However, this is a great time to be reflective and to become a planner. So, if I may, I would like to suggest the following:
My Dear Beloved Reader,
Diana and I hope you have enjoyed a wonderful Christmas, and Santa has been kind to you, and you are replete after lashings of food and perhaps the odd modest tipple. Now, I’m hoping that I’ve caught you at that reflective time that lies between Christmas and The New Year. You’re either still at home enjoying a break or perhaps you have returned to work, but it’s a little slow as so many other businesses /clients are still on holiday. However, this is a great time to be reflective and to become a planner. So, if I may, I would like to suggest the following:
1). Let’s look back at the last twelve months and see how things have progressed in your life. I would strongly recommend that you take a new page in your journal draw a line down the centre and on the left-hand side list all your accomplishments during the last 12 months. Now on the right-hand side of the line list everything that didn’t go so well. If the stuff on the left outweighs the stuff on the right, you’ve had a great year! If not, then we need to recognise the need for change, and perhaps we can start that now with a plan! Just remember that as Mark Twain remarked: “If you always do what you’ve always done then you’ll always have what you’ve always got”.
2). The rudiments of making a plan is to operate from document and not from thought. Sometimes, there’s so much going on in our brain that it’s difficult to focus on an action plan. It’s so much better to get your thoughts out of your brain and into your journal. Incidentally, it’s now proven that those that plan on paper do better than those that plan on a screen. Before you commit your plan to your journal, I believe that you need to start the process with the end in mind. In other words for you to move forward in your life, you need to have a clear idea of where you would like to be in say the next twelve months. Some of the areas for you to consider would be relationships, financial, health, personal development, attainment and I’m sure as you start this journey you will find other areas to consider. Here’s a word of warning. When I first started on this path many years ago, the biggest distraction was the moving wallpaper that sat in the corner of your living room, your television set. Nowadays, it’s the all-pervasive smartphone. I would encourage you to have a ruthless attitude towards your devices. Use them for communication and research. Avoid them for passing the time, and I would suggest that while you are planning the next twelve months of your life, you turn your telephone off! You can catch up on your messages later.
3). Hopefully, you will have been jotting your ideas, dreams and goals down in your journal as you have been reading this article. The next step is to bring some order to your random thoughts. You now need to decide upon the critical areas that you need to work on and start scoping them out in detail in your journal. For me to discuss with you in the short article, all the areas of your life would be impossible. Therefore, let us discuss matters financial.
4). It’s now time to create a visual action plan. I’ve always done this in a ninety-day cycle and have it on my wall above my workspace. First, create a three-month calendar. Just take three sheets of A4 paper and draw out a month on each of them say January, February and March. Now put in the essential elements — your local opportunity presentations, seminars, trainings etc. Now put all the necessary family stuff. Then all the stuff you have to do for the day job. The white stuff that’s left is the time you can put to use to build your fortune. There is no shame in working full time on your job and part-time on your fortune. Using the white stuff that’s left you would list the activity required to initially get the appointments that will lead to presentations and results.
5). It’s essential to be accountable to yourself, and you can use your journal to accomplish this. At the end of everyday list your activity, appointments made, presentations made, customers gathered, new partners introduced. At the end of the week add it all up. Then you can compare week two to week one, month two to month one, the second quarter to the first quarter. Do this for ninety days, and it will become a habit that will never let you down.
Finally, all of the above requires discipline, and it’s accurate to say that the pain of discipline weighs ounces, but the pain of regret weighs tons.
I hope that I have challenged you with this short article and if you need any further clarification, please do not hesitate to get in touch. It just remains for me to wish you and yours a happy, healthy and prosperous new year.
The title is not exactly true as the very first leg was lugging the luggage that she who must be obeyed has insisted is “absolutely necessary” down the stairs, across the hallway and into our venerated vehicle. It’s been a bitterly cold day with the temperature hovering around 7C and for the benefit of my American friends that’s 46F. I was pleased to leave this:
which happened last night and provided a slightly amusing skating rink this morning. I digress. We had an uneventful but slightly damp journey to London Heathrow Airport and having emptied the luggage onto a variety of carts I entrusted our velocipede into the capable hands of the valet parking team at terminal 4.
