Day 2: The Internet Marketing Journey

I have been going through the entire process of setting a business up on line so that I can take note of every step to ensure that I can properly guide and support others that I will coach along the way and boy is this process a lot of work. For all of you network marketers out there that really want to build your business on-line, let me warn you, this is not an overnight process!!!

However, it is very rewarding. Once you get going, it is very exciting because you can begin to see the progress along the way, but it is frustrating at times. Today, my goal was to submit my 5 articles to 5 different article submission sites, but because of the time required to do so, I was only able to submit them to 2 sites in addition to the ezinearticles site that they are already listed on.

For the sake of time, it is almost beneficial to use an article submission company to save the time and headache of downloading each and every article. However, the one's I found didn't give me the warm and fuzzies, so until I find one credible enough to use, I will be doing this manually until then.....which I don't recommend doing much longer for the sake of time.

I also finally set up my official blog through wordpress, having made arrangements with the webhost. This process was another pain in the butt as it took me hours to do because I had my domain name with a company that wasn't hosting the site. After beating myself up for about an hour and a half with a migraine slowly rising on the bump on my head (from hitting it on the car door yesterday), I finally suckered up and called technical support.

Just a little sidebar commercial break.............If you are in the process of building your websites, blogs or any other on-line site, and you get stuck in the process, I highly encourage you to swallow your pride and call tech support for help. If, however, they have an option where you can actually have a "live chat" with someone, then take advantage of this as I find it to be so much better to not have to hold the phone while surfing, typing and clicking on the net.

So, I set the wordpress blog up. But I admit, I didn't realize that there is a significant difference between a hosted an non-hosted blog. All this time, I've been fighting this dog gone things, trying to write code and manipulate the system, later discovering that I could only make major changes to a "hosted" site, not the "free" one..................

Needless to say, It's finally complete and I will be updating it over the weekend in preparation to launch by next week for my team.

This blog will now be a "daily journal" to jot down my discoveries, experiences and accomplishments in hopes of it being a guide to others.

So, was today a productive day.......................YES!!! It was, frustrating............YES, It was that too. But the lessons learned today were:

1. Be patient in this process and don't try to do everything all at once. This is truly a journey not an overnight arrival to our destination, and unless we understand that it is going to take time to truly be where we want to be in this savvy world of Internet Marketing, then we will otherwise set ourselves up for failure.

2. Use the manuals, training tutorials, live chat support of technical support when needbe. I notice that most of these sites offer "getting started" manuals. Having always despised "spending time" reading those things, I didn't grow accustomed to doing so UNTIL NOW. There is no way around learning a lot of this stuff, and to be honest with you, it is not all USER FRIENDLY. To truly be a successful internet marketer, you are going to have to learn a lot of technical things or else you will phaze out very quickly. Tutorial videos will become your best friend, so prepare your mind to commit to learning from them to save yourself time, a headache and the possibility of being discouraged.

3. Commit to getting two major things accomplished each day. for example, today, I focused on submitting articles that I had already written, writing one new article to add to the repertoire, and setting up my blog, no matter what I had to go through to do so.

That's it for today, but We will be back tomorrow on our 90 Days to Massive Internet Marketing Success!

With Great Expectations for Your Success,

Nicole S. Cooper

A Better Way........

Okay, Yes, I've been missing in action for quite some time, hiding under a rock trying to avoid all of this economic drama that our country has been faced with...............Nah, Just Kidding!!!! But really, I've been making a lot of changes about what I do with my personal business and how I do business. And I am so pleased to say that I have to erase everything that I have learned about traditional network marketing and replace it with the "New" way of doing business. I shared on my Success Seekers blog that I am learning that Network Marketing doesn't have to be so painful. What do I mean, you ask? Well, think about it: The talking to everyone you see trying to ask them "if I could show you a way that you could earn more money, blah, blah, blah, blah", all to have them run away from you as fast as they could as if your name was Godzilla........ The badgering of people, threatening them to get them to a meeting, having them not show up and feeling disappointed that you didn't have your new "prospect beau" to show off to your up-line...... The burning up of gas to go to a meeting, or to a one-on-one that your "future business partner" cancelled on you at the last minute...... The constant guilt-ridden speeches of "Is your Why Big Enough?" and "Are you working Hard Enough?"................. The list goes on and on and on of all that we deal with as "glorified telemarketers".....OOOoooppss, I meant to say "Glorified Network Marketers;)" Yeah Right............ We have adopted the traditional methods that Yes, they have worked for many as I know quite a few of very successful people that built their businesses this way, BUT I HAVE DISCOVERED THAT THERE IS A BETTER MORE EFFICIENT WAY TO BUILD OUR BUSINESSES. Heres a few tidbits that I will share with you just to give you a peek:

