Keep your hat on straight and your lenses clear! by Melyn Campbell

Women are typically better connectors than men, but men can be better at the building basics. When you can incorporate both – Katie bar the door! I just got back from a two week tour in Europe. I was able to visit with hundreds of distributors who wanted to know “my story” and gain some advice for success. My theme to them is my theme to you:

“Keep your hat on straight, and your lenses clear.”

Let me explain. My first job was working in the local cemetery. I mowed the lawns and trimmed the headstones. It was great to be working outside. On the first day that a gravesite needed to be prepared, I was really excited because I knew they used a back-hoe to dig the hole. Then I found out I wasn’t old enough to run the tractor – bummer! So my job was to jump in the hole and square out the corners. As I stood there in the hole with the ground up to my nose, I realized this was not a long-term plan for me. NULL So I worked my way through college earning a Finance Degree with minors in Statistics, Accounting and Economics. I became a banker. As I moved up the ladder, I was hired for a two-opening position the same day as a male counterpart. I had banking experience, he had none. I was single, he had a family. I looked on his hire sheet as he sat next to me during orientation; his salary was 50% more than mine. Ouch! I thought maybe I was missing something, so I started the position anyway with a competition against this guy in mind. And compete I did. On my first evaluation, I felt confident going into my boss’s office knowing I had aced my “competition”. In fact, I felt I deserved to at least match my losing opponent’s salary. So, I mentioned to my boss that I was aware of the salary discrepancy and that I felt my performance warranted an equalization of pay. I was met only with a scolding for my curious eyes and a warning that I could be fired for knowing such sensitive information. Now, I am no spring chicken, but I didn’t burn my bras either. I thought for sure my generation was past this inequality. Wrong! I needed the job, but, I mentally checked out like 40% of most workers, and set my mind to find a better way. I decided to become a stockbroker because the pay was straight commission. I felt that was my best chance to find equal pay, and to also get ahead financially. No more of this “trading time for money.” If I worked smart, I would get paid for it! And I did. But, I always had to be there when the markets were open so I could trade my clients’ portfolios. I soon realized that if I wasn’t working, I didn’t get paid. If I took a vacation, my paycheck took one, too! I was making great money, but I was trapped. So, I decided that I needed to leverage myself so I could get away. I opened up my own consulting business helping others with business and marketing plans. I soon grew to over 20 employees thinking the more I had working for me, the more leverage I would gain. Then, one day, the toilet broke in the office. Although my business card had “President” under my name, it may as well have had “Janitor” because I became one that day. When my employees were unhappy or not getting along, I became the babysitter. I was the first one in, and usually the last one to leave. And although I could leave the office for a vacation, the office never left me. Through all this experience, I had been approached many times about Network Marketing, but I had certain notions about the industry. I also never really felt they were interested in me as much as they were my contact base. But one day, a friend of mine invited me to talk to his sponsor about an opportunity he had just joined. His sponsor was someone I knew and respected. His approach was about me first, then how his business could make my life better.

Because I knew my friend and respected his upline, I stopped long enough to really take a look. That “look” changed my life.

I started in 1992 and by 1996 I sold my business and went full-time. But that’s not even the fairy-tale. The man, whom I respected, eventually proposed to me in 2004 on top of the Eiffel Tower! (before Tom Cruise got the same idea… ) We are still “gooey-weds” and hope to stay that way! Now I am not an overnight success story in Network Marketing. When I first started, I wasn’t very coachable. My biggest downfall was that I felt my prior successes in traditional business put me in the driver’s seat for success in my network marketing business. So I didn’t need to follow my upline’s advice because I had a professional plan.

I became more and more humbled seeing success in people from all walks of life that followed their successful upline.

Make a list? Use the tools? Do 3-way calls? How could such simple steps create success? Finally, I fell in line. When I was in second grade, I had to get glasses. Of course, I got called four-eyes, and the cute boys didn’t chase me at kissing-tag during recess. In her wisdom, my grandmother would always say “keep your lenses clear” as she taught me 3 rules for a clear perspective on life. I found these rules extremely helpful in building my networking business as I plugged-in to those simple steps:

1. Expect the Best

2. Prepare for the Worst

3. See “What is”

Let me share some of those simple steps with my grandmother’s advice attached. Recruit Yourself “What do you mean recruit myself? I signed up didn’t I?” I found it goes much deeper than that.

You have to know “why” you are signed up.

What do you expect? Set goals, write them down – Expect the Best! Let me try an experiment: I want you to think of your monthly income goal you have set for your business. Do you have one? Are you thinking of it? Now let me ask you another question… Why did you stop there? I find that especially as women, we often cut ourselves short when it comes to expectation. I could write a whole article on my belief as to why, but all I really need to share with you is that my grandmother’s rule helped me jump over that hurdle.

If, after you set your expectations for the best, you then prepare for the worst, you won’t have to worry about the “what If’s”.

My CPA told me that “Worry is like paying interest on money you haven’t borrowed yet.” Isn’t that the truth? What is the worst that can happen? “Prepare for the Worst” and move on! For me the worst was to stay in my current situation as President, Janitor and Babysitter. That was enough “worst” to motivate me into this business! Don’t forget to… See “What is.” This, too, is very helpful. When I train someone, I will ask them for their financial goal. Often they will give me a very lofty goal (2 to 10, or 40 times their current earnings) which I love. Then I will proceed to ask them what their time and energy commitments will be toward this goal. Some will let me know how busy they are. They have to work their regular full-time job; they have family schedules, and church or community obligations. Therefore, they have only one or two hours per week that they can devote to their Networking Business. See “what is!”

Although the opportunity to create wealth truly exists in this industry, you must match your energy with your goal.

In fact, in the beginning, my energy exceeded my return. I felt grossly underpaid! I had to get the train engine rolling. In time, my energy began matching my return. In fact, I sold my traditional business and went full-time in my Network Marketing business. And now… well let’s just say I don’t know of anything my husband and I could put our energy into that will give us the return we are getting! Start Contacting Now In order to invite people to this business, you have to make a list – a really BIG list. This was another one of my downfalls. At first I didn’t even make a list. I had bigger “marketing” plans. Then when I did make a list, I only added the people that I thought would joi
n me. Why should I put people on the list I knew would say “no?” Big mistake… HUGE! How do you really know? Because my list was so small, I ran out of people before I got enough yeses. I wanted to blame the system, or the whole “list” thing, or my upline, or network marketing… anything but me and my short list!

Once you start contacting, Expect the Best! Doing so will bring your enthusiasm to the table.