Don't Ask A Broke Person How To Save Money & Other Wisdom For The New Business Owner
By: Sandi Krakowski
If you were down on your luck and struggling to get ahead, who would you ask for advice? Someone struggling? Now before you think I'm being awfully harsh and sarcastic, keep reading and listen to my heart.
We are so blessed to have over 150,000 customers who have come to depend on our advice for building their business. It's not something that we take lightly at A Real Change Int'l. Because of this more than $100,000 is spent every single year developing our own skillset, staying on top of our game and being all we can be!
So when an email comes in asking us how to deal with well meaning family and friends who are giving a new business owner their opinions it's always a bit perplexing to me to think what this situation must really look like. You see, having built businesses for the last 14 yrs I've learned personally that you really have to choose wisely who you take advise and input from if you want to get ahead in life. Every suggestion and opinion is not valid.
When a professional athlete steps out to pursue their goal of the Olympics, one of the first keys their coach will press into their mind is the reality that 'blinders and boundaries' are extremely critical to achieving the target. Well meaning friends who want to party and relax on the weekend will not serve the athlete's goal very well when they have to put extra time in the gym. Choosing who to hang around during the months before the competition is as important as choosing what shoes to wear! It can not be taken lightly.
In my years of bodybuilding I learned very quickly not to take advice from out of shape and overweight family members. If I was going to limit my carbohydrate intake, guard my sleep habits, be totally 100% focused on my goal of winning a trophy it would require 24/7 devotion and commitment. This might come as a shock to some but….. it wasn't always a popular decision to be as focused as I was.
Comments such as:
"Do you always have to work out on Saturday? Can't you just take one weekend off?"
" Everyone deserves a break, go ahead and have that pie, it won't hurt you."
"Women need more rest than men, so you need to be really careful working out so hard."
were challenges to my goal. To be very honest, it was Resistance in physical form, taunting and challenging my commitment as well. It was a painful yet powerful lesson when I realized that well-meaning people could actually be jealous and threatened by my pursuits.
If you are seeking to build a business and you've never done such a thing before, you will encounter opposition and Resistance from people you never thought in a million years would do such a thing.
Here are a few pointers to help you stay on task and focused-
#1- Never take business advice from someone who hasn't made or isn't currently making money in business. This may sound like common sense to some but to others it will be life transforming. Sadly, I've seen more comments and opinions and suggestions coming from people who are NOT successful than I do people who are.
The truth is successful people rarely go out of their way to give their opinion or suggestions to people who aren't asking. They don't need to prove who they are by being a know it all, don't need to validate an unhealthy self-worth by finding people to always give their opinions to and most importantly, they are always so focused and busy moving their own goals forward that they don't have time to see if others aren't!
So, when it comes to business advise, don't take counsel from someone who isn't doing what you want to do.
#2- Guard how much time you give others who are negative in your life. Access is a privilege when it comes to relationships. Having a lot of acquaintances is one thing, having hundreds of close friends is quite another. It's unhealthy to have hundreds of people who give input and time into your life, so be careful how much you receive, especially when it comes to negativity.
I'm blessed to have thousands of people who interact with us as a company every single day on the internet, but rarely do I allow negative people any time in my space. As stated previously, we take the role we have in business very seriously and guard against garbage dumpers with our life. Negativity breeds negativity! I love to be with my clients who are going somewhere, encouraging each other, are drama free and happy!
#3- Be careful how many mentors or masterminds and groups you hang around. The biggest key to my success is having a mentor. But having 5 mentors doesn't work. I've never seen someone hugely successful who has a ton of mentors unless of course they were already running a high six figure, almost seven figure business and then get different mentors to help with specific things.
The clients that we see go the farthest and earn the most money in our programs are very strategic in the things they do. They don't belong to several mastermind groups, they aren't traveling all over the world following different mentors and they aren't building a business with multiple conflicting methods. To learn from one mentor to spend your day on the phone calling leads and from another to close sales through internet marketing can create not only a conflict in your business plan but severe exhaustion! My advise is to choose which method you are going to work with and then do it. Our clients, like Angela Brooks who just closed 15 business partners in her home based business, don't use the phone very often, they use the internet. Ironically, even the coaches teaching to prospect on the phone and call leads all day aren't building their own business that way. Watch what people DO more than what they say and you'll go farther than most.
#4- Make a commitment and stick to it. Focus on adding 500 to people to your list. Do advertisements, blog posts, webinars and PPC to accomplish this. Don't buy into the nonsense that you can build a business on free. Oh, sure, you might be able to build a business that pays you a few hundred or a few thousand dollars by free means but REAL businesses advertise and do marketing. Make a goal and stick to it.
Those who create a goal always go farther than those who are just trying a bunch of different methods. Haphazardly building your business with a many different methods and no focus doesn't help anything.
Get strategic, get focused and make it happen!
You are the sum total of who you hang around. So my question for you today is, who are you? Want a clue? Take a look at your friends and you'll see a mirror. If the mirror that you are currently seeing isn't serving you to move to the next level of your business, it's completely within your power to change things.
Make A Real Change in your business and watch the profits soar!
If you need some new friends and would like to be with like-minded people who are going places in their life and business, come on over to our Facebook Page! We'd love to meet you!
Sandi Krakowski is a "Back To Basics Step By Step Business" expert who currently serves more than 100,000 clients in over 136 countries. Her systems help the average business owner as well as big corporations get extra-ordinary results quickly. She has a track record for her 'bringing it into action' processes that company owners find easy to implement with quick results. She has been working online successfully for the last 14 years.
Get your FREE copy of Sandi's NEW BOOK-"Read Their Mind: How To Hear What The Marketplace Wants & Build A Huge Business" to discover the secrets that will help you get to your idea clients, build amazing relationships and learn to sell anything quickly! Click here to order your copy NOW!