1. Contrary to popular belief, NOBODY CARES ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY!!!
2. In order to really build a solid business, you need HIGHLY QUALIFIED PROSPECTS not people that sign up one time and do nothing thereafter.......want to learn how to get them, click here!
3. You have to build relationships FIRST, before pushing your business down someones throat!
4. A home based business means THAT YOU ARE AT HOME MOST OF THE TIME......not out running around like a desperate salesman looking for prospects to prey on...
5. There are people ONLINE every minute looking for A BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY but you have to know the right way to introduce them to yours!
6. Multiple Streams of Income means many sources of income from many different businesses, NOT different sources from the same stream of business.......

If you are tired of being broke, tired of feeling devalued because of your business building methods, tired of feeling like your 'not good enough' to succeed in this industry,

PLEASE CLICK HERE NOW!!

felt so belittled because of my lack of success, but after I discovered this REVOLUTIONARY WAY TO DO BUSINESS, I am excited again.

However, Instead of WORKING HARDER, I NOW KNOW HOW TO WORK SMARTER......

SO CAN YOU! Your Success Coach, Nicole Cooper

Top 5 reasons why people fail in Network Marketing (Part 1)

As I mentioned when I wrote my first blog entry, I have made sooooooooooooooooooooo many mistakes in my initial start, that it nearly led to my demise of ever surviving in this industry. My purpose for creating this blog was to share with others, the mistakes that I have made to help you prevent doing the same.

One of the biggest challenges about this industry is that the sponsors who tend to be our source of information in this business are either so excited about signing us up that they don't tell us the "whole truth" about what's required to survive and thrive, or they just don't know what this industry requires for themselves, and due to their naivete and lack of experience, we suffer with them and eventually everyone associated with them gets discouraged and loses interest in the business altogether, unless they desperately find a mentor to guide them.

I have been a victim to both, but I have also been the cause for others to experience both. So to repay my debt back to our networking society, I will share with you the top 10 reasons why people fail in network marketing.

Reason #1: Lack of Not Having a System

Always remember that this is a business of duplication. I can not emphasize this enough. One of the major reasons that I failed initially was because I was excellent at getting people into the business, but I didn't know what to do with them once they joined. I found them floundering and looking at me with eyes of desperation saying "I want to get going but what do I do?" Be sure that you do whatever you can to learn the system THAT IS ALREADY LAID OUT..............It is very important to follow the system and avoid trying to create your own (which is #2).

If you don't have a system, you will find that you are building a team very fast, but you are earning a one time paycheck without the potential of establishing any residual income. The objective of building a network marketing business is to create residual income. If you don't have a system for your team to follow, then the duplication will erode and your business will eventually die.

Reason #2: Trying to Re-invent the wheel

I will say that this was another major fallacy for me. Because of my education and headstrong personality, I immediately came up with my own preferred way of doing things because the system they had in place wasn't to my liking. The problem with that was, although I desired to do things differently, it wasn't duplicatable for my team. Although i didn't' like the initial system, it was simple enough for a 5th grader to follow, therefore, the need to leave it as is will benefit your business more than you ever know. (Remember.......K.I.S.S.....Keep it simple stupid!)

