Self Advertising Ideas: Perpetual Path To Perfection

In the evolving business marketing and advertising strategies, being creative in social media, digital and mobile channels as well as personal communication and self-advertising is very critical for individuals in large as well as small businesses. There are few points which should be taken into consideration while framing the creative advertising or marketing strategies. First one, is to add more variety in the way you talk i.e. vary your voice, tone and the volume which will make you more interesting for other people and all this variety when put together specially when you put energy into it, makes you more interesting to listen to.

Secondly, be dynamic and creative in terms of how you use your body language. Maintain focus on how are you breathing while telling different things. You must try to breathe more deeply, and you will find yourself naturally more enthusiastic and a lot more energetic and those qualities really attract people.

Talk What Others Want You To Talk Is An Important Self-advertising Idea

Another simple tactic in the context of self advertising ideas is to ask people directly, what they are interested in. Sometimes we just beat around the bush, we are guessing and we are just wondering. So, why not just ask directly, of course all of the time, this may not work, but sometimes this will. With this you will be able to do magic with your audience. Also, watch very carefully when the other person is talking, when you suggest a new topic, pay close attention to the non verbal response, when they say – they are interested, are they being polite. You can make out this from their body language if they are genuinely interested.

You should be the one initiating the talk, by talking about what the other person is interested in. If you are able to do that successfully, you will find that they will always be warm to you and the conversation would get started at a nice positive footing. It’s also good to have an attitude of fishing for clues. You need to be creative enough for this – no one would easily give you these hints, instead you yourself have to dig them out. Remember, when you are talking to someone, you don’t need to zero in a topic or finalize a subject for discussion right away you could just suggest one topic, you might not get anywhere, or you may suggest second topic or a new advertising ideas, you might just do better, then you might suggest a new topic and suddenly the conversation takes a life of its own.

Just Be A Fisherman And Have Creative Advertising Ideas

So what I am saying is, be like a fisher man keep fishing, keep inventing, explore your creative mindscapes until you catch something or hit the right advertising ideas. Never ever expect to necessarily get a great topic right away, you just need to keep going. Also, when you are looking for something interesting to talk about – ask open questions. Let’s say, if you are trying to gauge out if the person is interested in talking about new technologies in the mobile world, you may start the conversation by saying something like – How do you find the new ‘app world’ for mobile phones launched last week? Or what do you think is the most interesting thing about the latest ‘app world’ version that people are going crazy about it?

In the other case, you would see, if you ask a close question it is most likely that you are going to get either yes or no in response and that don’t really drive conversation anywhere. So, instead ask open questions such as WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE & HOW. These questions open up the conversations and encourage people to talk and share their opinions. This often proves to be one of the most critical self-advertising ideas.

Be Creative As Well As Secretive In The Delivery Of Your Thoughts Or Advertising Ideas

Be Creative As Well As Secretive In The Delivery Of Your Thoughts Or Advertising Ideas
The Last and the simplest tactic towards self-advertising ideas is a very powerful way of getting people engaged into conversation is by being “Proactive in personal Disclosures” What I mean is, that if you are introducing some new information or changing the existing topic of discussion, make it interesting when you lead into that new topic. For example, if I was talking to you and I said I am excited about the weekends and got some interesting plans, I am being provocative and I am being mysterious. I am not telling you what I’ll be doing but I am able to draw your attention to the conversation. How do you do it? Just lead the other person, be creative, be secretive till the time you are not able to arouse other people’s interest in your conversation and then later you can tell people what you’ll be doing.

1. Start using the above mentioned tips right from today itself, don’t put them off for a later stage and don’t think this is not interesting right now and I will come back to it next week.

2. Pick at least one and two tips each day and make a point using them right away. Just aim to improve little by little each day. The problem you’ll face is that you will feel excited to go to the ultimate stage of perfection right away in just one step and ignore the fact that there is a huge gap that lies between the as-is and the to-be state. But if you are told about it right away you are sure to get frustrated, so from this moment, I just want you to improve little each day and rest of the thing will fall in place on its own.

3. Lastly, always keep learning from your personal experiences. I would highly recommend you to keep a diary as a log book. Record your daily experiences both bad and good in this book while trying new tips each day. Record them with all sincerity and regularity. This simple exercise will surely assist you in making you aware of the mistakes previously made and challenges encountered while giving you a fair chance to improve upon them.

For all the creative individuals, inculcate these tips in your self-advertising ideas and you are bound to succeed in your networking avenues.

