Today I received an e-mail from PC Tools, which raised some questions for me about my Facebook presence.  Most of us tend to believe that we can reveal any information we choose on social networks. Not everyone is truly our friend, though - there are some bad people out there!

In case you are not aware of these issues, here is the content of that e-mail:

“How much information are you revealing on Facebook, and how much is too much?

“Did you know that more than half of social network users are putting themselves at risk of cybercrime by revealing too much personal data?

“A recent survey conducted by the Consumer Reports National Research Center illustrates how risky behavior on social networks can have serious consequences:

•         52% of adult users post information that makes them susceptible to cyber attacks
•         40% include their full birth date
•         26% post sensitive information about their children, including photos and names
•         Many users post their full address as well as updates about when they’re not home
•         9% of users have experienced some type of online abuse, such as identity theft or a malware infection, within the last year

“Tips from PC Tools for staying safe on social networks:

1.         Choose a strong password that combines letters (upper- and lowercase), numbers, and symbols. PC Tools can help you out by generating a random, secure password for you. A complex password is especially important for social networks because you don’t want anyone figuring out your log-in information, spamming your friends, and damaging your online reputation.
2.         Don’t post too much information. Don’t give in to the temptation of posting too much information. Social networks often give us a false sense of security, as we assume that we’re surrounded by friends. A status update, however, could be searchable online, and you certainly wouldn’t want just anyone to know that you and your family will be on vacation—and away from your unprotected home—for 3 weeks.
3.         Get to know the latest Facebook privacy controls, and tweak them to reflect your custom preference. There have been a lot of changes to privacy settings recently and Facebook has developed a comprehensive Privacy Guide that explains in detail how to control what you share.
4.         Keep your antivirus software updated!. You’re smart to have a complete security solution, in the first place—just make sure it stays effective keeping on top of the latest updates.”

I should mention that I’m not using PC Tools myself, and this post is not intended as an endorsement.  I just felt that it was important enough that we should all be aware of the problem.

Let’s be careful out there in cyberspace!

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One of my business partners, Annie, called me a week or so ago and told me she would be in my neighborhood.  She was planning to be in Houston last weekend and wanted to know if my wife and I would like to attend an Astros game with her.  “You bet”, I said!
Well, Annie works with another baseball team and has friends in that business, so this was a special occasion for me.  The last time I watched the Astros was on TV the year they went to the World Series - I forget how long ago that was.  And I had never watched them live!

I have always been told “Don’t mix business with pleasure”, and for most traditional businesses I believe that’s probably wise counsel.  One of the great things about network marketing, though, is that business and pleasure go together – that’s what I love about this business.  It’s one business where I can choose to work only with people I like – how cool is that?

So on Saturday afternoon, Billie and I drove down to Houston.  As usual, we made a couple of stops on the way to take care of other business and personalmatters.  Also, I saw a network marketer’s car with a phone number on it: since I was driving, I had Billie call her, and we made another business contact!

For those who don’t know Houston, the Astros play in a stadium called the MinuteMaid Stadium.  Houston can be pretty hot in July, so the stadium has a removable cover that they put on to air condition the place when it’s too hot.  The cover was on that day: the technology still astounds me – twenty years ago who would have thought that you could have a removable roof over a baseball park with a stadium that seats 37,000!

I’m not sure if that’s the capacity, but it was the number there last Saturday.  In case you’re wondering how I know, it’s because I had a behind-the-scenes trip to the back of the scoreboard with Annie.  I love this business - I have made so many good friends here.
Through this business, I now have friends (not just contacts, but business partners) in at least eight countries.  One of my goals is to visit them all over the next few years.  I’ll have to start soon, because we keep adding more all the time!
Best of all, these trips all count as business expenses – do you see why I love this business?

Oh, I almost forgot!  It was a great game – the Astros beat the Cardinals 4-1.

You can see Annie’s blog here.

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Do You Like Calling Prospects?

There are two types of people in the world – those who hate calling prospects and those who love it! Which type are you?

If the thought of calling business leads fills you with dread, if the phone seems to weigh two hundred pounds, if you look for other activities to avoid calling a prospect, you are definitely in the second category. In that case you may find this article is for you. You see it’s when we face our fears and overcome them that we make breakthroughs – that’s when magic happens!

If you love calling business leads, if you’d rather chat to a prospect on the phone than do anything else, if the thought of calling people excites you, you are in the first category. Guess what? This article is for you, too!

Last night I was on a webinar given by a really successful 34-year-old entrepreneur called Joe Syverson. He described a dialer system that enables us to leverage our time on the phone by an estimated factor of three. In other words, you can talk to three business leads in the time you would normally spend on one!

Now anything that will increase my productivity by 200% gets my attention. I won’t go into all the details here – it would take up far too much space. The key is that you feed this system a set of business leads and it starts dialing. If it gets an answering machine it leaves a message for you, if it gets a busy tone it moves on, and only when a prospect answers do you actually talk to them.

