View Your Business Through the Customer's Eyes

You may have all of your systems in place to give your customers the best possible service. Yet it is important to give these systems a trial run before your customers use them. You may come across unexpected hang ups, that could turn business away.

Go through the steps your customers would take to find your business. If you are online, make sure your ads are pointing to the correct page on your website. If you own a brick and mortar business, follow the directions you give out to arrive at your storefront. How easy is it to find and access your business? Is there any way you can simplify the process for potential customers?

Attempt to find out more about your business. Your website needs to clearly explain what you do, and how it benefits the customer. Your about me page should explain who you are, what your company does, and why you are passionate about your product. In your community, you should be involved in local business organizations, and your chamber of commerce. Be sure any public listing about your company has accurate information.

Purchase your product. Check all the links that your customer needs to click on to process their order. Make sure they are easy to read, easy to find, and work correctly. Make errors throughout the shopping process, to see what pages your customers might see. These pages should make it easy to fix the problem and continue shopping. Go to your store and purchase a product from one of your employees. Ensure that all quality systems that you have put in place are being followed.

Allow a friend who doesn't know much about your business repeat this process. Allow them to research your business naturally, using the systems they would for any business. Ask them what was easy and what was difficult.

Make any necessary changes, and then let your customers try out your system, and accept their feedback. No matter how intuitive your business is to you, it is brand new to your customers. If the process is not as simple as possible, your customers will be unlikely to purchase or to return. The more times you look through their eyes, the more chances you will see to improve your business.

Admit Your Business Mistakes

We all make mistakes. It is part of what makes us human. However, as business owners, we develop a strong sense of perfectionism that makes it difficult for us to even recognize our mistakes, let alone admit to them.

Yet you can turn wary customers into loyal ones, by being transparent and direct when it comes to admitting and fixing your mistakes. Customers will stick with a business that is open and honest with them, and will flee from one found to be covering their tracks. Here are some tips on how to deal with your business mistakes.

• Have quality checks. Whether these are weekly reviews or point by point inspections, you need to have systems in place to be on the lookout for potential mistakes. This reassures the customer that you are looking out for their best interest, and are committed to offering a quality product.
• Admit to yourself when there is a problem. Many business owners put up the blinders when evaluating if mistakes have been made. If you cannot admit it to yourself, you cannot fix the problem for your customers. Do not let your pride or fear of failure hinder you when building your business.
• Decide on the best way to fix the mistake. Do whatever it takes to make things right for your customers. Then, choose the best way to communicate the error and the steps you took to fix it to your customers. If you can tell your story before irate customers tell all of their friends, you will appear to be in control of the situation. This will establish you as a strong business who isn't afraid to get your hands dirty to deliver ultimate customer service.
• Ask for feedback. After you have done everything you can think of to rectify the situation, ask your customers if there is anything else you can do. Their answers may surprise you, and give you new insights about your business practices.

Have you seen any examples of a business freely admitting its mistakes? Or have you dealt with a business that handled their mistakes poorly? Share your stories here!

Listening to Your Customers

How do you know what your customers want? Have you ever thought about asking them? Listening to your customers is one way to guarantee that you are providing the best possible products and services that will meet their needs.

In order to listen to your customers, you need to create methods of listening. Here are a few possibilities.

• Create a poll on your website. Ask them something simple, as in "What would you like to see more of on this website?" Be sure to leave an "Other" option, and include a contact box where they can leave additional comments. It may turn out that what you thought they wanted couldn't be farther from the truth.
• Ask them about the quality of your service. When your transaction is complete, ask your customers if there is any area in which your business could improve. You can do this face to face, via email, or through a survey. The answers may surprise you.
• Offer customer support. Have a telephone number or email address they can contact at any time to get immediate answers to their questions. What may be an easy process for you may be difficult for the average consumer. Give them the chance to explain their problem, and offer solutions as soon as possible. Without this in place, customers may turn elsewhere rather than continue to puzzle through your business.
• Value their opinions. Nothing is worse than the feeling that you are not being heard. Once you have gathered information about your customers' needs, follow through. Implement necessary changes that will make their experience better. Be sure to let them know that you were listening, and are striving to improve the quality of your business.

What methods of listening does your business have in place? Have you seen a business that truly values what its customers have to say? Join in the conversation

Customer Service Through Social Media

With the new online landscape of social media, customers have higher expectations from their favorite companies. With the internet, customers have instant access to your website, your supporters, and your detractors. They can make quick decisions about how your service stacks up to the competition, and whether your business is one they are interested in working with.

How can you use social media to improve the quality of your customer service? Here are a few tips.

• Create a website. If you don't have a website telling people about the services you have to offer, you might as well be invisible to your customers. Customers want to know everything they can about you, from your business history to your current policies. Having a website reassures customers that you are easily accessible and willing to work with them with any difficulties they might have.
• Include a blog. A blog allows readers to stay up-to-date with the latest sales, information, and changes within your business. Providing customers with fresh posts on a regular basis will show that you are keeping an open channel of communication with your readers, should a crisis occur.
• Build a presence on other social media networks. Should your website be unavailable for any reason, you still need a way to communicate with your customers. If you are already established on other sites such as Twitter or Facebook, your customers will turn there to find out the latest updates on your website status. You can also use these sites as an additional channel for customer service, answering any questions as your followers have them.

What unique ways have you used social media to improve the quality of your customer service? Have you seen a company embracing these tools to provide quality customer care? Share your stories here.

Are You Building Relationships with Your Clients

If you want to truly live your dreams, and build a solid business, the first thing you need is customers. Once you get customers, you want to hold on to them. It's very important to develop long term relationships with your customers. Happy loyal customers are cornerstone to your business.

IF you keep your name in front of your customers, they will also remember you when someone is in need of the service you offer. Therefore it's quite important to build and develope strong relationships.

I have a friend who just started up a blog on relationships and success. If you want to learn more on that subject click to visit her site.

Hope you're having a wonderful holiday season.

How's your business? Happy Holidays.

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas.

How's your holiday going? Hope it's a jolly one. I was out finishing up my holiday shopping this weekend. Certainly don't see signs of any recession here. It took me 20 minutes to get out of the mall after we found the car.

How's your business going? Is it growing fast, or is is stagnant? This is always our busiest month of the year, and this year is no exception.Volume wise, in another day or so, my volume will be exceeding last years already with half a month to go. We are definitely growing and growing.Since they announced a recession, each month our sales have increased.

I'm sure there are a lot of people focused on that recession, and those that do focus on that, will see the negatives. I don't listen to negative news and I focus first on things I CAN control and do something about. I expect the best, so I get the best.

Are you growing your business, or are you focused on the negatives?

Remember if you think you can or if you thank you can't you are absolutely RIGHT. You get what you look for. Focus on what you can do and do it now.

If you are in the network marketing business, it is the best time in the world to work fast and grow. People out there are hurting and need help. People with JOBS are not secure. IF they have a job it's a great time to help them start something on the side so that they can build security, in case that company decides to shut their doors.

Don't live in gloom and doom, share the light. Show others now while there is time for them to start. Don't wait till it's to late. Reach out and help someone today. It's the holiday time. Time for giving and sharing. Don't stop working and growing your business, just cause it's the holiday.

Holidays are the best time of the year and the best time to reach out and help others. It's the best time of the year.

Hope you have a wonderful holiday with your family.

Boy am I behind the times

I've been learning a bit about the blog directory type things, it's kind of interesting.

I found this cool one called blogarama. If you have a Blog you might want to check them out. Looks like a cool thing to do so Iisted my blog with them.

List your blogs

blogarama.com

Happy Thanksgiving

Just want to take a minute to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family. Don't eat too much turkey. Good luck with your holiday shopping on Black Friday.

Everyone is talking about the "recession" but I'm not seeing any recession here, cause I refuse to participate. I hope you will join me in lack of participating in that nonsense.

See you at the top everyone.

Holiday's are ahead

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas.

Just go to the store and see. Christmas trees are all around
and we have not even had Halloween.

It's a great time to start thinking of finding an easier way to
get your holiday greetings out. What if there was a way
you could do that right from the comfort of your home,
without going to a store?

What if you could create a beautiful family photo and make
it into a holiday card, or newsletter and send it with the
click of a mouse right to the postal mail box.

Well, you can... If you want. Ask me how. I'll be happy
to let you try a few free. All you need to do is ask me

If you're looking for Christmas Cards, Thanksgiving cards,
or Hanukkah I can show you how to send out those special
custom holiday cards, get them done now in under 30 minutes
and have more time to enjoy the holidays.

Give me a call at 813-987-2688 and I will show you. Put me
to the test, and let's talk about it.

Keeping up a blog

I've been very bad about keeping up my blog. I really mean to write articles and share ideas, and post to my blog, but somehow life gets in the way. I'm just very busy and having fun helping others learn how to be successful.

