Just the other day while watching an Ace of Sales  training video, Jeffery Gitomer shared the tweet below:

You can learn how to succeed from watching the airlines and their employees. Whatever they do, do the OPPOSITE! #gitomer. 

This particular tweet was ReTweeted thousands of times. Jeffery even received several way to go private messages.

Because of experiences like Jeffery’s, I sell every time I’m 35,000 feet in the air as your Flight Attendant.

As you are reading this you are probably wondering “How does a Flight Attendant sell?” 

Well, to me selling begins with relationship building.

So, every time you get on one of my flights,  You will find me smiling, energetic, enthusiastic and happy to see you.

While I’m offering you a cold beverage, I’m asking you questions.

Discovering where you are going.

Finding out what kind of fun things you are going to be doing when you get to your destination.

I discover if you are visiting family or if you are traveling for business.

I find out if you like what you do and what’s the one thing I must see if I’m laying over in your home town.

Being completely interested in you, the passenger, and investing time in finding out about you, the guest on board my flight, helps me sell you on the idea of coming back to my airline.

This same type of relationship and sincere interest in my husband is what got me to be “the wife”. It is also how I keep the excitement in my marriage after 17 years.

Sales, yes sales. Everyone is in sales.

Eager to find out. Where do you sell everyday?

Till Next time…..

Debi Talbert

aka – The Flying Networker

P.S.  Jeffery I hope to see you on board one of my flights so you can have something good to tweet about airline employees. You can even Tweet from 35,000 feet because we have wi-fi in the sky.

Ignorance Can Make You Wealthy!

I was at our local market place savoring a nice apple pie a la mode when I struck a conversation with some people there.

We got around to talking about selling and one of them, I discovered, used to work for the local and very large telephone company.

She told me she became the top sales person in the first month she joined. And then after that her ranking plummeted.

I asked her why that was, and her reply was something that all of us might pay attention to…

She said, “In the first month no one told me I was in the sales department. All they told me during my training was that people would call looking for a phone service and that I was to help them find what they needed and help them buy it.”

“So in the first month you didn’t think of yourself as a sales person?” I asked.

“No, I didn’t! And when I found out I was, by looking at the board where the month’s sales reports is posted, and seeing my name under salespeople, something happened to me… and the number of customers I serviced after that went down.”

“So how did you go about serving your customers in the first month” I probed.

“Well I would ask questions and give them the correct features depending on their requirements.”

“So why did it all change?”

“Because before I never saw myself as a salesperson, and then I saw that I was!”

“And what’s a… ‘salesperson’… in your minds eye?”

“You know, someone who is trying to sell something… trying to persuade them to buy our service… I just couldn’t do that…”

“But you could do what you were doing in the first month – yes?”

“Yes!”

“So let me ask you… what if in reality selling is really what you were doing in your first month… and not what you saw on the board… would that have made a difference?”

“What do you mean?”

“What I mean is… What if the true essence of selling is really what you were doing in the first month… serving and helping people get what they need and giving it to them if you have the right solution… and not all that other stuff you thought it was? Would that have made a difference?”

“Yes. So, you’re saying that’s what selling is really all about?”

“From my perspective, absolutely, yes! It’s also the dictionary’s perspective as well, if you look back a few hundred years for its original definition. The original definition is that selling is to serve, to help and also to exchange… not to manipulate or persuade. So how does that make you feel?”

She laughed and said, “I guess that was what I was doing. Serving.”

“And if you hadn’t read that notice board with the word ‘salespeople’ do you think your time at the phone company would have been more fun and profitable?”

“Absolutely, yes… I’ll bear that in mind for the future.”

This particular story has a number of points that will help you with your Network Marketing business.

Firstly, it illustrates very clearly the power of the first principle of Natural Selling. That is, the purpose of your business is to help other people solve their problems. When the lady I was talking with focused on this, her job was easy, fun, profitable and fulfilling.

However, when she started to focus on her “agenda” as I call it (that is, when she started to think that she had to ‘sell’ her company’s service) things started to go wrong. She didn’t enjoy what she was doing and her results were not as good.

