Gain Control & Brand Yourself

It’s time to really understand WHY your current marketing could be failing and what you can do to fix it.

You are probably blaming yourself for the lack of results in your business.

Stop blaming your self…It’s time for you to find out who is REALLY to blame…and unfortunately it’s the people we are supposed to trust the most. It’s the same people that are giving us stone age information on how to effectively market our businesses. It’s the very companies we are earning commissions from who are leading us down the path of frustration and creating a lack of results.

All of the top home business programs today are teaching their marketers to go out and promote the company
replicated website or direct affiliate link.

This is great for the company because they are now building their own mailing list immediately and all at your expense.

Stop Wasting Your Money!

We see network marketers wasting money like crazy because they continue to market “review” sites and directly
market their company generated links.

This has to stop!

Do us a favor: go to google and type in the name of any popular company/product that was recently launched with an income program and you will see ad after ad…all of these linked directly to the same exact website…

What reason does a visitor have to buy from YOU?

It’s time to GAIN CONTROL, start differentiating yourself in the marketplace and establish yourself as an expert…
these 3 components are what will allow you to truly begin earning a full time home-based business income.

To Your Success,
Mike & Kate Hagen

Do I really need to BRAND myself?

We were sitting here thinking and talking about what the internet has done for people. And we came to the conclusion that the internet is both a good thing and a bad thing. It’s great because it has decreased the size of the world by bringing people from all over the world together. Who would have thought during WWII that a soldier could see their family back home and actually talk to them and look at them all the while being on the other side of the world? A good friend of mine just had that experience with her son who is stationed in Iraq. Imagine what families went thru back in those days with a letter being their only communication.
So in this sense, the internet is awe inspiring. But what are the downsides? With everything good – there is always the bad.

The bad side is that it has made the world a smaller place and connected so many people together. You’re asking, “But I thought you said that was good?” It’s both. The bad part of it is that now a person becomes smaller and smaller with so many other people accessible to the outside world. Competition has increased tremendously. No more do companies run an ad in the local paper and touch just those people regionally. Now companies run an ad on Monster and touch the entire world. Someone from Washington DC can easily apply for a job that is in San Diego. So the competition has exponentially increased for each and every person.

So – now that you feel like a needle in a haystack – what do you do? You have to learn to brand yourself – get people and the world (internet) to know who you are. People often think branding yourself is something those crazy internet marketers do to get more business. Well, that’s true, but branding yourself really goes beyond just the internet marketers. Branding yourself creates an identity for you that positions itself in front of the entire globe. It tells the world who you are and what you have to offer.
Companies nowadays will often search for a potential candidate utilizing Google to not only check them out but to also check out their background. If you don’t have an internet presence, you WILL get lost in the crowd.

Many of you are aware that we’ve been involved in Network Marketing for many years now. For years we branded ourselves through the relationships we created and the size of the businesses we built. Networking will always be around, because relationships are the glue to any business. But for a Networker to succeed nowadays – they need to increase the size of their audience and create a presence that makes them unique to all the other networkers out there.

We all know there are tons of network marketing companies out there and tons of network marketers (both amateur and seasoned). So how do you know which one to go with – it’s likely you’ll go with the one that shows a large presence and with a networker that has a large presence.

And this is exactly what internet marketing is all about. We’ll dive deeper into this subject in future posts. The strategy of internet marketing is a topic (in fact multiple topics) all in itself.

But we ask you today – have you branded yourself? And do you stand out in the Internet crowd?

To Your Success,
Mike & Kate Hagen

Importance of Perseverance (Part 3)

We’ve talked about what perseverance is and why it is needed in order to achieve success in your life.

Today we’re going to look at what else is needed when you persevere…what is required so that you can achieve what it is you are striving for.

Observe two more things about perseverance: (a) Perseverance means stopping not because you’re tired, but because the task is done. Diplomat Robert Strauss quipped, “Success is like wrestling a 1,000 pound gorilla. You don’t quit when you are tired – you quit when the gorilla is tired.”

When you’re fresh, excited and energetic you work at a task with vigor. Only when you become weary do you need perseverance. Fatigue and discouragement are not reasons to quit, they’re reasons to rely on our character and keep going. We underestimate what it takes to succeed. When we haven’t counted the cost we approach challenges with mere interest; what’s required is total commitment!

(b) Perseverance doesn’t demand more than we have, but all that we have. Author Frank Tyger observed, “In every triumph, there is a lot of try.” But perseverance means more than just trying or working hard. Perseverance is an investment. It’s a willingness to bind yourself emotionally, intellectually, physically and spiritually to an idea, purpose or task until it has been completed.

