A Quick Direct Sales Business Boost

Just did an interview that was super fun and covered lots of hot topics including:

• The three ingredients for direct sales success
• How to be more loud and proud of your business
• How to be a “rock star” business owner

Listen below. Enjoy!

(this presentation is approximately 60 minutes in length.)

I love doing interviews! Reach out to me to be a guest on your show, or at your next event! Click here to read more about my direct sales programs.

Mille Grazie!

I love this time of year and the opportunity to publicly talk about gratitude, though it is a worthy topic all year round. I was raised in an Italian American household and I lived in Italy for a year. When I am very grateful for something the Italian phrase mille grazie pops in my head. This means one-thousand thanks. If I took the time, I could easily think of one-thousand different things, people, ideas, places, experiences, rights and privileges for which I am truly and deeply grateful. I will refrain and mention only a few.

I am grateful for the raviolis (made from my grandmother’s recipe) that will grace the table at Uncle Sal’s country home on Thursday and all the beautiful people that make up the Rando clan that I will have a chat and share some laughs with.

I am grateful for all the people on my THRIVE Team. All the positive, professional, self-motivated folk that help my business run well and are living the entrepreneurial lifestyle. I am grateful for the ladies on the board of directors for A Good Deed Tea that like me want to uplift underserved women and girls around the globe.

I am grateful that I am off the Carnival Splendor cruise ship that got stranded at sea and grateful for the future Hawaiian cruise on my calendar. It is important to always get back on the horse—or the cruise ship.

I will not continue to one-thousand. Instead I will close by mentioning the two most important things. I am grateful that I get to do work in the world that fulfills my purpose of helping women succeed and that I have a good loving husband.

Mille Grazie for all this and more.

Please tell me what you are grateful for.

Reconnect with Your Why

One day when speaking to a group of women in direct selling I said to Serina, “Why are you in this business?” She said, “to make life better for myself and my family.” “How is it going?” I inquired. She paused took a deep sigh breath and said, “O.K. I guess.” Because Serina responded without energy and enthusiasm it was clear that, while she had an idea of why she was in business, she had not yet created a compelling vision for her business and connected with her big “Why”—the significant reason for devoting herself, her time and her energy to her business.

Reflect on the Value Your Business Brings

I asked Serina and I ask you right now to take the idea you walk around with as to why you are in business: for a better life, to keep busy, to be able to have financial security when you retire, to buy a house—whatever it is. Now make those ideas concrete and tangible.  For example, I said to Serina and I ask you, “What will happen when you do well in your direct selling business?” She said with a glint in her eye- “I will have money to send my children to private schools when they get a little older, I can cut down my hours at the bank and spend more time with them at home. Also, and perhaps most importantly, I will feel financially abundant and not have the money worries I have now.”
Write down all the tangible and specific ways your life will be different when you enjoy the direct selling success you desire. Review this list everyday.

Create Your Compelling Vision

Once you have that list, create an image in your mind that is so alluring and appealing that you will do whatever it takes to make it real. Here is why this is so important. We have three brains. The reptilian brain is the oldest, which unconsciously takes care of our physiological functions like breathing. The youngest brain is the neocortex brain, which understands language and does our conscious thinking, and the middle part of our brain is the mammilian brain which does not understand language, only pictures. This brain is also where our unconscious and our emotions live. When you have a goal and create a picture of what that achievement looks like in your mind you will also feel it in your body, thereby using all your brains—not just one or the other.

When I asked Serina what would be a picture, a snap shot of why she wants success in her business, she said, “I see myself dropping my kids off at grammar school, they are wearing their private school uniforms and laughing as they get out of my car. As I watch them enter the building I wave and drive off feeling so proud and happy that I am giving them and me a better life.”

Write out your scenario for why you want to do this business and everyday spend time with your vision—read it, see it in your mind and feel it in your body.

When you do this everyday it will create momentum for yourself and find the motivation to keep going. You now know your why and you won’t let anything or anyone sway you from it.

Have Your Best Busy Season

You know that 70% or more of the sales for many direct sellers happen between Labor Day and Christmas day.

Are you ready to have your best busy season yet? Listen to this podcast to set yourself up to have a thriving busy season:

http://www.directsalescoaching.com/teleclasses/BestBusySeason.mp3

Are You a Waiter or a Chef?

