The life-changing magic of positivity in your direct sales biz

The life-changing magic of positivity in your direct sales business

Your attitude is a powerful force in your life.

It can affect your work, your mental health, your happiness, and it affects the people you meet!

The question is, do you have a positive attitude towards your direct sales business or a negative one?

Positive thoughts are invigorating and energizing. A positive attitude attracts people, while a negative attitude repels them. Think carefully about what you’re focusing on, because what you focus on grows.

Have you ever heard the saying

“where your attention goes, your energy flows”?

If you’re constantly saying to yourself: “I can’t recruit or I’m dreadful at getting bookings” you’re putting your attention on the negative. And that means that your energy is going there too…is that what you want?

The power of choosing to focus on the positive in your party plan business is massive.

When I changed the message in my head from “I can’t recruit!” to “How can I learn to recruit?” I went from 0 recruits after 2 years to national recruiting champion in my company!

Postivity was super important in 2016 when my then 6 year old daughter was battling leukemia, I used gratitude for my business as my grounding platform for positivity. (My daughter is okay now, but it’s been quite a battle!)

I made a choice to have a positive attitude because I know that it’s up to me to decide whether the glass is half full or half empty.

Tips to be more positive

I’ve got a few tips for you to help you develop a more positive attitude. It all starts with a decision though: decide that you want to have a positive attitude. Then implement these tips.

Monitor your self-talk. Catch yourself when you’re thinking negative and unhelpful thoughts about your direct sales business. The best resource I’ve found to help re-train my brain and take positive action is The 5 Second Rule by Mel Robbins. If you haven’t read it yet, stick it on your reading list right now!

Think about how you can turn your self-defeating negative statements about your business around. Instead of “I can’t…” ask yourself “How can I…?” Fears like “I’m not going to get paid this month” can be changed to “What can I do to get paid this month?” Your subconscious mind will help you to come up with solutions when you ask the question. So instead of getting stuck in a negative thought spiral, change your attitude to a solution-focused mood.

Limit your exposure to negativity in others. I’ve witnessed the devastation that a few negative people can have on a team or organization. Negativity is contagious – avoid it at all costs. So take yourself out of negative message threads, consider how much news you’re watching, unfollow negative pages on Facebook and stop hanging out with friends who pick on everything and everyone.

Write something you love about your direct sales business every day. This will help you to re-focus on the positives. It’s kind of like a gratitude journal. You can also write about how much progress you’re making on the thing you want to improve (recruiting, bookings, or sales for example).

Turn follow-ups into a game. If you’re struggling with following up with leads (because you don’t like hearing “No”), read this article on how to turn following up into a game to massively change your thinking.

Surround yourself with positivity. Use a vision board, set your screensavers to something that inspires you, watch inspirational videos, or read uplifting books. Fill out the form below to grab a free inspirational quote movie. You play a little game with yourself every day and see what new inspirational quote the universe wants you to see.

Join a positive community. Join a business Facebook group or a group dedicated to positive inspiration. Definitely join Direct Sales Inspiration on Facebook – I’ve got positive quotes, tips, and encouragement for you!

If you need any more reasons to make a deliberate choice to focus on positivity, science has got you covered. Studies show that a positive attitude slows aging, contributes to health, helps you to deal with stress better and has a positive effect on everyone you meet.

Wow!

Make a positive change today and choose to focus on the positive in your life and your direct sales business.

5 Tips for Direct Sales Leaders

This is one of those misconceptions a lot of people have and I want you to really understand this:

Leadership is not a skill we’re born with.

Leadership is a skill you develop. You learn. You grow.

Direct sales is a business where you can step up to leadership, which brings new challenges and new opportunities.

If you’re new to leadership, below are 5 tips to help you grow into the type of leader that a team likes to follow.

Keep in mind that the number 1 complaint from consultants about their leaders is that they only hear from them when the leader wants to know how many sales they have!

I see that behavior all the time and it makes a team feel used – as if they’re only a number to help the leader gets paid. It leads to resentment and a negative team culture.

You don’t want to be that kind of leader. So check these tips to help you become a fabulous leader of a fabulous team.

Help your team members to feel successful

When teamies feel they are successful, it will help them build on their success and keep striving for more. Have a think about recognition. What are you celebrating in your team and how are you celebrating it?

What you focus on with recognition will increase.

Do you create certificates? Do you hand out trophies? Do you post a brag in your team group on Facebook? Do you call them or go Live to congratulate them with a personal message? The more you do the better!

If your team members are excited about their achievement they are more likely to repeat it and strive for more. It will also inspire others in your team to strive for recognition.

Encourage effort

Not everyone in your team will achieve the standard required for public recognition. But a good leader will make everyone in a team feel valued.

Try to find a reason to congratulate as many team members as possible each week for something. A quick text message can make a big difference to help someone feel acknowledged and valued.

Can yo find someone in your team this week who:

entered sales for the first time in a while
booked an extra party
found a potential new team member (lead)
booked in for a vendor event

Always be on the lookout for team members who’ve stepped out of their comfort zone to take action. When they do, consider going the extra mile and post them a personal card int he mail to let them know how proud of them you are.

Even if their actions don’t lead to results this time, they might next time. And in the meantime, you have a loyal team member who feels valued.

Mark significant occasions

I keep a box of cards handy so that when something important happens in a team members life, I’m ready to send of a personal post card.

Think of life events such as a new baby, engagement or wedding, the passing of a loved-one or pet, illness, etc.

It’s important to show team members that they matter to you and that what happens in their life matters to you.

Talk less and listen more

As a leader we have to stop trying to fix everything. Realize that your team members often already have the answer! Our job is to coach them and help them find it. (Check this article on coaching.)

It can be really hard to stop ourselves from telling our team members what to do. Try to remember that if you them choose their action steps, they’re far more likely to take that action!

Be a cheerleader

Be the best cheerleader you can be! When I think of cheerleaders, I think of someone happy, positive, energetic and smiling. That’s your job!

Always be positive. It’s okay to acknowledge concerns but you must always re-focus on the positives and the next step.

Sometimes you’ll have to remind a team member of their amazing qualities or how far they’ve come already. Sometimes you’ll need to remind them of how amazing your company is.

Focus on gratitude, focus on what’s in your control and enjoy the process.

Do you give up too easily on your follow-up?

Far too many people direct sales or party plan are afraid of rejection. They’re afraid of hearing the word “no“.

And I get it. I used to be afraid of rejection too.

In the first 2 years in my business I did not sponsor anybody. At all!

I was afraid to ask and by avoiding the ask I rejected myself in advance.

I was saying “no” to myself before anybody else had a chance to.

So how do you change this?

You need to change your outlook on asking and following up. Because there’s nothing to lose by asking.

Thought exercise

Imagine you ask a friend to host a party for your or join your team. Imagine she says “no”. There it is the dreaded no…

But what actually happened? In reality nothing happened because before you asked she wasn’t on your team and she wasn’t hosting a party.

And after asking that’s still the situation.

And you’ve spent your whole life without her on your team so you know how to deal with that!

How to ask for what you want

There’s an art (or a science) to asking and getting what you want. I found some great tips in the book The Alladin Factor by Marc Victor Hansen and Jack Canfield.

Ask your lead to join as if you expect them to. Ask with a positive expectation, as if you expect to get a “yes”.
Assume that you are able get new team members (or bookings). Assume you can get a “yes”.
Ask repeatedly. One of the most important traits of success is persistence. So don’t give up.

Are you persistent?

Do you give up too easily on your follow-up? Direct sales requires persistence...

You want to keep asking your leads (without annoying them!) because they might say YES…

on a different day
when she’s in a different mood
when her circumstances have changed
when your company has a different offer
when you’ve learned to ask better

The statistics that have most inspired me to persistent came from research by a marketing specialist at Notre Dame University:

94% of all sales people quit after the 4th call. However, 60% of all sales are made after the 4th call!

I didn’t want to keep missing out on 60% of my bookings or recruits because I wasn’t asking and following up enough. Read this article for more on using a leads book to ensure you have a system for following up.

You need to get used to the idea that there’s going to be lot of rejection along the way to your goals. Don’t take the rejection personally – they are not rejecting you as a person.

Don’t give up. Develop tenacity and persistence. When someone says “no”, you ask someone else. It’s that simple.

If you want to do a deep dive into the recruiting process, from start to follow-up, join my FREE Recruiting Mini Course. Start today by clicking the button below.

