The Agreement Seekers Blog

I was in the grocery store recently.  There were two young kids with their mom.  The boy was about 7, the girl 4 or so.  Like most kids in the checkout line, they were wide-eyed and grabbing candy bars.  Even before they could ask, the Mom said, "Put it back, we can't afford it".  With a sunken whimper, they complied and that was that. For me, I just stood as a stoic observer, but inside I was crushed for the kids.  They were just doing what kids do... testing limits and "going for it".  But, the thud of the Mom's authority struck me.  Their budget obviously could not withstand a frivolous candy purchase.  She didn't say, "Not this time" (or) "No, we got candy last time..."  It was like, shut 'em down, drop a rock on their head finality - and they knew there was no sense in arguing.  They were being trained to "not afford it". This simple example is how many people live... on the edge and barely making it.  A $2 make...

There is a saying in the online marketing space that "the money is in your list".  The assumption is that the bigger your "database" of names is, the bigger pond you have to go fishing in.  It follows that then the more likely you will be able to make money as a function of large numbers.  Then, let autoresponders reach out to people with the latest and greatest offer.  This is not our model.  A large email or subscriber list is one way to go about things, especially for affiliate marketers selling other people's stuff.  However, what we do is more focused on quality than quantity. Said differently, our focus is on humanity.  We strive to build deep and long-lasting relationships... not to interact with "names" on a list and see if the flavor-of-the-day might appeal to them.  Please do not misunderstand, there is value in a large list, but it is not where anyone starts... and therefore telling people to have (or get) a list is fundamentally bad ...

OK.  This is a college (or education) analogy.  If you go to school, you are expected to learn things.  On these things, you get tested and get a grade.  Some people are honors students, some do the minimum and squeak by with C's and some fail. Owning a business is really no different.  The premise here is that you can choose to go to school to learn and apply new things, or you can choose to do the minimum (or nothing) and let the status quo be "your life".  Note that the word "choose" is in both statements. Now, taking this one more step, the tuition you pay (in real dollars) is next to nothing compared to a conventional college... and the education is essentially free.  What you are paying for with what we do is access to a platform that aggregates and tracks people and money.  There are literally thousands of these platforms. The differentiator, the value proposition of what we offer is the culture and community that surrounds the...

Ours is not a "normal" business unless you consider working around-the-clock as normal.  We teach and preach personal branding, establishing credibility and being of value to others and the marketplace.  This cannot be done in the absence of resources that enable people getting to know who you are and how you (we) think. Once you establish a core set of resources (a bio page, an email auto response, a social media presence) these will "work for you" around-the-clock.  But, here's the deal:  they do not just appear.  They need to be created, worked on, and refined.  This is just part of the equation for developing into a business that has "legs" for the long-term. If the person you are working with is not "engaged" in creating resources, you are being under-served.  If anyone has been involved with our Community for more than 30 days and does not have a rough bio page that they can refer others to... their head is simply not in-the-game....

Mission and money.  Hmmm...  What if the mission is money?  Can making money be a stand-alone mission of an organization?  Money, almost universally, is something that just about everyone says they could use more of, right?  So, what if the core "mission" of an entity is boldly stated, "we exist to make money (for ourselves and for each other) - independent of the product or service that "legitimizes" the exchange and flow of it. Well... that is pretty much what we do.  However, in doing so - the more important aspect is (more to the point) of the "impact" creating a new source of income has on peoples' lives. Call it what you will: transformation, renewal, metamorphosis...  What we do does change lives.  Some engage, learn and apply themselves (then) get into profit... then scale their profits.  Some stick their toe in and then for whatever reason choose not to engage. You will know you are "making it" when you feel you are having...