I saw the recent prequel Star Trek movie (again), the other night. You know, the one with the old Spock and our very own Australian Eric Bana as the bad guy.

It’s probably the only Star Trek movie I’ve enjoyed watching (sorry Trekkies) and I think it was about time they brought out a decent movie after the long series of previous disappointments. When asked by someone what I think of the other Star Trek movies, I tell them of the 3 times in my life where I have tried to watch the Star Trek movie where they went back in time to bring back a whale to save the Earth from a huge alien probe.

Every single time I have sat down to watch it, I have always fallen asleep – because it is so damn boring!!

But I digress…whilst I was watching the new movie, there was a scene where Spock did his famous mindmeld on a young Kirk. I wondered to myself – now wouldn’t it be so cool if one of those top producers in network marketing could simply do a mindmeld and transfer all their knowledge and experience into the brain of a newcomer.

Life would be so much simpler! Or would it?

But then, thinking about it for a minute, what a disaster it would be! If things were that simple, there would be no network marketing industry! Everyone would know how to market online as everyone would know all the tips and tricks that everyone else used. There would be no more top producers, prospective newcomers to the industry would already know everything, customers would know where to go to get the best deals on anything they wanted.

It made me realise just how valuable even a small bit of information can be. Just listening and watching a webinar from an experienced network marketer can put you ahead of the vast majority of network marketers, let alone a normal internet user.

The most valuable commodity in the world is INFORMATION. People will go to great lengths to obtain the information they need, in the form of skills and knowledge, to get ahead in life whether it be to get a job or start a business.

There are millions of people joining the internet everyday and the one thing in common that they ALL are looking for is INFORMATION. That is what the Internet is all about. As a network marketer, your primary goal is to obtain and pass on information. That should be your overriding mission, your goal, your sole purpose – to give out information and teach other people what you have learnt.

Your secondary goal, of course, is to generate an income, but it should be definitely number 2 on your list. One thing I have learnt from my time as an Internet entrepreneur is that the vast majority of successful network marketers have tuned themselves into the mindset that producing and providing valuable and useful content is the key driver. They discovered in their own way that by focussing on the true purpose of internet marketing, producing and providing valuable INFORMATION, financial independence naturally followed, and was simply a by-product of being a very good INFORMATION provider.

For a lot of newcomers to the industry, their all-consuming  focus is to do whatever is required to generate an income. They are focussed too much on CTRs, conversion rates and affiliate commissions. And that is probably why most network marketers don’t succeed. They are too focussed on the bottom line and stop as soon as the money dries up.

But successful entrepreneurs keep on generating and disseminating relevant, valuable, useful information. They are able to let go of the whole money aspect and let themselves become immersed in the role of being an information provider.

And that’s when you become truly empowered and truly free because you are doing something that you enjoy whilst at the same time not wasting your energies worrying about where the next pay cheque is coming from. What a totally different scenario to someone who is doing something they don’t enjoy whilst at the same time constantly worried about where all the money is going.

Do not underestimate the value that you can bring to the network marketing community. All you really need to do is assimilate all the information you receive and then simply pass it on. Your individual uniqueness will naturally become a part of this information and therefore in itself become a unique and valuable piece of information.

That’s why you should never blatantly copy anyone else’s work. You are literally wasting the valuable uniqueness that you could have enhanced that information with had you simply rewritten it in your own words.

So don’t give up thinking that you have no value to add to the Internet community. Just by reading this you have already gone much further than the vast majority of people in this world will ever get. In one sense, you have already completed your journey of discovery to find the source of the information you need to succeed.

You just need to continue on with your journey and onto your success.

I came across a shocking statistic the other day which basically stated that 97% of people who try to get an online business off the ground will fail.

To be honest, I couldn’t quite get my head around that figure but after a while I guess it does make sense.

As both you and I know, there are hundreds of thousands of people being caught up in all the hype surrounding the network marketing industry with promises of financial freedom without little effort or cost. A day doesn’t go by when I don’t receive stacks of emails from self-proclaimed gurus and ‘millionaires’ with their stories of untold riches. It’s no wonder that most people soon give up once they realise that the majority of these guys are just smoke and mirrors. They are disillusioned, frustrated and often several thousand dollars/pounds worse off.

And to me this is a real shame as armed with the correct knowledge and assistance from an experienced mentor, network marketing is becoming of the best way for ordinary people from all walks of life to make extraordinary incomes.

So why is it so many people fail? Surely 97% of people attempting to make a success in this industry are not all incompetent and lazy.

Well, the answer is “Of course not!”

