Hey! I had a couple of interviews last week, and I’m going to give it a go to upload them here! In this interview, Sheila Stewart and I discuss Marketing In The New Economy.

Wish you had a large corporate budget for marketing, yet know you are on a shoe-string budget?
Know that every dollar spent on marketing needs to generate a return?
Not sure what to spend or what to do with your marketing?
Tune in to get affordable ideas that generate results!

 

 Power-Inject Your Marketing! A Chat from DivaToolbox: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

If the above doesn’t work for some reason (because I was given it by the radio interviewer) here is the link; I am Episode One:

http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/talkCast.jsp?masterId=65954&cmd=tc

Hey!

Thank you thank you thank you to all of you who wrote based on my last posting. I LOVE YOU! I’m still getting over my Peru “bug,” but Cipro seems to be hittin’ it, so I am anticipating being my own happy healthy (hippy…) self by Monday. Today I even got away from the house (read: potty) and walked the dog for 1/2 hour up the hills. Yay, me! (Yay, Cipro!)

So, H and I were sitting down to breakfast about 20 minutes ago, and I thought I heard a timid knock on the door. Jake didn’t even bark – that’s how soft it was. But H went to go check to see there really was “no one there” – and found a guy on our doorstep.

We often hire guys to help with the various projects that H has going on – gardening, decks, clearing, you name it. As you can imagine, these guys have been hit just like the rest of us…in fact, yesterday we drove past where they generally pick up work (about 10 miles away from us), and there were more people there than we had ever seen…and even some white guys. (Not being prejudiced here – it’s just a fact. The fact there are white guys there waiting for pick up $10-an-hour work means that they aren’t working at some construction job that they usually would be.)

ANYWAY, so this guy had worked for H a couple of times, and realized that he was pretty sure he could find our house. We are way up in a canyon and down and up some serious hills. This guy rode his bike there – a little over 10 miles each way – to timidly knock on our door.

Just yesterday, H said he’s going to hire a couple of guys tomorrow to help him with some clearing for a new deck addition he’s planning. When he came back to the breakfast table to tell me about the guy, I asked if he told him to come back tomorrow (since I knew that H wasn’t planning to do work today).

And this is the good part – he said “NO, I had him stay – AND I will have him come back tomorrow.”

H doesn’t really have much for him to do today – but because of this guy’s enterprising spirit, he’s going to “make” at least 1/2 day, maybe more, of work for him. He’s also going to go speak with our neighbors to see if they can use him to make it a full day.

How many of you are ’standing on the street corner,’ waiting for work to come to you the way that it always did? It’s time to get on your bikes, and ride up the valley, up and over the hills, and timidly knock on some doors. Your spirit will be rewarded.

OK, OK, I know, this isn’t “really” Bond Girl material – but I’m really pleased to say that I have been featured in the Magazine Professionally Speaking, a Magazine for the National Speakers’ Association.

What a great week – I’m being honored as a Woman In Action by the Women’s Initiative at their Gala, I’m in the S.F. Chronicle, and I was on ABC-TV’s LIVE WELL network nationally. Can you have a quad-fecta instead of a trifecta? Here is the 4th great thing, in my opinion!

Go go go! Get yourself out there…someone is bound to notice!

 Basic Intellectual Property Concepts: Download

You can achieve anything you put your mind to. And you deserve to, too.

There is a corollary to this – you should NOT do things that you do NOT like, and/or are bad at. I recently received an email newsletter from Stephanie Frank at Success IQ University that was on this subject. The email had to do with one of her coaching clients, a “people person,” who was trying to take on blogging, Twitter, SEO’ing her website and the like. The coaching that she received was basically – STOP IT – if that is not what you love and what you are good at. If it’s something you are actually interested in, well, great. But if not – that’s what other professionals are for!

In general, we usually hire “experts” for medical consultations, financial consultations, legal consultations, and the like. But what about taking over those other parts of your life or your business that you really hate? Myself, I have a “house cleaning consultant.” Yes, that’s right – I am not crazy about scrubbing the toilet, I ‘fess up. So I have someone that comes in and does it for me. I get to spend more time doing things that I love. Things that can bring abundance into my life – financially, or just through the Joy of not having to pull on those sexy rubber gloves.

We often get in our own way as well – and then hold onto our stories about how “we are.” What you think is what you are. Change what you think – change what you are. OK, so, think about it . . . and while you’re at it, for a laugh, check this out. It’s a little over 6 minutes but it’s good all the way to the end.

