you don’t know anymore on Facebook.

- Playing games like Filler.

- Searching all the usual stuff on Uneven Google.

- Catching up on your TV. There’s ALWAYS something great on TV.  You can kill tons of time just searching around looking for that one good show that’s playing (don’t get discouraged if you can’t find it…just keep lookin’).

- Grab a nap. You can never have enough sleep!

- Eat something tasty. For maximum time-wasting, cook it yourself, cook something new, and don’t prepare.  That way, you have to go find a recipe…then go get the stuff to make the food…and then cook it.  You can blow an easy 3-4 hours on a single meal!

- Go cruise some adult websites.

- Start writing your memoir.

- Drink some beer!

…

The Pain Of Failure

The thing is, trying to do something difficult means you might fail.  And failing stinks.  It’s like the worst feeling in the world.  In fact, you’ll probably fail many times at anything that eventually becomes successful.  And that’s IF it’s eventually successful (no guarantee that it will).  Do you really want to deal with that?

Instead, you could just AVOID doing anything difficult, risky, great, or potentially lucrative.  And if you MUST do something difficult, make sure you half-ass it: don’t try too hard; that way you can tell yourself that you COULD have done it if you really wanted to…you just didn’t try, because you didn’t really want to.  And that’s why it didn’t work out.

The Importance Of Alibis

If you’re going to procrastinate your way to sub-mediocrity, you’re going to need some good alibi’s.  If you don’t have any good alibi’s handy, you’ll need to eventually get some (no need to do it today though – wait until you can’t postpone it).

Here are some good categories for alibi’s:

Relationships

Do  you have any crappy relationship in your life?  Blame it on the other person.  List out all their bad characteristics, the stuff that annoys you and gets under your skin.  Let them know they need to change.  Make sure you react to any little thing they do, and expect them to modify their behavior to meet your needs when they are around  you.  It’s also good to not explain what your needs are…just let them guess.

If they reciprocate and let you know what you should do for them, accuse them of being too demanding.  Tell them to ask nicer.  Tell them to expect less.  Tell them to conform to YOUR standards FIRST…then, and only then, will you be willing to examine yourself.

Avoid investing any effort into relationships if at all possible. Don’t call your prospects.  Don’t call your vendors.  Don’t call anyone.  Indulge other hobbies or interests.  Don’t talk about real things at the dinner table. In fact, don’t even have dinner – eat out before you get home.  If you MUST share a meal, make sure it’s in the living room with the TV blaring.  When your relationships sink, make sure to let the world know how nobody in your life really took the time to understand you and your special needs.  They were all too busy doing their thing to really pursue you…and make no mistake about it, you SHOULD be pursued at all times, regardless of what’s going on.  They failed you – it’s their fault.

Physical

Are you out of shape? It’s probably because that piece of exercise equipment doesn’t work as advertised.  It’s also probably all that fast food – so really, it’s McDonald’s fault.  Your spouse doesn’t encourage you to work out?  They could – meaning, it’s kinda their fault too.  Oh, your spouse encourages you TOO MUCH to work out?  Well, don’t.  You’ll show them who’s boss.  If they really loved you, they’d just accept you the way you are, and applaud your efforts to eat yourself into the grave.

Or maybe your out of shape because of your job.  Do you sit in front of the computer all day?  Well, that’s probably the reason.  You can’t HELP but lose your health frying yourself in front of a computer monitor all day.  And then when you get home, you have to play (i.e., read a book) to your kids.  That’s exercise enough for me!

If all else fails, blame your parents.  They have crappy fat genes, and they passed them all onto you.  You have big bones that magnetically attract fat cells, and refuse to let go of them.

Financial

This is a biggie.  It’s also the easiest – it’s no sweat to blame financial woes on others.

First, there’s your line of work.  Your boss isn’t promoting you fast enough.  They aren’t paying to begin with…and they expect WAY too much for the embarrassingly-low wages they do pay.  Make sure you do the minimum – that gal in HR said to just do what you’re responsible for, and nothing else.  NEVER go the extra mile.  Be the last to click in and the first to click out.  Overtime?  Only if it’s triple-pay, and only if it doesn’t interfere with beer-o-clock.

Have a great boss?  Well, let’s look at spending habits.  Who trained you on how to get rich?  NOBODY.  You parents didn’t equip you with good financial planning.  Your teachers were broker than you are.  Did you venture out and try to learn from others on how to get ahead?  Well, if it didn’t work, then they FAILED YOU.  Their advice sucked. They didn’t know what they were talking about.  It didn’t matter if you didn’t even use it – it probably wouldn’t have worked anyway.

Then there’s your spouse.  They probably don’t earn enough.  Don’t try to save enough.  Always wasting money on junk that you don’t need.  And they’re not vocal enough about helping you avoid spending money on junk you don’t need.