The primary problem is most probably a result of the success of the Internet itself.

Approximately 25% of the world is now online, and because it is so easy for people to get Internet access, there are so many people with so little idea about sales and marketing trying to “teach” other people who are equally clueless about sales and marketing. It is a classic case of “the blind leading the blind”.

This huge proliferation of “marketing experts” has unsurprisingly lead to a lot of disgruntled customers, which in turn has tarnished the reputation of the network marketing industry.

It is because of of this bad publicity that network marketers are seen by a lot of people in the same light as scammers, con-artists and second-hand car salesmen.

However, one of the big mistakes that a lot of these network marketers make is that they haven’t embraced the new technologies. They are still trying to use the same old marketing principles that pre-existed the Internet. A lot of the methods and mindsets employed by these marketers were developed and matured in a world where to get a sale, you had to almost convert or even brainwash your prospect into believing that they had to buy your product or services.

What they don’t fully comprehend is that the Internet has irrevocably changed the old ways of doing business and that includes sales and marketing. For the first time in history, people have access to limitless knowledge. Anyone with Internet access can simply use Google to find what they want, at a price they want, whenever they want, 24/7 365 days a year. It is becoming almost impossible now to pressure someone into buying your product without them wanting to get another opinion or carry out some research.

Annoy someone with those sort of pressure tactics and with one click of the mouse button they are off looking at someone else’s product.

People are becoming a lot more cogniscent of what’s going on in this Information Age. It is vitally important that you fully understand and implement the new tactics and methods of doing business if you want to succeed.

So what do you need to do to be successful on the Internet?

Simple. Forget the hard sell tactics of a door-to-door salesman. Think more like a real bricks-and-morter business. Get the customer to come to you first by using an effective system of lead generation and attraction marketing. Use this system to filter out the customers who are actively seeking what you have to offer as these are the only customers you really want.

Why spend your time and money trying to convince someone that what you have is worth buying. If you market yourself correctly, you will find customers that are attracted to you and will purchase products from you time and time again.

Focus on what makes you special and unique, develop yourself and your presence online and you will see the results of your efforts.

I’m not saying it’s easy but everyone in the world, whether you believe it or not, is a unique individual. Leverage your individuality and bring it out with whatever you do online. Given enough time and exposure, you will connect with people who relate to you in someway and will come back to you and your products.

The important thing to remember is that you WILL make a success of this BUT only if you just keep on going. The Internet by it’s very nature, is very much like an organic, dynamic entity. You can’t rush the Internet, but if you put a bit of effort in on a daily basis, you will see results. Most, if not all, successful Internet entrepreneurs have taken several years to reach the success they currently enjoy. They all put the hard work in by creating and disseminating information that has had their own unique individuality stamped all over it.

There is an inherent inertia in place on the Internet. It takes time and a lot of work to differentiate yourself from the vast amount of information out there.

But the most important thing to remember is that this is meant to be fun, so enjoy yourself.

Image by Vix Richardson

I’ve just spent a very relaxing several days down at my parents-in-law farm just north of Byron Bay on the east coast of Australia.

We stayed in a small 3-bedroom house on the property and the combination of looking out over the trees and over to the next valley coupled with the warm weather, blue sky and sounds of nature really brought stress levels down to a minimum.

I had a lot of time to think about things – being away from the Internet for a few days tends to clear the head! I’ve never really truly let go of the Internet for quite a number of years now, and having the time away allowed me to refocus my thoughts and evaluate where I had gone wrong in the past, where I want to be and what I want to achieve in the future.

Where did it all go wrong?

I had a lot of time to think back to where I had gone wrong in the past and what lessons I had learnt from my mistakes.

I’d spent the last several years working long hours away from my family doing my IT consulting work and got heavily involved in property investing. All I ever wanted was to build up some equity that would enable me to take the pressure off having to go to work everyday and allow me to spend more time with the family.

For a number of years, my entire focus was ensuring that my credit file was spotless so I could continue buying property and build my ‘empire’. Little did I realise what I was getting myself into.

Ok, so I managed to build a multimillion-pound portfolio in the space of 2 years, but little did I realise the enormous cost that this would bring to my family life, my health and my sanity!

What started off as an exciting adventure into the world of ‘big business’ with constant phone calls to letting agents, mortgage brokers, property developers and dodgy solicitors soon turned into a living nightmare.

Even though I was earning a 6-figure income in London, all I was really doing was working all the hours of the day to earn enough money to feed an ever-increasingly hungry leviathan of a monster. Not only was it consuming all my money, but it was sucking dry every last vestige of humanity away from me in the form of stress, sleepless nights and unhealthy lifestyle.

