Todd's Blog

Hi,

For this week's links, I thought it might be interesting to highlight a few posts from some of my contacts on MyBlogLog.

Gary Pool has 5 posts so far in a series called top 10 seo tips and tricks
Aaron Cook spreads a little hump day humor; Monty Python meets Star Wars
Lin from Telling it Like it is made a post of links to the best tips for creating content others will want to read
Andy Bailey from FiddyP wrote a detailed review of his new skype phone ... although I suspect this probably works better in Europe where they have good wi-fi networks.
Fred Peters from Newest on the Net shares the top 10 most popular facebook applications (if/when I decide to actually start using my facebook profile this link will come in handy)
And finally Making Sales, Making Money is searching for significance online

Happy ready, hope you find these articles useful and interesting.

Till next week...
Todd

It's a well known fact that some of richest men and women in the world, are also among the most generous philanthropists.

What's not so well known is that many were very much into the habit of giving Before they were rich.

I think it's not at all unreasonable to say that learning to give is an important tenet of success.

So, in that spirit I want to take this opportunity to share some links to a few organizations that I choose to donate to. (click the images to visit their websites)

Two local charities that I donate to through the Combined Federal Campaign:





Yes, those telethons do work ...



The other day, my daughter and I heard this on the radio, and she wants to sponsor a child for Christmas:


(While I was on the website, Jordan walked into the room, so we decided to do our sponsorship now. We will be helping a 6 year old boy from Chile named Manuel. When we got the confirmation email, my daughter gave me a hug and said thank you daddy, I really wanted to do this. How cool is …

This post is a little off topic ... unless you've read my about page, and you know that photography is one of my favorite hobbies. I finally got my camera out this weekend. First I took some pictures at the Hickam skateboarding contest (my son got 3rd place in his division). Then today, I took some pictures for my wife's friend Danielle, with her two dogs.

First the skateboarding:



And here's a few of Danielle and her great dane:


And finally, this is Jasimine and our little chihuahuha

I was listening to the radio in my car the other day on the way to work, when I heard and interesting phrase in a commercial. Lex Brodie is local tire dealer here in the Islands. The commercial started out as pretty standard fair ... the services they provide, and a few reasons why you should come see them. It was right at the end that they really caught my attention ...

They said, if you're looking for tires, shop around, then Call Us Last so we can explain why you should buy from us.

Now that's a business who's confident about what they have to offer.

How many marketers do you know that have That Kind of Confidence?

Many networkers I know (especially online) usually can't wait to get their offer in front of people. If you visit enough websites or blogs, you'll begin to see a trend ... you're either beat over the head with aggressive (and sometimes hillariously bad) sales copy. Or, you're presented with various options for allowing yourself (or at least y…

If you're at all a fan of the The Law of Attraction, you probably already know what a powerful tool visualization can be.

... and one of the easiest ways to practice visualization is with a dream board.

I first learned about dream boards a couple of years ago when I read Charlie Umphred's ebook "Mind Over What Matters in MLM". In it, Charlie talks about using a cork board, and cutting out pictures of things you intend to have from magazines and catalogs. He gives some real life examples of ways that it's worked for him.

Searching around the Internet, I found a few interesting ideas for creating your own dream board. I even found a very nice program that lets you create an electronic vision board right on your computer.

Of course if you're more of a do-it-yourselfer (I am); and if you already know how to create a blog (which I expect many of you do), you might want to consider using WordPress to create your own personal online dream board. That's what I di…

Well, it's just about Sunday again. This week, I thought it might be fun to share links to a few blog posts that might not already be in your RSS reader (although you may end up adding them).

Enjoy ...

Steps for Reducing Stress - This is a subject I can relate to. Not sure why, but every once in a while, the stress-monster jumps up and bites me. This post gives some good common sense advice.

WAH Message board acronyms - This is one for the guys. I frequent a few work at home (moms) message boards. And really, I can recall several times that I was left scratching my head trying to figure out exactly what a DH is.

