Recently many of you, may have noticed that my friend/partner/mentor Peter Fogel and myself, have been very actively promoting and inviting you, our friends.
To visit and follow us into another sister Social Networking Community CMU7. Thereby broadening our reach and branding ourselves as Founder/Partners/CO-Founders/members of this community. By the response from you, our friends here at AdlandPro and elsewhere online. We apparently were doing a good job.
Wouldn't you agree?
Yes , this is an open ended question and as the forum title implies "Everything is Open for Discussion" so please do not hesitate to reply.
Moving forward, I need to first apologize to all you good folks, for leading you down a primrose path. I was blinded, by my own personal desire to achieve something greater than I already have.
There were discussions prior to the time that I accepted the mantle offered me by Mr. Steve (Beef) Sloan CEO CMU7.
These discussions involved, exactly what was expected and exactly what needed to happen to help CMU7 become greater than it was upon my arrival. I explained to Mr. Sloan that there would probably be many that were unhappy with his decision to empower me and Peter in the way that was needed to succeed in turning things around for CMU7.
At that point in time CMU7 had just come through a bit of bad turbulence. The previous Admins/partners were blamed for much of the rough ride that CMU7 had been through. Unfortunately for Peter and I, and you good folks.
I failed to do my due diligence and get BOTH sides of this unfortunate story. As I stated above "I was blinded, by my own personal desire" and the Partnership offer that Peter and I had received. At which point my own desire and greed went into gear.
I must apologize to you for this and hope that in some way, my friends and associates will forgive my mistake.
Some history needs to be covered now. In the past year or so, I had been approached by Mr. Sloan, to come on board and assist him bring his vision to fruition. On the previous approaches, I declined. As I was busy both on and offline with my own life, family and work schedule. Something I should have done at this last approach.
However, I did not seek out the former admin/partners to hear their side of the story. I took Mr. Sloan at his word.
I became involved in the community and saw many areas that needed improvement. These areas included making the message that Personal Branding the foremost of importance.
Now we all know that for any business person or entity to be successful, branding is the first key ingredient. If you do not have this, you really will find it hard to grow your business into a success no matter what.
This was agreed upon by Mr. Sloan (Beefy) as one of the reasons he brought me aboard in my capacity and Co-Founder/Founder/Partner/Admin. So we moved forward to what should be done.
The process was developed from the tools that CMU7 and I had on hand and at our disposal to provide the best chance of success for CMU7 and it's members to become solvent and successful.
Process 1 -
Make sure all new members filled out their personal profiles.
The personal profile page is key because that is usually the first thing a new potential friend/client will see when they arrive at whatever community. This includes the Introduction, personal and business profile, your successes your goals etc...
Process 2 -
Become familiar with the tools available to further BRAND yourself or Business Entity -
These tools were/are available in the CMU7 Toolbox and they consist of auto-responders, web hosting, domain name registration, knowledge base, e-book and a traffic exchange. All very basic for free members and more robust for the paid members.
Process 3 -
Probably the Most Important for Team Leaders and Moderators -
To become acquainted with, after all they are there to help others help themselves utilize the tools to Brand their selves or Business Entities. I am sure you will agree this would be key to the successful use of a Live Conference Help Room and it's Moderators and Team Leaders. As they are there to help the new members become oriented to what was available to help them become successful too.
Once again Mr. Sloan, CEO CMU7 agreed that, that was why the Conference Room was there as well as the CMU7 Toolbox.
Process 4 -
Put the above in place train the Team Leaders and Moderators
Process 5 -
Create the follow-up materials and the basic support information for the above processes.
This is the platform from which we began to focus our efforts on. Peter and I saw this as the key to help as many folks as possible utilize the services and resources that new community members would need knowledge and competency on to actually fulfill the goal of helping you Brand yourself within the CMU7 Community and elsewhere.
By teaching folks these processes they could begin to explore other communities and begin to build a business by referring folks back to CMU7. Thereby assisting them to build a stream of income, by referring others to what CMU7 has to offer, along with the personal assistance available through Live Help and a Conference Room occupied by knowledgeable Team Leaders and Moderators.
The next step in the process of correcting the ship, was to see if the current crop of Team Leaders and Moderators were up to this task.
Unfortunately when asked to respond to a survey intended to outline their strengths these folks failed to respond, with the exception of four that did respond.
We then went through the process of meeting with and enlightening these folks on what was to be expected in the future as we moved forward into 2008. This was done approximately 2 weeks prior to Christmas and up until the 29th of December.
At which point Mr.Sloan, CEO CMU7, Peter and myself realized that the team of Team Leaders and Moderators that we were working with. Were almost totally unprepared for the New Year and the expectations we had hoped for.
On December 30th, 2007 we called a Special Mandatory Team Leader and Moderator meeting.
At which time many changes were made. Mr.Sloan, CEO CMU7, (Uncle Beef) chose to lead the meeting and proceeded to demote the positions of many of these Team Leaders and Moderators. He was very direct and forthright and transcripts can be made public or provided upon request.
From this point forward Peter and I were hopeful that the goals and the vision shared by us and Mr.Sloan, CEO CMU7, (Uncle Beef) might actually come to fruitition.
Unfortunately that failed to become a reality as Mr.Sloan, CEO CMU7 (Uncle Beef), began to have second thoughts. Which seems to be the common thread that binds Peter and myself to the previous Admins/Partner/Founders Brad West and Sheryl Loch. As it seems that loyalty, to the folks he chose to become CO-Founder/Founder/Partners is a short lived association.
We knew, Peter, Mr.Sloan, CEO CMU7 (Uncle Beef), and myself that there would be some attrition. Fallout if you will, based off the decisions we had made on the 30th of December. Unfortunately when that attritions began Mr.Sloan, CEO CMU7 (Uncle Beef), started to second guess his decisions made a couple of weeks ago.
To the extent that he became ill or feigned an emotional/nervous breakdown. Personally I lean toward the latter. You simply had to be there.
As the attrition began Mr.Sloan, CEO CMU7 (Uncle Beef), began backsliding on his previous commitments to Peter and myself. Even though the we were seeing that the numbers of new enrollees were ahead of the attrition rate 2-1. It has continued to improve to this day. However Mr.Sloan, CEO CMU7 (Uncle Beef), could only see that the Elite membership was declining and failed to realize that with time and the processes in place this would also, soon begin to change in a positive manner as well.
This seems to have become the pattern that has befallen the previous group of Admins/CO-Founder/Founder/Partners.
During mine and Peters tenure, we helped this man gain prominence within this community. Supported his nominations for DGOTW and POTW. We missed this persons personal drive for recognition, even though as we look back there was warning signs, that should have been noticed and picked up on, by us.
My only excuse is that I had become consumed with building and making sure that this Partnership and Business endeavor became successful and helped make the dream a reality. I admit to being completely taken in by this person and humbly ask for your forgiveness.
Peter and I are moving forward as have Brad and Sheryl. We are finding out that we all have a lot more in common other than our own short sightedness, with regards, to Mr.Sloan, CEO CMU7 (Uncle Beef).
We are finding that we all care for folks and have insights and assistance to share with our friends throughout all the Social Networking Communities and Online world.
Look forward to hearing more and our sharing ourselves with you, our dear friends.
This is our personal apology to our friends, we sincerely apologize to all of you and hope that we can mend our relationships with you all.
Sincerely,
Jim Allen III and Peter Fogel
PS: Our Personal Apology goes out to Brad West and Sheryl Loch
http://community.adlandpro.com/forums/thread/932773.aspx