Networking in the Real World - a new "ball of wax" and made easier with the help of friends!
Most of my working life I was an employee in various companies. My background started with word processing in the late '70s, where I learned to do audio transcription at an insurance company. I thought I'd DIE of boredom and I could not WAIT to have kids, and quite my job to stay home with them, because that's the agreement I had with my husband, the condition I put on having kids together.
Unfortunately, money was extremely tight. This is when my entrepreneurial streak began to germinate and sprout. I remember a brief flirtation with a network marketing company called Herbalife, which is still around. I did not understand what was required and never got off the ground with it, and taking the huge array of recommended vitamins myself did NOT fit our rapidly shrinking budget.
Eventually, a girlfriend I'd kept in contact with from when I worked at the insurance company, who had also had kids and stayed home with them, told me she started a home typing service working for a court reporter. It was a specialized kind of work, which I was not interested in. However, her success with it inspired me to do the research and start my own home typing service.
That was a pivotal experience in my life! Until then, I had no self-esteem, and my marriage was crumbling. I had borrowed about a dozen books from the library on how to start my own home typing business, and learned how to do a little bit of advertising with flyers (I could not afford much of anything for a marketing budget), and slowly began to get some clients here and there.
I met other women who also had home typing businesses, and developed some friendships. We formed our own professional association and had monthly dinner meetings. I took on a project of doing research on local secretarial services and their pricing structures, and I compiled a report about it. All my colleagues were extremely impressed and grateful.
But what was REALLY remarkable about this is that up until then, and even while doing this, I was so shy that I literally had heart palpitations doing simple things like calling to order a pizza or merchandise over the phone! Making the calls to secretarial services and asking the questions was the hardest thing I'd ever done up until then, even worse than childbirth or dental work! :o)
My clients were giving me wonderful, positive feedback on my professionalism and the quality of my work. I used an electronic typewriter, with a TEENY bit of memory and an LCD display where I could see about 10 words at a time as I typed them before they printed on the daisy wheel printer!
I did general business typing projects and had several transcription clients, including a fiction author dictating his novel, a consumer research consultant who dictated her final research reports, and a music business with a unique service. The music business sent demo tapes submitted by aspiring musicians, singers, song writers, and music producers to highly successful and well known people in the same categories for their dictated critiques, and I transcribed the tapes.
Due to my success with my business and the positive feedback from my colleagues and clients, I began to blossom in spite of the negative conditions of my marriage and our financial situation.
Eventually, I asked for a divorce. There were factors involved that really aren't appropriate to discuss here. However, the self-esteem I gained from the success with my business was a crucial factor, as well.
My sons were still only 3 and 5 years old. Unfortunately, although my business was finally really beginning to bring in consistent work, it was not enough to sustain us, and so I started working part time for another insurance company. There, I also did word processing and transcription, and by now we were using primitive computers and word processing software.
From there I was hired full time by a software company and received on-the-job training in desktop publishing, using regular PC computers and special software. I worked for the technical writers of the software manuals, and also produced various other reports and projects.
Later, I did some free-lancing and settled in at a publishing company, also receiving on-the-job training in a new desktop publishing software, Quark XPress software on MacIntosh computers.
All this time, my entrepreneurial streak remained. I tried "moonlighting" with several more network marketing companies, with no success and some real disasters! However, I really hated working for others, even though I always enjoyed the people I actually worked with.
Even so, I didn't have a lot of interaction with a lot of people. I didn't get a lot of "business experience" and learn a lot of the same things others did in the course of performing their own jobs. My positions kept me pretty much chained to my computer, working on my particular puzzle piece in the big picture. I was a loner, which suited me because I was actually still a very shy person and an introvert, even though I could now order a pizza on the phone with total confidence! LOL :o)
I also have an extremely creative streak and have experimented with different art forms through the years, including painting, drawing, and photography. You can see some of that in my online albums:
http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p=6&uid=417582
When my mother died in late 2000, by that next summer, I had received a bit of an inheritance. I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to take some time off and explore career options.
I delved into various explorations... I trained as a hypnotist, but did not pursue that. I studied meridian therapies, and developed a plan to become a success coach using those techniques. I wanted to create a coaching practice that would be easily conducted by phone, which is entirely possible with those techniques.
