Do you ever wonder what your team is doing on a day to day basis?  Very simple, look at what you are doing!  Over the years I have observed this time and time again.  You can explain things to people; you can encourage them; you can train them; but bottom line, they are going to do what you DO…not what you say.

I can give you a couple of great examples that illustrates this perfectly:

This first story is personal to me.  This happened years ago when I was with my first network marketing company.  I was new to the industry and I was a corporate person so I had absolutely no background in MLM.  I was very excited about the business and I made up my mind that I was going to “go for it!”  So I set a goal of getting to the highest level in my company.  I had already achieved my second promotion which was Regional Director (RD).  To get to RD you had to first get to Senior Manager (SM) by bringing 12 people into the business.  Three of these 12 had to be personally sponsored by you.  Then after getting to SM you had to personally sponsor 3 more and get a total of 12 in that Senior Manager group.  Doing this made you an RD.

This doesn’t seem to be such a phenomenal feat when you consider that it means that you simply have to get 3, help them do that and then do it again.  However, this was before the internet or even email or conference calls and webinars and certainly before Facebook, Twitter or online marketing.  All we had back then (which was only 1995) was FedEx, home gatherings or hotel meetings.

I was very excited but I was new to the business and I had no one mentoring me so I went by gut instinct.  In order to get to the next level of Executive Director (ED) which was the top level at that time, I had to help 5 people in my RD group get to RD as well.  In other words, I had to help 5 new people do what I had just done. 

So I kept sponsoring people, then I identified 7 people that I thought had the potential to become leaders.  Each of these 7 came to all of the meetings and brought guests.  They were excited about the business and they wanted out of their “day jobs.”  I told them that I would work with them personally; that I would come to any meetings they had; I would do 3 way calls with them…I would do anything to help them get to RD.  They were excited and we agreed that we would meet once a week for breakfast as a team to keep the camaraderie going and the team spirit up.  It even got a little competitive between them as they raced for their promotions.  But they all came to each other’s meetings and supported each other.  We really bonded as a team.

Another aspect of the times was that we had to do everything with paper forms.  We had forms for enrolling people in the business, forms to become a trainer, customer forms and paper brochures.  It was a paperwork nightmare and since I was also working a full time career, I was running constantly and more or less spinning out of control.  I decided that I had to get organized.  So off I went to an  Office Max looking for one of those little file boxes that can be carried around with a handle on top.  I remember thinking “I can’t believe I’m buying on of these queer things.”  But I found one that was light gray with black flecks that looked half way stylish and I set about making green hanging folders for each of the paper forms.  I then brought this file box with me to every weekly hotel meeting.  Whenever someone asked me for a form, I had it at my fingertips.  People really thought I had it together…LOL.

Now to the point of this story:  One day when all of us were gathered in the kitchen prior to guests arriving for a meeting at one of the houses I noticed lined up on the counter 7 file boxes with handles and they were identical.  All of them were light gray with black flecks.  Exactly like mine!  When I laughed and commented on this, one of the guys actually said, “I went to 5 places before I found this one!”  I had never even mentioned my file box to any of them.  They had each just observed what I did and then individually without talking to each other about it, they went out and purchased the same thing I had. I was amazed by this but since then I have seen things like this occur over and over again. 

The second story is much shorter but will equally illustrate my point:  One day years later I was talking to another top earner in my company and I brought up this story to her.  She then told me that she had a very similar story.  When she and her husband got into the business they purchased 1,000 business cards and forgot to put “Independent Rep” on the cards.   It was a company policy that “Independent Rep” had to be on your business cards so that you weren’t perceived as working for corporate.  Since this woman and her husband were just starting out, they couldn’t afford to order a new set of cards so they purchased a rubber stamp that said “Independent Rep” on it and they painstakingly went through the motions of stamping every single business card. 

