The thoughts for this post began about at week ago. I was having a very late evening reading out on my deck. It was past midnight, and I remember being thrilled with the way the garden looked at that time of night. I felt a sense of mystery, with the darkly shrouded arbour rising up out of the surrounding vegetation. I felt peaceful and serene.
The book I had open contained stories about the "7 Habits of Highly Effective People", and one in particular stuck me. The story talked about how some one used their circle of influence to begin to make remarkable change in their community.
Which led me to Adlandpro: our community. I love ALP. I want the best for this community. The book caused me to stop and reflect on what ALP is and what perhaps we could do better as a community.
I will give you an example from a situation I encountered a few days later.
I make a habit of announcing people to the community if they sign up under me.
I received a call from a lady who wanted some help. Since I mentor for free, and I love to help people find their way, I offered my services. She had seen one of my ads and joined Adland but was having trouble getting signed in and set up. Several people on the Buddy system tried to help her but could not resolve the situation. I managed to do so the next day on the phone.
I then told her I would introduce her to my circle of friends, which I did.
When I caught up with her again, to help her with another situation, I discovered that she had signed up for about six programs most of which she did not understand how to use. She had also paid out some money for these programs.
I take responsibility for this since I should have warned her just to stay focused on her program until she understood the Internet and Internet Marketing a little better. I introduced her to Adland and to my friends so she could promote her business and get a feel for how things are done.
However, I do think that we need to understand better, where a new person is coming from, and that many people are new to computers as well as being new to the world of Internet marketing and need our help just to figure out copy and paste, let alone learn how to advertise and promote a program in a meaningful way. Signing up someone to a program they can't use isn't very productive for either party. In addition, if they are paying for a program they can't use, we are just wasting their money.
I think adlandpro could serve as a huge mentor base to people who are just starting out.
I believe we have an obligation to seek to understand the level a person is at before we blast them with our programs, and then we need to be sure we are there at the end of a real phone line to help walk them through some of the problems they will encounter.
I remember, how thrilled I was when after joining about ten programs, I found a mentor who told me to stop everything I was doing and focus on building my list. Moreover, to this day that mentor is one of the few "gurus" who is available to me. I have written to some of the "Big" names out there, and never heard a word except for the latest and news program they are promoting. I call it the autoresponder wall. There is no way through.
Adlandpro has taught me how to really Network. It took me quite sometime to get the hang of it. I still have a lot to learn, always will I guess.
I just think we have to remember our first frustrating days trying to get the computer to behave and all the foul-ups and time consuming problems that come with inexperience.
I remember when I first starting bloging, I had no end of problems just getting my articles posted correctly. Today, I don't understand how I could have had those problems, and I guess that is my real message.
We forget what it is like to struggle to type in a url (what the hell is that?) or get a link to work.
I believe we need to show patience, and practice a little restraint, while we bring new people along to the point where they can function by themselves and become valuable members in our downline organizations.
Nick Grimshawe
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