 

 Get Out Of Your Own Way - In 5 Minutes Or Fewer!: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Always wondered what Network Marketing was about – and how to know what’s a good one and what might make Madoff proud? This episode discusses some of the aspects you should look for in a MultiLevel Marketing (MLM) or Network Marketing business.

Episodes 11 and 12 generally introduced you to the idea of having your own business, and in particular discussed the four ways to make money according to Robert Kiyosaki in Rich Dad, Poor Dad: Being an employee, self-employed, having investments that throw off income, or having a BUSINESS. This episode will explain what you should really look for if you are considering bringing in a second income in a home-based business.

Some of the books and websites recommended in this podcast include:

No Excuse!,  Jay Rifenbary

How To Select a Network Marketing Company, Daren Falter

Rich Dad, Poor Dad, Robert Kiyosaki (also mentioned in Episode 11)

The Slight Edge, Jeff Olson

Why We Want You to Be Rich, Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki

The Next Millionaires, Paul Zane Pilzer

The Go-Giver, Bob Burg and John David Mann

Go For No!, Richard Fenton

The Referral of a Lifetime, Tim Templeton

Chicken Soup for the Network Marketers Soul, Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen

Navigating the World of Network Marketing, Diane Walker and Jack Bastide

Your First Year in Network Marketing, Mark Yarnell and Rene Reid Yarnell

The Millionaire Next Door, Thomas Stanley and William Danko

How To Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie

I will link these books hopefully by Sunday – wanted to get the podcast up though, and it’s late!

 

 Fempowerment Episode 13: Recession-Proof Your Income: Network Marketing, MLMs and Why it's not a Pyramid [45:12m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

“While many are wringing their hands, I recall the 1970s when we were suffering from an oil shock causing long lines at gas stations, rationing, and 55 MPH speed limits on Federal highways, a recession, very little venture capital ($50 million per year into VC firms), and, what President Jimmy Carter (wearing a sweater while addressing the Nation on TV because he had turned down the heat in the White House) called a “malaise”. It was during those times that two kids without any real college education, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, started companies that did pretty well. Opportunities abound in bad times as well as good times. In fact, the opportunities are often greater when the conventional wisdom is that everything is going into the toilet.”

If any of you are interested in what a Treat’Em Right Conference with SendOutCards is like, one of the gals who has a retail account (zero entry point!) with me went to one – and this is what she had to say.

As you know, SendOutCards is a network marketing organization – and I discuss it in Podcast Episode 11. A Treat’Em Right is a conference about SendOutCards that you can go to that discusses the philosophy – and this writeup explains what to expect.

If you can get to a Treat’Em Right, I would love for you to go to check it out. There are a few left this year. Here is the schedule for 2009.

I was recently in Venice Beach on a SendOutCards trip, to visit Jordan Adler. I wrote about Jordan and his book, Beach Money in the blog before, and mentioned them in Podcast 11. Jordan is in my “upline” in SendOutCards. What this means is I was sponsored by a gal named Dawn, who was sponsored by Judi, who was sponsored by Jordan. How multi-level marketing works is that you receive some $ for introducing someone to the business opportunity provided by that product or service, and then you also make “residual” (or “cashflow”) income on the people that person brings in, and also on the products/services that person sells.  This is not a “pyramid” scheme, where folks are brought in and the top folks are really being paid by the new folks coming in. No. If no one entered into an MLM “downline” from now through eternity, the whole procedure wouldn’t “crumble,” you don’t need “new blood” to make the $ “go” to the top dogs.

Podcast 11 had a bit about MLM, and I think I will probably speak more on wealth, economics, network marketing, and such in the next one, because of the way the world seems to be turning. But a lot of folks seem to believe that MLM or network marketing or “online” businesses are some sort of “get rich quick” scheme. If they are, then they’re probably some sort of illegal pyramid scheme, NOT a real MLM program.

Jordan Adler recently gave a “Fireside Chat” – he does a conference call every Monday night for anyone in his “downline” (which is in the 1,000s!), which is incredibly informative. I wanted to give you a taste of it here – because what he has to say is so important to anyone who is starting a business – and in particular, a MLM business.