(I have a section about these techniques at http://www.LKSuccess.com/ -- click on the page called "Energy Healing Techniques")
To become a coach, I realized I needed a website, so I got a free site from Tripod hosting and used their Site Builder software (point and click) to begin. Once I got a few pages built, I realized I needed to learn how to get people to my site, so I began studying internet marketing. I also realized it was worth it to pay a few dollars a month so that my website would be free of the ads from Tripod.
Then, in the process of learning about internet marketing and affiliate marketing, I re-discovered network marketing. I had given up on that for several years, since before I got my first home computer or entered the world of the Internet.
However, I became re-entranced with the idea of what I call "The Holy Grail of Network Marketing"! You see, when done successfully, a network marketing business can produce true "walk-away" income... passive, residual income that allows you to take time off or retire and yet the business continues to grow or at least VERY gradually taper off. We're talking BIG money, when done correctly.
But it all depends on duplication and leverage -- sponsoring a sales force who also goes on to sponsor a their own sales force, and so on and so on, and you earn override commissions on all the products purchased by and sold by your sales force, their sales force, and so on.
So for the last couple of years, I delved into network marketing again. I'm sure I've made every mistake in the book. And, EVEN THOUGH I've developed my phone skills to the point of being able to sponsor people into my businesses as customers and potential business builders, the real duplication and resulting leverage that is necessary to succeed in network marketing did not happen, where the people that I sponsored would go out and sponsor others, and so on.
And yet, I still believe in network marketing, because it HAS worked -- WILDLY -- for so many.
I know exactly what I did wrong! I spent way too much time "reinventing the wheel" and building websites than actually talking to people about my product and my business.
I've also spread myself too thin, working on other websites and attempting to make money with "affiliate marketing" which is only slightly similar to network marketing. And I have plunged into this world of "blogging" too! Here are a couple of my other websites:
http://www.LKSuccess.com/
http://www.ProsperityMeditation.com/
Now, my inheritance is long depleted, although it kept me going for almost four years. I'm taking a break from my network marketing company to reevaluate.
In the meantime, I've begun my home typing/transcription business again... but today, the possibilities for that are much greater due to the Internet!
In the process of "re-learning" how to network OUTSIDE of "network marketing" I feel like a complete newbie and have made some mistakes. I've been networking quite a bit in an online business community called Ryze.com
There, as a free member, you can have your own page with your picture and information, you get a guest book, and there are numerous email discussion groups ("networks") to join and participate in. As a paid member, you get perks such as being able to host a network of your own and enhanced search capabilities for connecting with other members.
I'm learning about connecting with others for the purpose of helping THEM also connect with others, in addition to looking for my own potential clients. I really love this way of networking, because it really fits with my giving nature.
My giving nature was also my downfall by compelling me to work on big informational websites for my network marketing company as resources for all to use, even though I was not paid for them. My original idea was to provide information tools that I perceived as being missing... but so many new tools have been developed by others, now, I would not have felt compelled if we'd had them when I got going. I wanted to support my future organization -- kind of a "build it and they will come" philosophy.
I've learned a lot of lessons, and hopefully my admitting my mistakes will help SOMEONE "out there" somehow!
Anyway, as I said in my title for this post, this new way of networking -- outside of network marketing -- is truly a new "ball of wax" compared with anything I've ever done before!
There are rules of etiquette that I am learning "on the fly" because they are not really written down anywhere (at least that I've come across yet), and nobody has ever taught them to me!
However, Denise Michaels of the Testosterone Free Marketing network at Ryze.com has written some really informative posts about it. Here's the link to one about "How to Create a Great Mentoring Relationship."
http://www.ryze.com/posttopic.php?topicid=450877&confid=732
My sincere desire is to learn how to create win-win relationships with people whether or not they are my potential clients. I mean, first of all, it's my nature. I often actually give TOO much, and I know I'm not alone in that, or all that special because of it.
Finding the balance is a real learning process. Sometimes when one is learning to stop going to extremes, there is a swing back too far on the opposite side of the spectrum.
My intention with my typing and transcription business is to work with clients and projects that are INTERESTING to me... that means connecting with positive, creative people. It also may mean those who have hidden or unexpressed creativity that may come out if they learn to use dictation for their writing process.
Or, other bright, intelligent, creative people may hate to type, or not do it well, or just may not have time to do it -- or they may find themselves feeling artificial when trying to write/type themselves and dictation would allow more of their personality to flow through!
