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person wants to go and then help him or her get there. And, remember, once your team members achieve milestone goals be sure to celebrate their success.

CELEBRATE!

So many times, celebration is reserved for only an organization’s top earners, when in reality celebration is for everyone at their individual level of accomplishment. When team members are approached this way, you will motivate them to continue to push toward increased success. So celebrate the little successes as well as the monumental successes in each person’s life.

An effective system must also tie into a company’s recognition program. Everyone wants to be recognized for accomplishments in their lives, and no other industry celebrates recognition like the network marketing industry.

The final and perhaps most important part of a great system is constant communication with new enrollees, particularly during the first 90 days. Make a personal commitment to help your new enrollees stay on track with their goals and commitments. Reinforce the knowledge that they are in business for themselves, but not by themselves. You are there to support them, and the company is there to support them. When you invest yourself in building relationships with your team members, you will find that you gain much more than a stellar income. You will also enjoy a high level of trust, loyalty, and lifelong friendships. This type of relationship building reinforces the knowledge that regardless of any bumps in the road to success that your organization faces, it can weather the storm.

Perhaps the most appealing and unique aspect of network marketing is that, in an age of faceless, cold electronic business transactions, relationship building—actually getting to know people and valuing them as individuals— is the bedrock of a successful business. Relationships intertwined with a powerful business system form an unbreakable cord, and together, any challenges you and your team may encounter on the journey toward unlimited success can be overcome.

Mark Stevens is the CEO and president of Vision for Life International, a seven- year-old nutritional supplement network marketing company that enjoys a significant presence in the United States, Philippines, Nigeria, Hong Kong, and Canada. After becoming the president of a multimillion-dollar worldwide company at the age of just 16, Mr. Stevens has successfully built multimillion-dollar companies as well as successful network marketing organizations of thousands.

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He is listed in Who’s Who in Corporate America, has served on a national industry board of directors, and is quickly becoming recognized as a gifted and effective motivational speaker.

As the driving force of Vision for Life International, Mr. Stevens has developed a system that has allowed thousands of people to create spectacular in- comes—many of which are six-figure and more. This system equips people with the skills and tools necessary to realize quicker and more successful results as they step out and begin living the American dream, which is, of course, to become an independent business owner.

Mr. Stevens has traveled worldwide speaking on living a life filled with freedom, and has touched the hearts and minds of many thousands with his message of hope, freedom, and life without limits.

Chapter

6

Behave Your Way to a Six-Figure Income

Captain Dave Klaybor

Ilike the way my pastor puts it. He says, “You are what you have been becoming.” This is so true. You are today the product of your collective decisions. You ultimately create the world you live in. Your business environment is the product of all your habits, behavior, programming, and conditioning. So, reflect for a moment on the person you really are right now and what you have become, especially with regard to your network mar-

keting business.

I learned a great lesson from my dad. He told me many times, “A small error in judgment, compounded over time, can be devastating to your business, family, health, and life.” And conversely, he stressed, “Good decisions, compounded over time, will become amazingly positive to all aspects of your life.”

Our thoughts influence our emotions and feelings. These influence our attitudes, which impact our programming and conditioning. Pretty soon, we’ve established our habits, which continue to dictate our actions and become our behavior patterns. And our behavior loops right back around into re-creating another either positive or negative thought. This brain function is all a part of our human nature. Be careful what you think, because these positive or negative thoughts all revolve around over and over in a continual loop that is hard to break. Learn to control your thoughts so they do not detract from your overall business success.

This is important when it comes to your businesses because network marketing is a state of mind. Your mind-set directs your actions and generates results. This is why it is so important to maintain a proactive, positive, optimistic attitude about where your networking business is headed.

The good news is it’s never too late to become the person you wanted to be with respect to all aspects of your business. If you recruited only one or two solid business builders, you could likely reach many of your goals. So it’s time to assume a leadership role and design your business deliberately, starting today.

