Note from CSL: In The Coming Aristocracy, Oliver DeMille lists networking marketing as one manifestation of “mini-factories.” In this article, network marketer Orrin Woodward describes how to be successful at network marketing specifically, though the principles apply to any entrepreneur, mini-factory builder, and aspiring social leader.
Links throughout are for informational purposes and do not represent specific endorsements from CSL of companies or products.
IN A HOME TOO CRAMPED FOR OUR GROWING FAMILY, in a relationship where neither of us understood the other, in a time of increasing responsibilities and decreasing hope, in a desperate move to keep my baseball cards, my wife Laurie and I started our networking business.
Can there be a more bizarre beginning to a destiny-changing day?
Your story is different in the details, but alike in the life-changing opportunity presented to you.
Networking provides people the opportunity to take control of their futures and no longer swim with the current of the times.
There are only 3 steps to master to accomplish nearly any goal or dream that you can imagine through the power of networking:
- Define
- Learn
- Do
Define
Life is not always a bowl of cherries as it pulls us in so many directions, requiring more than we would give in three lifetimes, forcing us to clearly define what we want to accomplish with the time God has given us.
Clearly defining your objectives, narrowing your field of vision to the critical few, painstakingly visualizing, repetitively experiencing in your mind, and developing your game plan are essential features of all successful lives.
DO NOT WORK THE BUSINESS, BUT CHASE YOUR DREAM THROUGH THE BUSINESS!!
Businesses are not built with an employee mentality, but with an ownership mentality (affiliate link), meaning, to do everything with a specific intent.
Why do you go out night after night to build this business? You didn’t have a dream as a young child to build a community did you?
The business is just the vehicle to accomplish your dreams, just as you buy a drill if you need a hole.
No one buys a drill because they have always dreamed of owning a drill. A drill is the specific tool used to get the specific hole you need.
Networking is the specific tool to give you the time and money to get your dreams.
When you know what you want, learning and doing become the necessary steps to achieve what you desire.
If you do not take the time to clearly define why you are in business, then you are setting yourself up to fail.
Why share the product, why show the plan, why start the process, if you have no reason to?
If you are not showing the plan 15 times a month, it’s not because you are lazy, it’s not because you are loser, it’s not because you are incapable, it’s only because you lack focus by not beginning with the end in mind.
- Where would you live if you could live anywhere?
- Who would you choose for neighbors?
- What car would you drive?
- What charities would you support?
- What vacations would you take?
- What random acts of kindness would you do?
It must be defined, imagined, and experienced mentally before it will happen physically.
Learn
Learning is one of the most natural things that we do as human beings. Anyone with children has experienced the endless questions that your kids will ask you as they seek to learn.
“But daddy, why is the sky blue? Why do we drive on the right side of the road? How do our brains see the pictures from our eyes?”
We are born hungry to learn, but society quenches this hunger through ridicule and scorn.
Networking has reversed societies rules and created a culture that is hungry to learn. No one is above learning and the quicker you learn, the quicker you will apply, the quicker you will have.
Learning is not a part-time hobby, not a full-time job, but a lifetime of joy.
Have you experienced the joy of learning lately? Are you listening and learning from CD’s and mentors’ advice? Are you reading books, brochures etc?
Are you pounding through the information from the best of the best?
If you’re not, perhaps you need to revisit your dream.
Do
Making contacts, picking up the phone, showing the plan, talking in front of people, were some of the most fearful things that I had to overcome.
In fact, the only thing that helped me get over my unbelievable shyness and corresponding fears was the power of my dreams.
It makes me want to gag when I hear people say, “Well you have to be a certain type of person to build a network,” assuming that you are born that way.
Yes, you have to be a winner to build a network, but anyone can be a winner with the three steps that we are covering.
Winning is simple, but it isn’t easy because you must swim against the current.
It you want to win, then you must Define your win, Learn how to win and then JUST DO IT! No guts, no glory!
Are you going to let the negative thoughts of others deny you from the destiny you desire?
Laurie and I decided to follow our dreams, not our dreads and it made all the difference.
Are you dreaming, learning and doing or dreading, lying, and dying?
The choice you make weaves the strands of your destiny. Your posterity will either be blessed by your courage or cursed by your cowardice.
Choose wisely.
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Orrin Woodward is the co-founder of Team, a leadership development and training company, and the New York Times best-selling co-author of Launching a Leadership Revolution.
Named by the International Association of Business as a Top 10 Leadership Guru, he is dedicated to building leaders and entrepreneurs and promoting freedom and prosperity.
Orrin blogs regularly at Orrin Woodward. He lives in Port St. Lucie, Florida with his wife and four children.
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Great article. I’ve been reading Orrin Woodward’s books and listening to his cds for quite some time. He is a leader ahead of his time. Thanks for going for your dreams.
It is a pleasure and a privilege to associate with leaders who inspire others to greatness through their example of principle centered leadership. It is sweet to hear of those who dare to define those dreams and learn with an unending hunger and then have the courage to DO what it takes when it is not convenient or even when the obstacles seem intollerable. The dream, the struggle and the victory are the common threads woven through every success story. Thanks for the article Orrin. You inspire our culture to follow our dreams.
i am so gracefull to be associated with great leaders such as Orrin. Alot of times we want to do something, but we fail to define what we want to do. This article defines it all. And it is even greater because it comes from one of the greatest leaders of all time. The ” Team ” rocks.
Thank you Orrin for encouraging us o fight for freedom and accomplish our dreams.
L.A. EAGLES.