Collaborating with Others *Ninja Coaching Tips*

         Our company has a thriving online community both for merchandisers across the nation and for leaders. Two weeks ago I had an idea to collaborate with six other leaders across the country to “invade” each other’s team Facebook pages. Lots of ladies were interested in participating and the first six and I started a chat to decide who would cover which dates. This chat turned into a week of discussing leadership challenges, helping us all realize that we experienced similar challenges.

         Each leader has their own Facebook page for their team, so we made sure we were all friends then we added the other leaders to our team pages. Each leader took a day and “invaded” the other 6 pages by posting about their favorite tip/trick or about something currently relevant (such as a promotion we were having).

         As leaders, many of us talk to our regional leadership team members daily but may not really get a chance to get to know other leaders in the nation. This opportunity let me “meet” ladies from all over the country and brainstorm ideas for challenges we all faced. It was also amazing to see everyone’s takes on different ideas for their posts.

         What did we learn about? All of our leaders posted about amazing topics, but this end of week summary from Freya Chapman, a fellow Manager, was spot on and super helpful.

“- Liz Solomon Wright kicked off the week by talking about FOLLOW UP being the key to landing those sales and finding your hostesses.

- Then Joyce King touched on the importance of building and keeping MOMENTUM by front-loading your month with pop-ups!

- Jen Winegarden's topic was something we've been talking about a lot -- the effectiveness and higher ROI of IN HOME POP-UPS.

- Briana Holmes Daniels then had us focus on ourselves to reflect on who we are and define our PERSONAL BRANDING.

- Melissa Barrett Wheeler's post was centered on the power of BUILDING CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS by getting to know them, connecting with them and most of all BEING GENIUNE.

- Then yesterday Marisa Grier gave us some fabulous ideas on NETWORKING and growing your customer base.

On this final day of MM invasion, I will share with you the best way to take all this great advice and effectively apply them to your business.

The path to success is not always easy. Scratch that, it's NEVER easy. I've been turned down when trying to score business partnerships, have had dismal engagement at my online pop-ups, held pop-ups where zero to two people showed up, and have had my fair share of $0 pop-ups. What keeps me going is the love and support from this amazing community, consistently going back to my WHY.. and these THREE THINGS.. which was advice that my own mom gave me when I had a slow first few weeks during my Fast Start.

• 1) STAY POSITIVE. When you have a bad day, a bad pop-up or a bad month... take a deep breath, reflect on it, and I'm sure you will find something good from the experience. I know it sounds so cheesy and cliché, but there is always a silver lining, a lesson to be learned, and ALWAYS something to be thankful for. Your ATTITUDE plays a huge role in the success of your business. Not only does staying positive give you the ability to rise above challenges.. your customers and network will want to shop and support you because of it.
• 2) STAY PATIENT. Truly successful people did not get where they are overnight. There is so much hard work behind that success that you might ever know. Some of my relatives and closest friends didn't start buying from me until very recently. It took a while before my online popups and social media posts started picking up on engagement. Building your network and customer base takes time, so be patient and ENJOY the process.
• 3) STAY PERSISTENT. Along with the first two P's, this is what will truly make a difference in your business (and any other goal you want to pursue in life). When you get knocked down you get back up. When you get a NO, keep going to find your YES. Keep planting those seeds right now and when the holiday rush kicks in, you will be thankful that you did. (Just be careful and don't confuse persistence with being annoyingly sales-y and stalking your customers. There is a way to balance that out and I'm sure with your MM's help you'll figure out how not to cross that line.)”

Take Aways:

Merchandisers/consultants, what have you learned from your leaders that has helped you in your business?

Ninja Coaches, how can you collaborate with other leaders in your community to help your teams succeed? What would be your #1 thing you would want to tell another team if you could “invade” them? What have you learned from other leaders?

Do you find my posts useful? If so, sign up to receive emails in your in box whenever I post – on the right put in your email under Follow By Email! Also, sharing is caring – share my posts with other direct sellers you know so they can check it out! Join the Direct Sales Mavens Facebook Community here and let’s help each other achieve our goals!