Much to their surprise as time went on and they started to receive business cards from the reps on their team, they noticed that their team was doing the same thing.  These people purposely ordered their cards without “Independent Rep” on them and then they ordered a rubber stamp and stamped each business card individually.  They actually copied a mistake in order to do what these leaders did!  

The moral of these stories is this:  If you want to know what your team did today, look at what you did.  Ask yourself this questions:  “It everyone on my team did exactly what I did today, how much money would I be making?”  Remember you are very influential in every move you make in life.

P.S.  I did become an Executive Director and I did it in record time.  I was the first one in Colorado which was a huge accomplishment at the time. All 7 of the selected leaders reached RD.  I only needed 5.  Eventually hundreds of RD’s emerged out of that group.  My team grew to over 157,000 people.    That’s what I love about this industry; if you help others with their success, your own is guaranteed.

Always remember you are powerful!

Did you know that there is no such thing as coincidence?  I have lived my life believing this.  Consequently I have more coincidences happen to me than anyone I know.  As a matter of fact, in my family they refer to coincidences as “Jan Johnsons”.  I’m serious, members of my family will actually call me up and say “Jan, you will NOT BELIEVE the ‘Jan Johnson’ I had today.”  Or, they will say, “My friend came into work today and told me a ‘Jan Johnson’ that just amazed me!”  There is no hesitancy in their voice and I understand completely what they are saying because this has been going on for years.  It’s gotten to the point now where not only my family members but my close friends and the close friends of my family members also now refer to coincidences that happen to them as ‘Jan Johnsons’.  Isn’t it great?!

I guess all of this started back when I was a kid.  Every time something would happen that seemed coincidental I would not only acknowledge it, but I would also tell everyone about it.  I was (and still am) fascinated with how the world works and I have always consciously observed with awe the little things that happen in life;  like when I think of someone and they call me even if I haven’t  heard from them in years.  As a young girl the more I acknowledged these things the more they happened.  Eventually I started actually using the coincidences as guidance.  I felt that if a coincidence happened I was basically on the right path. 

Here’s a perfect example: About 20 years ago I was living in a beautiful home that my former husband and I had built.  It had been featured on the cover of Better Homes and Gardens at one point (another coincidence I will tell you about sometime). I loved my home, but I had an urge to live in the mountains.  I found a piece of property that was really out of our price range at the time but I fell I love with it.  I knew that the only way that we could afford to purchase this piece of property was if I sold our current house.  This meant that we would have to move into an apartment while we built a new house.  It also meant that we would really be pinching pennies to get it all done.  I decided that I wanted to go for it.  I was the instigator of this entire deal.  My husband was just going along for the ride. But once I make up my mind to something there is usually no stopping me.  This doesn’t mean that I don’t question myself sometimes.  It’s at these times where I really value my coincidences.

So I put our house on the market “for sale by owner.”  I had to sell it without paying a real estate commission or I would not have enough money to put down on the 35 mountain acres in the foothills of Boulder, Co that were beckoning me.  Within about 4 days, sure enough, I got a call on an ad I placed in the paper about the house.  The guy told me his name was Gary and asked me a few questions on the phone.  He wanted to   come right over to see it.  When he arrived I realized that he was in a wheelchair.  As Gary toured the house he fell in love with the place.  For some reason when we built the house 9 years previously we had made all of the doorways extra wide.  We had also put Italian tile throughout.  The master bedroom was on the main level and the door to that room was extra wide as well.  In the master bath we had one sink with a counter and one  free standing pedestal sink.  There were no steps leading into the house.  Everything was flat.  This house was made for Gary. 

As I saw that he was getting very excited I started to get nervous that he might really want to buy it.  Up to this point I had acted on a whim.  Now, oh my gosh, this may really happen!  What do I do?  Am I doing the right thing? 