It all started going wrong in late 2007 ( and it seems like it was only yesterday). We had planned on going back to Australia in 2008, so put our house on the market. We couldn’t have chosen a worse possible time. It was like someone was waiting for us to sell our house as a signal to unleash the dogs of war!!

The Global Financial Crisis (or GFC as I like to call it as it sounds like KFC – so much less menacing) kicked in at almost the same time. During the next 12 months, each offer we accepted became lower as time went on. And each buyer pulled out of the deal because they were either made redundant or got cold feet. Unfortunately, property law in the England is decades behind the rest of the world, and buyers can pull out at any time before exchange of contracts leaving the owner high and dry.

One by one, I had to sell off all of my properties until eventually practically everything I had worked for all those past few years was gone.

My once pristine credit file was a mess (although you only need 1 missed payment to render it useless) so my ability to  borrow again was greatly reduced.

I was depressed, heart-broken and completely disillusioned with the world. My honest efforts to get ahead and provide some sort of nest-egg for my family was completely destroyed. I had been shafted time and time again by what I thought were reputable property developers and solicitors. My trust and faith in people in general had been wiped out.

My darkest hour

I was in my darkest hour in November 2008. Our plans for returning to Australia couldn’t be put on hold forever, so my wife and I made the decision that her and my 2 daughters should return back to Australia whilst I stayed behind to try and sort out the financial mess.

We spent the next few weeks organising for all our belongings to be shipped back to Australia. The only things we left behind was stuff I needed to survive in the house alone – a few plates, cutlery for one, a bed, my filing cabinet, computers, TV and DVD player – and of course my broadband connection.

A few days after all the household stuff had been packed and taken away, I drove my girls to the airport. I waved them off at Heathrow on a cold, dark November afternoon not knowing when I would see them again. Driving back to an empty house in London was the most soul-wrenching experience and to this day I still get a spine-chilling feeling when I remember it.

Soon after, just before Christmas, I was told my contract at the bank would not be renewed…I was now truly on my own, with no-one to talk to, and with nothing but a bleak Christmas and an even bleaker 2009 ahead of me.

A glimmer of hope

So there I was on New Years Day…biggest snow fall in London in years, and me stuck in an empty house with no job, no wife, no kids, no family. What the #@!* was I going to do?

What else could I do except surf the Internet and try to keep myself occupied.

I don’t know how or why, but something I typed into Google, probably ‘how to make money’,  came up with a particular webpage that caught my eye. I think it was a Liberty League International website or something, but for the first time in my life, I held back my scepticism and entered in my name and email address into the webform. So I sat back and waited.

Soon after, a guy called me from the US and we started talking. We got into the conversation for awhile and when I asked “Is this network marketing” I said thanks, and that I wasn’t interested.

You see, being a classic Generation X’er, I had been brought up to believe that if people were making lots of money in a seemingly effortless fashion, that there must be something illegal or dishonest going on. It had been drummed into me that I should be working a 9-5  job, and be thankful for my bonus and holidays.

But ever since I started working in the early 90’s, I had eschewed the advice from my parents and others to get a permanent, secure job. I chose the life of a contractor, and whilst not as secure as a permanent job, it allowed me to pick and choose where and when I worked. For most of the past 20 years that had worked for me. After all, I had been able to build a multi-million pound property portfolio!

But, the recent events had shattered my confidence in the world – I had been forced into a horribly desperate situation by unfortunate circumstances that I had never dreamed possible. And the realisation that I was now in completely unfamiliar territory forced me to repress the mindset and opinions forged into my brain throughout the course of my life by the ’system’. I literally had no choice but to search outside my comfort zone; outside my belief system, if I was to survive.

I had the feeling that there was something more to this ‘network marketing’ stuff – after all, if some people were making money online, then with my experience, surely I would have a chance at making some sort of income as well.

I kept researching, reading reviews and subscribing to other network marketers, and soon realised that there was an overabundance of information out there – how the heck would I ever be able to push ahead and start making money online? Where would I start?

MyInternetBusiness (now known as YourNetBiz) was probably the first business opportunity I came across that made sense to me. I had seen so much rubbish out there from obvious idiots promising quick riches overnight.

I was lucky enough to join up with my former property investment business partner and we pooled our money into buying into the opportunity. In hindsight, the mentor we had was a typical show-off flash git – the only thing of real value he gave was videos of his sports car. But the thing he did do well was show what could be achieved with the right mindset and attitude.