Reason #3: Begging people into the business

Oh My Gosh.............If I could prevent any of you from desperately trying to build your business "the wrong way", I would have you read this paragraph five times to get it. I know we all want to bring a new face to the meeting to show our up line that we are doing something. We also want the glory of seeing a new member in our back office.....not to mention the check we will receive or the bonus earned by getting one more prospect converted to a team member. However, if you find yourself begging people into the business for all of the wrong reasons mentioned above, and not because they truly desire to join or build a business, you are setting yourself up for failure.

Some people may argue with me and say "just sign them up", but guys, when you bring someone into the business, you are also there to mentor them into becoming successful. One of the challenges I had was that I wanted more for others than they wanted for themselves and when I would try to get them to do any of the activities that would lead to their success, they would fight at the opportunity of activity.

I found myself getting very frustrated with them, and in the end, because some of them were close friends, some of our friendships were destroyed because they ultimately blamed me for failing, and I knew that they didn't have what it took anyway to become successful in "this business".....maybe they would have been good in something else, but they never really wanted to put much effort into this business anyway.

Save yourself the headache NOW............If someone doesn't have the enthusiasm to get involved after seeing your opportunity.........don't press the issue. Take heed of their lack of enthusiasm and how you have to pump them up just to get in and realize that you will have to do the same to keep them in............YOU DO NOT WANT EVERYONE AS YOUR BUSINESS PARTNERS, NO MATTER HOW MUCH MONEY YOU CAN MAKE UP-FRONT! IT COULD COST YOU MORE IN THE LONG RUN AS YOU MAY EVENTUALLY GET DISCOURAGED DUE TO THEIR LACK OF PRODUCTION............DON'T DO IT!!!!!!!!!!!

Reason #4: Quitting your day job toooooooooo sooooooooon!!!!

Okay, now lets tap into a harsh reality for a moment..........I know when you first signed up, you had a vision for all the success you would have with your business in a short amount of time. However, you failed to understand the time it really takes to establish a team that will generate CONSISTENT INCOME. Yeah, I know, you may have made a large amount of money in a short amount of time, but understand that it is the RESIDUAL that you need to build.

Because I was a Realtor when I first got started in my business, and the economy had begun to shift anyway, I thought that I should just shift my energy and focus only on my business . Well, what I didn't realize is that :

#1. My Day job would generate leads from people that would be curious to know "what else" I was doing on the side to make extra money (especially with the collapse of the Real Estate Economy)

#2. My Day job would generate extra income that would take care of my bills, while my part-time network marketing job would be supplementary income. That way, I wouldn't be desperate to build my down line to make that extra money to pay my bills, and ultimately end up doing all the wrong things out of frustration because my power bill was on the brink of getting cut off if I didn't recruit someone.

My point is, when you are desperate, it shows and it can often hinder your performance and build unnecessary frustration. I know we are all told that we need a "WHY", but this is not a good form of a "WHY". Your why should be something that you can work towards but not a means of survival. If you do this out of needing the basics of life, you will find that you aren't having fun in your business and people will pick up on that and have no interest in what your doing whatsoever...........

DESPERATION CAUSES US TO DO DUMB THINGS, AND THOSE DUMB THINGS CAN COST US SERIOUSLY IN THE LONG RUN..............THEREFORE, DON'T QUIT YOUR DAY JOB JUST YET!!!!!

KEEP YOUR DAY JOB for now, until you can afford to pursue this business Full-time. When will that be you ask, When your residual checks are larger than your monthly pay checks.

Reason #5: Setting unrealistic expectations

When I first joined, I was on such a role, that I assumed I would be making 6 figures within 6 months....Call them lofty goals or plain ol' stupid.......but my ambition would have me to believe this was so possible. Although it has been heard of for people to make this kind of progress, I found that this lofty goal would put more pressure on myself and my business unnecessarily.

Although I am a big fan of ambition, and I will attest to being that person that will get out here and do whatever it takes to reach my goals, I still need to be honest and say that having a balance and setting realistic and attainable goals are more essential than most other things.

My lofty goals ultimately led to my doing all other things wrong, such as:

1. Quiting my day job too soon

2. Begging people into the business instead of picking solid business partners

3. Getting frustrated in the business, not acknowledging my small steps of progress

4. Blaming my team mates for not accomplishing their goals, so I can say that I've accomplished mine.

5. Lack of enjoyment of my business and taking things too seriously, giving others a message that I wasn't having fun in my "so-called" fun business that makes me extra money.