As our economy has been going backwards, more and more people want to learn what they can do to earn extra income or keep ahead of the game. I for one have refused to particpate in what they say is a recession. I'm in the greeting card business. I help people with their holiday greeting cards. I also help them with normal every day events like birthdays and anniversaries, weddings and deaths. No matter what they want to remember their friends and relatives.

Even when money is tight, and times are tough, people still want to send out cards. Here it is October already and the holiday season is coming quickly. I was in the store last month and was shocked to see Christmas trees for sale in September. I was really taken aback, thinking I had my calendar mixed up.

What I learned is merchants are trying to capitalize on the season and get people spending money. In my business, I know people still want to send out their holiday greeting cards. Since I can save them time money and gas, It is a no brainer. I can help them with their cards and gifts, and I can even help them make additional income if they want to make it.

It's a win win for everyone.

Hope your holiday season is the best one ever. Let's ignore the gloom and doom and just go make things happen. Let's make a difference.

Have you ever heard it said, people don't care how much you know till they know how much you care? It's very true. It's not what you know, sometimes it's who you know.

How to you get to know great people? Simple.....try networking. Many people join networking groups and events, and spend several days a week attending meetings, to get connected. That's all well and good if you have lots of spare time. I've found that running around just does not work for me.

To me, having to get out, get dressed up, drive to hotel meetings or groups, is just not something I enjoy doing. Don't get me wrong I love meeting people, and helping them but I've found the online world is much more fun and you're not limited to your local city or back yard.

I absolutely prefer the INTERNET. You can meet some of the greatest people online. You can network online just as you do offline. Today there are tons of communities, and places to go online to meet people, and build some great relationships.

A year or so ago, I met a great guy that was pretty new online. We chatted from time to time and I watched as he learned and became a real star at networking, coaching and mentoring people. He's now teaching others what he learned and doing an excellent job of it.

His name is Forest Marie. He writes a great newsletter with some fabulous advice and guidance. I think you'll enjoy his articles and learn a lot. Forest openly shares his knowledge. He's pretty amazing.

After all, it's about helping others. If you help enough others get what they want, you will succeed by default and never have to worry about it.

Hope to see you all at the top one day in the near future.

Blogging

I know lot of folks blog. They write articles and
some even hire people to write FOR them. I'm not
one of them.

I'm also not the best at keeping my a blog, as you can
tell this one is about 4 years old. Life just gets in
the way.

I started in Network Marketing a good 14-15 years ago.
I had my share of ups and downs. It's only been the last
7 or 8 that I've been doing this for a full time living.

You'd think I'd have tons of time to keep up a simple thing
like a blog, but for some reason I just never do. I stay
pretty busy with my team and helping them succeed. To me
their success is most important.

In this industry you learn it's NOT about you. It's about
others. Help others an you succeed. Put yourself first
and become a BORE and you will fail.

I do have articles over at my personal site that I do keep
up better than my blots. If you would like to read some,
just visit .

Meantime, I hope to be better at this blogging, but just
don't hold me too it.

Life is busy...but life is good.

How Is YOUR Belief Level?

Do you think you CAN be a success or do you have doubts? It's not what you are or who you are that makes a difference but it's what you THINK you are. If you think you can, or if you think you can't, you are exactly right.

Have you ever seen a person that is highly successful, yet to you they look like a dork? They don't seem all that smart, yet they make a LOT of money. Then you see another person, dressed to the hilt, and mortgaged to the bone, that seems to be beautiful and smart, yet they are dead broke. WHY? ATTITUDE and BELIEF.

It's your attitude that determines your success and your future. It's all between your ears.

If you truly believe in your heart in what you're doing and where you're going, that belief will trigger your enthusiasm, and that will literally explode. Enthusiasm, passion and belief can carry you any place you want to go.

Have you ever heard anyone say "Ignorance on fire is much better than knowledge on ice any day of the week"? It's the pure and simple truth.

If you're excited about something and you know where you're headed people will come for miles around to join you and want to do what you're doing. If you do NOT believe in what you're doing, why would anyone else? People want to be around those with vision and passion.

We all have good days and bad days, ups and downs, but what will carry your thru is your passion and love for what you're doing as well as your belief level. When I'm feeling sad, I stop, start to count my blessings and think of only good things. I state my goals in the present tense, and read them daily. I focus on where I'm going as if I'm already there, and it propels me along.



I had a call yesterday from a girl, that wants to join my business (eventually). I say eventually because every time she calls, the first words out of her mouth are what is wrong today. She says she will save up the money to start her business, but this month the car broke down, last month the TV broke (like who would not be richer without a TV), or she had medical bills, but one thing after another. She is so focused on what is wrong, she is attracting other things to her.

Personally, these things happen in life to everyone, yet, it's how you react and how you focus that makes the difference. If you are always saying you are broke or don't have the money for something (no matter what) you never will. You have to reach beyond those circumstances, and start to act and live as if you DID have the money, believe that you are moving ahead. When you believe that, all heaven and earth will open.

Years ago, when I was struggling, having quit my job way too soon. I had a belief that I would succed but I made many bad choices and spent a few years struggling. I watched one mlm after another crash and burn, till I hit rock bottom. I didn't know where I was going but I KNEW it was NOT going to be back into that JOB world I left. I believed I would climb out of the whole, find a company that truly cared about distributors, and was honest and ethical. I was not asking much just that they paid on time, had good products and were fair to all. I had a belief I WOULD find it and I would do well in time.

It didn't happen over night but 3 years ago I found my dream company, jumped in and went to work and today I'm doing very well. I have been blessed to find a team of fantastic people to work with, and was honored to be named distributor of the year by my company last month. It was really an honor that has to go to my team, they are amazing people and I love all of them. I love the company, the product and everything has been going well. It truly started with a dream and a belief, and it happened because I KNEW it would.

When you hit bottom, remember, the only way you can go is UP, and it's your choice. You can chose to win or you can chose to WHINE. You can complain or you can do something about it. It's all up to you and it all starts with your belief.

So what about you? Where are you headed? What do you believe you can do? If your attitude stinks, change it. Only you can do that. If bills are getting you down, believe you can make that change and take action to make it happen.

Say this every day: "If it's to be, it's up to me." You can change your future if you believe you can. You can make a difference in the world, if you take action. NOTHING Starts without you putting thing in to motion, but I know that if I can do it, anyone can. I had no special skills, talents or anything more than a desire for things to change, and a willingness to take action and make it happen. I knew and believed I had to do something, didn't know what or how, but the belief fueled me into action and here I am.



POOF….. You ARE what you believe. Go to work and change the world, one person at a time. Make a difference. You can do it. You are special.

I hope to see you at the top one day.

Diane "AKA MLMBlonde" Walker is a professional network marketer and author who has built her business using the power of the internet. She has also developed MULTIPLE income streams and is committed to helping others reach their dreams. She has a book coming out soon. For notice when it releases, go to http://jackanddianebook.com

For more articles by MLMBlonde visit http://mlmblonde.com

Reprinting this article is permitted with this footer included. Copywrite 2007 - Legendary Ventures

Be Accountable To Yourself

I was talking with one of my team earlier today and the subject came up of accountability. She shared with me it has taken her all this time to learn what it really takes to grow a business, and that is being accountable to herself.

As I thought of it, I thought that makes TOTAL sense. Think about this… if you want to build a business the top thing you need to do is take action. Many people take the action to start, and many go out and start sharing their business. They talk to lots of people, but they fail to follow up.

They also plan to work on their business. Sometimes they plan to but then the phone rings. It's someone inviting them to a movie, or out to dinner, or maybe a shopping trip. They think about that offer, and say to themselves, I'll work when I get back and go out just for a little while. After all, many work a JOB during the week so growing a business is in the spare time. Yet all too often they never get back to follow up with those they talked to. They spend time making excuses for themselves.

When they start they are all gun ho for a week or so, then, when things come up they need to do, they do not hold themselves accountable. Ask them if they are working their business or how it's going. They will say, fine. Ask them how much time they worked, and they begin backpedaling. They will say, they MEANT to work last week, but they were "tired" or they sneezed once so they must be coming down with a cold. Maybe their wife or husband, "demanded" they come watch a movie. They would have worked their business, but the MALL was calling them, or they thought they would watch one TV show before starting and fell asleep. When they woke it was too late, so they put it off another day. Or else, they could not make that phone call, because they misplaced the number. Then need to clean the office and get "organized". They are afraid to pick up the phone because the person they are calling might not be home, or might be eating, or whatever excuse they tell themselves.

I say if you want to make an excuse ANY will do. Just make a list of all the excuses you make, copy it and give it to your business partner and then when you find your business is not growing, you won't have to waste time making excuses, just say EXCUSE # 10 and move on.

If you ever intend to grow a business, you must be accountable. If you do not hold yourself accountable, you'll never make it in this business or any other. If you had a JOB, and decided to show up when you felt like it, you'd not have a job long.