I have been waiting seven months for an exciting training program to be approved for continuing education by an association. I have been waiting eight months for non-profit status to come through for a charity I started last year, A Good Deed Tea http://www.agooddeedtea.org.

I am not waiting in the usual way. Metaphorically, I am not reading a magazine in the waiting room till my turn is called. I am right outside the door in the hall, where I will not disturb anyone, with my laptop, my cell phone and my planner whipping up a fury or other possibilities while moving projects forward and making deadlines, not waiting—never waiting.

How about you? Do you ever hear yourself say things will be better when? Or, I can’t do that—until I finish with this? Or are you waiting for summer to be over, or the fog to roll in, or a course to conclude before you really get going? If you do you may just be a waiter, like one in the restaurant, hanging out in the kitchen waiting for his dish to come up before it can be served.

Do not be a waiter. Be a chef—always seeking to discover a new way of preparation or a new ingredient that will allure the masses to taste a fresh and exciting gastronomic delight.

By the way, lately, I have been putting cinnamon on everything and just loving it. It is like I have discovered the spice for the first time. With a little innovation what is ordinary can be extraordinary again.

I live in San Francisco, a very foodie town. San Francisco has more restaurants per capita then anyplace else in the U.S. Here all the chefs go to the restaurants of other chefs to eat after they have completed their shifts. They watch each other work, share ideas, taste test and inspire their own creativity.

The great thing about experimenting with food is that you can spit something out if you do not like it. Business is different. Still, if something does not work, most of the time you are not stuck with it. Like when you burn a piece of toast—just throw it out and start again.

I have had to nudge many clients who were waiters, who were waiting till everything was all figured out or just right. You have heard it said: How you do one thing is how you do everything. Do you think that is true for you? If so, are you a waiter or a chef? Waiters wait, chefs create. I love being a chef! how about you? Reflect on this as you go through your day.

Skinned Knees are Easy to Hide

Here is the thing about being having your own business. You never know—I never know—what the future holds. Maybe that is true for any situation in life. Still, I do know one thing: I will always be just fine. Here is why I can say that. I know I will always keep moving.

“Fall down seven times, get up eight.”

-      Japanese proverb

That awesome quote describes me. How about you?

I am very future-focused. I rarely reflect on yesteryear and I never take enough time to celebrate my successes or rest after a big one. How about you? One of the reasons I love direct sales, is because the companies do such a great job at celebrating and recognition.

I am not sure if being future-focused is good or bad. One thing I do know for sure is that I do not focus on the past—on the things that did not work out. I don’t even want to call them failures, nor do I ever think of anything as a failure. Instead, it was just a project or idea that did not work out—like a book for entrepreneurs in Australia into which my team invested lots or research time and I invested several thousand dollars that never got off the ground. Or the two training programs I paid someone to develop from my speeches and writings that I have never done anything with, or that expensive marketing piece on which I spent countless hours and paid beaucoup bucks for that never even got out the door. So what. I can say “so what” because I always have more to-dos and ideas in motion—what I call my exciting projects.

“Fall down seven times, get up eight.”

-      Japanese proverb

That is why I love direct sales! Where else can you keep falling down and getting back up, love doing it, and never have to explain yourself to anyone? After all skinned knees are easy to hide. Where in your business is it time for you to risk a trip, stumble or fall?

If you think it is time to risk a skinned knee, here are a few steps to take you there:

1. Keep track of your good ideas and not so good ideas in one place. Like an idea journal or word file on your computer.
2. Take time every day for some thinking and planning— taking time to review what you have going on and let the ideas come in on how to do it better, more innovatively, faster, more profitably etc.
3. Make a commitment to regularly learn in whatever way you learn best. Learn about what others are doing in your industry, in other industries and reflect on how you can be inspired by what others are doing to enhance what you are doing.
4. Take action. Make a commitment to implement new ideas, plans and strategies on a regular basis. Some of them will turn into business breakthroughs.

In childhood, skinned knees are often considered a badge of honor—proof that you are playing full out. We could say the same about your business. Risk a skinned knee.

Perfect VS. Good—You Decide

French philosopher, Voltaire, is known for saying: “Le mieux est l’ennemi du bien,” which translates to “The perfect is the enemy of the good.” I think of this today as I edit several chapters for one of our upcoming books, Mompreneur Extraordinaire. There are times when perfect is necessary like when publishing words on the printed page. Although I have purchased and read books with typos and the sky did not fall nor did the publisher garner any criticism.