I talk more about this principle, and the other three principles of Natural Selling, in chapter 3 of my book “How To Sell Network Marketing Without Fear, Anxiety Or Losing Your Friends!“

Secondly, it demonstrates what selling is really about and how anyone can do it when they see it as it reallyis, (helping other people to get what they want… and not what they think it is!)

Unfortunately, many people (and Distributor’s) are not exposed to this. As a result have a negative view of selling.

But if you can let them see that selling isn’t what they think it is, then you’ve removed a block that might have prevented them from joining your business. I talk about this more in role plays number one and number five of my audio program “Introducing Your Business And Products“.

So, focus on your purpose and remember what selling is really about. You’ll find that not only will you help other people, but you’ll also get what you want without stress and quicker than you thought possible.

Get up in the morning, go to work in rush hour traffic, check the clock all day at work, sit in rush hour traffic all the way home, eat dinner, watch TV, go to bed, get up in the morning, got to work, sit in rush hour traffic all the way, oh it’s Friday…get pizza, watch TV, go to bed……

My work as a flight attendant is not the same as the 9-5 get up in the morning, sit in rush hour traffic, work all day, sit in trafic, eat dinner, go to bed, get up in the morning to do it all again kina of rut; however a rut I am in.

While listening the book The Magic of Thinking Big with TheHubby tonight I discovered my answer. A story in the book helped me to realize the best way to get out of my rut is to take action.

You know when you are learning something new, especially in business, you think “I just need to hear this one more time, get it just perfect in my mind before I take action”?

Guilty……

Thanks to “The Magic of Thinking Big” I’m done listening. It’s now time to take action at get some real word practice.

Till next time…..

Debi Talbert

Let me know here in the comment section what action you take this week. Come back and share what happen.

Whenever I was at a breaking point and felt like I could not go on with life, I would find a way to blast this song. For the four minutes that it played, there was something in me the broke free. I would scream the words out loud and dance to the beat if I was alone.  I imagined a life free of the critics in my life (Mom & Husband), free of put downs, free of hating me.

Hill states that the Synthetic Imagination merely works with the material of experience, education and observation with which it is fed. For me back then, like verse one of the song….

I want to break free
I want to break free
I want to break free from your lies
You’re so self-satisfied I don’t need you
I got to to break free
God knows, God knows I want to break free

For those 4 moments of the song I knew what I wanted; however my experiences, education and observation to that point in life was not going to get me what I wanted. My desire was abstract and of no value because I was simply not capable of transforming it into a physical counterpart.

My imagination had become extremely weak through inaction. Fortunately it did not totally die. The song kept my desire alive to break free. Eventually verse two became a part of my life -

I’ve fallen in love
I’ve fallen in love for the first time
And this time I know it’s for real
I’ve fallen in love, yeah
God knows, God knows I’ve fallen in love

I had begun to fall in love with me. As I feel in love with me my desire to break free grew stronger.  Even though I was gradually falling in love with me, by this point my husband had me convinced that if I left him, he would take my children and I would never ever see them again. You see the words had turned physical and I believed him. Verse three became a part of my life -

It’s strange but it’s true (hey yea)
I can’t get over the way you love me like you do
But I have to be sure
When I walk out that door
Oh how I want to be free, baby
Oh how I want to be free
Oh how I want to break free

With this verse I was able to revive my imagination and wake it up thru use. I would see myself some how some way walking out that door. My creative imagination started sending me hunches and ideas of how to break free. I personally was never able to physically do the walking out the door; however I now understand that it was my creative imagination that gave me the ideas and hunches to do the things that caused this man to find another woman and set me free.

It has been 18 years now that I have been free from that relationship. Just one year longer than the time I was involved with this man.  Just like the interlude of the song -

But life still goes on
I can’t get used to living without, living without, living without you
by my side
I don’t want to live alone, hey
God knows got to make it on my own
So baby can’t you see
I’ve got to break free

Over time my experiences, education and observations changed. I found a man that helped me continue on my path of loving me, a man that treats me like a queen.

I have discovered my deep burning desire to teach people how to live prosperous lives easily and effortlessly. Do you ever find yourself thinking………….