But we perservered and it’s now been over 12 months since I started with network marketing. In that relatively short space of time I have learnt an extraordinary amount; not only about network marketing and making money online, but about myself.

So what have I learnt about myself and my past mistakes?

Well, one of things I have learnt is that there is more to life to making money and trying to get ahead. It sounds ridiculous when you first hear it, but being successful is not about money, but helping others be successful. You have to learn to forget about the money and just immerse yourself into providing good value and content for your fellow internet marketers and anyone else who is interested in you. And having an online business gives you the ideal platform to achieve that.

Time and time again, that same message has been espoused by all the network marketers, mentors, gurus and anyone else who has been successful online.

Having experienced the full ramifications of the financial disaster I found myself in forced me to rethink and re-evaluate what was really important and what exactly I want to achieve in my life. I have a sneaking suspicion that had the GFC not happened, I may have been destined to a life less ordinary.

In the short amount of time that I having been exposed and involved in the network marketing industry, I have met more interesting people, read about and experienced more interesting things, dreamt of and brought into reality more things like articles, websites and blog posts than I have ever done in the years before – it’s truly a remarkable experience and I am filled with excitement about what the future holds for me.

I know I have only really scratched the surface of the latent abilities and talents that lie beneath the surface of my GenX brainwashed mind and I’m looking forward to seeing what else I can drag out from that brain of mine.

But probably the most important thing I have learnt is that before one can achieve greatness and reach their full potential, any baggage in the form of opinions, misconceptions and beliefs need to be left behind. Purging your previously ingrained mindset may not be possible until you are forced into it by what at first glance seems like a tragedy or an imminent event that you’re desperately trying to avoid. But take heart, for as I was reluctantly to learn, every cloud has a silver lining.

Don’t stress about a future result that hasn’t eventuated yet as it more than likely won’t happen exactly as you think it will. Just ‘go with the flow’ and let things play out their course.

I know it may be difficult for a lot of people to shift their mindset into the sort of mindset that you will need to succeed in an online business, but at least try to keep an open mind and allow yourself to explore the possibilities that exist outside of your reality.

In other words, try to purge yourself of the baggage that you’ve been clinging onto for whatever reason and look forward to 2010 as not just another year, but as the start of a new year, or indeed a new DECADE, where you can achieve what you want in this life just with the power of your creative and open mind.

And what do I hope to achieve in this new decade?

As for what I want to achieve in the next few years – for me it’s all about finding the perfect balance between the work required to generate an income and having a good family life. Having wealth and security is nothing if you don’t have a family to share it with. I want to achieve a level of expertise and knowledge that will give me the ability to share what I have and will learn with others and experience the satisfaction of knowing that I have made a difference to someone else’s life.

Well, that about wraps it up for this blog…I’m now back in Brisbane plugging away at this laptop and I feel like I’ve had an injection of motivation. Feels bloody brilliant!

As always, let me know what you think of this post and feel free to contact me and ask me any questions.

Have a great 2010 and catch you all later!

Well, what a day!!! It’s almost midnight, Friday night and I’m completely exhausted.

Arrived yesterday at the Glorietta Bay Inn, San Diego after almost 24 hours of travelling all the way from Australia. What a beautiful place! It’s a big old mansion right on the bay that has been renovated into a majestic hotel. Just gorgeous.

Met with all the other 19 San Diego Summit attendees, and of course our hosts, Mark Hoverson, Jonathan Budd, Katie Freiling and Aaron Fortner. It was totally awesome to finally meet with everyone face-to-face. Had a few drinks and chatted about all things ‘network markety’ until the early morning.

This morning was an early start, so got up and had breakfast and got straight into a marathon brain dump with Mark Hoverson. We covered a whole bunch of extremely indepth, cutting-edge marketing strategies, copywriting techniques, confidence building with our video making, website and business critiques and analyses.

Jonathan Budd spent short one-on-one time with each of us to establish where we were with our business and to work out what improvements we could make to take things to the next level.

Katie Freiling did the same with our blogs and social networking strategies to ensure that everything was in order.

It’s been fascinating and inspiring meeting with such experienced and successful network marketers, but I really didn’t expect to have such an equally transformational experience meeting my fellow classmates.

Everyone is so committed and dedicated to becoming a success and it’s been pure gold listening to their stories and how they got to where they are today. Without doubt, these contacts will become lifelong friends and I have truly enjoyed the experience thus far.

Tomorrow we are spending some intense time going into the finer points of our respective businesses, such as our back end systems, capture pages and autoresponders. We’re also going on a coast cruise for about an hour which should be brilliant (assuming the weather clears up).

Catch you all later…