If you are a home based business owner or an entrepreneur then you have probably ran into naysayers either
criticizing you, your product, or your business. You are always going to run into people that have something negative to say, however how you handle yourself in those situations is important to the growth of your business. Today we’re going to discuss how to respond to your current situation and what steps you need to take in order for you to continue on the path to success.
In any situation whether it’s good or bad there are three ways to respond. You can React, Respond, or Initiate.
Reacting doesn’t take any thought, because it’s purely emotion. Acting on emotion is not a very smart move. We see in the real world many people going to jail and doing time because they reacted. The bottom line is that reacting requires very little thought.
Responding takes a little more effort and a little more thought. Some responses are good while others involve more emotion than thought which could lead a situation going nowhere. Responses are all over the place; responses to emails, verbal, responses, video responses, responses in forums, etc. If you are going to do any kind of response than I think you will need sit down and really think about what you’re going to say before you respond.
Seth Godin said in this book Tribes, “Initiating is really and truly difficult, and that’s what leaders do. They see something others are ignoring and they jump on it. They cause the events that other have to react to they make change.”
Initiating is by far the best of the three. Let me explain how I took the initiative in my business and totally bypassed reacting and responding. When I first got into network marketing I was approached by an “old schooler” who closed me hard and I joined his organization. I brought some people into the organization but it was like my job in the corporate world, their marketing tactics just didn’t fit my personality. It wasn’t fun, I was driving all over the place going to different meetings and presentations, and I was wasting a lot of my hard earned money.
Around the same time I discovered online marketing. It was way different than what it is today, but it caught my eye and I wanted to learn as much as I could. I approached my upline and told him about this new world of marketing that I discovered. His response to me was, “That’s not how this organization does business. You need to stick to the system.”
Well I didn’t like the system, I wasn’t content, and I wanted more. So I left that company. I didn’t leave because of the money; I left because I wanted to learn as much as I could about online marketing. You see, when he told me that I couldn’t market outside of their sales system I could have reacted with my emotions and gave him a piece of my mind, and I could have responded appropriately after thinking and formulating my response, but I chose to initiate my several yearlong study of online marketing. In a sense I was initiating my future.
Fast forward about 7 years and now I am in a social media class that Jonathan Budd, Katie Freiling, and a few others were teaching. They taught me how to blog, market through social media sites, and actually get traffic. After the course I started I initiating. I got busy implementing every strategy and tactic that they threw at me and I started to get traffic to my blog (real traffic….not my parents just stopping by) and the leaders started to notice me.
From there things just took off. I got asked to be a leader in another class, and I met 5 other great guys who are now my business partners and we formed a company called Empowered Tribe where we teach people how to set up a social media tribe that will help them quickly their business up and running online. All off this happened because I chose not to settle, but chose to initiate.
One leader defined the term leadership as a planned assault on the status quo. In other words, don’t settle for what is, initiate for what will be. Each person initiates differently. Some people may initiate by just getting their blog up and running and finally taking control of that, while other people may initiate by developing their own product and / or course. Still some people may initiate by breaking off with their currently company and going a totally different direction. In any case, nothing will get done, no progress will happen, and no change will take place until you first take the lead and initiate.
Sometimes we don’t know how to initiate, where to begin or what to do. I would suggest that you look to leaders in the industry that you admire and see how you can emulate what they are doing. Sometimes you need to pay a mentor to help you get started and help get your thought process down on what you want to do and how to get you there. That is perfectly alright because all leaders have mentors. We just need to take the first step and initiate it!
Below are 6 steps to help you initiate your future:
1. Analyze your current situation and see if you are satisfied with where you are in your business.
2. If you are not satisfied think of where you want to be and what you want your business to look like. Visualize what you want your business to look like.
3. Write out some clear and measurable goals for your business. These goals need to be as clear and specific. For example, I want to master social media is not a very strong goal. A better goal may be, I want to have 10 opt-ins a day into my autoresponder in 6 months by implementing the 10 tactics Michael Feil teaches in his autoresonder class. Can you see that the second example is much better than the first because it is specific and gives a time period?
4. Now that you have your goals you need to set up your plan. Basically, what steps are you going to take to get to your goal? All this needs to be documented in a place you can go back and look at it again and again.
5. Now comes the initiate part. Start working your plan and making a change. Like I said before, often the initiate part starts with breaking off of something you are doing that is not getting you to where you want to be. It’s time to leave the status quo and start making things happen.
6. Once you start working your written plan you should now be able to see a change. Things are now taking off and you are making a difference with your actions and your plan. This would be a good time to ask a mentor to check out what you’re doing to make sure you’re on the right track. You may have to pay for this or if you know the right people it may not cost you anything. If you do have to pay this would be money well spent.
