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My 100-day Life-changing Launch
part 1 of 4 by Bob Giddens
Dear Emailers:
In 4 emails I will cover, [1] An introduction to my theme; [2] Can EcoQuest be done full-time from the very beginning?
...And then from your perspective: [3] Why am I not reaching a higher level of success? And [4] I will change my ways in a matter of days.
[2] and [3] are asked by ambitious individuals who sincerely hope that EcoQuest can be their vehicle to great success.
When I write something like this, quite a few people inevitably will say, "I know you were talking about me." They beat themselves up over their own perceived weaknesses, and maybe I wasn't even talking about them! I ask you to enjoy the meat in this. If you like what's here, use it. Don't look back with recriminations.
Can EcoQuest be done full-time from the very beginning? This will be email #2. Full-time from the beginning has been done, but the safest answer to this question is,
You should not
try doing EcoQuest full-time
unless you have the
commitment and the resources.
Starting full-time is
possible but very
difficult."
Why am I not reaching a higher level of success? This will be email #3. Let's say you are a Fast Start Distributor and you can't find the next rung in the ladder. "Is there something wrong with me or with EcoQuest?" you might ask.
Or you are a Senior Manager with or without a bonus car. You work very hard but can't break through to a higher level. You've had some good months and you've made good money when you did a lot of retailing, but you want to see your checks break through the $10,000 per month level and never come back down.
I will change my ways in a matter of days! Email #4. Many people wish for bigger checks. I will propose something positive to move a serious participant a lot closer to the level where he wants to be. Will you find the time to act after you read this series? We shall see. I hope so.
One hundred and twenty-two months before this webpage was written I changed my life in the biggest possible way. In March 1995 I had no money and no plan for getting myself out of trouble. My debts came to $300,000. I was living in one bedroom of my mother's home and had no social life. I was ambitious and had a pretty good sense that I was a valuable and intelligent person, but my confidence was low and I had no idea where a breakthrough might come from.
This picture began to change when Doug Jackson told me about Alpine (the name of our company at that time). It changed further as I contemplated what this program offered and where I wanted to go. It changed further when I met Ev Nelson, Wayne Zimmermann, and Keith Jones and saw what was possible. But it changed the most when I mapped out a Plan to change my life and dedicated myself to a 100-day Life-changing Launch.
That was only the beginning, not the end. I will tell you more in the emails that follow.
Sincerely and enthusiastically, Bob Giddens
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Email #2 Tuesday, May 17, 2005
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Can a New Person Do EcoQuest Full Time? part 2 of 4 by Bob Giddens Dear Leaders:
From the first time I heard about multilevel marketing—at an Amway meeting in 1970—I saw it as a full-time career. I was a navy pilot, but I had already submitted my resignation and I immediately envisioned Amway as a career replacement. I was 28.
Two months later it was obvious that Amway was going to be a lot harder than the speaker at that meeting had implied it would be. A $2,000 full-time income (my needs in 1970) was going to be tough to achieve. With Amway's plan, I had to build six 5,000 PV Legs and keep them there. To be producing at that level, each Leg would probably have to contain 50 active people, and after two months I only had 20 active people in my whole group. I did not have six reliable Legs.
I had close to 100 people
on the dotted line, but the important parameters are to
have...
ACTIVE PEOPLE and
MULTIPLE STRONG LEGS.
Eight months later I switched to Shaklee and again set out to build a full-time career. I drove from Texas to Louisiana and Florida. I flew to California and started a group. In my local area I worked like a banshee, hosting two meetings every week at my home. I supported and trained my out-of-state groups by writing 20 letters per day on a manual typewriter. I used 4 sheets of onion skin paper and 4 layers of carbon paper; thus I was able to produce 5 letters at a time. The bottom copies were hard to read, but I added handwritten notes, such as: "These 3 pages were written to Betty Jones who is 3 levels below you under Adams and Baker. Many of the suggestions apply to you and your other Dealers, too. Please dig as many ideas out of this letter as you can and pass them along."
Even with a very major commitment, I still needed a job. In Jan 1971, I went to a week-long life insurance school. Then, for 3 months, I was an insurance salesman on a modest draw. Finally, in April 1971, I quit life insurance—after being the top salesman from my class for 3 consecutive months—and did Shaklee full-time. Or did I?
The whole truth is that my wife and I sold our home. I used the equity from that sale to keep me afloat for another year ... until my Shaklee business was finally big enough to pay my bills. And mine wasn't an average Shaklee business, it was a record-setting business.
