Another book recommendation.

I have the un-natural habit of sleeping from two to three hours a night, so I have a lot of free time to read. (Although I'd probably read often anyway.) I tend to read books on Self Help/Growth, Business Topics, Mystery, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and some military based ones.

Two days ago had the pleasure of receiving "The Angel Inside", by Chris Widener. (ISBN-0-9726266-1-1)

This book is well written and a quick read at 110 pages (of actual story line). The message, chisel, chip, sand, and polish your inner being and do what you are good at and want to do, instead what others what you to do, is well articulated.

This book will be going on my "must read" list for sure! Check it out and see how it fits your life!! I’m betting it is dead on to where you are currently or have been in the recent past!

Rubber Neckers...

I have over 20 years of Emergency Medicine history. Over the years, I have been known to stop at auto accidents and provide care for those that are hurt, either physically or emotionally.

Something that bothers most emergency crews at an accident, and it definetly rubs me wrong, is rubber neckers. Those folks that slow down, and even stop, regardless if they are on the same side of the accident or not, to look at the event.

This causes problems for one and all, especially the emergency crew!! How does it effect the emergency crew you ask? Well, all the slowing down can slow down further responding units, or even initially responding units. Once the units are on site, the rubber neckers get in the way as a potential distraction and possible mini accidents as people forget to pay attention to what is going on in front of themselves.

So, if you aren't stopping to help (as in right after it happens and before emergency crews show up), keep your eyes on the road, pay attention to what you are doing and get out of the way! Let the emergency crews do their job. Move on and get back to your life, and forget what is going there!

Stay Safe!!

A New Book, "The Virtual Handshake", A MUST Read!

I have had the pleasure of knowing Scott Allen for almost a year now from Ryze. He has recently finished a book, The Virtual Handshake with David Teten.

This book is a must read for anyone that wants to increase their reach in the world, and be heard in the world.  These two guys clearly outline the steps one should take to grow their trusted network and extended network, and they do it in a way that is easy to read and follow.  Add to that, the information is dead on!

You can find more about both of these guys and the book at www.thevirtualhandshake.com.

TDBell Enterprises, Inc.

An Aggervation.

I have had three people this past week or two that have told me that they are not with an MLM/Network Marketing company (although they are telling me this on a MLM/Network Marketing discussion board on Ryze), and that they do not sell product, they just refer people... What they are doing is Marketing a business, and selling their parent companies product, plain and simple.

Now Marketing is a process of getting your information out to the public for selling a product/service/person.

Multi Level Marketing/Network Marketing (see Marketing in both names?)is the process of Marketing through friends/family/people you meet and talking about what you like and use (hopefully, I see many MLM/NM people actually NOT using their own products!). This is referal marketing. You present your product to those you meet, you market your product on line, etc.

So, if you work a buisness that has a parent company you receive product from, and that you refer to people, and if those people join up, as an Associate, and you make residual income off of their actions, you are a MLM/NM Marketer. Pretty clearly defined in numerous publications, including by the IRS.

If a person is afraid to say they own and opperate a MLM/NM business, why are they in it? If they are afraid of what people think about the industry, why not educate them on it instead of trying to hide it?

This hiding their affiliation in the industry hurts the industry, which has had a bad rap due to the scams that crop up all the time.

Please folks, be up front with your marketing and processes, don't try to convince someone that you are legit by saying you are not MLM/NM when you are in fact. It hurts the industry, your marketing efforts, and the quality of the Associates you get on your team.

What is the best way to use LinkedIn?

When I first started using Ryze and LinkedIn my thoughts were to only add or invite people I knew personally to my “Friends” (in Ryze) or “Contacts” (in LinkedIn). That lasted several months then I got caught up on two things:

1. Growing the network faster with people I didn’t know, broadened my list of people I can request information through.
2. Growing the lists with anyone could put me on the list of “well connected” faster.

After a few weeks, and not many thankfully, I realized that my first inclination was probably a better way to go.

So, my goal now is to contact each and every person on both lists I have and begin networking with them and growing that relationship. I am sure that some will not want to do that, and that is cool by me.

I guess for me it is a Quality issue more than a quantity issue.

What are your thoughts on this?

Many Similar Web Stores on the Web, how many are making it work for them?

Over the past couple of years, I have watch a large number of Online stores or malls pop up, most having the same things in them, and often not at all that good of prices. Sometimes the prices are pretty good, until you look at the shipping cost.