Initiating is a 6 step process and most of the time it won’t happen overnight. It will take time and it will take some work on your end, but if you’re not satisfied what how things are going it probably is time to start initiating change, especially if you want to be a leader in your industry.
I want to encourage you that no matter where you are today you can be successful. You are someone of value and of worth and you are important to this world. You can make great things happen, all you have to do is bypass reacting and responding, and just roll up your sleeves and start initiating. The future is wide open. Visualize what you want, then start initiating to make the change towards your dreams and goals.
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24 Comments and Pings on Six Steps To Initiate Success
How can I not like this? You are so on point here that it is ridiculous. You have shown time and time again that you practice what you preach.
So you are not only teaching this, you are also leading by example. As they say “success leaves clues” and I have found many of your clues to be super helpful.
Thanks for the great reminder and I hope to share with you soon.
Jose H. Caraballo´s last blog ..Should I Accept My Loan Modification…Part 6 (FINAL)
Thanks man! I appreciate your words!
Mike,
I love your step by step action plan. This is concise and to the point. This would make a wonderful training video for the community… hint, hint
Thanks for sharing this awesome initiative plan,
Val
Val Wilcox´s last blog ..It’s All About The Story
Thanks Val! Maybe we might see it in the community very soon!
Hi Michael,
What a well informed post. Thanks for passing this on.
Initiating is by far the best thing to do. I agree as it allows you to have a well organized plan that suits you. Plus, having a plan will separate you from those who take action and those who fail to take action.
Have an awesome day,
Jerome Ratliff
Jerome Ratliff´s last blog ..A Big Hint in How to Build a Successful Home Business
Yup! It all starts when we take our first steps!
Yes, so true.
I was talking to a friend today and I said After I Make My Millions” He laughed,,I asked why are you laughing?
His answer was, you would of made it by now!
I replied “What about Colonel Sanders?” He wasn’t successful until he was 72!
The Colonel didn’t give up.
Did He?
If anyone doesn’t know who Colonel Sanders is, well he invented KFC,,,
Marty Ware
SEO Dad
Marty Ware´s last blog ..Organic Rankings!
You got it Marty! Keep pressing on!
Everything that you said is very valuable! I especially appreciate the 6 step plan. Thank you very much for sharing!
Stacy
Stacy´s last blog ..The Significance of Insignificance
Thanks Stacy! I’m glad you found value in my post!
Hey Mike,
You share some very valuable points in this post. For me, the key was finding mentorship that went hand-in-hand with my personality. I had the vision, but my mentors helped me lay out the proper road map for the journey.
Love the tribe and you are such a great leader,
Scott
Scott Scales´s last blog ..Designing Your Personal Brand For “Golden Arches” Exposure
Scott, me too. Having the right mentor can make or break your business!
Excellent post so true reacting gets us no where, reponding just gets us into debates but initating is where the TRUE power is. Thanks Michael !
You got that right Helen!
Mike – Thanks for this step by step action plan! Great stuff!
Glyna Humm´s last blog ..A Game Changer For Your Home Business!
My pleasure!
Hi Michael!
I can’t tell you what an impact this post has had on me. I want to repeat your words,
“I want to encourage you that no matter where you are today you can be successful. You are someone of value and of worth and you are important to this world. You can make great things happen . . . .”
These words are very powerful for me and I think I will turn them into a daily affirmation! Thank you.
Mentor Mama
Nancy Burke Barr´s last blog ..FACEBOOK: Une Génération Perdue
Nancy, if more people believed those words I think the world would be a little better place for all of us to live!
Hi Michael, Thanks for a great post. It is encouraging for those of us who are just starting. Thanks, Amy
Amy Hagerup´s last blog ..Six Foods To Help Manage Your Stress
Glad you got something out of it Amy! Keep it up!
Awesome Post Mike!
You really have broken down and easily defined the basic steps to success. We do react way too much in life, that’s that easy thing to to. But you are right, responding isn’t enough. It is initiating. We can sit where we are at or we can initiate. That’s the difference between the successful and the unsuccessful, iniative.
Thanks for sharing!
Danielle
Danielle Zack´s last blog ..Top 3 Ways to Boost Your Brand in Social Media
You got that right Danielle!
Great post Mikey Mike!
Those 6 steps are right on. Most people
are running through life with no plan.
It’s like getting in your car and just driving
around with no destination in mind… all you’re
doing is wasting gas.
Thanks for the info you share buddy:)
Eric Goldstein´s last blog ..Thank Someone Who Has Touched Your Life…
Thanks man and thanks for all you do!
This entry was posted on Monday, June 14th, 2010 at 5:07 PM and is filed under Internet Marketing, Leadership, Social Media Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.