Perfect in most cases in your business is not a good ideal to pursue. Doing the best you can right now is.

I have worked with countless direct sellers who, before they met me, spent months working on their booking and recruiting talks or making a website or perfecting their display—all while having their businesses go nowhere. Fear and a pursuit of perfection are the culprit.

Here is what I tell my direct sales clients that I am also telling you: Instead of perfect, embrace what I call Phase 1, Phase 2 and Phase 3. Phase 1, is the just get it done. Phase 2, is the time when you incorporate upgrades, improvements and new innovations; and Phase 3 is when you feel it is in fact the best it can be.

People ask me all the time how I became a business speaker or a publisher—the answer is super simple. I started to speak and publish. If I waited till I was the best speaker I would still be waiting. If I waited till I knew everything about publishing I would still be waiting. Making yourself and your products or services better is in the doing and pursuing—not in the pre-education, the pre-release tweaking and the planning.

Look at your own direct sales business. Where are you waiting, or taking way too long to get something done, because you think you need more information, or you want to get it perfect before you take action on it? Instead, make a commitment to yourself to get it done in the next two days so you can start to make upgrades in Phase 2.

Do not get ready to get started to begin to plan a time when you will begin to get going. Just get going! Let me know how it goes.

By the way, with ten books printed or in production, plus the incredible training and co-author benefits we provide I do truly believe we are the best multi-author book publisher there is. Check us out at www.powerdynamicspub.com.

Which is it? Pick One and Stick To It. Always Be Easy to Find

When I married for the first time a couple of years ago, I was asked many times if I was going to change my name. My answer was always no. Not because I have proudly identified myself as a feminist since I was fourteen or because I am proud to be Italian-American and have an Italian last name, while my spouse’s is Irish. The reason is because by the time I finally tied the knot, I had already been in business for 15 years, and to change my name after working so hard to get my name out there for so long would have been a grave mistake- for me.

What brings this to mind today is I planned to tag a friend/client in a post on Facebook and she did not appear to be there. I finally found her after typing in her email address and learned that she is using her legal more formal name for her Facebook profile. Even though she is published under the shorter name and all her friends and clients know her by that shorter name.

Pick a name, one name, always spell it the same and use it everywhere. Be consistent. I even see people using a middle name or middle initial some places and other places not. I see women trying to use their married name for business and their maiden name for business- this no longer works. In this era or being able to find someone in an instant, it is important that you do not make it tough for people to locate you because they will quickly look to someone else and this can cost you business. Make a final decision, pick one and stick to it.

I know about this because I did legally and for business change my first name several years ago.

Let’s have some fun and give away a few prizes. Here is a Caterina trivia question: Can you tell me what my name used to be? Those of you that knew me before I was twenty are excluded from this. Your choice of a copy of one of our latest books from http://www.powerdynamicspub.com for the first three respondents that get it right.

To Friend or Not to Friend? That is the Question.

A lot of direct sellers have been asking me lately about friending on Facebook. They want to know who to friend and who not to friend and what to do when people you do not know personally ask to be your friend. Let’s talk about it.

Think of yourself as the admissions director to your own University of Facebook. You can only allow 5000 people to be accepted to your school. You want them to be the ones that most fit the kinds of students or friends you want. People that will be interested in the courses (your posts) and people that will most resonate with what the administration has to offer- your products and services.

To determine who is best suited for admission you need a strategy and a criteria. To create your strategy answer the following question.

Why are you on Facebook? For fun, to reconnect with your high school and college friends, to stay in touch with your team, to enroll more team members and hostesses? You are the only one who can answer this question.

2. Based on your answers for question #1 you can now create your criteria for who you let in your online network. If you know them personally and you like them –let them in. For people that you do not know personally they have to meet your criteria, meaning they fall into one of the groups of the kind of people you want to connect with. They are people that meet your hostess profile or your client profile or your team member profile. This will exclude people outside the country for most of you. This might exclude men for some of you.

This also means if you come across people you would like to add to your network you can friend them too. I suggest always including a note about why you would like to be their friend for a higher approval rating.

You can only let 5000 people into your exclusive network admit them wisely. Happy friending.

Seven Savvy Strategies to Make Your Business Thrive

Holly Chantal from the Streamlined Success Radio Show interviewed me about Seven Savvy Strategies to Make Your Business Thrive. During this show, you will learn how to: