The $25,000 Idea by Earl Nightingale: HABIT

The $25,000 Idea by Earl Nightingale

A goal sometimes seems so far off and our progress often appears to be so painfully slow that we have a tendency to lose heart. It sometimes seems we'll never make the grade. We come close to giving up—falling back into old habits, which, while they may be comfortable, lead to nowhere. Well, there's a way to overcome this inevitable barrier to success, and here is the secret: Every great achievement is nothing more than the collection of smaller achievements done to perfection. Even the "impossible" has been accomplished through the relentless pursuit of success, one day at a time.

Have you ever seen a bricklayer starting a new building by putting the first brick in place? You are struck by the size of the job he has ahead of him. But one day, almost before you realize it, he's finished. All the thousands of bricks are in place, each one vital to the finished structure, each one sharing its portion of the load. How did he do it? Simple: one brick at a time. And so is the pursuit of success and greatness.

A lifetime is composed of days, strung together into weeks, months, and years. A successful life is nothing more than a lot of successful days put together. As such, every day counts.

Just as a stone mason can put only one stone in place at a time, you can live only one day at a time. And it's the way in which these stones are placed that will determine the beauty, the strength of the tower. If each stone is successfully placed—with care and quality—the tower will be a success. If, on the other hand, they're put down in a hit-or-miss fashion—irrespective of quality—the whole tower is in danger. Seems simple. Yet, how many people do you know who live like this—focused on "just getting through" each day instead of on the "success" of each day. Which are you focused on?

The Habit of Success 
 Do each day all that can be done that day. You don't need to overwork or to rush blindly into your work trying to do the greatest possible number of things in the shortest possible time. Don't try to do tomorrow's or next week's work today. It's not the number of things you do, but the quality, the efficiency of each separate action that counts.

To achieve this "habit of success," you need only to focus on the most important tasks and succeed in each small task of each day. Enough of these and you have a successful week, month, year, and lifetime. Success is not a matter of luck. It can be predicted and guaranteed, and anyone can achieve it by following this plan.

But most people live a life of quiet mediocrity and never achieve the success they truly desire because they get impatient. They want easy success or none at all. They see the path to success as a frustration, an impediment. Each day spent short of the ultimate goal is viewed as a time of failure and as an annoyance. As such, they get distracted by hundreds of little things that each day try to get us off our course. Yet the successful among us know the truth: If the end goal is all we desire, we simply cannot put in the time and effort it takes to be a success when it counts—each day—and therefore cannot lay the foundation for tomorrow's success.

Pay no attention to petty distractions. Enjoy the easy days and shake off the bad days. Stay steadily on your track. Concentrate on each task of the day from morning to night and do each as successfully as you can. Know full well that if each of your tasks is performed successfully, or at least the greater majority of them, your life must be successful.

The $25,000 Idea 
 Now how do we separate the important tasks from the unimportant? Did you ever hear of the single idea for which a man was paid $25,000? And it was worth every penny of it. The story goes that the president of a big steel company had granted an interview to an efficiency expert named Ivy Lee. Lee was telling his prospective client how he could help him do a better job of managing the company, when the president broke in to say something to the effect that he wasn't at present managing as well as he knew how. He went on to tell Ivy Lee that what was needed wasn't more knowing but a lot more doing. He said, "We know what we should be doing. Now if you can show us a better way of getting it done, I'll listen to you and pay you anything within reason you ask."

Well, Lee then said that he could give him something in 20 minutes that would increase his efficiency by at least 50 percent. He then handed the executive a blank sheet of paper and said, "Write down on this paper the six most important things you have to do tomorrow." Well, the executive thought about it and did as requested. It took him about three or four minutes.

Then Lee said, "Now number those items in the order of their importance to you or to the company." Well, that took another three or four or five minutes, and then Lee said, "Now put the paper in your pocket. And the first thing tomorrow morning take it out and look at item number one. Don't look at the others, just number one, and start working on it. And if you can, stay with it until it's completed. Then take item number two the same way, then number three, and so on, till you have to quit for the day.