During our conversation as I showed him around, Gary continued to comment on the amazing interior trim.  He loved it and asked me who did it.  I couldn’t really remember.  Then he explained to me that he used to do interior trim work.  He told me that 9 years earlier he had fallen out of a window on the second story of a home he was working on. This is what left him a paraplegic.  He said that he always pays attention to the interior trim because that tells him a lot about the quality of a building.  In my mind I kept thinking “9 years ago is exactly when we built this house that is now an exact fit for you.”

Gary left and said that he was going to put together an offer.  I was frantic.  My husband was not home and I was freaking out that I may be selling our house.  Was this the right thing to do?  Within 2 minutes of Gary leaving my phone rang.  I thought maybe it was my husband and I desperately wanted to talk to him about this.  However, it wasn’t him, it was a gentleman that asked me if this was the Johnson residence.  I said yes.  He asked if we lived in a house out in the country that was built about 9 years ago.  I said yes.  He said that I may not remember him but that he had done the interior trim on our house.  He had moved out of the state for a few years, but had just moved back and was looking for work.  I couldn’t believe it…but then again I could.  When I hung up the phone, I knew that I was on the right track and that selling my house was the right thing to do.

I encourage you to observe your coincidences.  They are definitely telling you something. 

Embrace the sun within you.  You are POWERFUL!

Your mindset can make or break you when it comes to making choices.  Hear me out on this.  First, I think you would agree that we make choices every day.  We choose to go out to eat or make dinner; to go to a comedy or see a horror flick; to work for someone else or be an entrepreneur; to take risk or to set back. Day in/day out, minute by minute we make choices.  Some are split second decisions and some are very well thought out. I find that the ones that are very well thought out are most often times where we get stuck.  We rationalize.  We do the pros and cons.  And, as we are weighing everything we tend to trick ourselves.  For example it’s interesting to me that most times when someone chooses to sit back rather than take a risk they are totally missing the fact that “doing nothing” is as risky or more risky than taking action.  But we try to believe the excuses we make when we make a major choice because it seems easier.  The problem is that it may be easier in the short run, but not in the long term.   

For example many people who choose the path of least resistance do so because they are afraid.  If you can get them to discuss with you what exactly they are afraid of they may acknowledge that they are afraid of failing.  Actually I don’t think it’s that so much.  I think they probably haven’t failed at much because they haven’t tried many new pastures to allow them to fail. To quote Seth Godin, author of the fabulous book Tribes, “What people are afraid of isn’t failure.  It’s blame.”   They don’t want to be blamed if something doesn’t go right.  So these individuals don’t put their ideas out there, or stand up for what they believe in simply because they are afraid that someone will scoff at them.  Maybe it’s even their spouse or children who they think will laugh or think their idea is worthless and that if it fails they will be blamed. What a shame this is.  How many great concepts are tucked away because of the fear of being blamed if it doesn’t work out? 

What’s really interesting is that sometimes the imagined criticism doesn’t even have to be a huge deal.  It’s not like there are going to be thousands of people that would stand up and point and laugh.  It could be something as simple as the worry about someone saying “I’m pretty surprised you thought that would work?”  As Seth Godin also says, “What makes this such a powerful deterrent is that the critical comments don’t even have to occur for someone to start worrying about them.” 

I have observed this over and over again throughout my life.  And, what’s interesting for me is that I actually thrive on criticism.  I love working with a team that will say to me “Jan, what are you crazy? Have you actually thought about this?”  Those comments give me the impetus to fight for my concept or really improve it because I have more feedback.  I have always felt that if someone will challenge me then they must really care about me enough to do so.  Call me crazy…many people have…smile.  I will admit that it sometimes hurts when I find out that someone has been critical behind my back, but that’s mostly because I am hurt they didn’t think enough of me to tell me openly.  My general response is “what can I do to make them see that they can be open with me to my face?”

