Dear Sunrider Leaders, It has been a wonderful summer. The Chen's treated us to a dynamic convention and we had a great time with our families. For many of you it was the first time you've been able to meet my wife, Cheryl. Cheryl was thrilled to meet and finally get to know personally so many of you whom she has heard about over the years. The Chen's introduced a training CD that outlines Dr. Chen's building advice and is being used with success by many IBOs. If you don't have a copy ... order one with your next order. Now that the kids are back in school, it is time to focus on building our Sunrider business this fall. This year it seems our national attention, and in this sense I speak of both Canada and the United States, has been on the faltering economy. Many allow all this negative news to get them down. In our business, however, it should be a time of rejoicing. Historically, we have prospered during every recession. It is a time when people who normally are satisfied with their "job" all of a sudden have a need ... and it opens doors and minds that were closed. Now is the time to build. Now is the time to introduce Sunrider to all the people you have wanted to talk to. I am Having a Blast! As most of you have already figured out, the biggest hurdle in building this business is finding, through whatever means possible, enough people with whom to share the Sunrider opportunity. The best way is through personal contacting, yet for many this is the hardest way once you have talked with all your friends and associates. Well, take heart, you are not alone ... and it isn't just a localized phenomenon in Sunrider. It is a human condition that affects most people. This brings me to Jared ... with whom I am having a blast. He has reached the age when he wants to date ... and guess what the biggest challenge is ... asking a girl out. He and a couple of friends decided to go to the Homecoming Dance in a few weeks. Jared was fretting over who to take. I asked him who he wanted to take. "I don't know," he said. Why am I not surprised? I asked if he wanted some help, and after giving me a knowing and suspicious look, decided to see what I was up to. So I told him to write down a list of 10 girls he knows. Sound familiar? His typical response was, in order of delivery: "I don't know ten girls." "I don't know ten girls I want to date." "I don't know ten girls that would go out with me." I pointed out that I didn't put any of those criteria on the list; the only criterion is that he knows of their existence. So he reluctantly wrote down ten names. Then I told him to write down next to each name a rating, 0 - 100, of how much he would like to go out with that individual. "But I don't want to go out with any of them." Again, I pointed out that was not the exercise ... he was to rate them. So he did. I reviewed the list and took the name of the girl who pulled in at a whopping 55% and said, "Ask her tomorrow at school." "What do I ask her? Is she busy that night? Or would she like to go out with me?" We rejected these as both could put Jared and her in an awkward position if she didn't want to go out with him but the night was free, or if she really wouldn't like to go out, does she lie and say yes she'd like to but ... ah ... no, I don't want to go on a date. Anyway, the right dialogue was critical. Since neither of those questions was relevant to the actual issue, I helped him come up with a dialogue or question that would get him to the heart of the matter, "Would you go out with me to the Homecoming?" Now here is where we can all take a lesson from Jared. The next day when he saw her in his class ... he simply asked her ... and she said ... I'll tell you tomorrow. Not a good sign. I suspect she needed to get her boyfriend off his duff and ask her to the dance so she could graciously say she was going with her boyfriend ... which she did. Not a problem. He learned that the dialogue worked and rejection is the name of the game. I pointed out to Jared that one weekend in college I was turned down 17 times before I quit trying to get a date. Phase two was for me to randomly go through his yearbook picking out girls. Skeptical as he was, he played along until I finally found a girl he knew, liked, and she was, admittedly, really cute. The downside here, he claimed ... she is too popular. And I asked, "What's your point?" So, today as I write, Jared is executing phase two. I think phase three really motivates him to tie it up in phase 2: ideas like standing in the hall with a sign saying, "Will work for date." Or leaning on his motorcycle outside school and saying to each approaching girl, "Hey babe ..." Or worse yet, turn me, his father, loose on the community to arrange a date for him ... which actually has a certain appeal to me. Jared could see each successive idea I had was worse ... thus the motivation. You've got to love this boy. He truly makes being a father the easiest thing in the world. Every night we sit in the hammock and laugh, plan, and strategize over his next step. The thing that amazes me is his willingness to suck it up and DO IT! Even if my ideas are strange, bordering on bazaar ... they are an adventure. If nothing else, there are lessons on approaching to be learned here:
This is a business that thrives on our ability to interact with other people. If you have not mastered this part of your business, now is the day to start. Get this belief firmly into your mind and then act upon it. Sincerely, Paul Jensen
Paul
Jensen |
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Copyright 2008 Jensen Leadership Group |