Braving the elements we travailed the one hundred feet or so into the terminal and then commenced the half-mile route march to the Etihad First Class check-in area.
Having completed the formalities we were duly ticketed by a very pleasant young lady and duly directed to the Fast Track path, where she who must be obeyed successfully held everyone up:
and we were off to the Etihad Lounge.
This lounge has a somewhat subdued lighting scheme which I suppose is to encourage a restful atmosphere but don’t let the photograph above fool you. A few minutes after it was taken the lounge became quite busy. There is a self-serve buffet bar with an adequate array of food and our waitress was very pleasant. Great coffee!
It wasn’t too long before the appointed hour arrived and we made our way to gate 10 and duly boarded and shown to our seats by lovely Aida who together with her colleagues looked after us in an exceptional manner.
Here’s a short video of our experience boarding the flight to Abu Dhabi;
The First Class cabin was really spacious as you can see from our video
and Diana was very pleased with the extensive menu,
that was prepared, with obvious passion by our in-flight chef “Chi-Chi”.
We were very well looked after by Aida and her colleagues and we soon sat down for a lovely dinner.
To start with we had Meditteranean Mezze which was delicious
and I for one had no worries whatsoever with the calorific content! This was followed by a delicious
loin of lamb. The pudding was so good we scoffed it before we could photograph it. Then we had
our beds made. This was not a seat that recined to a “flat bed” but a proper bed and
we still had our enormous seats.
We’ve now continued our journey and I’m writing this in the Air New Zealnd lounge awaiting our flight to Auckland so, until my next post…….Toodleoo!
I do not write “political” posts. Politics in my opinion is a private issue.
Many years ago I decided to take responsibility for my own future and I decided to build a financial wall around myself and my family. I decided to build it tall and thick so, it would become an impenetrable barrier to outside forces that were beyond my control.
To be blunt and rude I’m sick and tired of reading posts about stuff that the authors have no real control over. Votes have been cast. Decisions have been made.
Now is the time to put all of that behind all of us and start working to build your own and your families future.
Now is the time to take responsibility for your own life.
Now is the time to go to work and build your own future without blame or praise.
Now is the time for high intensity in your personal endeavour.
This one skill/discipline has been of paramount importance to our success. I’m sure that if you adopt this and make it part of you, then you will not regret it for one single second! Don’t forget to leave your comments, questions and feedback in the comments section below.
Diana and I are super excited to bring to you a live interview with our very good friends, Mr & Mrs GoPro, Eric and Marina Worre! Get your questions ready and you will have the opportunity to ask them LIVE on Sunday May 10 at 7pm. Just click on the link in the article to book your place on this untique broadcast
Diana and I are super excited to bring to you a live interview with our very good friends, Mr & Mrs GoPro, Eric and Marina Worre! Get your questions ready and you will have the opportunity to ask them LIVE on Sunday May 10 at 7pm. Just click on the link below to book your place on this unique broadcast
Eric Worre is one of the leading authorities on Network Marketing. As a highly sought after keynote speaker, trainer and consultant, he is dedicated to helping people understand that Network Marketing is a better way and why it’s best to make the decision to become a Professional.
Eric is National best-selling author and one of the most experienced and trusted generic leaders in the Network Marketing Profession. Along the way, he has purposefully become an accomplished trainer, and has conducted live events with more than 250,000 people around the world, teaching them also how to become Network Marketing Professionals. He has shared the stage with Anthony Robbins, Jim Rohn, Brian Tracy, Denis Waitley, Stephen Covey, Les Brown, Robert Kiyosaki, Diana Ross, Clive Leach and many more.
In 2009, Eric founded NetworkMarketingPro.com, the most-watched training site in the Profession. Since its inception, Network Marketing Pro has provided over 1000 free training videos (with over 11 million video views) encompassing every conceivable topic and dozens of interviews with the most successful Distributors in the world. He also has a Facebook Fanpage with over 144,000 Network Marketing fans at http://facebook.com/nmpro.
His book “Go Pro – 7 Steps To Becoming A Network Marketing Professional” has become a National Best Seller and is currently translated into 19 different languages. It has become the go to book for Network Marketing.