What I wonder is, how much money are these stores bringing in for the “owners”? I would think that eBay would do better for the “owner”, assuming they had products in hand they could sell. Yes, the stores are mainly drop shippers, but with so many on the Net, how many are making it?

I can’t see how they are…

MASSIVE SUCCESS!

Blogging...

I read an interesting article on blogging today and how to go about doing it, that article stated two ways, or rather frequency of, to write a blog:

1. Use your blog as a content management system. Write your weekly article, upload it to your blog, then send an email to your list that links to the article on your blog.

Or,

2. Write for your blog every day (or every two days at an absolute minimum) to reach the group of people who will visit your blog regularly, but only if you are adding new content regularly. Then, for your weekly newsletter, create a weekly digest of your posts containing a synopsis of each article and a link to the article on your blog.

As you can see here, I tend to the first, but am going to aim to the second option. I think that makes better sense. While I have there three blogs to work my work one my Watkins one and this one, I hope to start finding things to write on each every day that have merit. :)

Truth in advertising.

On thing bothers me a WHOLE lot in this world. That is people or groups or companies that advertise their products/services based on untruth's or blindly, so you don't know who or what you are dealing with. Another part of that is MLM/Network Marketing/Direct Sales companies that state they are NOT MLM/Network Marketing companies, when they know they are. Yes, I know that the industry has a bad rap, and in many cases rightly so. Using these practices makes it even worse though.

These people and companies need to step forward, be honest, say who they are, what their products are, and let US make our mind up if it is something we want/need/will do!

It would also make those of us (me for example) that are happy to be in Network Marketing (for me the company of choice is Watkins) have an easier job of talking with people about the business!

MASSIVE SUCCESS

Networking with LinkedIn

Over the past few weeks I have been inviting people to LinkedIn to help them with their job search or business building.

I have watched them accept the invitation and then do nothing with their account afterwords, probably because of the potentially daunting aspect of LinkedIn. So, to help with that task, I decided to post how I feel this site can best be used. (I am sure there are other ways as well, and I would love to hear your comments on how you use LinkedIn here!)

One of the great aspects of LinkedIn is the ability to build a profile on yourself, telling who you worked with company wise, and what you are currently doing, and what you are looking to do, be it job hunt or business hunt. So, the first step is to set up each and every company you have worked for, and what you did for that company. The more detailed you are, the better off you are, as people get to know you better! (I wouldn't go into why you left, etc, just what kind of wokr/etc you did at each job!)

Next, after you have that in, you have the opportunity to check each company for people already on LinkedIn and invite them to connect to your profile as a contact. Go through each company you have worked for, and invite each person you knew, at any level, and invite them into your list!

After you have completed that, go to your email list and add those people as well, reguardless who they are. (If they don't want to join, they won't!)

Now, after you start getting people in your list, go visit their profile, read it over, and what they are looking for out of LinkedIn, if you can help them, help them, if they can help you, talk to them!

You can, in most cases, now see who is LinkedIn to this contact, and go look at their profiles. Get to know the people (NETWORK!!) in your contacts list and in their contacts list!! Networking is one of the fastest ways of building business, finding a job, etc.!

Now, you have your account set up, you have one or more contacts in your profile, and you are looking for work. When you find a company that is looking for YOU (they just don't know it's you yet), go to your LinkedIn page and do a search on that company. If someone in your contacts list knows someone from that company, ask to talk to that person (by clicking on "Make Contact" in their profile). The people inbetween you and the person you want to talk to, should forward on your request.

That request should be along the lines of:

"Hello, I see that XYZ company is hiring for ABC job, and that you (use to or are) work for XYZ. Would you be able to tell me more about the company? (If they left the company, find out why, if they are still there, see if they know who the hiring manager is.)"

Be brief, but get your request in! Once they get back to you, you should have more information about the company and hopefully contact info on who to send a second copy, you should apply through the requested means as well, hopefully that person is
the hiring manager to insure (s)he gets a copy of your great resume!

I have also posted some comments on networking TDBell Enterprises, Inc's BLog, which includes a link to a GREAT book on Networking in general.

MASSIVE SUCCESS!

Summer is almost over and ...

... I must have blinked missing most of it!! Granted things have been busy for me, but wow, this past three months have flown by for me!!

I have also let slide my time management practices this past three months, which I started back up two days ago. Time management is very important, as it is a key part of life management, so I hope all of you use tools to keep your time in line!!