I’ve got to break free
I want to break free, yeah

“Interestingly, Koi, when put in a fish bowl, will only grow up to three inches. When this same fish is placed in a large tank, it will grow to about nine inches long. In a pond koi can reach lengths of eighteen inches. Amazingly, when placed in a lake, koi can grow to three feet long. The metaphor is obvious. You are limited by how you see the world.” — Vince Poscente

This was the Quote of the Week in The Schtick by Dave over at Yeah Dave dot com.

Your power lies in taking action. I encourage you to take one thing  you read here today and take action.

I believe in you – Debi Talbert

O- Objecitve

A- Actions needed to meet weekly objectives

T- Time, how much time will it take? [add 15%, just in case]

S- Schedule it

O – Objectives: What results do you want to see by the end of the week? Write them down and rank them.

A – Activities: What do you have to do to achieve these objectives? List the necessary activities and put them in sequence. Remember, getting to a monthly income of $5,000 takes place over time yet invariable happens for people who focus on it weekly/daily.

T – Time: How much time will each activity require? To plan realistically, allow yourself more time than you think you will actually need. This give you flexibility in unexpected challenges occur.

S – Schedule: Look at your calendar and decide when you want to do each activity. Write it down. Most people underestimate the power of a schedule. The difference between knowing what to do and doing it is wether or not you schedule it.

BONUS: In addition to doing O.A.T.S. weekly, create the habit of cleaning up your desk, line up your work for the next day, review your next days appointments and then read you goals out loud.

This next time……

Debi Talbert

What Stephen shares on his views of  our behavior and life mysteries will give you something to think about with regard to technology, social networking, learning and how we interact with others.

Sit back, relax and enjoy “the flight”.  The captain has advised us that this trip will take about 30 minutes.

STEPHEN FRY: WHAT I WISH I’D KNOWN WHEN I WAS 18 from Peter Samuelson on Vimeo.

Cure fear, what if I fail? Ok yes, I said it. You know you are thinking it. Somewhere in your mind you are thinking this.

Seth Godin in his book Linchpin calls it the Lizard brain, Napoleon Hill in his book Think and Grow Rich refers to it as the six “ghost of fear” and Tom “Big Al” Schreiter refers to it as the sub-conscience brain, which by the way is the size of a hotel.

I don’t know about you, but every time I make a decision to attempt something new, there is another voice in my head telling me I can’t. Actually, I’m a Gemini, so I have more than one voice, but in any case, the goal here is to find a way to put IT into snooze mode. There is no getting rid of IT; however you can most definitely create habits and plans to make IT go to sleep.  After all, IF YOU allow IT to keep you from taking action steps toward your dreams your current circumstances with not change.

The times I’ve allowed IT to stay in my head too long are exhausting. The on going fight between IT and the part of me that wants to create and develop my own business is down right exhausting. Kind of reminds me when my daughter was a teenager. Everything was a consistent battle. One of the best things I’ve done to help put IT in snooze mode is change the way I think of failure. I gave myself an empowering definition of failure. Because while I was operating from the position that failure was a bad thing, something undesirable, IT (The Lizard Brain) was wide awake in my head.

A important factor when you start to rethink how you feel about how to cure fear of failure is making sure that you understand that failure is tied to your emotions. The reason why this is important is because our built-in desire is to protect our physical life. Everybody knows we have a build it fight or flight response system. If you don’t understand that failure is tied to your emotions, then you run the risk of allowing your natural tendency to avoid risk get in your way of taking action.

Another important consideration for creating a new way of thinking about failure is to realize you are creating a whole new paradigm around what failure is or is not. Because this is about letting go of what has been holding you back from living a life that you are passionate about.

Have you considered that taking action on something you are afraid of is more like exercising your “courage” muscle. Most people realize that if you don’t use your muscles, then you lose them. You become weak, sluggish and flabby. What if you decided that in order to cure fear you need to use courage. Taking action even though you might fear you might fail, is like exercising a muscle.  At first you would feel a little clumsy and uncomfortable; however over time you would become confident and begin to create successes.

It’s not as difficult as you might think. I’ve been there, and I’m now on a mission to keep IT (The Lizard Brain) in the snooze mode.