And as I learn about my clients and their businesses, you can be sure that my mind will be sorting and sifting through all I've learned and will continue learning, all the people I've met and will be meeting, trying to make connections with other people and information that may be helpful to my clients!
THIS is what excites me about my business. The actual task of transcription can be tedious IF working on material that I have no interest in or is truly boring, like the endless insurance letters I transcribed when I was in my early 20s and hated my job.
Now I'm almost 50 years old and I feel I've paid enough dues to be able to be a little bit choosy on the kinds of work I'd like to take on! The internet has opened a WORLD of possibilities and I'm meeting the positive, successful, creative types of people I know I can assist in a win-win partnership.
I may not be able to take credit for what they create, but I can take pride in knowing I was a part of the process -- and to know my soul's purpose, this is a perfect fit for me. It's hard to put into words, but trust me on this. I've explored this very seriously! I LOVE to be a part of the creative process at the point of inspiration. To be a part of the creative process is almost more satisfying to me than when the project is complete.
It can be scary to turn down work that does not fit my intentions . . .
But I've also been working on my "prosperity consciousness" diligently, and I believe we are given many choices, and that we even attract some choices to test ourselves.
Just how deeply do we BELIEVE we deserve what we want?
And if something is not a perfect match, do we have the courage to say, "Thanks but no thanks!"
And how often would you bet that -- THEN, after taking a stand for what we REALLY want -- a better fit WILL come along?
Well, I'll let you know! Because I was offered a chance to try out for a certain kind of transcription work that I have NO interest in -- even an aversion to -- and I've turned it down. Part of that decision was also that the pay was really low. It's interesting for me to try to figure out how much it would take to be paid to do it anyway, but I'm actually grateful that I'm not being given that choice! :o)
If you have ever been in a similar situation, I'd love to hear from you! Did you turn down an opportunity because it was not a perfect fit for your intentions? Did your taking a stand then also "pay off" in that something better and more of a perfect fit DID come along after that?
If so, please add your comments! I'd LOVE to hear about your experience!
Have a wonderful week! Thanks for hanging in with me if you've read this far!
Success, Wealth, Happiness, Health!
Laurie
.........................................
Laurie Kristensen Transcription
http://www.LKTranscription.com/
"Your Partner In Success!"
.
Keywords: networking, mentorship, transcription, creativity
Unfortunately, money was extremely tight. This is when my entrepreneurial streak began to germinate and sprout. I remember a brief flirtation with a network marketing company called Herbalife, which is still around. I did not understand what was required and never got off the ground with it, and taking the huge array of recommended vitamins myself did NOT fit our rapidly shrinking budget.
Eventually, a girlfriend I'd kept in contact with from when I worked at the insurance company, who had also had kids and stayed home with them, told me she started a home typing service working for a court reporter. It was a specialized kind of work, which I was not interested in. However, her success with it inspired me to do the research and start my own home typing service.
That was a pivotal experience in my life! Until then, I had no self-esteem, and my marriage was crumbling. I had borrowed about a dozen books from the library on how to start my own home typing business, and learned how to do a little bit of advertising with flyers (I could not afford much of anything for a marketing budget), and slowly began to get some clients here and there.
I met other women who also had home typing businesses, and developed some friendships. We formed our own professional association and had monthly dinner meetings. I took on a project of doing research on local secretarial services and their pricing structures, and I compiled a report about it. All my colleagues were extremely impressed and grateful.
But what was REALLY remarkable about this is that up until then, and even while doing this, I was so shy that I literally had heart palpitations doing simple things like calling to order a pizza or merchandise over the phone! Making the calls to secretarial services and asking the questions was the hardest thing I'd ever done up until then, even worse than childbirth or dental work! :o)
My clients were giving me wonderful, positive feedback on my professionalism and the quality of my work. I used an electronic typewriter, with a TEENY bit of memory and an LCD display where I could see about 10 words at a time as I typed them before they printed on the daisy wheel printer!
I did general business typing projects and had several transcription clients, including a fiction author dictating his novel, a consumer research consultant who dictated her final research reports, and a music business with a unique service. The music business sent demo tapes submitted by aspiring musicians, singers, song writers, and music producers to highly successful and well known people in the same categories for their dictated critiques, and I transcribed the tapes.
