Carl Eric Johnson

I have become an active social networker, participating in group discussions on LinkedIn and Facebook. Just now I replied to a post in one of my network marketing (MLM) threads, and I felt it would make for a good blog post. Here is the original discussion post:

Is representing more than one MLM company (at the same time) hurtful or helpful to your home-based business?

I’ve been involved in MLM for a bit over three years now and have already experienced the fact that I have found myself representing more than one company at the same time. Much of this is due to the shifting around of my immediate upline and their upline leadership. I have gotten to know many other network marketers, who say, with pride, how many other companies they’ve been involved with. I met one guy who say’s he is currently with 12 different companies—all at the same time! How is this possible? Or, more importantly, how is this profitable?

I am perplexed how I could even commit my time and energy to promoting only two “opportunities” with success.

Am I alone here? Does anyone else out there have suggestions on how to best succeed with presenting more than one opportunity?

Thanks,
Guy

Hi Guy:

Here’s my experience, and I look forward to hearing others’ experiences, as well.

I joined my first network marketing company in 2002 and immediately started seeing other opportunities all over the place. I joined a few, and most fell by the wayside, but over time I found myself juggling multiple opportunities at once, and none of them profitably.

By January of 2008 I was actively trying to promote four opportunities. Then I got the great idea of writing a book about network marketing, figuring I must be an expert by now. I outlined my book and started writing the chapter on how to evaluate a network marketing opportunity.

It occurred to me that I should plug my four opportunities in to my own criteria and see how they measured up against one another. Guy, it wasn’t even close: my first opportunity, the one I joined way back in 2002, was head and shoulders better than all the others combined.

I could have kicked myself. If only I had stuck to my guns with the first one instead of letting myself get sidetracked by “greener pastures” elsewhere, I would have found myself in a much better financial position. I stopped promoting the other three opportunities and focused on my first love. It was definitely the right thing to do.

I strongly encourage you to focus on one opportunity at a time. I have developed great relationships with my colleagues in other companies, and when I speak with a prospect who I think would do better in one of their opportunities, I am more than happy to refer him or her on to my counterpart. Over time, I’m sure my counterparts will start passing me their prospects whom they think would be a better fit in my company. In my opinion, this is a better way to juggle multiple opportunities—with multiple people!

I’m still plugging away at my book. I invite you to sign up for email alerts at demystifyingprosperity.com and I’ll keep you posted as to my progress.

Best wishes to you for massive success in 2010! The more of us who make network marketing work for us, the better off we’ll all be.

This is the text of my third speech at Ad Libs Toastmasters Club. By the end of the speech, you will know five things you can do today—while still employed—to facilitate your next job search.

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Gone are the days of lifelong employment with a pension and a gold watch upon retirement. My grandfather and my father both enjoyed lifetime careers; I certainly have not.

This speech came about due to my own current job search. In my last speech, titled “The Accidental Professional,” I explained how my career has developed over the years due to a series of fortuitous accidents—doors of opportunity opening up for me. For the first time in my life, I am having extreme difficulty finding my next job. Sadly, as we all know, I am far from alone.

I actually had to dust off my résumé, which I hadn’t used since 1995. Not only did I have to update it with 14 years’ worth of career developments, I had to change its language and tone, which was appropriate for 1995 but not for 2009.

So with that, allow me to offer you five steps you can take while still employed to facilitate your next job search.

Step 1. Keep your résumé current. Because I had let so much time pass since last updating my résumé, my memory of projects I worked on and responsibilities I had was quite dim. Consequently, it appears that I did very little, especially since 2001 when I was let go of my last outside employment. Nothing could be further from the truth. Under the aegis of my own corporation, I have kept current with database technology, specifically DB2 and MySQL. I have branched out into Web services—Web hosting, domain registration, and website design. I have gotten involved with network marketing, which brings with it a whole slew of side benefits in the personal development arena. And I have studied investing, mostly stocks and commodities but also some real estate.

My hope was that these latter pursuits would by now have brought in enough income to pay all the bills, but I have not been so fortunate. Hence my current job search. But I would be in the job market even if money were no issue. Having worked alone for the past eight years, I yearn for the camaraderie of the corporate world.