FREE Recruiting Mini Course

How to use survey boxes to grow your direct sales biz

As a direct seller it’s important to have a constant flow of new leads to work with.

One way to generate leads in new circles is to create a “survey box”.

Use a pretty box and a pretty prize

I like to make the boxes in which I collect completed surveys look really pretty. I’ve found that the prettier and more eye-catching they are, the better they work!

I leave the survey box in a business for 1 week. I have sign with it that explains when the box will be collected and that anyone who completes a survey will go in a lucky draw for a prize.

It works best if you can display the prize with the survey box.

The prize doesn’t have to be very expensive – if you’ve got a spare product you could add some chocolates, wrap it all up in clear cellophane with a bow or ribbons and it suddenly looks very attractive.

What do you ask in the survey?

How to use surveys to grow your direct sales business!

On the form you’ll need to ask a few questions that are relevant to your business or your field. Don’t make it too long and difficult to fill in but it should not just be a raffle ticket.

The answers on the survey forms will give you a good starting point for a conversation when you follow-up with people.

I’ve provided 2 example surveys that you can grab by filling in the form below. One example is for a health or wellness type product and the other example is for a beauty company.

You can swipe the examples for your own business, or use them as a starting point to create your own forms.

Where to put your survey boxes

Use a survey box to get new leads for your direct sales business.

I’ve found that gyms, restaurants, waiting rooms, local real estate agencies, and libraries are great places to leave survey boxes. The key to making it work, is to offer a small ‘bribe’ to someone at the premises to keep an eye on it for you.

Perhaps you can start by asking friends or family to take a survey box to their work for a week? Create a few pretty survey boxes, post a photo on social media and ask if anybody local is prepared to “host” a box for a week.

The survey box strategy is a numbers game. Many entrants won’t be interested in your business but just want a prize. That’s fine. You’re likely to find that some locations will yield nothing at all, but then others will be a gold mine for new contacts. So get lots of boxes out there!

And then, of course, you follow-up with everybody who’s filled in a survey! Check this article on how to make your follow-up strategy sing!

Bonus tip: post a photo of the winner with their prize on your social media to increase your credibility and build social proof.

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Recruiting is a skill that you can learn!

Recruiting or sponsoring can be daunting… What do you say? How do you bring it up? When they show an interest, how do you follow up without being pushy?

In 8 Modules, the Recruiting Masterclass will teach what to say, what to display, what to play, how to find potential team members outside of parties, online recruiting events, how to overcome objections, how to warm up your leads and how to follow up!

Recruiting is a skill that you can learn, even if you think you don’t have it in you!

Check out the Recruiting Masterclass

What successful direct sellers can teach us

There is this one fascinating study of successful party plan consultants and network marketers.

The study was conducted by Doug Firebaugh and he compared the work habits of average direct sellers, successful direct sellers and Million Dollar Club members. With over 1,400 responses and interviews, the study has some interesting things to teach us.

One of the findings was that Million Dollar Club members have a realistic idea of the true efforts it takes for huge success – while average consultants have a more fantasy based idea. So let’s have a look at those true efforts!

Here’s a breakdown of some of the findings:

	Average	Successful	Million $ Club
Hours worked per week	6	12	25
People talked to a day	1	7	15
“No’s” gotten in a week	2	10	25

What jumps out at you when you look at these numbers?

As a member of the Million Dollar Club, I can tell you that these numbers reflect my own direct sales business in most weeks.

I realize that not everybody aspires to be in the Million Dollar Club, but maybe you want to lift your game to ‘above average’. So let’s have a look at how to do that.

How to lift your game

For most people, all they need to do is to change their focus. Many consultants believe that they’re ‘too busy’ to get on the phone and talk to people. So they don’t.

Others procrastinate with busy work such as tidying the office and preparing and organizing everything to perfection. However, successful direct sellers work on the things that will directly benefit their bottom line.

Successful direct sellers focus on income producing activities.

It’s not about how many hours your work…

Many people are shocked to learn that Million Dollar Club members only work 25 hours per week on average.

What successful direct sellers can teach us about working smarter, not harder.

Generally in society we tend to believe that massive success equates with long hours. But successful direct sellers have worked out which activities help their business to grow in the future and which activities help to produce their income. And they put their focus there!