The added value comes from Joe’s training – he will teach you how to talk to the prospect effectively. t In fact, you get to listen to him make calls and you also get to make calls yourself with him coaching you. How cool is that?

You actually need two other things to make this work: a source of business leads and a system to manage it all. This is the best part! Joe’s dialer and training is now integrated into the system I use, which also provides me with monthly leads!

So if you hate calling prospects or if you love calling prospects, why not check it out?  If you click on my system link you will find my contact information.

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Are You Meeting Your Business Goals This Year?

You set business goals at the beginning of the year: now it’s time to look at where you are and where you are going. Half the year has gone, so now is a great time to review your goals for the year and see if you are on track.

Do you need to rethink your goals or your strategy?

If you are more than half way to your year’s goals, congratulations! You are among the very few. Most of us, though are lagging seriously behind: this has been a slow year so far.

In my case, the year started out with a bang: it seems that all the New Year’s resolutions were kicking in and people were ready to change their lives. Then it went quiet. Tax time? - who knows?

Now things have started to pick up again. My belief is that many people are reviewing their first half performance and deciding they need to look into ways to improve their success, There are really only two things you can do if you have
slipped behind: accept it or change it!

Accepting where you are is fine, but do you really want to revise your goals downward? When you set those goals at the beginning of the year, it was because they represented what you really wanted to achieve on the path to your dream. If not, why did you set them?

So really you don’t have a choice, do you? You need to review your performance and see how it can be improved. Let me show you how!

For the purposes of this post, I’ll assume that you are a network marketer, but  similar principles apply to any entrepreneurial activity.

Company

First, take a good, hard look at your company. When you joined them you were excited about it: is that excitement still there?

Are you getting the support and encouragement you need and deserve?

Do you still believe in the product or products?

Most importantly, do you still believe in the company?

If the answer to any of these questions is “no”, you might seriously want to consider seeking another opportunity – not necessarily to replace the existing one, but to supplement it with a view to maybe replacing it later.

System

Next, take a look at your tools. Do you have a system to manage your business? A few years ago only 10% of network marketers used a system. Today that figure is over 90% - why would you try to build a business without a system to run it?

Strategy

If the company’s good and the system is good it’s time to look at yourself. This is a simple business, as you know, but it’s easy to go wrong without noticing it. Are you
missing something?

If you have support from your team, you can ask them to look at what you’re doing and suggest ways to improve it. Often, a small change can make all the
difference. One time when I was “stuck” I asked my team for assistance in finding the problem: they pinpointed it quickly and my results improved dramatically!

Mindset

Sometimes it’s your mindset that is the problem. Network marketing is a relationship business and people must trust you before they will join you. Are you thinking of their needs or of your own? Would you join somebody if you believed they were only interested in making money for themselves and were not interested in what you wanted?

This really is a question of mindset. You must be in business to help other people achieve their dreams, not just to make money for yourself. Don’t fake it – people are not dumb: they can tell. When you’re thinking about a prospect, don’t think “How can I get this person into the business?”. Think “What does this person want or need and how can I satisfy that need?”

Mindset is Network Marketing 101 – we all know it, but sometimes in the eagerness to build our business we can forget about it. Look inside yourself and ask if that might be why you have not been as successful as you hoped in the first half of the year.

Action

I trust that, even though you have heard all this before, you will take it to heart, review your first six months, and take action. Only then will the second half be better than the first.

Here’s to a successful second half for you!

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I have missed a few days running lately, for various reasons, but went for a pleasant, easy run this morning. As I was running, I found myself reflecting on a fascinating video I watched the other evening. In this video, Frank Kern was talking to a group of network marketers about Core Influence.

Now I had never heard of this concept before, so it was all new to me, but when I listened to what he had to say I found that it struck a number of chords for me. What he is looking at is why we do what we do.

Why do I run? Why do I have a home business? What is my real motivation and where do I want to go?

The point is that unless you can answer these questions for yourself, you are doomed to failure. Here is a man who had all the trappings of success – he had the Ferrari, the mansion, the private jet! And his life was empty: the more he had the more miserable he became.

This is a two hour video, so it is really not practical to give you more than a flavor of it in this article, but I believe that if you watch it, and do the exercise he recommends, you will find your Core Identity and your life will improve. We hear so often these days “This will change your life” that I hesitate to use those words. It really depends where you are on your journey how much benefit you will get from it, but it certainly should help you decide where you want to go and give you some of the tools to get there.

So what has this to do with business?

Well, I recognized that when I am running my purpose is to be fit and healthy. I’m not out to break any records, but to rejoice in the fact that I run while others either cannot or choose not to! I’m out in the sunshine and fresh air enjoying all the world has to offer while others are either asleep or commuting to work!

In business, I recognized that I am not in it to make money. Previously, I have felt guilty about this, but now I recognize that any money I make is just a byproduct of what I do. I don’t crave the Ferrari or the mansion.

Goals don’t work for most people. Most of us set goals and then beat ourselves up because we don’t meet them, so that in the end we decide not to set goals. It’s not setting goals that is wrong – it’s the nature of the goals and the reason we are setting them.

