In the movie, “The Karate Kid”, the Martial Art Master tells the boy he needs to get focused. When the boy insists he already is focused, the Master responds, “Your focus needs more focus.”
Cute. Humorous. And quite profound.
If you’re someone learning to market your MLM online – in an industry with a constant, seemingly endless onslaught of new “must have” offers, products and opportunities – then the same likely holds true for you. You don’t just need to get focused…you need to give your focus more focus.
Dealing With Overwhelm (Good News, Bad News).
A couple of days ago I did I call for the MLSP community where my topic was how to get focused, and in today’s post I’m going to share with you some of my notes from that call.
I think we can safely say that one of the biggest challenges for us Internet network marketers is exactly that: To get focused.
To know how to best spend our time and money, what courses and memberships to buy and which we can safely skip…simply put, just how to get focused on a daily basis.
The bad news is that all the info isn’t going away any time soon. We do after all live in the information age, and there’s not a whole lot we can do about that.
The good news is that you CAN learn to navigate your way through the information jungle. You CAN get focused.
There’s a small, four-letter word that will help you do just that. That word is…drum roll, please…“Plan”.
Having A Plan Will Help You Get Focused
As I said on my training call for MLSP, I believe the main reason marketers can’t seem to get focused today is because they don’t have a Plan. I’m not talking about a plan, or plans, but a Plan. With capital P. Big difference.
To use an example from my own life, I recently chose not to participate in a major, industry-wide affiliate launch even though “everyone else” was doing it.
To be part of this launch may have fit my plan to make money, but it didn’t fit my Plan, which, for the next 90 days is to truly get focused on building my own brand and expanding my own product line.
On the other hand, a couple of months back, when Ray Higdon asked me to participate in his launch of Pro Blog Academy, I decided to get on board.
I didn’t know about it until the last minute, but when the opportunity presented itself, I knew it was for me.
The reason being that, for some time now, it’s been in my Plan to increase the lead flow from my blog. So when the opportunity to study, and to promote, Ray’s blogging course presented itself, it was just perfect.
What I’m saying in this: When you know exactly what you want, you’ll recognize if an “opportunity” really is an opportunity, or just a distraction.
On the other hand –
How can you get focused if you don’t know where you’re going?
You’ll constantly be distracted by every new “shiny object”. And you won’t know whether to pay attention or not because you don’t know whether it is going to bring you closer to or further away from your goals!
Think about it: If you’re hitch-hiking from LA to Washington DC, what’s the first thing you’re gonna ask the driver who pulls over? Where he’s going, right? You want to make sure he’s going to take you closer to your destination! If he’s going to Mexico, you don’t get in!
This, I think, is the problem with so many folks marketing online today:
They get in the car without thinking about where it’s going. Just because the car looks nice or the driver is cool, or because everyone else says that’s a car you should get into.
And this is also why they can’t seem to get focused!
“Financial freedom” is not a plan. It’s wishful thinking.
In order to get focused, you need to ask yourself what “financial freedom” actually looks like, to YOU.
Does it mean being a top earner with your company? Being a speaker and having your own products?
How about building a team? How big? What’s your income goal? How many reps do you need in your team to achieve this income?
Is particpating in affiliate lauches part of your Plan, or not? Are you looking for residual income? If so, how much?
If your goal is to become the #1 earner with your company, the Plan you’ll follow to get there will obviously be different than if you’re just looking for some additional income to add to your retirement.
Golden Opportunity Or Evil Distraction?
To get focused on your Plan, doesn’t mean you close yourself off to opportunites.
It just means, like I said before, that when one is put in front of you, you’ll know better whether it’s an actual opportunity or merely a distraction.
Also, in my experience, what’s so amazing when you truly get focused on your goals and you go after them with passion, is that opportunities – golden opportunities – start to appear out of nowhere.
As an example, at an event in Orlando recently where I was one of the presenters, a sought-after speaker trainer did a segment on professional speaking.