"Don't worry if you've only finished one or two; the others can wait. If you can't finish them all by this method, you could not have finished them with any other method. And without some system, you'd probably take 10 times as long to finish them and might not even have them in the order of their importance.

"Do this every working day," Lee went on. "After you've convinced yourself of the value of this system, have your people try it. Try it as long as you like. And then send me your check for whatever you think the idea is worth."

The entire interview hadn't taken more than a half-hour. In a few weeks the story has it that the company president sent Ivy Lee a check for $25,000 with a letter saying the lesson was the most profitable, from a money standpoint, he'd ever learned in his life. And it was later said that in five years this was the plan that was largely responsible for turning what was then a little-known steel company into one of the biggest independent steel producers in the world. One idea, the idea of taking things one at a time in their proper order. Of staying with one task until it's successfully completed before going on to the next.

For the next seven days try the $25,000 idea in your life. Tonight write down the six most important things you have to do. Then number them in the order of their importance. And tomorrow morning, go to work on number one. Stay with it till it's successfully completed, and then move on to number two, and so on. When you've finished with all six, get another piece of paper and repeat the process. You'll be astonished and delighted at the order it brings into your life and at the rate of speed with which you'll be able to accomplish the things that need doing in the order of their importance. This simple but tremendously effective method will take all the confusion out of your life. You'll never find yourself running around in circles wondering what to do next.

The reason for writing down what you consider only the most important things to do is obvious. Handling each task during the day successfully is important to the degree of the importance of the tasks themselves. Doing a lot of unnecessary things successfully can be pretty much a waste of time. Make certain that the tasks you take the time to do efficiently are important tasks, tasks that move you ahead steadily toward your goal.

Remember that you need not worry about tomorrow or the next day or what's going to happen at the end of the month. One day at a time, handled successfully, will carry you over every hurdle. It will solve every problem. You can relax in the happy knowledge that successful tasks make successful days, which in turn build a successful life. This is the kind of unassailable logic no one can argue with. It will work every time for every person.

Become a Superstar Writer

Writing is a Challenge, not a Chore

Ever noticed that some blogs or articles read so much better than others? Some are a chore to read, while others are a pleasure. The same applies to emails and letters.

So what's the secret to writing with impact?

Well, I like to credit my writing in the Tribune to the fantastic editors that work tirelessly behind the scenes to make my stream of words sensible; however, there are a multitude of ways to improve your writing. Here are eight of them.

I challenge you to go through your website and look at your content in light of these rules. Fixing any issues may just make a big difference to your conversion rate.

Write When the Urge Hits

If you speak to professional writers, they'll tell you that they sit down for a full day every day and write those articles. The rest of us aren't that lucky. I find that I can only really write well when I'm in the mood. Sure, I can write even when I'd rather not be; however, I'm sure it shows when it's forced.

Know when you're in the zone to write and when you're not. Choosing to write when you're up to it will improve most people's writing considerably.

Simplicity is Key

Just like a new designer who uses ten typefaces on a simple graphic, many new writers believe they need to use complex words to look smart.

All that does is make your writing hard to read. It's okay to use a thesaurus to vary your word usage, but don't forsake a good, descriptive word for a more difficult one.

Avoid Verbosity

If you can take a word out without changing the meaning of the sentence, do it. Take this sentence, for example: what unnecessary words could you possibly remove? Let's try that again now. Take this sentence, for example: what words could you remove?

Notice the difference? Brevity, especially in business communications, is like a breath of fresh air. Readers will appreciate you for it.

Write Concise Sentences

Once you've written your piece, read it aloud. You should be able to read a sentence without gasping for breath. In business writing, people prefer shorter sentences. So as well as removing unnecessary words, aim for concise writing.

Keep Paragraphs Compact

People tend to scan websites, rather than read from top to bottom like they do with a newspaper. If you're writing for the Web, limit the length of your paragraphs, and your readers will keep coming back for more.