Now, I happen to be partial to SendOutCards. You don’t have to do “parties,” you don’t have to “stock product,” and everyone – EVERYONE (especially businesses) can use a way to keep in touch, appreciate, and follow up with clients, customers, friends, and leads. This system makes it easy. I have been in 3 other network marketing companies, and it just didn’t work out. One of the reasons is that they all had very low upfront costs to ‘become a distributor,” but then the product was usually more expensive than you could get the same thing at the mall. In SendOutCards, though you have a higher fee to enter and become a business, the product is 300% less (or more) than cards/gifts at the mall and they have a system where you can do everything from your computer. If you want to know more specifics about the “why” you can check out Podcast 11 – or email, and I’ll cover it more in depth with you!

I have included some of Jordan’s “chat” here, and edited it so it’s not so “SendOutCards”-specific. But I really believe it’s worth the read, for anyone entering into a business.  Enjoy!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 Tonight, I’m going to tell it to you like it is. No sugar coating. No babying. I’m going to give you everything you need to build a successful business. Sit back with a fire in the fireplace and let’s have a talk.

1. Reading your e-mails does not constitute working your business. If you have to read e-mails or talk in chat-rooms, do it at 11pm at night and not during the day or in the evening. It doesn’t seem like a big deal, but imagine having 100 people spending 1 hour a day on the internet. That’s about 500 hours per week that could have been used [more productively].

2. Turn off or unplug your TV for 2 reasons. It wastes your time and it gets you down whether you know it or not. Everything there is focused on negative. Your business will sky-rocket if your focus on 15 minutes per day of reading.

3. People making money [in their businesses] are not watching TV or spending time talking with other distributors in chat rooms. They are doing walk-throughs and sending positive cards. E-mails should never be done first thing in the morning. It’s too easy to get sucked in. the next thing you know, you’ve spent 2 hours of the most productive time of the day answering questions that have nothing to do with building a successful business. [NOTE: I highlighted this - I think it's critical!]

4. It’s the little things that will make the big difference. Read ‘The Slight Edge’ by Jeff Olsen.

5. You may be a genius and may be able to come up with a really cool elaborate system for signing up people. There are many ways to build the business. If it’s not duplicatable, you’ll never make a lot of money. If you are a great marketer, you may make good money, but the really big checks are reserved for those that duplicate. You can be really good OR you can be really duplicatable.

I’m not a great marketer, but I am very duplicatable and my message is simple. Don’t get mad at me when I tell you what I think you should be doing. I’m not one to brag or talk about my success unless I feel like it serves a purpose. People are baffled as to how our team has 32,000 people in 40 months. Most people are trying to figure out what to DO to make this happen for them! It’s not so much what you do as much as it is what you shouldn’t do.

I always hear people tell me that I must not be telling them something. I must be hiding something. There must be some deep dark family secret. First of all, I could never have this many people on my own. I have only signed up 160 people. If I didn’t share all I’ve got, there would be less duplication. I speak simplicity into my group every day. I do the same thing over and over again. [NOTE: This was my problem, as I talked about in Podcast 11, with my previous MLM experiences. I knew so much about the product, that people that signed up didn't believe that htey could "duplicate" what I did. So I sold a lot of product, but no one signed up to do the business - because they figured they "couldn't be as good as me"! This means I was basically just self-employed, not building a business.  If you want to know more about that, re-listen to Podcast 11.]

I don’t try and control everything. I let things go and let them happen the way they are supposed to happen. Too many ’systems’ keep people from being able to really express themselves in a personal way that will allow them to grow.

[In another MLM company, we] had a guy making $1 million dollars per month after quite a few years. Every time he spoke he had the same message. Keep it simple. No fancy gimmicks or programs. I was always looking for a secret and what I heard were the same stories over and over again for years!

Most people don’t like cold calling, sales or telemarketing. If you bring people in any way other than something the average person feels like they can do, you won’t get duplication over time. People need to:

a. Believe they can do it

b. Be able to do it.

If you are really good at signing people up, but someone else doesn’t feel like they can do the same thing, you won’t get much duplication.

There are many ways to build a business. If you find yourself trying different things, and changing your plan every few weeks, don’t expect to ever have a huge business. Your message needs to be clear, simple and repeatable by others on your team.

MASTER 3 THINGS:

1. Meeting new people each day

2. Setting an appointment [with them to show you how your business will benefit THEM]

3. The gift account walk-through [This is SOC specific - but it means "show them the product/service, how to use it "on you/money back guarantee" - and then see what they think]

PEOPLE WILL JOIN YOU IF THEY LIKE YOU AND IF THEY TRUST YOU:

a. How candidates get picked for President

b. What I learned speaking to a group of young entrepreneurs

Edify your upline and downline. Build in relate-ability!

