Whether it is nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them.î

– William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act III, Scene i (58-90)

Hamlet may not have been talking about network marketing, but his words do apply. Almost every network marketer has experienced the ìslings and arrowsî of the naysayers, those often well-meaning friends and relatives that stand in the way of our making an ìoutrageous fortune!î Experienced network marketers, clothed in the armor of past success, are less vulnerable to outside influences. The new distributor, however, is vulnerable, and that ìsea of troublesî can act as a barrier to reaching their true potential.

What did the knights of old do to prevent an injury? Thatís right ñ they armed themselves. Their armor was heavy and cumbersome, and they needed a squire to help them prepare for battle. Well, the same is true for your new distributors. While the armor they must use is less cumbersome than that of the knights, you must help them arm themselves for success. In other words, you must be their squire.

What do I mean by arming for success?

When a new distributor joins your network marketing organization, they are moving into an environment that demands strong armor. There are a lot of ìslings and arrowsî that can hurt their chances for success and create a sea of troubles — of doubt, disbelief, even failure.

As Rich Dad, Poor Dad author Robert T. Kiyosaki points out, most people in this world are afraid to experience success. They are held back by negative thinking, and consequently suffer the pain of mediocrity. Because they have not been armed for success, and are more focused on security and survival, they subject themselves to a life of servitude and poverty and being someone elseís employee.

Arm your new distributors from negative thinking and potential disaster. How? By understanding why so many people are negative about network marketing and the prospects of the success it can bring.

Letís face it. There are a lot of people out there that do not want you to become successful. When you are successful, you point out the lack of success in their lives. When you take away any excuses theyíve been hanging onto and you force them to look at their lives as they really are, it makes them very uncomfortable. Youíve heard of the expression ìMisery loves company.î Well, itís true.

Doug Firebaugh, network marketing guru, calls it the “Unspoken Understanding,” which is simply the silent agreement that most people have with each other, namely ìdon’t mention my mediocre life, and I won’t mention yours.î Your success and the success of your new distributors, just points out the naysayersí mediocrity.

Leaders help others. If you are going to be successful in network marketing, you must arm your new distributors against people who will try to convince them their business won’t work. Show your downline you want them to be successful. Encourage them. Show them how the most successful network marketers have achieved their success, and teach them to model those attitudes, habits, and actions. Remind your distributors that they are the CEO of their lives. Arm them with the power of positive thinking so they donít let others live their lives for them with their negative attitudes.

To paraphrase Hamlet, by opposing negative thoughts, we end them.

Forums, groups, boards, and loops; theyíre all synonymous for online locations facilitating online networking. Some are entirely public, where everyone and anyone can click to the URL, read the messages and if they have no interest in contributing, they can just lurk. Some require active participation and others require registration before members can participate. These online forums, groups, boards or loops are different from paid membership sites in that there is no cost to network at these websites.

Some are active, some are sleepy. Some are strictly for online business related topics; some allow more OT (Off Topics) and social interaction. There are forums for every imaginable topic: Entrepreneurs, International online business, Health related fields, Technology, Copywriters, Web Designers, Work at Home Moms, Programmers, Finance, Ebay, Job Seekers, Internet Marketing, Writers, Inventors and Virtual Assistants, just to barely scratch the surface of whatís out there on the World Wide Web.

Time management skills need to be paramount when participating in online forums. You can very easily get swallowed up and spend hours and hours online networking with others who have online businesses, yet you miss real opportunities to get some productive work done!

From a online business standpoint, there are two areas you should consider before participating in a loop. Itís always good to have a network of like-minded online business people. If youíre a web designer, hang out with other designers. You can help and support each other. If youíre just starting out, you can learn from the pros.

Donít get stuck though, just hanging out with your own kind. Youíre not going to be very successful trying to promote your design services to other designers. This is where balance comes in. Pop into the boards, check new posts of interest, ask or answer questions, then get out. Then move onto groups who need your services or products. Who is your target market and where do they hang out? Go there. Word of caution: Do not go to these forums with the sole purpose of SPAMMING the group. Youíll be tossed out on your ear quicker than you can blink if that is your sole purpose. People like to do business with people they know and trust ñ or at the very minimum have at least heard of.