Use an Active Voice

This is not about exercising your vocal cords. Active sentence construction uses more direct language than its passive cousin, with stronger verbs that inject energy into the action. Compare the following:

• The website was built by me.
• I built the website.

In the first sentence, the subject is the website, which is being acted upon; it's in the passive voice. In the second sentence, I'm the subject that performs the action. Sometimes it's a case of what needs to be emphasized, but more often the directness of active construction is preferable for clear English. Not only is the sentence now shorter, it's punchier and reads better.

Spell-check, Spell-check, and then Spell-check

There is nothing worse than seeing spelling errors in business communications. I've lost count of the number of times I've watched a presentation with errors in the slides, or lost confidence in a business because their website is littered with misspellings.

Sure, use your spell-check software, but beware of homophones, when a correctly spelled word is placed in the wrong spot; for example, two, too, and to. Read it again slowly, and even ask a colleague to read it, if that helps.

Keep on Writing

The more you write, the more you'll improve. I find that regular writing does more for me than reading books on editing and the like. Warm up by writing a short piece, and then tackle the bigger jobs. Before you know it, you'll find yourself writing better without the agony.

Best of luck adopting these rules, and embracing writing as a challenge not a chore. With a little preparation and forethought, you'll be crafting better content and correspondence in no time at all!

Five instant conversation starters

Five instant conversation starters

Whether you're new to the Network Marketing business, or have been doing it for decades, approaching a complete stranger with hopes of signing them up can sometimes be a tricky proposition. For one thing, cultural differences could mean that some seemingly ordinary topics may be taboo to other people. Or, in some cases, the person you are thinking of approaching simply wants some alone time and may not be in a chatty mood.

One rule of thumb in salesmanship is to make your prospect want what you are offering. In the case of meeting a stranger, the idea is to make them want to talk to you. This way, your approach has less risk of being considered invasive. But how do you make a complete stranger want to talk to you when you're the one who approached them in the first place? The answer is in the topic of the conversation—you throw in a good topic, and let them do the talking.

Here are five universally good conversation topics that are almost sure to get anyone talking, whether you're meeting them for the first time, or have known them for quite a while. For most of these, the clues can be found all over the person—in the clothes they wear, the accessories they have, and in other subtle clues. All you have to do is observe the details, and then decide which topic has the best chance of starting an animated conversation.

• Family. Say your prospect is in the company of at least one adult and a few kids; they seem to be a family. In a case like this, asking your prospect about his or her family is likely to get them sharing information with you proudly. Make a positive comment about one of the kids; ask about the kids' names and ages; ask them if they frequently go out as a family; ask them what it's like to be living with such wonderful people... the list of questions can go on. And even if the adult and kids are not your prospect's family, the bottom line is any person who loves his family will almost always be more than willing to spend a few minutes talking about it, even to a total stranger.
• Food. Everybody eats. So regardless of a person's background, food is always a topic that he would know something about. In fact, this is one of the topics that work best for prospects who come from exotic places. If your prospect happens to be having a meal or a snack, politely ask him how his food is, and say that you are thinking of ordering the same thing. Chances are he would be more than eager to tell you his comments—whether good or bad. Once this happens, it will be only too easy for you to carry on the conversation by asking what foods he likes, if he cooks, and so on.
• Sports . Most public places like bars and restaurants are likely to have television screens showing sports programs. If you happen to find yourself prospecting in such a place, look around for people, whether alone or with a group, who are glued to the television set, intently watching the game. The more passionate they are about the game, the better. Simply approach them politely and ask them something about the game—what's the score, who is winning, whether the game is live or a rerun, and so on. Of course, it always helps if you yourself know enough about the sport. But even if you didn't, simply expressing an interest in knowing more about the sport is usually enough to get a fanatic talking for hours.
• Music. Music is all around us—literally. Nowadays, it's typical for anything from a train station to a building lobby to have some piped-in music to keep people from getting bored. So if you spot a prospect in a place where there's music playing, make a comment about the song being played, or ask them if they know the title of the song. It doesn't matter whether they actually know the song or not, or if they even like the song being played. Your approach could very easily graduate to a conversation about your prospect's musical preferences. And if you're lucky, you might even chance upon a prospect who likes the same music as you, in which case you've got yourself a lasting friendship in the works!
• Directions. It's hard to imagine a person who would not take at least a few seconds to give directions to a lost stranger. This is why asking for directions is about the most effective conversation starter. Simply approach a prospect and ask if they're familiar with the area, and ask how to get to a certain place. If they happen to know the way, then you're on your way to a fruitful conversation. If they're not, then you can follow-up by asking them where they are from, or why they are here. With a little luck, you could soon find yourself discussing the person's business, lifestyle and other matters—all of which could at any moment open the door to making a quick broad-stroke presentation of the opportunity that is Network Marketing.