THEY MUST LIKE YOU AND TRUST YOU BEFORE THEY WILL CONSIDER DOING BUSINESS WITH YOU!

I get 50 e-mails a day from people with suggestions for corporate, opportunities to sign up with other companies, questions [that should be asked Support].

If you’ve e-mailed me about any of these things, you have probably gotten an automated response saying to allow 3 – 5 business days to hear back and that you may hear back from my assistant. Why? Because I am doing conference calls with my group, daily gift account walk-throughs and signing up and training distributors. I’m not reading my e-mails! I don’t spend much time on my e-mails and I don’t think you should either if you want to build a big team.

I know some of you get frustrated with me because you don’t hear back right away. Suggestions for corporate need to go to corporate. I’m building a team. I’m doing what I would want you to do to build a successful business. #1 Introduce [your business] to new people each day. You’ll find that when your team and your paycheck is growing, all the other things become a little less important.

Build relationships with your group and get to know them. Have get togethers! Do Q and A conference calls with your team. Have them introduce you to their new people on 3 way calls.

$500 PER MONTH WILL MAKE A HUGE DIFFERENCE FOR MOST PEOPLE. When someone has a $500 residual check coming in, they get very excited. To make a lot of money, simply help a bunch of people make $500 per month. When you make $500 per month, others want to know how to do the same. Teach a few others to do the same, and you’ll be making $5,000 per month. Now teach a few to make $5,000 per month and you’ll be making $25,000 per month. That’s how it works.

MECHANICS VS INTUITION – You can get the mechanics down by reading books, listening to CDs and going to seminars. This will constitute 5% of your success. The other 95% will be your judgment and intuition. This means following your gut. Have faith that you know all you need to know. There is no blaming your upline or the company . . . you have what you need to succeed. Take action and great and powerful forces will be with you to guide you to your genius. Stop looking for the answers and just go. You are all knowing. Get connected to your source and get into action. It’s not necessary to ask anyone else what you should be doing. It’s time to just do and have faith that everything will line up just the way it’s supposed to. Practice the fundamentals and then use your God-given intuition and it will lead you to your genius!

Hello! I know, it’s been quite some time since I did a regular podcast. Amazingly, this is my 35th podcast, but that includes the hynotherapy podcasts, interviews, vodcasts, etc. So I am calling this “Podcast 11″ since it’s the 11th one where it’s me, just me…

The picture at left is Special Agent V and her sexy James. They live in Switzerland, as you will hear, and are planning a round-the-world trip! Special Agent V asked for tips on looking Bond Girlish (not schlumpy) when living for nine months out of one suitcase. If you’re curious, she found BeABondGirl.com this way:

“I was home sick in bed for 4 days and I am a fan of James Bond (I have the whole collection on DVD ). Since I was already in bed with my laptop surfing endlessly, I was wondering what exactly the Bond Girl names were and to know if they had a character story beyond what you see in the films. I started my search and found you online. And then loaded up a podcast… and yeah, got hooked. Better than knowing a Bond Girl is to be one yourself ;-)”

Secret Agent V and I had a long-running email tail about how, and what, to pack for her trip, which I go into in abbreviated fashion on this podcast. I also had an email from – Mr. Bond himself! Yes, I did… though it might not be what you think!

Next, here is the information from “Mr. Bond” on his venture into podcasting – it is Episode 33 on the Nursing Show blog, and if you click here, it will take you to it.  Mr. Bond is interviewed on being an E.R. Nurse after being an EMT/Paramedic for over a decade (his interview is actually at the 12:30 mark). What a great podcast! It’s amazing, there are podcasts for everything…with great resources, articles and links.  This is a super one! Go Bond… Paul Bond!

Finally, this BABG podcast deals with how we Bond Girls make our money. Using Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Kiyosaki as a template, we discuss the differences between being an employee, self-employed, a business, and an investor, and how being a “real” business (versus being self-employed, which is just being an employee, with yourself as your boss, janitor, marketer, bill collector, and chief bottle washer!) can ultimately lead you to the cashflow upon which to retire.

As part of discussing cashflow and business, I talk quite a bit about network marketing and my experiences with many such companies, including my current one, SendOutCards.com. Because I really believe in networking marketing as a way to control your destiny money-wise, I am offering anyone who writes to me a copy of Beach Money by Jordan Adler. If you’d like a copy, listen to the podcast and let me send you one!