Remember, that the ideas that are talked about are the ones that are worth talking about.  I smile every time I see the Oprah magazine.  Oprah is one of the most successful people on the planet.  She tells it like it is.  What makes me smile about her magazine is that she is on the cover every single solitary month.  Can you imagine starting your own magazine and putting yourself on the cover every month?  Wouldn’t you wonder if people would think “Boy she sure thinks she is something!”  Oprah doesn’t worry about that and what really makes me smile is that I always think “if I ever saw anyone else on HER cover I’d be mad!” I’d be like “what are you doing on Oprah’s cover?”  If Oprah had hesitated she wouldn’t have that wonderful magazine, she wouldn’t have that wonderful school for girls in South Africa and a lot of people would be a lot less fortunate because they would not have been the recipient of the generosity she can afford to bring to the world because she did not worry about blame. 

Bottom line, if you have an opportunity to shine and you start to get that feeling of worry, ask yourself  “How bad can it be?”  Or, “Will I be better off if I do nothing?”   

Then, take action and start making a difference!  You deserve it

Always remember you are powerful!

Shifting paradigms is the key to success. If you have the right paradigm, there is no such thing as a physical, mental or emotional limitation.  Nothing can stop you.  I am sure if you thought about it you would see that there are many examples of this in your life. 

In my life I can give you one very good example.  I grew up extremely poor.  My paradigm was that you lived hand to mouth and always worried about money.  As the oldest of seven children in a 900 square foot house I witnessed this behavior for my entire upbringing.  Consequently, when I went on to break out of the mold that was set for my family for generations and actually fulfill “what I thought were” my dreams, I eventually became a CFO for a major segment of IBM.  However, I STILL lived hand to mouth.  Throughout my corporate career I kept earning more and more money but even when I was earning a strong 6 figure income I kept attaining more and more debt through cars and homes and furniture and clothes so that I continually ran out of money before I ran out of month.  I had stretched my earning potential over the years you see, but I didn’t change that subliminal belief that I should always have to worry about money.  It’s a subtle but very important distinction.  

It wasn’t until I became involved with network marketing and started being around much broader thinkers that I was able to open my mind to changing many of the money worry thoughts that were embedded in me from birth.  This shift in thinking allowed me to blow the doors off my income and set me free.  During this personal growth I came across a story told by Mark Yarnell, a legend in network marketing.  It’s a true story and I thought I would retell if for you.  I have told it many times because it is so pertinent to helping us see how we limit ourselves.  You are going to LOVE this story.  Enjoy: 

Every year, Australia hosts a 600 kilometer foot race from Sydney to Melbourne.  It’s a long, tough race that makes marathons look easy.  It takes five days.

In 1988 a guy named Cliff Young showed up to run in the race.  Nobody there knew he was planning to run, because after all, he was 61 years old and showed up in overalls and galoshes over his work boots to join a group of 150 world class athletes.  This is a big race…I’m talking about Nike sponsorships and 18 to 20 year old men and women who run these endurance races all over the world.

As Cliff walked up to the table to take his number, it became evident to everybody he was going to run.  They all thought, “This must be a publicity stunt.  Who’s backing this guy?  He’ll drop out in 30 minutes.  He’s 61 years old.  He’s wearing rubber galoshes and overalls.  This is crazy!”

But the press was curious, so as he took his number 64 and moved into the pack of runners in their special, expensive racing gear, the media moved their microphones into Cliff’s face and asked, “Who are you and what are you doing?”

“I’m Cliff Young.  I’m from a large ranch where we run sheep outside of Melbourne.”

They said, “You’re really going to run in this race?” “Yeah, “ Cliff nodded.  “Got any backers?” “No” “Then you can’t run”

“Yeah I can.” Cliff replied.  “See,  I grew up on a farm where we couldn’t afford horses or four wheel drives, and the whole time I was growing up (until about four years ago when we finally made some money and got a four wheeler) whenever the storms would roll in, I’d have to go out and round up the sheep.  We had 2,000 head, and we have 2,000 acres.  Sometimes I would have to run those sheep for two or three days.  It took a long time, but I’d catch them.  I believe I can run this race. It’s only two more days.  Five days.  I’ve run sheep for three.”