 

Human beings are social creatures by nature. We inherently love sharing our thoughts, feelings, likes, dislikes, and other things in our minds and hearts. The key in successfully starting a conversation is finding that sweet spot that will get a complete stranger to willingly share what he has to say. And with these universal conversation starters, you stand a good chance of actually hitting that sweet spot.

How to Not Suck at a Group Presentation

by MARK SUSTER on JANUARY 31, 2010

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Most people suck at presenting to big groups.  It's a shame because the ability to nail these presentations at key conferences can be once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to influence journalists, business partners, potential employees, customers and VCs.

So I thought I'd write a piece on how to not suck when you give a presentation.

1. Show some energy! – No great presentation can be delivered like a conversation.  You're not lecturing to a college class, you're not at a cocktail party and you're not chatting with a small group in a board meeting.  You're on stage!  People are sitting in their chairs for too long – most of them squirming.  Many of them have their iPhones and laptops ready to command their attention the moment that you start sucking.  You're on stage – act like it!  Get out of your comfort zone.  You need to be an order of magnitude more perky than you would feel comfortable with in a normal conversation.

Project your voice.  Use your hands.  Don't mumble.  Speak quickly sometimes.  Speak slowly to emphasize a point.  This is called "vocal variety" and it's critical.  Speaking in a monotone voice is, well, monotonous.  A friend of mine once said about public speaking, "it's far more interesting to the audience if you're loud and evocative than if you're actually making great points."  This is so true.  Even better when you're: loud, evocative and have compelling content.

If this isn't naturally you then you need to learn it.  Go join your local Toastmasters.  It's the best way to learn.  It's how I did.  Or take an acting class.  No joke.  If you care about being a compelling presenter you need to work on it if it doesn't already come naturally.

2. Tell a story – Every great presentation tells a story.  Stories have starts, middles and ends.  They are human and touch emotions.  The bring your product to life.  They are not buzzwords or bullet points.  Why do people think that buzzwords are going to interest audiences?

I always tell people that if you're not creative in how you tell stories the simplest way to do so is by telling "a day in the life" of your potential user.  Establish the persona of the person who would be using your products.  Help us to get to know him or her.  Tell us what their life is like without your product – how they struggle.  Tell us about the breakthrough they'll have when they're using your product.

NEVER lead with features.  No one gives a shite about your features other than your product manager and your developers.  If you demo your product (which is always great) then tell us part of the story while you're demo'ing.  Talk us through how the person using your product is benefiting through your technology.  Don't: show us every single feature – we don't care.  Don't: tell us, "and now I enter my name, and then I put in my email address, and then I can pull in my social graph through Facebook Connect, and then then I can select the button here to Tweet out my actions on Twitter."  Zzzzzzzzz.

3. Learn how to structure – Telling a story is one thing.  But make sure that you're structured in the way you communicate.  You need to break down your message into key components.  It is generally best if you have a "theme" or "thesis" which if the main point you want to get across.  You then need sub-themes or "supporting evidence" to reinforce your key theme.  These are weaved through your story.