Please let me know if you would like more on wealth-building or any other topics. I will likely talk a bit more about finances, wealth creation, and the like in the next few podcasts, but my subjects are really guided by what you’d like to hear. So speak up – don’t be shy!

As I noted in the podcast, unfortunately I have lost my previous call-in line. Yes, it happens to the best of us. The New Number for Listener Feedback is 206-350-1867.  You can now reach me both on doubleohsandy [at] yahoo [dot] com (which comes to my Blackberry), or sandy [at] BeABondGirl [dot] com, my new direct email address.  Finally, you can always Comment below. I hope you enjoy this episode, and I look forward to hearing from you!

Click the red button below to listen:

 

 011 Listener Feedback and a Chat about Cashflow: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Yesterday I had the privilege of meeting Monique Lessan, a Private Investigator. She has decades of experience, and was an incredible woman. She has conducted extensive international investigations and her expertise includes Infidelity, Asset Search, Locate People and Businesses, Marriage and Divorce, Surveillance, Due Diligence, and Background Searches for Perspective Spouses. 
 
Monique’s business card lists 25+ reasons to hire a private investigator (and 5 of these reasons are why that private investigator should be a Woman). I thought I would share them with you, just in case you should need Monique’s services! Monique’s particular passion is in child abduction cases (domestic and international). She speaks fluent Farsi, English, French and Spanish – you can check out her business at www.EyeInvestigate.com.

Monique’s agency is comprised of individuals with various levels of expertise; they have conducted some of the highest profile investigations, both foreign and domestic. Each Investigative professional is a proven experts in his or her field. These include International Terrorism, Weapons of Mass Destruction, Crisis Management, Foreign Counterintelligence, Corporate Espionage, Organized Crime, Art Fraud, Kidnapping, and Crime Scene analysis. One of the high profile investigations included the 9/11 World Trade Center attack.

25 Plus Reasons to Hire a Private Investigator:

1.  Retrieve Bank Accounts

2.  Intercept telephone communications

3.  Conduct surveillance

4.  Perform background checks (this is particular important for businesses!)

5.  Conduct undercover sting operations

6.  Carry out “mystery shopper” or “mystery client” projects

7.  Reconstruct an accident

8.  Conduct an asset search

9.  Investigate identity theft

10. Catch a cheating spouse/infidelity

11. Investigate child custody

12. Conduct a personal injury investigation

13. Carry out a divorce & family law investigation

14. Inspect restaurants and bars

15. Conduct executive protection

16. Perform fraud/embezzlement investigations

17. Investigate sexual harassment cases

18. Perform due diligence of all kinds

19. Locate missing persons

20. Carry out polygraph/lie detector tests

21. Serve subpoenas (remember this if you are suing anyone in CA!)

22. Investigate stalkers/predators – online and offline

23. Perform computer forensics & investigations

24. Perform workplace violence investigations

25. Work on death penalty cases/evidence

26. Check public records in court

Plus, 5 reasons why your Private Investigator should be a woman:

1.  Not easy to detect

2.  Better in undercover operations

3.  More convincing with phone pretexts

4.  Less intimidating

5.  More intuitive

As you can see if you go to Monique’s agency’s website, she is definitely the “real deal.” (I tried about 50 times to load a photo of Monique on this post and it kept hanging… perhaps, some P.I. special magic attached to it so I wasn’t able to? Hmmm!)

I wanted to share this with all of you, in case (Heaven Forbid) you should need these services… and weren’t sure where to turn. Monique is currently working on a couple of death penalty cases, and recently retrieved a child that was abducted from China and taken to the U.S. She’s definitely the real deal – and a Bond Grrrrl!

Hey You!

 I had a link to my Send Out Cards website in a previous blog. I know that a couple of you checked it out – hey, it’s a free couple cards you can send On Me, so why not have at it!

I have been in a few MLM (Multi-Level Marketing) companies in my day. It’s usually pretty frustrating, frankly. I would wind up paying the $100 or so over being a Wholesale Customer (it’s never a lot) to have the ability to “build a team” in the MLM.  (But usually, I was joining because I loved using the product, and believed it could benefit others.) Being a “Distributor” allowed me to benefit from not only someone buying the product from me, but also if they wanted to sell the product, too.

Unfortunately, usually I wasn’t all that keen ’splainin’ (Lucy) to folks how they could sell essential oils and vitamins, or face cream, or vibrators (yes!) and make themselves a business of it. It was a LOT of work going to folks’ houses, doing demos, and the like. Sure – I loved it, but I’m a natural ham and salesperson. Most folks would buy the products, but NO WAY would they want to schlepp lubricant and dildos around from house to house themselves…

The idea of MLM is that you make money when other people (that you have brought into the system) make money. But the whole “Ra-Ra” aspect, meetings, etc. just was not Me.