By Tarun Gupta

Marketing Ideas For Small Business: Find The Right Networks For Yourself

Man is a social animal. Whether it’s you or me, each one of us likes to be part of a group, which we usually refer to as our “Networking Group”. Studies have suggested that it’s not only the youngsters, but the people from other age groups as well who have a natural affiliation towards a specific Networking Group and wish to be part of it. But, the underlying problem with these networking groups, about which most people are ignorant, is that these groups can become a great source of time & money wastage. Extended breakfasts, small local parties with same old faces – all these would be useless until you churn out something useful from it for yourself. This can be done by planning, strategizing, conceptualizing. So, how would you design your strategy? First Think, why are you a part of that group? Are you part of a group just because they allowed you to just join in, or you became a part of that group because it fitted into your goals well?

If you are able to answer all these questions correctly, then that would be a time when you would have an unclouded picture of your goals in front of you. Then, you would actually be making proper use of your networking group. Time, the most expensive resource, is even more critical while dealing with marketing ideas for small businesses. When you are walking, talking, living and even breathing – if you don’t think of business, if you don’t allocate your time & energy properly – then you are just wasting your time for just a short-lived feel good moment.

What should be done to overcome this situation? Nothing much is actually required – You just need to use the principle “brain/thought analysis”. It is the powerful way of getting ideas out of your head onto the paper. Let’s say you write the word “Commitments” on a piece of a paper. You then need to draw a complete mind map of everything that comes to your mind when you think of commitment, what commitments have you had in your life, be it at home or your work place or anything else, everything has to be written down. The situation might be for you to realize that you are having too many commitments at a given point of time. What you should do then is, get rid of the some of those. Let’s say you chuck out the bottom 2% of it.

But one thing here to note is that you can’t be just crossing out the jobs you have put in your commitment map. You need to focus. Focus on those groups which are of utmost importance and which serve your goals, you had thought-off for yourself. Since you can’t be present in all the groups at the same time hence it’s you who has to decide who would be the selected 2-3 groups which can give you the maximum value add.

Remember to always keep track of your time allocations for different groups and regularly measure the results coming out of those groups. Always remember how expensive might be a cup of coffee but the time you spend with that group and selecting that group in the first place, is rather costlier. Your time is the most valuable resource you will ever possess in your life and if, you are not actually getting some good yield out of it then it’s sure that you would need to re-validate your decisions.

Understanding The Topology Of Social Meetings, Is A Key To Originate Marketing Ideas For Small Business
The question arises here is, where does most of our time actually goes – is it work groups, home groups or some other local groups – which group is consuming your most of the time is an important question to answer. You would find that be it any of the above groups, the most time consuming activities we usually engage ourselves are the Local “Parties” – this includes office parties, parties with clients/customers towards the marketing efforts of your organization, parties with relatives or friends and there are many more to the list. We all go to some party or event to broaden our network. There you would observe that – each and every person are either engaged in a networking group or trying to become a part of one and there are certain strategies around which they will be playing to have a good networking group. Some would try and go for in-depth conversation with only selected few while there will be some just having prima-facie discussions with all. You may choose to be either of them or a hybrid of both as well.

While people are in the eating places, they generally tend to put down their formality caps and become more social.

Some people would rather take strategic locations in order to make an entry into a networking group of their choice. You may think – why one should go near an eating place to network? The answer is simple, while people are in the eating places, they generally tend to put down their formality caps and become more social, thus giving you an opportunity to make a good network. Also, in these places it’s quite easy to find out common points to talk about like food talks or make some comments in order to kick-start your conversation.

The entry door is another strategic spot to get in contact of the right group because when people come in, then they are in the most vulnerable state. Imagine yourself, you have just walked into the party room, it’s pretty obvious that you would be some-what conscious thinking you won’t know anybody there. You may choose to go straight to the snacks area shying away from others. But if during this time, another person comes up and talks to you, it is likely that you would have good connect with that person. Also, for the next time as well, you would prefer his/her company. This strategy even works well with introvert people. Just imagine that you are an introvert, you then at times start behaving as if you are hosting the event, you start welcoming people in by saying “you are welcome” to each & every passerby. You will see, just by this simple statement you are able to make your first positive impression. You may further increase the size of your networking group by having conversations & handshakes with people when they are leaving. Since you become the first face to see and the last face to stay in vision of that person, it is most likely that the person would remember you.

How To Become An Introduction Super Hero Using These Marketing Ideas For Small Business?

Next time, when you attend some event and you know few people out there, in this situation you may try to build a connect between 2 or more individuals. For example, if you know the person who was walking by your side, then you may say, Hey Hi Amit, have you met my old friend? This would eventually trigger some talks between the 2 persons. By doing this, you have not only added value to yourself, but also to the person you are introducing him to.

Not only this, many a times, it also becomes a great way to get out of the long conversion. The moment you feel the conversation in which you are engaged with a known person is turning out to be a long and boring one, then you should immediately think of way to connect him to another known person present in the party.

Art of adding an extra value from the networking groups by proper planning and time allocations to the social meetings has emerged as one of the most important business marketing ideas and becomes all the more important for small business which do not want to spend much on marketing and advertising fronts and rather prefer word-of-mouth marketing strategy. I myself, have personally used this strategy, wherein I got stuck in the same situation or a similar one. You should also try it out for yourselves at such parties, and keep enjoying your “networking group”.