EcoQuest is far more lucrative than Amway or Shaklee were, but I want to go on record from the outset with this:
It is very rare that a person goes into a multilevel marketing program and is able to support himself from Day 1. It can be done in EcoQuest. Strong retailers can do it. But usually there's more to the story.
Several of the early Alpine Pioneers did Trade Shows and State Fairs to support themselves in the beginning. Maybe so, but where did they get the money to buy 40 air purifiers? We all know this old adage: "It takes money to make money." I figure these early Alpioneers used borrowing power or saving accounts to get themselves started. What resources do you have?
Shar Weinrauch made a lot of sales in the beginning. That's what I've heard. But if she made $75,000 in just a few months, imagine how much cash she had to come up with to fill those orders! It's nice that she and her husband were business owners.
Kristin MacPherson is a modern era example. She focused on selling for two years, moving 10-20 machines a month and making up to $6,000 in income. But she was sweating bullets. How did you keep up with your inventory needs? "You roll your money over with great skill," she says. "I became an expert at juggling my credit card balances. I also cleaned offices 7 days a week, starting my days at 4:00 AM. So I wasn't truly a full-time EcoQuester."
Did Executive Master AJ Krause—our US record-holder for making Master Manager in 16 months—go into EcoQuest full-time? Almost. But his Shaklee bonus check was still helping for a couple of months. During those start-up months he was recruiting like a Whirling Dervish. He was setting up the multiple Legs that eventually took him to the rank of Master Manager.
Let me put this in its proper perspective. An ambitious guy can envision EcoQuest as his full-time career from Day 1. That's called vision, and it makes sense. But only in an exceptional case— perhaps with an outside source of funding—should a newcomer tackle EcoQuest full-time.
There is nothing wrong with having a job or business. It usually represents a source of prospects. I was still in the navy when I got into Amway, and my best recruit, Jim LaRue, was also a navy pilot. Jim's best recruit, Randy Gunnip, came from the navy. Less than a year later I got a job selling life insurance to support my Shaklee start-up. I only stayed there for 3 months, but I got two accounts, Rick Baird and Wallace Cooper, from that industry. See what I mean?
In EcoQuest I was living in my mother's home, and I was able to borrow money from Doug Jackson. But those first 5 months were incredibly lean and tough. My first bonus check was $28, then it jumped to $1,200, then $2,300, then $3,300. I was kiting checks like crazy to keep up with my business expenses and monthly IRS payment. My rent payment to my mother had to wait, and my car repair charge went on her credit card.
My first significant check, $12,400, arrived on August 18, 1995. I've seen lots of larger checks since then, but that was the most significant and beautiful check of my life.
It's not important to do EcoQuest full-time. Many people make a big deal over the concept of "firing their boss" and going full-time. It can be made to sound glamorous, but there's nothing glamorous about getting your neck in a financial noose.
Here's what's important. Calculate how you can make $10,000 per month. I'll cover this in more detail in the emails that follow. For now, figure out how many units you'll have to sell or what the structure of your group will have to look like if you're going to make $10,000 just from your bonus check. How many Legs will you need?
Leg Value Table (after you are a Manager) N ote: This will seem "advanced" and "complex" to some readers.If you read it carefully it will make sense. In familiar terminology, a "Leg" would be what a traditional business owner would call an "Account."
1. You'll make $630 from each new first level Success Pack you sell. (42%) 2. You'll make $247.50 on each 3-Clip a Master Dealer orders. (30%) 3. You'll make $99 on each Fresh Air a Senior Dealer orders. (36%) 4. You'll make $240 from each Fast Start Distributor who does 1,000 PV. (24%) 5. You'll make $1,600 from each Associate Manager who does 8,000 PV. (20%) 6. You'll make $3,000 from each C-MIT who does 15,000 PV. (20%) 7. You'll make $1,200 from each Manager Leg that does 15,000 PV. (8%)
[1]+ [1]+ [1]+ [2]+ [2]+ [2]+ [3]+ [3]+ [4]+ [4]+ [5]+ [6]+ [7]+ [8] = $10,155 (additional income from GPS bonuses, car credit and Travel Dollars)
This realistic and healthy model is based on 14 Legs. Much to my surprise, some leaders teach that a person should build 3 Legs at a time. If you had 3 VERY strong Legs it might look like this:
[7]+[7]+[7] = $9,000—pretty nice check...
