My Business Beliefs & Tae-Kwon Leep

This is about my business beliefs & Tae-Kwon Leep

OK. I am involved in multiple Direct Sales Businesses, mainly AdvoCare and Solavei. I am looking into other opportunities as well. I am looking at generating at least my income level on each stream of residual income.Now, one thing I have noticed is that a number of “big players” in one of businesses are big on “pay for training” that are basically Webinars.  Now The other business does trainings that they bill for, but these trainings are Live, In-person trainings, so there is a cost for the facility rental, staff expenses, and so on. Webinars if done a particular way can be completely free. Yet they charge $50, $100, $150 for.
And they charge their down-line to. My problem with that is, my up-line profits when my business grows. So to spell it out, my up-line is trying to make money off of me from the very beginning. Now I should clarify, my immediate up-line is not like this, he helps when he can.
Intro Tae-Kwon Leep. Back in 1987 a Canadian comedy group called the Frantics, released a skit called “Boot to the Head” (Script below). This will continue after the script. I highly recommend reading it as it pertains to the rest of this post.

MasterApproach students.  Close the circle at the feet of the master.  You have come to me asking that I be your guide along the path of Tae-Kwon Leep, but be warned.  To learn its ways, you must learn the ways of your own soul.  Let us meditate on this wisdom now.
 
EdUh sir… sir… ooo!  ooo!  Sir!

MasterWho disturbs our meditation as a pebble disturbs a pond?
 
Ed: Me.  Ed Gooberman.
 
MasterE… Ed Gooberman.
 
EdYeah.  No disrespect or nothing, but like how long is this going to take?
 
MasterTae-Kwon-Leep is not a path to a door, but a road leading forever towards the horizon.
 
EdSo like, what, an hour or so?
 
MasterNo, no.  We have not even begun upon the path.  Ed Gooberman, you must learn patience.
 
EdYeah, yeah, patience.  How long will that take?
 
MasterTime has no meaning.  To a true student, a year is as a day.
 
EdA year?!  I wanna beat people up right now!  I got the pajamas.  Ha..yo…wa… wooo!
 
Master: Beat people up?
 
EdYeah, just show me all those nifty moves so I can start trashing bozo’s.  That’s all I came here for.  Yo-as-ta-ta-shah!  Pretty good aye?
 
MasterThe only use of Tae-Kwon-Leep is self defense.  Do you know who said that?  Ki-lo-knee, the great teacher.
 
EdYeah, well the best defense is a good o-fense.  Do you know who said that?  Mel, the cook on Alice.
 
MasterWell, umm… Tae-Kwon Leep is the wine of purity, not the vinigar of hostility.  Meditate on this truth with us.  Ahhh…. ohhhhh….
 
EdListen shrimp, now are you gonna show me those nifty moves, or am I gonna start waping the walls with you?
 
MasterEd Gooberman, you fail to grasp Tae-Kwon Leep.  Approach me so that you may see.
 
EdAlright, finally some action.
 
Master: Observe closely class.  Boot to the Head [boom].
EdOw, you booted me in the head!
 
MasterYou are lucky Ed Gooberman.  Few novices experience so much of Tae-Kwon Leep so soon.
 
EdOw, oh, my head.
 
MasterNow we continue.
 
EdHey, hey, I wasn’t ready!  Come and get me now, come on, are you chicken?
MasterBoot to the head [boom].
EdOw!  Okay, now I’m ready, come on, try it now.
MasterBoot to the head [boom].
 
EdMind if I just lie down here for a minute?  Ow.
 
MasterNow class, we shall return to our…
 
Student 1: Master.
 
MasterIt is wrong to tip the vessel of knowledge student.
 
Student 1: Many apologies master, but I feel Ed Gooberman is not wholly wrong.
 
MasterWhat do you mean?
 
Student 1: I want to boot some head too.
MasterHave you learned nothing from the lesson of Ed Gooberman?
 
Student 1: Yes master, I have learned two things.  First, that anger is a weapon only to ones opponent.
 
MasterVery good.
 
Student 1: And get in the first shot.  Boot to the head [half a boom].
MasterYou missed.
 
Student 1: Uh, yeah, well …
 
MasterYou to shall be honored to learn a lesson.
 