10 ways to generate mlm blog traffic - I've known Michael Lemm for several years now, and I actually learned a lot when I first started blogging from many of his message board posts. One of the good guys.

Twitter Guide - This is an excellent series of posts about twitter (which is something I'd like to learn how to use). If I had posted this link a few days ago, …

"A true leader develops his/her follower's belief in themselves, rather than their belief in the leader"

What do you think about the above statement? ... is it a fair premise?

Especially in network marketing, it's quite easy to find what I like to call "celebrity leaders". You know, those who really enjoy the spotlight. In most cases, they're very effective at what they do best ... usually recruiting tons of people. But how effective are they as leaders?

Is it possible to develop a true "walk-away" income by convincing people who join my group how great I am?

... or might it be more effective to work harder on trying to educate them about how great They are (even if they don't know it yet)?

Just thinking out loud. What's your opinion?

Todd

The title of this post ... that's MY motto!

Don't get me wrong. Earning extra income with a part-time home business definitely involves work. But I don't think any of us started our business with the intention of adding MORE stress and worry to our lives.

And the great thing about being a part-time networker ... having FuN is easy ... my "job" is essentially to discover places and activities where I can meet interesting new people.

Who can't have fun doing that?

Talk to you again soon ... happy Sunday :-)

Todd

My son Justin will be 15 years old in a little over a month. lol, sometimes I wonder how I am even surviving the teen years. The other day in the car, on the way to the skateboard park, we were talking about what he wants to do when he gets older. Like any teenager, his ultimate dream is to be a professional athlete ... in this case, the next Tony Hawk. The difference between now, and the last time we had this conversation (before I went to Iraq), is that today, he's also talking about a back-up plan ...

Apparently a guy came to their class on "career day", and told them that the best way to get rich is to own your own company. Fortunately, it appears as though that was a day that Justin was paying attention.

For the past few days, we've had several more conversations about the type of company he wants to own (skateboards, clothes, shoes, etc), and some of the steps he should take to go about achieving his goal. At his request, I just got on the Richdad website …

I read a lot of "make money online" blogs. I appreciate them all, as I have learned quite a bit about how to blog. But, when it comes to making money I almost feel a little sorry for some of them ...

Even "successful" bloggers who have hundreds or even thousands subscribers seem to be very proud of earning a couple hundred dollars from adsense.

Personally I just can't get my mind around the concept of getting paid only once to advertise somebody else's product???

One of my favorite things about network marketing is that even at times when I can't put in a lot of hours working my business (like most of this year, while I was in Iraq), I still have a couple hundred people who Are working to build a business ... and at the same time contributing to my own bottom line.

Essentially, I'm still getting paid now for work I did about 4 years ago.

... almost an ideal situation for a "part-time" networker.

If the only way I earned money was through adver…

"So, what do you do for a living?"

For many part-time network marketers, this can sometimes be a tough to answer question.

The natural instinct and desire is to immediately launch into the "elevator speech" that your sponsor told you to rehearse.

But ...

What if (like most network marketers), you're NOT yet earning a full-time income from your business?

Isn't it a bit disingenuous to ignore your full-time job or career, and Only talk about your network marketing opportunity? Do think it's possible that people who may potentially be interested in getting to know, like and trust you might tend to notice that you're not being completely honest with them? Think this might have an effect on whether or not they'll even be interested in hearing more about your business?

You bet it will.

So, what do we say instead? How do we let people know that our network marketing business IS a part of what we do for a living ... without sounding like we're trying to fi…

A couple of weeks ago I made a post about Mark Yarnell. Well, tonight he was on my company's weekly training call talking to us about leadership.

Here are some of the notes I took ...

"A Leader is someone who consistently demonstrates what's possible"

Great Leaders are path finders
They make sacrifices, and take calculated risks

They understand ...

You can't motivate anyone

provide guidance, then get out of people's way


Leaders are not created, people with leadership potential are found
"Illusions of relevance" - losers are more concerned about what other people think of them, than they are about becoming successful

you can't manage other people's impressions



Leaders ...

