Larry Hochman

Breaking Barriers, Having Fun, Achieving Success

Marketing Is A Contact Sport

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Marketing

Is Marketing a Contact Sport?

When we think of contact sports, we think of aggression. Beating down the other player before they can do the same to us.

Marketing, including home business marketing, can be seen that way as well. Clear out the competiton for the attention of your prospects. Rise above the rest. Get there first. Be the strongest.

Or you can see marketing as something different. Contact. And a sport.

Contact: Genuine interaction with people.

That’s the opposite of a lot of what is seen on social media. Canned sales copy. Field tested responses. (Listening. Being a professional problem solver, which means you have to have something to offer that they want. Not trying to convince what you have is what they want, no matter what.)

Sport: Marketing is a game.

It’s also serious business. But it’s won by people with a sense of play and a sense of adventure.

They put the challenge on themselves, but without the pressure of fear. So they work the most efficiently.

They’re also the most attractive to be around.

Take that mindset to your efforts. Let yourself have some contact. With prospects. With colleagues. With mentors and leaders who can help you get where you want to go.

Make it a sport. Make it a challenge. Make it something you really want.

But don’t make it life or death. Keep time for the other important aspects of your life. Remember to eat. And move. And do a good job at your job, if you have one.

Remember to love your family.

Make your marketing efforts the best kind of contact sport.

YOUR TURN

How do you approach marketing?

Do you see it as a chore? Something to roll up your sleeves and get done, even if you hate it?

Or do you see it as sport? As something that brings out the competitive best in you?

Comment below. Like, share and Tweet above. Someone is looking to you to help them redefine their marketing.

“Sudden Success.” Building The Foundation

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sudden success marriott marquis new york

One of my favorite success stories to tell is about watching the construction of the Marriott Marquis Hotel in Times Square.

I was working as a college helper for New York City’s electrician’s union that summer, I believe it was 1986. I would walk each morning from Penn Station to a condominium renovation on Seventh Avenue, and then back in the afternoon.

That summer, the Marquis was under construction. For the eight or so weeks I worked, it didn’t look as if much was going on. Just a lot of stuff in the foundation. Everything was at ground level.

Then about six weeks in a story of the building went up.

The next day, another went up.

By the end of the summer at least fifteen stories were completed.

And a couple of months after that, a fully functioning hotel was born. It looked like it had been there forever!

If you weren’t really paying attention, you would have thought the success was sudden. Nothing one day…a building the next.

Of course you know where this is going…

All the “sudden success” we experience only happens when we’ve built the foundation for it.

All that important infrastructure. The concrete, the electricity, the plumbing.

Your business…the same thing is true.

You can put up all the bright and shiny facades you’d like.

If the foundation isn’t strong, it won’t matter. It’ll only be a matter of time before they collapse.

Real success happens slowly and carefully.

You don’t often see the real work. And it takes longer than the visible, public success.

But it’s what makes everything strong and stable.

 

YOUR TURN

What success have you had the seemed like it happened overnight, but had a foundation was built slowly and carefully?

Comment below. Like, share and Tweet above. Someone is frustrated, and needs your role model of “sudden success.”

Massive Success

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Yes, it is possible.

By some measures, the success we have is massive. Annual earnings most than most professional occupations.

$40,000 in credit card debt paid off.

Daughter graduated from the University of Connecticut with zero debt.

And lots more on the way. There are lots of paths to that success.

And it all started from small decisions and small successes.

  • Deciding to invest seventy two dollars at the beginning stages. (We didn’t know where it was coming from, since we didn’t have it at the time to invest. My father wrote the check.
  • Quick results from the nutritional products we were involved with at the time. It gave us confidence that what we were doing was right.
  • Willingness to take a bigger risk financially, after understanding how to recover our investment and turn a profit. (We did. 42 % profit within a couple of weeks.)
  • Deciding our dreams – and our relationship – were worth it to put aside bad habits and replace them with personal development, self respect and listening…and taking action.
  • Being interested in other people. Listening to them. Developing leadership within ourselves, and those who worked with us.
  • Jumping out of businesses, and relationships that no longer served our highest good, and playing on a bigger field when the time came.
  • Accepting responsibility for lots of people, lots of money, lots of decisions.

Yes, massive success happens.

And yes, there are hundreds of thousands of people who want to jump past the important parts of the process.

They want the wealth, the lifestyle, the recognition and the money…before they’ve built the skills and the awareness to let it in.

They want the prize before they’ve even entered the contest, much less won it.

And there are lots of people who will play on that greed, exploit someone’s desire for massive success by offering freebies and pie in the sky promises we should be wary of by now.

Massive success starts with your first ten dollar commission.

Massive success starts with your first five pounds lost, or energy in the afternoon when you’re usually ready for a nap.

Massive success starts with picking up the check at lunch, rather than waiting for someone else because money is tight.

Massive success starts with taking yourself and your dreams seriously enough to think differently and behave differently.

Where does massive success end?

I don’t know. Let’s find out!

.

YOUR TURN

What does massive success mean to you?

What was the first real taste of success you remember?