As you can see, setting unrealistic expectations can lead to many wrong outcomes and can be the demise to what would have been a fun and exciting opportunity for you and those that you share your business with. Doing things the wrong way in general, can become more work than its worth.

Our purpose for getting involved with our industries is to make extra money, but also to put the rat race behind us and do things that we enjoy doing. Although you will have to put forth some effort and work ethic to be successful, it is very important to ENJOY YOUR BUSINESS. If you aren't displaying an example of Fun, then why would anyone else want to join another "job", and invest money doing so?

I have shared with you the first 5 reasons why people fail in network marketing and to avoid overkill of information, I want to let these first five marinate and share the next five with you on another day.

To conclude this message, I will recap with the Do's of the Don'ts.............

#1: Do Follow the system that is already established for you and your business. Avoid doing too much talking and too much explaining. Instead, let the systems in place do the talking for you, allowing your example to show your team HOW TO BECOME SYSTEM DEPENDENT RATHER THAN PEOPLE DEPENDENT.

#2: Avoid re-inventing the wheel and do away with the need to be "creative" UNLESS you are introducing NEW DUPLICATABLE Internet Marketing Systems that will help your team build their business.......................(To Learn How to do this, Read my free e-book; The 7 Lies of Network Marketing)

#3: Avoid Begging people into the business..............Instead, learn how to work with those that are looking for you by clicking here

#4: Don't quit your day job as of yet............Instead, seek ways that will bring in multiple streams of income in addition to your network marketing business, and allow yourself to be guaranteed success............

#5: Set realistic and attainable goals that will support your success.

Work Full Time on Your Wages and Part Time on Your Fortune

by Jim Rohn

Wages are what you earn on your full time job. Wages are great, they pay the bills. But, you may never get rich on wages.

Your fortune can be made working part time.

This creates an exciting opportunity for someone starting out in direct marketing. It gives you an incredible opening to people. You can tell someone, "I am working full time on my wages and part time on my fortune. Soon, I will be working full time on my fortune. How exciting that will be!"

Imagine the response you will get from people when you tell them, "I earn as much money in my part time as I do with my full time job. Would you like to hear how I do it?" Or even, "I now earn TWICE the money in my part time as I do in my full time job. Would you like to hear my story?"

Who would tell you no? Who wouldn't want to know what you are doing?

Imagine just earning an extra $1,000 a month in your part time. That money could make a large difference in your life style. It's not the money itself, but what you do with the money that will get people's attention. When that money can improve your quality of life, people will want to know what you are doing.

"You've bought TWO new cars this year?" they ask. "How?"

"Well, I have this part time thing." you reply.

"You went on vacation where?" they ask. "How did you do that?"

"Well, I have this part time thing." you reply.

An extra $1,000 a month on your full time job and nobody really cares. But an extra $1,000 a month with a part time job and it really starts to affect your lifestyle, then people really want to know what's going on!

This gives you an excellent opportunity to tell others what you are doing.

But how do you get to that point when you are just starting out? That is where the law of averages comes into play.

If you do anything long enough, a pattern will emerge. That will be a ratio. Let's say that you tell 10 people and one person joins. Your ratio is now 1 in 10. You keep it up. You tell 10 people and one person joins. You tell 10 more people and 1 person joins. You tell 10 more people and 2 people join.

Wait, what just happened? You've been telling 10 people and one person will join, now you just told 10 and two people joined! You are getting better! Eventually you will tell 10 people and three will join. You may never get higher than that. But 3 out of 10 will make you rich! With that kind of average, if you are playing baseball, you'd be batting .300 and making millions of dollars a year. 7 out of 10 times you strike out!

Isn't that an interesting concept? You WILL fail many more times than you will succeed, but you will STILL get rich!

What you lack in ability now, you can make up for in numbers.

Now, keep in mind the law of averages and let's look at a parable that can easily be applied to direct marketing. Let's look at the parable of the sower.

