Business – Page 2 – Clive Leach's Blog

A TED Talk, Desert Island Discs And The Telephone.

Recently, I viewed a TED talk by Simon Sinek entitled “How Great Leaders Inspire Action”. For me, this is a jaw dropping talk that I have now watched several times and made copious notes in my journal which, has provided food for thought, or to put it another way, has nourished the mind. In just a few minutes Mr. Sinek defined the difference between leadership and being a leader. He goes onto explain that people don’t buy what you do; people buy why you do it! If you can internalise this brilliant eighteen minute talk you will understand why some people merely view our opportunity as a means to help consumers save money while making a commission and others are driven by the understanding that they can help hundreds, if not thousands, of people through the power of time leverage, improve their disposable income, change their lifestyle and ultimately build a strong, residual financial wall that will protect them and their loved ones against the uncertainties of the future. According to Mr. Sinek it all starts with WHY?

View his talk http://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action.html

The other day I had a fairly lengthy drive and I listened to a couple of podcasts of my favourite radio program, Desert Island Discs. One featured an eminent cardiologist, Jane Somerville and the other featured Carolyn McCall who is the CEO of Easy Jet. I had to stop at a service station, not to fill up my car, but to fill up my journal with some choice “nuggets” that will be the start of some ideas for our business. It’s my belief that through the use of a journal and having it with you it will encourage you to be more observant during the day and could lead you to become a little more creative in your thinking.

I use my journal to record important telephone conversations. Currently I’m working with a number of team members. Some are very new and others have been with Diana and I for many years. To help me keep track of these varied conversations I keep notes of reviewed and expected activity. This type of note taking then allows me to coach those that I’m working with in an efficient manner rather than trying to remember what the agreed activity would be. Years ago my mentor told me to stop operating from thought and to operate from document. Documentation beats conversation every time! Just a couple of minutes of note taking can replace hours of sloppy conversation.

Before I make a phone call I invariably write an agenda in my journal. So, when I speak with my team member having exchanged pleasantries, I’m able to get right down to the nitty gritty. It makes for really interesting follow up calls when you say to your team member, “Those five things we discussed last Tuesday, how are you getting on?” Your team member responds with “What five things?” and you reply, “Let me see, I made a note in my journal.” The team member now knows that they are in trouble!

Some of my journals are stuffed with photographs, articles I’ve torn out of news papers, diagrams, sketches, doodles and of course my goal and contact list. Finally, why do I keep a written journal rather than an electronic one? It is a scientific fact that the material that you write or handle will be with you for much longer that the information you enter through a keyboard into an electronic device. It’s very satisfying leafing through a completed journal, numbering the pages, creating an index and adding your completed journal to your growing library of treasured material.

Until my next post……………..Toodleoo!

Times Are Changing!

It used to be that when a young adult left university, a college, or school they would start their career as an employee. Despite qualifications most young people would commence their career with a “starter job” and then as experience was gained would move onto positions with greater responsibility and some would enter the senior managerial sector of society. The “starter jobs” would not demand tremendous skills and as technology has advanced the “starter jobs” have disappeared. They have either been replaced by technology, such as robotics in industry or have been outsourced away from developed economies (such as the UK) to developing economies. We have all seen large corporations transferring their customer service call centres to other lower paid economies but did you know that if you have had a dental crown fitted in the last five years it was probably made in India?

As a nation we are facing a terrific challenge as its likely that we will have enduring youth unemployment. One of the possible ways to resolve this problem is for corporations to offer apprenticeships but in todays straightened economic conditions those opportunities are few and far between. We have all seen in the media countless reports of graduates with excellent degrees struggling to find employment in this country. It seems to me that unless things change very quickly we will have a skill shortage in fifteen to twenty years time where the corporations will be seeking a work force to replace those retiring from positions of responsibility and senior management and will be forced to employ well educated, experienced people from what is currently known as the developing world.

So, what can we do about it? This may sound extreme or grandiose but I believe that we have in our hands an opportunity to create masses of disposable income. In creating masses of disposable income we would be playing our part in stimulating the economy. Not only would you, our fellow distributors benefit from this but so will the economy over the next few years. The key to this is to share our business with as many people as we humanly can so we can help people massively increase their disposable income. This in turn will stimulate the economy which will provide the employment opportunities that are needed in this nation. Let’s face facts! Not everybody will join our business but at least they will have the opportunity to reduce their utility bills. So how do we do this?