Perseverance demands a lot, but here’s the good news: everything you give is an investment in yourself. Each time you do the right thing – work hard, treat others with respect, learn and grow – you invest in yourself. To do these things every day takes perseverance, but if you do them your success is guaranteed.

We’ve always wondered why there are only a handful of people that are truly successful in Network Marketing and Internet Marketing. Over the last year, we have gone more towards the internet and learning the secrets. The problem is there is SO MUCH information out there that you don’t know where to start. You invest in program after program and never REALLY learn how to get up in the search engines and benefit from that “viral” experience everyone hears about.

We have finally found a platform in which to learn the real truth and how it really works…but you know what? It takes a lot of time and perseverance to do what is necessary. We won’t lie to you – to benefit financially from the internet takes time, and in the beginning, a lot of effort. We can easily see how some people would just quit and not keep going, because 1) they’re not willing to invest the time to learn and they think it’s just too hard and not for them or 2) they get sidetracked by life and quit before they are able to see the results.

You need to decide what you want in life and you need to decide what you are willing to do to get it. There is not one successful person out there that didn’t sacrifice in the beginning in order to make it at the end. Everyone goes thru pain regardless of their talent and abilities. The ones that are successful are the ones that PERSEVERED to the end – the ones that wrestled until the gorilla quit.

So, we ask you – are you going to quit first or are you going to keep going until the gorilla quits??

To Your Success,

Mike & Kate Hagen

What are the chances of making a Million Dollars?

Inheriting $1 million:  12 million to 1

Winning the Lottery:  12 million to 1

Playing the slots in a casino:  6 million to 1

Winning a game show:  4 million to 1

Saving $800 a month for 30 years*:  1.5 million to 1
*With 7% annual rate of return and untaxed interest

Working for a dot-com that goes public:  10,000 to 1

Owning your own small business:  1,000 to 1

How are you going to get your Million Dollars?

 

 

 

 

Source: USA Today August 16, 2000

The Importance of Perseverance (Part 2)

Yesterday we talked about the definition of Perseverance.  We talked about understanding that life constantly gives you obstacles that you must overcome.  Today, we’re taking it one step further.  We’re going to talk about why Perseverance is needed in order to achieve success and exactly what it does when you apply it to your life.

It’s said that Walt Disney’s request for a loan was rejected by 301 banks before he finally got a “yes”.  Yet he built the world’s most famous theme park.  So, this year remember (1) Perseverance s needed to win the prize.  At a sales convention the manager said to 2,000 of his firms sales force, “Did the Wright Brother’s quit?”  “No!” they responded.  “Did Charles Lindbergh quit?”  “No!” they shouted.  “Did Lance Armstrong quit?”  “No!” they bellowed. “Did Thorndike McKester quit?”  There was a long, confused silence.  Then a salesperson shouted, “Who in the world is Thorndike McKester?  Nobody’s ever heard of him.”  The sales manager snapped back, “Of course you haven’t – that’s because he quit!”

Quitters never win, and winners never quit. 

(2) Perseverance turns adversity into advancement.  Paul writes, “Everything that has happened to me here has helped to spread the Good News” (Php 1:12NLT).  Paul didn’t give up – he rose up!  How did he do it?  He found the benefit to him personally that comes from every trial.  One Christian author writes: “Today we’re obsessed with speed, but God is more interested in strength and stability.  We want the quick fix, the shortcut, the on-the-spot solution.  We want a sermon, a seminar or an experience that will instantly resolve all problems, remove all temptation and release us from all growing pains.  But real maturity is never the result of a single experience, no matter how powerful or moving.” 

Growth is gradual. 

So what can we learn from this?  Well, just from our own experience and from talking with many, many successful people in the network marketing industry, we have found that there isn’t ONE (1) person that achieved success on their very first try.  In fact, we learned that many of these successful people tried over 10 times before they achieved any kind of success.  It amazed us!  So why did it take them so long?  Because each and every time they tried, they learned something new.  They had to fail in order to learn and move forward.

So, we ask all of you – how many times are you willing to fail in order to achieve your success?  Are you going to persevere no matter what?  Or are you going to be like Thorndike McKester?

To Your Success,
Mike & Kate Hagen

The Importance of Perseverance (Part 1)

In “The Word for Today” they talk about Perseverance and what it means.  This topic touches us every time we come across it and we wanted to share it with all of you.

