This morning I took the recommendation of a friend and listened to a podcast (internet audio) by a fellow named Mark Yarnell. Mark has working in network marketing for decades and is one of those leaders that keeps up with technology, techniques and society. So when he has something to say, it's likely to be insightful and thought provoking.

In this eleven minute presentation he pulls together material he has read and conversations he has had with people who keep track of societal and economic change. What they're telling him will likely get the attention of anyone who thinks of the future past what they're having for lunch.

You know the divide we see in society between the wealthy and the poor? Are you familiar with how the "middle class" continually gets squeezed? Unfortunately the outlook for the future isn't looking a whole lot brighter for the middle and lower income classes. But now we have a rough time frame on when the middle class will be nearly extinct. How long do you think we have?

More on The Prosperity Divide: Which Side Are You On?

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We've done it! We've all survived our first year together.

Today is our son's first birthday and it's been quite a year. This may sound like a cliche, but it really is amazing how much a little person develops over the course of a year. When we look back at his birth photos we can hardly believe that it's the same kid as we have now. He hasn't been out of our sight much, so we're pretty sure it's still him.

Nathan and Dawn at Red Robin - Nathan is One!

This last month especially has seen a lot of progress. He started crawling at about 10 months, but started taking a few steps on his own at just over 11 months. About two weeks ago he was walking from one piece of furniture to another, and now he walks around to wherever he wants to go.

We can tell that he understands many of the things we're saying to him, as well as the "baby sign" we use, but he's not quite to the point of repeating things back. He claps when we ask him to clap, and he comes to us when we ask him to, he understands "no", etc. Just a matter of time before he catches on to the other things, I guess.

For his "birthday lunch" we took him to Red Robin, which is a Pacific Northwest family burger restaurant that has a great reputation as a fun place. I've been going there since college and it's always a good time. My wife's parents were with us and they seem to be very happy grandparents. They are very into him.

We should have a new bike trailer to put in him in tomorrow, so finally after a year we will all get back into an exercise routine and get to spend more time outdoors. I guess this is really when the fun starts, eh?

Browsing the sites of other bloggers I occasionally come across a good point that should get emphasized. In this case, it has to do with "leadership". What kind of leader are you for your group?

Do you keep in touch with both your upline and downline? Are you willing to explore new marketing methods and share them with your group? Do you keep an open channel of communication?

As a leader, you will a lot of things that maybe others in your group aren't ready to do yet, but by doing them yourself you show that it can be done. But what makes others willing to follow what you do?

More on Are You Leading Your Network Marketing Business?

I have to admit it: I'm an internet marketing junkie.

When a sales letter comes across my desk or into my email, I study it to see what techniques the author (copywriter) uses. When new marketing methods and techniques roll out, I keep an eye on them to see if they provide true value. It takes experience and a keen eye to see the true diamonds out there.

This weekend I started looking at a system that I have special access to through one of my coaching programs.

It looks pretty darn cool.

More on Leave Yourself Open to Success

This week has been one of the "unusual" weeks around here as my wife has been on call. That generally means that I get to spend more time caring for our son and less time working on the business stuff. This particular week has not been so bad as far as my wife working more hours during the day - it's more of a problem for her when she does not get a chance to sleep at night from all of the "pages" coming in.

At any rate this week the business subjects have been about the use of blogging as part of your advertising mix and also thinking about how "hard" network marketing is compared to things that a lot of people have to do for a living. To me, it's not so much that a person has a dirty or unpleasant job, but what bothers me is when people have to do that job to survive economically.

When you do things because you have to then life becomes a series of compromises rather than a series of choices.

So, to everyone who is putting the effort into your businesses, you are the heroes. You are going above and beyond the averages to make a life of choice!

Too many people think that having their own business that they can do from home is going to be "easy". They fall into the trap of believing the hype put out by scam artists that they "build your downline" or "do the work for you" or some other such nonsense.

So it should be pretty obvious to anyone that something that's worth having is going to take time and effort to achieve. It's not going to be easy.

But is it going to be difficult?

Let's explore some of the things that are "difficult" in life.

More on Network Marketing: Is It Difficult?

Here's an interesting idea:

Take the concept of the chain letter and apply it to blogging. How does this work? Simply take a list like this:

1. I love MLM Blog
2. Fax Marketing
3. Jack Squatro
4. DidYouSmellThat
5. TurboRecruiting
6. RyanShamus
7. Martial Arts Supplies
8. The Renegade Network Marketer
9. Murphs On.com
10. MLM Training

…and remove the top entry. Move everyone else up the list by one position and put your link at the (now blank) #10 position.

Why do this? The idea is to help your blog to get more easily found on the internet.

Is it ethical?

More on Viral Blogging: Is This Ethical?

This weekend was my first Father's Day!

Our son will turn one year old this month. It's been quite a year. This is our first child so everything is new and there are a lot of challenges that we've learned to handle. Nothing Earth shattering, really, just the "normal" stuff that new parents learn.

Before he came along some people told us, "you will not be able to remember what you used to do with all of the time you had". That's not true. I know *exactly* what I used to get done with the time I used to have.

More on Happy Father's Day!

Here's this week's (or in this case month's) video blog update:

It's a recap of the week and a couple of tips on what *not* to do for lead generation (and why).

Also, if you have been working on your site/blog, leave a comment with your URL. I'll go check it out!

-Roger

One of the most challenging aspects of network marketing is finding the right kind of people for your business. The "right" kind of person would be someone who is searching for your product or wants the lifestyle a network marketing business can offer.

Unfortunately, people spend a lot of money on buying multi-level marketing (MLM) leads only to be disappointed with the results they get when they finally try to contact them. The only group that makes any money out of this are the lead generation companies.

Instead of pouring time and money into lists of leads, learn how to attract serously interested people to your business.

More on MLM Lead Generation The Right Way