Balance

It's very easy to be out of balance in your business.  In life - we are often also out of balance.  

If you've developed your 30-60-90 day plans (and you should), be sure to include some personal time.  If you are new in your industry (as a  lot of network marketers are), know that you will be out of balance.  It's part and parcel of the business.  

Network marketing is not trading dollars for hours.  You don't receive X amount of dollars for X amount of hours.  At first, you'll be working your behind off and receiving very little money.  After a while (hopefully a short while) the money starts to look right.  Then .... ah then, you will start receiving money you can't believe in.  Can those checks be that big?  Yes!  Now your job is to teach others to do the same.

Back to balance -- I'm going to have a little balance this weekend.  It's my 2 year old great neice's birthday party Saturday. (Isn't she adorable?  Don't you just love that funny face?)  

I'll also be meeting with friends Saturday morning and brainstorming on how to increase our customer database locally.  There will be phone calls made to clients and potential clients.  Church, haircut, blogging, writing, tweeting - and always walking and talking.  

I merge my business with my personal life - and I'm working on getting better at that.  

Twitter Day Two - Tweetdeck

Yesterday you got started on twitter.  Today we're going to explore twitter just a little further and try a few fun tools.  

I noticed I gave you all men to follow - so let's add some women today.  

http://www.twitter.com/shawnacoronado The Naked Gardener (no she's not naked, but she is a great read!)

http://www.twitter.com/JennFowler the frugal mom

http://www.twitter.com/kellywissink a business woman who has built her business totally online

http://www.twitter.com/karenswim great blogger

http://www.twitter.com/AmberCadabra another business woman who knows the social media industry inside and out

A couple of tips for www.twitter.com

1. click on the Home button - it will refresh your page and bring in new tweets

2. click on find people.  If you put your email address and password here, it will check your email contacts to see who is on twitter!

3. while you're in the find people section - look at suggested users.  There might be someone there you want to follow (like my Iowa boy Ashton Kutcher)

Are you following a lot of people?  More than 40?  Keep following people and enjoy the stream!  You may start to think "good Lord, how am I going to pay attention to what all of these people are saying?".  

 The answer is: you don't.  When I first started I was on twitter for hours and hours - time I didn't have.  Then I was introduced to tweetdeck.  It's purpose is to take the big stream and make it more manageable and easy to follow.  Go to http://www.tweetdeck.com  Scroll to bottom of the page and download tweetdeck.  

You will be able to take all those people talking and sort them into columns.  The default columns are All Tweets, @replies (people talking to you) and Direct Messages (people talking to you and no one else can see the comments).    

At the top are some icons.  

Tweet (click on that and it opens up the box where you can tweet -talk).

All Friends (this is tied to the column where everyone is talking)

Replies (this is tied to the column where people reply to you)

Direct Message (this is tied to the column where people who follow you can talk directly to you and no one else will see these comments)

Favorites (if you really like a comment you can save it to your favorites)

Group (you can set up a group and add people to that group and everything they tweet will go there)

Search (you can search for tweets around a certain topic and they will appear in their own column)

Twitscoop (this column will show you topics people are talking about and what is trending across twitter)

12 second TV (click this and it will pull up a column with different 12 second videos to watch)

Stock Twits (frankly, I haven't used this one)

Click on the Groups icon.  Let's make a column for the people whose tweets you don't want to miss.  I named mine Social Media.  I'm following people who usually have interesting things to see and give me great links to follow and read.  You can name yours whatever you want!  Maybe you want to put your friends in this column.  Maybe you are following a group of gardeners and want to not miss what they are saying.  

When you use Tweetdeck you don't have to constantly refresh the page - it will do it for you.  It will also post in the upper right hand corner Tweetdeck Notifications when tweets come in.  It will tell you how many and from which column.  I run tweetdeck all day long - and when I see notifications from my Social Media column, I'll go look.  Otherwise, I just ignore it.  

