The addition of
Global NPN to the
Team OceanSwell advertising co-op is proceeding 'more or less' as I had planned. However, since my last Update, I've had to contend with a storm of unanticipated problems that have both hindered and altered the original concept. What began as a disciplined,
pre-planned process, quickly became chaotic as Team Members wouldn't enroll when it was their turn, or they'd enroll out of turn, or more than once, or... simply
disappear and not enroll at all. Four people on the list of participants actually turned out to be only two, as (for reasons unknown to me), each of them go by two different names and use two different email addresses. Then, of course, there are the ones who will follow through on their previously stated intentions only if 'I answer a few more questions.' But that merry dance often resulted in late-nights of endless email flurries between me and a dozen or so people that usually proved fruitless. Naturally, while all of this is going on, I'm receiving angry messages from those demanding to know 'why is this going so slow?' Not surprisingly, others are emailing me complaining that 'you're going too fast'!
Questions, concerns, more questions, complaints and even more questions. That's what my inbox has been
filled with since last Sunday. I've been told everything from 'thank you' to 'screw you', and everything in between. But overall, this first part of the
pre-positioning plan has gone reasonably well. The final picture isn't shaping up to look like my original vision, but it's still pretty good. All of the enrollment links have been sent, yet many have still not followed-through and joined
NPN through the links that I assigned. That means there are a lot of holes in the tapestry I was trying to weave. Some are only just now responding to the
initial enrollment emails that I sent out on the 4
th and on Monday and Tuesday. So before we move to 'Phase II' of this now INCREDIBLY complicated puzzle assembly, I need to wait for everybody who is going to t
ake part to actually do so. I'm setting a deadline of midnight (CST) on Sunday, the 11
th. That's the cut-off. If you haven't enrolled through the assigned link by then, I can only assume that you're never going to. At that point, I will tabulate who we actually have and build the first
Rotator list based upon the order of enrollment.
The second round of
signups will be far easier, since I will know who the serious & responsive people are and I will already have everything lined up in order. For everyone who remains confused as to what it is we're trying to do, let me explain it again here and now.
Global NPN is going to be added to the
Team OceanSwell co-op that was created for
TrafficWave.
TrafficWave is still our top priority since so many team Members have
downlines that they need to protect and grow. We're not 'changing' to
NPN. It's in addition to
TrafficWave and it's going to be completely optional for new Team members to join, alongside
TrafficWave... IF they chose to, and can afford two programs at the same time. But that's in the future. We're not there yet!
Right now, we're only doing one thing. We're setting things up so that existing
OceanSwell team Members who wish to, can be
pre-positioned with
NPN accounts before we start bringing in the general public through the Team Ad/
Rotator system that has worked so well in 2010. That's all we're doing right now. After the Sunday night cut-off, I will start the second round of
NPN enrollments, and that might well take all week. If it does, it does. Accept it. But once it's done, and everybody has her or his two accounts, then we have two(2) new Rotators for
NPN that will be fed by EVERY
OceanSwell Team for the rest of 2010, on into 2011 and for all time. Those of you participating in this '
pre-launch' should end up with a few directs and maybe some
downline to help cover your costs or even put you in profit immediately. My plan was for
everybody to be in profit immediately, but I can't force people to do what I ask them to do or force them to keep their end of the bargain. Because of that, things aren't 'perfect'. I'm not perfect either and do make mistakes. But we're all adults and we're all business people with big dreams. The Team system that we've evolved hasn't worked out for everybody. That's true. But it's worked out well for an awful lot of people and will continue to do so.
However, some pieces of the puzzle will still be missing here and there once the second round of
NPN signups is complete. I've already explained why. Once the dust settles, the Rotators are in place and we are ready to 'officially' add
NPN to our Ads, AR series, etc. then let me know if you feel that you got a raw deal. In the end, I believe that everybody will be pretty much satisfied as things move forward. But if you feel you've been seriously wronged, then
politely make your case and I'll do whatever it takes to make things right. I want everyone to feel good about the end result of all this and feel like they're getting a fair deal. We're all in this together, and we will win or lose...
together.
Lastly, I just want to compliment everyone on the hard work of promoting the Team Ads. Last week, Terrence Hopkins came in first place (again!) and just did a marvelous job. Speaking of jobs, I'm starting a new one next week at a long-term, acute care center. It's going to be an exhausting week, so please go easy on me. :)
YouTube recently increased the video upload limit from 10 minutes to 15 minutes. They decided to add the extra 5 minutes due to the improvement of the Content ID system, which allows movie studios, music labels and other global partners to manage their content on YouTube. This means, there are going to be less videos of show and music clips that are copyrighted. I think the Content ID system will definitely clean out a lot of the videos that are polluting YouTube and make room for those who create original videos. 
I learned in a sales training course that leads work like this: Referrals close at 80%, opportunity leads close at 50%, advertising leads close at 25% and cold calls close at less than 10%. I believe this has been true for our business, let me explain.
I also worked very hard (and I still do) to get speaking engagements. I spoke in the back room of an Office Dept Store to about 10 people. I spoke at the Rotary Club to 7 people, and sure enough, one of them was planning a National Sales meeting and he booked me to speak there. I spoke to the local Women in Communications chapter, and the National Programming Chair was there and she booked me to speak at their National Meeting in Orlando.
We do some advertising, and a lot of internet content development. We have also done some trade shows. Leads form these sources close at about 25%, if you're good. I think this is because people look at a lot of competitors in these situations and they don't know your firm at all. So you are competing with a large number of options with no initial differentiation.
The addition of Global NPN to the Team OceanSwell advertising co-op is proceeding 'more or less' as I had planned. However, since my last Update, I've had to contend with a storm of unanticipated problems that have both hindered and altered the original concept. What began as a disciplined, pre-planned process, quickly became chaotic as Team Members wouldn't enroll when it was their turn, or they'd enroll out of turn, or more than once, or... simply disappear and not enroll at all. Four people on the list of participants actually turned out to be only two, as (for reasons unknown to me), each of them go by two different names and use two different email addresses. Then, of course, there are the ones who will follow through on their previously stated intentions only if 'I answer a few more questions.' But that merry dance often resulted in late-nights of endless email flurries between me and a dozen or so people that usually proved fruitless. Naturally, while all of this is going on, I'm receiving angry messages from those demanding to know 'why is this going so slow?' Not surprisingly, others are emailing me complaining that 'you're going too fast'!
