Use Facebook To Build Relationships

If we do our research of the reason Facebook came to be, we see early on the importance of making connections and building relationships. Originally for college students to keep up with their peers, it has expanded to family and friends, and now has completely evolved to include businesses and entrepreneurs alike.  We stay connected so we know how our peeps are doing, read
dramaother posts and thank our lucky stars where we are compared to them. But we also go on there to support our store brands we love, and to promote our business.
When we build a business, we create a rapport with our customers. We gain trust, we engage, make everyone that comes in our path know that we really care. We say hi, call people by name, and actually engage in stimulating conversation…..at least that’s what we’re supposed to do….but don’t.

….Instead of Spamming In Networking Groups

The problem comes when we promote our business. I have been a rookie, learned from it, and years later still see the same type of thing happening, and it just gets worse. I am a part of quite a few Facebook Groups, and admit that sometimes I fall prey to what everyone else does…but I decided to go against the grain, as you’ll hear about in my video.
A question was asked, ‘Can you build a sustainable business promoting your business in all of the networking groups on Facebook?’ Well…the answer is yes and no. Watch my video below that explains what I mean.

Ready To Learn?

Well then, put into action RIGHT NOW what you watched on the video, and watch your business results change. Build relationships on Facebook first before spamming in networking groups! Need some guidance? Subscribe to my blog and get the Free 5 No No's on Building Your Business on Facebook. I show you how without all the fluff.
Til next time,

KeishaMonique

I Jumped Out of A Perfectly Good Plane

I never heard that popular phrase before until I announced one day on Facebook that I was going all out on my 35th birthday – skydiving, for the first time.  Yes, I jumped out of a perfectly good plane.
If you know me, you’d KNOW that skydiving and Lakeisha in the same sentence doesn’t even make ANY sense. For years I have always talked down going to certain amusement parks because I was deathly afraid of roller coasters. When I would go to the local carnivals, I was the one taking pics and encouraging others along. I was the baby/stroller watcher, the food and purse holder, and laugher-atter lol. (my own word)
I remember a few years back, going to Sea World, and there was one ride that looked like a big wooden log that slowly ascended upwards, I dunno about some 40 feet up and then seemed to free fall down until you reached the water…I let my stepson talk me into going on that ride, because it didn’t look THAT scary.
That feeling…you know what I’m talking about, when you go down fast, and it literally feels like your SOUL is about to be snatched out of your body and left behind? Your body kinda trembles as you try to keep your soul inside? Yeah, I don’t like that feeling at all. Some people get a rush out of it.  Well…after going down like that I was so upset. I angrily told them to NEVER make me go on ANY of those rides AGAIN!

Back to Skydiving…

So imagine everyone’s surprise when I said I was going to skydive? Yeah people didn’t believe me. Others egged me on, and still most others kept asking, ‘Why would you jump out of a perfectly good plane?’ My ex told me I was going through a midlife crisis. Nah! I wanted to do something exciting, spontaneous NEW, and test my risk limits.
And believe this…the little old lady in the video, was jumping her 964th jump. She was trying to get to 1,000 jumps by her 65th birthday which was at the end of August.We also got a cup of beer after the jump. A couple days later, we went to Six Flags and I braved it – went on EVERY SINGLE big roller coaster there. With a little coaxing and reminding myself I jumped 12,000 feet out of a perfectly good plane, the comparison was nothinnnn, and I did it!  Happy Birthday to me!
Life is about taking risks sometimes, breaking the rules…or maybe amending them a little bit. I am living life to the fullest but I do think sometimes we have to be uncomfortable to get what we want! Do you want something? Do you take risks? Be your OWN boss.

Til next birthday!
Lakeisha M Williams
P.S. I would do it again!

Self Sabotage Is NOT Your Friend

It happens to the best of us! Though it is NOT the best of us. (ooo quote!) But it happens all too often, and this is something that I’m combating myself. Self-sabotage.
What is it, and how does it happen? Most of you can relate to this. Its not all business related. It can happen when you’re trying to lose weight, when you’re trying to move on from a toxic relationship, when you’re trying to focus on school, break some type of addiction….and of course when you join or start whatever business you decide on.

 How Does Self-Sabotage Even HAPPEN?

