Since the Internet came about, advertising has taken numerous turns, but almost all are centered around getting in front of more people for less money. Marketing 101 right? I don’t think so. Let me explain. I can reach millions of people through a blast email campaign but if I do it wrong, I have spent thousands of dollars with no return and often may be fighting to keep my name off of spam servers. Sure, I could pay large “per-click” fees in pay per click campaigns, but if I am getting the wrong people, I will not convert.

So what makes me think of all this?
My wife recently opened up a cleaning company here in the Biloxi/Gulfport MS area. I started by making her a nice Facebook page, getting some traffic to it – all the things we teach others to do in the Internet Marketing world. Sure, I got some calls and my wife has a few cleaning contracts, but we were obviously not hitting our potential. I have to THINK LOCAL! Wow, what a concept right? Now, I did not think much about this considering I am perfectly capable of getting local traffic to websites, but why not use some old-school approaches? I printed up 100 flyers and 20 pull-tab flyers and told her to go to a neighborhood where she would like to get some contracts. She headed right down the road and within 20 minutes got her first phone call. This means people are READING it instead of deleting (trashing) it without reading.

So what? How does this effect you?
Everyone knows I am a big supporter of direct sales. It provides the average person the above average chance of securing insane incomes by just going to work. I thought that if even a small percentage of my readers…my friends, read this and put together a flyer or some other creative offline marketing, that they could really look at the possibility of expanding their business in their local market.

I know I am about to do just that. I am going to print up a bunch of 24 Day Challenge flyers for my Advocare business and hit town with them. Maybe you should try thinking of something you can do?

Drew Brees, National Spokesman for Advocare

What is the first thing you usually think about when you hear the words “company image”?

I guess it really depends on the company.
Think about Wal-Mart for instance. The first thing that comes to mind? I usually think of a place where I can get stuff cheap but I am not going there if I know I am going to have questions about something.
Try thinking about a few other businesses and visualize the first words that come to mind… McDonald’s…. Burger King…. Your Local Mall….

The thing is, no matter what I say, you are going to have an opinion, or image, of that business. What many people do not think about is that people have images too. What do you think about when I say “Bob” or “Joe” or “Sue”. Surely you know someone and you had an image of someone with that name. What did you think about? Was it positive or negative?

Images are not just about national figures. Everything you do contributes to your image and have an effect on what others think of you or how they see you. Do you know me personally? What would you say about me?

I have Drew Brees up here as the feature image for good reason. Whether you love the New Orleans Saints or you hate them, you can’t help but like Drew Brees. The things he does in the community and the way he treats other people is amazing. He is a true leader and people respect him. He is the epitome of a great image. When I went looking for a healthy energy drink, I tried a lot of products. I had just about made up my mind on one until someone told me about one more to try. I almost didn’t try it but I saw that Drew Brees was the national spokesman for this company. I saw that he was an unpaid product endorser for 8 years prior to becoming the spokesman. I had to try it. It just so happened that Spark by Advocare was an awesome product at an awesome pricepoint, but it was Drew Brees that got me to try it!

When you think about your image, ask a few people that know you personally and professionally to be direct with you and see what they say. You may be surprised. Ask them to do it anonymously and you will be even more surprised.

See the Full Drew Brees, Use it – The Pros Do Image from Feature.

Entrepreneurs are those individuals that see a good opportunity and work to make something out of it. They work hard at building their business, building their brand, getting the word out, and driving forward every day with the feeling that no matter what – they are going to make a success of what they are doing. They get an idea or take a sales position with a company and they BUILD it because they wake up every morning knowing that they CAN.

An opportunist is someone who finds something, jumps on it for a while thinking it will be easy money and then, upon realizing that it is not as easy as they thought – they look for the next “opportunity”. They often blame others for their lack of success, and sometimes even blame the companies which they worked with because it was not as easy as they thought it would be.

In a perfect world, there would be a great balance of these two – a great opportunity with real entrepreneurs working it. Unfortunately, this is not the case. There will always be those that work hard at whatever they do and there are always those that take the opportunity and do nothing with it. The old adage “once in a lifetime opportunity” actually comes to many people many times in their lives and lack of motivation (or entrepreneurial spirit) leaves them later wishing they had done something, done more to promote, told more people about it. Instead, the vast majority of people are scared to take those first steps and ultimately fail out because they tried to take advantage of an opportunity rather than being an entrepreneur and making it work.

The next time you are thinking, “what can I do with some spare time?”, try doing a little work towards your business. Every business owner can directly see the results of their efforts. You reap what you sow and if you want to harvest the rewards you have to plant the seeds of success today.

If someone asks you – Are you an entrepreneur or an opportunist? – how would you honestly answer that question?
If you can’t honestly say entrepreneur – is it time you started to do something about it?

In my years of helping businesses succeed online, I have helped a lot of companies get started and earning decent profits. Most of this comes from my input and management taking action based on my recommendations. When I first started working with SoyLicious.com though – it was a different role because it really was a bit out of my normal scope of operation and my primary focus was on building systems and not necessarily on business development and marketing, which consequently is my specialty. The management (owners) of this company are MUCH more hands-on than my typical client and it works well for them. While there have been minor issues during the course, the drive and willingness of owners to listen to feedback from all of its sales people and customers is the real driving force and because of it – they are celebrating their one year anniversary and I am proud to be a part of that.

SoyLicious.com is a direct sales company that utilizes sales consultants to build their business. They are positioning themselves, with my help, and with the help of their dedicated sales people, to be a direct competitor with companies such as Scentsy, Mia Bella, and other similar companies. Because of their drive and dedication of sales force, SoyLicious.com is already twice the size that Scentsy was in their first full year of operation and if growth continues, which I suspect it will – SoyLicious.com may be the dominant direct sales candle-based company in the US within 5 years. Of course the sales people and management take a HUGE role in this, but without great products there would not be repeat customers and this is where SoyLicious.com has prevailed. The candles and soaps are all natural soy, made from American soy farmers so not only is it a healthy alternative to oil-based candles, but it also supports US farmers.  Of course they have many more products, but the company is centered around their candles and melter wax (for melting pots – no fire).

Opportunity

The opportunity with SoyLicious.com should be fairly easy to see. A ground-breaking company that is experiencing tremendous growth due to great products and superb management, but for those that just do not see it, you should check out the website. Consultants can earn a 40% commission on all products sold through their website. Consultants can order product at a 40% discount (wholesale cost). Consultants also get access to affiliate panel, marketing forum, and their unique websites on the soylicious.com domain for selling and team building (aka recruiting). It has been my experience that most people who come to buy the products end up trying them, and then becoming a consultant a few weeks later after seeing how great the products really are.

Specials

The company in and of itself is great – but the best part is the specials. not only are there several specials going on right now for sales – they are having an AWESOME recruiting special. ANYONE can join for only $10 for the month of July. If you are contemplating getting into your own business – this is the time. The earliest movers will be the ones that benefit the most because July will be a huge growth month because of this special.

Join during the month of July and I have numerous email scripts I can send you (if you join as part of my team – meaning directly under me or any of my consultants) to jump start your recruiting efforts. If you want to join under me and get a direct line of communication at the top of the company – just use this link and get started right away.