If you commit to working 10 hours a week on your business, DO IT. Budget your time so you spend 10 PRODUCTIVE hours each week. Productive means talking to prospects about your products or services, and following up. The fortune is in the follow up. If you don't take time to follow up, you will one day run into that person you talked to at a meeting sponsored by someone else or worse yet, one day arrive at a company convention to find that person you "judged" as not interested is the key note speaker and lead distributor.

I've seen much in my career. I've seen MANY people that have told me they didn't follow up because they didn't want to bug anyone, only to later run into that same person and find they joined with someone else. The fortune is in the follow up and consistency. Learn to be accountable first to yourself and watch your business grow.

Speaking for myself, there have been many times over the years that I did NOT feel like working. It happens to everyone, you just get "lazy". I have found when I don't feel like working, I read my commitments and MAKE myself work anyway, and when I do, I'm always glad later I did. I take time off to enjoy life, but I also show up to work my business when I planned and don't let things get in my way. Stay on track, and over time, you'll be glad you did.

Early on you do have to work long and hard to get your business growing. If you want to have a future, it starts and ends with you. NO EXCUSES, just make it happen. Be accountable to yourself and you'll be glad you did.
I've always said you can make money or excuses but never both.

Hope to see you at the top one day.

Diane "AKA MLMBlonde" Walker is a professional network marketer and author who has built her business using the power of the internet. She has also developed MULTIPLE income streams and is committed to helping others reach their dreams. She has a book coming out the in a few months that will give a realistic look at our industry. http://mlmblonde.com


Reprinting this article is permitted with this footer included. Copy write 2007 - Legendary Ventures

Sticking it Out - Will you?

So many people just get blown out of the water and fail simply because they didn't stick around long enough to have success. Success is the result of good old fashioned work and effort.

What about you?

Did you ever decide you'd like to change things? Maybe you're sick and tired of making your boss rich? Sick of being told to get up and go to work day in day out, rain or shine and not enjoying your job. You may want to do something different, but what?

You look around. You begin to think "maybe, just maybe", you could find something to do that could help you break free of that hum drum existence. You see something that seems "easy" so you sign up and get started with a network marketing company or some affiliate type program that you could work online and you jump in, with little or no experience.

You're excited! You think you found the answer to freedom. You tell a few people and they laugh at you, and tell you you're crazy. They burst your bubble but you set out to prove them wrong.

A few months pass, and you find you're not rich, and retired and the "work" gets old. After all you have a day "job" and then may have to come home and work on learning a 2nd career…so you start to fade away. Friends invite you out for a night on the town and it's much more inviting than trying to build your business, so you go. You drift away and you eventually either give up, OR see another offer where the grass looks greener so you jump over there. You start over again and again, maybe with 2 or 3 different opportunities, but NONE make you rich, so you give up. You decide this won't work.

On the flip side of the coin, maybe you did sponsor a few people, but with a few people, you still are not rich and this is too hard, so you quit.

I find that SAD. Many times, those that gave up, and quit, left behind someone they sponsored that went on to do well, and that one person could have made the difference in their life. Many times it's NOT who you sponsor, but maybe someone they sponsor or someone that leads you to a person that becomes a great leader. However, remember you quit, so you don't even know it. Some of the best leaders on my team, came to my organization as a result of people that gave up.

I made a vow to myself 15 years ago when I decided to break out of the working world, and learn about this industry they call network marketing. That vow was this, "no matter how hard it gets or how many times I have to start over, I will NEVER QUIT. I saw that there really were people that were earning a living and many of them I saw were really kind of goofy people. I thought, it they could do it, I could too.

I never bought in to those stories of billionaires, and that. I also found many times there are stories about lifestyles and most of the time, while they may be true or semi true, the stories are NOT stories but more paid advertisements. I never bought into that kind of thing. I found that misleading. The masses do NOT make millions,however, what if you could make a decent living? What if you could replace your full time income in a few years? What if you could make a little more than your full time income but work for yourself instead? That's more realistic and that is more reality.

Sure there are millionaires in our industry, just like there are millionaires in every industry, but at what price? To get that kind of income takes much hard work, much effort. In the traditional world it may even take 6 or 8 years of expensive colleges, and also starting at the bottom and working your way up, and it's not easy. Why would anything think that becoming a millionaire in the networking industry would be an easy task? IT IS NOT and most people won't make it to the top of ANYTHING but it a job or be it network marketing. It's doable of course, but it's really more of a pipe dream.

Now… if you are truly serious, and you want to build a residual income that comes in and grows over time like interest in the bank, you can do it but you MUST be realistic. You must work. You must find a product you can believe in and you must sell it. YES I said sell. I do not care what business you're in, you are either selling a product or a service, or there is no business. A real business depends on people moving products.

Even if you have a JOB in accounting, someone in your company must be out there selling "SOMETHING" or your company is not going to be around long. You also had to sell, no matter what you do. If you went on a job interview, you had to sell them on hiring you. I don't know why people get scared when someone mentions "SALES". The world revolves around sales. No company survives without sales.

To be successful, you must be willing to get started with whatever you choose. You also must be willing to stick it out. The quote I live by (and I don't know who started it but it's been my very existence) is simply "Quitters Never Win and Winners Never Quit".

I chose NOT to quit. I chose to stay thru thick and thin. I decided if I stuck around long enough eventually I would find a winner of a company and product and move forward to build it. I had to start over many times but I never gave up and never let anything stop me and today I'm glad I did. What about you?

Remember…we all have the same choices. It's what we chose that makes the difference. You can chose to stay where you are in that job, and learn to live with it, love it and hope they don't downsize you….or you can chose to find something you can do to become independent, and build a future.

I am thankful I chose the later. My family on the other hand, chose the first "JOB world". This past year was a nightmare for both my kids. It breaks my heart to see, but they are of the menality that network marketing is like the company that started it all years ago, and they just don't believe in it even though they know I make a good living at it.

In 2007, I watched as both my son, and than later my son-in-law's companies came along and downsized them right out of their jobs that they had worked hard at to advance with. My son was fortunate enough to find another job within 2 months, and "start over" with a lesser salary where he can work his way back up. He also had to relocate and is presently stuck with a 500K home in another state he has to work on selling. This is the 4th time this has happened to him in his career. He has worked his tail off for the companies, and worked up running million $$$ operation only to have his head on the chopping block when they don't need him anymore or want to "cut back"

My son-in-law just lost his last "job" about a week ago. This has happened to him in the 15 years they have been married at least 5 times. He was relocated about 7 years ago to the north and a year later the company that sent him there downsized and closed that operation and he found himself without a job for the 2nd time in as many years. Each time he manages to find another "JOB" work hard, turn around operations for the company, and they take all his ideas, and suggestions, use them and then find someone that will work for less. This time, it is the company he WAS with, had a merger, they came in with all their own management staff. They downsized the entire company management and brought in their own… demoting everyone from the prior company and keeping them on…. (For 6 months or so). As soon as they learned about the new company they bought, they canned EVERY person from the old company cause they could now operate for less with people they didn't have to pay. So he's back in the JOB market.

Both of these are my "family". This is the "family" that has watched me build an income in network marketing thinking I'm not working, cause I don't report to a JOB. They also within the 4 or 5 companies they each were promoted thru got transferred to other states. Both were top performers in their companies so many times got sent on "trips" with company management, cruises and such and of course, I was the one to fly up and take care of the grandkids when they went. I didn't mind, I love traveling and I can work any place I have a cell phone and laptop…but again, perception. They think I don’t "work".

I say all this to say, many times your family can be your worst critic. Many times they don't GET it. Many times they think that JOB is security…but is it?

To me the reality is what I see, and in the Corporate America world these days there is NO Security. IMHO, I watch as big companys chop jobs, and ship our job over seas. Ever call for an air reservation, or a computer question these days and not be able to talk to a person that you can understand? Call your hotline for service? You talk to machines, that press 1 for this and go into a loop forever before finally gettting a live person. I'm not at all prejudiced, but I would like to talk to a LIVE person, that can speak fluent English. After all I live in America and am calling an American company. Bottom line, the companies are farming out our jobs overseas, cause they can pay peanuts and they only care about the bottom line $$$ so where is the security in that?

For my kids and family they are still trying to hang on to the past where you went to work for 40 years and retired with a gold watch. I think that only exists today in fairy tales. We have to carve our own future. If you have a good paying job today, consider yourself fortunate and blessed, but also stay on your toes because they may decided to hire someone for less and you may be out the door, just as my kids were this year.

Who's better off, them or me?

I could have quit early on, when people laughed at me or told me I was nuts. I could have easily thrown in the towel when companies failed me and closed, or I found out they were NOT what they said. Companies in network marketing are no better or worse than the corporate world in some cases so you do have to do your homework and find the right fit. However, with the skills and education I've gotten plowing thru the failures and weighing the options, I am thankful I didn't give up and stuck it out.

You have the same choices and same options. The thing is will you stick with it or will you give up and quit when the going gets rough. It is NOT an overnight thing, you will NOT be rich over night. You can make a living at this but it may take time to learn. If you are willing to get started and vow to NEVER a quit, you can become all you want to be.