When Cliff Young started the race with all these world class athletes, people shouted, “Somebody stop him, he’ll die.  He’s crazy.”  They broadcast it on the news immediately, and all of Australia was watching this crazy guy who shuffled along in galoshes.

The existing paradigm for the Sydney to Melbourne race was to run 18 hours and sleep six.  But Cliff didn’t stop after the first 18 hours.  He kept running.  Every night he got just a little bit closer to the pack.  By the last night, he passed them.  By the last day, he was way in front of them.  Not only did he run the Melbourne to Sydney race at age 61, all 600 kilometers, without dying, he won first place by nine hours and became a national hero!

When he finished the race, the media asked him what he thought enabled him to win:  Cliff didn’t know you were supposed to sleep!  His paradigm was chasing sheep, trying to outrun a storm.

Cliff Young, with every conceivable limitation against him, changed the whole paradigm of that race.  Now, nobody sleeps.  To win that race, you have to run all night as well as all day.  And you know what’s really funny?  The last three winners of the race have used the “Young shuffle,” because it’s more aerodynamic than the way the world class runners were running before!

If that can happen to Cliff Young, in a physically demanding 600 kilometer race, what can happen to you in your life and business if you have the right paradigms?  …

Always remember, you are powerful!

The Sky’s the Limit: But How Do You Choose From All The Homebased Business Opportunities Available?  3 Important Things to Consider …

Lately you cannot open a newspaper or magazine, hop the subway or engage in a conversation without coming across the subject of working from home. The reason for this is simple.  People are either out of work or hate the work they do.  If they are working they also feel they are not being paid what they are worth.  This is why they dream of a life different from the one they are currently living; a life that they can control. You are a dreamer.  This is why you find yourself reading this article.  You want more for you and you want more for your family.  You are probably that person who your friends and family members come to for advice because you give it and you give it wisely.  You are a clear thinker and you have worked hard all of your life.

Now you find yourself holed up in your office or in your living room searching the internet in a clandestine fashion looking for, heaven forbid, homebased business opportunities.  You will laugh when I say this, but “join the club — and be proud of it!”  There are hundreds of thousands of people just like you in the world all seeking this very exciting existence.  You secretly know this, but you just do not know how or where to begin.  Get this. You HAVE begun. The question is where do you go from here?

Let me share 3 very important things to consider as you get started on your quest:

1.  All homebased business opportunities take work.  One common trait that I consistently observe is that people are so skeptical of the internet that they do enormous amounts of research and ask hundreds of questions in order to assure that what they are considering is NOT a “get rich quick scheme”.  Then they finally sign up for the opportunity and hope to sit back and get rich quick!  Unfortunately, this is not how it works.  There is work involved.  But the cool thing is that so much of the work is really fun!

2.  If you are going to involve yourself in any one of the homebased business opportunities out there, make sure that you are passionate about the field you choose. If you love what you do then the work that you do will not seem like work at all.  One of the great things about working at home is that you can work when you want and how you want.  If you love every minute of it, you will probably work harder than you ever have but it will seem like you are gliding through your day.  Also, the more you love your work the more certain you are to succeed.

3.  Finally, and most important, all homebased business opportunities are not created equal.  Therefore, in the process of picking an opportunity that fits you, make absolutely certain that you choose a company that has the tools and training in place to provide the structure that is necessary for you to be successful.  It is also very important that you join a team that has strong leadership.  As you have probably witnessed in any job you have held, a great boss can make or break your career.  In the homebased business arena a good mentor can help pave the way on your road to riches.

Remember that everyone starts somewhere.  You are here now but with a little coaching and a positive attitude towards success, you have the whole world at your fingertips.  We are now in the information age in a global economy.  Homebased business opportunities will soon thread the world and knit us together as one happy working force.  What a warm feeling that will be.