Anyway – a while back, I was introduced to the concept of Send Out Cards by a gal I know through networking groups. Then, I heard about it again, in a podcast that I listen to pretty often. So I decided to check it out.

I was pretty sure that the cards would be cheesy or flimsy, or they would go out with a postal “mark” not a stamp, or the promise of “uploading my handwriting” would be just so much hoo-ha.  Nope!  I have been SO SURPRISED!.

This company is the real deal. The cards are great.  They’re just like Hallmark cards (maybe even better). The whole system really does sell itself. You can store business or personal folks in the system, and then set up “Campaigns” to your clients (you know, like we’re all taught… “touch every client at least once every 3 weeks…”). Birthdays. Anniversaries. Spouses’ Birthdays. Kids’ Birthdays.  The calendar even pops up with “what’s up” for that week, when you log in.  If it’s a birthday and you click on it, you get a link to the birthday cards! It even stores a picture of every card you send and what you said in it attached to the “Rolodex card” for that person, so you never again have to wonder what you sent, when, and what you said!

You can even insert photos into the cards – and they REALLY look good, too. Heck, you can make your own “trifold” with photos in it and description! I just did one for a friend, where the front was her dancing at my wedding – the inside fold was her about 8 months pregnant – and the inside-inside was one of her son’s photos that she recently sent all of us on email (he just turned one).  This card cost me something like 40-60 cents to do (yes, with glossy, the photos, etc.) and 41 cents to mail. When she called me, she said that she hadn’t even printed out any of her son’s photos – so now she has my card of the photo that she took (the inside of the trifold) up on her fridge!!! 

In my other MLMs, there were usually meetings in person (that were always a pain to get to, and usually over some limp pizza). Ra Ra Ra, sell more vibrators! Ra Ra Ra! In this one, there are calls that you can call into (or not) once a week, that last for 1/2 hour. Afterwards, you get a transcript of the call (if you want to read it) and you can click on it to listen to it on a website, too. No fuss, no muss.

The transcript below is from my “upline” Jordan Adler . He is legendary – he wrote a book called “Beach Money” on MLM. This call was last night. I don’t think I could have said it better — so I will let him say it.  Again — if you’d like to try out the system — just click above or, of course, you can email me and we can walk through the “finer points” of it together. 

++++TRANSCRIPT OF CALL WITH JORDAN ADLER APRIL 14, 2008++++

SENDOUTCARDS IN PERSPECTIVE

What makes SendOutCards unique?
SendOutCards is like no other program in the Network Marketing Profession for two main reasons:
1. SendOutCards satisfies the greatest human craving . . . the need to love and be loved. Did you know that babies will die if they don’t get love as an infant? We carry that need throughout our whole lives. We feed the greatest human need. . . The need to love and be loved.
2. SendOutCards is the greatest personal development program in existence today. Not only do we have training that teaches people how to attract success, but we have an active system that will allow people to actually create the success that most other programs only talk about. Those of you that have been sending unexpected cards out each day know exactly what we are talking about

OUR TRACK RECORD – SUCCESS IN THE NUMBERS

SOC Revenues:

2004 – $250,000 2000 Distributors
2005 – $2.5 Million 4000 Distributors
2006 – $10 Million 18,000 Distributors
2007 – $24 Million 40,000 Distributors
2008 (projected) – $50 Million 100,000 Distributors

We are still a small Network Marketing Company. A big Network Marketing Company will do over 1 Billion Dollars per year and will have over 2 million Distributors in the US alone. It typically takes a healthy company 8 to 10 years to reach this point. We are starting our 5th year as a Network Marketing Company. The top earners typically will JOIN a company in its 4th-10th years. Can you imagine if one of them join your organization in the next few years? This can only happen if you are actively working your business.

A SIMPLE APPROACH

Many network marketing companies are built on a foundation of hype and fear of loss. I know this because each day I get calls from excited distributors that have been told by their uplines that they need to recruit ‘Jordan Adler’. Do you know that I am unrecruitable?? Here’s what they say in their e-mails and phone calls to me:

“Get in now or you are going to miss out!”
“We have by far the best program in the industry . . . you need to leave your company and join us.  Everyone is coming over!”
“Our compensation plan blows all the others away!”
“We will put people under you if you get in to our group!”