I challenge you … take action. Action is the key and the future is here. Too many people put off making decisions, and then the years pass and they life in regrets. They WISH they had listened 2 or 3 years ago, but then again the only time you have is NOW. If you're considering doing something, do it NOW. Don't wait because tomorrow could be to late. Today is all any of us have.

Hope to see all of you at the top. Find something you love and get started carving out a future and don't wait another day. DO IT NOW!

Diane

Diane "AKA MLMBlonde" Walker is a professional network marketer and author who has built her business using the power of the internet. She has also developed MULTIPLE income streams and is committed to helping others reach their dreams. She has a book coming out the later part of 2007. Watch for the publication.

Click Here To learn more about MLMBlonde

Reprinting this article is permitted with this footer included. Copy write 2007 - Legendary Ventures

Are You a Member of the DRA

Communication is Key

When you are building a business communication is a key. Keeping in touch with customers, or prospective buyers is very important. Email these days has become so abused, that it not longer is of any great value.

Ecards are cool yet not quite as effective as REAL cards. In addition as of late e-cards are not always safe, and many have sent viruses instea of greatings.

Sometimes people feel real cards are quite time consuming, yet I found a great new way to send real cards at the click of a mouse. REAL cards get printed, stamped and set for me, from http://mailoutcards.com It's a fabulous new service.

Communication is the key to your success.

Happy New Year all

This is going to be the best year of my life, things are falling in place and really rocking. NEVER give up on your dreams. Thought I'd share with some of you this great new traffic generator, that will help you with whatever it is you're building online. It is pretty cool. Try your free add today and start off 2006 with a big bang.


alt="Get Linked from thousands of Classifieds for FREE with one click." width=468 height=60 border=0>

Busy Busy Season

I love holidays. They are such fun but they are also a pain, as time seems to be so busy we never seem to get any thing done. This year is no exception.

One thing to be thankful for though is in FLorida at least we have not had a hurricane yet in December. It's getting here so we only have a good 5 months of freedom from watching for those silly things, and packing up and unpacking. It's been quite nuts lately. I'm hoping next season is better.

Have all of you sent out your holiday greeting cards, yet? I was glad to get my 800 or so done and out. Now I can relax, and just finish up my shopping, wrapping and all that other fun stuff.

Wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Holidays are here

OMG, you can tell how busy it is this season. I have not even had time to visit my own blog. Christmas cards are BOOMING, business is rocking.

Have you sent your holiday cards yet? If not you can send a free one on me and try out this cool service I found called SendOutCards

Let me know what you think.



This blog is sponsored by GreetingCardLady a SendOutCards Affiliate

See us all on the MAP

Google has a great new feature where you can create a map. My friend George created on about our card business. You can visit it at http://www.frappr.com/sendoutcards

I thought that was very cool to put faces and names together, so I made a 2nd one, with my phone business. You can visit that map at http://www.frappr.com/cognigen

Hope you enjoy seeing us all on the map.

Do You Have Time?

This week, we've had our eyes on Hurricane Wilma. Lots of time as it's been so slow, we all sit and wait. We can't make any plans, as it was due to arrive here days ago. Unfortunately, this year has been totally unreal with one storm after the other.

I do feel so bad for all the folks from Katrina, and Rita, and those horrendous storms that did so much destruction. I am pretty thankful though that I have built my business over the years, so if something ever did happen, I would have income still coming in. Many are not blessed like that, and it's sad to see their homes and jobs wiped out over night.

I believe in freedom, but freedom does not come free. I takes much work and effort to grow a business. The reason more do not do that, is they find it too much work, and that's sad. Everyone that wants to build a business, has to make many sacrifices, as it does take giving up things now so you can have the freedome later.

It's all about choices. You take the time to do something now when you can, or later, it will be too late. Do YOU have the time?

TIME means building your own future and creating a way to have income no matter what happens. THINK ABOUT IT.

Little Things Add Up

Sometimes people don't think of these little things, but it's what you
do today, that has an impact on the rest of your life.

If you're building a business, this takes time. Sometimes, it seems ever
so slow, but those little things you do add up. If you consistently talk
to people, show your products daily and stick with what you're doing, over
time, those little daily actions will grow you a nice business. By the
same token, if you do nothing but THINK about getting started, putting that
off day after day, waiting for tomorrow to come, or waiting until the moon
is in proper alignment with all the planets, you are destined to fail.

It's nothing more than the law of cause and effect. I believe you get back
exactly what you put out. If you are NOT working your business, it will
not grow. It takes work and effort. It does not mean you have to give up
your entire life, but it does mean, you do put in some effort into your
business daily.

Just think: What if you gave up one hour of television and spent that
time productively working your business instead? What if you gave up
wasting time, in chat rooms and clowning around? What if you gave up
things that didn't matter, and put that time into showing someone how they
could become independent? What if you gave up only 1-2 hours a day, 5 or
6 days a week? What if you did that consistently over the next year until
it became a habit?

Habits good or bad take time to acquire. Make it a habit to make better
choices. Make it a habit to talk to people, show your product or your
services and do it DAILY. Be consistent. It's just the cause and
effect, the little daily actions you do over time that will produce the
results.

WHAT DO YOU WANT ?

WHERE DO YOU WANT TO BE 10 YEARS FROM NOW?

Whatever it is, getting there will require action, and it starts with the
first step, and commitment. Get started today, on the path to your
dreams. Make a commitment to yourself that you will make that extra
effort, to do something daily to grow your business.

Little things add up, good or bad and over time you get the results from
YOUR own efforts.

It's so sad to me that so many in our industry get started with a company
and a product. They get all excited, so excited they can't sleep at night
thinking of the potential. They go out and talk to a few people, that may
not share their excitement, so instead of moving on to talk to a few more,
they start to make excuses of why it may not work, and dwell on the
negatives and fall backwards.

Habits good or bad are habits, and it's not the person you're talking to
today that may turn into the superstar. It may be someone they talked to
that talked to someone else, and down the road, those that hang in there
and become consistent will reap a massive harvest.

In my own business, I have consistently worked it, and watched it
prosper. Today I'm working with some strong leaders and great people,
many of whom I didn't even KNOW last year. It's fun and exciting. You
never know who will lead you to someone that just takes off. However,
you won't find that someone unless you yourself, make a commitment to work
on reaching your dreams.

Little things can grow and add up into big things, as you keep on moving
forward.

Look back at your last month, (September). How did that go for you? IF
I asked you right now how many people you talked to in September could you
tell me? If I asked you how many new people came onto your team, do you
know? How many people did you talk to last week? Do you keep
track? How many did you follow up with?
Don't sweat the small stuff, cause when it's all said and done
it's all small stuff anyway. It's the little things that add up to
major things, so don't let little stuff get in the way of your future.

Little things... one by one, add up. IF you are taking action to move
forward in a positive way, doors start to open. If you're still sitting
wasting time, not opening your mouth, not talking to anyone, you'll still
be there till the cows come home. I know some people that have been
"THINKING" about making a decision to move forward for years, and are still
"THINKING" today. Thinking without action it totally useless and a big
waste of time.

IF I want to go to the store, I can THINK about it all day long, but
unless I get up, get the keys, go get in the car and drive there, I will
not have the items I was thinking about. If I THINK about calling a new
prospect, but I don't pick up the phone and dial the number, I can think
till hell freezes over, someone else will call that prospect, and tell him
about the same business, and he may join and become a super star. My
thinking about that, will do no good for me, if I didn't take the action to
follow up and call him.

STOP THINKING AND START DOING. Take action. Your life and your dreams
start NOW, and today is all you have. If you're still thinking, STOP
thinking and take action. It's the little actions you do that will carve
out your future.

ACTION is key...take action now and make those little things add up.

Hope your future is very bright. It all depends on YOU. Let me encourage
you to start today making the little things count in a big way.



About The Author

Diane "AKA MLMBlonde" Walker is a professional network marketer
that has build her business using the power of the internet. She has
also developed MULTIPLE income streams and is committed to helping
others reach their dreams. http://mlmblonde.com

Reprinting this article is permitted with this footer included.
Copywrite 2005 - Legendary Ventures

Willie Craford Has Some Great Advice

Have you heard of Willie Crawford, the marketing guru? He's pretty cool and I had the honor of meeting him last year.

He has a great new blog, where he talks about using greeting cards. Drop by and read his Blog when you have some free time on your hands. Just click here and it will take you there and save time.

Do You KNOW What You Really Want Out Of A Business?

Building a business takes really KNOWING what you want. Do you
really know what you want in building your business?

Many times people are sick of their jobs, or their mundane lifestyle
and think it would be fun to be free and not have to report for duty
every day. They may THINK they want a different life, yet sometimes
they really do NOT know what they want.

They dream about freedom, yet they are AFRAID of it. What IF it
didn't work?

They also think they want to build an on-line business, so they jump
on-line and look around to study and see what is available. All too
often they jump into things without doing their homework, or even
considering if it makes sense.