Oversee their organization, but don't supervise

they are available, but don't pursue


Are pace setters, but not rulers
Are innovative, not analytical
Are pioneers, not settlers
Are creators, not critics

blaze the trail



The shift to Leadership is very minor and easy

slight…

One of the great things about being a part-time networker is having the time and money to due fun things with my family. A great example was just a couple of days ago. The day after I got back from Iraq, we had a big birthday party for my daughter Jordan and my step-son Johnathan. My wife rented a huge waterslide, and we invited 20 kids for fun and pizza. Here are a few pictures ...



So, what are some of the fun things you've been able to do because of the extra income you earn from your part-time business?

Til next time ...
Todd

I've been playing golf since I was 8 years old. I love the game. Fortunately for me, golf is an excellent way to network ... whether it's a regular weekend foursome, or just showing up at the course and joining the next group off the tee.

Many of the same qualities and habits that can help you to improve and enjoy your golf game, can also be applied to growing your part-time home business ...

I recently subscribed to a new golf blog, and one of the first articles I read was Seven Habits of Highly Effective Golfers. In this article, Mr Pedersen describes seven strategies that he believes highly effective golfers use to improve their games:

Focus on golf fundamentals
Smart Practice
Physical preparation
Mental training
Nutrition for prolonged energy
Goal setting
Golf swing analysis

Go give the article a read. Then, see if you can think of some ways that these same principles can also be applied to effective part-time networking.

Til next time ...
Todd 8-)

I had a very productive evening the other night. Google blogsearch was nice enough to lead me to Mark Yarnell's blog. I've read a few of his books in the past, but a lot of his recent thoughts on this blog really resonated with me ...
If you are approached by anyone who suggests that you join a second program…run. I don’t care what they call it. You need to focus on one deal until you hit the big checks. If lead lists worked, your company would provide them for free. After all, everyone wants to earn big money so it’s very easy to find the names of such people. What you need to understand is how to build your own 30,000 person warm market.
and ...
Without a doubt. In fact, we can earn much more in today’s economic climate but we have to accept two facts. One, big money is about retailing and recruiting. Two, big money is about retailing and recruiting. When we got started in MLM there were no prospecting lists for sale, cell phones, computers, back office tracking systems, auto …

Ok, I'm almost embarrased to say this; but up until a couple of days ago, if I found a blog that I liked reading, I was saving it in my favorites and then opening it up later in an individual browser window (when I remembered).

Then a couple of days ago, I finally decided to explore my Google Reader. I simply typed http://reader.google.com into my browser, then signed in with my gmail username and password.

There are a couple of ways to add blogs to the reader.

If you know the feed url - there's a green bar on the left menu of the reader that says "+ Add subscription" ... for a wordpress blog such as this one, just add "feed" to the end of the url (or there's usually a link all the way at the bottom of the page called "Entries RSS") . Example: http://tmtips.com/feed ... paste this into the box, hit "add", and it will go retrieve all the entries from that blog.
There is also an even easier way - Many blogs use a service called Feedburn…

Well, after 8 long months here in Iraq, I'm finally going back home to Hawaii in less than 3 weeks.  Obviously I spent a lot of time (probably too much) griping about things I didn't like about being here ... I missed my family!  But just to keep things in perspective, I thought it was important to also write down some of the things I liked.

First, let me qualify this a little bit.  During my time here I was what's known as a Fobbit ... someone who spends their whole tour on a relatively secure base.  I can hardly begin to imagine the real sacrifices that the soldiers who are outside the wire everyday have made during their very long time here in Iraq.  I feel for those guys/girls.

That being said, here's my list of things that actually weren't too bad about living on FOB Sykes for 8 months ...

The food was excellent - While I'm not even going to try to guess what Uncle Sam is paying them to feed us, I do have to say that KBR put on a good spread.  Every day they …

I posted this to my dreamboard the other day.

I am retired from the Air Force. This is my office ...