..Behold, a sower went forth to sow; And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the wayside, and the fowls came and devoured them up:

Understand, there will be birds. In our case, you tell John about a meeting Tuesday night and he agrees to come. You show up Tuesday night, but John is not there. Someone talked him out of it. Birds.

But the sower kept sowing. That is what is important. You must sow more seeds than there are birds. Don't get distracted and try and chase the birds. Keep sowing.

Some fell upon stony places, where they had no deepness of earth: And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away.

So, you get John to the meeting and he joins. You think he is going to do something, but then he suddenly quits. He gets discouraged at the first sign of adversity and drops out. Stony ground. There is nothing you can do about it. It's not your fault. The ground just was not deep enough for roots. Keep sowing.

And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and chocked them: John joins and is coming to the meetings. But then he misses one. He says that he had to clean the gutters on the house or the lawn had to be mowed or he had to sort his sock drawer. Thorns. Some people will allow small things to get in the way of accomplishing great feats. You can not change this.

"Good grief!" you cry. "I have lost a lot of seeds."

Hang on. This is where it starts to get good.

But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixty fold, some thirty fold.

Some seed WILL fall on fertile ground. This will ALWAYS happen. You must keep sowing.

The Road Trip TO Network Marketing Success

Have you ever taken a road trip in your car and it seemed as if it took you forever to make it to your destination, but you were able to return home so fast that you felt as if you flew in a jet to get back home? That seems to happen to me all the time, and I still have yet to discover "why" that seems so. However, while returning home today from a road trip, I began to realize that our lives and our network marketing journey is very similar to this "road trip" analogy.

Let me explain further. You see, when we first sat in that room, looking at those well groomed professionals who thoroughly conveyed the possiblities that we could experience once we joined their organization, we began to paint the picture of our success. We had all these wonderful ideas and strategies for how we would approach the business, and we had a list of names of those that we were so confident, would see what we saw and join with us right away to conquer the network marketing world as we propelled upward in the ranks to become some of the most successful people in our business.

We bursted out the doors with excitement after we joined, knowing all full well that we were bound to experience overnight success, with rapid financial gain. We raced to find our cell phones and began dialing, number after number, blurting off with excitement about our new venture in hopes that those we spoke with grasped our zeal, and would come aboard.

However, things didn't work out as planned. It may have been the first, second or maybe even your fifth call before you heard "are you in some pyramid scheme?" or "No, I don't get involved with those multi-level marketing things, only the person at the top makes all the money!". As every dreaded word proceeded out of the mouth of the person on the other line, your vision of success and dreams of climbing up the financial ladder, with all of your family and friends by your side began to fade away.

If you have been strong enough to stand through the criticism and discourging words from those closest to you, then I congratulate you. The moral to the "road trip" story is that aside from what you imagined would happen, your journey to success in network marketing turned out to be the longest road to your destination of success, that you ever deemed possible. It sort of reminds me of the Israelites who followed Moses through the wilderness to get to the Promised Land, but took 40 years to complete an 11 day journey.

It may seem as though you will never make it to the top. The constant meetings, one-on-ones, three-way calls, prospecting, doing the presentation, hosting home events, and conference calls. It's as though you are doing everything right, but your business still seems to be taking forever to show growth in your back office and in your paychecks.

You have asked yourself, time and time again, "should I keep pressing forward or accept the fact that maybe this isn't for me?". I've been where you are and know all too well, the disappointment and mental torment of attending conventions to see others who had overnight success and made major accomplishments in a short period of time, while it seems as if we are the turtle that slowly makes progress thru the marathon of building our business.

I want to share a few things with you that I have discovered on my journey, and are reinforced in a book that I am currently reading by three men who have become extremely successful in this industry. The book is called "The 3 CEOs formula For Building Success & Wealth in Network Marketing and Life".

What I like most about this book is the honesty and up-frontness about the journey in this industry. I will highlight a few of the pointers they share in their chapter on Leadership:

• "The first step you must take toward building a successful business is to put together a great team....one designed for stability and longevity.
• Great leaders develop stability in their team members by setting up proper expectations with them from the very beginning. Here are several key ways to accomplish this:

1. 1. Create a game plan with your new recruits immediately after getting them started, including how much income they expect to earn in the first thirty days, the first six months and the first years. Make sure it's realistic!