You get as many people as you can to look at your business. How? Just keep your eye on Diana’s Facebook page (Diana Ross UW) over the next few weeks for some video tips. If your not a Facebook friend of Diana’s now’s the time to send her a friend request!

Until my next post …….Toodleoo!

A Good Time to Review and Plan

My Dear Reader,

It’s that time of the year when we all look forward to the next twelve months and review the last twelve. Please have a look at this five minute video which encapsulates how Diana and I bring a structured review of the last year and start to make plans for the next. I hope that you enjoy this short vidieo and perhaps you would be so kind to let me know? To view the vidieo just click on the link below.

Our New Year Message

Until my next post………Toodleoo!

Thoughts on a development.

A large shopping mall is being built just a few minutes drive away from our vacation home here in SW Florida. We first learnt about this five years ago. That doesn’t mean that work started five years ago. I suspect that the process started much earlier. First the land would need to be approved for development and then a developer would have to buy the land. The developer would need to submit plans for approval and once approved work would commence. For a long time whenever my wife, Diana (a.k.a. She Who Must Be Obeyed), drove past nothing appeared to be happening. Then a few men appeared in yellow hard hats who for several months appeared to do nothing more than stare at the land and would occasionally be seen in a huddle. Then just a few months ago several structures seemed to magically rise from the ground. An opening date was announced and a list of stores was published. It was an extensive list with all the better upscale well-known American stores (including Apple) together with some specialist stores as well such as Gucci, Louis Vitton et al. It was at this point that She Who Must Be Obeyed expressed a level of interest!

The act of building this very large mall is a lot like building our and I suspect, your enterprise. When the ground is being prepared, the roadways are being laid, the utility infrastructure is being installed nothing much seems to be happening to the casual observer that drives by.

In our business we made not a lot of money in our first year. This was our foundation process and like the developer we didn’t quit and move onto another piece of land. Like the developer we stuck to our plans.

The foundation period of your business can be a dangerous time for you. It’s when distractions can set in. Your peer group may not fully understand why you have elected to be “different” and try to persuade you to take alternative forms of activity rather than focussing on your new business. Please understand, I’m not suggesting that you should become Jack as in “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”. Far from it. Life needs to be lived but you also need to be aware where your activities are taking you and the power of the influence of association. This period can be tricky. You might experience unwelcome comments from a loved one such as, “You’re not going to another meeting tonight are you?” or “Why are you going to another seminar? You’ve already been to one!”. These are the arrows of discontent and unless dealt with can cause fatal wounds. Here’s how to deal with the arrows of discontent. Share your dreams and vision of your future with your loved ones and make sure that your future vision includes your loved ones as a high priority. I’ve already said in an earlier post that to commence an enterprise with the intention of “just paying the lousy bills” isn’t a good plan. One must look through those early obstacles and major on the plans for your enormous building.

Until my next post……….Toodloo!

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Thoughts on Desire.

Thank you one and all for the tremendous feed back that I have received by e-mail, posts on Facebook, Tweets and comments on this blog following my last post “A reflection on (fairly) recent times” which discussed success, inspiration and how inspiration can be found. I’ve thought about this a great deal and I have come to a conclusion that true inspiration is generated by desire.

We can all read an inspiring book, hear and inspiring story, see an inspiring movie, listen to an inspiring speaker and be motivated into an activity. However, this motivation may be limited to a specific type of activity and perhaps will only last for a period of time. Sometimes the period of time can be extensive but my observation tells me that it’s often short-lived. It is my belief, by observation, that true inspiration is created and sustained by a single strong desire or by a multiple number of strong desires. So here are my thoughts on “Desire” but before I burden you, Dear Reader, I would ask you please to at least debate these ideas and concepts. Debate them with your loved ones, your peer group and if no one is willing have an internal debate with yourself. Most importantly for me, is that you should let me know how you feel about these ideas. So, please feel free to “Leave a Reply” in the box below and feel free to start a conversation!

Desire has a number of meanings according to my dictionary and can be used in a number of different ways according to my thesaurus. So, to make it clear lets us take the word “desire” in this context not to mean lust but rather to mean passion. Lust is at best temporary and can be harmful but to be full of passion with a craving for improvement must generate a positive thought process that engenders a high level of sustained activity in order to bring about the realization of the stated desire.