This will be the first in a series of "resources for part-time networkers".  Eventually I'll link them all together on a static page and add it to the blog menu.

I'm going to start this out with just 4 boards that I actually visit, and somewhat know.  I definitely plan to add more in the future.  In fact, if you know of any quality message boards out there, please leave a comment ... I'll check em out, and possibly add them to the list.

mlm.com  - This is probably my favorite message board.  I've been visting on and off for about 7 year now.  A lot of "drama", and some interesting personalities.  It's definitely entertaining, and there's enough knowledge represented, that if you pay attention, it's not too hard to pick up a nugget or two of quality brain candy from time to time.

wham.com - Oddly enough, I just visited this board for the first time recently ... although once I looked around, I recognized a lot of the names.  There are litera…

I was over at mlm.com yet when a thread was started recommending a few good websites. One of them was call MrPositive.com. Sounded like my kind of place, so I decided to check it out, and ended up signing up for his newsletter. Below is what showed up in my email box today ... I like ... and since he aske me to share ...
+++++++++++++++++
POSITIVE THOUGHTS
+++++++++++++++++

LOVE/RELATIONSHIPS:

If we are incapable of finding peace in ourselves,
it is pointless to search elsewhere.
--Francois de la Rochefoucauld

LEADERSHIP/SUCCESS:

Vision is not enough, it must be combined with venture.
It is not enough to stare up the steps, we must step up
the stairs. --Vaclav Havel

MOTIVATION/INSPIRATION:

Destiny is not a matter of chance, it is a matter of choice.
It is not a thing to be waited for, it is a thing to be achieved.
--William Jennings Bryan



STAY POSITIVE!

Dave Boufford

PS  Please share this newsletter with your friends, family and co-workers...everyone deserves a little inspiration. www.mrpositive.com
T…

I suscribe to many newsletters.  One of the best is "Leadership Wired" from John C. Maxwell.  I really enjoyed one of today's articles, and thought I'd share it here ...
9 Things You Simply Must Do
By Dr. John C. Maxwell

Oprah Winfrey and Anderson Cooper are two of the most popular media personalities in America. Yet, their backgrounds hardly could be more dissimilar. Oprah was born to unmarried teenage parents in rural Mississippi. Anderson’s mother was fashionable railroad heiress, Gloria Vanderbilt, and his father was a successful writer/editor in Manhattan. Oprah grew up in poverty, spending her childhood in the inner-city ghettoes of Milwaukee. Anderson was born into wealth. He appeared with his mom on The Tonight Show when he was three, and he modeled for Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, and Macy’s as a child.

Yet, for all of their differences (background, race, and gender), Oprah Winfrey and Anderson Cooper have unmistakable similarities. At some level, they resemble e…

I was browsing through Digg the other day, and found a new blog that I expect I'll be reading on a regular basis. One article that caught my eye was 10 Big Lessons from Little Kids. #8 was my favorite:
8. Playtime is important and laughter feels good.

We get so caught up in work, chores and a host of “have-to’s” that we forget to take time for ourselves. Not only does relaxing and regrouping make life worthwhile, it has real health benefits. Most of all, it will help you stay consistent and motivated. Kids also seem to inherently know that laughter can ease blood pressure, help your brain function, give you energy, and help you reach your goals. Smiling and enjoying yourself can be serious help.
You can read the rest of them over at: http://ririanproject.com/2007/09/04/10-big-lessons-from-little-kids/

Till next time ...
Todd :-)

Every couple of days I empty out my gmail Spam folder; which on a daily basis contains about 10 times as much mail as the folder which holds the messages I actually want to read. For some reason, today I decided to browse through the emails before sending them off the big cyber trashcan in the sky. The majority of it was for cheap Viagra, letters informing me that a dead Nigerian dicator has left me millions, and notifications that I've won the UK National Lottery (for like the 300th time this year). But, in amongst those were also a surprising (or maybe not so surprising) number of "legitimate pitches" for home bases businesses. They all included the obligatory phisical address and link to remove myself from their list; and many indicated that I had requested additional information from one of their "partner sites" ... me thinks my information somehow got on a leads list.