Got kids?  HUGE MONEY-SUCK.  They require regular feeding.  Clothing.  Stuff to ENTERTAIN them.  Not to mention TIME – you could be making money, but instead you have to go rock them to sleep or teach them something about life.  LAME.  Only 18 years…

Great boss – no spouse – no kids?  Blame politics.  Politicians aren’t doing enough.  Or they’re doing too much, but it’s wrong.  They need to get their act together.  Shape up or ship out, ya know?…

Or the economy.  NOBODY makes money in a down economy.  Some of last centuries RICHEST PEOPLE didn’t get that way from the last depression.

Can’t get funding?  Blame the banks.

Don’t have enough money?  Blame your customers.

Losing market-share?  Blame your competitors.

Google slap you?  Blame Google.

Blame your personal trainer.  Blame your wife.  Blame your husband.  Blame your upline.  Blame your accountant.  Blame employees.  Blame your clients.  Blame your kids.  Blame your car.  Blame the person who sold you the car.  Blame the company that made the car.  Blame your pets.  Blame God.  Blame the devil.  Blame Mercury when it’s in retrograde.  Blame your hormones.  Blame your metabolism.  Blame the tooth fairy.  Blame Bill Gates.  Blame your dinner.  Blame football.

Here’s the big picture: YOU CAN ALWAYS BLAME SOMEONE OR SOMETHING ELSE.  Accept responsibility?  Pfffft.  Overrated.  Much easier to blame others…and it’s probably their fault anyway.  Anyone who would even SUGGEST you take any responsibility for your life is really just trying to BLAME YOU anyway, right?  Might as well give ‘em their own medicine.

If you wait until the last minute to come up with your alibi’s (I don’t blame you for waiting, btw – there’s tons of good stuff on TV right now) then you can use these handy mad libs:

“My relationship didn’t work out because ____________ (insert name) wouldn’t change ___________”(list all their annoying habits).

“My career isn’t working because __________________ (name of employer or boss) is too _________________ (list negative character trait) and doesn’t ________________ enough (make reference to their stinginess)”.

“My health is poor because my parents taught me to __________________ (list bad habit) and never gave me enough ________________________ (support, love, education, whatever)”.

And if you need any extra help, get the procrastination flow chart.  Sheer genius.

Now let me ask you a question:

DO YOU DISAGREE WITH EVERYTHING IN THIS POST?

I do.

Yet day in and day out, I see the above listed mindset displayed a million different ways.  The truth is, It IS easier to blame the other person.  It IS easier to not try.  It IS easier to procrastinate.  We are all tempted to indulge these activities, for a million different reasons.   In my more honest moments, I can review my day and see times where I have displayed this same mindset.  It’s a very typical response.

Here’s the bad news: if you want to be anything more than “typical” in this world, you’re going to have to get used the idea that EXCUSES DON’T CUT IT.  I recommend you NOT ACCEPT EXCUSES – EVER.  Not from yourself.  Not from others.  NEVER.

When you’re tempted to blame someone else – STOP.  Focus on what YOUR ROLE is, and what you could have done differently – or what you can do differently going forward.

If you’re tempted to put off until tomorrow what should be done today – STOP.  Focus and force yourself to just GET IT DONE.

If you’re tempted to complain – STOP.  Complaining is the most unflattering, unproductive, unattractive activity you could possibly indulge in (except for maybe this).

Let me assure you:

There is REAL OPPORTUNITY out there to make SERIOUS MONEY during this economy.

There is REAL OPPORTUNITY out there to build FANTASTIC RELATIONSHIPS with wonderful people that will RECIPROCATE.

There is REAL OPPORTUNITY to take responsibility for your health, and develop a realistic plan to LOOK AND FEEL GREAT.

But it starts with a long, hard look in the mirror.  You spend all day looking around online for the “quick fix” that will make you some fast money?  That surefire opportunity that will give you success on a silver platter?  That secret system that’s going to turn you into an overnight millionaire?  That Spanish fly that will trick the opposite sex into being attracted to you?  That secret medicine that will just make your kids finally behave?  That magic bullet that will help you build the body of your dreams after the second dose?

GET A CLUE. IT’S NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.  The more you try to put the responsibility on others, the less chance you have of developing anything remarkable in this life.

That leaves only one alternative:  hard work.  You may have heard of this?…It includes:

- Delayed gratification – doing hard things with no guarantee or sign of immediate reward

- Sacrifice - You stay at home working on that business idea on Saturday night instead of  drinking yourself into oblivion with your homies.

- Creativity - that means you can’t just copycat what everyone else does.  You must sum the courage to step out and fail.  You must have the courage to look the hecklers and “you can’t do it” peeps in the eye and tell ‘em to go rot.

