Have you set your goals yet?

Here are some tips I use to set realistic goals for the New Year to keep me going and motivated throughout the year. I want to hear what yours are. Please post them in the comments.

It Works Global is providing so much opportunity for anyone that wants it. I’ve been watching some videos from some of my sidelines and they inspired me to make one too. I think my story is pretty cool and I am excited to share it with you. I am proud of the fact that it took me longer than many to get to where I am today. I know some of you might be thinking that might be strange, but it is very true. I am proud of my story because it is my story and does not belong to anyone else.

I built my business the best way I knew how. It was my first direct sales? company and the truth is that it took me a while to understand the ropes and what I needed to do. I enrolled with It Works in March of 2009 and I promoted to Diamond in October of 2011. That is a long time, but it was my time. I needed that to learn my business.

As of today I am on pace to promote to Ambassador Diamond in March of 2014 which will be my 5 year anniversary. 🙂

I don’t compare my story to other leaders that did it in a year or two. That is great for them. I love hearing their stories. Everyone has their own journey to go through including you!

Some of you reading this are already distributors and this post is written for you. Don’t quit! Some of you might be in this a week, a month, a year. Don’t quit! If you are feeling scared, nervous discouraged. It’s ok. I felt that and still feel it sometimes. Get through it! Step up to the plate and learn how to run your business. Even if it takes you 5 years.

I have had the privilege to experience momentum twice in my life. The first time was working for Starbucks when they only had 15 stores in Southern California and we grew to 2000 stores in 5 years. We had our growing pains for sure, but every one was worth it. I loved that job! I worked endlessly for my team and customers. I worked that job for 7 years. When I left my salary was right around $65,000 a year. After working there for 7 years and many times for 12 hour days. I hit a cap. I didn’t graduate from college and every promotion I went for I did not get.

My second round in momentum is with It Works Global. As I head in to my 5th year, there is no cap. I am so glad I did not quit. I could have. In the beginning I wasn’t really making a lot of money and when I did I reinvested it all back in to my business. I worked many hours with a small check to show for it. Quitting would have been easy. Easy is not always better.

Take the next 10 minutes and watch this video I made for you. If you are on the verge of quitting, I am talking to you right now. 🙂

I am so grateful to have met more amazing team members. Thank you to all of you that traveled to St Louis to go to boot camp. I appreciate your time and your commitment to your business, me and to yourself!

We were given so much information. I recorded as much as I could.

Here is the intro with Mark and Cindy Pentecost

Listen to 4 of the top money earners as they give business tips and advice on growing your It Works Body Wrap business.

Listen to Pam Sowder our Chief Networking Officer as she breaks down the Steps to Success and the art of duplication.

Listen to Dr Don as he walks us through our supplement line and how to live a healthy life.

Listen to the top 7 money earners of It Works Global as they answer candid questions about building your business.

Listen to Tiffany Potillo as she interviews more successful distributors.

Listen to Pam and our product formulator Luis Mijares discuss our contouring and skin care line.

Listen to Mike Potillo discuss building your business.

Here is another recap of the event from a boot camp newbie.?? Love hearing aha moments.

It Works Global…Presidential Diamond…How did you do it?

As soon as I became a Presidential Diamond with It Works Global people began asking me this question a few times a week.? People call me, text or email me.? They want to know how I did it.? I remember when I became a distributor back in March of 2009 I looked at our rankings chart and thought to myself…there is no way I will ever get there. I was happy at the first level because people were buying our products and loving the results. Until about 2 years in I decided I need to figure things out and learn how to promote.? It Works was growing.? Sales were up and the company was growing with or without me and I knew I had to learn and figure things out.

This post might help you get through a funk or a moment where you are doubting yourself.? I am not a college graduate.? In fact I dropped out of college more than once.? Life is full of ups and downs andI have seen many downs in my life.? I am a normal person with 2 kids in college.? Life has been good to us, but Lord knows we have had our moments.? This opportunity is available to anyone.

So how did I do it? Here is my answer.

I Didn’t Wait

When I first started my It Works business the company was pretty small.? I had no idea there were even any other distributors other than the few girls that my friend and I had enrolled under.? This was before It Works had established a presence on Facebook so all I had was our customer service team and I kept them busy with questions. :)? I had immediately began to market my business online and people had questions so I learned as I went.? I did not wait until I knew everything.? I hit the ground running and answered what I could and what I did not know I found out and always got the answer to my customers.