Due to my success with my business and the positive feedback from my colleagues and clients, I began to blossom in spite of the negative conditions of my marriage and our financial situation.
Eventually, I asked for a divorce. There were factors involved that really aren't appropriate to discuss here. However, the self-esteem I gained from the success with my business was a crucial factor, as well.
My sons were still only 3 and 5 years old. Unfortunately, although my business was finally really beginning to bring in consistent work, it was not enough to sustain us, and so I started working part time for another insurance company. There, I also did word processing and transcription, and by now we were using primitive computers and word processing software.
From there I was hired full time by a software company and received on-the-job training in desktop publishing, using regular PC computers and special software. I worked for the technical writers of the software manuals, and also produced various other reports and projects.
Later, I did some free-lancing and settled in at a publishing company, also receiving on-the-job training in a new desktop publishing software, Quark XPress software on MacIntosh computers.
All this time, my entrepreneurial streak remained. I tried "moonlighting" with several more network marketing companies, with no success and some real disasters! However, I really hated working for others, even though I always enjoyed the people I actually worked with.
Even so, I didn't have a lot of interaction with a lot of people. I didn't get a lot of "business experience" and learn a lot of the same things others did in the course of performing their own jobs. My positions kept me pretty much chained to my computer, working on my particular puzzle piece in the big picture. I was a loner, which suited me because I was actually still a very shy person and an introvert, even though I could now order a pizza on the phone with total confidence! LOL :o)
I also have an extremely creative streak and have experimented with different art forms through the years, including painting, drawing, and photography. You can see some of that in my online albums:
http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p=6&uid=417582
When my mother died in late 2000, by that next summer, I had received a bit of an inheritance. I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to take some time off and explore career options.
I delved into various explorations... I trained as a hypnotist, but did not pursue that. I studied meridian therapies, and developed a plan to become a success coach using those techniques. I wanted to create a coaching practice that would be easily conducted by phone, which is entirely possible with those techniques.
(I have a section about these techniques at http://www.LKSuccess.com/ -- click on the page called "Energy Healing Techniques")
To become a coach, I realized I needed a website, so I got a free site from Tripod hosting and used their Site Builder software (point and click) to begin. Once I got a few pages built, I realized I needed to learn how to get people to my site, so I began studying internet marketing. I also realized it was worth it to pay a few dollars a month so that my website would be free of the ads from Tripod.
Then, in the process of learning about internet marketing and affiliate marketing, I re-discovered network marketing. I had given up on that for several years, since before I got my first home computer or entered the world of the Internet.
However, I became re-entranced with the idea of what I call "The Holy Grail of Network Marketing"! You see, when done successfully, a network marketing business can produce true "walk-away" income... passive, residual income that allows you to take time off or retire and yet the business continues to grow or at least VERY gradually taper off. We're talking BIG money, when done correctly.
But it all depends on duplication and leverage -- sponsoring a sales force who also goes on to sponsor a their own sales force, and so on and so on, and you earn override commissions on all the products purchased by and sold by your sales force, their sales force, and so on.
So for the last couple of years, I delved into network marketing again. I'm sure I've made every mistake in the book. And, EVEN THOUGH I've developed my phone skills to the point of being able to sponsor people into my businesses as customers and potential business builders, the real duplication and resulting leverage that is necessary to succeed in network marketing did not happen, where the people that I sponsored would go out and sponsor others, and so on.
And yet, I still believe in network marketing, because it HAS worked -- WILDLY -- for so many.
I know exactly what I did wrong! I spent way too much time "reinventing the wheel" and building websites than actually talking to people about my product and my business.
I've also spread myself too thin, working on other websites and attempting to make money with "affiliate marketing" which is only slightly similar to network marketing. And I have plunged into this world of "blogging" too! Here are a couple of my other websites:
http://www.LKSuccess.com/
http://www.ProsperityMeditation.com/
Now, my inheritance is long depleted, although it kept me going for almost four years. I'm taking a break from my network marketing company to reevaluate.
In the meantime, I've begun my home typing/transcription business again... but today, the possibilities for that are much greater due to the Internet!
In the process of "re-learning" how to network OUTSIDE of "network marketing" I feel like a complete newbie and have made some mistakes. I've been networking quite a bit in an online business community called Ryze.com
There, as a free member, you can have your own page with your picture and information, you get a guest book, and there are numerous email discussion groups ("networks") to join and participate in. As a paid member, you get perks such as being able to host a network of your own and enhanced search capabilities for connecting with other members.
