Financial Freedom - What Is That Really?
Is your business working, really working? If not pick up a
pencil and write down quickly why not. It should take you about
30 seconds at most. Go on write it down.
Those of you who have worked with me know the answer....go look
in the mirror. The answer lies there. That's the bad news.
Here's the good news. Go look in the mirror the answer lies
there.
You are both the problem and the solution... good thing 'cause
you can't change anybody but you.
In the next few paragraphs I'm going to give you my thoughts on
why I think most people have difficulty getting their businesses
off the ground. Or to be more to the point...why it's so tough
to find and start recruits.
How many times have you heard "Financial Freedom" when you ask
someone what they want out of their home business?
What does that mean really? I know the "stock" answer, "So money
isn't a consideration any more." But is that really what we're
looking for?
I think people are looking for a freedom much deeper than money.
It's a freedom to live in tune with who they really are.
I'm going to paraphrase something Timothy Gallwey said in his
book "The Inner Game Of Work." We don't really want to be free
of our responsibilities but rather we want to be who we really
are as we perform those responsibilities.
It's Gallwey's premise that we get into trouble when we start
work or live our lives in line with external pressures. Suddenly
we're dancing to someone else's dance rather than our own. We
find ourselves working for rewards that someone else thinks are
important, not what we really think is important. Does this
sound like a job? Playing politics and often being something
we're really not. We are just not being completely authentic.
Personally, I think this is a huge reason people come into a
network marketing business. They are tired of being who their
job requires them to be. Please notice that I said who their job
requires them to be not what they have to do. It isn't about the
work.
Unfortunately I think this is a big reason people don't stay in
their networking business. They quit and go away because in our
zeal to create duplication we push conformity rather than
creativity and fun. Duplication has come to mean "be just like
me, or just like my upline." Like their job, your new recruit
doesn't get to be who they are in their new business either.
I don't think we need to do that to create duplication. I think
if we want real duplication in our businesses we need people to
tap into (maybe for the first time) who they really are as well
as what they really want from their business. Think about this,
if you're getting to be exactly who you are, and your making
money too are you going to keep doing it?
Then it's up to us to pass along the tools we have in our
business tool kits to help them build that business within their
personal integrity. It's the tools that need to be duplicated.
We're not cloning people. As sponsors we're here to facilitate
people developing.
Now before any of you start to bounce off the walls, I am not
advocating chaos, or encouraging people to be hobbyist rather
than business builders or that you should be a babysitter or a
therapist. I think our job as sponsors is not to tell people how
to run their businesses but rather we give them the tools and
help them develop the skills they need to run their businesses.
And therein lies the rub. Often we don't have the skills
ourselves.
Let's talk about how to pass along business tools. In a simple,
organized systematic non cluttered way. Let me give you an
example.
Do you think the new person in your business would like to have
a good year? How would you go about showing them how to do that?
I encourage you before you read on to take a pen and write down
how you would have them think about this? Go on do that now. It
may be just that ah ha moment you've been waiting for.
If you've written a couple of things ask yourself if they fall
into what I consider the basic building block of business. That
is, until we can break anything down to a step-by-step process
we really don't have a handle on it. As usual I'm not just going
to give you the answer to this but rather ask you to walk
through this process with me.
This is what I'd write to the question I asked you above, "If
the goal is to have a good year what do we need first?"
A good six months....
What does it take to have a good six months?
A good quarter....
And to put a good quarter under your belt you need a good month.
What does a good month take? Simple a good week.
And to have that bang up week you simply need a good day. What
does it take to fall into bed at night and be happy with the day
you've had...you need a few really good hours.
Coaching tip: I could certainly have just leapt to the "have a
good hour" but would it have had as much an impression?
Typically by taking someone through a step-by-step process until
you reach the bottom line you can enroll them in what you're
doing. When we are enrolled it becomes our idea?
Do your tools help your organization build their business in a
systematic step-by-step method? When you sponsor someone do you
give them really good business tools that put them into money
making activity in the first few hours at the helm of their
business?
Here are some basic sponsor responsibilities that I think are
necessary to launch a new recruit.
- Something that brings home to them that they are the CEO of
their own business - it's not a game or a hobby
- They need to know when they are going to work and not work.
Real hours just like any business - (their choice not yours).
- They need to know exactly what activity it takes to make money
versus admin activity.
- They need to know when they are doing the money making activity
- They need to know when they are doing the admin activity
- They need a business vision - where will they be in six
months, a year and five years down the road
- They need a personal vision - what can they learn about
themselves and how to make every activity they do in their
business fun, fun, fun.....
And here's the deal. Take a coaching approach to make this
happen. You don't just hand someone a "getting started booklet"
and expect that they will take it home and make it work. Take a
page out of McDonald's and put your new recruit through your
networking university. Think back to when you were in school.
You were not handed a book and tested on it at the end of the
semester. You were taught, coached and interacted with the
material. Why? 'Cause it is how we learn. You don't just give
someone instructions and tell them what to do.
I'm in your face here a bit because I see it all day. People
telling others what to do and then wondering why people don't do
it! It's simple:
Since you were two years old you didn't like being told what to
do (what's a two year old's favorite word?) and most likely you
still don't....neither does anyone else. And particularly by
someone who most likely isn't doing all the things they are
advocating! Sorry about this, but it's really important to be
honest with ourselves here.
So if the shoe fits wear it. If not enjoy your business...it
should be flourishing.
But if it's not, that's why we've designed the Get Your Year in
Gear program. If you want a step by step process you can make
your own that will:
- Allow you to be who you want to be in your business all the
time
- Coach you so you can coach your team to become all they can be
Then get your rear into the Get Your Year In Gear program. It is
the place to start. It is not all the answers but it will bring
up questions you've never thought of and help you to design your
own business in such a way to begin to live your life right now
on your terms. Then and only then can you attract others who
want to do the same and coach them to do so.
I have said before, you'll be safe but you're bs won't be. Are
you ready to make 2006 your best year yet? I'm on board for it,
are you?