- Risk - yes, real risk of failure.  Hard work does not guarantee success, because you can be doing the wrong thing.  Thieves work hard to steal – even if they succeed, they can get caught and go to prison.  With no risk, there is no reward.  Instead of focusing on making it less risky, it may work better to simply focusing on bringing the reward into fruition.

I leave you with words from men wiser and greater than I.  Heed them and profit.

“Waiting is a trap. There will always be reasons to wait. The truth is, there are only two things in life, reasons and results, and reasons simply don’t count.” – Dr. Robert Anthony

“Don’t wait for someone to take you under their wing. Find a good wing and climb up underneath it.” – Frank C. Bucaro

“Do you know what happens when you give a procrastinator a good idea? Nothing!” – Donald Gardner

“Tear thyself from delay.” – Horace

“Men acquire a particular quality by constantly acting a particular way. We become just by performing just actions, temperate by performing temperate actions, brave by performing brave actions.” – Aristotle

“Would you like me to give you a formula for… success? It’s quite simple, really. Double your rate of failure. You’re thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t at all… you can be discouraged by failure — or you can learn from it. So go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because, remember that’s where you’ll find success. On the far side.” – Thomas J. Watson

This video is a tutorial on how fast and easy it is to incorporate autoresponder software on to your website:

Now, you may be brand new to online marketing, or you may be a seasoned hand.  Regardless, you should absolutely be using some sort of autoresponder software on your website, for three main reasons:

1. Database Building

Building a database is one of the most profitable things you can do for creating residual income and having a long-term asset.  At HBSA, we use always go into a new market with the mindset of building assets.  Different business models take different tools to execute, and our mindset has always been “long term”, and having a database is essential to building a long-term, profitable asset.

2. Automated Followup

Are you busy?  Got a lot going on? Yeah, we know.  We do too.  And the fact is that as much as we all love the “human touch” in business, humans make mistakes.  They overlook details.  The forget stuff.

And that’s why we love autoresponders so much.  We use this technology to take some of the “oops, it slipped through the cracks” out of our businesses.   It basically allows you to write up a series of emails that go out on an automatic “drip” timeline, so that each person who opts into your list gets a predictable, steady flow of content and information from you.  Helps to build relationships, and be of service to your clients.

3. Broadcasting

This is where you can send out an email to your entire list, just with a click of one button.  Makes sending out invitations to webinars and teleseminars a breeze.  It also allows you to advertise time-sensitive specials and updates to your list as you need it.  I sent out an email last week to over 126,000 people, and it took less than 15 minutes.

Here are some additional considerations when using an autoresponder:

1. Website

What is your website designed to do?  If you have an optin website (which you can build easily with Weebly) then an autoresponder works well.  If you have a blog, it works well.  If you have a corporate website, and no offer to give people who opt in, you probably won’t get much action.  Give people an ethical bribe (i.e., a good reason to opt in) and you’ll get better results.

2. Single Opt In Vs Double Opt In

This is a hotly debated topic in the permission-based marketing field.  Kinda like when you get a bunch of Mac fanboy’s in a room full of PC nerds, the inevitable argument can be well-stated and well-made by either side, and it’s ultimately a matter of opinion.

The process for a single-optin setup is:

Lead goes to website >>> Lead opts into autoresponder >>> Lead receives what was promised immediately upon first email

The process for a double-optin setup is:

Lead goes to website >>> Lead opts into autoresponder >>> Lead gets email from autoresponder asking lead to confirm their identity >>> Lead receives what was promised after they confirm their subscription

Email marketing purists argue that double optin helps keep spam rates low (sometimes true) and filters your most “serious” people up to the top.

Personally, I prefer single optin.  I prefer to let leads filter themselves.  Fact is, some people want what you have (they opted in already) but they won’t confirm a subscription.  Plus, those email confirmation messages sometimes get sent to the users spam filter…meaning they never even get a chance to double opt in.

I’m able to keep spam rates low by only sending broadcasts that contain value.  Seems to work ok for us

3. Setbacks

You’re going to have setbacks when using an autoresponder.  It’s a fact.  If you’re new to autoresponders, understand that it is definitely one of the most profitable tools you can introduce to your online marketing campaigns.  It’s also new – which means you’ll need to learn the system.  As goofs will occur, it’s important to understand the mindset for how to deal with setbacks.  At the same time, you can avoid a lot of the more common goofs by getting an autoresponder service that simply has quality training on how to use their products.

There are several autoresponder softwares available.  We personally like Aweber.com for autoresponder software.  They have the highest deliver-ability of any that we’ve tested (and we’ve tested a lot).   Feel free to test ‘em all out, but this is the autoresponder we use.

Questions? Comments?  Post ‘em up below.

Entrepreneurs make mistakes.  It’s our job.  We are pretty much professional mistake-makers.  So long as we learn from our mistakes (and don’t repeat them) it’s all good.  Everyone successful entrepreneur has built their success on big piles of fail.