By Tarun Gupta

International Networking: Few Examples of Marketing Strategies

What about breaking into a new country without any marketing strategies? Would you not want to have a trip to a new country? Do you not wish to go to a new country earn dollars there and comeback richer? Won’t you like to be a called a rich international entrepreneur? If you ask me, I personally have a wish to be able to travel the world on company’s dollars and come back richer. But you would wonder – How would I do that? Well at the core of it lies your strategy. You need to have a strategy and a focused plan to make this happen.

So, when it’s decided that you want to do business somewhere in the other part of the world, everybody would start saying – I can’t help you, since I don’t know anyone there or have no examples of marketing strategies for there. But what will you do then. How will you go ahead with the entrepreneurial instinct inside you that just arose. Would you just let it burn off? I’ll take this up later. First, think about this. Have you ever noticed unemployed people saying “I will take any job” but just with this information you won’t be able to think anything about it. But, if he says that I am an electric engineer and I want work for a fortune 500 company like IBM. Hearing IBM all of a sudden, you would realize you probably know someone at IBM and you can put him in touch with that concerned person. Here, in this case you were able to help the person because he became very specific.

Here is the answer of the question I had left unanswered. Always be specific, even if anybody seeks help form you then specifically ask about the areas in which he/she needs your help like in the above case the engineer did and also vice versa. Always have a pertinent, specific, to the point answer. This is the most important part to be kept in your mind while framing a international networking and marketing strategy and organization’s marketing strategies.

Deploy Social Media Extensively In Your Marketing Strategies

Your marketing strategies may consist of A) List of companies B) List of decision makers and many such things. What is most important here is, you should be able to find a common means of communication between you and the other person because this would make things a lot easier for you and your marketing plan. Social media, for instance is great for this, specially “Linked-in”. Linked-in helps you know the professional profile of the person really well. On the other hand, you also have sites like Facebook, Twitter where you can have informal communication with the person as well. Thus, social media can help a lot in knowing the person.

Besides these, you can always Google the person, send mail to the person, send message to the person or even call the person say through Skype or VOIP. In short, this would enable you with all the information you wanted to always know. Sometimes companies invest heavily in their internet marketing, internet advertising strategies, online marketing or online marketing tactics to be present actively across all the social media forums to promote reverse/pull marketing strategies.

Creating Local Partner Model As One Of Your Key Marketing Strategies

Now, you know about the customer well, say through some of the social media means, but one question that still remains unanswered in your marketing strategies is – how to reach out to the customer? Answer is simple, instead of you yourself trying to reach out to the customer, you look for a liaising partner in between. You may try to find out a guy who has a good network and can help you to reach out to your customers. This is same as this situation, say I am selling a product for an education institution, so I have 2 options with me; either I can go to each institute on my own or else I can sell to the “X” guy who sells to these institutes. I would approach “X” and ask him whether he would like to sell my services as well, and will offer him good commission. These Intermediaries are generally known as Local Partners.

Thus knowing local partners and establishing connect with them in the specific region you wish to go would help you in 2 ways; first it would give you a good understanding of the region, second it will obviously help you in your business expansion. Apart from all this, one thing that is irreplaceable is you yourself. Before doing any kind of business in the new country, you first need to go there, meet people, get acquainted with their culture etc. Also, sometimes in some cultures people prefer to see you face-to-face before they actually do any kind of business with you. In this case, a local partnering model proves to be very helpful creating a win-win situation for both.

I will like to give you a small tip which someone had given me sometime back and it is a brilliant one. When one of my closest friend who had never been to Singapore before, landed at the airport he just called up the top 10 hotels of Singapore saying that he is a sales trainer by profession, and he will do sales training of their sales staff in the evening for free, if they could allow him to stay for two weeks in their hotel. Isn’t is something very creative and interesting to hear. I guess it’s certainly is. And guess what, his communication with those 10 hotels made him win a complimentary room in all those 10 hotels for 2 weeks. Since he had a pool of choices, he could choose the best among them.

But aren’t you thinking how was he able to get a free accommodation? All this happened because he asked himself a question “How can I go to Singapore on a budget?” And while thinking for an answer to this question he realized he could use his training capabilities in order to stay in a hotel. So, aren’t you asking this question to yourself – how can you make it happen instead of just relying on the normal belief that you cannot afford it since it’s too far or since you don’t know anybody there.

My same Singapore friend just called the place, offered his services and was there for good 2 weeks, and he just networked, networked and networked, probably didn’t get too much out of it in the first time. But he did the same thing again two months later and now Singapore has become one of the hub for his business operations. And now he is doing the same with Indonesia, Malaysia, China and other countries around Singapore. Now, he is even developing a hub in Dubai as well. Thus, the bottom line is “You have to go there, no matter how far is it, whether you know somebody there or not and that is the only marketing strategy one can deploy at that point in time”.