Every situation has the EXACT same steps to self-sabotage…if we let it sink in, it won’t go away…it loves your company:

• First you get excited.
• Then you commit to it, and VOW that you will NEVER give up you are SOOOO excited.
• The excitement wears off when you don’t see the results you hoped to have in a given amount of time.
• You start backing off of that thing you were SOOO excited about.
• You talk to yourself, and excuses begin. Why you cheated for the day BUT will restart tomorrow…why you went back to him/her for that tenth one time, BUT you won’t do it again…you turned in your homework late BUT its okay you still have time, why you didn’t call follow up with your prospects/build a list/return a call, BUT you’ll get to it asap.
• Then tomorrow comes. It still isn’t done. You push it to another day.
• Then another day.
• And another.
• Before you know it…you are not excited anymore. People are still there to support you but you’re not feelin’ them. You don’t know why you started in the first place. Maybe it wasn’t for you. You’re not making any money. You gained 2 pounds back. Your teacher gave you C. Dude/dudette still doesn’t want you. Oh this can’t be good, so why are you still doing it? You ask.
• People begin to ask questions. Where are you? They haven’t seen you in the gym lately…you’re not back with WHAT’S HIS/HER FACE are you? Are you still in ABC Business??
• The excuses continue…and theennnn….
• You say eff it. You’re done. Nothing’s happening (damn right nothing’s happening. You did it to yourself. And You quit.

Then you see everyone around you STILL going on with life…and you feel like an outsider. Why can’t YOU have the same success…because it seems like all the successful people are thrown in your face all of a sudden, right?
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN…..Self-Sabotage.
Self-sabotage is NOT YOUR FRIEND. It hangs around the back of your mind, waiting for any reason for you to doubt yourself. It plays with your emotions. It makes you second-guess your talent, abilities, skills. Keeps you unfocused. It’s all about you.  Self-sabotage loves making you feel this way.

No More! How?  (And It’s Not Always Easy)

The only way to get rid of it, is to flood your mind. Flood it. With:

• Personal/Self Development
• People who are heading the same direction as yourself.
• Taking all of the ‘bad words’ – like, failure, quitting, no, you can’t, and it’s impossible, out of your vocabulary.
• Shifting your mind and shaking self-sabotage completely out of your system.
• Discipline yourself to go beyond yourself. You will look back and be AMAZED with your new self.
• Pray about it! – Definitely NOT the last thing to do, saving the best FOR last.

Perfect example is my blog! I am supposed to blog everyday! But as you can see, time has lapsed! Its no one’s fault but my own, but it was b/c I became LAZY.  No excuses…especially with what I’VE been through! So…JUST SAY NO TO SELF-SABOTAGE!

Soo…I was to do two posts but I worked late (I’ll blog about that later) and got tired so here is part 2.
So, I spoke about entrepreneurs go on and on about network marketing and why people won’t live their dreams working a J.O.B. Well, I can speak on BOTH ends because I am working now! (My story later).
Plain and simple, people who have jobs that don’t like like MLM or Network Marketing are under one of these categories:

• They LOVE their job and complacent, they can’t see themselves ANYWHERE else
• They think running a business is too hard may not have the discipline to stick it out.
• Need a guaranteed paycheck and think that Network Marketing does not give the income needed RIGHT NOW.
• Thinks every MLM or network marketing business is a SCAM
• Been in a MLM or network marketing business and HAVE been scammed, burned, failed.

Notice I didn’t say why people with jobs don’t JOIN them, because people do, find it’s not for them and happy to work.
Here are some arguments with rebuttals on excuses that employees make on why they won’t invest in themselves:
Employee: I don’t want to pay an autoship. They will take $XYZ out of my check.
Rebuttal: Your employer takes 20% out of YOUR paycheck every 2 weeks. No one says anything. So your salary is $25,000 but really it’s $20,000 a year.

Employee: If I have my business, when tax season comes, I will have to pay it back.
Rebuttal: No, as a business owner, you fall in a different tax bracket. You will put MORE money in your pocket because you can deduct expenses you CAN’T as an employee. See your CPA.

Employee: Yeah, all you do is sit on your ass everyday.
Rebuttal: Yeah? Okay…blogging, taking calls, checkin’ emails, surfing the web, playing on Facebook, and webinars with teammates…I guess I do. But so do you. Only difference is, I come and go as I please, I determine my hours, my pay, I can see my kids before and after school. I don’t have to ask permission to even excuse myself to the restroom, or see the look on my boss’s face if I run in a couple minutes late for lunch – because I AM my own boss!