It was very early on in my career that I decided to use my time more wisely and focus only on the key activities. I paid a local teenager to help me with the basic business tasks so that I could free up my time to focus on growing my business.

When I had children I hired a babysitter for a few hours each week, just so I could focus on business growth. By hiring help, I could work smarter (not harder).

If you want to grow your business but you find you’re short on time, you could consider doing what I did and hire a young person to help you with the simple business tasks. Or perhaps you could hire a baby sitter or cleaner for a few hours each week to free up some time. Or perhaps your spouse is happy to help you have an “office evening” without interruptions?

Get more ‘No’s’

Have a look at the table above again, and notice how many “No’s” the typical Million Dollar Club member gets each week.

They get 25 “No’s” each week!

Maybe you could set yourself a “Million Dollar Club Challenge” and aim to get 25 “No’s” this week…I’m sure you’ll get plenty of “Yes’s” along the way too 🙂

Takeaways

Successful direct sellers work more hours than average consultants, but it’s not crazy high.
Successful direct sellers talk to more people each week than average direct sellers
Successful direct sellers get about 25 “No’s” per week
Successful direct sellers work smarter, not harder. They focus their time and energy on income producing activities.

I hope you now have a more realistic idea of what it takes to become successful as a party plan consultant or direct seller. I’d love to hear how you work smarter, drop me a line in the comments!

If you want to challenge yourself to develop the habits that successful direct sellers have, join the 21 Days to Success Challenge. It’s a challenge for direct sellers and party plan consultants to build their business over 21 days with support, motivation and ideas every day.

21 Days to Success

Please note: The 21 Days to Success Challenge is currently unavailable as Facebook has changed their messenger bot rules. I’m working to find a different way to deliver the challenge to you! Stay tuned….

The habits that you implement in your business make the difference between having a thriving business or a stagnating business that’s just not moving forward.

Here’s a serious question for you: Are you ready to take consistent action every day? Are you ready to build good habits in your business so that you can create a thriving direct sales business?

Are you even ready for success?

You’re still reading so I’m guessing the answer to the above questions is YES!

I’ve created a 21-Day Challenge for you to move your business forward while you build those habits that will help you to be successful.

The aim of the 21-Day Challenge is to ‘talk’ to 3 people every day. And when I say ‘talk’ I mean have contact with. You can talk to people in person, over the phone, via text message, via Facebook, etc. It doesn’t matter how you talk to 3 people, as long as you do contact 3 people every day.

But don’t worry – you’re not on your own in this Challenge. I’ll be there with you every day.

My Promise

I promise you this: if you can contact 3 people every day for 21 days you will grow your business. Not only that, you will build those good habits that will help your business to thrive.

During the Challenge, I will contact you every day. I will help you with ideas on how to find people to talk to, I will provide pep talks and help you to stay motivated, and I will help you out with free printables and tips.

Your Promise

You might be thinking now “but I can’t do this because….” Perhaps you’re an introvert, or shy, or busy, or you don’t know how to do it, or you only know 7 people …. or whatever other reason you have to hold yourself back.

But, have you ever tried this for 21 days before? No? Why don’t you just throw yourself into it and have a go (as we like to say in Australia). Then at the end of the 21 days you can decide whether you could do this or not.

When you start the Challenge, I want you to promise me to put in efforts every day and not give up.

Make the most of the next 21 days

You can focus on getting bookings, sales, or sponsoring. Or perhaps a combination of those 3. It depends on your goals and what your business needs right now.

Facebook Messenger Challenge for Direct Sellers

My recommendation is to offer each contact 3 opportunities: to join your business, to host a party or event, or to become a priority customer and join your customer VIP group.

The secret to success with this challenge is consistency. So if you truly want to make yourself be consistent you need to get a streak of 21 days. If you miss a day….go back to the start until you have had 3 contacts per day for 21 days straight.

And once you make it to the end of 21 days your business will flourishing!

Focus on the doing, not on the results

Part of the power of this challenge is that it allows you to concentrate on the numbers, on the doing. I don’t want you to focus too much on the results. You need to talk to 3 people every day but you don’t need to get 3 ‘Yes’s’!

By focusing on the process you can take some pressure off yourself and off each conversation. All you need to focus on is having those conversations, have some fun with them – don’t worry about the outcome.