2. Find out how much time and effort they're willing to put into their businesses--and how long they're willing to keep it up in order to reach their financial goals.

3. Let new recruits know how much money they will need to invest in their businesses long-term to reach their financial goals.

4. Talk to them about unforseen obstacles that may arise in their businesses.

5. Discuss things that you have had to overcome in your own business. Talk aobut how theses challenges served to make you a better leader and to make your business stronger.

6. Let your new recruits know that it takes time for any business to become a success, and that their businesses will be no different. It is a three- to five-year process for most people."

This direct and honest advice will show us how to be better leaders when opening the doors to others in this business. It's not to discourage anyone, but you are looking for those who are serious about BUILDING A BUSINESS not those that desire to GET RICH QUICK.

Although many people want to title the network marketing industry as one big fat "Get rich quick scheme", claiming that they want no parts of it. Many who do eventually join come in clearly with the expectation to GET RICH QUICK without committing to do any work.

If you are new to this industry and I just explained this scenario and you are now thinking to yourself, "She just doesn't know what she is talking about, I have found several internet sites that say they can show me how to make $10,000 a month and generate hundreds of leads with no effort on my part". Guys, I too have researched this avenue and I am a great supporter of Internet Marketing. You will even find that I endorse several products that have relevant claims with the ability to truly open more doors to generate leads for your business.

However, what I've discovered even in that route as that you still have to take the time out to work at following up on all those leads and putting systems in place to maintain these individuals so that they will have longevity in the business.

Despite the "Make $10,000 with no effort" claims, network marketing is affectionatley deemed "Relationship Marketing" for a very good reason.......You can only succeed if you build relationships with those you do business with. Am I promoting that you have to call them on the phone to see how little bobby's soccer game went, or send them an Anniversary card, No!! But what I am saying is that you have to mentor, coach and lead these individuals down the pathway that ensures their success.

Otherwise, you will be just building a business with immediate returns but without long term success and you will find that you built the foundation of your business on quicksand. It is only a matter of time that you will find yourself buried under claims of disgruntled team mates who felt mislead and turn away from the network marketing industry as a whole. I am not saying that this will be 100% your fault, cause quitters ultimately quit on themselves, not you.

However, the moral to the message is that if you want to succeed, you must re-evaluate your business to see if you are setting unrealistic expecations that are creating more frustration for you rather than basking in your small accomplishments along the way. You also want to make sure that you aren't setting these same unrealistic expecations for others, as that will be a surefire way to slowly diseminate your business. (Trust me, I've experienced this first hand!)

The road to network marketing success will take time, a strong work ethic, a commitment to yourself and a 3-5 year commitment to your busienss. You must set realistic expectations and attainable goals that take you out of your comfort zone, but make room for you to accomplish them in a reasonable amount of time.

Network Marketing can seem like that road trip where it takes forever to get to your destination, but once you make it there, you seem to acquire a navigational system with a Lear Jet engine that will allow you to rapidly excel to many other accomplishments along the way.

My encouragement to you today is to apply the methods in this article, look at yourself in the mirror and say "I am destined for greatness in (....your company), and I will mentor my team, setting realistic goals and being honest about the journey ahead, assuring them that I am here to stay and will walk with them every step of the way!".

****************P.S. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THAT ALL LEADERS AND THEIR TEAM MAKE THIS BOOK A MUST READ TO SUPPORT THEM IN BUILDING QUALITY LONG TERM RELATIONSHIPS IN THEIR BUSINESSES AND ACCOMPLISHING MUCH SUCCESS WITH THE COMPANY THAT THEY ARE INVOLVED WITH. TO ORDER, GO TO http://www.thethreeceos.com/ OR http://www.amazon.com/ (YOU WONT REGRET IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!)****************************

MLM Secrets.....Who am I to share?