These are statements made by overzealous distributors that are in a scarcity mindset. Many companies and distributors build this way. This is the approach that gives our profession a bad name.

Here’s typically what happens . . . with very little actual interest in the product or service, people get nervous and sign up because they are afraid they are going to miss out if they don’t sign up right away. They get on an autoship and when their upline doesn’t fulfill on their promises by putting people underneath them OR when they realize that it’s not that they won the lottery (and they actually have to do some work), they drop the autoship and then everyone’s income goes down. At this point, people begin to lose their belief and they either quit our profession altogether and badmouth network marketing OR they look for the next manic opportunity.

Most of the time, implied in this is that somehow the company or the compensation plan is responsible for someone’s success (or lack of it) in the business.

In reality, there are many great companies and in most companies with a viable product and plan, anyone that puts in the work can make money and create a residual income. It has very little to do with the company. Yet some present it as if its the company and the comp plan that will determine someone’s success.

By the way, there are professionals in all companies. Usually they are the ones that have been around for a while and have built solid self-sustaining organizations. They are focused on great long term relationships vs hype and get rich quick approaches.

How are we different?
We believe in an abundant universe vs one with limited resources. We don’t need to hype anyone into joining us by promising them they will get rich overnight. In fact, those making the most money with us focus on how our service will enhance the life of another human being.

When I started with SOC, I had no interest in making any money. In fact, I was so excited about the service that I just started using it to send out thank you cards and thinking of you cards. My phone started ringing. I showed others how it worked, by having them send a card. A few were interested. I signed them up and taught them to do exactly the same thing. I started to imagine hundreds or thousands of people signing up just because it was such a cool service that everyone needed. My few people started to introduce it in exactly the same way.

We did no opportunity meetings. We did no online video presentations, we did no compensation plan trainings, we did no recruiting conference calls.

We simply show others the system by having them try it out (we coach them through sending a card) . . . if they like it, we show them how they can sign up and get $120 each time they train someone else to do the same thing. It’s that simple. Over and over again.

It doesn’t matter if someone is involved in another opportunity. In fact, that’s even better, because they have a great reason to use us to build better relationships, retain their customers and get more referrals. We don’t EVER try and get someone to stop what they are doing because we have a better deal.

There are many great opportunities in the marketplace!

We believe that you get back what you send out. If you send out positives on a daily basis, you’ll get back positives many times over. You reap what you sow. If you send out to give, the universe gives back!

Marketing is sending out to get.  Appreciation is sending out to give.

We believe that appreciation wins over self promotion every time. Think about it . . . when you get something in the mail that has a ’sales offer’ like ‘20% off your next tire rotation’, where does it usually end up? That’s right . . . in the trash.

When you get something in the mail that has a photo of some people that you know thanking you and telling you that you are appreciated, where does it end up? Usually on your desk or on your refrigerator door. As soon as you put a logo on it, it’s more likely to end up in the trash.

What’s the real opportunity here?

The greeting card industry is a 7.5 billion dollar industry and it has been flat for years. Hallmark and American Greetings have spent millions of dollars trying to get it to grow. Nothing has worked. The average customer spends about $3 per month on cards. What’s the usual process?

1. They think of someone
2. They go to the store
3. They burn an hour  & pick out a card (or not!)
5. They don’t have a stamp or a pen
6. The card gets put on the counter
7. 2 months later, the card gets put in a drawer and never gets sent

In SendOutCards, the average user spends about $49 per month on cards that are 1/5th the price. Why? Because we make it easy and inexpensive to send cards conveniently right from your desk. Our customers send cards every day! Think of someone . . . send a card. Think of someone . . . send a card. Can you see that by making it easier, we could turn a 7.5 billion dollar industry in to a 10 or 20 billion dollar industry?

Do you realize that we are only doing about 30 million dollars per year and we could build a billion dollar company just on the cards that DON’T GET SENT by Hallmark or American Greetings!!
So why is there no competition??
You would think after 5 years, we would have a few competitors. Well American Greetings and Hallmark both tried what we are doing and spent millions of dollars on advertising doing it. After a few years, American Greetings shut down their internet card (like us) division. Their cards were over $3 each, but you could send them through the mail just like us. The problem was, they couldn’t get anyone to use them!

