One of the things that great network marketing companies do is to offer incentives and contests for its distributors to participate in. The interesting thing about contests in Avant is that the pay plan is so lucrative that — to win a contest — you put so much money in your pocket that you could easily buy whatever the grand prize is!

But, in this case, the prize was even more interesting: rather than another big-screen TV, a trip to the Caribbean or an Apple iPad…….Avant decided to create a prize that actually touches people’s lives: an all-expense paid trip to New Orleans to join Avant founder, Brent Payne and the Avant leadership team for four days doing humanitarian work in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans.

Did you know that there are still people in New Orleans who haven’t recovered from Hurricane Katrina? It’s true. And while some people have chosen to say things like, “Well, those people don’t want to help themselves” and do nothing…..Avant is choosing to be part of the solution by actually spending time with these people, teaching them some basic concepts about personal development, planting gardens, and stocking a community food pantry.

So, on July 22nd, I got a phone call from Brent Payne congratulating me for being the winner of the contest.  During the last week of the contest, I was averaging nearly one new Elevate sale per week ($1k profit each).

Do you want to know the dirty little secret? It was the easiest stretch of business I’ve ever conducted. It was relaxing. It was simple. No rushing around. Just simple, relaxed movements. Here are some thoughts that come to mind for why I believe it was so simple for me to win:

#1 Begin With The End In Mind

When I heard that Avant was doing humanitarian work in New Orleans, I sent a note to Brent asking him about the dates so we could go ahead and start arranging for someone to keep our kids while Jessica and I went to New Orleans.  That’s important.  I’d already decided to be there. When I learned about the contest, I thought, “Even better.  I’m still going but Brent’s going to pay for my airline flights.” And, here’s the thing:  that isn’t intended to sound like bravado or to be arrogant; it was simply a stated intention:  I’m going to New Orleans and I might as well be the one to get to go for free.

#2  Be Authentic

This isn’t a tip for winning contests; this is a tip for winning LIFE.  I remember when I first got started in this industry, I was always worried about how I was coming across to my prospects.  The phone would ring and I’d rush around closing the doors, worried that the dog was going to bark or that I wouldn’t appear professional.

Screw that.  That’s for the birds.  When I decided a few years ago to start just living my life and stop worrying about all that nonsense, here’s what I did:  I started doing all my business from my cellphone.  Even today, if you call me asking about Avant, you’re just as likely to catch me floating around my pool, driving in the car with the family or waiting for a table at our favorite restaurant.  You might hear Easton in the background laughing like a maniac because he crashed into Mom while they were playing Mario Kart on the Nintendo Wii.  Or you might hear Will and Pate splashing in the pool.  Or, if you’re like Leo (a fellow I spoke with earlier this week), you might hear me signing for packages from the UPS man and wondering who sent me a big box of Omaha Steaks!

My point is this:  people are tired of marketers who try to be something they’re not.  Be authentic.  Whatever that means to you.  For me, it means living my life in a way that I don’t have to change who I’m being just because the phone rings.  And because there seems to be so few authentic people around, I promise your prospects will notice when they look at you and see you just being yourself.

#3  Keep The Main Thing The Main Thing

Let me give you a quick image:  picture a construction site where a beautiful cathedral is being built.  The scene has lots of construction workers but something strange is happening…

Most of the construction workers are sitting over to the side admiring their new hammer….or showing someone their new saw…..they’re filming videos of themselves trying to explain to other people how to drive a nail….and you’ve even got some of the workers saying, “I just don’t seem to be getting good results with this saw.  Maybe I need to buy that new course for $3,000 on ‘How To Use A Saw Like A Pro’.

But as you continue looking around the construction site, you see something else:  a much smaller group of people are — gasp! — actually working on the cathedral! They’re driving nails.  They’re sawing wood.  They’re laying bricks.

They are, by God, getting the job done.  And they don’t waste their time sitting around worrying about whether or not they’re using a hammer that’s as fancy as someone else’s.

Heck, if you look closely, some of them may not even be holding the hammer right.  Some of them might not even HAVE a hammer:  they’re driving nails with the side of a pair of pliers!  They’re so focused on actually doing the thing that they can’t be sidetracked to sit around and spend their talking about the work.  They’re too busy actually DOING THE WORK.

The network marketing industry looks like that to me.

I see a lot of people who say they’re professional network marketers but they’re really just sitting around talking about the business.  Or worrying about their business.  Or spending time designing blogs, making friends on Facebook and making videos of themselves.

And there’s nothing wrong with any of those things…….unless the person is doing that stuff instead of making money and actually driving nails in their own business!

Don’t misunderstand me.  I have a blog (obviously).  I make videos.  I use Facebook.

But ALL of those things are secondary to actually driving the nails every day.  My primary focus is always, “Who are the 4-5 people that I’m introduce to AVANT today?”  “Who did I talk to earlier who’s probably ready to get started on my team?”

THIS is the actual work of network marketing.  Not all that other stuff.

It’s all about keeping the main thing the main thing.

Make sense?  Great!