Before getting started…

Before starting this challenge, gather all your contacts:

past hosts
previous customers
friends
family
acquaintances
sponsoring leads that were on the fence before

Create yourself a nice large list of contacts. And don’t worry if the list isn’t that long. We’ll also be working on finding more people to contact during the challenge. But I want you to be ready with your contacts so you have no excuses to procrastinate!

As you go through the challenge, it’s super helpful to track your results. That way you can see the work you’re doing and you’ll also be able to see your conversion rate.

Over the course of the Challenge, you’ll see how many “No’s” you get for each “Yes”. And you’ll notice that getting a number of “No’s” is perfectly normal. When I went through a similar process, I would start to get excited to get those “No’s” out of the way so I could get to my “Yes”!

Troubleshooting

Now, if you notice that you’re doing 10 calls in a row without getting a single “Yes”, you need to seek help. It’s statistically unlikely that you’d get 10 “No’s” in a row so you might want to look at your word choices and how you approach your conversations.

Seek some help from your upline, drop by the 21-Day Challenge Facebook Group to see what others are doing, and ask fellow consultants. Don’t be afraid to learn, to tweak, to improve. This 21-Day Challenge is a process, not an end point.

Let’s get started!

Are you ready to get started on your 21-Day Challenge?

I’d like to invite you over to meet Daisy, the Direct Sales Inspiration chat bot. Daisy will send you messages via Facebook every day and link you up with the Facebook Group. This will help you to stay on-task, focused and motivated.

Let’s build some great habits and get your business to the next level!

How to use social proof

5 Ways to Use Social Proof In Your Direct Sales Business

When I say “use social proof in your business” that might sound really complicated and ‘businessy’…but it’s actually not hard and is proven to work well.

What is this social proof thing?

Social influence or social proof is a psychological phenomenon where people copy the actions of others, it’s a type of conformity. Or, as some people say “monkey see, monkey do”.

Here’s an example: If you’re looking for a place to have lunch and you’re driving past a few cafés or restaurants…which one will you pick? The one with 1 lonely car parked out the front or the one with 7 cars already parked in their car park?

Most people will pick the restaurant with 7 cars. Because they figure that since so many other people are eating there, it must be good. It’s proven by the behavior of others = social proof.

So how can you use social proof in your party plan or direct sales business? I have 5 tips for you:

Tip 1: Testimonials

You can get reviews and stars on your Facebook Business Page. We all use reviews and testimonials when shopping for services or products – your customers are no different.

You can encourage happy hosts or customers to leave a review on your page to get the process started.

Pinterest: 5 Easy ways to use social proof in your direct sales business

Sometimes people message or email me with a lovely thank you that reads almost as a testimonial. I always ask them if I can use that message on my social media pages and I ask if I can use their picture with it as well.

I want to use their picture because research has shown that testimonials are considered more trustworthy when they’re accompanied by a photo!

I then create a tile (in Canva) or screenshot their message and then I post that across my social media channels – don’t be shy when people praise you 🙂

Tip 2: Storytelling

Tell stories at your parties or showings. Tell stories in your Facebook Lives. We humans are hardwired to love stories and to imagine ourselves in the story. So you want to tell stories!

What stories do you want to tell? How a recent host had a fabulous party and so much fun. Or maybe the initial success of a new team member…or your recent incentive trip…or that one of your guests said that she didn’t expect to really enjoy the party but did…

You want to tell interesting stories that people can relate to. Stories that make them imagine they can have a fun party or join your team and have great success.

Tip 3: Storyboards

A free collage like this can act as your storyboard.

Add a story board to your display for your in-home parties. It’s a great piece of social proof. This example has been created with a free photo collage app.

With your storyboard you can highlight the friends you’ve made, the lifestyle you’ve created with your business, past fun parties, themes, your customer appreciation event, workshops, etc.

You can print off a collage like this in color on glossy paper to add to your display or you can use it in digital form.

During your party, refer to you story board and tell the story behind some of the images to bring it to life and enhance engagement.

Some people use photo albums for this purpose. And they would fit more pictures, but only a few people will flip through them so I prefer story boards.

Tip 4: Share Milestones

On your social media you want to share your milestones as part of your social proof strategy. Here are some ideas of milestones to share:

Reaching X followers on your Facebook business page or Instagram profile
Reaching X customers in your business
Running your Xth party
Business anniversaries
Achieving career elevation with your company
Achieving a sales goal
Receiving an award or prize

The key when sharing milestones is not to brag but to show your happiness and gratitude!