Employee: Yeah but I need money now, and at least I get a guaranteed paycheck.
Rebuttal. You’re right. But see, you will get that over the next 20, 25, 30 or more years and still be working hard. As a business owner, I may start with zero, but I determine my future, and when I start getting paid, it will INCREASE and so I may only have to work for 1, 2 to 5 years making 6figures or more, retired, living life, having free time…I won’t have to wait for my job to tell me when to to retire before I can live.


But let me stop right there. If I get resistance I have to move on? Why, because you can’t go through life CONVINCING people against their will. You just can’t. If they resist you, but come on board because they feel obligated, they will waste MY time, and they will set THEMSELVES up for failure!

Did you know we are ALL supposed to prosper? We are NOT MADE to be broke, stuck, busted and disgusted. We are all meant to have a prosperous life! But that idea was somehow buried with the way our society feels is the ‘American Way’ and conditions MOST people that without a job you are not going anywhere in life. That’s not to say if you have one you’re a loser…not even that. I commend those that do what they have to do (like myself for now)…but we all have dreams, we all have a goal, and when you are trading time for money, are you truly happy?
I say, if you have a job but looking for more, do a business you will love, on the SIDE to supplement your income. Then when you won’t have to worry about life just flying by.
I have a goal in mind and my goal is to be back where I was last year. I’ll have to tell ya all about it, in my next blog post.

You see it on your Facebook newsfeed. You see it in blogs posts such as this. You see it in articles, forum posts, group discussions. You get to hear from all the entrepreneurs who did it big, and aspiring networkers, as they build their own home-based business.  It gets to the point where you feel you got the short end of the stick or actually doing something WRONG by working job, for being an employee for someone.  Those who actually work a job become insulted, offended, and even put off  by the person(s) that talk about how having a job is the fastest ticket to NO WHERE.
You know the famous initials. Just. Over. Broke. But you just don’t understand.
 
We talk about jobs because we’ve been there. We’ve had the 9am – 5pm clocking in, and knowing no matter how hard we worked, how long we are there, how much our bosses LOVED us, how much overtime we put in, how many job shadows, or development courses we complete, we would NEVER EVER make more than the manager or their boss or their bosses boss, or the CEO of that company.

I thought in my career in insurance, I would eventually be a boss, and boss people around. ‘Cause I’m bossy.  Deep down I wanted more BUT I was complacent with a job. It’s a guaranteed check! I was introduced to the network marketing  bug early on but didn’t quite get it. I won’t bore you with the details, but I failed and failed and failed again. Then I hit success in my business.

I saw my checks go up to the four figures a month, watched my team grow into the thousands. And the crazy thing was, I worked my butt off for an entire year, but when my business exploded, I didn’t do a LOT of work! But checks just KEPT GOING UP! Now that, my friend is the power of residual income. Once you got a piece of that freedom, you didn’t want to lose it!

So then, you see the business owners, independent contractors, all of us get EXCITED! We worked umpteen YEARS at ABC company in a cubicle but now we call the shots and we are paid much MORE, the skis the limit. Then you start seeing the comments…that pretty much seem anti-job.
But I’m telling you! You see the comments it because WE’VE BEEN THERE. Once you see the income that can be made working from home…and being able to wake up when you want, (except if you have kids like I do), be able to take calls, run your errands,  travel, set your OWN hours, head to the bathroom without asking permission, meet new people you WANT to work with…there is NOTHING LIKE IT.

But people at jobs who have a closed mind don’t see the blood sweat and tears we have to go through to get there! Most folks with jobs think we just get into business, wake up, successful and that it came easy.  NO! We have to go through:

• Sacrificing normal activities we enjoy at first
• Working LONGER hours…up to 16 hours sometimes!
• Missing time with family
• Disciplining ourselves and having to do what most won’t
• Constant rejection
• The phone attached to our cheek and ear
• Working hard until…
• Going through obstacles
• Dealing with haters who really think you do nothing all day
• Getting up and doing it all over again with no GUARANTEE of getting paid!

But boy the rewards….the rewards make it well worth it! Its BLISS when you can do more than your normal activities, you have nothing BUT time with family, you see yourself blossom in personal development, you aren’t killing yourself, you turn haters into motivators, and you are getting paid beyond your wildest dreams. Who would WANT to go back to a job after that?? Once you get that you will understand WHY you see us.
Contrary to what you believe, we don’t necessarily knock a job. Because in tough times, most have to do what they have to, to support their families. But those who keep and open mind and want to make THEIR dreams come true and not someone else’s, will have a light bulb go off, and you too will see the difference of being your own boss and being bossed by one.