Professional speaking is part of my Plan, so when Dave, the trainer, announced a program at the event for those wanting to learn to speak professionally, I invested in it without batting an eye. But this was also the only product I purchased at the event! (And there were many offered!)
You Don’t Have To Do It All Right Now.
When it comes to your marketing strategies, to feel less overwhelmed, it’s critical that you get focused on just one or two methods for starters.
Say, for instance, you conclude that your strategy is going to be blogging, then you only need to attend webinars, watch video tutorials, read emails or buy courses pertaining to the topic of blogging. All the other marketing strategies you stay away from…for now.
So many folks run around like a chicken with its head cut off, afraid they’ll be missing out if they don’t “do it all” right now.
But trust me…six or twelve months from now, or however long it may take you to master your strategy of choice, when you do decide to get focused on something new, there will still be plenty of training easily accessible to you on the topic.
If anything, the training will be even better!
So to sum it up –
To get focused in your business is a matter of knowing exactly what you want.
Then, put this down in writing, set deadlines for yourself, look at it every day, and cut anything and everything which doesn’t align with your Plan.
Always ask yourself, “Is this something that’s going to take me closer to or futher away from my goals?”.
Now whenever you do decide to ignore an “opportunity”, you’ll feel so much less guilty. Because you know where you’re going, and you are making deliberate decisions.
You now have a carefully thought-out Plan for where you’ll be in 90 days, 6 months, 12 months, 24 months, 5 years from now. You know the road that’s going to take you there, and all those other cars that aren’t going in the direction of your end destination…well, you simply let them pass you by!
That’s how to get focused in Internet network marketing.
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Successfully,
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Tags: get focused, how to get focused
This entry was posted on Sunday, August 12th, 2012 at 1:58 pm and is filed under Time Management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
There is so much info out there it can be mind boggling I have had to unsubscibe to some folks not because I dont want to hear what they have to say but to many emails to read cloggs up the works and distracts me from getting on with the job.
Yes, that’s a real challenge for most folks today, I think. It’s the beauty/curse of living in the information age…
I love all you post and share – you are inspiring – I love this training on focusing – I have my own business and with the 3 small kids too, it can be hard to get caught up in it all –
Not pushy, but sharing, great tips and strategies to get some of us back on track!
Love it – thank you.
For those of us who are afraid of missing out if we are not trying everything, these are true words of wisdom. It’s easy to get distracted and go to the left or right but when we have our Plan (and have prayed about which Plan is right for us right now) and stick with it, I believe there is peace of mind. And that, to me, is priceless. Thanks, Lena.
Thanks Lena…I do really need to get focused..I can get distracted easily…so this is a great post…now I need to know what my plan is….love it.
That’s so great, Terry-Ann! Appreciate your comment!
Wonderful, Terry-Ann! And thanks for the feedback!
I love how you stated “you don’t have to do it all right now!” I know that I have had to work on my “paralysis analysis.” I like to have everything in order or understand everything before starting, but I can’t grow until I keep moving forward. I just recently started my new blog. It’s a work in progress, but I’m outlining my goals and staying focused. One step at a time! And you’re right, financial freedom is just a wish without a plan and some action!
You def got the message I was trying to convey, Kim!
It is true, setting a plan in place move one towards their goals. So it is keeping in touch with the plan and what you say indicates a person check out at the end of each day to see if they have done what they set out to do. I just returned from a convention and would like to add that attending conventions for your business should be part of the plan. They are amazing opportunities to learn and add value and meaning to your plan!
Agree 110%, Carmen! Conventions and events are truly essential for one’s success in this industry. Thanks for the feedback!
Great article Lena! I especially appreciate “Having A Plan Will Help You Get Focused.” That’s a great advice. I also like the idea of “You Don’t Have To Do It All Right Now.” The most important… it’s to get started right now and fix it later!
I am working through all of these, one at a time. It will take me a while, but I am gaining. Thanks Lena
That was a really great blog post,on “bright shiny objects”.I learned a lot from your post,on how to stay focused.excellent article,lena!.