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Every decision we make, behavior we undertake, habit we form, and action we take has a positive or negative impact on our businesses. So let’s begin by identifying where our thoughts have contributed to business decisions that have not supported our success. Where have these actions become habits, and what patterns have you created that are undermining what you want to achieve? What skill sets are missing to take you to the top of your company? And what unproductive actions do you find yourself repeating on a regular basis?

Consider these questions:

•Have you studied the methods of operation of top network marketing leaders?

•Are your work habits in line with the level of achievement you wish to attain?

•What skills will you need to master to enhance your effectiveness in enrollment and training?

•Are you building your business from a solid commitment to do what it takes to achieve success, or do you do it only when it is convenient?

When you are able to identify and duplicate the habit patterns of those who are successful in this business and learn a few more skills that may currently be missing, you’ll also have the tools to become a six-figure-income earner. Acquire and then use the proven success systems that have already been developed and organized for you to implement. Learn how to take the correct action steps that produce results consistent with those you desire. This is the behavior that will virtually guarantee your business success.

Your network marketing success will be determined by your state of mind. If you are not achieving the success you seek, then perhaps your mindset is a little off-center. All you need to do to get back on track is to positively enhance your attitude. And your attitude is directly influenced by your habit patterns, skill sets, programming, and conditioning.

Many will not possess the unshakable commitment to do the things required to make it in network marketing. Some are not ready to employ themselves and run their own businesses in a self-directed, effective manner. However, for those who do possess the will to make the long-term commitment necessary to overcome the obstacles and become a leader in this industry and are teachable and can learn all the skills required, network marketing offers an unequaled, potentially life-changing opportunity.

Those who take the time and put out the effort to accomplish this mission will enjoy the satisfaction that comes from seeing the big picture. Clarity never comes all at once. It comes slowly as more and more pieces are laid out

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in front of you (with the help of others on your team). And little by little, the confounding pieces of the jigsaw puzzle slowly convert from a mess on the table into smaller visions of what the industry is all about. The clarity of what network marketing is all about will unfold if you have the patience to stick to putting the puzzle together. If you quit too soon, you’ll never see or understand what the game truly is.

The foundation for your success is already in place inside the essence of your being. You have what it takes to put a jigsaw puzzle together. Your success will result from your decision to do whatever it takes to make it happen.

The benefits of doing all the hard work necessary to succeed include retiring in the next few years with a handsome income, driving the vehicle you want, living in your dream house, becoming a public speaker, winning free vacations, giving your family everything they could wish for, and so on. All of this is waiting for those who decide to reprogram their habits for success.

One of my mentors used to say, “To know, and not to do . . . is not to know!” At first I did not quite understand this personal development message. But if you reread the phrase a few times, it becomes crystal clear. We know that we shouldn’t procrastinate, lie, smoke, get angry at others, speed, or eat junk food, but we often do. We know poor eating habits will make us fat, clog our arteries, and expose us to greater disease risks. Yet we find ourselves doing things that hold us back from achieving our true potential. Most people fail to implement the information that they think they know.

We become what we eat. We get stressed out and our blood pressure soars due to all the insignificant work-related projects we perform that produce little financial gain. Then we get angry because we think we’re failing, while others on our team become angry with us for the lack of results we produce.

Rather than despair over mistakes made, commit now to learn from these errors in order to move your business and life in a forward direction. We have it that our failures are bad, but we forget that it is through these challenges that we learn our greatest life lessons. Most self-help books, tapes, and seminars were born from the trials and errors of others. Take advantage of these lessons learned and shared by others and eliminate the stress of needing to learn them the hard way. It’s not the number of errors one makes but how fast one gets back on track. If you fall a couple of feet, the ground isn’t so hard; but if you fall a couple of stories, then the fall is very harmful indeed. The earlier you catch yourself off-track, the sooner you will be able to adjust your course. Get in the habit of looking for the signs of going in the wrong direction and you will save yourself lots of money, lost time, embarrassment, and stress. You will gain respect from your peers, and people will be more inclined to want to follow you. That’s what leadership is all about: having the courage to inspire others with your vision and actions, admit when you make mistakes, clean up the mess, and commit to doing better next time. The

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sooner you are able to recognize when you make bad decisions and do what is necessary to correct your misjudgments, the sooner you will inspire more confidence in your ability to lead.