Just couple of quick tips on marketing strategies – as takeaways to expand your business internationally:
1. Give yourself a local phone number.
2. Get a local virtual office address.

They will facilitate your liaising with a local partner and will give a boost to your newly set business in the new country.

Here’s another very simple idea, just to show that you have an international mindset, add ‘+’ in front of telephone number, as all international numbers have. Start with a ‘+’ in front of the telephone number, then add the country code. This will help your local partners to know that you have an international mindset in type of marketing strategies you do and you can think on their lines as well.

Re-Validate Your Marketing Material And Marketing Strategies
Last tip, have a look at the marketing material created by your senior management or public relations cell, check if your marketing strategies cater to the international audience or does it only use lot of local lingos that might not be understood by even an English speaking people in the foreign country. This kind of research and planning is important because if they cannot understand your marketing material then whole idea behind creating that material and allocating huge finances towards them goes completely in vain.

Hence, all these points and marketing strategies are needed to be kept in mind in order to inculcate in your business DNA an international mindset.

By Tarun Gupta

Creative Marketing Ideas Help Build A Right Mindset, Paving Path For Right Networking

A few questions that should be answered at first place to have a right network are – How do you approach networking, what strategies should you follow to market your ideas, how creative are your ideas – is what all matters in order to have right kind of networking. Like I have earlier also written, for right networking – its all your attitude that matters, your attitude should not be “how others can help you” but “how can you help others”. You should be able to think of ways in which you can add value to their business.

What I usually do when I get up in the morning is – I ask myself few questions – how shall I make a greater impact to other’s lives and how shall I be able to help the people around me. Some may think, why should one bother so much about others, for those people my opinion is – this would not only be a way you could help others, instead it would be a subtle source of making money. An obvious point of interest for you here is – how would this happen. There can be 2 ways of making more money then you are making now, the first is helping more number of people, adding more customers & the second is to help people in more ways, adding more value for the customers by your creative marketing ideas and by putting extra efforts to satisfy your customers and making them more content with your product or services.

How You Can Implement These Creative Marketing Ideas In Your Personal Life

If you go around and say I cannot help anybody, then you are missing out on your potential to give your ideas and sometimes even an opportunity to be recognized as a great thinker or a creator of creative marketing ideas. One of the greatest and easiest things you can do for another person, is to figure out what is the person’s needs are and who do you know, who can help them best. Once you have identified this, just start by making a quick introduction, say a brief e-mail. This would also be a good way of increasing your networking area.

I also personally practice this mantra in my daily life very religiously. I make it a point to go to lot of social networking events and conferences. There, I just follow a simple yet very powerful step – I make sure that I get business cards of as many people as I meet. Once I am back from the conference, I take roughly 10 business cards out of many I had collected and think whom should I refer these people to. The good thing about this is, you tend to gain trust of that person whom you met for just one interaction. It’s just like that if you have realized that first person is a screw & the second person is a screw driver, then you being a liaison between the two would benefit both the parties. Through this, you would realize that you have solved their problem with mere minimal effort.

Since you would not be getting any monetary benefit from this relationship at this point in time, it becomes a great opportunity for you to build trust in others. In future if this networking continues and you are able to add more people or more customers to your network, then it may become a source of monetary benefit to you. So find out, how you can help other people. There’s also a flip side to this. You should also know, how people can help you, like after someone says ”how can I help you”, you should have an answer and if you don’t do it you are missing out on an opportunity to be helped. This is where you would needcreative marketing ideas i.e. making use of creative ways to let people – your customers know that you could be a great source of help to them.

Challenges In Executing The Creative Marketing Ideas In Interpersonal Relationships

But while there is lot to talk about the application of creative marketing ideas in social networking, one of the problems of helping and in being-helped relationships is when you cannot help the other people you think that they may not either wish to take your help as well. That is huge mistake, because think of the joy you get when you help somebody & if you tell somebody that you cannot take help as you won’t be able to help them back, you are depriving them of that joy. Just think about, how they would feel if you’ll be depriving them of the joy to help you.

Do not ever break the flow of help, coming your way. There might be times, when everybody will be helping you & you cannot help anybody. Then just remember, there will also be times where you will only be helping everybody, but they won’t be able to help you back. Thus, a simple networking rule to follow here is, just “PAY FORWARD”. Allow people to help you & be aware of the help you need from them.

Take an example, you are walking around and saying, that you need help with business funding. You are more likely to meet those people, who themselves may not be investors or funders, but when they say how can I help you & you say – Do you know a good investor, Do you know a good venture capitalist then these same people can be more useful, effective and can really help you with some good creative marketing ideas for your business.

