Okay, let's get specific. First about people.
If you've been reading my postings, you know I am involved with MXI the company marketing Xocai (show-sigh), the super-healthy dark chocolate with the highest antioxidant content to be found on the planet. I've been using this venture as an example to point out lots of things I've learned about success, network marketing, building a prosperous team, and having fun. As I expected, my own particular journey is a slow one. I've always preferred the "get rich slow" way of doing things. It all came about because I decided my next book will be about the health benefits of dark chocolate, a longtime passion of mine (almost 40 years). Then, having spent 12 years in prison (Read about it in my earliest posting), I did not have a network of friends, neighbors, co-workers to use as my initial source and referral system to build a person-to-person team.
What I did have was a superior list of friends who supported me throughout my prison stay,
and who mostly are creative people with full and successful lives. Most of them do seem to love the Xocai chocolate for its taste or its health benefits, but have no desire to be a part of the business, or, in fact, any network marketing company. I can't be too upset about that. Until my dear friend, Susannah Lippman, heard Dr. Shauna K. Young, the famed naturopath who runs the Assertive Wellness Center in Durango, Colorado speak about specific health benefits, she
had tasted the chocolate and loved it, but wasn't interested in the business opportunity.
Susannah and I had both sworn off network marketing opportunities forever. We felt that most companies just didn't fulfill the promise and possibility of this great way of doing business.
Susannah had such a thorough knowledge of this industry that she had even drawn up the original standard and practices ethics document for the entire network marketing industry back in the 1980s. She had seriously considered network marketing her phenomenal subliminal tapes and CDs, but decided to go another route as she created Alphasonics International, now
considered one of the top companies marketing subliminals.
So I decided I would take it slow and hope to develop two strong leaders, as this is all you really need in this company. It's a binary system, meaning you have two legs, or organizations,
and after you sponsor the first two people, one in each leg, you place everyone else in your
organization under them. You can build a thriving business even if you never sponsor another person, though it is more rewarding if you do. Anyway, I sent out and passed out samples of the healthy dark chocolate.
Three examples of what I encountered. One, a writer friend we'll call Linda, loved the taste and wanted the product for her high blood pressure. She lives in Colorado. Another,Mary Ann, is also a writer and very involved in church activities, and lives in Florida and is also a longtime good friend. Both of these women are very involved and comfortable with their current lifestyle, and didn't feel like sharing the story of this powerful health food with friends and contacts.
Then there's Irene, who just a few weeks ago wrote me an e-mail after discovering this blog, to let me know a seminar of mine she attended over twenty years ago in Phoenix, made a big difference in her life and finances. I contacted her and, as I do with everyone of the exceptional people on my list, offered to do most of the follow-up work if she had some people who loved dark chocolate, could use the health benefits, or were looking for some extra income. Irene got back to me with the rather shocking information that she had tried Xocai and for some unknown reason, it gave her a headache.
Wow! This was the first negative reaction I'd ever heard of. Who knows what it is, maybe she's allergic to the Acai berry in the product. By the way, as part of my declared policy of always telling the whole truth, even when it hurts or isn't convenient to do so, I think I'm probably the only person who ever mentioned a negative reaction to a product they were marketing. Irene also said none of her co-workers were interested in getting involved in another network marketing company. So I felt I had a new friend, but definitely not a new Xocai distributor. These three women were at the top of my small list of people I never intended to approach again about the business of dark chocolate.
But this past week, something amazing happened, which is part of what leads me to suspect a Xocai breakthrough is happening, accompanied by the smell of rich, multi-scented
pure dark chocolate. First of all, Linda decided to sign up as a distributor and go to the
Colorado Springs event launching the new Xobiotic, which delivers a billion healthy bacteria in three delicious 11 gram squares of antioxidant-packed dark chocolate, and which Belgium researchers have found is three times higher in its survival rate in the digestive system than any of the current yogurt or dairy probiotic products.
Then, Mary Ann told me her son might be interested, as he could use a good income opportunity and then, when I told her about the very successful launch of Xocai in England,
she said her sister who lives in London might be interested.
And finally, the biggest surprise, Irene e-mailed me asking if she could change her mind and
have me send her some samples. One of her co-workers might be interested, as well as a close friend of hers.
Now I don't know how any of this will work out, but the valuable lesson for me is that the best policy is to never try talking someone into something. If what you present has genuine value, they can talk themselves into it, or into at least trying it, if you just allow them the time and space to do so.
And it's confirmation of something I've known for a long time, and one of the keys to understanding the man-woman relationship, be it love or business: Women change their minds.
This can be very exasperating for us men, but we also find it fascinating. I remember George Burns once saying that when a woman marries a man, she spends the rest of their years together trying to change him, while the man keeps trying to prevent her from changing herself.
I don't know why this should ever surprise me, I've seen it happen countless times over many years. It's one of the reasons many women are successful--the willingness to quickly adapt when circumstances change. It probably has something also to do with the fact that so many women are so successful in the healthy dark chocolate business. Almost all the top distributors and trainers are women.
I do promise to report on what happens with Linda, Mary Ann, and Irene. Right now, Linda
is the only one of the three actually sponsored (she's at the top of my left leg--I hope her husband doesn't misunderstand). But all three have triggered some robust expectations on
my part. I think they could have a lot of fun and a lot of success in the healthy dark chocolate
business. Unless, of course, they change their minds.
I decided to save the other part of this topic for the next posting. It will be about some of
astonishing developments in the world of chocolate garnered from the amazing amount of information and research reports I am receiving on a daily basis as I prepare my book.
And as part of my commitment to do or say or write something brand new every day--I don't think I've ever used the word "garnered" in a sentence before.
Jerry
And by the way, if you'd like to join my Xocai team and work personally with me, contact me at jerrygillies@gmail.com You can check out a couple of videos
first. One is to be found under Chocolate for Health at www.alphasonics.com
Another at the blogsite at www.darkchocolatebenefits.net
And for health benefit information from a medical doctor:
http://mydrchocolate.
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