So, I’ve pulled my workboots out of the closet and we’re packing our bags to go to New Orleans next week to get our hands dirty.  We’ll do a ton of masterminding while we’re there and it’s always good to hang out with Avant’s founder, Brent Payne.  If you’re in the New Orleans area, call me on 334-655-8194 if you’d like to get together and talk about Avant, meet the founder and find out more about what we’re doing!

Lastly, do me a favor.  If you like this post, comment on it below and retweet it or share it with others!

To your IMMEDIATE success!

Tony Rush
+1 334-655-8194 mobile

http://www.best7minutes.com

http://www.weareavant.com/main

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I hate to break it to you — no, that’s not true — I actually love being the one to break it to you.

The rules change and — as usual — most people aren’t paying attention. In fact, the rules changed quite a while back and most people still don’t know it. The ones who DO know it are not only having a BLAST in business but they’re making tons of money.

Here’s the skinny:

Your customer doesn’t care about all the features of your product.
The prospect doesn’t care that your MLM company is paying an extra 4% on the 3rd level.
If you’re talking to your prospect about the how many hotels will take your discount card, you’ve made a wrong turn and don’t even know it.
And, for those of you still in the stone ages, the prospect sure as hell doesn’t care about ORAC scores or how many mucopolysaccharides are in a serving of your miracle fruit juice.

People buy on emotion….and they justify their purchase on fact. Period. End of story.

In other words, WHILE the prospect is making a decision, they’re depending more on the emotional cues that they get from you, your company and your presentation….not just the data. Only AFTER they’ve made their decision will they quote some fact or other about why they made the decision they made.

That’s right: oftentimes the prospect herself doesn’t know why she made the decision she made. Only AFTER the decision is made will most people manufacture a list of reasons that would bear any resemblance to “critical thinking”.

Emotion is the ignitor. It’s the thing that sets our hearts turning. Why? Author Dan Pink knows why:

Good news and bad news: more people today, than ever before, demand EXCELLENCE. Not just excellence for the sake of it, but a committed, driven company looking to improve on what they can and get rid of what they do not.

And there are companies like that out there. And there are other companies out there who serve more as a warning to us all.

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One of the most fascinating things I’ve experienced in my career in marketing is that people will often try to “solve their problem with problems”.

Sounds like a paradox and it is. Here’s what I mean:

I’m in a business where I’m contacted daily by people who legitimately want to create more freedom and money in their lives. They want to quit their job, work from home and create a new lifestyle for themselves.

And yet, when given the opportunity to have exactly what they say they want, many will reply, “I’d really love to do this and I know it would work for me. But I just don’t have the money.”

Or someone who works 60+ hours a week and wants more time with their family….and when they look at a business that can set them free from the workforce forever….many will say, “I’d love to do this but I don’t have the time.”

They’re trying to solve problems with problems.

It’s a paradox. It doesn’t work.

The reason why they say they CANNOT do something is usually the reason why they MUST do something.

Until they figure that out, we can probably call those people in six months and they’ll still be struggling financially. Or working 10 hour days and missing their kids’ ball games.

These aren’t unintelligent people. Not usually. They’re not stupid. But, they’ve fallen into the trap of mediocrity: they choose to believe that life is happening “to” them and they’ve forgotten that they are actually creating their lives with their thoughts and decisions.

Nothing changes until the person changes. And no problem can be solved with the same quality of thinking that created it.

How about you? What decision or action are you putting off today because you think that you have something holding you back?

What can you do today to remove that obstacle for good and get on with your life?

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Her name is Helene Hadsell. And she wins every contest she enters. Seriously.
She’s won 5 trips to Europe, a luxury home, televisions, boats, etc.

In fact, by 1982, she’d won 5,000 different contests she’d entered.

Freaky.

Back in the 80s, she wrote a book called “Contesting” that’s a bit of an underground best-seller. If you can find a copy today, they usually cost $300 or more. In it, she explains exactly how she did it and how she’s actually got it down to a system so that others have been able to get similar results in contests, business, relationships, etc.

Well, today she’s 83 years old and she’s at it again. You can check out the story here…

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Well, maybe not EXACTLY an idiot. But, one of his key pieces of “personal finance” advice is just stupid. At least for most people.

David Bach is the author of a series of personal finance books like “The Automatic Millionaire” and “Start Late Finish Rich”.

I’m not quite sure why these books have caught on since they don’t seem to be much different from the same basic information you’d find in any personal finance book. It’s the same message you’ve heard before: save 10% of your income for a long time and you’ll get rich.

Bach puts a modern spin on this advice by appealing to the Starbucks crowd by calling it “The Latte Factor”. Basically, his point is that — if you skip the $5 latte every day — that’s $150 a month you can save. And, invested at 10% interest (yeah, right) then you can wind up with a million dollars in 40 years.

There are two problems with this formula as I see it:

1. This is great advice for a 20-year old. But, the largest demographic in America are baby-boomers who are already in their 40s and they’re trying to figure out to solve their financial dilemna. They don’t have 40 years to save up. They want a solution now.
   And the second problem is…
2. It’s the same old “deferred living” formula that requires you to hoard like a miser for the most productive years of your life….so that by the time you get to the end of your career, you’ve got some money but you’ve missed out on all the lattes!