If you're not naturally talented at good, logical structures you may consider purchasing The Pyramid Principle by Barbara Minto.  She wrote the book that inspired the way that people at McKinsey and Accenture do presentations.  OK, hold back on your consulting humor.  But seriously her book is spot on.

3. Know your audience - I always try to find out something about the audience before I present.  I recently spoke at the business school at UCSD.  Before the event I wanted to find out what I could about the students.  I found out that they were older than most typical MBA programs.  They had more advanced degrees.  50% of them were interested in life sciences, 50% in tech (e.g. much more focused on life sciences than most audiences where I present).

I was the keynote for a dinner.  I walked around to a few tables and I asked students what would interest them.  I spotted my fellow VC Leo Spiegel (from Mission Ventures) who had spoken previously to the same group and asked about his experiences.

My choices – talk about the VC industry and where it is heading (which is what the dean asked me to cover), talk about how to start companies (which is partly what Lada Rasochova, the director of the entrepreneurship program asked me to cover), talk about how to get into VC (which a few students asked me to cover) or give advice on what the Rady School's venture fund should think about when investing (the event was a kick off for this new fund).

My constituencies were broad and I felt like going deep into one single area would have bored large groups of the people on any topic I picked.  So I decided at the last minute to do a very quick & punchy version of all of them.  I had prepared notes in advance for any of the topics because I felt so confused before coming on my remit.  I think (?) it went down pretty well.  Usually you can tell when it does and when it doesn't.

I also sometimes start a speech by asked for people to raise their hands if they fit a certain demographic.  "Raise your hand if you're an entrepreneur, raise your hand if you plan to raise venture capital in the next year, raise your hand if you're a service provider to the startup industry," etc.  I can then change my focus based on the results.  But ONLY do this if you plan to adjust your approach.  If you don't think you're skilled enough to do it then asking my make you more nervous at the last minute than you need to be.  Also, asking is not appropriate at a marquee conferences like TechCrunch50, DEMO, Twiistup and the like.

4. Be unique / memorable – The stand out presentation at the last Twiistup event was Geodelicevidenced by their winning the "audience award" for best presentation.  The CEO, Rahul Sonnad, played the ukulele and sang a song about what their product did.  He did a great parody of a heavy Indian accent.  They had slides with moving images and music.  They planted fake questions in the audience with Geodelic team members posing as normal audience members shouting out something like, "can't you just tell us what this means in normal words?"

OK, it was WAY over the top and I don't recommend it for most people.  Rahul and Co. obviously have a great sense of humor and pulled it off.  But for you it is worth thinking about what you can do in more humble ways to be unique – memorable.  Remember that at many of these shows you'll be up against 9 or 10 other companies that have also been selected (or in the case of TC50 – 49 other companies!).  They all start to blend together.  Do SOMETHING that makes you stand out.  For almost everybody – DO NOT attempt humor.  If you're not already the funniest person you know in social situations you're not likely to be funny on stage.  Nothing is worse than bombing at jokes on stage.

5. KISS – (keep it simple, stupid) The goal of the presentation is just to give the audience a basic sense of what you do and why it matters.  Don't confuse this with a tour-de-force education on the finer details of how your company operations.  They simply need to know: who has a problem? how are you solving this problem? why does this matter? how big of a problem is it – really?

So I recommend that you GREATLY simplify your message.  The conventional wisdom is that the audience can only remember 3 simple things about any presentation 10 minutes after they've seen it.  I think 3 might be an exaggeration.  You're there to leave an impression – not to educate.  It's OK to throw in some facts & figures that people won't remember because giving people numbers helps them understand the magnitude of the problem you're solving.

6. Summarize – The old line about presenting was, "tell us what you're going to tell us, tell us and then tell us what you told us."  If you literally do this it will be very boring.  But the core idea is right.  If you want the audience to remember what you covered you need to be slightly repetitive with your key take-away message.  I like to have an "anchor line" which is my big take-away point and have it repeated three times throughout the presentation.