Do Not Keep a Count

One Of The Most Creative Marketing Ideas And The Golden Rule Of Networking – “do Not Keep A Count”
Just do not keep a count like “I helped you and you help me back” because that bitters the whole process. It’s likely that you wouldn’t want to help someone when you know he would expect something back. I am going to give you guys a formula to be remembered. The formula is this, it starts with the word:

1. You know how
2. Then you describe the problem you solve
3. Then what you do
4. The solution

I will try to illustrate the above formula in detail through a real life situation. Let’s assume you are at a networking event & someone says what do you do (say financial services is your business offering). Assume, the other guy says that’s it’s not his interest area and almost immediately seems more interested in the cheese & the wine rather than talking to you. The opportunity of a potential customer is lost here. Instead if you have used the above formula, so let’s see what might have been the situation in that case. You would have then, probably done this – you know how you are sitting at dinner table & going through the bills, asking yourself where has all my money gone, you say to the other guy, “well what I do is to sit down with people & help them figure out their financial goals & help them plan their vacations or plan the purchase of new car.” So, were you able to imagine the response of the other guy in the latter case? The difference between the 2 situations is just this – when you say, when you know how, it starts playing a reel in the mind of listener, its seems to the listener he is watching a video. There’s a visual image of what you are saying in front of other person’s eyes.

When you said you are sitting at the table, they see that happening and when you are asking yourself where all his money has gone, while flipping through the bills. The listener becomes familiar with the kind of problems you solve, because when they hear you solve financial problems for the businesses, they do not see what it looks like, they seem to be unfamiliar with that problem. Instead they feel familiar with problem, while you are looking down at the bills and feel tensed at high bills. That is how you should build your own creative marketing ideas to connect better with people.

Creative Marketing Ideas For Self-branding To Achieve Deeper Connects With People
When you get people visually & sensationally familiar, whenever they have a problem, they think of you and that how you become more referable and that is how you start reaping on your own creative marketing ideas. There are going to get exposed to that problem and think ah ‘Tarun’ solves this problem, let me contact him and you never know when this opportunity turns for you a revenue source. So what you need to do is, just think about the other person’s referrability and act around that particular activator – part of the brain which is focused on what is the part of their life.

I am sure you would have noticed it when you are seated in your new car, driving around, you always notice the similar make cars and you think there are so many of my types of car on the road. Why this happens because, now you have become more aware.

In a nutshell, what I can say is the more people you meet, the more opportunities are created for you to explore. When you look at another person’s face, look close, you will see hundreds of faces in that one face. The sum would be worth more than its individual ingredients. Unlike material things, the food we eat, a candle that burns – relationships do not diminish with consumption. It is the holy grail of “networking”. Look at every single customer you know as your next customer & treat them as how I can help him, how can I serve him with right spirit- with new ideas. Indifferent to the fact that you are working in a team or as a free individual, in a small business or a big enterprise, you should keep on following the same path of finding opportunities to help others and being helped by others at the same time. So, next time when you are about to meet new people, walk around with this spirit – I want to built trust with you, I want to build a relationship with you – just a simple key to build life-long networks.

Look at every single customer you know as your next customer & treat them as how I can help him.

I do confess with a broad smile that building strong networks is a perpetual struggle, might often be bitter as well, but in the end against all various odds you just need to stand strong and remember “It’s all about a radical transformation in your mindset and conviction that makes the difference through your creative marketing ideas”.

By Tarun Gupta

Changing Face Of Network Marketing In India – Honesty And Integrity The Key For Success

The way people are doing business nowadays has changed all over the world, especially when we look at network marketing in India. Values and ethics which have been mostly visible earlier have become a cornered piece in today’s time. The face of network marketing in India has got totally changed over the years. Need of the hour is to have prudence, humility, ethics and the interest for common good.

If the first 13 years are any indication, then this century has a very high probability of going down in history as the “century of corruption, frauds, and extortion”. A series of high profile companies scandals unfolded this decade – Enron, subprime mortgages, LIBOR rate rigging. Corporate leaders are now making news for all the wrong reasons and are losing their dignity. Some among them are Rajat Gupta, an Indian and exDirector of Mc-Kinsey and Company, Bob Diamond – the former CEO of Barclays Bank’s who was implicated in LIBOR Scandal. Both Diamond and Rajat were well-known in their respective industry for their supreme business acumen and wisdom. They were praised for their extraordinary intellect and their quality of work. Their organizations stocks grew rapidly in market under their leadership. So what went wrong? What got these gods into these problems? It was not their lack of ability and intellect but lapse of their moral principles and values. Yes, the things which we take for granted can cause greatest of downfalls in the context of network marketing in India.