Comment below. Like, share and Tweet above. Someone is looking for a role model of massive success.

 

Wounded Warriors

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Afghan National Army (ANA) Commandos with the 207th Kandak are on a routine patrol on April 12 2009 in Gulistan district Farah province.(CJSOTF-A photo by Spc. Joseph A. Wilson.)

I’m careful about using that phrase.

It has to do with veterans…people who fought in our Armed Forces, protecting America’s interests and in some cases, America herself. It’s not to be taken lightly.

That’s why it was an honor when I was nominated for the 22 Push-Up Challenge, to bring awareness and support to the fact that 22 U.S. veterans a day commit suicide. There are a lot of wounded warriors who are quiet victims of the stress of war.

But there are also a lot of “wounded warriors” in the space known as home business marketing.

Hurt people who get more hurt. But they keep coming back.

They want something that most “normal people” just don’t care about.

They feel a call within themselves…not just for money, or even lifestyle.

They feel it for recognition. And for passion. And for wanting to reach out and inspire others.

Yeah, it’s weird.

The truth is, most people who go into the home business space, whether it’s through a network marketing program, affiliate marketing or any other kind of direct sales, most will be gone within a year.

It’s not an easy thing to do. Selling a product or asking people to be part of your business team, when you don’t really have the experience to do either one.

And yet some people start from nothing, and break through.

They get hurt along the way.

They challenge relationships.

They strain their finances.

They feel the burn of having to unlearn a bunch of things they always took for granted, and replace them with the principles of prosperity and abundance.

They try and stay ahead of a technological curve that just won’t sit still for them.

I spoke with one of my friends and clients yesterday. He’s going through this very thing right now. All of it.

Like everyone else in this space does at some point, he’s struggling to keep his life in balance.

He sees things he wants. And he sees what’s possible, because others are doing it.

And he’s struggling with rejection from others. And with a “regular career” that pulls him in one direction while his home business dreams lead him somewhere else.

He’s trying to make sense of it.

And he’s hurting.

Unlike most who give up, my friend allows himself to feel frustrated and lost…for a little while.

He lets himself feel the wounds.

Then he grits his teeth and remembers why he entered this crazy space in the first place.

He remembers who he is, and what he wants.

He goes forward…stronger and more determined than ever before.

And the Universe gives him a sign that he’s moving in the right direction. His direction.

Keep moving, warriors. You’re not risking life and limb like your brothers and sisters in the military.

But you are fighting the forces of mediocrity. Your ambition is what built America, and every other peace loving, forward thinking civilization.

Stay in the game. Find your fellow warriors. Laugh and cry about the battles.

Then dig in and come back at it.

 

WOUNDED WARRIORS

Visit the House Committee On Veterans Affairs. Find out what the government is doing…and hold them accountable to it.

And take a look at OnBehalf.org. They do amazing work supporting those who need us most.

Dig Deep

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If you use the principles of Attraction Marketing to build your business, you’re smart.

Very smart.

The number one reason for that is simply you’re not chasing your prospects…your prospects are chasing you.

But no matter what you do, unless you run tens and hundreds of thousands of dollars in advertising on a monthly basis, you will still need to show yourself to your future customers, clients and team members.

And even if you do advertise in such massive numbers that people buy or sign up, they won’t stay with you long term unless they feel good about what you represent.

That means they have to feel good about you.

They will dig.

They’ll dig deep down until they figure out what they’ve thrown down with.

And if they don’t like what they see, they’ll leave.

Sometimes they’ll ask for a refund.

Or sometimes they’ll tell others what a bad experience they had with you.

Sometimes they’ll just go away a little bit poorer, a little bit resentful, maybe a little bit smarter.

But make no mistake, they’ll dig.

They’ll find out about you, because you are what they invested in.

How great would it be if, after digging down into what they invested in, they love what they found?

It’s why the luminaries in the field keep saying the same thing over and over again.

Work harder on yourself than on your business.

Jim Rohn

Tony Robbins, Wayne Dyer, Brian Tracy, John Maxwell, Denis Waitley, all saying the same thing.

Modern day home business prophets: Diane Hochman, Ray Higdon, David Wood, Brian Fanale, Chris Record, Lisa Grossman…all using different words to say it also.

To have a successful home business, it’s not enough to just do it. You have to be it.

It’s what you want in the person you’re looking to join, buy from, partner with.

It’s what you’re looking for in the people you’re looking to sell to and sponsor.

You don’t want the dead anchor of negative energy, bad habits and finger pointing, unless you think that’s how things get better.

You don’t want to lead with massive greed and fear based advertising. It’s not sustainable.

And it’s a crappy way to do business, and to live.

Dig down into yourself.

Find the places where you are scared. Or angry. Or impatient. Or resentful.

Fix them.

And find the places where you love. And laugh. And have fun. And have the desire to live a better and fuller life than you have now.

Magnify them.

Dig down into yourself.

So that when others do the same, they will love what they find.

 

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YOUR TURN

When you dig into yourself, what parts do you celebrate? What parts are you looking to fix? Which parts are a really good calling card for your business?

Comment below. Like, share and Tweet above.

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