Did you notice that I just used the words “stated desire”? Most people, unfortunately, never realize a strong desire for anything let alone state their desire. However, you dear reader, are probably the exception to the general rule as I suspect that the very reason you are reading this article would suggest that at least you are interested in the concept of success and probably you have at least a wish to be successful and you may have a strong desire to become so. Should a person state their strong desire publicly they are either viewed as a fool or as heroic, dependent upon their audience. Diana and I often make heroic statements to one another which we evaluate by debating the statement. This tests the strength of desire and ultimately defines a course of action.

I’m sure that there are many different areas of desire but the three that spring to mind are financial, health and relationships. The latter category is perhaps the most complex and can be broken down into at least three sub-categories; love, respect and admiration. All of those are complex so, to keep things simple let me confine my remarks to matters financial.

Perhaps, then, the burning question is how do I find the desire? It seems to me that everybody has desire but in most cases it’s buried deep as lots of people are afraid to acknowledge it through fear of failure. The problem lies within our education and experience in life. We are literally programmed by our parents and as developing children by our schooling. It’s a fact that children hear the word “no” five times more that they hear the word “yes” from their parents! Now we can’t blame parents as usually the word “no”is used to keep you from harm or doing something silly. I do have a problem with our education system. In my opinion most of the education today that is available in the developed world is designed to make you “fit in” rather than “stand out”!

I think the question that needs to be answered is how do you unlock the desire and to take the desire forward into sustained high level activity that will transcend your life to mirror your desire. For Diana and I the biggest tool that unlocked our desires was aspiration. We used to look at people who had started with little or nothing. We would listen to their stories of achievement and applaud their success. Diana and I still have aspirations. After all, my mentor suggested to me, many years ago, that it’s a good idea to have a home for every season. Diana and I are only part way there! We used to admire the philanthropists of this world. Diana and I are nowhere near the same league as Bill and Melinda Gates but now we do have a yearly philanthropic plan. My mentor also stated, often, “If you wish to be successful, study successful people”.

In closing. Is it possible to find the way forward by aspiring to emulate people who are obviously successful? I will leave that as your debating point!

Until my next post……..Toodleloo!

A reflection on (fairly) recent times.

When I was twenty-five years of age I thought that if I ever made it to sixty-five they should take me out and shoot me! Now that I have just celebrated my sixty-fifth birthday I’m not so sure. I think that perhaps we should revisit this when I’m, say, eighty-five. I have learnt that there are some decisions that are worth taking time over and I think shooting me is one of them! So what’s the difference between sixty-five and twenty-five? My answer would be, a little wiser, a little more experienced, a little heavier, a little thinner on top and perhaps a little more tolerant (although my dear wife, Diana, might not agree with that).

Over the weekend, celebrating at The Waldorf Astoria, Diana and I had chance to reflect upon the people we have known, and the people that we know today and we discussed why success seems to be bestowed upon the few and eluded by the many. Success can be applied to many things. Financial, relationships, health amongst others. However, it would seem to me that the one key element to attain success, in any area of life, would be the ability to focus. My observation is that most people drift through life without any real purpose or forethought. Of course, students will focus on completing their examinations and finalising their degrees but once settled in a career an awful lot of people drift through their working life without making any real decisions and end up in retirement wishing that they had done better. Now, of course, there are plenty of exceptions and as you are reading this blog you are probably searching for the elusive key to success or perhaps you are already successful and you should be sharing your ideas. If so, please feel free to comment.

It never ceases to amaze me that most people spend more time planning their holiday than they spend planning their future. Why would someone do that? I think that the answer is that it’s easy. Designing a life plan isn’t easy but it’s relatively simple. One of the tools that I have found to be most helpful is to keep a journal, so you can capture your thoughts and ideas. The physical act of writing seems to crystallise your thoughts and help clear the muddle that sometimes goes on in your head. I’ve never met a real leader who isn’t a good reader and every one of them keeps a journal. My mentor got me into this habit over twenty years ago and guess when I started making some serious money?

As a first step in your life plan it’s essential, in my opinion, to know exactly where you are. You can describe where you are in your relationships, health and family in your journal but for ease I am going to confine my remarks to financial matters. It’s a good idea to describe, in your journal your nett worth. It’s very simple to do. First take a new page and draw a line down the middle and list everything that you own (your assets) and on the other side of the line list everything that you owe (your liabilities). Then simply deduct your liabilities from your assets and the balance will be your nett worth. When I first did this exercise, many years ago, the result was underwhelming! Now, you may have some financial issues that need to be resolved but I would ask you to look further ahead because I don’t believe that anybody leaps out of bed in the morning thinking “Another day, another opportunity, to earn the money to pay the lousy bills”. I just don’t think that this scenario is particularly motivational. I believe that it’s very important to have something inspirational to look forward to. So, somebody says, “If only someone would come by and turn me on!” My question would be, “What if he doesn’t turn up? Inspiration, usually isn’t something that just turns up.