Many may be driven here in hopes of finding some mysterious secrets that will lead them to overnight success without any effort on their part. I hate to disappoint you...but if your looking for something for nothing, you have come to the wrong place.

Let me start off by telling you what this blog is NOT:

1. It is not going to show you how to get "something for nothing"

2. It is not going to sugar-coat the essential elements of "work" and "work ethic" to disguise the necessary ingredients to accomplish success

3. It is not going to lie to you, pump you up or disguise the truth to make you feel good

What it will do:

1. Tell the truth

2. Share common traits found in those that have excelled in this industry

3. Challenge You

4. Did I say "tell the truth".....

5. We are going to be "brutally honest" with you and might even discourage you.....(can't apologize about that.........Heres one valuable Secret;)

6. Force you to educate yourself and become a better leader by investing in the lives of others

If you encounter any other series of experiences while reading this blog, please share them with me so that I can add them to share with future readers.

Who is this chic you ask?...............My name is Nicole, and I am considered to be a "newbie" to the MLM industry. I am currently involved in what I would consider to be "one of the greatest network marketing companies" in the industry, but I am not saying that to discredit any of the others. I say that in my opinion of what I feel is more suitable to my business preferences. You can view my company site here to learn more about what I do.

The reason why I developed this site is because in my quest to discover the essentials to success, I was introduced to Network Marketing, and realized that it is truly one of the many vehicles that can lead to massive success.

However, I have had my share of encounters with both the Pros and the Cons of this industry, nearly leaving it all together due to one major disappointment that had practically shattered my self-esteem, ambition and belief altoghter. I am gratefull that John C. Maxwell wrote the book Failing Forward, because that concept was what I needed to get me back on track to what I knew I was passionate about. And that is, "Helping Other People Everyday (H.O.P.E.)", through the vehicle of network marketing.

The truth is that I have had my encounters with several different companies previously to this one. I was an ambitious kid and learned early the value of free-enterprise. At the tender age of 9, I discovered how to invest my money and double, sometimes triple the profits by buying wholesale and selling retail.

I began selling candy in the 7th grade at my middle school. I also learned how to bake and started baking cakes on the weekends, earning $20 - $25 per cake selling them to my neighbors (they were so supportive;). At the age of 9, I was able to generate $75-$150 a week, with the ability to buy my own clothes and have spending money to do as I pleased. (It did help that my mom would buy all my supplies and not ask me to repay her, so I was at a 100% profit thanks to my mom.) However, I would carry this sales profession with me into my later years.

After college, I knew I didn't want to pursue Corporate America, so I began to coincidentally fall into sales opportunities....like the time I was planning my wedding but discovered the wholesale jewelry mart in downtown Los Angeles. That led to my company "Jewels From LaFlor (Los Angeles to Florida)".... I was living in Florida at the time. I began flying to Los Angeles to stock up on jewelry and selling the jewelry at local college campuses, and hosting jewelry parties. I would schlep around on the weekends to local beauty salons promoting my products, doing whatever it took to get a sale.

Unfortunately, one day while on the campus of The University of Central Florida, I was rushing to pack up my car with all of my supplies and the tent that I used during the day to block the massive Florida heat....I somehow managed to leave my main bag with all of my inventory ($5000 to be exact).....driving off, with the bag sitting right under the trunk of my car. It wasn't until I got 30 minutes away when I discovered it was long gone, as some college kids had swiped my bag celebrating their "come up" with my whole life having been left behind in that bag.

I was so disappointed, I didn't know what to do. I mourned for two days, and was then encouraged by my Uncle to get my Real Estate license and pursue that industry. That was the best decision ever for me. I entered my profession in 2003, having an extremely successful run until these last few years of the Real Estate collapse......

What I didn't mention is my experience with Avon, Quixtar and nearly Mary Kay while "soul searching" to see what I wanted to do with my life. I found all of these companies very valuable when it came to information regarding establishing wealth, however, I never put enough time into any of them to reap the benefits.

Really, I wasn't interested in selling products, and my family and friends refused to let me use them to become wealthy........so, I eventually said forget it, and moved on.