Most of the time they joined in the spur of the moment, and later
found out that to get the income they wanted, also takes work.

On the flip side of those that jump to quick are those that NEVER
can make a decision, they look and look, and kick tires, ask questions
and basically waste your time. You have to learn to recognize the
different types of people. You will meet them all.

FIND OUT WHAT THEY WANT

Get to know people that are looking at working with you. Take time
to build a relationship and help them find out what they want. If
they don't know what they want, there is NO way they will get
any place.

Spend QUALITY time with quality people, people that do what
they SAY and people that are willing to take action.

Knowing yourself and knowing what you want it the first step
in getting there.

Building a business is a lot of fun but it's also challenging.

It takes being self disciplined as you must learn to budget your time
and work only this work is different. There is no boss standing
over your head with a club or an ax. You must show up, budget
your time and work.

Too often it's easy to SAY you are going to work, but when someone
invites you out to do something fun, or a TV rerun comes on, it's easier
NOT to work. If you think about your "JOB", how long would you be
working there if you only showed up when you felt like it.

IT TAKES COMMITMENT.

I've been both places, in the corporate world, where I reported to
work each day, rain or shine and had to ask for time off, and when
I did get it, I had to make up my work.

I've been in networking when I worked a JOB and had to do that part time
and I've been thru the ups and downs of building a business only to have
it close down, or worse yet to find I'd been associated with crooks and
have to walk away.

It's NOT Easy, but I can tell you, I would rather spend the rest of my life
in my own business, than ONE day ever again working for someone else.
I have become UNEMPLOYABLE and intend to stay that way.

I've worked hard, learned the hard way but it's been worth it and a true
blessing. I've grown from being that shy quiet person, into someone
that found there was NOTHING to be afraid of by going after my dreams.

Today, I work for me. I come and go as I please. Last month, the income
I earned for the month of February, was about 50% of what I used to make
for an ENTIRE year and then some and that was exciting.

I drive the car of my choice, and I get to travel and go places, and see the
world. This year, I am going on 2 cruises, and several cross country
trips, already booked and paid for. My house is paid for, and I pay
off all my charges each month.

When I worked in the corporate world I never could take off more than
4-5 days TOPS at any given time, so certainly would never have had
time for a 2 week cruise. I also had added expenses, transportation,
and wear and tear on my car.

Today my office is a 30 sec commute across the hall. My new SUV
I purchased last May has only 4,000 miles on it. I don't have to go
out when there is traffic, I plan to go when the others are stuck at work.
I go when there is no traffic, and no lines.

Life is good. It changed for me forever and it can change for you.

It started changing when I began to think about what I really wanted,
and ways to get it.


NEVER LISTEN TO THOSE THAT TELL YOU IT CAN'T BE DONE

I have been told my the so called "experts" that NO ONE can build
a business on the Internet. They say network marketing takes face
to face room meetings. HMMMM Wrong! I've built my business
90% online.

They also way no one can build an income in more than one company
at once...after all you have to FOCUS. WRONG AGAIN. That is a
lie companies want people to think so they can control them. If I wanted
to follow being told what to do I would have kept my "JOB". I now have
3 very solid incomes flowing in each month, some weekly checks and
some monthly checks.

I just hired a new financial planner to set up some retirement type
accounts, and invest some $$$ for the future. My accountant also
handles all the tracking of things and it works well.

It took me YEARS and YEARS to learn this one simple fact. Why
should I be doing yard work, when I could earn more money in that
time working my business and hire it done? Why should I spend
weeks and days trying to keep books, when I can hire an expert
throw everything in an envelope and let him keep the books. I
have learned to spend MY time working with my teams, being
sure they have the tools to succeed, and when they succeed I
succeed. I spend quality time with quality people.

I have learned NEVER to drag along people, it's much easier
to work with those that want to work. It's easier to run with 100
than to drag one. Don't drag.


WHAT ABOUT YOU?

What do you truly want? Are you really happy where you are?

Do you report to a JOB each day you hate? Do you count the hours
till you can get off to go where you'd rather be?

Do you have to get up to a blaring alarm clock when you're rather sleep in?

Do you have to go out rain, sleet or hail, sit in traffic that crawls along
cause the masses are going at the same time? I never figured out why
they call that RUSH hour when no one is rushing, they are sitting bumper
to bumper.

Do you constantly worry about layoffs? Do you think you will have the
same JOB 10-20 years from now or do they put people out to pasture
before they can retire?


THINK ABOUT THIS: IF time and money were NO object, what would you
be doing with your life?

What do you TRULY want? What are your dreams?

Dreams are MADE to happen. What is stopping you from living the life
of your dreams?

I am doing exactly what I want today, because I refused to let anyone
tell me I could NOT succeed in what I wanted to do. I wanted to build
a business of my own, where I could have true residual income coming in
whether I worked or not. Today I do.

I wanted to be in a position to help others learn to grow into positive
motivated people, and read their dreams as well, and today I do. I am
truly blessed to be able to work with some of the best people in the world.

I'm working with people today, that I never ever dreamed I would be working
with. It's been fun, and we're building our dreams together.

What about you? Where do YOU want to be TOMORROW? Always
remember, the journey starts with the FIRST step. You must be willing
to step up to the plate, buckle down and start working on making those
dreams happen.

IF you can dream it you can DO IT. It's up to you. The world can be
yours, but it starts with taking action. Put feet to the dreams and make
them happen and you will be glad you did.

Where were you 10 years ago? Are you any better off today? Where will
you be in another 10 years if you keep doing the same thing you're doing
today? ASK YOURSELF. This is between YOU & YOU alone.

WHAT DO YOU WANT? Write it down and then go get it. NOTHING can
stop you except yourself.

Go to work, make those dreams happen and maybe one day we will meet
in Maui.

Regards
Diane
`*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
For top stories, updates, blonde jokes and tips visit
http://mlmblonde.com

Look under "Cool Stuff" for news of the day.

We're Reaching The World

We're really beginning to spread and help people all around, become senders of cards and reach their dreams.

My friend Kim just started her own blog as well and I was very impressed. For a very first blog ever she did an excellent job. Her blog is about why she started a home business. You may want to read her story.

Enjoy.

Do You Want To Be A Success?

You want to be a success? SIMPLE.
Pattern yourself after success. Learn who
is really successful and who is just talking.

Learn to recognize the diamond in the rough.
Unfortunately in our industry, you will find many
blowing smoke, talking big, and flashing checks.
When I meet someone like that I RUN.

I've found that those that talk the least, usually
do the most. People that spout off with how
"BIG" they are and "GREAT" they are, usually
are big ok, they are big windbags.

FAKE IT

Ever hear someone say fake it till you make it? I
say BULL. I can spot a fake a mile off. People that
talk about how much they are making and flash
checks rarely tell you the other side of the coin.

I get so sick of people telling others to USE the
checks of their "UPLINES" to entice people in the
business. Ever have someone call you and spout
off how many tens of thousands their "sponsor" or
"sponsors sponsor" took to the bank last week?

WONDERFUL I could care less. I could care
less how much THEY took to the bank unless
they want to put it in MY bank account.

What I want to know when I evaluate a business is:

1. Do I have a product, people would use if this
was NOT a business opportunity

2. Would I buy the product if I was NOT going
to do the business and is it a fair price?

3. Can I make money selling this product even
if I never sponsored a soul?

4. How many hoops would I have to jump thru
to make a 5 or 6 figure monthly check and is
that realistic?

NOW OUTSIDE OF THAT, I do NOT care who's
upline made what or how many fake checks they
flash. Usually those flashing the checks are in
a borrowed or leased car, just barely making the
payments. OR worse yet, I've seen them in a
car that was so run down, barely running yet them
claiming to be making 10,000 a week. Use
common sense folks.

If you want to succeed, look for someone sincere
that is not afraid of work, because it does take
work and lots of it. If you are looking for a business,
and someone shows you a product or a service, that
does NOT mean you own them your life or you HAVE
to join them. Use common sense. Learn more about
THEM, before making a business decision to join
someone. I learned that the hard way.

All too often in this industry the person that shows you
some hot product, is on to the next hot product before
the ink is dry on your sign up. That is sad by true.

WHY do you think that is?

SIMPLE...they are looking to get rich OVER NIGHT,
without having to take the time and effort to learn how
to work and grow a business. Unfortunately their ship
will never come in because growing a business takes
much time and effort. You must first work on your own
skills, develop them, learn as you go.

If you want to learn, don't ask your next door neighbor,
or your spouse, mom or dad, unless they are already
highly successful in a business of their own. If they
have an 8-5 job, if they life paycheck to paycheck, or
if they live by watching TV and drinking beer, they are
NOT someone that is going to know what it takes to
build a future. You can love them, You can be their
friend, but for goodness sake, when it comes to
evaluating a business they are NOT the person to be
talking to.