Inspiration has to be searched for. It requires you to make an effort. For you to become inspired requires an ambition to do better. It’s not sufficient to make enough money to pay the lousy bills. To experience life to the full requires you to be financially free so you can meet your obligations and then you can seek the experiences that your inspiration will drive you to. True inspiration will have you getting up early, going to bed late and being excited by the promise of tomorrow. No matter what obstacles are put in front of you, as an inspired person you will find your way around, over or through any obstacle in your path. Pouring the effort on in a focussed manner will have you making progress in a measurable time frame.

Inspiration can be found by dreaming! The problem is that generally adults have the ability to dream knocked out of them as they become older. To find true inspiration it’s often necessary to learn to dream like a child where all things are possible without any self limitations. Please don’t misunderstand me that I’m asking you to ignore your financial duties to yourself, family and loved ones but f you start to work towards your dreams then any financial issues tend to be resolved through your own common sense.

I think it’s hard to become financially independent working for somebody else (job) as your remuneration is controlled by others and is usually beyond your control. Therefore, you need to be in control of how you generate your income. That’s the beauty of our opportunity as it allows you to work full-time on your job and part-time on your fortune. It’s governing and balancing the time that’s important. That’s why it’s essential to design a life plan. If you don’t have your own plan, it’s highly likely that you will fit in someone else’s plan and guess what they have planned for you. It’s probably not a lot!

Until my next post…. Toodleoo!

A Personal View of Recent Announcements in The Utility Warehouse.

One of the best places to start to turn your life around is by doing whatever appears on your mental “I should list”!

With the exciting changes that have been announced by CEO Andrew Lindsay distributors will broadly fall into two categories. There will be those that see the announcements as a tweak to an already excellent proposition and there will be others who will realise that this is a game changeing pivotal point in our opportunity.

These announcements come at a critical time in the calendar year being part way through the last quarter of the year. The momentum that you create now in your business will roll forward to the New Year. Now here’s what some people will do. They will study the minutiae of the announcements rather than trusting the company to have done their home work in order to position the company at the forefront of the industry.

There are some things you don’t know how it works – only that it works. While some people are studying the roots, others are picking the fruit. It just depends which end of this you want in on.

So, here’s what Diana, David and I are doing with these incredible announcements.

For our leadership.

By the time that you read this we will have already been in contact with our leadership team to spread the plan.

For our personally sponsored team members who have yet to achieve Team Leader.

We will ensure that this section of our team is aware of these announcements and give them a precise plan on how to use the announcements to further their individual businesses.

Let’s review some of the changes:

No Membership Fee!

For the team members that have been within our group for more than just a few weeks you will remember that we had a limited time promotion when the membership fee was waived. The result was that the customer gathering numbers went through the roof! I believe that this extra spurt of customers was generated as a result of a barrier being removed.

Gold Talk Customers – Six Months Free Broadband!

This was also trialled as a promotion this summer with a spectacular result with customer numbers rising to record levels due to the confidence that was generated knowing that this is an exceptional offer.

Freezing Home Phone Line Rental!

This significantly increases our already competitive proposition.

The New Gold Customer Bundles!

The structuring of these bundles has made it even easier to attract customers to our multi service proposition.

The Price Guarantees!

The new energy price guarantee is much simpler to understand and far easier to explain and our double the price difference is very simple indeed.

Above all it’s made everything much simpler!!

The Effects

These new changes to our already strong offering are game changing as customer gathering has been made simple. A consequence of these changes is that our new team embers will qualify their positions and obtain their fast track bonuses faster, as a Gold customer now only requires three eligible services instead of four. With the changes to our more than competitive landline call package there will be an automatic increase in commsiions paid! Because of increased charges incurred by the company they have been forced to increase our energy prices but compared to the rest of the industry our increase is very modest indeed. Which means our customers get exceptional value but as a side effect it will increase our pesonal commissions as well.

The Challenge.

The challenge is to do more so that you become more than you already are. The barriers to customer gathering have been removed. With a set of new marketing tools and a new presenter (available on the Extranet) your personal challenge is to do more, to talk to more people, to help them save money and to help them make money.

Diana, David and I believe it to be true that if you help enough people get what they want you will get what you want.

Let’s do this together.