When I hear people tell me that they are waiting to try it or that they are waiting to get there kit I begin to scream at them (in my inside voice) DON’T WAIT!? Every day that you wait you are losing ground.

I Identified My Brand

A pivotal time in my career was when I announced to the world that I was a wrap girl.? I know that might sound weird, but it’s true.? When I first started doing this I was embarrassed to tell anyone that I was doing direct sales.? When people asked me what I did I said I was a Director of Client Services for an internet marketing company.? I guess I thought that sounded more impressive.? Things really changed for me and my team when I went all in and became the person I was looking for.

Who are you? What do you like to do? What do you want to be known for?? Without determining this you could be all over the map and you may confuse your prospects.? Take the time to develop your own personal brand.? Find your niche and become the expert.? Let’s say for example you love teaching people about health.? Make sure everyone in your circles knows that you are a health expert.? Be the one that they refer people to.? Build trust and credibility to your personal brand and be consistent.? Provide resourceful information to friends and family and keep learning and teaching.? Develop your personal brand and define who you are and be proud of that.? Once you know who you are and what you represent, protect yourself.? Your credibility is everything in this business.? The days of posting wild party pictures or posting religious or political rants on Facebook are over.? Be Switzerland when it comes to stuff like this.? Don’t distract attention from your personal brand and credibility.? If you want to be taken seriously then you need to treat yourself as a professional business owner.? People will be watching you and some will be waiting for you to fail.? Do not falter.? Stay on point.? Be an Ambassador of your brand and people will begin to trust you.? Once that happens, don’t let them down.

I Built My Own Business

Shortly after I enrolled the 3 distributors right above me quit.? I did not depend on anyone else.? I had to build my own business.

Build Your Own Business.? Do not rely on your upline, sideline, mother, father or anyone else.? You are a business owner now and you are responsible for your own business.? You are the CEO of your success: don’t be your own worst enemy.? As an entrepreneur there will not be anyone forcing you to go to work every day.? You will have to find your own motivation to work your business so push yourself!? Most businesses can take months or years to begin to grow.? Many businesses don’t even see a profit for the first year or two.? Treat this like a business not a hobby.? Don’t watch TV, don’t play Candy Crush.? Work your business everyday.? There will be time to sleep later.

There is no cap on what you can earn with It Works.? I worked at a job for 7 years and had pretty much capped out at 65k a year.? I would have had to go to college or move to earn any more than that.? With It Works I had exceeded that number in my second year and have doubled, then tripled since.? There is no limit.? You will get what you put in to this job, but you are your own boss.? You are responsible for your own business.? No pointing fingers no blaming.

I Have a Vision and I Am Focused

You have to have a vision and goals for yourself.? If you don’t set goals you will never achieve any.? Create a dream board or visionary board and look at it every day.? What do you want for yourself? Where do you see yourself in 6 months, 1 year, 18 months.? Don’t do this for the money…it won’t be good in the beginning… do this for yourself.

Put your blinders on.? Don’t let anything distract you from what you need to do.? Find a way to incorporate your business into everything you do.? Blitz everywhere, wear It Works clothing, use the products, network with new people weekly.? Use sites like Meetup.com or Eventbrite to find local gatherings where you can meet new people to add to your 100s list.? Lead generation is something you will need to learn how to do.? Do not rely on anyone to do this for you and don’t blame anyone else if you can’t get leads.? We are close to being a 500 million dollar company.? People want our products.? If you say to me that you have tried everything an nobody wants it, I say try harder.? Teach yourself how to do this.

Personal Development Every Day

It took me a while to realize that I needed to do this.

If you think the skills that you possess at enrollment will be enough, think again.? You need to learn something new everyday.? Have a heart to heart with yourself and determine what you are good at and what you are not good at and sharpen the knife.? If sales is not your strength, learn how to sell.? If parties is not your strength, host parties until you are an expert.? If social media is not your strength, learn it!? You absolutely have to have a strong grasp of all of the different things it will take to keep your business healthy.? Once you have established that and have taught yourself the skills that you needed to sharpen, now determine what you love and also what you don’t love.? If doing parties is not your thing, find people that love it and teach them how to throw a great party.? If social media is not your thing, hire someone to do this for you, but don’t lose touch with what they are doing.? Remember that before you build your army, you need to know how to fight.

Having a team requires a whole new set of skills.? Mostly in leadership and organization.? Again, always learning.? Read books by motivational authors like John Maxwell and Zig Ziglar.? Keep reading these books and re-read your favorite ones at times when you feel that you are in a funk.? You will need to dig yourself out of it.