Example: you're a fitness tracking company like FitOrbit.  You might say early on, "75% of Americans are overweight.  They've tried diet plans but nothing works.  In fact, they spent $2.4 billion on such plans last year.  You manage what you measure so the key to solving the problem is getting people used to tracking their performance.  You need to make it easy.  We're offering an online community that connects personal trainers and people who want to get fit."  Then you go deeper into the problem and the solution.  You remind people that it's a big industry and people need to get online and track their eating and fitness to be successful.  Connecting to a trainer helps keep you in line.

Closing line: "FitOrbit is an online community for the $2.4 billion diet & fitness industry that connects people who want to be in better shape with trainers who can help them online.  Remember, you only manage what you measure."

All numbers above made up.  Actual lines used are not from FitOrbit, they're from me just for an example.  The point is – you need to revisit your key theme repeatedly for it to stick and you NEED to close with it.  Don't make the audience think too hard – spoon feed them.

7. Make it visual – Bullet point were the worst thing ever created for group presentations.  Nobody wants to read your text on a big screen.  If you're going to do that why not just print out your presentation and leave it on my seat.  Far more expedient.  You presentation should have almost no bullet points.  The way to capture an audience's attention is visually.  Pictures set the image, your voice tells what would have been in the bullet points.

You need to memorize what you're going to say when each image comes up.  If you wants some words to support the image – fine.  But make them sparse and make the B-I-G!  If you really get nervous and are afraid you'll forget your lines have one 3X5 cue card in your hands for each slide.  Don't write sentences on the – only key words to help you remember what you're going to say.

One strategy I often employ.  I often do two versions of my presentations – one that has mostly images and one with a lot of supporting text.  I use the latter if I send out the deck after the presentation.  Sending out a follow up deck with a lot of images is silly – no one remembers the "meat."  But writing lots of words on a slide you put up on a big screen so that later people will be able to understand what you said is also suboptimal.  My dual approach solves both needs.

8. For fawk sake, practice! – It was clear many of the people who presented at Twiistup's Pre-Demo Night hadn't practiced enough.  It is not sufficient to write yourself notes and read them before hand.  You actually need to do a dry run in front of friends, colleagues and others.  People don't like to do this because it feels funny "pretending" to deliver a presentation.  That's not you.  You're going to read out your points like it is for real.  You're not going to stop and go out of character and say, "oh, that didn't sound right.  I'm gonna do this page over from the start."  You wouldn't say that on stage.

There is only one way to know how your presentation will go – to do it in advance.  Get real feedback from your listeners.  Ask them to be harsh.  Better that you know now than in front of 300 people.

9. Stick to your fracking time – If you've been given 6 minutes then plan a presentation that can be done in 5.  Trust me – whatever amount of time you've gone over in practice it will be longer when you're on stage.  And if you're done a minute early – bravo!  The audience will love you.  The best way to manage to a time is: a) practice with a stop watch and b) have less slides than you think you'll need.  There is nothing worse than a presentation that runs over the end of the allotted time.  Oh wait, there is.  A presentation that is CUT OFF because it ran long.  And you don't get to finish your points or summarize at the end.  Don't be this person.

10. Have a "Plan B" – the show must go on –  At many, many events I've been to – there are times when you have technical difficulties.  The show must go on.  Have a plan b that you can fall back on.  Where you planning to demo?  Fine, but if it isn't working you need to call an audible.  If it's a really important show there's an easy solution.  Have a PowerPoint deck with screen shots that you can walk through.  Simply say, "Obviously I preferred to do a live demo but I have a deck with screen shots just in case this happened.  Whew."

11. Have someone else drive the demo – Don't try to be super human.  Have somebody else drive the demo.  There's nothing worse than the presenter constantly stopping their speaking to concentrate on typing text, clicking on tabs or futzing with the computer.  Have another person that drives the demo.  There actions need to be scripted so that you know exactly what's going to happen.  They obviously need to practice just as much as you do.  If they do something out of sequence don't hesitate to politely instruct them.  Tell them in advance to listen for your cues in case this happens.