Today, Eric is permanently retired from building as a Distributor and is devoting all of his time in working to take the Network Marketing Profession to a new and higher level.
Join us in this unique broadcast and you will hear advanced information direct from Eric and Marina concerning their upcoming events in Las Vegas and at Event City in Manchester!
How to get the best from our live broadcasts.
I know that we have a lot of new friends who have never seen one of our broadcasts and I am aware that a few people have had problems accessing them. So, I thought I would write a short brief so you can have the best possible viewing experience. Let’s take this Sunday’s upcoming broadcast on May 10 at 7pm British time. You will get a much richer viewing experience using a desktop or a laptop rather than a tablet or smartphone. You can watch them with these devices but it’s not as good.
The first thing to do is click on the link below as soon as you have read this brief. If you have already signed up for a free account with Google + you will be taken to our “Event” page and you will see three buttons in a box entitled “Are You Going To Watch” and then select “Yes”, “No” or “Maybe”.
If you are not a member of Google + I strongly recommend that you join and not only will you have a much better viewing experience but you will be able to ask questions during the live broadcast. If you’re not a member go to the Google home page and just look at the top of the screen and you will see a button with “Join Google +”. Click on the button and follow the simple online instructions and it takes about two minutes to create an account. You only have to do this once. Just remember your password!
However, you decide to view the broadcast, just click on the link a few minutes before the start time and you will be taken to the event page and you will see a screen with a play button in a circle (looks a bit like an arrowhead). Click on the button and you will see an announcement that the broadcast will start in x minutes and will count down. Then, at the start time, as if by magic, I will appear in living colour! Don’t forget to tune in and we will have some fun!
The awesome interview with Brian Carruthers is now available in our library. The hints, tips and methodology that were packed into this short video is just phenomenal.
Wow, wow and again wow!
I’ve just interviewed Brian Carruthers, author of Building an Empire.
It was a forty minute, power packed, inspirational conversation with a huge amount of strategies, hints, tips and time management. This is a must watch interview and if you missed our live broadcast then you can see a recording and all our other stuff by clicking on this link:
At the risk of causing great offence I thought I would share with you a home truth. Making money is a serious business!
When I started my career n network marketing, thirty years ago, I was fortunate to meet a man called James Rohn. Jim made a statement that “rarely does income exceed personal development” and went onto explain why. Rather than go into deep explanations let me say this. We have all seen or heard of people inheriting or winning fantastic wealth and in a relative short period of time ending up where they started from. The reason, I beleive, is that they lacked the skills to be wealthy. From my own personal experience, when I was just thirty years of age I had engaged in an enterprise and made serious money. Then, I’m ashamed to say, with a few simple errors of judgement I lost the money and ended up in debt.
Mr. Rohn started me on the course of personal development and looking back on my career I can honestly say that being a student of personal development, coupled with high activity has made me and my family wealthy.
This then begs the question, why do some people become finacially successful and others don’t? In my opinion there are a variety of reasons why people do not fulfil their true potential. Too many to discuss in this short blog. Some, fail to invest in their own future by spending time filling their minds with useless clutter or worse, material of an unsavoury nature. We nourish the body by giving it good food, plenty of water to stay hydrated but the mind needs food as well. So, let me ask you some questions:
What are you reading at the moment that will help in your quest for fulfilment?
What are you listening to that will satisfy your soul?
Who are you spending time with and listening to? The Law of Association is one of natures most powerful laws.
If you’re in with the party crowd all the time, chances are you’re having a good time right now but where are your plans for your future?
Making money is a serious business. Mr. Rohn compared it to beng a farmer. You prepare the soil. You plant the seed. You defend the newborn plants against the noxious weeds and finally you reap the harvest.
So, dear reader, best get good at planting or be ready to make excuses at harvest time!
Well maybe not in work, family life, leisure time etc but perhaps in my thinking.
It’s all too easy to get in a success rut, or any rut for that matter. Sometimes, you just need a reminder to make you take stock of where you are. It’s all very well to do OK but is that the best you can be?
It’s easy, when you have a level of success, to become a little complacent. You just need to hear a voice to make you think, “I’m not growing”.