Back to the point at hand. When I brought out my résumé to update it, I had no idea how long a process this would be. Several résumé workshops and networking events later, I think it is finally beginning to work with the automated keyword sniffers that companies are using these days. So I encourage you to keep your résumé current on an ongoing basis. Keep a log of your various projects and assignments, including keywords that future employers will be searching for.

Step 2. Set up and actively use a LinkedIn account. LinkedIn hasn’t been around the whole time I’ve been underemployed, but I was invited to connect with a friend on LinkedIn years ago, and it’s only been this year that I’ve become a power user.

LinkedIn is your online professional résumé. Keeping it current will help you keep your offline résumé current. Join LinkedIn groups that might be helpful—certainly professional groups (I’ve joined several DB2‑, database‑, and mainframe-related groups) but also alumni groups. Keep in mind, though, that LinkedIn is for professional networking; leave the social and cultural and political associations for Facebook. Which leads me to my third recommendation:

Step 3. Clean up your Facebook account. A prospective employer is going to google your name and see what comes up. I encourage you to do the same. Just because you’ve only listed your LinkedIn profile on your résumé doesn’t mean he or she won’t find your Facebook page or, for that matter, MySpace, YouTube, blogs, and what have you. Clean up references to you that might cause an employer to bypass you for someone else.

Step 4. Get recommendations from current colleagues. Have them write you recommendations on your LinkedIn account. I learned this step only because it has been so hard ten, fifteen, twenty years later to get recommendations from colleagues that used to think quite highly of my work. I’ve gotten some, just not all that I would have liked.

Step 5. Keep current within your industry. I have a friend who is a PeopleSoft developer, and she is having a terrible time finding a new job, because her former employer kept her using an out-of-date version of PeopleSoft. Participate in LinkedIn group discussions. Purchase and read technical books. Take adult-ed classes at night. Do whatever it takes to hone your skills.

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I hope this has been helpful. I’ve given you five concrete steps you can take to make your next job search much easier. If you are employed, thank your lucky stars—even if you dislike your current job. It’s a whole lot better than not having a job, especially in this market. And don’t think your current job will last forever. I made that mistake once; I’ll never make it again.

I just came across an eye-opening 4-minute 22-second YouTube video titled “Social Media Revolution” and thought you’d enjoy watching it, too.

We’re halfway through my network marketing company’s annual International Convention, and a lot of the presentations so far have mentioned (if not stressed) social media and how to use them for promoting yourself and building your business. Even more extraordinary is how much the Generation Y population of my fellow associates has grown in recent years. It seems as if a quarter of the people in attendance are in their twenties.

If you’re not using social media, you’re missing out on perhaps the largest paradigm shift (yes, I’ll use that term) since the establishment of the Internet, itself. This is what I teach the people I bring into this business, and it will be featured widely in my book on network marketing.

If you haven’t already connected with me, here are some links to follow, as appropriate:

• Facebook—http://www.facebook.com/carl.eric.johnson or http://profile.to/carleric—I use Facebook primarily to (re)connect with friends and family and to keep everyone apprised of what’s going on in my life.
• LinkedIn—http://www.linkedin.com/in/carleric—On LinkedIn I focus primarily on my DB2 experience and that I am in the market for full-time DB2 work (either contract or salaried).
• Twitter—http://twitter.com/carleric—I tweet maybe once a day (and have it set to update my Facebook profile), but I use Twitter primarily to subscribe to others’ tweets, especially if they have anything to do with network marketing, home-based businesses, training, and the like.

You may find me on other sites as well, but these three are the ones I use daily.

This discussion fits with a great acronym I learned a few years back:

TEAM—Together Everyone Achieves More

Social networking is a great way to expand your teams. So start building your own teams with social media.

I have been having a lot of fun lately with three social-networking sites in particular: LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. I’ve also been speaking about them (and more) in “Blogging and Social Networking for Professionals.” Of the three, Twitter is the one that elicits the most confusion. Why would I want to post 140-character microblog “tweets” about the minutiae of my life?

Well, if Twitter isn’t confusing enough, take a look at this video about a new service called Flutter:

Now, before you have a coronary, understand that this is a joke. I’ll admit, though, that I was over halfway through the video before I realized it was a satirical piece. Well done.