I'm learning about connecting with others for the purpose of helping THEM also connect with others, in addition to looking for my own potential clients. I really love this way of networking, because it really fits with my giving nature.
My giving nature was also my downfall by compelling me to work on big informational websites for my network marketing company as resources for all to use, even though I was not paid for them. My original idea was to provide information tools that I perceived as being missing... but so many new tools have been developed by others, now, I would not have felt compelled if we'd had them when I got going. I wanted to support my future organization -- kind of a "build it and they will come" philosophy.
I've learned a lot of lessons, and hopefully my admitting my mistakes will help SOMEONE "out there" somehow!
Anyway, as I said in my title for this post, this new way of networking -- outside of network marketing -- is truly a new "ball of wax" compared with anything I've ever done before!
There are rules of etiquette that I am learning "on the fly" because they are not really written down anywhere (at least that I've come across yet), and nobody has ever taught them to me!
However, Denise Michaels of the Testosterone Free Marketing network at Ryze.com has written some really informative posts about it. Here's the link to one about "How to Create a Great Mentoring Relationship."
http://www.ryze.com/posttopic.php?topicid=450877&confid=732
My sincere desire is to learn how to create win-win relationships with people whether or not they are my potential clients. I mean, first of all, it's my nature. I often actually give TOO much, and I know I'm not alone in that, or all that special because of it.
Finding the balance is a real learning process. Sometimes when one is learning to stop going to extremes, there is a swing back too far on the opposite side of the spectrum.
My intention with my typing and transcription business is to work with clients and projects that are INTERESTING to me... that means connecting with positive, creative people. It also may mean those who have hidden or unexpressed creativity that may come out if they learn to use dictation for their writing process.
Or, other bright, intelligent, creative people may hate to type, or not do it well, or just may not have time to do it -- or they may find themselves feeling artificial when trying to write/type themselves and dictation would allow more of their personality to flow through!
And as I learn about my clients and their businesses, you can be sure that my mind will be sorting and sifting through all I've learned and will continue learning, all the people I've met and will be meeting, trying to make connections with other people and information that may be helpful to my clients!
THIS is what excites me about my business. The actual task of transcription can be tedious IF working on material that I have no interest in or is truly boring, like the endless insurance letters I transcribed when I was in my early 20s and hated my job.
Now I'm almost 50 years old and I feel I've paid enough dues to be able to be a little bit choosy on the kinds of work I'd like to take on! The internet has opened a WORLD of possibilities and I'm meeting the positive, successful, creative types of people I know I can assist in a win-win partnership.
I may not be able to take credit for what they create, but I can take pride in knowing I was a part of the process -- and to know my soul's purpose, this is a perfect fit for me. It's hard to put into words, but trust me on this. I've explored this very seriously! I LOVE to be a part of the creative process at the point of inspiration. To be a part of the creative process is almost more satisfying to me than when the project is complete.
It can be scary to turn down work that does not fit my intentions . . .
But I've also been working on my "prosperity consciousness" diligently, and I believe we are given many choices, and that we even attract some choices to test ourselves.
Just how deeply do we BELIEVE we deserve what we want?
And if something is not a perfect match, do we have the courage to say, "Thanks but no thanks!"
And how often would you bet that -- THEN, after taking a stand for what we REALLY want -- a better fit WILL come along?
Well, I'll let you know! Because I was offered a chance to try out for a certain kind of transcription work that I have NO interest in -- even an aversion to -- and I've turned it down. Part of that decision was also that the pay was really low. It's interesting for me to try to figure out how much it would take to be paid to do it anyway, but I'm actually grateful that I'm not being given that choice! :o)
If you have ever been in a similar situation, I'd love to hear from you! Did you turn down an opportunity because it was not a perfect fit for your intentions? Did your taking a stand then also "pay off" in that something better and more of a perfect fit DID come along after that?
If so, please add your comments! I'd LOVE to hear about your experience!
Have a wonderful week! Thanks for hanging in with me if you've read this far!
Success, Wealth, Happiness, Health!
Laurie
.........................................
Laurie Kristensen Transcription
http://www.LKTranscription.com/
"Your Partner In Success!"
.
Keywords: networking, mentorship, transcription, creativity
posted by Laurie K. at 11:30 AM
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