...but where will you be if all of these Legs "break away" (qualify as Sales Managers) and you have no up-and-comers? You'll have a $4,230 bonus checks based on [7]+[7]+[7]+[1]. You'll need that extra 1,000+ QV Leg in order to qualify for your overrides. (additional income from GPS bonuses, car credit and Travel Dollars)
My 14-wide example shows 3 new Legs and 11 additional working Legs (from past recruiting). Your total width might have to be 30- or 50-wide before you can expect to have 10 working Legs. That's the truth. It's a major achievement to build a $10,000 per month income.
Some of you want big checks but you've never mapped out a plan. You never realized it took so much width. Stand by for more in the emails that follow.
Sincerely, Bob Giddens
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Email #3 Wednesday, May 18th
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Why Am I Not Reaching a Higher Level of Success? part 3 of 4 by Bob Giddens
Dear Leaders:
Message #2 addressed the question, "Can a new person do EcoQuest full time?" I gave an illustration of what a new person has to do to generate a $10,000 bonus check...
The assignment was: Figure out what the structure of your group will look like, if you intend to earn $10,000 from your monthly bonus check (not counting selling). How many Legs will you need?
Leg Value Table (you are a Manager) Many Leg combinations can add up to $10,000: You could sell 16 Success Packs [item 1] to new dealers. You could have 111 Dealers order 1 Fresh Air each [item 3].
1. You make $640 from each new first level Success Pack you sell. (42%) 2. You make $225 on each 3-Clip a Master Dealer orders. (30%) 3. You make $90 on each Fresh Air a Senior Dealer orders. (36%) 4. You make $240 from each Fast Start Distributor who does 1,000 PV. (24%) 5. You make $1,100 from each T-MIT who does 5,000 PV. (22%) 6. You make $1,600 from each C-MIT who does 8,000 PV. (20%) 7. You make $3,000 from each C-MIT who does 15,000 PV. (20%) 8. You make $1,200 from each Manager Leg that does 15,000 PV. (8%)
Which $10,000 combination seems most likely? I like a system of 14 Legs that cover all levels: [1]+ [1]+ [1]+ [2]+ [2]+ [2]+ [3]+ [3]+ [4]+ [4]+ [5]+ [6]+ [7]+ [8] = $10,155 (plus Triple-A, Fast Track Pack bonuses, $800 car credit and Travel Dollars).
This model has 3 new Legs [item 1] and 11 working Legs [items 2-8]. Your group might be 30-50 wide before you can expect to maintain 11 working Legs. It's a major achievement to build a $10,000 per month income.
Some of you want big checks, but you've never mapped out a plan. Consequently, you never realized it would take so much width. So let's get into this question: Why am I working hard and not reaching a higher level of success?
Did you break down the plan (as shown above) and figure out EXACTLY what a person has to do to make $10,000 per month (I doubt if 1 person in 50 has actually done this)? Wouldn't you consider it unlikely that a guy would hit a $10,000 target if he didn't know where the target was? Hundreds of people want to become more secure. They are tired from swimming so hard. They have a world class life vest on (the EcoQuest plan), but they have never inflated it.
Some people make $10,000 in a month by accident (and dumb luck). One or two big groups carry them. Two groups at level [7] in the Leg Value Table can make an upline some serious money—and he'll do some work, too. I'm not saying it's ALL luck. With a few more random groups, boom, the sponsor has a $10,000 check—and he's there again next month.
There are other possibilities. A power closer can boost his checks by selling large numbers of Success Packs [item 1].
But a career person should pursue a more lasting path. He must build wide, wide, wide. Let us begin by expanding the Leg Value Table...
9. You make $3,800 from a Coordinating Manager Leg if the Leg Leader does 25,000 PV and the 3 Managers average 15,000 PV. (8%+4%+4%+4%) 10. If you are sufficiently wide, you make $5,000 to $10,000 from a strong Key or Master Manager Leg (like Angelo Martino or Kristin MacPherson -- a genuine Power Leg). (8%, 4%, 2%, 1%) 11. Ultimately, you can make as much as $20,000 per month from a single account if it is a big enough account (and after it has 5 years to mature) ... someone like Marc Kloner, Wayne Zimmermann, AJ Krause, or JK Baker.
Now test yourself.
Question 1. If the plan requires 4 Triple-A Legs to optimize the Consumables bonuses, 4 producing Legs for Fast Start Distributor and Manager qualification, 10 - 1,000 QV Legs to maximize BMW, 6 Manager Legs to get to Key, 10 Manager Legs to get to Master, and 20 Manager Legs to get to Presidential Master, what goal should you shoot for?
Your answer: ___.