Until my next post, Toodleoo!

Will September be big for you, my Telecom Plus friends?

Hello,

Your Telecom Plus income will always respond to consistent activity but there are some months when it really is worthwhile to “slam down the pedal to the metal”. September is one of those months and it’s almost upon us. The holidays are over and it’s back to the 9 to 5 daily grind and for a lot of people in the land of the salaried it’s a time of frustration. The Summer holiday credit card bills are just around the corner and Christmas is on its way! Of course, some people will just bury their heads in the sand and ignore what’s happening around them. Some people will turn a blind eye to what’s happening in the economy and everybody knows it’s a long way off being fixed. However, you’ve been smart enough to recognise that now is the time to take control of your own future, your own future prosperity, to build a wall of financial security around you and your loved ones and as I have already alluded September is one of those months when you need to hit the ground running! Here’s my advice for you to get the best from September.

Create a September calendar on a sheet of paper. Put it on your cork board so you and your family can see what’s going on.
List the key elements on your calendar which would be the following:

COP’s
Trainings
Events.

Now list all the family and social stuff on your calendar for the month.
Get your television guide and a highlight pen and mark off the programs you really have to watch, there won’t be many!

You can now see at a glance all the time you can put into growing your business plus all the nooks and crannies of the day.

Now review your prospect list and you should probably divide your prospects into three categories:

Those that you are totally comfortable in calling, making an appointment and presenting to.
Those that you’re comfortable to call and ask them to view the two-minute video and follow up with the intent of either making an appointment to present or to invite them to a Career Opportunity Presentation.
Your chicken list. Everyone has one of these. People you would like to talk to but you feel either uncomfortable in approaching them or you feel that you need to have attained a level of success before you’re able to approach them. This is where you need to enlist the help of your upline leader for assistance.

Now here’s an extract from my up coming September calendar including all the COP’s that I’m presenting and note that they will all start at 8pm sharp so I strongly suggest that you, your guests and team members arrive early:

Thursday September 5 Manchester South COP (Holiday Inn Manchester Airport, Altrincham Rd, Wilmslow, Manchester, SK9 4LR) I’m looking forward to presenting the opportunity on my “home” ground! This is always a great crowd with a tremendous happy atmosphere and a really high conversion ratio!

Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 Massive Action Day (MAD) in Bradford (Abundant Life Conference Centre, Wapping Road, Bradford, West Yorkshire, BD3 0EQ) and Cheltenham (Centaur Conference Centre, Cheltenham Race Course, Prestbury Park, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire,GL50 4SH) respectively. This year I will be attending both venues and I’m sure you have already got your ticket. If not this is a massive error. This is one of the premier events of the year and will really put you ahead of the rest of the pack as the day will be jam-packed full with serious advanced information. Come and find me in the breaks and say hello! If you haven’t already, get your ticket on the Extranet.

Thursday September 19 Croydon COP (Hallmark Hotel, Purley Way, Croydon, CR9 4LT). Last time I presented at this venue we had record numbers attending and record numbers of new people joining! So, If you’re in the area come along to this fun presentation and bring your prospects. If you’re not in the area then look through your list and see who you know who could attend and just send them along.

Monday September 23 Stevenage COP (Novotel Hotel, Knebworth Park, Stevenage, Hertfordshire, SG1 2AX). This is an excellent venue just situated off the A1M with great car parking etc. Last time I presented there we had record numbers but to be absolutely honest considering the catchment area there’s an awful lot of business to be done in the area. It would be great if we can have an extra push and get this area rocking and rolling so who do you know in Hertfordshire? I look forward to meeting you if you can get there and of course your guests!

Thursday 26 Newport Pagnell COP (Holiday Inn – Milton Keynes East, M1 J14 London Road, Newport Pagnell, MK16 0JA). This is another easy to get to venue and again draws on a massive catchment area. So, who do you know in Bedfordshire? We could really get this area going if we can focus on who we know in the area and invite them along to this presentation. You never know, it could develop into a key area for you!

Monday 30 September Bracknell COP (Coppid Beech Hotel, John Nike Way, Bracknell, Berkshire, RG12 8TF). This is the last presentation that I will be doing in September and it will be a humdinger in this excellent conference venue. This venue is in the centre of a massive conurbation so we should be able to lift the roof off this hotel!

So, that’s an extract from my September calendar. What’s in your calendar? If you feel like it why not share your calendar on Facebook and let your contacts see what you’re up to!

To your success!

Until next time, Toodleoo!

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