If youíre trying to sell your curriculum to a group of home school parents and you just pop in, spew your sales rap all over the boards then expect any sort of return, youíre missing the point of online networking. Itís networking ñ not advertising. You need to build a rapport with your other ìloopiesî. Then if a need arises and they know one of their own fellow networkers has that special skill or product, guess who theyíll call first? You hope itís YOU.

For starters check MSN, Google, Yahoo, AOL, and Ryze. Inside there are literally hundreds and thousands of groups just waiting for you. Start networking your way to online business success today!

In my mind, small talk basically consists of 3 phases:
<ol><li>The ice breaker</li>
<li>Get to know you better</li>
<li>Graceful exit</li>
</ol>So letís go ahead and briefly touch on each phase and in turn give you some concrete takeaway strategies that you can apply immediately for each.

<b>Phase 1: The Ice Breaker</b>
So you attend a networking eventÖ you make eye contact with someone you want to meet, you approach them and introduce yourselfÖ now what?

Well having a few powerful, open-ended ice breaker questions should certainly do the trick. For example:
<ul><li>A tried and true ice breaker is the proverbial, ìSo Jeff, what do you do?î In other words ìJeff, what business are you in? Now people love talking about themselves and their business so the idea here is to get them started talking. Most people also love to hear the sound of their own voice so the ice breaker question is critical and essentially sets the tone and potential for the conversation.</li>
<li>Another good ice breaker could be, ìSo Jeff, what brings you here today?î</li></ul>
Now notice on these sample ice breaker questions Iíve repeated the personís name. First off by doing this it will help burn that personís name into my head so I donít forget it. Secondly, people love the sound of their own name ñ so donít be afraid to use it throughout your conversation.

<b>Phase 2: Get To Know You Better</b>
Depending on the results of the ice breaker questions you should by now be able to determine whether or not it makes sense to get to know this person better. If not, simply skip this phase and go into your graceful exit. But if you do see a synergy here, by all means try some of these again open-ended, getting to know you better questions:
<ul><li>So Jeff, how did you get into that business?</li>
<li>What types of challenges keep you up at night?</li>
<li>Jeff, help me out here, draw me a mental picture, what does success look like for you and your business?</li>
<li>Whatís new in your industry these days? Any events or trends that are shaping it?</li></ul>
Now you can use one, two, all of these questions, or more if the situation permits. However, be careful here not to dominate and monopolize someoneís time. If youíre at a networking event, thereís a good chance that theyíre there to network and meet other people as well, so it may make sense to go to the graceful exit phase and encourage that you two get together in the near future.

<b>Phase 3: Graceful Exit</b>
Itís vastly important how you leave a conversation ñ as this is the last impression you make on that person. Weíre not looking to create any animosity here by rudely blowing someone off. The key here is as this phaseís title states, is to exit gracefully.

A key difference between the types of questions or statements you make in this phase as opposed to the previous two phases is that now you shift to using close-ended ones. For example:
<ul><li>Introduce the person to someone else that may be of interest to them and then politely excuse yourself. The dialogue can go something like this: ìHey Cindy Iíd like you to meet Jeff. Jeffís in the xyz industry as well and I just felt that you two should meet.î Now they exchange pleasantries and you immediately exit the conversation by saying something like, ìWell you two probably have a bunch to talk about. Cindy Iíll catch up with you later and Jeff, it was great meeting you.î</li>
<li>Another example of a graceful exit may be: I can certainly see some synergy between what you and I do. Can I give you a call next week to set up some time to talk further?</li>
<li>Or, itís been great meeting you, will I see you at future meetings?</li>
<li>And lastly, wow, this is quite an event donít you think? Well we should probably keep movingÖ it was great meeting you Jeff!</li>
</ul>

So now you’re aware of and armed with some actual strategies for the 3 phases of small talk. The key now is to get in the game and practice, practice, practice and you too can see the results you would like for your business.
<br>
<br>