On vacation this week, perfect article – working on my plan away from my everyday information overload
You do have to chose your business opportunity amongst many!
Benjamin Franklin said and I do agree:
The height of foolishness is to discard an opportunity without FULL investigation.
A rule I abide by. Have a wonderful day everyone.
While I am involved in MLM your clear thinking and great practical advice can be applied to any business though I know you won’t let yourself be pulled off track by the thought of reaching a different audience.
I personally am finding the number of affiliate launch invites that I get quite overwhelming and some people, who I used to really like, are quickly turning me off.
Well done, Lena for bucking that trend.
Lena you are a star! I haven’t known about you for long but everything I am reading I am finding very informative and straight to the point in plain english which makes things easier to understand. Thank you for what I have seen so far & I look forward to reading more!
Thank you James! That put a smile on my face! Yes, keep coming back as I have lots more great content coming up… Be well!
It’s really difficult sometimes to remain focused when you’re getting all kinds of curve balls thrown at you. But then, you can’t hit the ball if you don’t focus.
Lena that was right on target.
Our biggest problem today isn’t finding an “opportunity”. It is choosing one and sticking with it. Having been at that Orlando event, I only choose one product that fit within my focus. And no, it wasn’t the speaker’s course. Speaking is NOT in my plan, but after having listened to your presentation (which was way too short, you had so much more you could have said) Those that promote every product launch seem more like drug pushers, glad you choose your opportunities so carefully.
Like some others, I am focusing on a 90 day push starting on the 1st of September.
Thanks for a great post!
Great insight there, Scott! I think you are absolutely right that this is the #1 problem for marketers today. Appreciate your comment.
Fantastic picture by the way: Strong and kind at the same time, and then you’ve got that particular shade of blue that’s been psychologically proven to build trust. Love it!
Lena I wish I had of done this from the beginning. Your post could not have come at a better time. Here it is 3am and I have been considering dropping everything with great hesitancy because my whole life feels like it is in a turmoil. I will just take one thing and do it. I will develop a plan
Thanks
Pat, I’m so glad this post reached you at the right time. I know you are very passionate about marketing…so don’t you dare give up! But yes, do make a plan, and realize also that even if you have a whole library of resources right now that you have invested in, that’s OKAY. I can’t even begin to tell you how many courses I have myself, and I don’t always get to them right away, but I take it in bits and pieces as I go. That’s what I recommend you do too!
I agree, all these promotions just confuse people as they are looking for answers so they buy everything and anything and in the process get information overload and often end up with nothing and a lot of stuff they don’t have time to work through or often understand. It all leads to stress and often they just give up and are worse off than if they had not started on this journey.
My policy is to stay focussed on goal of main interests and switch off to everything else.
You said it, Elaine, “switch off” – that’s exactly the right word! :)
Lena great article…
and here is my take on this…How can the “average” marketer, focus when you have all these self professed “Leaders” promoting product after launch after launch…?? the latest JB launch, Higdon launch, and then you have people creating huge contests to see who can enroll and sell more…so as long as there are Pushers of Product in the form of “training” the average marketer, beginner, will keep buying cause the mantra is “Do as the Leaders do” if you ask me its all smoke and mirrros…as you know as a student of Kubaseck and Carbon Copy Pro, Network Marketing is simply….talk to people about a financial / lifestyle opportunity, they either say yes or no, move on ….I think its the so called Leaders who are Confusing the People with all this BS Training…!!
Pat, excellent points there. You rally hit the nail on the head. I obviously can’t speak for the other leaders, but personally I always pick the launches I participate in with great care, and believe it or not, part of the reason for this is that I don’t want to overwhelm my customers. I wrote about this in another post, by the way.
As you may know, even Ray is now taking time off from aff marketing to focus more on his primary…I wouldn’t be surprised if we see other leaders follow suit… Thanks for the feedback, Pat!
What a wonderful reminder on how to stay focused! Most business minded people know how to do this, but some may have forgotten. And for those new to having their own business, it’s a great reminder of where to start! Thanks Lena!