In 2006, I experienced my worst Real Estate year ever. During that time, I had a few people approach me about joining a network marketing company. Based on my previous experience, I had no interest whatsoever in soliciting people and begging them to do business with me. I knew how the whole MLM process worked (at least I thought!) and I didn't have any interest in investing my time and fooling myself into believing that I could really become wealthy from any Network Marketing company, despite the product.

My phone would ring off the hook non-stop for nearly 3 months from several different people. Church members, previous clients, friends, acquaintances, all of them bugging the heck out of me trying to get me to a doggone meeting.

#1....I hated the whole "come to a meeting" deal...I felt as if they were trying to set me up to make me feel guilty and coerce me to join their company..It WAS a waste of time in my book.

#2...I had no interest duplicating the same thing to get my friends to come to "a meeting"....I didn't want to begin pestering my friends and having them dodge my calls because they felt as if I was becoming a nuisance....

#3...Those MLM Companies don't work anyway...there just a "pyramid scheme"...only the people at the top make money so I have no interest in investing my time in one.........

WELL......, a casual conversation with a friend led me to his site, without him trying to "sell me" anything. I didn't attend a meeting. I didn't have to be sold, I was just told about the business casually, without "high pressure sales". I didn't join right away but the benefits of travel piqued my interest cause what is my life-long dream....."To Travel!".

I didn't sign anything then and there, but I began researching the company and reading everything I could find on-line about the company. Truth be told, I was looking for incriminating information against the company in hopes that it was worthless.

During this time I was in the process of starting a new company (A Home Staging Company), so we were meeting with an attorney to discuss the details. While in her office, I saw a magazine that featured the company that I was interested in (YTB), and was in awe of the fact that this well accomplished entrepreneur and attorney was also involved with this company. I took the magazine home, and the rest as they say is history.

I joined the company and next thing you know, I was reaping the rewards of those discounts. I was able to fly first class the following month, on my way to Los Angeles for a business trip. Then the hotel that we stayed in that I was supposed to pay $215 for, we got for $87.........whoa, this really works.

What happened after that.................I couldn't stop talking about my newfound business.

What do you know, I had become a fanatic and began building my business. Six months later, I had built an organization of nearly 200 people.......and boy did I reap the financial benefits.

So.....where does this site come in? This site was not designed to boast of my accomplishments but to share my failures.

Although I reaped great success, the next year would be so devastating that I found myself in a serious depression with serious pressures on my assets, my marriage, relationships with friends and everything else that I had built up to that point.

If it wasn't for an amazing sponsor that mentored me and saw something in me to the point where he would stand by my side and hold my hand through it all, I wouldn't have any interest EVER in pursuing a network marketing company or any business for that matter, again.

At the end of the day, I disovered that:

"IT WASN'T THE INDUSTRY, IT WAS THE METHODS THAT I USED, OR DID NOT USE THAT CAUSED MY FAILURES."

I will share with you the pitfalls that I encountered and ways that you too can avoid ever experiencing what I experienced. I will also reveal different tactics and discoveries that I have found as I am bouncing back from such fallacy to dust myself off and press pass the pain to experience the other side of my challenges.

I know that it takes a "test to have a testimony" and I look at my failures as a way to share my experience with others in hopes that they will not be discouraged, but encouraged to know that all great leaders and all successful people have had their bout with defeat at several points in their lives. As my famous quote says:

"Don't be afraid of pressure, it is pressure that turns a lump of coal into a diamond!".

I realize that I had challenges due to my lack of knowledge and my desperate methods of building a business. I will share with you what I discovered along the way and ways that you can save yourself from ever encountering what I have and ways to guarantee your success.

Thanks to a myriad of resources....I now know that their is a great opportunity in this industry as long as we commit ourselves to doing what it takes to succeed.

Over the next few days, I will be blogging about the negative experiences that I had due to "my mistakes", along with suggestions of things to avoid when aligning yourself with the network marketing company of your choice.

These tidbits will be more than valuable to your career, whether in the field of MLM or any other business in general. I guarantee you that you can learn a lot at my expense from this blog.

Enjoy and please share it with others so that they can be blessed as well!