Examples of Failed Network Marketing in India

Now let us talk of some people who used network marketing in India in a different way. Snap shot of Rajat Gupta case – It was a fateful day on the October the 26th 2011, Rajat Gupta, an Indian, Ex Director of Mc Kinsey and co. and also one of the most informed and serious personalities in the financial and banking field, known for his services he offered to the company, was convicted and arrested on the charges of insider trading. He was accused of releasing inside information of his company to his close friend Raj Rajaratnam. Raj was running a huge hedge fund of $9 billion. Raj was also sentenced and sent to jail along with his close accomplices. What was wrong in it? Rajat’s telling company information to his friend was definitely wrong, but more wrong happened when his friend Raj used this information as an opportunity to make some hefty earnings out of it, which led to fall of company stocks and thereby affected its indirect and direct sales. Rajat would have never ever imagined that, his small mistake would earn him so many miseries.

In India, with the stock exchanges, the so called “Dalal Street”, the insider trading is very prominent and its magnitude and scale is limitless. Take the case of the next door real estate developers, who by bribing the government bodies and authorities, unfairly and unjustifiably extracted out the master plan of the government development plan and beforehand bought the real estate in bulk to be sold off to buyers at a later stage at very high premium. This is also an example of an insider trading where the product’s price is unduly raised without letting the end user know anything about it. This is example of relentless dishonesty, greed and materialism. People tend to become extremely dishonest when they hold a position of power. Dealing with trickery and falsehood is like a wild horse; your initial ride can be until you are thrown away from it.

When I hear all this, I get a feeling of rage. I get insomniac and my blood boils with anger. I feel like hurting someone really bad. I wonder how these people become so selfish and greedy, that they put their own jobs at risk to earn extra money. On the top of all this, it’s even harder to believe, they like what they do and don’t want to change.

“Change” – Newest Mantra of Network Marketing in India

Yes, you interpreted it right, in the context of network marketing in India, change means sticking your neck out, break the norm and start questioning the normal. Do not be a follower but be a change leader. Acknowledge the problem and please do something. Dishonesty and cheating is now becoming a part of us. It is getting ingrained in our system. Don’t let that happen. As Vivekananda had said “could mud be washed with mud”? Could “blood be washed with blood”. The answer is No. So, why just not so simple direct selling for the organization and earn accolades rather than using illicit means of gaining money.

To tame and harness dishonesty in the long run, you need wisdom that gives you ethical clarity and sense of purpose.

May I have got it all wrong, may be my hope & optimism are misplaced, and I am just like them; an odd loser. To tame and harness dishonesty in the long run, you need wisdom that gives you ethical clarity and sense of purpose. When wisdom provides the moral compass, sticking to correct values become more potent. Clearly, at this point we need some change leaders who can act and also lead with maturity and wisdom.

In the current times, only few corporate leaders relentlessly and intuitively follow and appreciate the value of honesty and integrity. My personal role models are Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Ratan Tata, Narayan Murthy, Oprah Winfrey, John Mackey who have not defaulted from their ethical moral position even once in their long corporate career. All these people have actually contributed a lot in the establishment of this school of thought and leadership and the evolution of network marketing in India.

What To Do, How To Inculcate All This In Network Marketing In India?

Considering all these aspects of network marketing in India, it seems desirable to be an honest and value driven leader and it really is. In this complex and uncertain times, when we stick to our principles, we not only experience remarkable success but also feel capable and strong, operating at the top of our game. Both honesty and strong values help achieve both sense of accomplishment and fulfillment. It brings meaningful growth and eternal prosperity to not only individuals but also to the organizations they lead.

The issue is simple. You must get rid of dishonesty and corruption from your own system. You will have to play a very crucial and pivotal role in implementing it. I am very sure you don’t have a personal inclination in corruption. May be money and power holds very little significance for you. But unbound compulsions to maintain a certain lifestyle and regular assurances to family for a decent livelihood compels you to compromise on the moral front and forces you to commit undesirable acts or crimes.

It isn’t easy to change things but its need to be done. And all of you need to take a chance and take bull by his horns and control it. Remember it’s your responsibility to correct the changed face of Network Marketing in India. Nobody else can do this, except you all.

The brutal question I am going to ask you people is, “are you guys up for this new face of network marketing in India??”

By Tarun Gupta

Golden Rules of Network Marketing

Many memories stir in my mind while writing about this topic of Network Marketing, as today I would like you all to turn your attention to a real life story of my closest uncle. I have attempted to capture the facts about the Golden 5 Rules of Network Marketing as objectively as possible. This story is around the time of 2002, when my uncle used to be in his young days and a bright manager in one of the fortune 500 multi-level product company, based in Gurgaon. During the same time, I got an opportunity to work with him on a small assignment. His eloquence and forcefulness clearly made him the most liked and admired one in the organization. Mind you, he isn’t from the IIT/IIM pedigree but certainly was a gifted one.