Plug in to every corporate call that you get listen to.? The more you hear our corporate team the more confident you will feel when talking about your biz.? As your confidence builds people will begin to trust you and you will start to see that more people want to be your customer or distributor.

Diversify

I built my business online and that was actually holding me back.? Teaching my leaders to never leave their computers was not in the best interest of my team or my volume.? As soon as I was able to step away from my computer my team grew.? While online efforts are important, we are a people business.? Once I devoted my time to nurturing personal relationships it changed everything.

Diversify your field.? Don’t hold all of your eggs in one basket.? Hold lots of baskets with a few eggs in each.? What I mean by this is look for leaders that are strong in various areas.? Look for different talents and capitalize on that.? Find people that are good at parties, good at internet marketing, good at training, good at recruiting, etc.? If your entire team is only doing internet marketing then you are missing out on the offline side of the business.? If you were banned from Facebook or Google your business would not survive.? Diversify your field.? Recruit distributors with a variety of skills and pour yourself in to each one until they master what they are good at.

I am a Team Player

I gave up doing this for the money.? I hit a point where the money far exceeded any expectation I ever had.? I do this for the people.? I am a servant to my team.? I quit my job in Oct of 2012 and poured myself in to my team.? I wake up every morning and think about what am I going to do today to help someone, not how much will I earn today.? The money falls in to place nicely.? Trust me.

Be the one that people are cheering for, not cheering against.? Don’t be the squeaky wheel, be the most reliable wheel.? Don’t complain.? Always be positive and lead by example.? You will get noticed.? When your upline identifies you as someone they would like to mentor, grab hold of that.? People ask me if I will be their mentor.? The truth is that I don’t intentionally set out to mentor someone, but when I am looking at my team and I see the people that are building and providing positive contributions and solutions to our community of distributors, I see these people as my future leaders aka the people I want to mentor.? I invest about 80% of my time in to 20% of my team.? That’s just how it is.? Be part of that 20% that your upline is dreaming of.

Build relationships with your sidelines.? Sideline relationships are so important.? Learn from them and teach them.? I have been lucky to have had the opportunity to get to know mine and I just adore them.? I don’t make a dime off of them, but getting to know them and hearing and exchanging stories with them has so much value.? Not to mention our upline appreciates that we are not competing with each other, but we are supporting each other.? It makes for a positive working environment and everyone can appreciate that.

I Follow the Steps to Success

These are easy.? Learn them.? Memorize them.? Teach them to everyone.

Get 4 loyal customers and enroll 3 distributors every month. Over and over.? If you miss it one month, then start over in month 2.? Make this your goal.? To accomplish this you will need a few things.? You will need product.? Be on the 80bv autoship.? Become a product of the product and use it to grow your inventory so people can sample new things.

When you look at our ranking charts and you see the little 400 boxes.? Those are real people.? Imagine if each one had 4 loyal customers and enrolled 3 distributors on the 80bv autoship each month.? This can happen!

You will also need to work on the other things I mentioned above. This is not easy, but it is worth it.

I Am Organized

I am good at organizing information and communicating it out to my team.? I have systems in place that help me stay on track with training and following up.? Following up with people is so important.? Our new distributors know that they are stepping in to organization and not chaos.? As you build your teams you will need to set something like this up.? If your uplines have systems in place ask to learn what those are and replicate that.? Use what we have available before you recreate anything.

I feel very strongly that being organized is a critical part of success within our industry.? Have a place at home that is your “work” place.? Have your own “work” email.? Separate your business from your home activities.? Have an area where you store your marketing materials and inventory so you know what you have.? Make this a priority.? If you have to reorganize a room, then reorganize it.? Make sure your family knows that your area is off limits and when you are working that they need to respect that.

I Did Not Quit

You will want to. Many times. Don’t quit.? I look at my downline and I see names.? Lots and lots of names of people that quit.? Some of them quit with teams under them.? Some of those people have upwards of 20-30k in volume under them now.? Imagine if they would not have quit? This business takes time.? Don’t compare yourself to others that promote quicker than you.? This is not a sprint to the finish line.? It really does not matter how long it takes you to get to the financial level that you have set your eyes on, just get there.

The first person I wrapped…nothing happened.? She said it didn’t work.?? Since that day I have seen hundreds and hundreds of incredible results and they keep coming in.? Imagine if I would have quit?

Whether it takes you a year or ten years…I’ll see you at the top.