Student 1Ya know, I can… you don’t have to ya know… I gotta be going….
 
Master: Boot to the Head [boom].
 
Student 1ooo…ya.. ehh… ooooogggg… awwwwww
 
MasterCan anyone tell us what lesson has been learned here?
 
Student 2Uh, yes master, not a single one of us could defeat you.
 
Master: You gain wisdom child.
 
Student 2 So we’ll have to gang up on you!  Get him now!
MasterBoot… [boom]… boot to… [boom]… ht.. [boom], [boom], [boom] [boom] [boom], [boom] [boom]… [boom]
 
MasterAnd now class, let us rejoin the mind to the body, and gaze into the heart of the candle in meditation.  Ahh… owwww….
 
Studentsahhh… oooooowwwww…..
MasterVery good, class.

Now you are probably asking yourself what does this have to do with business? Well a number of things. First, Sun Szu’s Art of War has been required reading at most major business schools for a very long time. Why? Valuable business lessons can be gleaned from it. Boot to the head, has a number lessons that can be gleaned as well. Second, in sales, it is always important to realize the personality types of those you are working with.
Now for this post, I am going to use the personality types of expressive, driver, analytical, and amiable. There are other classification names, but the grouping is generally the same, and these are the ones I am most familiar with. Everyone is a combination of these types, having a primary (or more dominant one) and a secondary, and maybe a sprinkling of a third. The majority of those successful in direct sales are usually primarily drivers with a secondary of expressive. Does this mean you have to be a driver to be successful? No, just don’t expect the same results as a driver.
I would say that Mr. Gooberman, or Ed, is a driver-analytical. He wants results and he wants them now. But the results are based on technique. Did he make the right choice with Tae-Kwon Leep? No, he should have picked something else.
On the flip side, the Master should have been a little more investigative and probably not let Ed sign up.
How does this apply to me? Well being in the computer industry for 19 years, I would think that I have a strong analytical personality type. With that being said, I am not exactly comfortable with doing something new without a firm understanding how. An example would be when I went skydiving (accelerated freefall, not tandem). At the jump school, they started training us @ 8:30 in the morning, and it kept going till we jumped @ 4 in the afternoon. And even then, I was a little apprehensive.
Now this training, that I have paid for. I must admit I have been thoroughly disappointed in the training. I know what I need. I know what I have. I am tired of what I call “Fluff”. Motivational speaking is one thing, but when “training” is nothing but psychology, then I have a problem.  My idea of training is more how to. When I end up sitting through “training” that is nothing but personal psychology, I end up feeling like Ed Gooberman. What I want is someone to show me those nifty moves, so I can sign people up right now, and all I get is a boot to the head.
One of the books that I learned a lot from in regards to business is “Behind the Golden Arches”. The book covered the multiplication of McDonalds franchises through duplication. Almost every McDonald’s you go into is the same, same menu, same decor, same uniform, and for the most part the same prices. And there’s a reason, you as the consumer is just as comfortable walking into a McDonald’s in St. Augustine as you are in San Francisco. And what works in St. Augustine works in San Francisco. And the power of duplication has made McDonald’s the model for franchising. How does that apply to Network Marketing? Simple, through leadership as well as parenting, it is better to say, do what I do. And as part of looking towards leadership for guidance, it’s easy to emulate what they do.

That being said my immediate up-line is someone worth emulating, someone worth following. His goal is to help me and others build the business, because he see’s that as my business grows, so does his. Further “up the chain”, there is a person that charges for “training”, and either misses that as my business grows so does his, or he doesn’t care. Money I’ve spent on training that I believe is overemphasized on psycho-babble “fluff”, could have been better spent on other resources for marketing. I, am going to follow MY leader, and filter some of this stuff from my down-line. I believe that being goal oriented and orienting myself to the goals of my down-line is what’s needed. I do not think a down-line should feel like Ed Gooberman, now it might happen, but all I say is bring it to my attention and I’ll do what I can. We should help each other in helping each other, that way we grow as a group! I’m going to be investigating some things I can set up as part of team building, maybe set up some sort of “round table”, so WE can talk WITH you, not me talking AT you.

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