Tip 5: Share customers’ love for your products

Encourage your customers to share their love for your products on social media. You could introduce special hashtag or re-post social media posts from your customers.

I kick-start this customer-driven social proof a few times a year by creating “Review Crews” in my VIP customer groups. I make it more compelling by offering some prizes or discounts to the “Review Crew”.

You could also offer a monthly reward to your customers. Everybody who writes a product review or does a product shout-out on social media, goes in the draw for a prize.

Okay, over to you. What are you doing in your business to use the power of social proof? Leave a comment below with what you already do or what you’re planning to implement after reading this article.

Create Your Ultimate VisionBoard

The best way to achieve your direct sales goals is to keep them somewhere you’ll see them every day.

Seeing them will prompt you to visualize achieving your goals and in turn this will activate the creative powers of your subconscious mind to help you.

You might find that you’ll notice opportunities more easily, you might have more creative ideas for your business, you might find that you’re more focused every day.

No, that’s not by magic…but by using your Reticular Activating System in your brain.

You can train this Reticular Activating System and that will help you to maintain your focus and use your subconscious mind to work on your goal with you (more in this article).

To keep your goals where you can see them every day, you can create a visionboard. And if you do it right, it might just be the the most valuable time you invest in your business all year!

I’ve got some (research-based) tips for you to ensure your visionboard is more than just a collection of wishes and pictures. Let’s create a visionboard that actually works.

4 Steps to an awesome visionboard

Step 1 – Connect your vision to actions and feelings

It is important that you connect your visionboard to action steps and plans.

Scroll down to sign-up for a printable that will help you to set goals but also to look forward and think about possible obstacles or difficulties. And then you can think about how to deal with them should they occur. This way you prevent that a small set-back gets you off-track and instead you already have considered some way of dealing obstacles!

Once you’ve set out your goals dealt with obstacles, you need to ‘cement’ them in your mind by attaching a feeling to the outcome. Imagine how you’ll feel once you’ve achieved each goal. Really feel it. Then write it down.

Now you’ve created a very powerful document for yourself so keep it close!

I recommend that you set goals for no more than 1 year ahead. If you set goals for further into the future it’s quite hard to connect the vision or goal with action steps.

Step 2 – Start creating

Vision board example — Example of a physical vision board.

Once you are clear on the goals, plans and feelings it’s time to create the actual visionboard!

Start by looking for pictures that represent your goals. You can use photographs, magazine cut-outs, or just Google the images you want.

I love using Pinterest to find images that resonate with me. Every year I create a secret board for my goals as a step to creating my vision board.

From the images you’ve collected, create a collage. I suggest making two, a physical collage to hang up in your office and a digital one.

Vision Board Collage — Example of a digital vision board.

For my office, I a stylish corkboard.

You can also put your visionboard somewhere more private. Some people have their vision board inside the door of a cupboard they access regularly, and this can work very well too.

For my digital visionboard I love to use a photo collage app. Once I finish creating it, I use it as a lock-screen image and screen saver on all my devices. This way I see it quite often throughout the day.

Jack Canfield warns that it’s important to keep your vision board neat. Avoid creating a cluttered or chaotic board because you don’t want to attract chaos in your life!

Step 3 – Add affirmations and quotes

Add motivational or affirmation words and inspirational quotes to your visionboard. Choose the ones that represent how you want to feel while you’re striving for your goal and when you achieve it.

Step 4 – Make time to review your vision board every day

Remember to take a few moments to review your vision board every day. Especially when you wake up or just before you go to bed!

You want to make sure that your vision board doesn’t just become ‘background noise’ in your life – so you need to make an effort to pay attention to it.

I would love to see your vision board too so please share it on the Direct Sales Inspiration Facebook page.

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Planner Love

Planner Love: How I Fell In Love With a Planner and We Lived Happily Ever After

I don’t know about you, but I feel so much better when I feel like my work and family life are balanced and I manage to keep all the balls in the air. In my early days in my business I was working full time, running my business and studying a Masters Degree. I had to be structured with my time otherwise I couldn’t do any of it! Later, when I worked in my direct sales business full-time, I had to work around small children and find a way to organize myself so that when I did have time, I could be effective.