So back to Twitter. My biggest advice is this: If you can’t imagine a use for Twitter, then don’t feel you have to use it. Who knows what will come down the pike next month? Life is too short to spend it being intimidated by technology. In my own case, I post periodic tweets about the progress of my book, or whenever I make a new blog entry, or whenever it occurs to me to do so. Those who follow my tweets appreciate them. Those who don’t never know what they’re missing, and that’s fine, too.

Anyway, I saw this fun video and wanted to share it with all of you. Happy tweeting … or fluttering … or shttrng (shddrng).

When I was a child, my mother chastised me after she got fed up with my constant bemoaning “What’s so great about _____?” one too many times. She said it was obnoxious and condescending. Now, whenever I use the phrase intentionally, I chuckle to myself. Thanks, Mom, for all your great lessons growing up.

But really, what is so great about Twitter? What’s all the buzz about? If you had asked me a month ago, I would definitely have been on the side of those who still just don’t get it. Why would I want to send inconsequential “tweets” (yep, that’s what they’re called) throughout the day?

• I just had breakfast
• I just rebooted my @%$&!  computer
• I just picked my nose

After all, WHO CARES?!

In recent weeks, though, I have come to realize that Twitter is a growing phenomenon that is here to stay. And, like Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube, it has two types of users: personal and professional.

Personal users of Twitter enjoy following conversations on topics of interest to them, as well as simply keeping in touch with their friends. It’s like instant messaging on steroids. This is a perfectly legitimate use of Twitter, although it is perhaps of limited interest to us professional users.

My focus is on professional users. Twitter is a great way to keep your “followers” apprised of your latest and greatest offerings. It is also perhaps the quickest way to build your list of prospective customers. The trick with Twitter as with other social networking sites is never losing sight of the “social” aspect of networking.

Allow me to illustrate what I mean by “social.” I attend various business networking events here in the Seacoast region, and I have seen it all. At one “Business After Hours” event I met a woman who had just opened up her own therapeutic massage establishment. Naturally, she wanted to spread the word. This was her first time attending this particular networking event, and perhaps any similar social event, judging by what happened next. We were chatting a bit, and then she whipped out a trifold brochure with her business card stapled to it, shoved it into my hand, oozed further information about her business, and before I knew it she was off to bombard the next group of people with her brochures. I shook my head as I watched her alienate her way through the crowd the rest of the evening.

Sadly, this is how some professionals work the online social networking sites, too. They bombard their followers/connections/friends (whatever the term is at that site) with information about their business, which of course is the best business out there. This one-way communication is every bit as obnoxious as the massage therapist throwing her brochures at everyone … and every bit as effective.

Instead, the trick to effectively using social networking sites like Twitter is to start up conversations with people. Two-way communication is key. Show an interest in what others are doing, even if you know what you’re doing is better. Be prepared to be surprised, though. As in real-time networking events, it’s not so much what you know as whom you know.

If you’re looking for further guidance on social networking, perhaps the best site out there is BetterNetworker.com. It is intended for network marketers, but anyone can benefit from the fine training videos they have. You’ll learn how to contribute to the conversation first, long before pitching anything to anyone. After all, you’ll want your prospects to know, like, and trust you first. Social networking sites can help you build that trust.

I am putting together a seminar on “Blogging and Social Networking for Professionals,” and Twitter appears prominently in my recommended strategies. Stay tuned. I’ll post updates here from time to time.

Meanwhile, I am always looking for speaking venues, so if you have a group or organization you think might like to learn more about this hot topic, let me know. I’ll be more than happy to help if I can.

So keep an open mind and you’ll be surprised at how many legitimate business uses there are for Twitter and other social networking sites.

I am extremely impressed with the quality of the training I am receiving from Renegade University. If you are currently in a network marketing company and not having the successes you desire or deserve, then I highly recommend that you enroll in Renegade University. Just click the banner ad to the right. There is some training that you’ll get for free, and the paid membership is only $40 per month—well worth the price.

Currently I am learning about Squidoo and Facebook, not to mention blogging; this blog is the ongoing result. I am also taking a 6-week course called Writing with Pull to learn how to write ad copy that sells. And this is barely the tip of the iceberg, there is so much more training available. I intend to avail myself of every last video.

So sign up by clicking on the banner to the right and watch your own network marketing business explode!