Kody figured out that the only people that typically sign up with us are people that have sent a card because someone coached them through it (hint, hint).
Here’s the reason I believe we have no competitors. A few guys hear that there is this company called SendOutCards that’s doing well and growing like crazy . . . .they think, “Hey, there has to be some money in that!” [give to get] “We pick up a few machines, set up operations, come up with an even better plan and we’ll start taking people from them!” [Focus on scarcity]

So they go into the boardroom and figure out that it’s going to cost about 2 million dollars just to start up, and then they can’t figure out how we are making money at .62 per card! They figure that it will take them years to break even, so they throw in the towel. “Give to get” will never work for long term success.

IN SUMMARY

When I joined the company, we were doing about 200 cards per day on one small xerox machine. Cards were being stuffed into envelopes by hand (Jodi – Kody’s wife was doing this). Today almost everything is automated and we are typically doing about 30,000 cards per day. I envision 2-3 million distributors doing 1-3 million cards per day in the next few years.

The operation today is 40,000 square feet with 60 employees. We have 3 – $600,000 I-Gen Machines (there is only one other company in the world that has 3 and they are in Japan). It’s like Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory!

We have a unique culture that stems from Kody’s vision to make millions of people senders of cards. We understand the impact that we can have on the lives of those around us simply by expressing our appreciation in cards sent out on a daily basis. One card has the potential to change someone’s life. Millions of people sending out one heartfelt, unexpected card each day has the potential to change the world. When we have 300 people at a Treat ‘Em Right Seminar, each write a card, and then just a few of them read their cards, you can feel the energy shift in the room. This is something each of you must experience for yourself. This energy expanded out to millions of people has the potential to shift a generation and eventually move mountains.

Hey Ya’ll:

I am having more and more fun with Send Out Cards. This is the best business builder I think I have ever had.

I have set it up so that you can have a free gift account if you sign into:

www.sendoutcards.com/fempowerment

When you click through on the banner, you need to put in a User Name and a Password. I will give it to you if you write to me at DoubleOhSandy[at]yahoo[dot]com. Yes, what this means is that I am going to pay for you to send out a few cards, to see how it works.

I can also walk you through the templates, so you understand how it works. Wow, I’m finding something new every day!

More in a bit — I’m uploading photos that I took during the View From The Bay shoot, and sending them with little funny “taglines” to the camera man, Lisa Quinn, and the like. Did I say I was having fun???

xxoxoxox Solitaire

Yeah, so fine. Can you tell that I’m going through my piles (even us fEmpowered grrrls do get piles!) and blogging up a storm based on sticky notes I’m finding?

 I signed up for this a little while ago — and this is THE BEST business tool I’ve used in forever.  It’s called Send Out Cards. Using Send Out Cards, you get a choice of more cards than a Hallmark store, and you can personalize the cards and send them out whenever you want. You can manage campaigns — you can even spend an hour or so and “load up” a bunch of birthday cards, anniversary cards, and the like, and they will be sent out on the date that you desire.

This is the biggest boon for an entrepreneur or sales person, who wants to stay in touch but forgets to “schedule” it.  Send Out Cards even lets you send gifts, personalized with your own touch (the 4 brownies gift is the one that gets me the best “kudos” — but you can even send out books, like Think And Grow Rich, etc.  How great is THAT for me to send to folks that are considering joining my Mastermind programs… send them the Napoleon Hill book that started it all!)

You can also upload photographs (it’s easy), and then include them in a card. My friend who turned me onto this takes photos on her camera when she meets clients, and then immediately downloads that photo, and sends them a card or postcard with that photo on the front.  It even lets you annotate it with little “thought balloons.”

If you join and become an “Executive” Member, you can have them upload your handwriting.  THEN, the cards come out with your actual handwriting and signature on them. You can upload up to 4 signatures — one might be a personal one (for me, just “Sandy”), one might be a “business” one with my full name, number and email under it, and one can even be from you and your family, with all your signatures (as in, for, say, Xmas cards? Set up a “campaign” in October, to go out end of November, and just forget about it?)

The cards are actually stamped, yes, and so this is the sort of thing that clients are likely to open (and friends). I’m absolutely addicted — it’s so easy, and I am finding so many great cards.  Even — sadly, “Sorrow For The Loss Of Your Pet” cards (my assistant just had to put her dog to sleep). There’s just about everything.

 If I’ve done it right, I think you can click here, and check it out. HOWEVER, you will need a User Name and Password to actually send out that free card (because I pay for you to be able to do it) — so please email me at doubleohsandy[at]yahoo[dot]com for one and then you can play!