You need to be organized and balanced in your direct sales business

I know how important it is to be organized but also to balance your efforts. I’ve experienced times I was focusing too much on sponsoring new team members and growing my team. As a result I ran out of party bookings. Oops! I’ve also been through times where I didn’t do enough hostess coaching and I saw my sales drop. Another oops. It’s important to not just be organized and well planned, but to make sure you pay attention to all aspects of your direct sales business! To do this, I created systems for myself. This has massively improved things but the downside was that I always had bits of paper everywhere. I used to have multiple notebooks on the go and my office was an art work of sticky notes. Over the past decade (!) I’ve been looking for a system to keep it all organized and keep me on track. And I’ve finally found it!

A love story

Direct Sales Planner — A few of the pages of the Pineapple-themed planner.

I the CEO of Me planner so much that I’ve partnered with the creator as an affiliate. I want every direct seller and party plan consultant to fall in love with this planner like I have. I have literally tried dozens of different planners over the years and they were never quite right. But this planner has everything you could possibly want. It’s specifically designed for party plan and direct sales consultants and it’s way more than just a planner. Calling it a planner is almost an insult! I use mine as a goal journal, scheduler, marketing idea tracker, social media planner, follow-up tracker, monthly contact tracker, host coaching monitor……and so much more.

Weekly Planner for Direct Sellers — My favorite pages are the weekly planner to help you work on all areas of your direct sales business!

My absolute favorite feature is the weekly planning page. I can pop all my tasks for each important area of my business at the top (that helps me to keep all the balls in the air) and I can schedule them into my busy week. I love that this planner is a print-your-own system, it comes with 75 (!) different worksheets and planning pages so you can put together the planner that works for you in your business. You can print a few months at a time – you don’t even have to print off a full year if you don’t want to. I love the design options, I’ve chosen the pineapple design but there are quite a few wonderful design options available. I also got mine bound at my local office supply store and I put some dividers in to make it super easy to find the different worksheets.

Oh, and to make it even better, there are helpful videos to show how you can make the most of your planner. The planner is only $27 (on special) and I truly believe it’s the best investment you can make in the success of your business. Grab one now to get you started immediately.

Let me see the planner!

5 Ways to Keep Yourself On Track

It can be hard to keep yourself on track when you’re trying to qualify for an incentive trip with your direct sales company.

The qualification period for most incentive trips is usually run across several months and sometimes up to a full year. It’s easy to lose motivation and lose track of how you’re going towards your goal.

The key to achieving major goals like that is maintaining focus in your direct sales business over a lengthy period.

I’ve qualified for more than 18 international incentive trips, so I have some tips that I use and I want to share with you:

1 Break it Down
How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

You need to break down that big, overwhelming target into bite-sized chunks. Start by dividing it into monthly amounts and then break it down into weekly targets. That way you’ll know exactly what you need to do each week to qualify eventually. It gives you manageable targets and from there you can plan your actions

2 Celebrate the Small Wins
Once you know what your monthly and weekly targets are in your party plan business, you can celebrate your success along the way. When you’re on track for the week, make sure you plan a mini celebration or treat yourself. Because when you celebrate your successes, you train your brain to create more success. Check the Moët Moments article for more on this.

Rocket Ship Printable for Direct Sellers

3 Rocket to Your Goal
It’s also important to track your progress in a visual way. I have always used a “goal rocket” printable to track my success. It’s a picture of a rocket ship that I can color in when I achieve certain amounts and see in one glance my progress towards a goal. It’s so satisfying to color in another band after a party or two! Grab the rocket ship from the Maximize Holiday Trade article.

4 Follow Your Vision
There’s a remarkable amount of science and a massive volume of proof behind the importance of visual representation of our goals. Creating a goal or vision board is a vital element of your success.

Elizabeth Rider wrote in the Huffington Post: “When you create a vision board and place it in a space where you see it often, you essentially end up doing short visualisation exercises throughout the day.”

We know that visualization works. And to really boost the power of your vision board, it helps to imagine how you’ll feel when you achieve that goal, not just the goal itself.

Vision boards can be traditional cork boards in your study or a digital version which you then set-up as your screensaver or wallpaper so you see it regularly. With a free collage app you can quickly create a fab vision board for yourself and do those mini-visualizations throughout your day.