You need to make the conscious decision to be become better. To make more of your situation. To be a better dreamer, planner, educator, trainer, leader.
Sometimes you just need to approach things a little differently. That helps to make a better plan. Have a higher level of quality content and commitment.
For me it’s about The Law of Association.
Just watch this 2 minute 35 second video. If you act upon it you will probably change your plan as I have mine!
This post is intended for our Utility Warehouse Community.
A short while ago I wrote on my coaching page http://www.facebook.com/cliveleachuw that the business is like a rowing boat and that you need to row the boat using each oar with equal intensity, meaning your recruitment oar and your customer gathering oar. I would like to explore this concept a little further. We all know that to keep the rowing boat in a straight line we need to row both oars with equal intensity but that isn’t real life. In real life our boat is subject to the vagaries of the winds and the currents that play upon our vessel.
Consequently we need to make adjustments to our course so we end up at our desired destination. Note the word “adjustments”. That’s an important word and one that we need to keep at the forefront of our mind. It’s a fact that if you row with just your customer oar you will never reap the true value of this opportunity. A high percentage of your team will always duplicate you so, its always important to keep your boat as near to a true course as possible. Therefore, if you just row with your team building oar there is a danger that your team duplicates you, no-one gets any customers and no-one makes any money.
So, when we talk about a burst of high activity during a short period of time we are not talking about just rowing with one oar, we’re talking about increased intensity of both oars. It’s fine to row one oar with a little more effort for a short period of time but if you ignore one of the oars completely, you will end up a long way form your intended course!
This particular post is aimed at our Utility Warehouse Community. However, all are welcomed to read as some of the concepts held within this post may well benefit my other beloved readers from all over the world! Possibly wishful thinking but you never know!
Ten days ago I set up a FaceBook page http://www.facebook.com/cliveleachUW as an experimental coaching aid with a limited, tiny readership. The questions that I have received were very interesting and thought provoking and consequently I would like to share just five of the questions that I have received together with my answers. To see the rest just visit www.facebook.com/cliveleachUW and hit the “Like” button on that page. Finally, at the end of this post you will find a short poll and I would be very grateful, dear reader, if you would be kind enough to complete it as this will help me in further coaching our colleagues.
Finding Prospects.
All our personally sponsored distributors have either come from our Centre of Influence or have been referred to us in one way or another.
Your Centre of Influence is of course your list and the mistake that most people make is that they create their list once and never review it. Consequently additions are never made. Diana, David and I over the years have added substantial numbers to our Centre of Influence through the people we meet on a daily basis. To attract people you must first learn to be attractive. This does not mean surgical enhancement! It doesn’t mean that you have to be interesting. You just need to be interested in people and have a sunny attitude and be warm and friendly with everybody you meet. It takes a little time to build a solid list unless you’re highly visible within your community, social clubs, breakfast clubs, Rotary, Lions etc all bring you into contact with new friends and acquaintances. Then the task is to build rapport. The hardest thing that I had to learn is to be a good listener!
What’s been your most successful one liner to recruit a potential distributor?
This is the second time that I have received this question in the last 24 hours. Is someone peddling this as a concept because if so I’m concerned?
As far as I am aware the key to building a distributorship is to build rapport with your prospects and team members. It takes more than one line. It takes the ability to listen, to care and to act. The only way that Diana and I know how to build a business is by applying the philosophy of enlightened self interest which states “If you help enough people get what they want then you will get what you want!”
What To Do With A new Distributor
When I have introduced a new person it is my belief that the first few days are key to their success. As soon as they have an ID number (Instant ID) I would ensure that they were booked onto the Getting Started Skills class. I would arrange to meet within 24 hours. The discussion would be set around what our new team member needs and desires in terms of their financial requirement. The next part of the discussion would be to review the amount of time that the new team member had on a weekly basis. Then I would ensure that our new person completely understood the concept of time leverage. I would ensure that they have become a customer for as many of our services as possible.