My First Encounter to The Golden Rules of Network Marketing

After finishing my project, I was invited by him for a Sunday breakfast at his house. I still remember, it was a very joyous welcome and he was also in his highest spirit. After settling down, using the privilege of being a close uncle I felt entitled to ask him candidly out of pure curiosity, about his philosophy, his tools for success. Speaking to me not as a manager but as a friend, he proudly introduced me to “5 Golden Rules of Network Marketing”. At the same time, he warned to keep it safe and never to let it part away. “What does it mean?“ was my immediate reaction. He paused and smile. He said it’s as simple as interacting with 5 new people every week. I remember quiet distinctively thinking to myself “It’s not my cup of tea”. I was totally divided and confused.

My Mentor In This Miraculous Journey of Network Marketing

To follow this rule of network marketing for him, was not at all tough and complicated as it sounded like. Over the years he’s been training himself for this, so now it became very easy for him – he said. He used to spend most of his time actively engaging with his clients, reaching to employees at all levels, even down to sales level. He ensured he had his interaction with atleast 5 different employees, 5 different clients and 5 different colleagues every week, specifically through community gatherings. On the top of it, he also would march and strive shoulder to shoulder with the people he used to meet. Deep love for people, showing empathy with others was sunk in his soul and dominated his mind. By simply following this golden rule over years, he had built a massive group of network marketers both inside and outside his organization.

That was nearly 11 years ago, I am not at all astonished to know that he is now the designated CEO, a business owner of the same company. He got hold of the key to success before anyone else which made him a successful business person and it is certainly worth awe and admiration.

In order to gain ground, to gradually move forward, to turn his dreams into reality, he effectively leveraged the strength of his large network, engaged with them and built a strong foundation through their support. He had an eye to find out business opportunity in interactions he had. Above all, neither the high corporate rank in management nor the fat bank balance of businesses helped him, but a strong network of people like him, some entrepreneurs as well, their support, uplifted his heart and gave him contentment, comfort and stability.

The Pyramid of Golden Rules of Network Marketing

These rules have never deserted me and till date it stands forth, for my own experience as the most extraordinary rule for social success.

• Keep a count of number of new people you meet in a week. Always strive hard to reach out to other individuals. The golden rule is that you should have minimum 5 meetings or engagements lined for a week. The key is to remain visible and always available to your existing as well ever increasing relationships/network be it your friends, colleagues and contacts.

• Work hard reaching to others. There is no short cut scheme to it. Some people think building a network requires 16 hours a day, so to speak, attending meetings, always being at their service, attending long phone calls, going for regular social parties, long night outs either at the cost of spending unnecessary money on various product in market. Always do remember, if you are slogging, and working hard then you are not doing your job well.

• If I may change to corporate metaphor, please do not take networking as a target. Building a network of friends and colleagues is truly about creating and nurturing relationships. It’s about how you use your personal tools to connect with others. Always trust your instincts and ask yourself, if you enjoy doing it or not. Through means of enjoyment you will yield results which are good commission, better than you have ever planned or expected.

• I am sure, many a times, you won’t be able to connect either mentally or emotionally with every one you meet and talk, it is understandable that not everyone can enter the circle of your life, but the wise thing is to not to deny them but keep them at a distance with a gentle nod of recognition.

• Plan your strategy and note down your objective on how to proceed with network, you will surprisingly find plenty of hours during the day to do what needs to be done. The bigger your network is or more social connections you have, the more opportunities you will get to make even more new connections.

As Robert Metcalge once said “The value of a network grows proportional to the number of its users. The same principle holds true in expanding and growing the pool of relationships. The bigger and larger it gets, more rewarding and attractive it becomes. The pace of the network also grows proportionately to the strength of the network.’’

Anyhow, I have no hesitation in declaring that it would be an arduous act requiring intense preparation but certainly worth attempting. I hope just like me you would also not part away with these 5 golden rules of Network Marketing in your life. What a remarkable and unique way to look at life – Isn’t it? How much I owe to him is beyond my power to express today. Truly speaking, there’s a lot to be learnt from his way of life for each one of us. I wish him all the very best in all his future endeavors.

POOL YOU LUCK and SHARE THE FORTUNE

 By Tarun Gupta

Confidence Building In Others Through Leadership Styles

What do you understand by Leadership Styles? How does confidence building affect your leadership skills? To understand different leadership styles, one must first understand who is a leader. Leader is a person whose sole agenda is confidence building in his colleagues, who takes along his people and guides them through the path of personal development. He is a person with great management skills who help others in their goal setting. In addition to these core leadership skills, he has exuberant communication skills, great decision making and time management skills. Main thing is confidence building in your people, if you are able to achieve it, you are just empowering them to take decisions on their own. A leader may do all this, by using different Leadership Styles- which have been discussed in details below.