I can't say what your answer should be, but it shouldn't be 3 or 4. This plan screams out for width. Ten Legs? Twelve Legs? --- --- ---
Question 2. Knowing human nature, will every dealer who says he is ambitious actually go out and do what he says he will do? Of course not. Here's the real question: What percentage of people will really work in an effective way? How many will you have to 'put into the starting blocks' to achieve the goal you set in Question 1?
Your answer: ___. --- --- ---
Question 3. Do you have control over the kind of people you get? Can you approach a different type of prospect than you have been approaching? Can you change your words? Can you change your image? Can you become a more professional recruiter?
Your answer: ____. --- --- ---
Question 4. If you could pick any Legs from the Leg Value Chart (above), would you rather have [2]'s, [6]'s, or [10]'s?
Your answer: ____. --- --- ---
Question 5. Do you understand that the success of your business depends on the strength of all your people, not just those you personally recruit? You need a WHOLE NETWORK of leaders. Each Leg must contain dozens of beginning leaders. Without leaving out selling or raw recruiting, you still have to work on leader development.
Do you understand this? ____. --- --- ---
Question 6. Are you setting the best example you can? In retailing? Planning? Prospecting? Recruiting? Are you staying plugged in to the company (via conference calls, Success Institutes, etc.)?Are you a promoter of company programs? Do you host meetings? Are you a student of our profession? A communicator and teacher? Are you a visionary? Do you have a high level of belief? And is your attitude strong?
Your answer: ____. --- --- ---
Question 7. Even though you've worked hard, is it possible that you have never fully gotten your mind around a Leg-based Plan (as discussed in this email)?
Which is your answer:
___ I've mapped out a plan and I've never wavered. ___ I've known about this but I've never FULLY embraced it. ___ This is a new way of thinking for me.
I hope you are excited about discovering what the final chapter will have to say.
Sincerely and enthusiastically, Bob Giddens
--- --- ---
SUCCESS FORMULA FROM AN OLDER GIDDENS EMAIL MESSAGE
1. Believe and dream.
13. Know the SURGE TIMES and work
with the flow. 17. Use www.chippynews.com every day.
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Email #4 Friday, May 20th
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I Will Change My Ways in a Matter of Days! part 4 of 4 by Bob Giddens
Dear Readers:
This 4-email series is on my website at: http://www.chippynews.com/4_emails.htm. Interested parties can print it out for mailing or further study. Or send a link to your friends. Here's the finale...
Over the next 2 or 3 days, I urge you to look in the mirror and say to yourself...
Today I am a new and changed EcoQuester.
I'm going to
write out a plan and follow it faithfully.
Within 72 hours I
will have drawn a schematic of the group I intend
to build."
The plan will require at least 4 sheets of paper.
1. Page 1 will be your idea of a Power Leg. It will fill a page, and you will make several tries at getting it right (it will contain 50 Managerships). This may take 2 hours to sketch and calculate. You must decide how many Managers will be 1st level to your Power Leader. How many will be 2nd level to your Power Leader? How many will be 3rd level to your Power Leader? And so on. If you want it to be realistic, it cannot be symmetrical. People are all different.
2. Page 2 will be your idea of a Medium Leg. This page should contain 15-20 Managerships. You are envisioning how your Medium Leaders will look. The more real you make it, the better the plan will serve you. As you interview prospects, you'll think about which model will suit each person. You'll show the page and say, "Look, John, I have in mind that you can build a business this size. The income will be $180,000. Does this look attractive to you?"
3. Page 3 will be your idea of a Basic Senior Manager Leg. This Leg will contain 4 Managerships in whatever structure you choose. Experience has taught me that we lose 50% of our Managers as time marches on. That's why this redundancy of 4 is needed. If 2 are lost, the 2 that remain can multiply to 4 or 15 or 50.
4. Page 4 is your summary and overall plan. Let's say you intend to build your organization to a width of 14 Active Legs. You might predict that 2 of your Legs will be Power Legs (as shown on your first page), 3 will be Medium Legs (from your second page), 4 will be Basic Senior Managers (from your third page), and the remaining 5 will be naked Managers.
A math assignment is associated with this session. Assign realistic PV values to each Managership. Don't go postal on me and assume that everyone will do high volume (that's not the real world). Put in the numbers, add car bonuses where appropriate, add a Consumables Factor, and run the sales plan percentages:
(1a) How much does the owner of each Power Leg earn per month? (1b) How much do you earn in overrides from each Power Leg?
(2a) How much does the owner of each Medium Leg earn per month? (2b) How much do you earn in overrides from each Medium Leg?
