Everybody has opinions & ideas. Some are good. A few are great. Everyone wants to be part of a successful team. They get excited if their ideas help create success. It’s worth your time to really listen to and examine the ideas of others. Spot the really good parts and pull them out, acknowledge the person, and make their idea a part of the team plan. What else could you do that could ever cement relationships better than to celebrate and put into practice the thoughts of your team members?

It can be easy to fall into the habit of looking for the problems with somebody else’s thinking. What could possibly sabotage a relationship quicker than that? It’s important to police your own thinking regularly, so you don’t dismiss someone else’s idea. Look for the truth in what they said. Look for the unique angle that you can graft onto another idea and which suddenly creates magic.

It all starts with really listening to others. It sounds like such a simple thing … but so few people actually do it. When you practice really listening, you will understand people better. More than that, they will be drawn to you because they see you as a caring person. And then when you actually hear their idea and incorporate some part of it into your team approach in some way … that demonstrates to them how much you value them. When they have that relationship with you, it’s very, very difficult for them to ever make the decision to leave you and join somebody else’s group.

Listening works!

Your friends for life!

Michael & Linda Dlouhy
1-352-799-8779  Call anytime!
“Be a mentor with a servant’s heart”
Success In 10 Steps

For your network marketing team to flourish and really develop deep bonds with you, they need to feel safe in telling you exactly what they’re thinking. At times, this may be painful for you. At times, you may disagree.

Consider the alternative: certain members of your team are scared of you, scared to tell you of a problem that they see. If they don’t feel safe enough to tell you what they are thinking, you have trouble in your future.

Result? Their questions don’t get answered. They make no progress. They stagnate. They are unproductive. They don’t trust you, and they feel unsafe in talking to you about it.

Will some people complain about ridiculous stuff? Sure. But to them, it’s not ridiculous. Sometimes, just knowing that you really listened to them makes the problem go away.

But better yet … here and there you will learn some things you didn’t know. It’s not unusual for successful people to get in a mindset of “My way or the highway!” But there are many ways to skin a cat. And the more ways your team has of being successful, the better off your organization will be in the long run. When you really listen to others, you will learn stuff that can change your life.

Your friends for life!

Michael & Linda Dlouhy
1-352-799-8779  Call anytime!
“Be a mentor with a servant’s heart”
Success In 10 Steps

I have a plaque on my wall that says, “What anybody else thinks about me is none of my business.” I like that sentiment, because it’s easy to get caught up in what other people say about you, or to you. You have to please yourself first. It’s always possible that criticism may give you a helpful hint, but too often, it’s just misplaced anger. Somebody else sees how you do things and it doesn’t match with how they would do things, so you must be wrong. Taking comments like that to heart can really hurt your network marketing progress.

Sometimes we attack the criticizer. That’s not too productive. It just puts more focus on the negative, makes you think about it longer, takes you away from result-producing activities.

If the guns are being fired directly at you, the real key is to stay cool. Keep your focus. Do whatever you need to do to not begin some back-and-forth battle. What works for me is thinking of my perfect day. Anytime I feel the start of an outside attack, I picture my perfect day in great detail. The result is, the anger does not draw me in. I’m able to stay calm and talk to the person, and the mean words just roll off my back.

One thing I know for sure is that if you react to it, the battle will ramp up. The criticism will get harsher and there will be more of it. The better able you are to relax  and maybe picture YOUR perfect day in great detail, the beauty of that day, the sooner the other person will just let go and relax, too. You can’t fight long with no opponent.

Your friends for life!

Michael & Linda Dlouhy
1-352-799-8779  Call anytime!
“Be a mentor with a servant’s heart”
Success In 10 Steps

We all have moments when our thinking is … well … suspect. You have a lot of confidence that your thinking is right. But on the other hand … maybe it isn’t. How do you tell the difference? Here’s an idea that has helped me in both personal relationships and in my MLM business, and maybe it will help you.

Ask yourself, “What is behind this line of thinking?” At times, you will discover a very stubborn opinion that may have originated in a single long-ago incident. Something like:

“It’s my way or the highway.”
“Prospects just don’t listen.”
“Women can’t stick to a budget.”
“Men are bull-headed.”
“Kids can’t be trusted.”

Obviously, the list could go on forever. Probably, no thought on this list rings true for you. But we all have similar types of stubborn ideas that have hung around forever, and which sabotage relationships and our MLM business-building today. The trick is to recognize and get rid of them. Can you think right now of 2 or 3 of those recurring, age-old thoughts that have dictated how you live your life?

You can certainly improve your results by gaining new skills and by adding new, achievement-oriented thinking in your life. But you can also improve your results by recognizing faulty thinking or misdirected actions … and then get rid of them. As you do, people will notice that you have become wiser and gentler, and it will be much easier for you to build the relationships that build your network marketing business.

Your friends for life!

Michael & Linda Dlouhy
1-352-799-8779  Call anytime!
“Be a mentor with a servant’s heart”
Success In 10 Steps