Next we would tackle their list and help them create it. (If you want a starting point look at their contacts on their mobile phone, address book etc). Having expanded the list we would profile a few of them to ascertain the quality of his/her prospects. We would make sure that the energy declaration and ID badge was in hand and that they were able to access the online training. Contact would then take place on a daily basis and their understanding of the online training would be monitored. Just before their class room training we would meet again and review our progress and ensure that the goals had been set. It is at this point some customer appointments would be made and would be in the diary and if possible I would help them with their first appointments.
After they had completed their class room training I would debrief our new team member to ensure that they were comfortable with the information that they had received. Contact would be on a daily basis and at the appropriate time appointments would be made to present the opportunity. Where possible I would go on the first few.
By now we should be on the way to building a TL structure.
Running Home Meetings
Home meetings can have a really varied format and would be dependent upon the needs of the individual team and where they are currently sitting in their understanding of their business. When Diana and I first started this it was a self help group as there was no infrastructure of any type. However, today is a different story. My suggestion would be to look at the frequency of your local COP and have your home meeting on the opposing week if your local COP is fortnightly or on the alternate fortnight if your COP is monthly. As your team develops you will probably find that you will need a mini COP as well. Hopefully you will get to the point where you will need to have a weekly home mini COP! We used to do this in our front room and training was undertaken in the kitchen and as the team grew we had training in the dining room as well. In terms of content I am a great believer that all distributors should have a thorough knowledge of the compensation plan, the concept of time leverage, the skills of getting an appointment and of course presentation skills.
One of the often repeated themes for a home meeting is making the appointment. I would ask my team to bring with them their lists with telephone numbers as we are going to profile them. First we would start of with a new team member and work on expanding their list by involving the attendees to play F.R.O.G.S. Then we would take a name from this persons list and profile the prospects character and skill set. I would then take the persons list pick up the telephone and call the profiled prospect. The look on the team members face is always memorable! The script would be something on the lines of: Hello is this Elsie?
Yes.
You don’t know me but I believe you know Dave. He’s sitting with me right now. Dave and I are involved in an exciting venture and we have found a way of doubling or even tripling most peoples disposable income and Dave and I were talking about the sort of person we need to be working with and your name, Elsie, sprang form his lips. Dave tells me that you are a ………and that you have great……skills. Could we pop over and run this buy you either on Tuesday or Thursday for 30 minutes to see if there is a level of interest?
What is it?
Elsie, If I try and explain this over the phone I’m going to make a real mess of it as its very visual so which is best Tuesday or Thursday just to run the idea past you just to see if you have any interest?
Elsie says yes, pass the phone over to David to finalise times etc.
Once this has been completed you then say to David “Right it’s your turn who are you going to call?” David makes the call and you summarise his presentation by addressing the group saying that you liked it when David said ……..but was a little uncomfortable when David said……but really though that when David said……it was very good. You then ask the group for help by asking them how they would improve upon David’s presentation.
The post office game is also fun for another occasion. You take two team members and ask them to stand. They then have to pretend that they are in a long queue at the post office. You select one of them and ask him/her to strike up a conversation with this complete stranger and bring the conversation around to the opportunity within 5 minutes. You then open this to the group for discussion on how this could be improved upon.
On a regular basis I would drill the concept of time leverage into the group so not only did the team understand it but could present it confidently and competently without any aids.
On a regular basis I would rehearse the team in giving their testimonials at a COP and try to get away from the cliched “topping the pension pot up” (that drives me mad it’s so uninspiring!)
During the course of the meeting its always good to recognise individual achievements from getting their first customer or first distributor to promotions etc.
There’s loads more you can do but this should keep you going for the first few weeks but the key is to involve every attendee in an activity of some description.
Why am I doing this?
I’ve had a number of people ask me why Diana and I continue to be active in the business and what is our “Why” and do we have the same “Why” as when we started. Diana and I have always been goal driven and over the years our goals and reasons for our continued activity and involvement have changed. We have achieved our major financial goals and we have attained time freedon so we literally choose to be involved for the following reasons:
1). We enjoy the business and 2) I’m on a mission!
So, here’s our mission statement:
To create a culture and tools that will enable an individual distributor to be able to multiply their disposable income by a factor of at least ten. To multiply the distributor channel by a factor of at least five. This will create wealth for a huge number of people which will have direct positive consequences on the UK economy and the future prosperity of our nation.