David Bach isn’t really an idiot. He’s just immersed in the 1950s fairy tale about how saving money for retirement is the best way to create wealth. And it’s not.

Go make your money now. Make so much money that you can drink 5 lattes a day just for spite, if you want.

The solution to creating an abundant life for you and your family isn’t deferred living. Or working your ass off for 40 years.  The solution to creating an abundant life is to make sure that you’re engaged in a business that will pay you handsomely for your efforts…and which will allow you to enjoy all the sunsets, cruises, vacations, family time and lattes you can stand WHILE you’re doing it.

Seriously.  Read that again.  And then read it a third-time.

If you’ve got the sense to understand the words I’m typing, you have the ability to earn AT LEAST $20,000.00 PER MONTH.  At least.  I kid you not.

That’s what’s possible for you.  But it will never happen as long as you’re in the mindset of “skipping lattes” and “turning off the cable” so you can save enough money to save an extra $6 a week.

Start focusing on wealth…and abundance…and prosperity.  And you can create as much as you want….AND drink all the lattes you want.

Life is a choice. Choose well.

Tony Rush

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Hardly a day (hour?) goes by when you don’t run across someone online, in-person or on the TV who’s talking about how tough it is to make money in this economy.

And it seems the culprits are the usual suspects: the talking heads on TV. People who get paid — not to think — but to read.

Let me give you a tip: don’t buy into the rhetoric of the media. If you pay attention to them, they’ll have you thinking that there’s no money and that no one has anything to spend.

Which is complete BS. In fact, consider just a few random thoughts from the last couple of weeks…

• I just flew to and from Los Angeles first-class and it was completely full. People who paid nearly twice the ticket price for the privilege of being treated better than cattle, to have a wider seat and to get drinks and snacks without begging.
• I was in the Apple store last week and it was wall-to-wall people. All of them buying or looking to buy iPods, iPhones, iMacs, laptops, software, headphones or computer monitors.
• I recently talked with a 13-year-old kid who made $24,000 in four days by marketing on the internet. (I kid you not. His dad is freaked.) Evidently he didn’t buy into the doom-and-gloom.
• A quick glance at the Clickbank directory shows that there are thousands of dollars being spent every day on products that anyone here is smart enough to put together
• If there’s a Whole Foods near you, go there in the evening and see if you can count the number of people who go out of their way to come to that store to buy stuff that costs way more than a less-healthy version at Wal-Mart.
• There’s a guy in NYC who’s making a fairly good income by selling GARBAGE as art. Don’t ask. But, know this: if you want an acrylic cube full of stuff that he’s picked up after a Yankees game or after the NY Eve party in Times Square, it’ll cost you $100.

And the list goes on and on.

Now, obviously there really are economic issues right now and it’s not my point to try to say there’s not.

But anyone who’s been paying attention for the last 20 years knows that the news isn’t about journalism any more…it’s about editorializing, speculating and giving opinions.

And there’s a big difference in factually reporting economic problems (which is true) and
telling the public that no one wants to spend any moeny (which is NOT true).

Heck, have you noticed that some of the most famous “news commentators” are actually comedians? (Jon Stewart, Bill Maher, etc.)

Here’s the FACT:

No matter WHAT the economy is doing, there’s always a group at the bottom end of the market who knows exactly how many pennies a carrot costs. They have a “give me a penny off” discount philosopy and they invest most of their mental energy into thinking about ways to “save” money….not in way os thinking about “increasing their income”.

It’s difficult to make it financially working in that kind of market. Further, those people are usually extremely negative and have a tendency to bring you down by constantly focusing on what something is NOT rather than on focusing on what something IS. (Some of you will understand what I’m saying).

On the other end of the market are people who want quality and beauty and efficiency and positivity and value. And they’re willing to pay for it. They don’t care how many pennies a carrot cost. They just want to make sure they’re grown organically in a special greenhouse where a gardener comes in and sings opera to them every two hours. And they don’t give a damn what it costs. They just want the carrots.

Not only is that the kind of person you want to market to…but that’s also the person you want to spend your time with. Not so that you can be extravagant with money (although there’s nothing wrong with that, either)….but because you rise above all the gray, dull, negative energy of people who spend all their time worrying about whether they’re getting ripped off for a nickel.

At the end of the day, this economy is about the same thing it was about 3, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 years ago: opportunity mixed with difficulty. It’s simply money moving from one group of people to another. The trick is to find out where the money is going and get in front of it.

And stop watching the news. It’ll rot your brain. It’s full of people who make less than $100,000 per year to read words on a screen and to pretend they have a clue what they’re talking about.

Screw ‘em. Go make some money and forget anything you’ve ever heard them say.

People afford what they CHOOSE to afford. And when you spend your time offering great products and opportunities to people who are focused on expansion (not shrinking), then making money is a piece of cake.

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