Now really, since I would have never seen these emails had I not chosen to browse thro…

So I was in the Rec center the other day, and there's a table of books that people send over here to Iraq. I picked one up, that I'm finding quite interesting. It's by a guy named James Green and it's call If There's One Thing I've Learned".

The premise is a thought that I think we all have from time to time ... if only I knew then, what I know now. Mr Green spent a couple of years interviewing a number of people with a series of set questions basically revolving around the idea of "what would you do differently". It covers love, career, family, money, etc.. Each of the stories is just a page or two long, but each carries with it a message ... some more profound than others.

For example, here was a one sentence story that I think many guys (and probably quite a few girls too) my age can relate to: "If I could do it all over again, I'd have gone out a lot more, but I'd have drank a lot less".

I'm only about halfway through …

Great thread posted yesterday over on mlm.com. I'm reposting it here (with proper credit), mainly so I can easily find it again once I get back home. You'd better believe that I intend to implement these simple common sense ideas ...thanks Mike, I appreciate you.
Hello Everyone!

I see a lot of people lately looking on how to generate local leads.

Not buying local leads, but actually generating them themselves. There are a lot of great ways but 2 of the best guys I have ever heard on "How to" generate Local leads are Calvert and Schreiter. Simply the best in my opinion. I have studied both of them and had the pleasure of working closely with both.

Schreiter has tons of stuff on Local Sponsoring on his fortunenow site. My Newly released CD series, "How to go from Minor League Networking to Major League Networking" devotes A LOT of time on how to generate local leads as well as the best way to maintain a database on how to continue earning cash from years to come.…

... but not always in the exact ways you expected.

A few years back, I signed up for the Tut Adventurer's Club, and started getting Notes from the Universe in my email box every day.

I love the positive uplifting messages. But, that's not really the subject of this post ...

When I first signed up, I had to fill out a profile, where it asked me to put in some pretty specific goals. Well, since I have a part-time business, making some extra money was certainly among my goals. So, here's what I asked for:

1) A large screen TV with a home theater system.

2) Pay off all my debts

3) Earn and extra $5200 a month

It just hit me a couple of weeks ago, that without even realizing it, I've already gotten everything I asked for in that profile a couple of years ago ...

- When I met my wife Ana last summer, one of the first changes she made in my life was declaring that my small little TV was just not gonna cut it. So off we went to the store, and quickly became the proud owners of a 4…

As a new (or even experienced) part-time network marketer, one of the more interesting challenges you may face is defining the meaning of the word SUCCESSFUL

Here's what the dictionary says:

suc·cess·ful adj.
1. Having a favorable outcome: a successful heart transplant.
2. Having obtained something desired or intended: was successful in stopping the leak of oil.
3. Having achieved wealth or eminence: a successful architect.

For some odd reason, most network marketers (and people in general for that matter) tend to focus on definition #3 ... show me the money!

Don't misunderstand me; for most people, the reason they started a network marketing business in the first place is to earn money. So it stands to reason that wealth would be a perfectly adequate (and obvious) definition of success.

However, check out those first two definitions. Having a favorable outcome and/or obtaining something desired or intended. Hmmm, based on those descriptions, do you think it might also be possible for…

Hi again,

Let me start out this post by saying that I honestly believe there are a great variety of "correct" ways to find new people, and build a successful group in this industry.

However, at this point in my life, my personal preference is that I just don't have a very strong desire to spend several hours a week talking to strangers on the phone. (who may or may not have requested "information") I do know plenty of people who are having great success with purchased leads though ... and if that sounds like your style, there are numerous resources around the web on how to work that method correctly. It's just not for me.

So ...

I'd like to share a few low-threat ways, that I've found to be effective, in attracting potential customers and business partners to You. (as opposed to you having to go find them)

A couple of cautions upfront:

1) This method of building your business is NOT fast ... it requires patience and persistence. It's for people who ha…