LOOK AROUND. If you see a product or a service
you think fits you and you can build a future with, then
find someone you respect and admire to ask about it.
Look for people walking the walk not talking. Look
for someone that is real not someone that tells you
that you will be rich tomorrow because you won't.

Find the product and find the right person you want to
work with and then take ACTION. Go to work. Plan
to invest 3-5 years, in developing, learning skills and
growing a business.

Don't quit at every bump in the road as there will be
many. When you go on a road trip and run into a
detour, you don't turn around and go home. Expect
challenges as there will be plenty of them. Learn
to LOVE change and challenges, because they
help you grow personally and personal growth
and development is cornerstone to your success.

I was on a call this week lead by one of my mentors
and he said something that really hit home with me.
He said everyone will have challenges, it's how you
deal with them that makes the difference.

Sometimes when things go wrong, you are RIGHT
yet, you have to learn sometimes, to give in and work
with people. You can ALWAYS be right or you can
be rich. Right or rich, which would you pick?

CHOOSE and then take responsibility for yourself.

Sadly in my career in this industry, I've never had anyone
I could really depend on, so I had to learn on my own for
most of the time, and I made MANY mistakes. Today I
can say I am thankful for those hard times and I learned
MUCH more from the mistakes than from anything else.

When you have children, you can tell them that something
is HOT till you are blue in the face. They may listen, they
may not. BUT.... once they do NOT listen, touch something
that is HOT that you warned them about and get burned, they
remember and they don't too often do it again.

My son was great about listening and not touching things. My
daughter was stubborn and if you said not to do something, that
made her more determined to do it. She didn't listen once and
got burned on a hot grill, and she NEVER did that again. Not
only did she NOT do that again, but is she was around when
the grill was on, she was only 2 or 3, but she WARNED others
when they came close, she would say "HOT HOT HOT", and
not go near it.

So learn from your mistakes. Did you get burned once in a
bad company? Did you have a bad upline? What happened?
LEARN FROM IT. Learn what not to do next time and keep on
going.

You get rich by going to work, taking the time to learn and patterning
yourself after those you admire and see that are doing what it takes
to get there. You do well, buy facing reality, and reality is that it
IS possible, if you are willing to pay the price. The price is taking
CONSISTENT action. Reality is working your business every day
and giving yourself time to develop the skills needed to succeed.

I am NOT the same person today that I was 10 years ago. Those
that know me today, would NOT recognize me from the person I
was. Ten years ago, I was scared to death to open my mouth.
Ten years ago I was shy, and very timid. If you had told me I
MIGHT ever be invited to be a guest on a phone conference, or
I might call a stranger on the phone, I'd have thought you lost your
marbles.

I had NEVER been anyplace but to visit relatives. I had NEVER seen
any states outside the east coast. I had NEVER flown any place or
gone any place alone.

Today I've become a seasoned traveler, and I LOVE traveling. I've
taking many cruises, and I've visited most every state. I'm missing
a few in the New England area, and also Oregon and New Mexico.
I'll see them someday, when I feel like it...but I've been all over the
country, and also to Mexico, Ireland, Aruba and Canada.

All those places I've been have been thanks to Network Marketing.
I'm having a ball, I'm enjoying meeting new people and I live a different
life today.

I'm NOT independently wealthy, I'm NOT a millionaire, I'm an average
person. I do live on my income from Network Marketing and my
total income is about 3-4 times more than when I used to have a
60 hour job where I reported for duty 10 or 11 hours a day sometimes.
Back then I made decent with overtime, but had no time to spend it.

The biggest difference is I do NOT owe my time to anyone. I do NOT
get up to an alarm clock. I am NOT told I HAVE to work Saturday at
4 PM on Friday night as I used to be. I do NOT have to ask for a day
off. I do not have to save up vacation time to do something.

I Do drive the car I want not the car can afford. I read about high gas
prices, which are a pain but really I don't drive enough to be effected
as the poor person that has no choice.

I work from home, using the Internet and the telephone. I just recently
joined my local chamber to react businesses in my community and
have found such GREAT reception that I wonder why I didn't do that
sooner. I guess the only answer to that is until now, I didn't have
a unique enough product to reach out to my community, but now I
do. I want to get out there and share before someone else does.

BOTTOM LINE. I have learned from my mistakes and learned I had
a choice to chose, of fail. When times got tough, I had a chose to
win or lose, quit or carry on. I had to start over a number of times
as I made poor choices of companies, or people, but I NEVER quit.
I never gave up and I kept learning from mistakes and moving on
and today I'm GLAD I Did.

I write this newsletter in hopes that I will be able to help just ONE
person, get over their fears and be a success. I want to give back
to our industry and make a difference. I want to tell the truth and
take a stand for us all and make a difference.

SO...as you're out their building your dreams, PLEASE tell the
truth, don't hype, don't flash checks of your leaders, just learn
to be yourself, be honest and develop your own story.

Before the riches, comes much change, personal growth and development.
IF you realize that, and you stick it out, you're well on your way. Hope to
meet you one day as we cruise the beaches of the world together.



About The Author

Diane "AKA MLMBlonde" Walker is a professional network marketer
that has build her business using the power of the internet. She has
also developed MULTIPLE income streams and is committed to helping
others reach their dreams. http://mlmblonde.com

Reprinting this article is permitted with this footer included.
Copywrite 2005 - Legendary Ventures

Jack is teaching me to ANCHOR

My friend Jack Spirko who owns broadband phone services website has a new page where other blogers that blog about VoIP Service can list their Broadband Phone Blogs

He showed me how to do these anchors too, he's a really smart friend.

Home of MLMBlonde - Home

Home of MLMBlonde - Home

Weather is off and on

It was clear here for a while so we ran out to get something to eat and look around. Looks like normal rainy weather with light winds that's about all.

I guess we picked a good time. We just got back in time and the skies opened up but it's stopped, it's the bands are coming and going.

I guess a rainy Saturday is good. Karen shared a NEAT blog with me she's making. http://easytostayclose.blogspot.com/

She did a good job about showing how fun and easy it is to send cards from home and that was a cute photo she put up. GOOD JOB Karen.

Dennis Is moving thru

Well here we are, Dennis is going to MISS us. He is way out in the gulf (THANK GOODNESS)
Unfortunately the tail end of him is starting to move in now with heavy rainds and wind gusts. He is a big storm.

We're starting to see some wind gusts, and rain. I'm thankful for my power and the fact I can stay inside and watch. I plan to get on the training call for my greeting card business in 20 minutes, so I will listen to the all, and watch th rains that are jus starting to come in now.

I feel sorry for our neighbors to the north in Pensacola, they have not recovered from Ivan and here comes Dennis.

Anyway, that's my updates from Tampa Bay. Just winds and rain.

Hurricane Dennis

It's hard to believe a year has passed and we're in the same situation AGAIN. I'm feeling sorry for Pensacola as it looks like Dennis has his eye on them AGAIN. Ivan did them in pretty bad, but who would think another storm would come the next year aiming the same way.

I've had lots of friends online asking about the storms. If you're not from Florida, it's hard to imagine, but we're kind of taking a laid back wait and see on this one. Right now it's looking like the Panhandle, but who knows, these things really have a mind of their own.

Today was a beautiful warm (acutally HOT HOT HOT ) sunny day, until about 5 pm.

Hubby came home and decided it MIGHT be a good idea to go out and get some gas for his new generator. I'm still shaking my head on the need for this generator, guess it's a new Florida tool. We've lived in the state all our lives, and never owned a generator. We had one bad year with storms and now we need one..... LOL

Anyway so now we have a beautiful new $1600 Generator, that I for one hope we never need or use.

I really think he only wanted it because last year I bought 3 or 4 dozen cases of water, and thru it into the deep freeze so for the whole hurricane season, everytime hubby wanted something out of the Freezer he would cuss at me. Heck I was only being logical, I drink lots of diet coke with ice and I hate WARM water to drink so figured if I froze it all, we'd not run out.

It turned out for one storm I kept power but our neighbors didn't so I ended up sharing frozen water with them and they were thankful.

With the generator, hubby tells me he can run the freezer and refrigerator, so I don't need to freeze my water. I'm still wondering though it the electric goes OFF..... will the ICEMAKER pump the water into it to get ice?

IF anyone knows that one tell me.. I can't imagine not having my ice maker. Boy are we spoiled or what, Give me ICE and Air conditioning and my internet connection and the wind and rain can blow all it wants, I'll be happy.

ANYWAY about 5 pm, we went out to get something to eat and go get hubby's gas, and of course that's when the wind and rain decided to start up so we got DRENCHED coming back home. But we got his gas, so we're all ready and good to go.

So..To all you in the north, It's Friday midnight and we're fine in central Florida.

Looks like Dennis is down blowing around in Cuba and the Keys. As long as you see me online, you know I HAVE POWER ...and POWER IS EVERYTHING when you're in FLORIDA IN JULY.

GO AWAY DENNIS...

Di

Here We Go Again

It's that season again, already we're working on the 3rd tropical storm of the season.

