Here is the deal:  In order to improve on your network marketing results, it has to be more about giving to your network then marketing to your network.   But wait!  It gets better!  If you let go of the effort, be present with those around you, pay attention to the needs of others, your network will build itself and business opportunities will flow naturally.

It may sound like I am saying that network marketing is easy and requires little work.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  In fact, to do what I am asking you to do take some effort, for most of us, it will take us way out of our comfort zone.

Perhaps the best way I can illustrate with a story from a recent trip to Corpus Christi to take care of some family business.  There I was out side of my normal marketing area and network.  Although I came armed with a list of prospects to call upon, I was a bit stressed out on how I was going to find the time to make the stops…. Make no sales, not grow my business, make no money…

So, I yielded to the situation and encountered the following network marketing scenarios.  I hope you find them entertaining and informative.

 Scenario 1 -  Arrived at my hotel late after a long drive and stopped at the hotel bar.  I over heard 2 men talking about snow skiing.  I introduced myself and discovered that one worked for a manufacturer of good that was marketing to convenience stores and the other for a company that handled the distribution for those goods.  Cool, we spent the next hour talking about skiing with how they work their market thrown in here and there.

Now, I have some friends involved with C-store chains.  I made a call and introduced them to the president of that company.   While neither one of those have anything to do with my primary business, they most certainly know people who do!  I promises you, when they come across someone in their network with a problem I can solve, my name and my company will be at the front of their mind.

Scenario 2 – This one is fun… had a little time and needed to buy some books for my daughters school work and did a little looking for some that interested me.  I am sure you guessed that I’d be in the marketing section!  As I walked into the section I noticed a professionally dressed lady holding a book I had just read.  Yup, I started a conversation.

I found that she was a marketer for a large insurance company and called upon many of the same types of folks I call upon.  She was way stressed out because her numbers were down and she was looking for ways to be a better sales person?

I shared with her some of our shared marketing concerns and challenges, gave her a few ideas, and helped her pick out a few books.  She gladly gave me her contact info. Networked in a new market…

Scenario 3 -  Had to meet with the lady who manages the property I am down here to deal with…. Turns out she is having the same problems with a rental property of her own.

It gets better.  Now, all though she has been working with my mother for several years, I had never met her.  As we discussed our mutual problems, I discovered that she has another business that markets a Medicare insurance plan that is very popular in South Texas.  Until we met, she has been providing her new customers my competitor’s info… guess whose info her customers will get now?

Do you see now how, by taking your focus off your marketing and placing it on building relationships and meeting needs, you can improve your network marketing efforts?

In addition to his many interests, Michael Glass is VP-Business Development for a Texas based, independently owned, home delivery pharmacy that specializes in Diabetes Supplies and Respiratory Medications. To learn more about R. Michael Glass and his network marketingideas, visit http://www.RMichaelGlass.com, or you can add him, RMichaelGlass as a friend on FaceBook.

The newest challenge for the team at The Leader’s Role , probably the scariest to date:

“What is your strongest asset and why?”

Why is this so hard to do? Throughout my Navy career, I always dreaded the time of year when I had to submit by “brag sheet” about my accomplishments, strengths and potential, but as future promotions depended on the outcome, I did it. And then was the time, in a Grad school class, that we were required to write a paper on essentially the same thing. It absolutely had me frozen in fear, but as my grade depended on it, and, as the Navy would not pay for a class that I failed, I got it done and learned a very valuable lesson.

That lesson, and the root of my fear in approaching such an exercise, is that to truly examine those strengths, I discovered that I must truthfully examine my weaknesses! Additionally, in the careful consideration of those strengths, most often I have found that in those very same strengths, are weaknesses!!!

Now, how fun is that? Not fun at all, but very necessary to foster a personal culture/environment for growth!

An example: In the question today about my strongest asset, I immediately answered, “My passion to serve!”

While I have always tended to put others needs first and seek ways help them achieve their goals, I really never understood what it was really about and the potential for that passion until, in the course of study for my degree in Organizational Leadership, I came across the writings of Robert Greenleaf.

Robert Greenleaf was a student of organizational leadership and established the The Greenleaf Center for Servant Leadership. In his essay, The Servant as Leader, published in 1970, he stated:

“The servant-leader is servant first… It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead….”

“The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant-first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served. The best test, and difficult to administer, is: Do those served grow as persons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society? Will they benefit or at least not be further deprived?”

These words had a profound effect on me. For the last 20 years, I have strived to be such a leader in any organization I was in.

I am proud to claim that passion for service as one of my strongest assets, but as I said, there is almost always another side to every coin. That is certainly the case here. Along with that desire to serve, I have found it all to easy for me to get caught up in doing “for” for far too many. Not only does this spread me too thin, but is counter to the above mentioned test.

One of my favorite little tunes, the one that generally starts my daily inner conversation goes:

“ Brother let me be your servant, let me be as Christ to you.
I pray that I may have the grace to, let you be my servant too!”

Sometimes, it takes a team to keep our eyes on the ball. I am proud to be a part of what is happening at The Leader’s Role. The founders Jason Croxford, Kris Hanks, and Mike Erwin are true Servant Leaders and have fostered a culture where all, not only freely serve one another, but readily accept service from each other.