I hope you will join me,

Expect Success – Debi Talbert

One of the ways I empower people is via education so that the individual can do some critical thinking; ask questions, think about the answer, ask more questions if necessary. With the end goal being to lead to an informed decision.

Maybe this story I read over at Glen Meakem’s Success Through Leadership will help you begin to do some critical thinking.

An economics professor at a local college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had once failed an entire class. That class had insisted that President Obama’s socialism way of thinking worked, and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.

So the professor decided to try out an experiment on this class. He informed the students that all grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and now would receive an A.

After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too, so they studied little. The second test average was a D! No one was happy. When the third test rolled around, the average was an F.

As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased because bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else. The entire class failed – to their great surprise by the way!

Although this is a story for illustration purposes. Image what would happen if this small size experiment took place in your child’s classroom.

I believe ultimately the great equalizer plan will fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when the reward is taken away, no one will try or want to succeed.

You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it. ~ Adrian Roger

Debi Talbert - Proud Member of Success Team Builders

About three years ago, I was like the Circus elephant; bond to my limiting beliefs. Convinced and trained that what was once true, would always be true. That is about the time I found the book Success in Ten Steps. Through the book I found Mentoring for Free and through Mentoring for Free I found “The Tribe”.

My life changed in a moment.

Since that time, I have been reborn. In his book Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill describes using imaginary council meetings to achieve his voluntary rebirth. When I downloaded that book, I came across a real live voluntary counsel. This counsel was the beginning of my network marketing education. By keeping myself in consistent touch with this counsel, my limiting beliefs have disappeared one, by one.

“The Tribe” has helped me learn to use autosuggestion in the form of self talk to make new impressions on my subconscious mind. I stay connected to the knowledge that is shared each week and continue to learn how to build my network marketing relationships. I’ve also learned how to pass on what I’ve been learning to others. This sharing has helped me to reinforce my new skills. My progress at times seemed slow; however now I am in possession of the power that enables me to throw off discouragement, ignore fear, overcome procrastination and freely act upon inspiration that comes to me. These days in my head there is no longer negative chatter. What actually goes on in my head are amazing ideas, thoughts; inspirations.  I act on them and miracles are happening.

Some moments in life you know right away are life changing; birth of a child, marriage, death, graduation, divorce. Others take a little longer to realize that the act was a life changing moment.

The Elephant is free…..

Remember, there is no such thing as failure; only feedback.  – Debi Talbert

There was
a blind girl who hated herself because she was blind. She
hated everyone, except her loving boyfriend. He was always
there for her. She told her boyfriend, ‘If I could only see
the world, I would marry you.’

One day,
someone donated a pair of eyes to her. When the bandages
came off, she was able to see everything, including her
boyfriend.

He asked
her, ‘Now that you can see the world, will you marry me?’ The
girl looked at her boyfriend and saw that he was blind. The
sight of his closed eyelids shocked her. She hadn’t expected
that. The thought of looking at them the rest of her life
led her to refuse to marry him.

Her
boyfriend left in tears and days later wrote a note to her
saying: ‘Take good care of your eyes, my dear, for before
they were yours, they were mine.’

This is
how the human brain often works when our status changes.
Only a very few remember what life was like before, and who
was always by their side in the most painful situations.

Life Is a
Gift

Today
before you say an unkind word – Think of someone who can’t
speak.

Before
you complain about the taste of your food – Think of someone
who has nothing to eat.

Before
you complain about your husband or wife – Think of someone
who’s crying out to GOD for a companion.

Today
before you complain about life – Think of someone who went
too early to heaven.

Before
whining about the distance you drive Think of someone who
walks the same distance with their feet.

And when
you are tired and complain about your job – Think of the
unemployed, the disabled, and those who wish they had your
job..

And when
depressing thoughts seem to get you down – Put a smile on
your face and think: you’re alive and still
around.
==========================

I PRAY
THIS MOVES AROUND

THE ENTIRE UNIVERSE.

Empower yourself. Take action on one thing you read here today that inspired you. Please do pass this on to all the people in your life you believe would benefit from the words.

Expect Success – Debi Talbert