Please complete the poll below and please do’t forget to visit http://www.facebook.com/cliveleachUW and hit the “Like” button to automatically receive updates.
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.
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.
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!
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!
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.
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!
Many of my Facebook friends have been increasingly baffled by the posts that I have been making since the beginning of January 2012. The posts have taken the form of a xxx/155 where x is a number. The theories have all been amusing and some of them highly inventive. However, a few of my friends have guessed correctly the meaning of these digits and if you’re one of the few then well done you! So, now is the time to reveal this baffling conundrum. 155 is the goal and that is the number of miles that I have run since January 1 this year!
Why? I hear you ask. Why get out of bed a little earlier and get outside and pound the pavement? Well it didn’t happen overnight. I decided on December 12 2011 that I was overweight, unfit and had been living “The Good Life” a little too much. So, I started to consider my options, and listed my ideas and thoughts in my journal. Some of the initial ideas were a little extreme but from the original notes, my plans and goals started to become clear and at that time running was not part of the plan!
The initial plan, made on December 14 2011 was to eat a little healthier, cut down on the fats, red meat and alcohol. I decided that on January 2 2012 that I would give alcohol up altogether but between December 14 2011 and January 2 2012 I had Christmas and New Year to enjoy! Starting my regime on the December 14 with a brisk 30 minute walk I continued until January 4 2012 when I stepped up a gear.
I had been discussing my regime with my son Matthew and he stated in no uncertain terms that I should start running. I explained to Matt that this would be impossible as before he was born (rather a long time ago now) I had fallen badly on my right knee while playing tennis and when I ran this knee would hurt. Straight away Matt told me, in no uncertain terms, that my running technique was wrong and I was wearing the wrong type of shoe. Now, I had to listen because Matt in his spare time has been known to run the odd marathon or two and therefore runs more than anyone I know.
I now had the right gear and had some instruction and had even read an instructional book I started. My first run was for an enormous sixty seconds! It was part of the plan. I started using intervals. So, I would run for sixty seconds and walk for five minutes. This was the time that I nearly gave up. Those first sixty seconds were really tough. Why didn’t I give up? That would have been very difficult for me to do as I had already described my goal in my journal and I was aware that the pain of discipline weighs ounces but the pain of regret weighs tons and in this case could bring about an early fatality! I kept my time, distance, heart rate and route on a Nike sport watch. Keeping the statistics for me was very important as I could measure my progress and how hard I was working. Gradually I started to alter the intervals and as I became fitter I extended the time that I was exercising. I was advised (Matthew again) not to be in a hurry to alter my intervals and once I was up to it to try and be as consistent as possible. This brings me to the present day. My aim is to run 5 kilometers/day (about 3.11 miles/day) most days and I seem to do this about 5 days out of seven. Currently my interval times are that I run for 2 minutes and 45 seconds and walk for 3 minutes and 15 seconds. I’m currently comfortable with the distance and my aim now is to gradually increase the running time and decrease the walking time and end up running a full 5 kilometers and I’m now scoping out my next big health goal. So, what’s next after 155/155. Well, I’ve already started and the new figures are 157.64/620!
The benefits have been fantastic already. I have lost 38 pounds up to now but more importantly my blood pressure medication has been reduced three times and is now stable at 120/70. I am much healthier and my stamina levels and general well being have vastly improved.
It is my belief that the power of setting a well defined written goal in a journal and keeping track of your progress ultimately leads you to where you wish to be. There was just a handful of things that have made this journey a success and they are as follows:
1). A well defined clearly written well researched goal.
2). Consistent, persistent action.
3). Monitoring the progress.
I believe that these three simple things are the essence of achievement and can be applied to all the areas in your life. If you are already setting goals that’s great but if you’re not how will you get to where you wish to be? In closing I have a challenge for you. Set some goals (if you already have some, review them and set some new ones). What are your goals? Your wealth goals? Your health goals? Your relationship goals?
Care to share? Then just post a comment on this blog. I wish you well in your continued journey of success!
and we were off to the Etihad Lounge.
Clive Leach's Blog 