Scary stuff going on in Florida this year. My neighbor had some violent nightmares about some really bad storms coming this year, and the state of Florida exploding. They were so vivid that she sold her home and is getting out of the state and moving to Tennessee.

I was outside tonight and they were loading up the cards, and packing and were ina hurry to leave fast before the next storms come. I came in and told hubby, I kind of felt like I was living in the days of Noah's Ark. I certainly hope she is way wrong, just in case she wasn't I thougth I'd add the prediction to this blog before the season starts in full swing.

Let's all hope she's wrong.

Hurrican season AGAIN

Geez, can't believe it's almost a year since I started a blog..I'm not very good at keeping it up, I just get much too busy for this.

Here we are in hurricane season again, only this time well prepared. Hubby got us a generator, and we even have fashlights that do nto take batteries. All these years in Florida and I have not had need for any of these, one bad season and hubby thinks we need things we probably won't use.

Oh well, we're all prepared unless we blow away.

Life Is Passing US By

WHEW, Ever heard how time flies..... I think it's going lighning speed. I keep meaning to get over here and keep up this blog, yet, time goes by faster than the speed of light and I never seem to be good at this like some that do it every day.

I'm building a new business these days in the greeting card line and it's been so busy. It's fun, yet, hard to break away and do things like blogs and other things. I tend to get very focused when I'm starting up and building a new line. Greeting cards are such fun. You can show people you care about them, you can make them feel good about themselves. When you do that, it comes back to you 10 fold, so I spend my day, letting people try out the service and see for themsleves what it can do for their lives.

Thinking about it, in the long run it saves me lots of time. Prior to this I used to run to the store, to get someone a card, (If I remembered). Then I would maybe make it home without losing it, and set it down till I had time to find the address, most of the time it never got sent out. I have a pile of unsent cards here. I meant well but just never finished the thought.

Now I can, and I'm having fun with it. Time is still passing by but I'm accomplishing much more. IF you know anyone that wants to send a free card, and try out the service, send them over to http://mailoutcards.com and I will let them send one free.

Meantime.. Life goes on and on and on.....but that's a good thing. Back work I go. Thanks for dropping by.

Getting What You Want

With hurricane's gone for a while, I have been busy growing my business. Originally I started this blog to learn how to blog and to share and help others avoid mistakes I've made so I'm going to attempt to get back to doing that as time permits.


Do you know what you want?

REALLY TRULY do you?

What is it?

Knowing exactly what you want and being able to share thatand tell someone is the first step to getting it. If you don't know what you want, how would you know if you get it?

Think about that

.Once you know what you want, then it's time to work on getting it.Action is key to that. First thing is going to work to make thingshappen, and finding a business or opportunity you can work toget what you want out of life.

Once you find that, then it is a matter of staying around long enoughto achieve your dreams, and making them all come true.Too often people figure out what they want, then they find a companyor vehicle they think will get them there, they jump in and go to workfor a few weeks, or a few months.

It's very easy to do somethingfor a month or 2, but when 4 or 5 months go by, and people findthey are NOT rich, their interest starts to fall off.

People expect INSTANT gratification, and it does not work that way.It's really a shame, as I've seen some really great people give up way too soon, only right before they would have reaped the benefitsof their work.

In the beginning you do work hard to get things kicked off and running but as you get that rolling, later on, you don't have to work near as hard, and things fall into place.

I started in this industry OVER 10 years ago, and the first 5 yearswere a real learning experience in what NOT to do. I made all theclassic mistakes and even some that they never thought of. It was horrible, and costly.Through it all, I had to start over many times, but never ONCE didI ever think of quitting, simply because I knew If I gave up and quit then the crooks of our world would win. I knew I would find an honest company, run by honest people and find a team of spectacular people to work with and I'm happy to say I have andI'm truly blessed.

So whatever it is you truly want, GO FOR IT.

Never let anyone or anything stop you from becoming the best that you can be.

Never let anyone steal your dreams.Know what you want and go get it.

Just plan to work your way there.I know if I can do it, ANYONE CAN.
Go to work and I'll see you at the TOP!

Life in the fast lane

After the hurricanes, life goes on. I sort of got away from recapping things and got busy with life. I spent a few weeks in Minnesota for the holidays, came home for a few days and then flew to Utah, to visit the card company I just added to my business.

Photos: http://picturetrail.com/mlmblonde

Life has been busy since I found this little card company because it just makes so much sense, it's been growing like crazy. The cards are prices 50-60% less than someone can buy them in the store In addition to that, it's convenient. People don't have to run to the store, go buy postage, or run around.

So it's really a NO Brainer, and I've been having fun showing it to people and they love it and they tell others and it's been wild. I've been giving free demos at http://mailoutcards.com

So I'm back to working like crazy, but it's fun.

What a life - After the hurricanes.

I guess I'm just not a good blogger. Once the hurricanes past and everyone quit calling to ask about them, somehow I got busy again and not been back to my own blog. OOOPS.

Life has been good. We were lucky in our area to have survived in tact. Other area of our state were not so fortunate and are still recovering, but myself I'm back to work. I'm building a business having left the corporate world almost 10 years ago now. Hard to believe how time flies.

During this hurricane season I was counting myblessings that I didn't have to report for duty anywhere. I work from home and with the internet I can be any place. I could not imagine ever going back to the old life of the JOB world. Sometime I'll write my book and tell about the transition from the JOB mentality to the life of independence. It's possible to break out but it does take some real mind tranisitions.

I just set up a new link exchange page so I'm going to link in my blog. IF you want to link to me you can do so at http://getaT1quote.com click on resources when you get there.

Meantime, I'm back alive and kicking and back to building my business.

Speaking of business, it's holiday season. How are you sending your greetings this year? I found a great new income source and tool for any business at the same time. IF you would like a free demo, fill in the form at http://mailoutcards.com and I will set up for you a free account to mail a card and try out the service.

Well back to my ball game, Bucs are tied at 14 all, I'm a die hard Bucs fan.

UPWARDS AND ONWARDS

Diane

GetaT1quote.com - Best prices and services in T1 lines

Keeping a sense of humor

Good thing us Floridians are tough, resiliant, and have a sense of humor. All sorts of jokes, photo's and things have been going around about the state where we can't count votes, and attract so many storms.

I received the following from a friend, It's a HURRICANE QUIZ :

Editor's Note: In preparation for hurricane season, I have put together a quick little quiz for people on the West Coast (most notably California) who may be visiting a southernstate. (No, Arizona is not a southern state) . .

.1. How are hurricane's names selected?
a. Named after Congressmen who are full of hot air
b. Names of spouses are submitted by divorced people
c. Page 824 in Miami's phone book
d. Hurricanes don't care what you call them

2. What do they call the most severe hurricane?
a. Category 5
b. Red Alertc. Costlyd. OHHHHH MYYYYY . . .

3. If a hurricane Guido with wind speeds of 104 MPH leaves theNorthwest African coast on Wednesday at 7:04 AM and is traveling Westat 16 MPH and hurricane Isabel with wind speeds of 93 MPH leaves KeyWest at 24 MPH on Thursday at 11:32 AM, when would they meet?
a. Tuesday at 3:18 PM, but their luggage would be in Paris
b. Never, Isabel doesn't want to have anything to do with ablowhard like Guido
c. Never, Guido said that there's no place for Isabel to stopand ask directions; she'll probably end up in Rio
d. Trick question - hurricanes don't depart from Key West

4. You're flying in a small, single engine plane. You look up and seea hurricane directly ahead. What's the first thing you think?
a. It's got the right of way! It's got the right of way!
b. This is the last time I fly no-frills.
c. I can't believe she's going to get EVERYTHING now!
d. I gotta change my shorts!

5. A hurricane is dangerous if . . .
a. You get in its way
b. it's had a REALLY bad day
c. you try to stop it to ask directions
d. you do not yield right of way

6. How do forecasters know a hurricane is coming?
a. Hurricanes ALWAYS leave a forwarding address
b. They have REALLY good binoculars
c. Hurricanes LOVE the beach
d. They send out a bunch of small boats and plot the sinkings

7. How can you protect your house in the event of a hurricane?
a. Sell it - QUICK
b. Bury it and dig it up later
c. Cover it with leaves and pretend it's a big bush
d. Duct tape

8. What is the first thing you should do if a hurricane is confirmedto be heading in your direction?
a. Check your supplies for the big hurricane party
b. Air drop a roadmap into the eye, of another area
c. Put out all your trash for immediate air disposal
d. Begin drawing plans for the new house you will soon be building

9. What should you NOT do if a hurricane is coming?
a. Begin those remodeling plans you've been putting off
b. Put the cat or dog out (unless on a LONG leash)
c. Cancel your homeowner's insurance
d. Go on a picnic, to the beach.