(3a) How much does the owner of each Basic Senior Manager earn? (3b) How much do you earn in overrides from each BSM Leg?
(4a) How much does each naked Manager earn? (4b) How much do you earn from each naked Manager?
(5a) What will your overrides be if you are the leader of the 14-Leg group you designed? Figure the monthly and annual values. (5b) Realistically, how long will it take to build this group's foundation? How long will it take for this group to mature to its full potential?
How can you change your ways in a matter of days?
You'll be amazed by the values that result from these calculations. This exercise will take several hours to complete. But it will change your view of EcoQuest and enlarge your grasp of the marketing. You will see more clearly what role you can play in our company's future.
This is a hard skill to get people to do (teaching them to map out their future). Many people with great potential don't seem to see the value of mapping our their plan—and so they never do it. I hope this email will change some of these people.
Have a great weekend with your assignment!
Sincerely and enthusiastically, Bob Giddens
Comments from my readers ...
Bob, you are a great visionary and right on target with this information and advice. I thank you for all you do for your organization, many thousands. I grateful for your friendship to all and especially me. Best Regards, Jerry Barrett/Future Coordinating Manager
--- --- --- My hat is off to you, Bob. Your email about whether people should do EcoQuest full-time is one of the most realistic, down-to-earth, no-hype emails I have ever read about MLM. You speak from your heart and you sincerely are trying to help your dealers make it in EcoQuest by offering a sensible plan to map their way to the top.
You even took the time to offer figures and numbers and describe what it takes to arrive to those numbers so anyone can clearly calculate the correct estimation of effort needed to achieve any particular goal they set for themselves.
I routed your message to my people, whether they are active or not, because they might find inspiration from your words and take action.
In my two years of actively working in EcoQuest, I am glad I have never lost touch with reality. I kept my Real Estate business going, but at the same time I managed to become a Senior Sales Manager and recently I found a successful way to integrate these two activities together and make them work in unison. I am still perfecting my method and am fine-tuning things here and there. I have reached a level of efficiency that I never had before.
Two very important factors that helped me along the way: (1) Having a caring and knowledgeable upline (Michelle Gottlieb). I could have not achieved what I have done so far without her help, guidance, and direction. (2) The T-MIT Convention last Dec in Hawaii where Mike Jackson stressed the point of not teaching a fish to run and a rabbit to swim, but rather focus on their innate abilities and work to improve and perfect them (a fish to swim, a rabbit to run).
That's all I wanted to say. Thank you again, Bob, and keep those emails coming. Best Regards, Roberto Randazzo
--- --- --- Thanks, Bob, for telling it like it is. "It Takes Money To Make Money"----So true. Each person's ability will have nothing to do with their eventual success, unless they can keep the $$ Money pipeline flowing. Your own experience proves that.
The four letter nasty word "WORK" is an absolute necessity. However, unless one has a source of cash to keep them in the "Flow," they cannot keep up the recruiting speed necessary to build the 6-figure income. I have labored with this for almost 4 years.
My expertise is training people to be better salespeople than I ever was. I have a passion to recruit; to sell people a realistic dream; to train them properly to Approach, Present, and Close. My passion is not selling product. I need to sell product to keep afloat. However, keeping afloat is not my goal.
It takes money to recruit. I helped build a small Life Insurance Company recruiting (part time people). I wrote their training manual. It cost a lot to build that company from 1 state to 14. The company was willing to spend that money because they knew I had the ability.
I refuse defeat. I don't know how to spell the word failure! EcoQuest is my passion. I am borrowing money to participate in the nationwide ad program. If there is any advice you have for me, other than go to work, please let me know. Trust me, I am working six days a week at EcoQuest.
Thanks again and God Bless, Mickey Garrett
--- --- --- Hi Bob, I just want to tell you how much I appreciated the email addressing "Can a new person do EcoQuest full-time?"
When I started three years ago, anyone in his right mind would have filed for bankruptcy and left town forever. I chose to work out the problems, and they were huge! Last September I lost all the assets I had and, with no income other than EcoQuest and a few thousand dollars, I managed to weather it out to this point. I just didn't have what it took as a person to attract the right people and make an organization, and it has been a constant worry dealing with the issue of the phone, electric, gas, and all the other necessities being turned off. The threat of this urgency showed itself to the people I so desperately needed to sell to, as well.
I have grown much as a person since I began with EcoQuest, not ever thinking of giving up, but to figure out this MLM industry. I constantly ask myself, "Why has this been so hard for me and for all these other people so seemingly easy?"
Only recently I decided to incorporate my old trade into |