Perseverance means: (1) Succeeding because you’re determined to, not because you’re entitled to.  Achievers don’t sit back and wait for success because they think the world “owes them”.  No, if you’re wise you’ll ask God for direction, stand firm on what you have within you, go forward and refuse to quit.  You must adopt the attitude of the man who said, “We are determined to win.  We’ll fight them until hell freezes over, and if we have to, we’ll fight them on ice.” Be relentless!

(2) Recognizing that life is not one long race, but many short ones in succession.  Each task has its own challenges and each day its own events. You have to get out of bed the next morning and run again, but it’s never exactly the same race.  To be successful you must keep plugging away.  It’s said that Columbus faced incredible difficulties while sailing west in search of a passage to Asia.  He encountered storms, experienced hunger, deprivation and extreme discouragement.  The crews of his three ships were near mutiny.  But his account of the journey says the same thing over and over.  “Today we sailed on.”  And his perseverance paid off.  He didn’t discover a fast route to the spice-rich Indies; instead he found a new continent. 

So make it your decision this year, this week, today…to stand strong and persevere no matter what obstacles you may face.  It is your decision that will enable you to achieve success.  No one who is successful doesn’t go thru multiple obstacles before they become “successful”.

Stay tuned for more on this subject.  It is our goal to help each and everyone of you to stay motivated and inspired so that you will be able to persevere in this new year.

To your success!
Mike & Kate Hagen

A New Year with Endless Possibilities

On the first of the year something magical happens: a new year is upon us with endless possibilities and a hope for a better future. So what are we to do? Stay at the same place or change everything we do to attain the goals that we have set? That answer to that is only you can change. The world changes all the time. The question is will you? If you are happy with everything you have as of December 31, 2008, you do not need to change. As for us we want more and 09 will be the best Year we will ever have. Not because we say so, but because we will work and plan harder. Why is it that most people will plan more to celebrate New Years Eve than they do to plan their success? We have been writing down Goals since yesterday for the Year 2009. It will be the best year for us and our family. Ask yourself this: when was the last time you wrote down your plans and goals for a project you wanted to accomplish? If you have to think about it for a while, you are not doing it enough.

Success in Life works like a computer whatever you put into it you will get out of it. Put in or type in nothing you get nothing. Why not reach for the stars, why not see how much more you can accomplish if you just plan better?

Here are some definitions:

Procrastinate = to defer action, to delay, until an opportunity is lost:
Worker = a person or thing that works: “says it all”
Crisis = a condition of instability or danger in social economic or international affairs leading to a decisive change, a turning point:
Hustler = An enterprising person determined to succeed. Go Getter.

Now that you know the Webster definition of these words let me shed some light on our U.S. situation. We have procrastinated so long, we as Americans have put everything off till tomorrow and it has become our habit, and because we do have that habit, as of January 2ND of 2009 over one million and half workers will be laid off.

A worker according to Webster’s definition is a person or thing that works. Industry has labeled us as things that work. Stop being a thing and start creating something Great. Start building your Dream. It’s a decision that a Crisis of this nature makes us do we do not have a choice. Do not be fooled that a new President,a New Congress or a New House of Representatives will change our situation. It’s up to us, the People, to make a change. We have to make a Decision for Change whether we like it or not. We have to change and stop being a thing that works. The world in 2009 will belong to the Hustler the Go Getter. We will be the ones that reap the rewards of Financial Freedom.

The Worker will be devastated in 2009 for they believe their Company’s will bail them out. I will say it again, 09 will belong to the Hustler, the person that wants it more. You have a Financial Life Saving decision to make during this Crisis: will you Procrastinate or put your Worker Boots on and become The Hustler you can be in 2009? The World is yours for the Taking. This Toast is for you. Go out and Get them. To your record Breaking year in 2009 and next January you can truly celebrate your accomplishments. God Bless you!!!

Mike & Kate Hagen

2009 Will ROCK!!!

Wishing everyone a very Happy New Year! Let’s make 2009 ROCK!!!!!!!!

CHANGE YOUR THINKING – CHANGE YOUR LIFE

CHANGE YOUR THINKING – CHANGE YOUR LIFE:
FOLLOWING IS A FEW THOUGHTS THAT MAY HELP.

If you think you can you can; If you think you can’t you can’t. Either way you’re right! Right now you are exactly where you chose to be. Our decisions and past choices have created our present. Our same habits, thinking and actions will continue to produce the same results. Choice is the
beginning of all our journeys. Riches begin with a state of mind. We must become aware of our wealth thinking and wealth actions. The more we think and act like a wealth builder, the more we create wealth building results.