Having Fun Again

Do you or your team members ever reach a place where you grow tired of & are lacking the fun aspect of your business. I think its a personality thing. I have some team members who are always so energetic and always loving their business. But I know that I have personally struggled at times to find the "joy" -- but that is really something that has been part of my personality since I was young. I remember my mom talking to me and telling me that I needed to exercise & set some goals & she was right that those things always made a difference when I was feeling "down".

So, if you're feeling "down" in your business or need to help a team member get positive again, here's some ideas that I've come up with:

• If its the success (or lack of) that is discouraging you, you might want to consider taking it to the next level and really putting a "working plan" into action. I really find that when I'm not having success I lose the motivation & when I do have success it motivates me even more & definitely makes my business more fun.
  
• listening to or reading business/motivational materials every day
• doing customer calls & hearing from the customers how much they're loving their loving their products
• what have you had fun with in the past? Whatever it is, get back to doing more of it!
  
• regular contact (in-person is best) with other demonstrators (like meetings!)
• the way I feel about life in general - if life is exciting & fun, then business will be the same; if life is difficult & drudgery, then business tends to be that way as well -- goal setting & making time to exercise & read the scriptures every day keeps me on track on the "life" end of things so I can be excited about business as well
• re-evaluate your goals & set an action plan for accomplishing them - a lot of times for me I get discouraged when I feel like I'm running around in circles & not accomplishing everything, by writing down my goals & reconfirming what I need to do to get there it gives me clarity & helps me to make sure that the things I'm doing will help me to progress . . . it gives my actions purpose!

Welcome Packets for New Team Members

Each morning, I check my team "stats" on our consultant website to see if any new team members were added to our team the previous day. I send out the following for new team members:

• a welcome e-mail (with link to a website with some training) - I cc the sponsoring demonstrator on this e-mail so she knows what I've sent out
• e-mail invitation to join our team message board
• evite to our upcoming team meeting
• a "welcome packet" (sent by "snail mail")

For my welcome packets, I use a regular paper folder and include:

• 2 sheets of stickers from www.thebooster.com, one sheet of booking stickers & one sheet of sponsoring stickers
• a 2 page training packet
• a 3 page packet "about our team" that talks about our current team goals, what incentives we do as a team, places to get training, and a calendar of our team meetings for the entire year
• "genealogy chart", a list of their upline, all the way up to me & our contact information
• a "top 10" list of what to do/not to do when getting started

Our company's consultant website shows my team, 5 levels deep, so that is what I work with, sending all welcome information listed above to all new team members 5 levels deep.

Olympic Teams

So, one more thought from the Olympics! There is so much to relate to our direct sales teams!

The US men's gymnastic team suffered a devastating loss as 2 of their major stars were injured and could not compete. The team had to bring in 2 alternates and was not expected to medal at all. But the team started and had some great routines and with each great routine, the team's momentum and excitement grew and they continued to perform much better than expected. Unfortunately, it worked the same way later on as there were some big mistakes made and then it seemed like momentum drug them in the opposite direction with more mistakes and lowered spirits and expectations. In the end, the momentum at the beginning was enough to make up for the mistakes at the end and the team won the Silver medal!

I think it works the same way for our direct sales teams. As we succeed together, we gain momentum and excitement and working as a team makes that momentum and excitement so much more than working alone. As we set goals for our teams to reach, its important to set goals that, while stretching ourselves, are still achieveable so that the team will gain positive momentum from their successes!

Working as a Team

Wow! I had the chance to see the Men's 4x100 freestyle relay swimming race last Sunday. I had been watching the swimming races and they were exciting to watch, with the winners pumping their arms and being excited after winning. But it was nothing like the excitement of seeing a TEAM win TOGETHER! As the teammates watched the race from the side of the pool they were yelling and cheering, full of excitement and when the US team won, they were hugging each other and jumping up and down with so much excitement that you couldn't help being thrilled just watching them.

If you got a chance to see this race (or if you can search it out and find a replay of it online), I would encourage you to close your eyes and replay it in your mind and then imagine your team doing the same thing. What a wonderful feeling we could create in our teams!

Each swimmer of the relay had to do their part alone, but they were part of a bigger picture, working together towards a team win and the whole team cheering each person to success. Our direct sales teams should be the same way. We should be so excited for each other as each individual strives for their own success and also looking forward to succeeding as a team.

Thoughts on "teams"

I'm busy getting ready for our company convention this week. I've been asked to help conduct a workshop on team goals & am gathering lots of thoughts that I will be posting next week! If you have questions on working with a team, please post a comment & I'll try to answer those as well. Working with my team has been my main focus for the last year & a half (at least!) and I've learned a lot!