Let’s map this principle onto your network marketing business. Once you realize you’ve erred by working your business the wrong way, simply do what it takes to get back on course. Getting angry, stressed out, depressed, or even quitting is entirely optional. Learn to reverse your negative state immediately, like flipping a light switch, and turn your plight into proactive actions to get yourself back in the game.

Admission of a wrongdoing is key to network marketing business success. John Lennon said, “How can we go forward when we don’t know which way we’re facing?” Become fully aware of your strengths and weaknesses as soon as you can. Identify your positive qualities first. Some examples of your positive traits might be confidence, loyalty, being hardworking, having a positive outlook, being ambitious, proactive, motivational, enthusiastic, or insightful, and being a team player. In contrast, perhaps your business-building weaknesses may lie in your skill sets (e.g., poor organization, weak follow-up, poor time management, inconsistent prospecting, weak sales phraseology, ineffective communication, weak event management, inability to create rich value for your prospects, poor use of three-way or conference-calling technologies, weak use of computer tools, poor teaching skills, etc.). Knowing what may be missing is the first step toward implementing a plan to put these necessary elements in place. In network marketing, we truly get paid what we are worth. So if you are not earning the sort of income you desire, ask yourself, “What may be missing that if put into place would dramatically impact my business-building results?” To get on track, all you need to do is address the areas holding you back from success.

Learn how to tap into the resources that you already possess internally, and you will realize the success you desire.

It all comes down to the choices we make. We can decide whether to take the hard or the smart path. If you are not realizing the level of success you desire, it may be necessary to admit that you do not have all the answers. Study the books, tapes, and trainings of those who have reached top levels of success. Become a perpetual student of the network marketing profession. But remember that it isn’t enough to simply study what to do. It is essential to take action in order to really learn the success distinctions necessary for toplevel field accomplishment.

Since my youth, I had been taught lots of vital information over time from many credible sources. However, most of these insider secrets just didn’t sink in because I didn’t really listen. I did not internalize the powerful data others were sharing. And I did not act upon the knowledge I received. Contrary to popular belief, knowledge alone is not power. Rather, effective actions based on sound principles generate powerful results.

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How does one change old habits and reprogram and recondition oneself to achieve the goal of building a large network marketing organization? First, find a success coach—and then become a success coach to others in your group. A network marketing success coach is a person who can champion you to create an effective action plan and then hold you accountable to your commitment to follow through on the actions necessary to achieve it. A coach isn’t there to make you do something you don’t want to do. Rather, a coach is a person who can support you in analyzing whether your actions are consistent with the results you desire. Network marketing coaches can’t force you to take action. They can only return you to your commitment to act when you stray from it. They act much like a coach acts on a sports team. They are there to teach, guide, challenge, and champion your success. Good coaches are rigorous when they need to be to return you to your commitments, should you forget and prefer to act out of convenience instead.

Every decision you make regarding your network marketing business will have either positive or negative consequences on the growth of your check. Remember that thoughts create emotions, which determine attitudes. Our attitudes influence our behaviors. These behaviors, often repeated, become habits. These habits influence our actions. And our actions determine the outcomes of our lives and the ultimate success of our network marketing businesses.

Your mind can hold only one thought at any moment. It can be a proactive, positive, or optimistic thought or a stressful, nonproductive, negative thought. You get to decide which it will be, moment by moment. Decide now to monitor your thoughts and actions to impact the cycle in a way that will support you in being the person you want to be while realizing the success possible through network marketing.

Captain Dave Klaybor is president of www.PowerLineSystems.ws, a 15-year- old world-class training and consulting firm noted for offering a fine network marketing business-planning system. Dave has been on the covers of many business publications and five books. His cash-flow-producing tools are sold in industry catalogs. Dave is a record-breaking veteran builder, author, columnist, and speaker. He has won top awards for his training programs, which are celebrity endorsed, and for product excellence. Dave is available to train and inspire network marketing organizations by conference call. E-mail Dave at [e-mail] to request his free tape on how to make $100,000 per year in network marketing.