However, there is one mistake in particular that I’m seeing more and more that is concerning, simply because of ramifications of this mistake.  I’ve watched a lot of business owners crash during this recession, many of which fell prey to this one mistake.

And that one big mistake is simply this:

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So you want to make money online? Good for you!  There are many ways to make it happen, and some are even fast, free, and fun.

But before we get into all that, we need to talk about an ugly truth that may seem obvious.  It is easy to overlook this seemingly apparent factoid when we are looking for ways to earn some income online.   Many choose to glaze over this truth, or ignore it altogether, and do so at their own peril.

It is simply this:

Making money in anything takes work. The Interwebz is no exception.

Do you work hard at your job?  I hope so.   Because to succeed in working from home, you’ll need to work just as hard for yourself as you have for any employer, and maybe even harder at the beginning.  The rewards are more than worth it, but it does take sweat equity…especially if you’re doing it on the cheap.

I’m going to give you some of the best ways to get started in making money online.  One thing that I want you to keep in mind is that making money online from home is not a fallacy or a myth.  Real people do it every day.  I’ve been making a killing online for a long time.   It’s a TON of fun, it’s interesting, and it doesn’t take technical genius to figure it out.  It does take some perseverance, a positive attitude, and some focus.

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Ever had the dream of starting and running your very own business?

If so, you’re in the majority.  Most people have entertained the idea of becoming a business owner.  At first glance, it’s a notion that has appeal on several levels.

First you get to fire your boss (that IDIOT!).

Then, you get to set your own schedule (I’ll work when I WANT to!).

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Thanks to everyone for helping us to pull of a great training webinar!  We appreciated the opportunity to clear the air about AdWords, and how to structure a proper campaign.

Enjoy the recording below.  We also have some recommended resources below, and if you have any questions just let us know in the comments.

Marketing Sherpa – Compendium of case-studies, surveys, and online resources for marketers.

Pingdom – Checks your web page load time.

AdWords External Keyword Tool – Pure awesomeness.

One of the most common questions we get is:

“How do I find more people to talk to?”

And having people to talk to is all about prospecting.

NOTHING could be further from the truth.

And here’s a hint –

If anyone suggests that you need to beg, convince, or cajole your prospects, you would do yourself and your business a tremendous favor by simply…

1.  CREDIBILITY
You can’t separate yourself in the marketplace based on greed.  Everyone in the home business industry has an opportunity, and in this day and age of hype and greed, the average high-school graduate has been hit over the head with so many “make zillions today!”opportunities that it all starts to sound the same.

2.  RETENTION
Retention rates go through the roof when you lead with your product or service.  This is really critical for residual income (which is what network marketing is all about).  Residual income means you get paid tomorrow on the work you do today.

And if you’re just starting out, it won’t be much.

Ouch.

Instantly, you lose credibility, and (right or wrong) your prospect will question your integrity.

This is NOT what we want to happen.  But no matter how new or old you are in promoting your business, you can absolutely endorse a product experience, and you can certainly learn how to become knowledgeable of that product in just a few days.

That’s powerful.  AND credible.

So if you are leading with your product or service, who are you looking for?

It’s not that they don’t know what to do…

It’s that they just won’t do it!

Well, if someone has that attitude, they are NOT  your prospect.  You want to prospect problem solvers, people that see the need for what you have, and already have the desire to take action.  Thing is, if your prospect has pain, and they have the desire to fix that pain, then all you need to do is show them how to get that done.

So…

If you have a business, then go find some people to help!

Ease their pain.

Help the world be a better place.

And make some money at the same time.

That’s a win/win situation, right?  That’s all for now.

Talk soon,
– Josh

We made this video for you on the power of using
Facebook to grow your business:

Click To Watch This Using Facebook For Profits Video

Are you using Facebook right now?  If not, then you
are literally sitting on the sidelines watching a huge
opportunity go by.

A few facts about Facebook:

- They have 500,000,000 registered users (that’s a lot)
– They have a FANTASTIC advertising platform
– So few people know how to use it properly that it’s
like shooting fish in a barrel (in other words, competition
is relatively NIL).

Check it out for yourself:

Click To Watch This Using Facebook For Profits Video

Knowing how to leverage social media websites PROPERLY
is one of the keys to growing a huge business very
quickly.

I emphasize the word “PROPERLY” because most people
think that all they do is spam their friends Facebook
walls…and it will somehow magically make their
business grow as a result.

Needless to say, that simply doesn’t happen.

You have to approach Facebook with the proper mindset,
and the knowledge to maximize it.  And when you do…

LOOK OUT FOR GROWTH.

Because it WILL happen.  We tell you all about it here:

Click To Watch This Using Facebook For Profits Video

See you there!

Martin & Josh