I hope this article has whetted your appetite to set two hours aside and watch this video. I can’t promise it will change your life: that’s up to you. But there is always that chance.

Here is the link:

http://getcoreinfluence.com/?ref=yHSpTUPA9oQNzCxm

(You will be asked to sign up, but there is no cost and you can always opt out later if you choose to.)

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This article is taken from a newsletter that I send to members of my running site at http://halftrainingschedule.com.  The article is intended for runners, but the principles apply equally to running a home based business.  Network marketers, in particular, will find the concepts valuable!

I just found a great article by Barbara J. Walker, Ph. D. in Club Running on Maintaining Motivation. She points out that we all know the importance of setting goals, but few of us know how to set them effectively. The goal-setting process, she says, comprises seven steps:

1. Define What You Want to Accomplish This Year

Set a performance goal for yourself based on what you accomplished last year. Think big, but realistically, and set a performance-oriented goal. In other words, set the goal for your own performance (such as PR) rather for an outcome (such as first place) over which you have no real control.  In network marketing, set a goal for a number of contacts or follow-ups made rather than a number of team members added.

2. Know Where You Are Right Now

Check your own records and get feedback from others on your current performance.

3, Be Honest About What You Need to Develop

This is a tough one, but it will pay off later. Recognize where the gaps are in your training and performance so that you can set goals to overcome them.

4. Set Sub-Goals

Break down your season goals into specific concentrated areas, like physical, nutrition and mental skills.  In network marketing the areas might be new contacts, presentations, follow-ups and specific training and personal development activities.

5. Create Performance Objectives for Each Sub-Goal Category

This is the most challenging part and is where most people fall short. It is the area that will help most in making daily gains and maintaining motivation. Make the performance objectives as specific and personal as possible. For example, if you would like to get in five to seven servings of vegetables a day, rather than write “Eat more vegetables” you would write “Eat 5-7 servings daily.”

6. Commit Yourself Completely

Be sure that the goals you have set are what you really want to accomplish and are capable of accomplishing over a period of time, otherwise you are setting yourself up for failure before you start! Committing to them means writing them down and sharing them with a trusted friend. Post them where you will see them and create a daily or weekly check-off list.

7. Continually Monitor Your Progress

Be flexible, and change the plan if it’s not working for you. Sometimes you will need to adjust for illness, injuries or making quicker or slower progress than expected. Don’t obsess over temporary setbacks - just adjust your schedule accordingly, but above all don’t give up!

I found this an excellent summary of how to maintain motivation, except that I would add one further tip:

8. Celebrate Your Successes!

Take time out to pat yourself on the back when you achieve your goals. You earned it! And above all, enjoy the process, not just the results.

Near the end of a Half Marathon

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Sometimes we get stuck in our business. If it has not happened to you yet, chances are it will some time. Would you like to know how to get unstuck?

Often it’s just a case of making a small change somewhere. The secret is to get out of your head and into your heart, but the question is “How do I do that?”

In an earlier post (Keep It Simple) I mentioned that for some of us the way to run faster is to lengthen our stride.

How do you do this? The natural and instinctive thing to do is to reach out further in front. This is absolutely the worst thing: it will slow you down, not speed you up.

You see, when you reach out further, your foot lands ahead of your body. If you think about this, you will see that the impact of your footfall will push you backwards. So each stride starts by overcoming the resistance of the previous footfall – is this what is happening in your business?

The secret is to avoid thinking of the goal (lengthening your stride) and get back to thinking of the purpose (run faster). When you do this, you will understand that to run faster you need to push back with your rear foot, not push forward with your front foot. With this mindset, you will find that your stride automatically lengthens!

The exciting thing to me is that this principle applies everywhere in life – not just in running. It is easy to get hung up on meeting a short term goal and to just work harder and harder to get there. Too often, when we do that, the goal just seems to move further and further away.

So next time you find that you’re working harder and getting farther behind, step back for a moment and see what you’re doing wrong. In pursuing your short-term goal have you lost sight of your long-term purpose? If so, just try doing things a little differently, keeping your purpose in mind, and your goal will suddenly become easy.

That’s what I mean by getting out of your head and into your heart.

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Running your own business can be frustrating: there seem to be so many things to take care of! In fact, though, successful entrepreneurship depends on only three factors. All the rest is detail.

1. Responsibility

You are responsible for your own success. Do not depend on someone else for it – nobody can do your pushups for you! The single most important key to success in life is to take responsibility for your own life.

2. Teamwork

Nobody knows it all – if you wait until you know everything you will never achieve anything. You MUST have a strong team to fill in the gaps for you. Without a team, you will fail – make no mistake about that.

3. Commitment

Do what it takes. It’s not always easy, but perseverance, guts and determination will pay off in the end. Be a winner, not a wimp or a whiner!

Simple, isn’t it? Watch this amazing video to see what responsibility, teamwork and commitment achieved in Nashville recently. And you thought YOU had problems?

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