Operative Kind Of Leadership And Confidence Building Approach

This type of a leader have a different approach towards confidence building in their groups i.e. they excel in one area or function such as sales, marketing, online marketing, technology, product development etc. They develop thorough knowledge about the subject and become experts in it, the area they have opted for themselves. They give respect to details and intensely focused and competent in their area of business or technical expertise. They generally know everything about it, somewhat being close to being “subject matter experts”. They do not believe in risk taking and their every action is well planned and every move they make is well calculated. When they decide on a certain action they stick to what they know best. They rarely see outside their interest zone and they end up seeing things what they want to see. They develop an auto pilot mode and tend to see limited portion of the whole spectrum. Their emphasis as leader is on majorly two things execution excellence and the other strong and concrete expertise. Tim Cook, who is now the CEO of Apple, is the true representation of this kind of leadership style known for his rock solid operational efficiency, who was initially appointed by Steve Jobs as the supply chain head for Apple. In this whole act of confidence building, he was responsible to get every inch of cost out the system and make it extremely efficient.

Pragmatic Leadership Style And Confidence Building Approach

This type of leader is a big thinker and a visionary with great confidence building skills. They are not intimidated by risk and enjoy working in uncertainty, so to say, nothing weighs them down. They always play their game in the danger zone, the zone which is litter with explosive minefields. They give ever – increasing importance to broad and elastic thinking. They are high on self-confidence. Their characteristics drive intensity, vision, risk taking. They are intensely competitive personalities and have a tendency to take decisive actions which comes naturally with a competitive temperament. Steve Jobs, whom I greatly admire, had a flair for this kind of leadership. He was flamboyant and dynamic with a visionary perspective and strategic approach. He had a feel good perspective. He took Apple to the most valuable company in the world. He constantly looked for new innovative markets for his Apple product line. He was always in media and had larger than life personality. His life can be used to chart out a learning plan for yourself. On the top of it, he was great in public speaking which always left his audience mesmerizing.

Comparison Of Leadership Styles And Confidence Building Approaches
While we have looked at both the primary leadership and confidence building styles, I personally feel that Tim Cook has become richer and more experienced person exhibiting traits of both styles of leadership. He has unleashed his potential while truncating all his inhibitions. His actions are more balanced and wiser than what Steve took. Fame and popularity has not blunted his talent and humbleness and in as sense it is truly important and appreciable. I hope his journey under new leadership role driven by balanced and wiser style of leadership will take him many a places.

Both leadership styles represent different productive capabilities, style of working, handling situations, energies, kind of opinion and intelligence. The things which are visible and exhilarating and adventurous to leader Y is in most cases not at all visible to operative leader. In some cases, the leader X even do not even show respect to the actions of leader Y. The vice versa is also true. Infact, most decisions of each style are contrary to each other.

They all stick to their core and inherent strengths

Pragmatic leader would spend more time with investors, focusing on revenue and top – line growth and reaching out to new companies for strategic tie–ups. Whereas leader’s focus is inward, spending time with employees, product developers, and how to effectively cost down costs with aim to improve bottom –line. The truth of the matter is that both the kind of leaders have one thing in common; it is tendency to do things which matches their strength. They all stick to their core and inherent strengths. They frame their expertise and skills based on the perceived strength and temperament they think possess.

So to speak, Each of us, when born, are without any style, but eventually we lean towards a certain style over a period of time mostly due to influence of external conditioning as well our inner impulses and biases. Equally important, we create our own filters and knowingly, unknowingly colour our perspectives. This skewed perspective influences where we focus our development effort and thus be become where we put our efforts.

World Moving To A Philanthropic Style Of Leadership And Confidence Building
Off late many leaders are deliberately and consciously are getting detached from both the above rule of leadership and confidence building. They are discovering a larger sense of purpose in their operating style. They are moving beyond the starry corporate role and seemingly, using their smart, intellect and wealth to contribute to the common good. They make you feel better and their motivational words help you build self confidence and self esteem.

To sum up, they have started seeing the world differently. They have shifted their focus and broadened their perspective while shifting their approach from creating wealth for their business empire to actively solving problem facing communities both at local and global level.

Bill Gates is one of many leaders who have chosen this path. Bill Gates along with his wife Melinda established the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation. He is playing an active role in it while remaining the non executive chairman of Microsoft. This foundation has awarded whopping millions of dollars to scientific research driven organizations, charitable organization across the globe, global institutes who particularly focus on developing effective solutions to combat life consuming diseases. This initiative has given Brand bill gates and Microsoft a great facelift, winning hearts and mind of people across the globe.

This new style of beneficial and authentic leadership believes in zero-sum mindset, shared values, ethics and serving a larger purpose. It is all about taking advantage of the skills and expertise they proudly posses to service greater good through reflection and introspection.

Concluding Tips: – Reader, I have given you much to chew on, do look for patterns and behavior which matches your own style of leadership? Develop a positive thinking. It’s time to awaken the sleeping leader in you and spread the light of your confidence building skills in the world around you.

By Tarun Gupta