Now you should have some tweets coming through.  If you move your mouse over the avatar (the person's face) it will give you four options:

reply

direct message

retweet

other

If you wish to reply click on that, if you want to send a direct message click on that.  If you really like what they said and you want your followers to see it too - click on retweet.  The other icon allows you to follow or unfollow that person, add them to a group, check out their profile, delete the message and a few other things.

At the bottom of each column are some icons as well.  Move your mouse over them to see what they are.  I use clear all tweets a lot (it will delete them all and then they are gone).  The arrow allows you to move the column wherever you want it to be.  My columns are in this order: all tweets, @replies, Social Media, Direct messages.  Those four columns fill up one page.  If I want to see the other columns I need to click on the slider bar at the bottom of the page and slide it over.  

Enjoy tweetdeck and remember -- have a conversation, share some information and make new friends! 

picture of cat on laptop w/tweetdeck on the screen courtesy of dprevite at flickr.com

Twitter for a beginner

What is twitter?

It's an online application that connects you to other people. You talk (type) comments that are only 140 characters long. Businesses, news stations, small business people, and just everyday folk are on twitter – over 6 million at last count.

Go to www.twitter.com and get started by clicking on join. Fill out the form. For your username – it's recommended to use your name, or what you are known as. I'm @debworks – it ties into my blog. Upload a picture – spammers never do and you don't want to be confused with a spammer.

Now you want to follow some people. Here's a few links to get you started (click on them and then click on follow):

www.twitter.com/debworks

www.twitter.com/chrisbrogan

www.twitter.com/donlemoncnn

www.twitter.com/dannybrown

www.twitter.com/keithburtis

These are people I follow. And me! Okay, if you look at any one of these peoples link after you click on them – you'll see on the right hand side who they are following. Click some of them, read their bio and see if they are someone you want to follow.

Now go to www.twellow.com Let's have some real fun! Choose a category that interests you and a subcategory – and start following people.

If you follow about 50 people a day – you will start getting people following you back. Your followers will grow very quickly.

Now – let's talk! If you go back to www.twitter.com make sure you are still signed in. You will see comments from the people you are following. This is called the stream. On the left of the comment is their avatar – this is why a picture is great! You can see who is talking. On the right of the comment there is a star and an arrow. The star is to add that comment to your favorites. The arrow is to reply to that comment. If you click on it, it will pop that person's name up in your comment box and then you can type your comment and hit enter.

It's now in the stream – and will also show up in that person's @Replies file. See your @Replies file on the right? In that file will be comments that people have directed specifically to you. The Direct Message file is where someone can talk directly to you and that comment not be seen by anyone else. You can only send Direct Messages (Dms) to someone who follows you.

You can reply to someone, or just type in your comment.  Either way, it goes into the stream. 

A couple of simple guidelines:

don't force your business down peoples throats, just have a conversation

remember that google never forgets -what you say stays on the internet

follow some interesting people and talk to them – it's fun!

Don't be upset if someone doesn't answer you – they may have a lot of followers and just missed your comment!

Go twitter!

this picture is provided by freeparking at flickr.com 

About Me Update

On December 2 I talked about my part in the social media -- my About Page.  

Three months can be a long time.   Things have changed.  I'm more focused.  

In order for me to talk about my 30 day plan, I need to talk about who I am and why I do what I do.  This is the first day of the 30 day plan.

Lesson One:  Have A Great About Me Page!  

We need to develop trust in order to have clients support what we do.  One good way to do that is to paint a picture of who you are.  It's also important to show why you've chosen the industry you are in.   I'm going to re-write my About Me page.  Read along and see if you can find out who I am - and why I want to work from home.

My name is Debra Brown.  I was born and raised on a farm in Iowa, went to school at Luther College and lived, married, and raised kids in Chicago for 30 years.  Now, I'm back in Iowa.  Why?  

My parents are older and not well.  Dad had a heart attack and two strokes a couple of years ago. He also has early Alzheimers.   He's a retired farmer who can no longer walk his fields.  He has no feeling in his hands, so he can't do his woodworking anymore.  He walks with a walker and hates it.   It was then we decided it was time to move back and help take care of them.  