10. When is it a good time to evacuate your home?
a. When the water level reaches the roof
b. When your in-ground swimming pool becomes airborne
c. Shortly after your roof is declared a UFO
d. When people ask how you constructed a home without outer walls

11. Where should you evacuate?
a. A nearby lowland to wait out the floods
b. A tall location, like on top of a radio tower or Florida'smountains
c. Anywhere that has a happy hour and free munchies
d. Out to sea on a small craft

12. Why should you not stay close to the beach
a. All the best spots are probably taken
b. Track in too much sand
c. Cooler keeps blowing away
d. Hard to stay put under the 50' waves

13. If the eye of the hurricane passes overhead, you should not . . .
a. stare; it's impolite
b. make direct eye contact
c. offer it some Visine
d. ask if it's seen Dorothy and Toto

14. What happens after the eye passes?
a. Stay very still; maybe it didn't see you
b. It can't see you any more
c. You can expect the nose, followed by the mouth, etc.
d. It winks and waves good-bye

15. What should you do first after a hurricane passes?
a. Locate your computer
b. Determine if your computer is operational
c. Contact your insurance agent about replacing your computer
d. See if your spouse, kids and pets are around; get back to your computer

16. Who should you turn to if you need help after a hurricane?
a. Local government (also blown away)
b. State government (can't afford to help)
c. Federal government (doesn't care)
d. Foreign governments (the Japanese are looking for investments)

17. What happens a year after you're hit by a hurricane?
a. Still looking for pieces of your house
b. Still looking for pieces of your computer
c. Still looking for pieces of yourself
d. The government sees you've started rebuilding; concludes you need no emergency help.

The Next Month

Boy how things change. Storms have passed and I've finally ventured out to check round and fortunatley found most of my area intact. Driving across north Tampa, most of our power has been restored, you see signs down, broken trees, and debree but nothing really MAJORLY bad like our poor friends to the south and north. I know there are many areas around here that have been flooded and I feel bad for them. Comparied to the other parts of our state I feel truly blessed.

Now.. 2 storms Frances and Jeanne passed directly over us. What a difference though.

With Frances we had company and we all sort or were glued to the tv and really focused on the storm.
Frances also was noisy and LONG...days long and the winds howled. The news only gave info mostly effecting our area so our company didn't know what was going on in their area about 70 miles away.

With Jeanne we had only myself and my father in law. Our other friends decided to stay home and watch from there. With Jeanne also, the week before I found an EXCEPTIONAL new product line to add to my business and I was totally engrossed in showing the product to as many as I could because in the back of my mind I knew if I lost power, It may be weeks before I could share so I spent the entire day on the phones and online, so didn't pay as much attention to the storm other than to see the winds and rain out my office window.

FORTUNATELY, I did not lose power OR cable OR phones, so I got to stay online and on the phone the entire day. I found my mental state much better than being focused so much on tragedies and the scary storm also those I showed my new tool to were EXCITED and blown away that something so simple, could be so powerful and help them in their business.

Should you have a business or want to use a tool that will make your life much easier, feel free to write me or go to my own site at http://mlmblonde.com/contact and fill in your information and tell me you want me to demo this new product to you. It will take 5 minutes of your time and I can guarantee it, if you see this and use it, it will DEFINITELY improve your customer renention and referrals for you no matter WHAT you do. It's too cool. (just put a note on the form that you want me to show you the demo, so I will know )

ANYWAY back to the hurricanes, people are sending all sorts of funny jokes, one of them I saw our state moved up to ND, another I saw a big cloud over our entire state with a note as to us being under it, I've seen our state renamed to the Plywood state, another graphic with our state under sheets of plywood.

Today someone sent me the following ways to KNOW if you are a TRUE Floridian which I will post here:

At least they still have a sense of humor!!!YOU MIGHT BE A FLORIDIAN IF..........

You have more than 20 C and D batteries in your kitchen drawer.

The freezer in your garage is full of homemade ice.

You flinch when you are introduced to a person named Charley, Frances, Ivanor Jeanne.

You find yourself dropping words like "millibar", "convection","hunkerdown", "eye wall" into everyday conversation.

Your pantry contains more than 10 cans of Spaghetti Os.

Making coffee on your propane grill does not seem like an odd thing to do.

You are thinking of repainting your house to match the plywood covering yourwindows.

When describing your house to a prospective buyer, you say it has threebedrooms, two baths and one safe place.

You are on a first-name basis with the cashier at Home Depot.

You are delighted to pay $2 for a gallon of unleaded.

The road leading to your house has been declared a No-Wake Zone.

You decide that your patio furniture looks better on the bottom of the pool.

You have the number for FEMA on your speed dialer.

You own more than three large coolers.

You can wish that other people get hit by a hurricane and not feel the leastbit guilty about it.

Three months ago you couldn't hang a shower curtain; today you can assemblea portable generator by candlelight.

You catch a 5-pound catfish. In your driveway.

You can recite from memory whole portions of your homeowners insurancepolicy.

At cocktail parties, women are attracted to the guy with the biggest chainsaw.

You have had tuna fish more than 5 days in a row.

There is a roll of tar paper in your garage.

You can rattle off the names of three or more meteorologists who work at theWeather Channel.

Someone comes to your door to tell you they found your roof.

Ice is a valid topic of conversation.

Relocating to North Dakota does not seem like such a crazy idea.

You never have more than $20 worth of meat, and frozen foods in your refrigerator at any given time.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The jokes are sort of sad but true. It's a good thing we Floridians have a good sense of humor. After all, we can't vote right, as we can't punch those little "chads" . So they gave us electronic machines, with computers that can't count. We messed up the last 2 nationwide elections down here, and now we've weathered the past 4 direct hits from hurricanes.

We're weathered but TOUGH. So back to the drawing board, I've got lots more demos to do to help others before I hear the NEXT one is headed this way. Last time I turned on the TV, Lisa was going away and I have not heard further if Mathew is coming along, but this weekend it's a beautiful mild and sunny day out, with light breezes.

Unfortunately I WISH we would get a little stronger breeze to knock down the broken branches way up in the oak tree that are hanging by just a thread. Can't put my car in the one driveway safely till we get those down, and of course we are on the WAITING list for at least a dozen tree companies. Unless your tree split your house in half, you are NOT a priority in hiring tree labor in Florida....so we have to wait till our # comes up or the branches up there get SHOOK down as they need a buckt truck to get to where they are.

On a positive note, at least we have a new mail box and the debree from Jeanne has already been picked up. That a good thing.

The other funny thing that happened in my city, is our BRILLIANT city manager decided to "COMMUNICATE" with our community daily to let us know what's happening in cleaning up the messes. Well our city was NOT hit all that hard. I happen to be on the crime watch with a neighbor. The CITY voted without telling us, that the crime watch people can be COMMAND central for their neighborhood. Well that SOUNDS good, but what it really means is they drop off 200 PLUS copies of what's happening for us to walk around to EVERY house in the subdivison, which is 4 streets each 3 blocks long and 2 side streets, a task that would take 1-2 hours a DAY.

They wanted us to deliver these DAILY like you get a newspaper (do I look like newspaper delivery???) LOL

It would be one thing if our neighborhood was devastated and no one had power and we all needed the information quickly, but instead it looked like repeated information each day.

Things like THIS: (My commenst follow in brackets)

1 We do NOT have to Boil our water. (HMMMM ok so what's new. I would think I would NEED to know if I HAD to boil my water Not the other way around. SO what if I didn't know and boiled it anyway...nothing lost)

2. IF you have damage, you need to make temporary repairs till the adjuster comes (DUH like who would not cover a hole in the roof?)

3. School is closed on Monday ( HMMM why did I need to know that on WED)

4. For those without power, they are working on restoring it. You will see trucks in your neighborhood when they are working on yours (DUH)

Anyway you get the IDEA. Our brilliant city manager in an effort to communicate decides we should all run around the neighborhood giving these sheets out daily (and who paid for all the paper and copies....taxpayers). NICE GESTURE but not too much thought in it. When I called and mentioned I thought it was a LOT to ask people to run around for 2 hours every night delivering information that is outdated before they get it. They told us WELL we have one watch that an 87 year old lady delivered over 200 by herself.

GEES I was thinking, that's NUTS. I guess when you're 87 you probably have a lot of time, or one of those carts to ride around in. I don't have an extra 2 hours a day to deliver one sheet of paper to hundreds.

Back to the drawing boards.

The worst is past (WELL ALMOST)

We survived another one, and feel so lucky and blessed. Millions are without power but ours stayed on and for that I'm thankful.

When they eye came over I went out and picked up branches. I saw a big one that was above my suv, hanging by a thread but it has not fallen yet. I moved the car next door, and will have to deal with that but other than that nothing major here. Tomorrow I will walk around the neighborhood. I did see a few big limbs and trees down.

The storm has passed us. That is the good news. The bad news is that is presently stalled and sitting in the gulf. We just hope it won't come back.

Watching TV there was lots of damage, flooding, trees down on houses and stuff in our city, so I feel very fortunate that we have nothing but tree limbs again.

Well.....hope that ends it. ....but there is also Lisa we're watching...YIKES this is nuts