Some final "no no's"

- "how's everybody doing today?" – lots of people start with stupid chatter like that at the start of their presentations.  It adds nothing.  You're not a comedian warming up the audience.  Get right down to business.  I hate time wasters at the start of a presentation.  You're already trying to stick to a rigid time plan.

- how many of you "X"? – OK, I already said above that you can ask if people are entrepreneurs, investors, etc.  But please don't say things like "how many of you have ever had problems with Outlook?" or "How many of you are frustrated with Facebook?" or some similar line to prove your point.  You never know how the audience will react.  If you don't get the response you expect it ruins your tempo and the audience will start to question your premise.  The risks outweigh the benefits.

- don't turn around and read the screen – ooooh.  Big pet peeve.  If you don't put up bullet points this will never happen to you!  But it looks really stupid PLUS your voice projects in the wrong direction.  Many, many people make this mistake.  Yuck.

- never say, "I know this slide is really busy and hard to read" – if it's so busy and hard to read then WTF did you put it in your deck?  Are you a moron?  If you practiced you sure would realize that nobody could read it.  People say this all the time.  I cringe when I see it happen.  It definitely is an IQ test thing for me.

SOCIAL MEDIA: 10 COMMUNICATION QUALITIES for Status updates

10 COMMUNICATION QUALITIES

1. Be interested in the prospect. (Are you interested in really connecting with people, or do you spend most of your time spamming your opportunity on other peoples' profiles?)

2. Do not be distracted by anything. (How many hours each day do you waste by playing "Farmville"?)

3. Have a sincere, friendly facial expression. (What does your profile picture look like? Does it represent who you are?)

4. Use the correct amount of assertiveness. (This means not being too pushy or too laid back when communicating with people.)

5. Communicate easily - no tension, strain, fakeness, sounding rehearsed, stuttering or hesitating. (Just be yourself!)

6. Make sure your body doesn't distract the prospect. (Your prospect doesn't want to see photos of your pet or you in the 2nd grade as your main profile photo.)

7. Tell the truth. (No hype. Be honest and transparent with people, but be professional. Prospects probably aren't interested in hearing about your horrible day, but they do want to hear things that are positive and inspiring!)

8. Know what you're talking about. (Provide valuable information that people care about.)

9. Communicate at the prospect's level of understanding. (Make sure you use short, easy to understand words in your status updates.)

10. Have the intention to make the person's life better. (Are you using social media to give and provide value or are you using it just to get something?)

Why TEAMWORK is important!!!

Why is Teamwork Important in our Business?

Achieving Goals
It is a widely understood concept, that united we stand and divided we fall. Same is in the case of a team in a business. Collective team activities are very important if the company or a process wants to reach its goal. There are some tasks that cannot be done individually, but can be easily accomplished by working in a team.

Increasing Individual Learning
In simple terms, a team is a group of people who have come together for achieving a common objective. Therefore, in a group of people, there are many intelligent minds and brains working. When team members work together as a team, they can learn the skills and capabilities of each other and advance their knowledge. This certainly can be beneficial in your professional as well as personal life.

Resolving Conflicts
There are many types of conflicts that may arise in the team, which may in turn have an adverse effect on the collective output. In order to resolve business conflicts; the knowledge, understanding and expertise can be used efficiently for determining solutions to the problems. This significantly helps the business to grow.

Good Communication
Communication is an inevitably important factor in teamwork.. When downlines / crosslines work in a team(With Protocol), they are able to pass on their ideas clearly. This rules out the possibilities of miscommunication due to complex hierarchy in the team. And due to ideas and concepts passed clearly, there is no scope for misunderstanding.

Generating New Business Improvement Ideas
If an Upline encourages team members to participate in collective decision making... he will be able to reach a good strategy by considering views and suggestions from all members. The business can also think of incorporating ideas suggested by the team members. Downlines participation in the discussion is a very effective tool in meliorating business strategies.