I had the dream to move back to the family farm, grow a garden, work from home around my schedule and have a leisurely kind of lifestyle.  My children are grown and my grandkids live in Chicago.  I figured I would visit them often.

Well, I got most of my dream.  I live on the family farm, I do have a garden every year, I do work from home, I do visit Chicago often.  I also take care of my parents' paperwork (amazing how much legal, insurance, Medicare, retirement, church paperwork there is!).  I write for a local newspaper everyday, I have three blogs I write for everyday, I teach classes at Iowa Valley Community College.  I'm increasing my knowledge of social media marketing and teaching others as well.  

Then there's the dream job: I expand the customer database for my company and help others build their business.  I do it around my schedule and often in my pajamas.  I can do it at home or when I'm on the road.  I love it!  I don't sell products, collect money or deliver products.  I simply introduce people to the company and show them how to switch stores, save time and money and get green products in their home. I'm always looking for people who want to join my team and create the kind of life they want to live.  I have fun and get paid for it too! 

I volunteer at the Historical Society, read a lot, travel when I can (www.travelwoman.com for pics), go to the movies with friends, garden and am active with my church.   Nothing leisurely about my day - and I love it that way.  I'm doing the things I want to do. I have freedom, balance and joy in my life.    

My friend once told me - you can work for the man, or be the man.   Guess which choice I took? 

Okay - did you see:

1. a story that compelled you to read more

2. a conversation about my work

3. things I like to do in my free time

4. a picture relevant to the story

5.  a closing that inspires 

What would you add?  Or take away?  Do you feel like you know me a little better? What's your story?  

30 Day Plan

Sure you've heard it - plan your work and work your plan.  

Consider this tidbit.  What if you could look at your plan AFTER the expiration date and find out what went wrong (or right)?  Well, duh! Of course you could.

How many of us actually do that?  My guess -- the ones who had plans and followed them.  (the rest are secret plans)

I had the opportunity of spending about 15 hours in a car over two days, without a computer.  I did have talk radio and a steno notepad (hubby was driving).  I had reviewed my blog notes and had thousands of thoughts swirling through my brain.  I took that gift of time and made a plan  -- for three businesses I work.   

Home Business - expanding customer database and developing business builders

• Phone calls one hour a day, five days a week
  
• 5 presentations a week
  
• follow up with EVERYONE who saw a presentation and wanted to think about it
  
• Develop one business builder
  
• enroll 4 people this month
  
• walk and talk baby, this time keep tabs
• utilize www.needalittleadvice.com to post networking information for my team
• 20 hours of work each week 
  

Local Newspaper - Franklin County Iowa

At the end of the week we lose our printer and are searching for a new one.  Now what?  

• create an online newspaper (www.readhampton.com) 
  
• brainstorm with publisher
  
• interview more local businesses and let ALL know they are online
  
• find ways to interact w/local community to spread the word 
  
• 10 hours a week
  

Social Media/Blog

I write on www.debworks.com every day.  It ties into my paper (that now has it's own site) and my work from home business.  I needed to decide how to best utilize this site.  I'm going to SOBCon in May and need a working business plan.

Then I got a brilliant idea!  30 days of information for beginners to my end of the social media spectrum!  Twitter, blogging, facebook, linkedin.  Seth Godin says to chose a couple of avenues and work them.  There are more four avenues!  

I am also teaching a beginners social media course at Iowa Valley Education at Ellsworth College May 5 and 6.  That should be fun -- 2 days after SOBCon!  This 30 day plan will be great prep work for those attending the class.  My friend Patrick Palmer (The Computer Guy) is doing the facebook portion of the class and I'm sure he will help me fill in any holes! 

20 hours work each week. 

Tomorrow I'll post the syllabus - and begin the writing work.  

So the point is this:

any plan in action is better than a perfect plan on paper.  

picture courtesy of flickr.com